The next few days, we stayed in Adernas and made plans to go forward. But not all plans were well-received, the evening after the demonstration for Giro, he had formally asked me to take on Rai as my disciple. It was mostly for show, as I had already accepted him, but he did it in full view of his wife. For a moment, I wondered if we were all going to die when the mother wolf started to defend her cub. But Rai proved his mettle, by standing up and calmly explaining to his mother that it was his wish, that it was his journey. His mother was speechless for a moment, before starting in on him. He did not get angry, he kept calm, collected and explained his reasoning. No emotional displays, throwing a tantrum that he wanted to prove himself, no whining, nothing, just adult calm and cool reasoning.

Maybe torture did not work to get answers, but it certainly had worked to get the brattiness out of him.

I think Rai regretted his decision the very next day, and every day after, while we were in Adernas, as I happily started training him. As there was little else to do and I was able to heal bruises, that meant I could abuse, or train, my disciple as much as I wanted to. My training method involved showing him a movement or stance and smacking him until he got it right, before moving on the next. I’m not sure if it was the teaching or the smacking, but during our stay, I got a few skill-points in my dual blade mastery, bringing me up to 28.

But the biggest thing during those days was that Giro had a comparatively large map, showing more of this corner of the world than I had been aware of. It was mostly a thematic map, marking out other organized groups, danger-zones and similar things, not necessarily terrain-features, unless they were noticeable enough, like large mountains or rivers. That meant, that a small but deep canyon would have no mark, making the map less useful when creating a precise route - but incredibly useful to know what one was getting into, in a specific region. Or where one could find a village that might be bartered with for supplies or shelter. Money was largely useless out here; one could not eat gold, no matter how hard one tried. Well, unless one was of one of the stranger species.

I was glad about that, it had been something that had always annoyed me when gaming. You got to a new area, somewhere deep in the wilderness and met a group of hardy men, trying to fight off a horde of monsters, undead, barbarians or whatever the setting demanded. They are grim and gruff, telling you that you need to prove yourself worthy, that they will not support you, as they need their supplies or something along those lines - but as soon as you show some clinking coins, they are happy to sell you pretty much whatever you need. The gameplay demanded it, but it felt just wrong.

On the map, the north of us, the direction we had been coming from, was blank, only a skull with a question-mark in it, signifying a deadly area for unknown reasons. According to Giro, it was used to mark the most dangerous areas, because nobody knew just what killed people there. Some people travelled and were fine, others simply vanished. Without knowing what killed them, nobody could prepare or gauge the risk. If you went into an area teeming with dragons, you knew to expect dragons and could prepare. Not against the unknown. The area to the north-east was marked as relatively safe, as there were only normal animals around and no civilisation but a few travelling tribes that roamed in that area. To the east, was the Jonari-village, a few notes on it but nothing major. Just that their hunting-area was mostly to their east and south.

To the north-west, the map marked out a mountain-range that had to be the one containing Mount Yugid, and it noted that the mountains were comparatively safe, only warning of airborne threats, as firebirds used them as a hunting range. On the other side of the mountains, further to the west, was a road marked out - not in detail but as a guideline, that it had to be there somewhere. At the northern end of the road was Yari, the bearman town we had visited before, roughly halfway along the mountain-range was another settlement named Kyrta, and to the south, slightly south-west of Adernas, was a small city called Yaksha.

There was a gap in the mountain range, right in the area where Yaksha was, giving them excellent access to the eastern part of the continent. It was a testament to how wild and untamed the area east of us was, that Adernas was not a teeming trade-post and Yaksha not a flourishing city, with its position between two natural barriers. If one wanted to go further east from Yaksha, one had to either go two weeks north, to Yari, or at least one week south, maybe more, as the map cut off there.

I asked about the part of the mountain-range south of the gap, as it had a slightly different symbol compared to the one north of it, and was told that there were flying monsters as well, but many more and a different sort, compared to those further north. A smaller type, not of firebirds, but more vicious and brutal, a type of bird the hunters of Adernas only called wind raptors. When Lenore heard the name, I felt her mentally perk up, even though she was still outside. It seemed as if she was looking through my eyes, similar to what I sometimes did with hers. I only hoped that she did not fall off a roof or tree while doing so, I was always glad to sit down while I did it.

South of Adernas were more forests, apparently similar to those we had wandered through all these days, but lately, the wolves had acted up, as more and more of them came into the area. Giro was unsure what it meant, it might mean that further south some sort of trouble was brewing, trouble that the wolves were avoiding. Or it might mean something entirely different. It was not as if wolves, even spirit-wolves were eager to converse with wolfman.

What was most interesting on the map was that the road that ended (or started, depending on your view) in Yari was an old road, built an eternity ago by an old, now lost, civilisation that had made their roads to last forever. Those roads spanned the vast majority of western Aretia, connecting towns and kingdoms, tribes and cities. These days, they were mostly maintained by the merchants guild, which was part of their power. If some group did not want to play ball with them, the road was no longer maintained. And that meant that everyone else who lived at that road was directed to them, for complaints.

With this information, Sigmir, Rai, Adra and I huddled together and started to plan our route, moving forward.

“When I travelled north, I kept east of the mountains, not using the road. I wanted to immerse myself in solitude, feel the wilderness.” Adra explained. “But if we travel south-west, we probably should use the road. It will cut travel-time, and if I understood right, your journey will be a long one, right?” she continued.

“You can say that again.” I said with a smile, ignoring the confused look on her face - maybe she didn’t know the phrase - and continued, “Sigmir and I want to travel to the other side of the earth. The place we want to reach is in the southern part of Arbotoma. I’m not even sure how we get from either Aretia or Daiea to Arbotoma, nevermind the rest of the way.”

By now, there was a smile on my face. The sheer scope of the journey was breathtaking and I could see that Rai’s jaw was just about to hit the floor. He might have heard of the other continents in stories, but only as mythical, far away places.

I felt Lenore reach towards me and we mentally met, “I want to go into the southern part of the Mount Yugid mountain range. If I’m not wrong, I can gain a lot there. And my gain, will be your gain.” she explained. The feelings that got transmitted along with her thoughts told me that it was truly important to her and that, while she didn’t want to say it, she was calling in the markers she was due. I didn’t mind, she had helped us a lot and if there was something to gain, I would happily go there. If it didn’t kill us.

“How about we go into Yaksha, find out if there are quests to do in the southern mountain-range and deal with them before moving further south. Quests mean strength and I think once I’ve got Rai up to speed, our group will be quite formidable.” I suggested.

“Don’t overestimate our strength. Out here, there are a lot of beings that manage to gain a high level, but beings that overcome divides are rare. The further we get towards civilisation, the more common beings that overcame the first divide are going to be. Levels only mean that you have killed a lot of beings, or been involved in a lot of quests. Divides mean more, that you have overcome a fundamental watershed.” Adra cautioned me.

Maybe she was right, one of the reasons the dryad Tegi had been able to do what she did, was that she had probably overcome the second divide and bound a lot of subordinates to her and her tree. And another thing I had to keep in mind, levels and divides meant very little, if one was not vigilant. The way the Jonari Chief and their shaman had died proved that in visceral detail.

The others accepted my suggestion of heading towards Yaksha, mainly because there were few alternatives.