There was plenty of time for more training since the day was still at the beginning. Allan and Sarey had all day for training and new experiences in the town later. As for the forging, a day or two without it was healthy and forgiving to Allan's mind.
The constant pressure of expectation, work, and forging, in general, would sooner or later kick him in the ass. Some sort of break from something would lead to a greater restart, which was needed. That was one of the things his father Clayton taught him about double finishes. A method where the blacksmith would make the rough forged blade first. Then, he would finish it whenever he wanted by sharpening, smoothening, and everything else.
This could lead to less burnout or issues with the constant pressure of too much work. Allan learned about it a hard way since Clayton was of a belief that practice made everything better. Any kind, so it was the constant work of many days of many hours in his youth that lead him to learn to work under pressure. Experience would come with it in a later part, which it already did, to some extent.
It was a kind of old-fashioned way of teaching what Clayton liked, and making it for his son was something he found interesting. Even though, it was kind of difficult, considering the age of his son. But who he was kidding? Allan was forced into this training and situation, getting familiar with the perfection of the forging ways.
To his disappointment, nothing in the world was perfect, especially the human hearts and egos.
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Later this day, on the vast roads and plains around the Griontesse city.
A caravan was approaching the corridors and gates of the Grintesse city right beside the flowing river, which went to the distant horizon.
This journey already went a long time, but there was some part where it wasn't about the travel itself, which was long. At least for some people in the caravan. Unbothered by the journey, the caravan upon inspection at the gates was let into the city through the open gates.
Regardless if it was a time of war, it held no meaning to get nervous at this time. Certain things must work for the everyday life of citizens, and wanting to cause nervousness would make more people more nervous. That was as simple as that. Trade and merchants had to work so the cycle of money and goods would get to regular people unaffected by wars. Any normal person had to have some income to feed their family, and the economics of the Griontesse city was highly dependent on the trades.
This was a common occurrence in the management of nations under the premise of wars, but there may be many variables in that.
Some invaders could affect this course of trade, making a huge amount of damage with attacks against this sort of economic structure of the nation. Affecting the lives of citizens was more than a key to victories against armies. It could cause unrest, and anger in the citizens, making the target morale lower. It could be sometimes effective, other times not so much.
Any kind of war is a conflict, which meat dramas, and uncountable variables, that involve thousands of people. Even if the direct reason could be a word of a single ruler of that nation, which was quite normal. In itself, the war was meant for one side to go against another. Smashing it to the piece or eating it up and making it their own. Rather simple reasoning, but the making didn't need a reason for that. Sometimes all that one could find, was an excuse to start a war. Simple as that. Stupid sounding as it could get.
It didn't matter in the universe, as the wars between mortals were nothing more than some small dispute. Even if the Immortals could get involved, it was nothing short of strange. The scales could get pushed to extremes when two nations of millions went to war against each other.
No individual could defend or stop such situations from happening, nor stop it as it already started. Be it the possible Immortals of the earliest pathways that can live in the mortal worlds, or those who were interested in the lives of ones beneath them. They weren't the Immortals that can go against the bigger picture of millions of lives. Even if they have significant power over the armies or at least many squads of ordinary soldiers.
Slam!
The door to the caravan was shut open, revealing a group of people in indistinct uniforms, who were glad to be at their destination. One of them was Rengiward, who was finally glad to be out of that small, yet cranked room.
Yet, no amount of gladness would stop his nervousness in the presence of this group of people who acted as if they were on a vacation. It was terrible, considering the undeniable fact that his reason for coming here was terrible. He already guessed it though, since it was obvious.
Reez Dias was in the lead of this group, leisurely talking to young-looking women in shiny silver armor. She emitted beauty as well as a raw knight aura around her, making her quite an authority. She was one of their friends, as well as a colleague who had a rank or two below Dias. Roseanne Innan was her name.
She used to be a refugee from a distant land which led her to the strange, yet long distances of military service. Achieving some sense of personal or military accomplishment, she was led into this group some years back. Military personnel under the flag of the Tricloud alliance, and a special batch of the squad that was right under the General of the Alliance.
Calm, detached, and always keen to act at orders, she was a fine depiction of a knight in any sense or shape. Her appearance was also not that bad. It consisted of nothing more than rather a youthful face, with golden hair that went back around her armor. In the back, right around the sides of Rengiward, was a pair of brothers. Those two were direct subordinates of Reez Dias and one of his own men he guided himself.
Both almost looked identical apart from the haircut they had. The bald one was called Peon, while the other had a mohawk with the name of Pier. There were a lot of times when they would be unnoticeable from each other with a helmet and so on. This small, yet constant trouble was fortunately met with their incredible abilities as soldiers.
With a stature of well beyond two meters, they were strong, sturdy, and prime examples of an excellent soldier. Since they were little, they desired to be the strongest in the village, and they, in fact, were the strongest. That was until meeting Dias, who took them to his care, making soldiers out of them in a better place. Acting on the orders of their boss, they were in charge of any kind of protection or problems which could arise during their mission.
“Alright! Rengiward. Since we are here, how about some introduction to this place to us? None of us were ever here.” Dias talked with his pleasant voice, figuring the best way to do this, was Rengiward who was here before.
“Uh...There is nothing much to talk about.” Rengiward said. “I doubt nothing interesting is here apart from the offices of the Tricloud alliance. I guess miss Roseanne knows where it is, while I can lead the way. How about it?” he asked to be sure, but before waiting for a response, he added one important bonus. ”Wait, before that. Just so you know, the Tricloud Alliance isn't particularly welcomed or appreciated in this city, so be careful about your attitudes and not stirring any trouble.”
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With this small explanation, he made quite an introduction, which was noticeably viewed by his 4 colleagues. His words weren't that surprising, since the work of a merchant was a constant source of understanding. Positions, as well as customers of the many regions, would yield rewards one way or another.
“They have a bad history with the Tricloud alliance? Impossible.” Roseanne talked with a certain doubt in her otherwise pleasant voice.
“Nothing is impossible in the way humans works miss Roseanne. Will you lead us to our office or mister Dias will decide on the mission first?” Rengiward asked.
“Since it is such a nice day, we will travel by foot through this city first. Afterward, we will do our mission.” Dias ordered, not making any room for arguments. That in itself was immediately welcomed by the pair of brothers.
“We are hungry, boss.” They both said it together.
“Then we will eat on our way through the city,” Signing, Dias ordered again, since it was about right. He too, was a bit hungry after this long travel.
“YEEES!” The brothers fist-bumped their hands, cheering the kindness of their boss.
A lot of time would be spent doing unnecessary stuff anyway, so Dias rather went with simple things first. That was to make this mission pleasant first rather than making it hard on them from the get-go. After all, he knew the reasons behind everything about this mission. Dias knew what was happening. All the way from the beginning of the mission to the attitude of this city.
As for the reason for this mission, the source of the upcoming troubles was more than apparent in his eyes. Meeting what he expected could go either way. Bad or worse, which was a kind of normal, in his opinion. Not that he was pleased, nor upset with this mission, since he had no choice but to accept it from his boss.
The group in charge of Rees Dias went on a walk through the city. It could be hours until they would walk through some sort of familiarity of the place, or rest for some meal.
At this time, or perhaps earlier in this day.
Distant forests and mountains that moved through this region were the home of a pair of visitors. They weren't there for the first time, nor the last time.
Allan was currently moving up in the long range of the cliff, managing the climb to his best ability. He was already beyond the 150th-meter mark, but he still kept going hoping to reach at least another 10 to 15 meters more. It wasn't that easy, considering the rather heavy weights that made his whole climb much harder. The only saving grace for him was the weight, which kind of countered the wind a little, so it moved his center of gravity less.
About 30 minutes ago, Allan had chosen to do the full climb from the ground up. It was for the preparation of finishing this climb once and for all as 36 intended.
He could tell the climb up above was the same as before, with no changes. It was endurance that was the biggest problem. It was first, after the weight that swirled from on the rope below him. Regardless of the weight or not, it was constantly eating his stamina and pushing his sense of balance into shambles.
He tried to adjust countless times, but when he thought it was already solved, Sarey changed the weights to a more... bothersome kind. Which in return restarted his tries of getting used to it. Overall, since the time he started this climbing, he was unable to do anything about those weights. And that was great since it was about right what 36 had in mind for this training.
It was about the changes that would come with any gust of flowing wind. It was normal in this kind of mountain range and even more so on the tall cliff which went right into the sky. Allan knew it more than he wished, and no amount of things he could do would change this at all.
“Phew. Heh...” he sighed, catching his breath for a couple of moments. “I guess nothing more will be insufficient for today. This bloody rocky side isn't that bad in itself, but this damn weight is.” Allan gave up at the 164th meter, deciding to descend to make it one climb and done. In truth, he had no idea how much he climbed since it was something he figured he didn't need. Whether he would praise the earth after descending, Sarey would give him a rough idea. Like this, he would have a rough idea of how many meters he had climbed, or how much was left. Only with this reference from her, he figured he still had a few dozen of meters until his goal was met.
This was a consistent path of more than 20 days at this point. He was long familiar with the wall, and the same old section in the wall where he put his hands and legs. Those crevices of darkness could still pose some threat to him, but so far in, he no longer felt fear. His touch, and figuring out his surroundings a few meters around him, were somewhat manageable by his senses.
Yet, Allan kept going, not stopping, because he was scared to stop. Out of breath, with numb fingers, or pressure of the weight stopped him from caring more about ascend, and more about his own safety.
So, he calmed down after securing the rope to the wall. Descending the staircase of ropes was already fine, allowing him to go down or up with them alone.
Getting down at this point wasn't the easiest or fastest. In 10 or so minutes, he was greeted with the warmth of the earth, which was his reward after returning from his ascending journey. In return, it was praised by Allan for its existence.
“You still have around 30 to 35 meters to go,” Surrey added, watching his ritual as if it was normal.
“Yea. Yea. I know I have a still long way to go. This weight that you constantly increased is so damn annoying. I'm unable to improve much at all because of it. It's the same when I am getting down or up. It is rather frustrating because the change of direction when going down differs from going up.” Allan added, still on his knees praising the earth.
“Oh? Really? I guess you will have to endure it until the end of the wall.” She answered, maintaining the facade of the true reasons for his unsuccessful attempts away. Well, it wasn't the truth in itself, since the weight had its purpose. Allan had to ascend the wall one way or another with this weight.
“Huh...Whatever, let's go to the river.” Allan said, unbothered by this, more than normal training. “I will at least quench my body in the river to cool down my head.” Allan helplessly added, getting up to his feet.
Seeing him like that, Sarey was inclined to give him any sort of reasonable words, but couldn't. She long decided to wait until the bitter end for Allan to get further along with the climb. Right now, this climb was sufficient, since he was getting more familiar with the Body Whip Technique. Until then, she won't be revealing 36's terrific method of training, which he prohibited him from knowing.
Leading Allan through the forest and paths, the raging waters of the mountainous river pleased Allan to be here. At least the amount of progress he made here was excellent since it was simple. Unlike moving to the higher heights of the wall, which was harder than he ever thought. His time here would be fast, as only the thing that was left for him to do was the deadly waterfall. That, of course, wasn't something he will do. Out of fear or care for his life.
Pulling his short robe and trousers from his body, he already comfortably jumped into the raging river. There was no way for him to be swept away by this current, which troubled him in the past. What seemed like an eternity in the past was now more than some pleasant blast of water. Though, some rocks and wood in the way will still trouble him from time to time.
It was the case of his dramatic improvements, making him resilient enough to make the course of the training rather smooth. This water bending was precisely what Allan was good at, and even 36 commented on it in the past. raging water on top of falling rocks and bothersome currents, it was a mixture of improving dramatically in a manner of fewer than 20 days.
In the very middle of this river, Allan started to swim, swinging his arms wildly as he cleaved the waters, unmoving even with each stroke with his whole body weight. He always remained glued in place, since the water went against his body. This was good stamina training, and it was rather easy to go along with the river.
“Like water, huh?” He thought. Figuring out the Body Whip Technique was great to try against those rocks, so Allan figured he will try thinking about it in this position. The pressuring water was out of the question, but it could lead him to a better understanding. Perhaps he will get some idea out of it.
10 minutes passed until his time in the flowing water went to the 30 minutes mark. Allan still kept going, moving his body against the rocks, or wood.