(Zack)

"Is everyone ready?" I ask, and my team confirms their preparedness. "Let's go!"

I pull up the interface for moving between Dark Temples, then select Vaenar, the City at the other end of the pass Kaelmar sits on our side of. I didn't tell my team, but I went there a couple of days ago, killed the Avatar of the Shadow of Life there (it was an Elementalist), then restored the City Barrier and put the Goblin King's Heart on the Flame Altar to restore the Dark Temple.

We appear in the Vaenar, and I stretch. We're near the South Gate, but will probably exit through the West Gate.

"Uh, Zack?" Braden says, and I look at him. He's still not wearing the vest, which is impressive when I consider how uncomfortable that must be for him. "We're on the other side of the pass from Kaelmar. When did you come here?"

"A few days ago," I grin. "Come on, let's head out through the West Gate. I already checked the pass, and my brother is definitely already through it somehow. He probably went north or south, but we're going to go west directly. We'll eventually cross his trail."

"Zack," Gavin sighs. "We're just playing a game of chase with Bryce, aren't we?"

"Yup!" I answer with a bigger grin. "It's not all bad, though! We're going to get to be the first party to traverse where we go for the first time in years, eventually in decades, and even further out, in centuries!"

Gavin groans as the rest of my team laughs. They knew that, after all. The only reason to come out now is just to explore the place. We'll be restoring Cities along the way, but mostly to have a place to stay.

"Come on!" I start hopping down the steps, and my team follows.

We pass through the streets, which I already cleared of monsters, and exit the City. Bryce went out through the South Gate, and he gave me a double thumbs-up for when I checked with my sight, the brat.

My team's not going to know that, though. It would actually be relatively easy to find out where Bryce is just by focusing my sight on him.

Outside of the City, we're greeted by a forest, which I know goes on for more than two hundred miles. It'll take us a couple of weeks to exit it if we just go straight west and deal with the Cities on the way. We can extend that out by performing a snaking pattern.

Or Luca and I could just fly us out faster.

I really want to find out why Bryce is heading towards the desert region to the south, but have to resist the temptation to do so.

"So, uh," Gavin says as we walk along the trail in the forest. "The trail doesn't have the protective measures, right?"

"You mean the ones that prevent monsters from attacking you on them unless you step off after leaving a City?" I ask, and he nods. "They don't. According to Big S, that measure fades once the connected Cities are empty, and only restores once they both have at least a permanent population of five hundred people, which requires at least one year of time from the five hundredth resident."

I'm not sure why he put that measure in place, but it's Big S, so I'm not questioning it too hard.

"If you're worried about monsters attacking us," I say. "This area has a Level 10 Level Cap. Unlike in the valley, the monsters are able to exit the area, so over the last month, all of the monsters that were over it which had traveled through for the battle have exited. They can only pass through like they did for the battle because of a Monster King's Rally. Without it, their nature drives them back out of the area they're too high-Level for."

He lets out a sigh of relief, then frowns.

"Um," he says. "What if we get ambushed? We can handle some monsters, but things like shadow wolves are a lot more difficult."

"I think Gavin's an idiot," Luca whispers to Max, and Gavin gives him an annoyed look as Max nods agreement.

"Gavin," Braden says. "You're Level 180. Luca is Level 130. Max is Level 175. I'm Level 100. Zack is Level 650. A pack of Level 10 Shadow Wolves would probably be stupid to attack us. Have more confidence in your abilities. You survived the battle for the valley, after all."

"I have confidence in my abilities," Gavin mutters. "I just don't like things that can do Shadow Meld."

The way he says that, he had a bad experience in the mines with something that can perform Shadow Meld. Is that part of why he started training with Luca and Kylie rather than alone?

"Don't worry!" Max puts a hand on Gavin's back. "Max and Luca kill Shadow Melders just fine! Sleepy Blade keeps them from melding!"

"Sleep Blade, Max," Gavin says. "It's Sleep Blade, not Sleepy Blade."

"Same thing!" Max tells him. "Both activate the Skill!"

Max definitely did some experimenting around with that, probably so that he can say his preferred version if it's possible.

The three of them chat as they walk, seemingly oblivious to everything around. It's nice to see. I know Max is keeping his ears open in case something comes unexpectedly, and Luca is walking as much as he can, though he'll probably end up on someone's back soon.

After around two hours, Braden moves closer to me.

"Yeah," I respond before he can ask.

"Okay."

We continue walking, though Braden has his bow out now. I'll let him handle it if it becomes an issue. As we continue walking, Max starts checking his sword periodically, his tail twitching in a way that says he noticed it. Luca asks to be put down, a sign that he probably has as well. Braden noticed first, and at about the same time I did.

Gavin, meanwhile, seems completely oblivious, even as much as he's trying to pay attention to the surroundings.

Eventually, Braden gets bored and just releases several arrows into the woods behind us, killing our stalkers.

"Hey!" Max exclaims as soon as he does, stopping and facing Braden. "No fair! You supposed to wait until they attack!"

"What?" Gavin looks as Braden turns to face Max.

"They've been following us for half an hour," Braden says. "And having them stalking us was getting annoying."

Max pouts, but returns to walking down the path.

"We were being stalked?" Gavin asks.

"By seven goblins," Braden answers.

"It was pretty obvious," Luca whispers.

"I thought they were just getting tense," Gavin says. "Because we haven't had anything attack us yet."

So he did notice Max, Luca, and Braden preparing for a fight, he just dismissed it because of how quiet things have been on the trip. A lesson he probably won't forget. Just because things are eerily silent, it doesn't mean everyone is unnerved by it and on-edge because of it.

Especially not Max or Braden.

After another hour, we stop walking and have a quick lunch using food I brought with us, prepared and stored over the last few days. Making sure Max didn't eat the food as I made it was a feat, but I solved that by giving Aurum money and telling him to make as many pies as he wanted to make, and let Max help him get rid of them.

I did bring ingredients as well, so we can make food, but with my special Inventory, having pre-made food still piping hot is a given. We'll probably make food whenever we set up camp or are in a city I've restored, though.

After we eat, we clean the dishes and send them back into my special Inventory, then resume our journey. The rest of the walk to the next City is pretty damn silent, until we're probably twenty yards from the ruined walls of the Fallen City.

"Wait, what?" Gavin exclaims, looking at Max in shock.

"Yeah!" Max nods. "Boss just go 'pluck, pluck, pluck' and steal all their hearts!"

Gavin gives me a confused look.

"I only stole the hearts of animal monsters, like wolves," I tell him. "Not things like goblins or kobolds. I did just rip them out of their chest while they were still alive, but they were being killed anyway."

"Why?" Gavin asks.

"As offerings for the Dark Temples," I answer. "Either in quantities of weaker wolves' hearts, or one or two stronger wolves' hearts. I figured that it'd save us the trouble of having to hunt down something worthy, so when I helped clear more of the stronger monsters and deal with the pass's hordes, I took the opportunity. Come on, let's head in."

We enter the Fallen City, and almost immediately, a mass of Magic Arrows come our way. I summon up a violet Barrier larger than the Barriers my teammates manifest, and it stops the waves of Magic Arrows in their tracks.

While waiting for the assault to end, I send my tunic into my Inventory and take on my Eidolon Form. Out of boredom, I start counting the arrows. With how fast I am in this form, it's pretty easy. I get to one thousand, nine hundred, and eighty-two before the attack ends. The moment it does, I'm already moving.

This is the part where I'd say 'everything is a blur', but that's not how Agility works, so I still notice everything. I'm sure I'm a blur to anything far enough away, or to anything without a high enough Agility of its own.

Unfortunately for the ranger Avatar of the Shadow of Life, it fits into neither of those categories, and I kill it quickly and with great ease. My team will meet me at the Enchanted Altar on their own, we already planned for this.

The Avatar is wearing a hooded outfit, and I don't bother trying to see its face before I kill it. I doubt I would see anything noteworthy, they probably just look like Alexander underneath.

It fades away as I draw my sword out of its chest, then I hop off the building and begin making my way towards the Enchanted Altar to turn it back on and restore the City Barrier.

When I arrive, there's someone sitting on the altar. A man who looks around nineteen or twenty, with pitch-black hair and dark blue eyes, dressed in simple clothes. Alexander, but that's not possible – he's sealed up tight, even if he can peer in and view everything within the Boundary due to it acting as the seal on him.

"This is an avatar," Alexander tells me. "Not my real body. With the other Boundaries erased, I can finally do this again. Even one other Boundary existing would prevent me from managing this sort of avatar. The three you've killed are infused with a portion of my essence, tailored to fight as a specific Class, monsters on their own. This avatar, on the other hand, is merely a body which will fade when I stop controlling it. It has no real combat capabilities, and no status within the System."

How the heck is that more difficult than the combat ones?

"If I kill it, will it fade?"

"Yes," he answers. "But before you attack me, Zack, why don't we talk for a bit?"

"Is my team in danger?"

"I've learned my lesson," he scoffs. "I'd rather not risk the outcome of such an event."

I behead him with a fluid movement, and he fades away. There we go! Problem solved! I get the feeling it's just the start of an even bigger problem, though, considering this is Alexander we're talking about.

After sheathing my sword, I place a hand on the altar and begin the process to restore the City Barrier. Once I finish, I move out of the way and watch as the magic works itself. My team arrives a little after the City Barrier is active once more, and Braden has a slight frown.

"What's that frown for?" I ask.

"If we're just saying here for the night," he says. "How come you're restoring the City Barrier? No one's going to be coming out and settling in them, right? And you can reactivate the Dark Temples even with the City fallen."

"Maybe," I say. "But restoring the Enchanted Altar purifies the water in the waterways and keeps them purified. So that means we can take baths, drink fresh water, and all that fun stuff. That's actually the main reason. The other reason is because it'll make it easier for us to clean up everything here, if we want to."

"We're probably not going to," Gavin tells me. "But a bath and clean, fresh water sounds nice."

"Let's raid a house and kick out its current tenants!"

"When you say it like that," Gavin says. "It sounds like we're criminals and not about to kill monsters."

"That's the point!" I grin. "Come on!"