Chapter 273: Beneath the Sands

On the other side of the rift was a blindingly bright desert reflecting the sun’s rays at every angle. Dunes rolled like hills, and orange walls of sand roared in the distance as passing storms. Looking around, I couldn’t help but feel like this adventure might be somewhat less successful than some of those that we had been on thus far.

Most of that suspicion was for one simple reason. “Diane… where are these landmarks that we’re supposed to use?” I couldn’t see a single structure breaking through the sand anywhere on the horizon, aside from the rift directly behind us.

“First, we need to head north,” Diane said with a wry smile. “At the northern pole of this realm is a landmark called the Mountain Crown. That’s the starting point for our search.”

Thankfully, we at least had a compass built into the car, so I turned in the direction of one of the roaring sandstorms and accelerated as fast as I could. “Do you have any idea how far we are away from the north pole?”

“Not in the slightest,” she answered without the slightest hesitation. “Khestra is one of the realms that people haven’t taken the time to properly map, because it is just so hard to draw a map for it. At most, it’s written where portals are in relation to one another. As far as that goes, the one we went through is the second most northern rift.”

From the backseat, Bella leaned forward, a curious look in her eye. “This map Marron gave you came from the Cromorans, right?  How did they know that this ‘Mountain Crown’ would end up right at the northern tip of this realm? Did they have some method to predict the future?”

“We don’t really know,” the halfling shrugged as the barrier in front of the car was covered in orange sand. “They either had some way to predict it, or they made sure that they were the ones responsible. If they caused the initial divide between realms, it’s possible that they designed Mountain Crown specifically to act as a compass for future generations.”

“A compass where all sides point south doesn’t seem particularly useful,” Bella teased, though Diane simply chuckled.

“They don’t indicate the cardinal directions. Rather, the different points of the crown can be used to find specific locations. For instance, if you follow the path of the largest peak, you can arrive at the dungeon that Marron said opens only at night.”

“And of course, they didn’t just put any dungeons at the north pole itself, did they?” I asked, and Diane shook her head.

“If you think about it, that might be for the better. Monsters spread from dungeons for the most part. If they had created a dungeon there, there is the risk that monsters spreading out from it might have reshaped or destroyed the landmark.”

I let out a groan of agreement, keeping my eyes ahead and focusing on peering through the sandstorm. There were large, winged worms flying through the storm, but they simply splattered against the barrier as I drove through.

As we drove, Diane glanced down at the car itself, seemingly lost in thought. “We’ll need to get a new car soon.” she said out of nowhere.

My eyes widened, and I looked over at her in confusion. “Why would we need a new one? This one still works fine, does it not? Is it breaking in some way?”

However, Diane simply chuckled. “Not yet, but it might be soon. You push it to its limits all the time. The fact that nothing has broken thus far is already a testament to the engineering skills it was made with, and your care in always protecting it from the elements when driving. However, this is still ultimately an early model. They’ve made quite a few improvements since then, including vehicles actually meant to fly.”

After she said that, she sent a somewhat teasing look in my direction. “Some of those vehicles are designed to fly several times faster than what you push the car to.”

Hearing that there were vehicles capable of reaching such speed made my eyes widen in surprise. No wonder other Players were able to explore the map, if there were those able to move so quickly. “I assume that those faster vehicles are more expensive?”

“Oh, prohibitively so,” Diane confirmed. “In fact, they’re so expensive that less than one percent of Players can afford them.”

I let out a sullen sigh at that. “In that case, I don’t think we’d be able to get one. The sales from the Transform skill have died down a lot as of late, and we don’t have many other personal means to make a large amount of money.”

“Maybe not, but we do have exclusive access to G’Riol,” Diane pointed out. I looked at her, confused as to how the two were related. “A sponsored clip showing us going to Feycross after helping to stop the ‘spooky place’ aired. The Iron Forge workshop got in touch with me, asking for help with an introduction. They saw the tech level of Feycross and wanted to study it themselves.”

“In exchange for handling the introduction, they said that we can have any one personal-use vehicle from their catalogue. They’ll even handle up to two hundred platinum’s worth of customization.”

“I see…” I thought about the offer. It wasn’t too hard to do an introduction for the craftsmen. Providing them a reliable method of commuting back and forth was out of the question, but they likely had some way to handle that themselves. This would end my monopoly over the pixies, however.

“Is the workshop connected with any major political powers? Especially entities like the church?” I asked, not wanting to give potential enemies a key to my new trading partners.

“They’re affiliated with a Player kingdom specializing in crafting,” Diane explained. “As far as Fallen kingdoms or organizations, I’m not aware of them having any particular affiliation. Honestly, they don’t really need it. With their trade, they pull in more wealth than even established kingdoms, so there is no need for them to curry favor with any one side.”

“Good,” Bella muttered. “The last thing that we need is the church getting hold of that cannon that just erases parts of the map.”

I let out a small sigh of agreement. “Right. Once you log off for the night, send them a message. Let them know that we’re busy at the moment, but once they’re ready for the meeting, we can find a way to get it done. Message Nuoda, too, so she can speak with our pixie ambassador.”

“You forgot her name already, didn’t you?” Diane asked, narrowing her eyes accusingly.

I averted my gaze guiltily, finding the sandstorm suddenly more interesting. “O-Of course not. It was… Salem Silverscent, right?”

This time, it was Bella’s turn to laugh. “Not quite. Shallas Silvessent,” she corrected, and Diane offered a firm nod of confirmation.

“You really need to remember names like that. They might be unusual, but they are important figures as far as the kingdom is concerned.” After Diane said that, we broke through the other side of the sandstorm, and I swept the bug guts off of the barrier.

From there, the drive became rather quiet, aside from the sound of the rushing wind outside the car. The sun was slowly starting to set over the horizon, and there was still no sign of the northern pole. I even checked the compass multiple times to make sure that we hadn’t passed it without realizing, but we were still going straight north.

Eventually, Diane had to log out, leaving her Chosen in the passenger seat. Since she was the only one with the instructions, we’d need to camp out at the landmark overnight.

Long after the moon rose into the sky, I finally saw it. Far in the horizon, jagged peaks jutted out of the sand in a circular pattern. One mountain was notably larger than the others, and all of these mountains had jagged edges, looking particularly ominous.

“We’re there,” I called out to the other two, rousing them from their rest. Bella let out a little yawn, looking ahead at the mountains against the night sky.

“That’s the place?” she muttered drowsily. “We definitely need that new car if we’re going to be making long journeys like this.”

I gave a bitter smile, silently agreeing with her. Being able to teleport like I could made little difference when I hadn’t been anywhere near the target area before. “Let’s make sure that it’s safe, and then we can get settled in at the center.”

After flying into the ring of mountains, I noticed the compass starting to go haywire. I began to lower the car down over the center of the crown, before my eyes abruptly widened. I not only halted my descent, but rapidly began to climb instead.

“What’s going on, Drake?” Diane’s Chosen asked in the seat next to me. “Did you spot a monster down there?”

“That’s one way to put it!” I hissed under my breath, wrapping the car in a stealth field to avoid detection from the thing below. “Grab onto me, we’re teleporting back. We’ll spend the night back in Fallcry.”

I quickly focused, channeling World Walker through the car to ensure that it was brought with us as the other two grabbed my shoulders, still confused. A moment later, we had appeared above Fallcry, and I released the breath I had been unknowingly holding.

“What’s going on, Drake?” Diane pressed, looking confused.

“The Mountain Crown,” I began, recalling what I had seen through my True Sight. “It’s an actual crown. When we got low enough, I caught sight of a massive skull buried beneath the sand, so I scanned it. It’s a world boss, the Crowned King of Khestra.”

The other two widened their eyes at this, clearly as surprised as I had been when I noticed that entity. “Does that mean that the map is unreliable?” Diane asked nervously, but I shook my head.

“If the Cromorans set this up, they probably gave the monster certain instructions. Where we just were was indeed the north pole, and I confirmed this with the compass before we left. So, it’s likely oriented to match with the instructions that your Player had been given.”

“However, there’s no way that we can sleep on a world boss’s head overnight. In the morning when your Player gets on, we’ll explain the situation to her and go back to use the landmarks to navigate while hidden. We definitely don’t want to wake that boss monster up and try to fight it.”

Diane and Bella both quickly agreed, and we parked just outside the city to get out of the car before teleporting to the palace to get some rest. It was far too late to worry about food at this point, so I would just wait until morning.

The next morning, Diane had a grim expression on her face when she walked into the dining room. “My Chosen told me about what happened,” she said as she sat down. “Like you said, this was probably arranged specifically by the Cromorans.”

“If they wanted to preserve a specific landmark, the only way to do so would be to make sure that nothing else could harm it, whether it was the weather or other monsters. Naturally, the best option is a monster that itself can survive the extreme lengths of time in hibernation like an undead. If anything truly roused it from slumber, it could destroy the offending creature and then return to its original position.”