As the party moved on, the terrain continued softening until it opened into a relatively flat desert plain with veins of small ridges protruding up from the ground. The afternoon sky put the sun at their backs, and though the heat was sweltering their heavy packs kept most of the sun from their skin. All except for Iris, who found precious little shade to teleport between and was soon sweating profusely and breathing raggedly.
She had removed all the bandages from Mrs. Rousey except for the one on her head, having no desire to reveal the dried, formerly goopy mess of the ointment until she had access to enough water for bathing. Now the sweat dampened the bandage again, which she was sure would make whatever stench was kept hidden beneath it even worse. She kept her wizard hat pulled down over the bandages as much as she could, also thankful that the wide brim that kept the sun off her neck.
While they walked, the others would occasionally ask her questions about where she came from and the days leading up to her arrival in the Giantrock region. She gave them the highlights of finding her Thread of Power, the first quests she had taken, and the mayhem of at the Weird Farmer's farm at the edge of the valley. In truth, she would have been delighted to bore them with every last detail, but the punishing heat made conversation a luxury that couldn't always be afforded.
Finally, the sun began to creep close to the horizon behind them, and the desert plains began to cool. Eli insisted they keep traveling until sundown, which earned groans from Autumn and Titus and a judgmental but silent look from Victoria. The easier weather -- plus the promise of relief and rest -- renewed conversation, however, and this time Iris lead with the questions.
"So," she said, "I've told you guys all about me. What are you doing in this desert?"
Eli and Victoria exchanged glances, and she gave him a nod. Hesitantly, Eli answered, "we're here for a competition."
"Okaaaayyy," Iris said, rolling her eyes under the brim of her hat, "tell me about the competition."
"It's called the Big Monster Hunt," Autumn said, "adventurers come from all over the world to see who can kill the biggest, baddest monsters in the whole region. Eli says we shouldn't expect to win but I think he's just insecure."
"That's all mostly accurate," Victoria said.
"It's called the Grand Hunt," Eli corrected, glaring at Victoria, "and I'm not insecure. We're underleveled for this, our goal is to tag along and get stronger, not to kill the biggest monster."
"and baddest," Autumn corrected.
"No way," Iris said, "I've heard of this, it's in one of my magazines."
She reached into her bottomless bag and pulled out a stack of adventure magazines, most of them authored by Sir Abram Brant. She flipped through the selection before picking out issue 32 of "General Guides to Adventuring." After another moment of flipping through the pages, she found what she was looking for; a passage about the Grand Hunt of the Giantrock region.
Far into the uncharted lands of the distant continents, monsters roam free. Unlike the civilized world, the brave and bold Kingsmen are rare to find, and there simply aren't enough adventurers to make up for their absence. Left unchecked, these monsters grow powerful and -- often in conjunction -- massive. The self-proclaimed guardians of the Frontier, the Adventuring Corps, take on the responsibility of managing these monsters. Their members track and study the great beasts, and roughly once a decade stage a culling that they call the Grand Hunt. Adventurers from levels 30 through 60 are encouraged to make a pilgrimage to the Giantrock region to participate in this hunt, where the prizes are reportedly as grand as the beasts.
The excerpt was featured below an illustration of a giant two-headed serpent being assailed by a dozen adventurers.
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"What level are you guys, exactly?" She asked, looking up from the magazine.
"Mid-twenties," Victoria answered, "we're hoping to reach the soft cap at level 29 before the end of the hunt, if we're lucky we might even find someone's second Thread of Power."
Iris was familiar enough with the leveling system to know that adventurers would find themselves unable to progress beyond Level 29 until absorbing their second Thread of Power. Adventurers before this point were often categorized as "Heroes" while adventurers beyond Level 30 but before the higher tiers were categorized as "Champions."
"Wow," Iris said, "I am really out of my league."
"So are we," Eli said, "lucky you got stuck with us, huh?"
Iris was glad to have found herself with kind companions so quickly, but in a land of challenges she was unprepared to face she would have liked if her companions were at least prepared to face them.
"That's all this book says about Giantrock," Iris continued, "and I don't remember reading the name anywhere else. Where exactly are we?"
"We're in the southwestern portion of the region," Eli said, "as you can see it's mostly desert. Soon we'll be reaching the plains though, and after that it's just another day's travel or so until we reach the Redwood Forest, at which point we're basically almost there."
"Okay," Iris said, pausing to absorb the information, "but where exactly is the Giantrock region?"
Looks were exchanged once again, and Iris found herself getting frustrated at how often everyone seemed confused at her ignorance.
"I mean, it sort of just is," Autumn offered, unhelpfully.
"What she means," Titus added, "is that the Giantrock region is the whole continent, basically. Coast to coast, it's all untamed wilderness."
"There are settlements," Victoria explained, "the biggest is Giantrock City, which is where we're headed now. But the settlements here are nothing like the cities you'd find in the colonized world."
"The colonized world?" Iris asked.
"Where you're from. Mostly the Emerald Empire, but the smaller independent human kingdoms too. Your books probably call it 'the civilized world' or something similarly reductive."
"No politics on the trail," Eli scolded.
Victoria looked away, but Iris stifled a giggle as she caught a glimpse of Victoria rolling her eyes.
"You'll have to tell me about that later," Iris said, "I have a feeling it's going to have something to do with the gross feeling I always get when I read stuff written and published within the empire," she held up the issue of General Guides to Adventuring as an example, "that's why I like Sir Abram Brant, he's always out the field getting his hands dirty, not sitting in a tower somewhere dictating third hand accounts."
"You read Brant?" Victoria asked, "you should compare issues with Eli, he's a huge a fan."
"I am not a huge fan," Eli quickly refuted, "there's just a lot of good information in there, that's all."
"Have you read the Glacial Mountains issue?" Iris asked excitedly, "I'm close to the end, and I think he's about to fight a--"
"It's okay!" Eli nearly shouted, "you don't have to tell me, I'll find out when I read it."
"Oh, sorry. Usually people who just read Brant for the information don't care about spoilers."
Victoria giggled, and Eli found himself unsure which one of them to glare at.
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Beautiful streaks of orange light stretched across the plains, broken by the long shadows cast as the sun dipped into the horizon. The terrain had leveled out to rolling hills, and the rocky red sand was replaced by loose patches of silt and soil where stubborn grasses grew. In the distance, they could see the edge of the vast grassland plains Eli had told them to expect. They stopped under a small, lone tree growing in one such patch of soil.
"We'll camp here," Eli said, "the grasslands aren't safe at night. The less we camp there the better."
Eli whistled to the sky, and moments later the massive griffin touched down next to him with a gust of wind. He immediately began petting it, reaching his arms up and around its neck like a hug to scratch where the feathers transitioned to fur.
Iris approached cautiously, stopping several feet away until she caught Eli's attention.
"You haven't been properly introduced," he said, "Iris, this is Glimmer. She's my faithful companion for this journey."
Glimmer chirped at the mention of her name, if you could call it a chirp. The sound was deep and loud, proportionate to her size. Iris noticed the single shiny talon on her front paw that stood out against the dark coloration of the others and almost smiled at the name, but apprehension kept her expression wary.
Eli laughed, "she won't hurt you. She might nip at your hat though, so I'd be careful of that. Do you want to pet her?"
Iris was not about to miss the opportunity to pet a griffin, even if she was terrified. She edged closer, cautiously extending a hand. Glimmer took a small step forward and extended her neck to sniff Iris' hand, before slowly opening her beak to take a bite.
Iris snatched her hand back and blipped away from a laughing Eli.
"She's just messing with you!" He called out to Iris, who had decided to go see what Autumn was up to instead.