The Lone Wanderer-Chapter 314: Entering the Thirsty Valley

Percy finally pushed himself up the edge of the cliff, rolling on his back. His chest was heaving up and down, but he didn’t dare to let go of his boosting art, in case he needed it. Only after failing to spot anything alive with Mana Sense did he allow himself to relax a little.

“How long… till they show up?” he asked between breaths.

“Any minute now.” Nesha replied, not faring much better. “Come on. Let’s grab Elaine and get the hell out of here.”

Listening to her words, he forced himself to his feet. Honestly, he’d have loved to rest a bit longer, but she was right. They’d come too far to get caught at the last stretch.

‘No wonder they don’t bother guarding this side as much…’ he smiled bitterly.

The climb itself was already brutal enough that most Greens would struggle to complete it on their own. At least, that was the case if they didn’t have the right affinity or bloodline to help them. And that was without even considering the horde of Yellow beasts leaping towards them near the end.

On top of that, the Thirsty Valley was only useful for a person who had enough elixirs to drink during their stay, as well as the spatial devices to store them. Only nobles would even consider doing it. But no House was dumb enough to risk angering the Divine Root just to save a few decades for some of their members.

Scanning his surroundings, Percy ignored the few corpses littering the ground. There weren’t as many of them as he’d expected, and his cousin wasn’t here either. She seemed to have gone out of the way to kill everything with blunt damage. It would have been more obvious they’d died to a human’s spell had they been cleaved neatly in half.

Still, he wasn’t too happy with this. A beast would have eaten the corpses. Or at least, mangled them more. Elaine probably hadn’t had the time to handle them better. Grabbing a couple of the more conspicuous bodies, he flung them down the cliff, Nesha helping him along.

Next, he looked ahead, finally spotting the boundary of the temporal Decree. It was rather chaotic, the whole place coated in a turbulent mix of the blue globules he’d seen before, coupled with a wall of white foam.

The bubbles pushed outwards in an accelerated manner: probably thanks to the different flow of time. They slammed into the foam, bursting or losing much of their momentum. Though some of them made it through. They instantly exploded into a cloud of steam and water upon leaving the boundary of the Decree. Much of the steam floated up, while the water fell back inside the fluid, joining the wall of foam.

It was a pretty view, albeit violent.

But Percy didn’t have the time to appreciate it. Coating himself in a thick layer of mana, he walked into the Valley, piercing a hole in the boundary.

Soon, he found himself inside. The ground here was made of the same rocky material as outside, but an azure sky now stretched above his head. Countless globules floated around him, though they drifted much more slowly now that his body was also sped up by the titan’s magic. Nesha joined him a few seconds later, their eyes widening as they landed on the carnage before them.

Elaine was there, panting. She was covered in blood from head to toe, the azure lines of mana barely shining through it. Though it wasn’t her own. Around her, countless bodies lay in crimson pools. Mammals, reptiles and birds. All of them covered in gruesome injuries, very few even moving. The rest were motionless, the blood around them already dry. They’d been dead for hours…

“Took you long enough.” she sighed, still fighting against an oversized horse.

“Why didn’t you kill them outside?” Percy asked.

For him and Nesha, it had been less than an hour since they last saw her, but she’d been fighting the beasts for nearly a full day. And it appeared a bunch of Greens had joined the party at some point.

“That’s what I tried to do, at first.” she said, finally cleaving her opponent’s head off with a savage slash. “But more kept coming, and they were starting to overwhelm me. I figured I needed the time acceleration to keep up with their numbers. So, I dove in.”

Percy nodded. That explained why they’d even been attacked in the first place. From their perspective, it hadn’t been that long since they neared the edge of the cliff. But for the denizens of the Valley, their scent had probably lingered in the area for days. No wonder they’d attracted so many of them.

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“Anyway, let’s get moving.” Nesha said. “We’ll have company soon. Human company.”

The sight of the dead beasts would certainly raise an eyebrow, but most of them had been slain inside the Valley, almost hidden from view. Hopefully, everything would get picked up by scavengers in the next few minutes. Even if they weren’t, the patrol unit was more likely to assume it was beasts massacring each other.

Not wasting a moment, the trio rushed ahead, searching for cover. The whole place was relatively flat. They couldn’t see that far to begin with, and they struggled to find any large structures in their surroundings. Maybe there had been more in the past, but millennia of constant fighting had likely shattered everything.

It wasn’t until about half a minute later that they spotted a few boulders clustered together in a small formation. They’d have to do.

Getting there wasn’t easy. Constantly pushing the toxic bubbles away was quite annoying for him and Nesha. Even Elaine frowned whenever she had to brush one away, clearly not used to them quite yet. But they’d have to learn to live like this, since they’d be here for a while.

They weren’t alone either. More beasts kept rushing them, likely driven by the thick scent of blood. Though they were all at Yellow. They hadn’t seen any more Greens yet, other than the couple Elaine had already killed.

“Try washing our scent off.” Percy suggested.

From what Micky had told him, the beasts were still rational enough to be deterred by a higher grade. It was probably their scent that had attracted the first bunch, and then the blood on his cousin that kept them coming.

She nodded, dousing all three of them: but mainly herself: with a lot of water. Sure enough, the flow of beasts slowed down a lot. Though a few were still desperate enough to attack, Elaine clearly not looking as scary as Acton in their eyes.

There was some kind of spider, almost as tall as Percy. It was covered in short brown fur, its face full of black, beady eyes. But a few had been pulverized at some point in the past, green pus oozing out of them. It was missing a leg too, though it didn’t seem to hinder its movements much. A long, deep scar marred its bulbous abdomen. Percy pulled his scythe out of his storage, cleaving the creature in half after dodging its desperate lunge.

Nesha handled the other one: a regular-looking grizzly bear. She sent a flock of butterflies into its heavy frame, stabbing it full of bloody holes. Meanwhile, Elaine didn’t do much. She even deactivated Circulation, getting some respite from the endless fighting.

“How do they even bring so many high-grade beasts in here?” she asked. “They’re everywhere! And they’re constantly dying!”

“With lots of help.” Nesha replied. “Several Houses are involved, including House Ypnos.”

“Ypnos? The Great House?” Percy asked.

She nodded.

“They control a lot of wildlands. Forests, jungles, tundras… And they keep pumping those places full of resources and weaker creatures, to accelerate the birth of Yellow and Green beasts. As soon as they find some, they use one of their main bloodlines to sedate them, shipping them over to the Divine Root.”

Percy let out a whistle, amazed by this. It was an entire industry! Entire ecosystems carefully maintained… so many people working… countless beasts dying… Just so that a bunch of spoiled Green-borns would get some practice dummies.

And he noticed another thing in her words. Something he’d technically already known, but which he hadn’t bothered to think much about. It didn’t seem like the Great Houses were just some lucky noble families who’d risen above their peers through mere strength or luck.

Or maybe, that was exactly how they had started, but they’d since embedded themselves far more firmly into the fabric of their world, making them almost indispensable. Impossible to overthrow.

The Divine Root was self-explanatory. However, it appeared the others were also integral to Remior’s survival. House Etna was responsible for advancing the local branch of runecrafting. House Asclepius presided over the flow of information and trade. And, from the looks of it, House Ypnos had this important task all to themselves.

Percy wasn’t sure how all the other Great Houses fit into this, but elevating House Avalon to their ranks might not be as simple as producing a single White mage.

‘Well, it’s not like we need that. As long as everyone is safe, I suppose it doesn’t matter…’

Then again, his family was already on course to either unimaginable glory, or complete annihilation. All thanks to him. He sure couldn’t see a third way out, given how things were going.

But he shook his head.

None of that mattered right now. They were here for a reason. It was best to focus on that: to make the most of this opportunity.

Soon, the trio reached the stone formation, hiding from plain sight. Elaine offered them a drink too. They’d brought some supplies in their storage of course, but neither their water nor their rations would last a whole decade. They’d have to rely on her for the former, and on the beasts they killed for food.

“Micky! We’re in! Where are you guys?” he asked out loud for the girls’ benefit, sending his familiar a few images of their surroundings.

The crow soon replied with some images of his own.

‘We’re dozens of miles away from you right now. Don’t head southeast without asking me first. I’ll keep you updated.’

Sighing in relief, Percy relayed the information to the others, before asking Elaine to take a quick nap. Granted, they could all use some sleep. They’d experienced a few stressful months, and the past couple of days took the cake. But she had it the worst, as she’d been up a day longer.

He and Nesha would have to guard her for a while, and then she’d do the same for them. After that, they could finally commence their training.

Or, well… that was the plan, at least.

But trouble found them first.

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