Carmen knew she had messed up when she accidentally spilled a bit too much to the snake and ended up offending it. She was ready to use the talisman she had prepared to hopefully temporarily distract the snake enough for them to make an escape, but she was relieved when the snake said it would still let them go.

And then Jake decided to piss off the C-grade even more by acting all offended himself. She nearly wanted to smack him over the head and drag him away while apologizing, but a few moments later, she could only stand there dumbstruck.

She knew people who had high-level Blessings or a class or a profession related to their Patron could give Blessings with the help of their gods, but this usually only happened after a long process. Not just casually when Jake decided to one-up the snake by proving himself by giving it one.

The situation after that only made it worse. Carmen still didn’t get at all how they had gotten to where they were currently.

Jake, Sylphie, and Carmen were sitting on a small wooden barge as a large brown snake that had to be well over a hundred meters long dragged it across the Grand Mangrove River. Now, this would usually be hard due to all the roots and trees and whatnot, but the snake got around all this by just fucking bulldozing through and creating a path.

How did it do this, you ask? By being another god damn C-grade. After Jake had given the snake the Blessing, the white Alabaster Crimsoneye Snake seemed to have an entire shift in personality and began acting all shy and careful. The damn snake had then nervously asked them if they wanted an escort and transport through the rest of the river, which Jake had accepted.

The C-grade had then somehow summoned not just one but five god damn C-grade snakes, leading to their current situation where they sat on a barge constructed by a C-grade snake able to manipulate wood while being escorted by a total of six C-grades.

But this wasn’t even the worst part…

“Are you sure?” the snake asked nervously as she swam alongside the barge.

“You already apologized enough, and this is more than enough to repay the misunderstanding,” Jake once more tried to assure the C-grade. He had to admit that he hadn’t expected what was currently happening to take place. It turned out the Alabaster Crimsoneye Snake wasn’t a sole operator but had a small crowd of C-grade snakes following her around – likely the kin she talked about earlier.

“But-“

“I said it’s fine,” Jake repeated as he tried to calm down the snake. “I was the one returning the favor for the save from the frog.”

“Okay…”

Jake had made quite a few miscalculations. He had thought the C-grade Alabaster snake had to be some kind of old entity and probably at least have the age of someone, well, adult, but it appeared he had been a bit off the mark. The snake had just been acting all mature before, and only now did Jake realize he was dealing with an overgrown teenage C-grade snake.

She had found and consumed a natural treasure that had allowed her to rapidly grow and, at the same time, accepted a quest of sorts. A quest that clarified a lot of things when she finally described the details of it. Jake had known these special natural treasures had appeared on Earth, allowing beasts rapid growth, Mystie having found the Mystbone, a far less potent special natural treasure.

These more special natural treasures also came with limitations. It had allowed some of the creatures of the Grand Mangrove River to reach C-grade but at the cost of limiting them to the river and ocean beyond. This limitation was only temporary, and she didn’t know when it would end. All she knew was that the natural treasure she had consumed was still being digested, and if she left the restricted area, it would begin acting up, and if she was outside it too long, the treasure could potentially end up killing her.

This explained why no C-grades had attacked any cities or caused any true trouble so far. Jake knew the system had restricted them, but only now did he know the details. This was perhaps also part of the reason why the Termite King had not pursued Jake more than it had – it had gone beyond its restricted zone.

“Excuse me again?” the snake asked Jake after only giving him roughly a minute of silence.

“Yes?” Jake asked. He really didn’t wanna be mean to the snake… it felt like talking to a teenager talking to her favorite pop idol.

“Is there, like, anything I can do to help? Even if I am a bit restricted, I can maybe sneak out and-“

“No. Just no. Focus on yourself. Remember, the Path of the Malefic One is about embracing freedom and striving for more power through your own Path. Rather than thinking about how you can help me, think about how you can help yourself and gain more power. Then, when the restrictions lift, you will be able to expand your horizons even more. By then, you can decide for yourself what you want to do in an open multiverse of possibilities. And the more power you have, the more possibilities,” Jake explained.

“Actually acting like my Chosen for once,” Villy couldn’t help himself.

“Hey, this is as much my philosophy as it is yours,” Jake countered.

“I had it first and called dibs before your universe was even born,” Villy joked back.

Jake just smiled a bit at their brief exchange as the Alabaster snake seemed to have gotten his message.

“Okay, I will keep doing my best and improving,” she said with conviction.

At least he thought she got it, but she seemed a bit… too determined? Either way, it wasn’t bad to want to get stronger.

Their party kept traveling through the Grand Mangrove River as the snake did ask some more things related to the Malefic Viper, and Jake also knew the other snakes were listening in with interest. He hadn’t spoken directly to any of them as the Alabaster snake had said they weren’t that good at speech yet. Jake was pretty sure they were just shy, though. For every second he spent with them, he became more and more assured they were just a bunch of C-grade teenagers with all the teenage angst. At least socially. When it came to their abilities as beasts?

They ran into two C-grades when they passed the midway point of the river, which allowed Jake to see two birds more than twenty meters tall getting ripped apart by four C-grade snakes, their barge-dragger, and the Alabaster snake hanging back. The Alabaster snake explained how they didn’t really spend much time at the surface due to most stuff being weak outside of certain areas.

Besides that, nothing bothered them as the rest of their trip through the danger zone was a breeze. It turns out that being escorted by a group of C-grades, including a mid-tier C-grade considered one of the most powerful in the entire Grand Mangrove River, meant not many beasts dared make a move.

When they reached the final parts of the river, the Alabaster snake had them all stop as she looked at Jake with a bit of regret. “We can’t go much beyond here without leaving the restricted area… I can go a bit further, but-“

“You have done enough,” Jake said as he smiled at her. “Thank you for the assistance once more.”

“Ah, uhm, my pleasure!” the snake said, embarrassed. Jake knew she still felt bad about questioning his identity and all that, even if Jake was long past it.

The other snakes also all bowed their heads as they seemed almost scared of Jake. Even the one who had been dragging their barge using vines bowed. It hadn’t looked back at him even once throughout their entire journey and even now had its head halfway hidden underwater. This made it look a bit silly when it tried to bow gracefully like its brethren.

Jake smiled at them all once more as he spoke a final farewell before heading off with Sylphie and Carmen, with Sylphie giving them a “ree!” in thanks too. Carmen was a bit quiet but did nod in their direction as they took off.

They had been dropped off at the outskirts of the Grand Mangrove River, and it only took them twenty minutes to reach shore once more, exiting the danger zone altogether.

Only when they were out of the mangrove did Carmen speak. “That was… something.”

“Hey, it went pretty well, and we got out of the mangrove ahead of schedule,” Jake said jokingly.

“We nearly got killed by a C-tier snake,” Carmen shot back.

“Nah, we were never in danger. She was a real softie, that one,” Jake said dismissively.

“The first thing the snake did was to kill something when we met.”

“Details, details,” Jake jokingly said. “In all seriousness, yeah, it got a bit risky. I think we should avoid any danger zones. At least ones with unfavorable environments.”

“Agreed,” Carmen said. “Let’s reach the port city already?”

“Let us,” Jake said as they took off once more and traveled towards the port city of Changlun.

On the way, Jake kept the Prima fragment close and tried to scan for any energies but found nothing. Only a bit over a day later did they reach Changlun, and Jake had to admit, he had underestimated the place.

Jake and Carmen stopped atop a hill overlooking the plains leading up to the city, and both just stared a bit. In front of them was plenty of farmland with large crystal pillars spread throughout for kilometers leading up to the city itself.

The city had a wall more than twenty meters tall surrounding it, and from the looks of it, this wall even extended into the ocean, defending them from any maritime threats. When Jake had first read about Changlun, he thought it was a small place, but seeing it in person made it clear this was no minor settlement. There had to be at least hundreds of thousands living there.

“Damn,” Carmen said. “This is quite something.”

Jake nodded as he considered the placement of the city a bit more deeply. Changlun was quite an isolated city. To one side, it had the Grand Mangrove River that cut it off from everything else, with the river itself leading into the ocean. Due to the layout of the shoreline, there wasn’t even that much land area to the other side. It was like Changlun was placed in its own little cut-off plain.

“It looks like it goes on forever,” Carmen continued. Jake was confused for a moment before he realized. She wasn’t speaking of the city but what lay beyond it. The vast ocean.

“Yeah,” Jake nodded once more. With his Perception, he could see all the way to when the water fell below the horizon with not a single thing in between. It just kept going for thousands upon thousands of kilometers. The oceans covered around seventy percent of pre-system Earth’s surface, and he had no reason to believe this had changed. With how big Earth was now… it was hard to imagine just how humongous the body of water truly was.

Much less to imagine the creatures dwelling within. The Alabaster snake had said that the oceans were entirely open to all C-grades, and it made sense. There were no enlightened species to protect, making the open oceans a true hunting ground for all. There had to be so many C-grades dwelling deep beneath. Heck, he felt like there were even C-grades pretty close to the shoreline. They still seemed to keep a safe distance, though, probably due to the aforementioned restrictions.

“Ree?” Sylphie asked.

“Yeah,” Jake repeated.

“Ree, ree?” Sylphie continued.

“There was a teleporter in Changlun, right?” Jake asked Carmen to confirm Sylphie’s question.

Carmen looked a bit zoned out before finally answering: “Uh, yeah. There should be. Just two jumps, and we should make it to the other continent. We need to stop by an island about halfway before teleporting all the way due to the distance.”

Jake nodded. He was aware of many of the intricacies with long-range teleportation gates and knew that even with the favorable conditions offered by the ocean, a mid-way point was probably for the best. In the same way that a barrier like the Grand Mangrove River could disrupt teleportation, then a path without any obstructions – such as over an ocean – would offer no issues and make the process far more manageable.

“Let’s head in,” Jake finally said after they had stood there for a good while. They barely managed to get down the hill before Jake sensed someone approaching. A second later, he felt several gazes land upon them, making it clear they had triggered some kind of security measure. Jake was surprised he hadn’t detected it, but then again, he was certain there were plenty of ways to make trip alarms he didn’t know about.

“Incoming,” he said casually, getting a nod from Carmen.

Jake spotted them a few moments later as three cloaked figures approached. The one at the front was a bearded middle-aged man wielding a bow, instantly making Jake think he couldn’t be that bad of a guy. He also had a decent level.

[Human – lvl 142]

The man stopped together with his two companions a good hundred meters away as he regarded them. “Lord Thayne and miss Carmen, I assume?”

“That would be correct,” Jake confirmed, not really that surprised they knew they were coming. Them going wasn’t a secret, and Jake knew both people from Valhal and Haven had been in talks with them about when the teleporter was up and running.

“Aight. Just one thing, the boss said he wanted to invite you for a visit before you head off,” the man said.

Jake thought it would only be polite as he agreed, and Carmen didn’t care either. There was just one thing. “Before that, can you point us in the direction of a hotel or something? I need a damn shower after spending days within a damn mangrove.”

“Aye, just follow me back, and I can show you some of the fancier places,” the man nodded.

Jake and Carmen followed the man as he led them through the plains and the farmland as they went towards the city, getting a brief history lesson on the way.

“Changlun was founded by a party of five from the Tutorial. We began recruiting everyone interested nearby while fortifying the city. Ah, why build so close to the ocean? Because while that big puddle is a bit dangerous, it is also filled with good stuff. Parts of powerful beasts sometimes wash up on the beach, natural treasures are plenty in the coral reef just a few hundred meters out, and the ocean is also like a big infinite mana battery able to power all the stuff the crafters need,” the man explained.

That were just the major points, but it was clear Changlun was not made without thought. After they entered, they saw the well-paved roads, clean streets, and modern-looking buildings. It did look a bit industrial, but otherwise, everything looked nice. The main building material was a kind of white limestone bricks, making the city have an interesting color scheme.

They were led into a hotel, where they quickly booked rooms and got washed up. They naturally got separate rooms, and Jake had fun playing with Sylphie in a bathtub as the little featherball loved splashing him. He did toss her out as he showered, though, as it wasn’t proper for a young lady to be present.

After that, he met up and had some food with Carmen before they headed back to the hotel again and decided to have a good rest while arranging for the archer to meet them the next day. Jake and Carmen had agreed on getting a good rest before heading to the other continent as they settled in, and for the first time in a while, Jake got a good night’s sleep with a bundled-up bird lying on his stomach.