Walking up the Carin-Valley, I let out a content sigh. While I wasn’t yet close enough to the snow-capped mountain-tops to magically reach them, just seeing the white glaciers up there, blending in with the clouds in the blue skies above, made me happy. Just knowing there was a large body of Ice nearby gave me a peace of mind I hadn’t quite expected. The knowledge that I had a nearby location where my powers were amplified by orders of magnitude, where I would be able to face armies if needed, that I could realistically bury any town close to the mountains, it allowed me to breathe easily, especially with the idea to venture into Carinthia, the last town on this side of the mountains, still in the back of my mind.

“We should get there today, right?” I asked Olivia, the one actually knowing the geography quite well.

“Unless we take a really long break, yes, easily.” she replied with a grin, before pointing up ahead, along the mountain-stream that was flowing down the valley we were walking up. “See that pass up there? Once we are past that, we’ll reach Lake Thia, and it’ll be about two hours of walking until we reach Carinthia, less if we hurry.” she explained, making me nod.

For the last bit of the way, I once again, considered a way to make that shift between Shadows and the Astral, running, once again, against the same wall I had been knocking against since coming up with the idea. The closest mental comparison I had was that, if the physical realm was the path, the realm of Shadows was on the left side while the Astral River was on the right side. Getting from one to the other, without getting into the physical, seemed to be impossible, or if it wasn’t I had yet to find anything that indicated so.

Similarly, the idea to maybe shift my body into the Astral, an idea proposed by Lenore as I had the ability to shift my body into my Hallow, which possibly was kinda similar in a way, yes, we were very secure in our hypothesis, didn’t work out either. When I tried, the only thing I had to show for my efforts was a headache and some damage to my health, indicating that there might be a possibility but if I persisted in my efforts, I was more likely to kill myself than to succeed.

On the killing myself-front, I was quite relieved when Lenore reported that the ‘scratch’ on my soul had healed on the second day of our journey, reduced to the point that she was no longer able to detect it. There was a bit of a question about scarring, but again, it wasn’t as if I could detect what had been wrong, making it difficult to assess any lasting damage. All I knew was that Road to Purgatory had even more layers than previously thought, driving up my already ample motivation to figure it all out, even if there was a question in my mind, whether that was even possible. The World of Mundus, it seemed so real, so complete, the efforts of Pantheon Entertainment to create a realistic, ‘breathing’ world a resounding success.

“What a sight.” Adra’s voice, filled with admiration and awe, broke me out of my thoughts and I focused on the world around me beyond setting one foot before the other and keeping my balance. Without Sigmir next to me, making sure I didn’t wander off the path or run into a tree or something, I wouldn’t let myself get as lost in my head, but luckily, she was there, allowing me to deeply ponder my ideas.

Looking around, I realised that we had reached the pass Olivia had pointed out, a pass obviously carved by the nearby river. The road didn’t quite go through the middle of the path, but was some distance up the slope of the mountain, giving us a nice view of the pass beneath and the river that had carved it. Beyond the pass, the valley widened into a bowl-shaped valley, which was mostly filled by the stream, only that it widened to a mountain-lake. While I had thought the landscape before beautiful, the valley before us was right out of the musings of a poet, green meadows, interspersed with fields and farm-buildings, with a town on the far side of the river. A couple, maybe two dozen, boats were visible on the lake, likely fishing, and I could make out various herds of animals, roaming the slopes. We were not close enough to really make out details, but I was reasonably certain that there were mostly sheep and cattle, maybe goats as well. If I wanted to know, I’d have to take a closer look later.

The most impressive thing however was the lake itself. Stretched out, reflecting the deep-blue sky above, it looked positively picturesque. It made me want to see it during the winter, covered in Ice, the valley filled with snow from the mountains. At the same time, a part of me wanted to just dive in, especially on the other side, in the area where glacial run-off was flowing in. Swimming in clear, ice-cold water sounded almost as good as walking across the glaciers above, surrounded by Ice that would never melt. Well, not unless the people of Mundus caused their own global warming, and even then it would take them a while.

“The valley has to be peaceful.” Sigmir remarked, looking at the various farms dotting the valley, with their fields stretching along the lake-shore. Before, the vast majority of fields had been concentrated directly around the cities and towns, allowing the people to actually live behind walls, or at least behind a wooden palisade. Here, the farms were simply out in the valley, with no protection visible from the distance.

“Well, it should be very secure.” I remarked, looking at the steep slopes, the side-valley leading deeper into the mountains and, especially, at the pass we were standing in. While it wasn’t truly narrow, trying to march an army through it would be suicide, at least if the other side had some sort of warning. Even just a few sheep-herders with knowledge of the terrain would be able to kick off a rockslide to bury their foes, unless those foes had some heavy-duty magical support. While I would be able to use walls of Ice to keep a small rock slide away from us, I somehow doubted that the average army had one high-level spellcaster for every five people, and trying to protect more would quickly push me beyond my limits. Even then, I’d have to use Overflow and possible Bullet Time to empower myself beyond my normal limits.

On the other hand, while armies wouldn’t be able to really get to the valley, small groups or singular monsters would wreak havoc, making the acceptance of Adventurers Olivia had told us about quite reasonable, if you relied on people to keep your livestock and way of life secure, you wouldn’t want to shun them.

With our current destination in sight, our steps seemed just a little lighter and a short bath in the lake during our lunch-break made it just that little bit better. The lake’s water was as clear as it had looked from above and refreshingly cold. The slightly extended break meant that it was late afternoon by the time we got close to the town and curiously, I could easily see how the various herds of goat, sheep and cattle were driven towards the buildings, making me wonder why. While it wasn’t the height of summer anymore, the weather wasn’t bad enough to warrant such haste, certainly not as early in the day as it was.

Shrugging, I focused back on my immediate surroundings, mentally bracing myself for the rejection of the supposedly tolerant people of Carinthia.

“People seem tense.” Lenore told me, landing on my shoulder. Hearing her assessment, I was almost about to simply give up before we even got there, hide within my Hallow and make note not to take the Outsider-Trait, even if I would have to take another negative trait to make up for the positives I enjoyed. While I didn’t necessarily like to be in the company of people, especially strangers, getting shunned wherever I went didn’t make for the best experience.

“Wait until you know what is going on.” Lenore suggested, remaining on my shoulder to lend encouragement. The path from the ancient road to the town-gate was a short one, though I wasn’t quite sure why they hadn’t built their town around the road, using it as the main-street or something. It had been similar in Yaksha, Kolyung and Neamov though I didn’t remember why that had been. Ladrin, on the other hand, had been built around the roads, especially the bridges.

“Adventurers?” The guard at the gate asked, before we could fully step up, his voice hopeful.

“Yes, we are. Why?” Adra asked, sounding a little confused.

“Wonderful. If you would please go directly to the Guild, we can really use the help.” he replied, gesturing towards a nearby building, letting us pass without doing much more than glancing at us. I didn’t even get a second glance, or one of the glares I had been subjected to before. Something very weird was going on here.