Alexia
As it turns out, most of the monsters that I run across are just what I expected. Undead, sand wyrms, giant scorpions, and various other desert dwelling monsters. And since all of the ones I find are rather weak and I’m already at the level cap, I eventually resort to just ignoring them and focusing on teleporting across the sands, allowing Ethan to speed up his flying.
Unsurprisingly the man is and has been completely ignoring the monsters the entire time despite not being at the level cap. Probably because these monsters aren’t even Tier 2 for the most part.
They probably wouldn’t give EXP even if I wasn’t at the level cap, so me fighting them was mostly just out of curiosity.
Monsters or no monsters, teleporting across the ground costs a lot less soul to keep going than teleporting through the air while maintaining my altitude. Mostly due to the issue with me keeping my momentum throughout the process.
I’ve managed a few times to teleport without keeping my momentum – something I realized was possible after the skill reached Tier 2 – but I still don’t know how to do that every time. And the times I failed at doing it led to me falling for a while with the skill not being responsive for at least a few seconds.
Which was rather terrifying considering how high up I was and how fast I was moving.
I shake my head at the thought before Ethan and I finally reach the closest oasis to the Dimensional Wall where we find a budding city growing. One with sandstone buildings and a three or so meter tall wall going around the oasis.
Ethan of course just tries to fly right over the wall, making them set off the alarm as he lowers himself to the ground.
So I let out a sigh, covering my face in the process out of exasperation of the dragon’s arrogance and utter disregard for the lower Class species here. Then I teleport up to the wall and shout, making my voice echo across the city, “We are not here for a fight!”
Everyone on the walls – people who entirely consist of undead to my complete lack of surprise – hesitates for more than a second before lowering their weapons. Probably more out of the ‘they stand no chance against us’ than any sort of peaceful or friendly intensions.
Looking through the undead, only a couple dozen of them are Tier 2, and even those are only early Tier 2. Meanwhile the rest of the undead are all mid to high Tier 1. A rather high level compared to the average level back at the Retreat.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Then again, they’re undead. Not to mention that this is a city at the edge of the Dimensional Block.
Although now that I’m inside of the city it looks less developed on the inside than it did on the outside. Probably to give an impressive display to those getting close or something.
“Where is Vargas?” Ethan asks, his voice echoing throughout the nearly dead silent city, the only noise other than his voice being the blowing sand in the wind and the occasional rattle of bones and armor. Since some of the undead here are skeletons.
Who’s Vargas? Is that his dragon cousin?
One of the undead – the highest level one in the city and a blighted one – steps forwards as I teleport down into the city clearing in front of the gate to join Ethan. Then the man bows his head slightly and answers while occasionally glancing towards me with fear in his eyes, “The esteemed dragon is on the other side of the Block from here. If you esteemed individuals would like, we could provide you a map of the area.” He focuses on Ethan again. “All we ask is that you leave our city in peace.”
I get the feeling he thinks I’m gonna murder them all. Or, well, remurder?
Damnit, had this same mental dilemma earlier in that dungeon.
Reundead? Rekill? Unmake the undead?
Whatever. I’ll just stick with destroy. It’s simpler.
“Give us the map,” Ethan says, not bothering with the latter part of the undead guy’s statement, making me pity the guy for a moment. But I understand that if I were to speak right now the undead would probably just grow even more scared.
I always find undead to be interesting, to be honest.
The non-sapient ones are fearless and attack anything alive unless ordered not to by a necromancer, while the sapient ones are cowards who will do anything to survive most of the time. Complete opposites from each other.
Anyways, my thoughts on undead aside, the people of the little city rush to get the map before handing it to Ethan. And I can’t help but question the idea of the populace of this Block simply handing us a map of their Dimensional Block despite us obviously being outsiders from another Block. After all, I’d be the Dimensional Champion of this Block if I were from here. And they clearly know Ethan’s cousin, so it’s easy to assume they’d know about us if we actually lived in this Block.
Ethan quickly takes to the skies after taking the map, and I teleport out of the city, deciding that it’s more trouble than it’s worth to convince the undead there that I’m not a murderer who goes around killing people.
Damned Tutorial Leaderboards probably put that in everyone’s heads.
Well, that and just how the people usually view the strongest people on the leaderboards.
And my title.
The Reaper isn’t exactly a friendly title.
Even if it’s cool.
I continue teleporting beneath Ethan for a while before I raise my hand to call him down, making us both halt our progress. And once he reaches me, I hold my hand out and say, “Map.”
He hands me the map and I quickly look over it, finding the map to be very incomplete. Which explains why they gave it to us.
The map simply has a single line drawn with some civilizations marked along the way straight towards a territory labeled ‘Dragon.’
I almost snort at that simple naming before handing the map back to Ethan and saying, “I wouldn’t trust the map completely, but knowing how afraid they were, I doubt they’d pull anything.”
He nods his head and answers rather bluntly, “If they gave us a fake map I’ll just return and turn their city into a glacier.”
I act like I didn’t just hear him threatening an entire city as I nod my head and we continue making our way through the desert.
Such a friendly dragon.