“I think you’re taking this cavalry thing a bit too serious,” I said, grinning.

“You didn’t like that joke?” Cellestra asked.

“I did. Don’t worry about it. You’re not going to upset me that quickly.”

“Good to know.”

The trail forward led uphill and had an earthen wall on either side. Someone, presumably the trolls, had hewn this out to create a path. It was impressive work, and I couldn't imagine how much effort it must have taken.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Cellestra let out while I was cleaning the troll blood from my blade with my water spell.

“I feel like the entire purpose of this artificial path is to create a shortcut which can be used to tax passers-through. Still, it’s impressive for sure.”

“Yeah. Now if only the tax was fair.”

“Well, let’s hope it is now. I didn’t plan to return here anytime soon.”

“Do tell me this one thing,” The brunette started. “In that fight, you were holding back. Why?”

“That obvious, huh?” I said with a smile as I finished cleaning my halberd’s blade. “I did that to send a message to the other trolls. I wanted to let them know that I would be able to withstand everything they could throw at me without issues. Did you see their reactions after the fight? There was no element of luck involved. I simply outclassed him, heavily too. Sure, I could kill him with nothing but my lightning arc, but I would have to stay at a distance. I didn’t want to look cowardly.”

“Makes sense,” Cellestra said.

“It’s a troll hierarchy thing that I knew about. I felt this would be effective in limiting bloodshed, and help those who seek passage here.”

I paused for a moment as I continued walking uphill. “Anyway, how are we on provisions? I believe we received enough to last for a while longer, right?”

“Still have plenty,” Cellestra said with a nod. “No need to worry about that. If Len Asari is close from here, I doubt we need to restock anything at all.”

“That’s good to hear,” I said.

A few minutes of walking uphill later, we reached the new ground level. The yellowish-orange grass was replaced by the same old green grass I was used to. Boring, but at least it was familiar. What I was not so familiar with were the weirdly-shaped stone pillars that I was currently eying.

I noticed three of them spread through the large field before me. To the east, I saw some sort of village in the distance, but my journey wouldn’t take me there. It would take me very close to one of the stones.

“What are those?” I asked the elf as I slowed down and stopped, hoping she would know more.

“Hold on,” Cellestra said. I saw her close her eyes as it seemed she was thinking deeply.

I gave her the time she needed. I waited where I stood until the elf opened her eyes again.

“I think...” She started as I saw her eyes move to one of the stones and move them up and down, taking in the entire length. I estimated them to be about twenty or thirty yards high, but it was hard to tell from here. “I have definitely seen a drawing of one of these before when researching a certain plant. I believe they are called obelisks.”

“Obe...what?”

“Obelisks,” The elf called out their strange name again. “A few of these are scattered throughout the world. As far as my knowledge goes, they were once filled with magic, but have since gone dormant.” She paused for a second as she looked disappointed. “Nobody knows exactly what kind of magic it was, and the plant I that I looked into grew close to these obelisks, but they have since gone extinct, presumably due to their magic being depleted, but nobody knows for sure. If it wasn’t for that, I would have looked deeper into it.”

“Hmmm,” I let out. “I’ve never heard of these things. I don’t think these existed in my world.”

I looked to the northwest. One of the strange stones was positioned there and for some reason, I just couldn’t take my eyes off of it. The obelisk somehow seemed to be drawing me in. It only added to my curiosity about one of this world’s unique features.

“You want to take a look?” Cellestra inquired.

I nodded. “I’m tempted to do so. You’ll also be able to verify whether the information on that plant is true.”

“Oh, I have no doubts it’s true. Rose herself confirmed that.”

“Well, I’d still like to check one of those things up close. They just seem so… unnatural to me. Like, who made them?”

“I have no idea,” Cellestra said. “The information on the obelisk itself was rather limited. It was more focused on the plant that seemed to only be able to live near those stones.”

“As strong as trolls are, I doubt they could make, or even transport something like that,” I said as I checked out the other ones, one to the east and one to the west.

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“I didn’t take you for the curious type,” The elf said with a grin.

“Aren’t you interested in seeing one up close with your own eyes?” I asked.

“I am,” Cellestra admitted softly. “If you’re okay with a bit of a detour, by all means, let’s check it out.”

I nodded and started running, causing the elf on my back to yelp out as she was suddenly jerked backward. She managed to grab my hair just in time before landing on my abdomen with her back.

I chuckled as I saw it happen. I was ready to catch her with my rearmost legs in case she had lost balance.

I ran forward across the grassy plains, the obelisk I’d set my focus on nearing. As I got closer I could make out its shape better. It seemed to be cuboid-shaped with four sides reaching to the sky where they merged into a tip.

“Does obelisk refer to the shape?” I asked after a few minutes.

“I don’t know. I believe so, but don’t take my word for it.”

“Doesn’t matter too much, I guess.”

Several minutes later, we reached the stone. As soon as we did, Cellestra leaned to the side and inspected the grass surrounding the obelisk’s foundation. There was no sign of any odd plant, there was only grass.

In the meantime, I circled the odd stone pillar to find some kind of inscription in the stone. It seemed to have eroded over the years, but I could still see a circle with letters that I didn’t recognize written on the outside of it.

“Face away for a moment, please, and cover your eyes,” I warned the elf.

As soon as she followed my instructions, I cast wind gust on the stone before me, blowing away the dust and small pieces of rock. After that, the inscription and circle were far easier to see. The only problem was… I still couldn’t read it.

“What the hell is this language?” I asked before checking my enhancement options.

Enhancement

Cost in EP

Spawn Spiderlings

200

Spiderling Upgrade - Basic Exoskeleton

100

Spiderling Upgrade - Basic Resistance

100

Spiderling Upgrade - Basic Venom

100

Amphibian Tongue

50

Tongue Slingshot (Level 1)

10

I couldn’t read any of it and there were no more language comprehension skills in my list to enhance.

Cellestra stared at it and scratched her head. “I have no idea. I’ve never seen it before.”

My intrigue only grew as I stared at the inscription on the stone and wondered about what this could be about.

“I don’t seem to have the language comprehension to read this, so it’s definitely not...” - I checked my list of languages - “Human, Elven, Spirit, Goblin, Troll, Demonic, or Dwarven. What language do beastkin speak?”

“Mostly human and elven. They don’t have a language of their own.”

“Hmmm,” I let out as I moved my elven torso closer to the stone. “You say there was once magic in these things?”

“That’s what I found out about them, yeah.”

“Strange...”

I moved my hand to the stone to clean out some dust inside one of the scriptures. I had merely touched the pillar when the circle and the inscription along its edge both lit up in a bright red color. It startled me and I took several steps back while I felt my heart beating in my chest.

Everything around me turned black, but only for a second before the world returned to normal.

“What the fuck?” I let out.

Cellestra stared at the red text on the obelisk and from the expression on her face, I could tell she was thinking exactly what I’d just spoken out loud.

Then, the light in the letters disappeared and the obelisk returned to normal.

I held up my hand which I used to touch the stone and stared at it.

“What was that?” Cellestra asked.

It took a few seconds before I answered.

“I have no idea.”