While everyone was about to leave the hall, Jack asked Callan, “Which path should I take if I wish to venture down this mountain?”
“You don’t want to go back to Themisphere?” Callan asked.
“It was a rare chance to come to this country, I would like to explore more before returning,” Jack replied.
“Have you linked with any zone portal in this country’s cities?”
“No,” Jack shook his head.
“In that case, you can travel via the trial pathway to get to the town below the foot of this mountain,” Callan said. “Paytowin will bring you to this pathway once you are ready to leave.”
Jack thanked the divine priest again before leaving with the rest. Outside, Red Death had left. Not even a farewell, Jack lamented.
The others also planned to leave. Everyone there except Paytowin had already become the members of Everlasting Heavenly Legends. Domon had invited Leavemealone to join the guild so he could better train him. As an obedient disciple, he didn’t refuse. He would return together with Domon and the others to Heavenly Citadel. Grace and Jet would establish links in their countries’ cities first before teleporting to Heavenly Citadel.
Jack followed them to the zone portal chamber to send them off. On the way, Jeanny said to him, “Since you will be exploring this country, make sure to establish a teleportation link.”
“That is my intention,” Jack replied.
“Great. Once you established the link and Grace and Jet did so in their respective countries, we will have the links to all the countries,” Jeanny exclaimed with excitement.
“Are you going to visit Liguritudum as Geod asked you to?” Giant Steven asked. “With that Liguritudum Honored Guest title, you can now revisit Drazthiz without a worry.”
Drazthiz was the name of the Liguritudum’s city where Jack used its zone portal when escaping World Maker.
“He asked all of us from the team match. Not only me,” Jack corrected. “I am not going to fall for that. Most likely I will be given a quest to help with the civil war. Wilted is there already, she will do her part while I do mine.”
“Are you calling sightseeing Hydrurond here as doing your part?” Giant Steve asked.
“What sightseeing? I have a purpose to stay in this country!” Jack uttered.
“Yeah, it’s me who asked him to stay,” Peniel said. “There is something in this country that will benefit him. If everything goes as planned. He should become stronger.”
“Even more so than now? Good fairy, please don’t be stingy. Why don’t you take us as well?”
“I’m sorry to say but the thing I planned is only applicable to him. It won’t do you any good even if you follow.”
“Steve, leave them be. They will invite us if it’s good for us. We will focus on guild management,” Jeanny said.
“By the way, you also got that Liguritudum title,” Jack said to Giant Steve. “You can visit that country. How about you go and find some ethereal players to recruit.”
<br/>”Hm, that is not a bad idea. In that way, once you establish links with Hydrudond cities and we recruit draconian players as well, we will have all seven main races in our guild,” Jeanny said.
“That will be something,” Jet remarked.
“All right, then it’s decided! Steve, your assignment is to find ethereal recruits in Liguritudum!” Jeanny announced.
“Huh?” Giant Steve looked confused.
Jack put a hand on his shoulder, “see, now we are both doing our part. Good luck!”
“Waa??wait! What if I meet World Maker people there?”
“No one asked you to roam around the wilderness. Just stay safe inside the city and looked for recruits,” Jack said. “And don’t try to be smart and look for that Geod fellow. As I said, he might ask you to join that country’s war effort. We are not ready yet. Just search for guildless players inside that city.”
“Whata?|? How do I level up thena?|?” Steve walked with his shoulders slumped.
When they arrived at the zone portal chamber, they entered one by one. Grace was the last to enter. Before she did, she looked back at Jack and Paytowin. She said to Jack, “How long before you return to the guild headquarters?”
“Uh, I’m not really sure. A few weeks? Or could be months as well,” Jack gave a vague answer.
“You have to let me know when you are back,” Grace said. “After I establish the teleportation link, I will be waiting in the headquarters.”
“Okay.”
“I’m serious!” Grace uttered. “If you just come and leave without saying anything, I will be angry!”
“Uha?| Uma?| Yes, Ma’am!”
Grace eyed him a few more whiles before she turned and entered the portal.
“Uha?| Why is she so vehement?” Jack asked. He then looked at Paytowin. “Did you tell her I am me?” He asked.
“What? Of course not,” Paytowin denied. “She must have been impressed by your performance in the tournament.”
“Hm? Really? I did become the champion,” Jack said.
Paytowin looked away and sighed. ‘This guy is so gullible when it comes to relationships,’ he said in his mind.
Paytowin took Jack to this place’s physical exit. It was a large doorless gate. Jack saw a white stone path laid out before the gate. At the gate’s two sides were the two giant head statues he had seemed at the other edges of this Daminos Square Garden.
“Why is this exit called the trial pathway?” Jack asked.
“Because this path is what new members of this faction have to travel through when they become a member,” Paytowin said.
“So, you have gone through this path before?” Jack asked.
“Yes, but the other way around. I take the path to get to this place, while you are using it to leave. Speaking of which, this should help,” Paytowin took out a slim axe with a curved shaft.
“An ice axe?” Jack said, recognizing the thing.
“I think you can guess already what this trial pathway is, can’t you?” Paytowin asked.
“I guess so,” Jack said, then added, “is it difficult?”
“Well, I manage to do it. No reason you can’t.”
“You are right. Oh, yes, before I forgot. Here,” Jack gave Paytowin the Recall Plate.
“A recall plate? This is the thing you exchanged in the ancient battleground just now, right? Why give it to me? What’s its use?” Paytowin asked.
Jack then described the item’s usage. For this particular Recall Plate, Jack had set it so that it would activate if Paytowin activate it purposefully.
“So I can summon you for help?” Paytowin asked.
“It’s one-time use. Don’t squander it on a pointless request. Save it for a real SOS,” Jack said.
“Isn’t it more proper for you to give this to Grace instead?”
“She is already in my guild. She would have many guildmates she could count on. You are different. Although you are protected by this divine faction, you are still different from them. There might be a time that you need help from a fellow player.”
Paytowin gave Jack a grateful stare. “Thanks, I truly appreciate this,” he said sincerely.
“Don’t sweat it. We are friends. Just remember to use it only for an emergency. Also, don’t forget to practice the mana sense meditation I taught you. this place’s mana density is the best place to train. It will be a waste not to utilize it,” Jack said. He had given Paytowin some pointers on the meditation method. “All right, this is goodbye then”
“I hope we meet again, bro,” Paytowin replied.
“Ask your boss to allow me to enter the ancient battleground again, you will see me more often,” Jack said.
Paytowin laughed. “Stay safe.”
“You too,” Jack said and followed the stone path. He didn’t go far before coming to an edge. The stone path stopped there, but the white stone that formed the path continued. It dropped at a ninety-degree angle to a vertical wall down the cliff. The white stones were shaped to allow handholds. There were clouds down there, preventing him from seeing how high this steep cliff was.
If he did not have Dragon Eye which allowed him to see in the dark, he might have stayed up here and waited until morning before attempting a climb down this cliff. But since he did, he readied the ice axe Paytowin had given him.
He stabbed the ice axe’s pick into the ground before using it as an anchoring point and lowered himself down to the cliff. The white stones provided sturdy footholds and handholds. He started moving down steadily, securing the ice axe into the cliff wall each time he went down a step.
He was not a climbing expert, but he was also not a stranger to climbing. He had played several games that required lots of climbing before. Generally, he preferred climbing up to climbing down, because it was more difficult seeing footholds during a down climb. Luckily, now that he was proficient in mana sense. He could sense the shape of the surface down there, allowing him to know where to put his feet without the need to look down. This lowered the difficulty considerably.
At least that’s what he thought until he sensed the path down there disappeared into a horizontal surface before going vertical again.
“Shit!” he cursed and looked down. He had traveled past the clouds and could now see down. He was extremely high. The land down there seemed extremely far and extremely small. He was definitely a goner if he fell from here. If he did, he would be revived back in Thereath. Then he had to walk all the way back here, which would waste a hell lot of time.
He tried to stretch his senses further. Probably if he climbed sideways, there would be a path that was not as extreme. But as far as he could sense, the horizontal surface spread a long way to both sides. He couldn’t use his incorporeal state to sense far away in his current state. If his consciousness left his body, his grips might lose strength and he fell instead. So he asked Peniel to fly around to check. Peniel came back telling him the horizontal surface went as far as she could see. Additionally, the other parts had a much smoother surface, as opposed to the pathway here where the white stones provided solid handholds. This pathway showed that one was meant to overcome this challenge.
Seeing no other option, he continued down. His feet were now at the edge of the cliff. There was no more foothold down there. He stabbed the ice axe at a lower position and put his other hand on a handhold before lowering himself. His legs were now hanging in the air, his body was held entirely by his two arms.
Jack looked down again.
“Damn, this is high!”
