Selene and Kyle kept walking for several minutes.
The journey was not without incidents.
One time, they met a pack of smaller Initial Ferocious Beasts, which crossed their path.
The beasts seemed quite interested in Kyle and Skweera.
“Just watch,” Selene said with a smile.
The beasts charged at them.
BOOOOM!
Then, the tamed Colossus broke out of the ground and swallowed one of them whole.
The other two immediately fell into a panic and ran away.
Sadly, the Colossus wasn’t fast enough to chase them.
When Kyle saw that, his brows raised in surprise.
“That thing is useful,” he said.
The Colossus dealt with three Ferocious Beasts on its own as a mere Peak Beast.
If the beasts had been prepared for the attack, they would have definitely been able to avoid the Colossus since they were faster than it.
However, since the Colossus was below the ground, they couldn’t feel its presence before it was too late.
“For now,” Selene said with a bitter smile. “I can still use it since it’s so small, but the bigger it gets, the harder it is to use.”
“How come?” Kyle asked.
“I can use it in this wasteland without issues since there’s nothing of value here,” Selene answered. “But now, imagine we are in a Cradle, and my Colossus is as big as the one we saw on the tooth.”
“One attack of it would demolish a big part of the forest, and it will take years for that part to recover.”
“The lord of that Cradle would not be too pleased.”
“Sure,” Kyle answered, “but there are not that many Cradles anyway. The only dangerous stuff is outside, right?”
“That’s not entirely correct,” Selene said. “You’ve never been to the mainland, I assume?”
Kyle nodded. “Nope. Born and raised here.”
“The mainland is a bit different,” Selene said. “Cradles, according to how you know them, do not really exist there.”
“The mainland has plenty of Ether Sources, creating a variety of landscapes. You could say that most of the mainland is filled with Cradles, but they are not technically Cradles.”
“Huh,” Kyle said. “Then, what about the Skysand?”
“It is still there, but the Ether Sources keep it at bay. It is forced to travel through relatively thin and lifeless corridors.”
“However, that makes it more powerful and faster. Traveling through such a corridor is almost impossible since it is constantly covered in Skysand,” Selene explained.
“Then, how do people move around?” Kyle asked.
“Tunnels,” Selene said.
“Oh, makes sense!” Kyle answered.
The two of them continued traveling, meeting another group of beasts.
But with the Colossus, that group also hadn’t been an issue.
‘Dude, this is so different,’ Kyle thought. ‘I was fighting for my life out there, wrestling with ants and punching velociraptors.’
‘But now, this is basically just a ride. Sure, we are still being attacked occasionally, but we can deal with that.’
Traveling through the wilderness was not without danger.
After all, they were still being attacked by Peak Beasts and Initial Ferocious Beasts.
Even when following the same paths, a human at the Peak First Realm would need to fight for their life at least two or three times on their journey to the Big Bazaar.
‘No wonder everyone told me to get an escort. Shit is so different when you’re following someone who actually knows what the fuck they’re doing.’
“We’re almost there,” Selene said after several more minutes.
“Already?” Kyle asked in surprise.
‘Brah, already there? I had to fight for my life like ten fucking times just to move something like ten to twenty miles from Forest Haven Cradle to the Fire Coast.’
‘And now, we traveled through something like 200 miles with barely anything happening.’
‘Shit, I thought this journey would take me months or years!’
As the two of them kept traveling, Kyle saw the ocean on his left side, but he could also smell the ocean coming from his right.
‘Peninsula, right,’ he thought. ‘The Big Bazaar is at the chokepoint between the mainland and the peninsula, as far as I know.’
“How dangerous is the ocean?” Kyle asked.
“Unimaginably dangerous,” Selen answered immediately. “There is a reason why there are no boats in the Grand Ocean.”
“No boats?” Kyle asked.
“No boats.”
“Not even a single one?”
“Not even a single one,” Selene confirmed.
“Why?” Kyle asked.
‘Not a single fucking boat? That’s crazy! I’ve seen boats in that big lake in Forest Haven Cradle, but there are no boats in that ocean?’
“The ocean is essentially uncharted territory,” Selene answered. “We know about the territories of the powerful beasts on land, but we don’t know about the territories below the Grand Ocean’s surface.”
“Using a boat to travel through it would be rolling the dice on your life every time you advance a kilometer.”
“Okay, but what about the really strong people? People in the Third Realm, you know,” Kyle asked.
“They do not need boats,” Selene answered. “They can just run across the ocean, but it’s dangerous even for them.”
“Think about it. If a blind Royal Knight ran through the peninsula, what would be the chances they would accidentally enter the territory of a Monster that was a level higher than them?”
Kyle remembered all the huge beasts he had seen.
The Grand Mountain Wyrm.
That big black cat.
The Colossus.
He had probably seen over ten Monsters during his journey to the Big Bazaar.
“Yeah, I see your point,” Kyle answered. “Big water is big scary.”
Selene laughed a bit. “You have a peculiar way of speaking, Kyle.”
“I’m just a chill guy,” Kyle said with a grin.
“Chill? You mean like cool?” Selene asked.
“Kinda.”
As the two of them kept talking, Kyle noticed that the ground changed.
It was turning from a wasteland into a desert, but the color of the desert was different.
It was golden.
“Here we are,” Selene said, telling Skweera to stop moving. “The Big Bazaar.”
Kyle looked into the distance and could see the actual Big Bazaar.
When he saw it, he wasn’t sure what he should think about it.
‘I don’t know what I expected…’
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