Martin woke up before his new companion. The Bearshark snoozed away on the provided bedding while Martin worked.
He wasn't really sure how he wanted to do this. However, he knew what the end result should be. The interesting thing about the Wealth Domain seemed to be that it was much akin to the Tinkering Domain in many ways, and he was basically pulling stuff out of thin air whenever he needed it. If he thought of a tool that he would want, it simply materialized in his hands, while the same was true for materials. However, they seemed to disappear whenever he put any of them away, as if they had never existed.
It took him only an hour to cobble his device together, but he was pretty satisfied with the result when it was done. He had no idea if it was even something that already existed, but Martin liked it.
He had managed to create a sizable pauldron, or shoulder armour, as Martin had called it for the longest time, which seemed to almost parody the fantasy genre with its size. It was massive and heavy and made from a mix of plants and leather. It was, in fact, so huge that it was like a small tower. The top of the tower had a plateau where Martin could easily place objects since the plateau was about the size of a basketball.
With the pauldron done, Martin had constructed a makeshift catapult. Even though he believed trebuchets to be superior, he needed more time to balance it properly. He mounted it to the pauldron, giving him a shoulder-mounted mini siege weapon, which made him grin, a tusk-filled grin filled with pride at his accomplishment.
With that done, he made something to eat. Even though he didn't really need it, he still wanted to see if the system could faithfully emulate the taste of bacon and eggs. It did so without problems. The only downside was that the scent of the meal woke up the Bearshark, and Jasper found his meal interrupted as the hungry mutant gulped down the rest of the food.
In less than an hour, they were walking again, though the Bearshark seemed rather tired and overwhelmed by the walk the previous day. It grumbled a little. However, one look at Martin was enough to make the beast fall in line.
It would be another two hours before they reached a massive gate. The divine ork gave a soft whistle as he beheld the sheer scope of the gate. The gate was four separate winding bridges that would open into the magical wasteland on the other side. They were held up by thick towers with sentries on either side, and a small village had formed on the non-toxic side of the wall, probably to sustain the people manning the gate.
As soon as Martin was spotted, he heard shouting and people moving around. It wasn't long before a squad of soldiers moved out. Their armour seemed light and easy to move in, though it was still made from metal. Judging by the metal hue, they were sporting full Mithril armour and weapons for some reason.
The squad leader stepped forward; his helmet was open, though it had a wide, flat brim that gave him more cover than a standard helmet. Martin couldn't help but notice that the brim went all the way around, almost as if it was modelled after a hat. The guards' leader was a mature man, and Martin would have assumed that he would be pushing for retirement in about ten years or so. He was sporting a massive moustache that kept wiggling as he scrunched up his upper lip, clearly in thought.
"Well, aren't you something to be seen? Not only haven't I seen a lone ork in a long time, but hot diggidy dog if you aren't a lone ork trying to get into Leltho. Not just that, but you seem to have tamed a mutant, and not just any mutant, seems like you found yourself the great Leviabear itself. I will be honest; I'd reckoned that the scouts done told me some stories when they informed me, which is why I came out here to see myself." He said, the lip brush so big that Martin didn't even see the man open his mouth.
Martin was honestly surprised to hear that the bearshark was some mythical creature and to learn that orks weren't known for striking out on their own. He did his best to be kind and nodded his head in greeting.
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"Glad to surprise you. I am on my way to bring this lost little pup home after it has managed to get lost in the woods." He lied, and he could feel his Charisma starting to work on the squad leader.
The captain looked him over and snorted. "Pup? Well, you speak good human for an ork, and I am not about to stop an enemy combatant from walking into the wastelands on their own. So please, if you don't make any trouble, you can pass," he said, though the other guards seemed to look at their leader with scepticism.
Martin just smiled, nodded, and headed towards one of the gates. He gave the bearshark a look. "Don't bite anyone here... We are not going to make more enemies."
The bearshark looked up, sniffing in the direction of one of the guards, its sharp teeth already slightly on display. It clamped up real fast and grumbled, "I wasn't going to. I just wanted to make sure they didn't hurt you." It mumbled, which was clearly a lie.
The height of the gate was akin to that of skyscrapers out in the real world, towering over Martin as he pulled his Bearshark along, trying his best to ignore the fact that it was throwing hungry looks in the direction of any guard that came too close. However, it didn't disobey Martin, which surprised him until he remembered that he literally had the power to ensure that the beast was compliant.
Martin was worried that the gate would have to drop down for him to walk over it, but he could have told himself that there would probably be small doors in the base. As one of the guards opened it for him, the lord of beasts felt more like a housecat than a divine authority. Nevertheless, he stepped out into the land the humans had called Leltho.
The change in the air was palpable; it was like breathing honey. Each breath infused with magic beyond what should have been possible. It was the spiritual equivalent of high humidity. It was intense and overwhelming. The ground was dust, showing no plants, and it had been dried out to a delicate crisp. Looking back at the gate, Martin saw why this area of magical destruction hadn't spread. Thick runes the size of people had been carved into the gate. Thick mithril rods were lining the gates, apparently... doing something. Martin wasn't an expert in magic, so he really had no idea.
Martin looked back over the desolate wasteland, seeing no real plantation or creatures around. A cold wind swept over him, and yet it was like breathing in a sauna. His lungs struggled to contain the magic, and he was sure that if he had not been divine, he would have perished.
Even so, this place had been exposed to some incredible magic. Seeing the result of a spell gone wrong, Martin agreed with Jasper that Ur-magic was far too strong to be left in the game. A single spell of the lowest tier would be enough to spawn an entire DLC for the game.
He tried slowly planting a couple of seeds where he walked, though any ordinary seeds instantly turned to mutated vines that tried to strangle anything living. With an invulnerable defence against plants, they couldn't hurt Martin, and they soon crumbled to dust. Martin sighed, forcing himself to stop and focus on his power, "Grow the Garden". Planting seeds that would be much better suited to soaking up mana and cleaning it.
It took less than a minute after Martin stopped channelling his power for the plants to start withering. It made sense in some way. Just because a plants needed sunlight didn't mean they could grow on the sun. Likewise there had never been place that was so dense with mana before, at least not to Martin's knowledge, and no plant had really had the opportunity to evolve to it, or rather, the AI hadn't allowed it, since this was probably the late game zone of the game.
Martin knew that trying to fix this place might be harder than he thought, though the massive gate did provide a clear distinction between the zones. Creatures like the sharkbear that snuck through it would cause problems.
The god of beasts looked at his companion, who was practically vibrating as it took deep breaths repeatedly, savouring the dense mana in the air. "How did you manage to get past the gate?" He asked.
The bearshark looked over at Martin, each of its eyes seeming to blink separately as it tried to process what was being said. "Oh? Get past the gate? Uhm..." It tried to ponder the question as if what Martin had asked was the hardest riddle it had ever heard. "Ooooh! I know, someone threw me over," it said.
Martin tried to process that information. "Threw you over... How are you not dead? A fall like that, or just the impact. That must have been monstrous." He said, and the bearshark shrugged a little.
"I mean, when I have mana in my system, I can take and deal a lot more punishment than my size indicates," it said, and Martin looked it over. He could almost feel how, with every breath the bearshark took, it became stronger and stronger, slowly reaching the point where even he could not command it anymore.