Translator: CinderTL
Although the enemy, known as the Ashborn, proved no match for Roland, he had no intention of delaying. He wanted to avoid any unforeseen complications that might arise from lingering.
With their target now clear, the group wasted no time.
Under Roland's concise command, the grey dwarves swiftly gathered the necessary supplies and carefully secured the vital research equipment, including the Magic Net Disturbance Detector, onto the bridge. The group then boarded the shell ship docked outside the Gear Hall.
Similar to their previous journey through the Skyveil, the runes on the shell ship's surface glowed with an eerie violet light as Durga personally took control.
Moments later, the space before the ship's bow twisted violently, and a relatively narrow rift in spacetime was forcibly torn open.
The shell ship emitted a low hum and slowly entered the turbulent, shimmering rift.
Unlike their previous free-form navigation, the limited range of the Magic Net Disturbance Detector forced Durga and Bronson to rely on a few relatively clear coordinates they had marked in the Rust Town area.
This restricted the shell ship's ability to freely traverse the vast Astral Plane, confining it to short-range spatial jumps within the sealed Aetheron Continent.
Worse still, due to imprecise coordinate nodes and energy calculation errors, these supposedly "short-range" journeys took longer than their previous planar crossing from the Eversong Forest to Aetheron.
During this extended voyage, a tall, slender figure fluttered like a butterfly drawn to honey, swiftly settling beside Roland, who was leaning against the ship's railing lost in thought.
"Roland! Quick, tell me! What was it like inside that ancient ruin?"
The bard peppered him with questions like a machine gun, simultaneously pulling out a thick, leather-bound notebook titled Mortal Hero and a quill pen.
His eyes sparkled as the pen tip danced across the pages with a rapid scratching sound.
Roland sighed inwardly, resigned to recounting his experiences in the ruin.
When he mentioned the bracelet transforming into a liquid that coated his entire body, Tracy, perched on his other shoulder, couldn't resist interjecting in her clear, crisp voice.
"It was so bright back then! It just whooshed and completely enveloped Roland, like a giant iron can!" The little guy gestured wildly, trying to compensate for Roland's rather bland description.
"Entropic Cinder Core—Observation Post No. 7—adaptive substrate—Bracer Armor—Cool! So cool!"
Galvis scribbled furiously, interjecting with gasps of awe, his face alight with the excitement of a treasure hunter.
"This is definitely one of the best chapters in any epic! The ultimate creation of a lost civilization! I knew following you would provide endless material!"
Just as Roland was growing weary of Galvis's endless, probing questions and was considering finding an excuse to leave, a voice like heavenly music chimed in beside him.
"Enough, Galvis. Roland just fought a fierce battle and explored dangerous ruins. What he needs now is rest, not to satisfy your insatiable curiosity."
Galvis frowned, his face etched with reluctance, his enthusiasm abruptly cut short.
But when he saw who it was—Avril—and especially met her clear yet sharp elven eyes, Galvis deflated like a pricked balloon. He nodded sheepishly, his confidence instantly diminished.
"Uh—cough, cough—Miss Avril, you—you're right. I was too hasty." He stammered in response.
Despite the shared crisis with Corellon in Eversong Forest, which had fostered a sense of camaraderie between Galvis and the elf girl, his upbringing filled with tales of the Silver Moon Guard's valkyrie-like heroines still left this naturally carefree bard feeling an inexplicable awkwardness and subconscious unease around Avril. He was terrified his lackadaisical nature might offend her.
Under Avril's watchful, scrutinizing gaze, Galvis quickly tucked away his notebook and quill, dejectedly leaving Roland's side.
However, as he turned toward the ship's cabin, he didn't forget to discreetly make a series of elaborate gestures in Avril's blind spot, mouthing exaggerated, silent words at Roland.
"Wait a moment—! Let's continue later!"
Watching Galvis's comically stubborn demeanor, Roland shook his head helplessly, while Avril couldn't help but chuckle softly.
The somewhat tense atmosphere eased considerably.
As Galvis's retreating figure disappeared from view, Avril turned to Roland, the sharpness in her eyes replaced by concern.
"Are you alright? You weren't injured in the ruins, were you? Those monsters earlier... they didn't look easy to handle."
Roland shook his head, flexing his wrist, which remained nimble beneath the Bracer Armor.
"I'm fine, Avril. The ruins yielded some gains, but they also presented many mysteries."
He then briefly recounted the events that had transpired in The Great Sinkhole.
While Avril absorbed the information, he glanced around the shell ship, which was sailing steadily, and asked, "By the way, where's Danny? I hope Durga didn't just dump him in Rust Town because he found him annoying, right?"
The Danny Roland mentioned was the alchemist who had once extended an olive branch to recruit him in the Golden Valley Kingdom.
After meeting with Durga and learning about the events involving him, Roland immediately sought out the alchemist, who he felt he had indirectly drawn into these affairs, to apologize.
After all, if not for being implicated by him, Danny might never have left the relative safety of Golden Grain City and become entangled in the conflicts between the River Domain Nations and the Stone Kingdom.
Yet, upon further reflection, Roland realized that if Danny had truly remained in Golden Grain City, he likely wouldn't have survived the cataclysm that swept through the city.
To Roland's surprise, Danny reacted with remarkable magnanimity, even thanking him for the invitation that allowed him to experience this "truly wondrous adventure."
However, ever since Durga, in gratitude for the inspiration derived from his crucial potion, generously provided several vials of his own grey dwarf blood as research samples, the alchemist had become almost demonically obsessed. He spent his days holed up in the cabin assigned to him on the shell ship, rarely venturing out.
His obsessive dedication to research was strikingly similar to Bronson's unwavering focus and Galvis's creative fervor.
When Roland asked about Danny, Avril gave the expected answer.
She tilted her chin slightly, gesturing toward the rear of the ship.
"He's still buried in his laboratory, tinkering away. The fighting outside was so fierce earlier, the explosions nearly capsized the ship, but he didn't even show his face."
Her voice carried a hint of resignation, but she was long accustomed to it.
The two briefly chatted about the voyage and their experiences in Rust Town.
When the conversation inevitably turned to the brutal battle, Avril fell silent for a moment. Then, she leaned forward, resting her arms on the cold ship's railing, her voice tinged with undeniable disappointment.
"Roland, am I... useless? In that fight, I feel like I didn't help at all—"
Roland was slightly taken aback by her words and turned to look at the elf girl beside him.
Avril had always been vibrant and confident. Seeing her so dejected was something he'd never witnessed before.
He softened his tone, speaking with genuine reassurance.
"How could you say that? Avril, you did incredibly well."
"If you hadn't used your agility to weave through the enemy, intercept most of them, and take down one with a precise shot, breaking their encirclement rhythm, Durga and his people would have suffered irreversible losses. You protected everyone."
Hearing Roland's straightforward praise, Avril's lips instinctively curved into a slight smile, but it quickly faded.
She continued gazing downward, her voice growing softer.
"But—it's still not as good as you. The way you—"
She recalled Roland's earth-shattering aura as he descended upon the battlefield, and how he subsequently cut through those terrifying enemies like vegetables—foes that had taken her so long and so much effort to defeat. Her tone was filled with a complex mix of emotions: admiration, envy, and an undeniable sense of frustration.
"Your strength has increased too quickly, Roland. So fast—it feels impossible to keep up."
Finally, she turned to face him, her clear eyes clouded with confusion and a hint of helplessness.
At that point, the elf girl suddenly paused.
In that instant, she understood why Theresa had chosen to leave without saying goodbye, embarking on her solitary journey of training. That feeling of watching a companion's back grow distant, worrying about becoming a burden, yearning to grow stronger yet feeling so powerless—
Now, she seemed to grasp it somewhat.
Seeing the clear frustration and confusion on the elf girl's face, Roland instinctively licked his dry lips, unsure how to comfort her. He wasn't good at handling such delicate emotional matters.
A moment of silence hung between them.
Suddenly, as if remembering something, a glint flashed in Roland's eyes. He swiftly retrieved two rolled-up maps from his pack.
One was a sheepskin scroll Bronson had just finished, marked with the flow of mana. The other was a precious parchment given by Duerden upon his departure, depicting the ancient terrain of Aetheron.
He spread both maps side-by-side on the ship's railing, his fingers tracing across them as his sharp gaze swept over the old place names and Bronson's marked energy nodes.
His eyes eventually locked onto a specific region on Duerden's map, where an ancient name he had repeatedly circled stood out.
The Imperial Academy.
He looked up at the still-lost elf girl, a confident smile playing on his lips. "It's alright, Avril," he said softly. "The method to increase your strength—it might be right before our eyes. I have a way."
"Hmm?" Avril was pulled back from her thoughts, letting out a soft, puzzled hum as she looked at Roland in confusion.
But before Roland could elaborate, Durga's gruff, booming roar, filled with warning, exploded across the deck like thunder, instantly drawing everyone's attention.
"Everyone! Grab onto anything you can! We're almost there!"
"Damn it! In this cursed place, the space coordinates are as erratic as a drunk dwarf! The landing won't be as smooth as before! Hold on tight!"
Before he could finish...
A violent sense of weightlessness suddenly struck.
The shell ship seemed to plummet from solid ground into an invisible abyss in an instant.
The hull groaned with a teeth-grinding metal shriek as it lurched and shuddered violently, like a toy being tossed about by an invisible giant hand.
"Ah!"
Tracy cried out, clinging tightly to Roland's collar.
Avril instinctively reached out to steady herself against the cold railing.
The grey dwarf sailors on deck scrambled to secure themselves to ropes and fixtures, cursing as they stabilized their positions.
Amidst the chaos of shaking and loss of control, the turbulent light and shadow ahead of the shell ship abruptly vanished.
The ship shuddered violently, as if forcibly bursting through some thin membrane, and suddenly broke free from the unstable spatial rift.
The violent jolting gradually subsided, replaced by an unsettling, sluggish sensation, as if the ship had become mired in thick mud.
Outside the window, the blur of the void was gone, replaced by—
A deep gray mist, pervasive and seemingly capable of absorbing all light, and within the mist, faintly visible—
The skeletal remains of a giant beast, its massive and dilapidated form resembling a slumbering behemoth.
The desolate wasteland they had expected never materialized. Instead, they found themselves in an even more eerie and unsettling environment.
The silence was terrifyingly absolute, as if the mist had swallowed even the sound of the wind.
(End of the Chapter)
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