Chapter 45: The Edge of Parva

Chapter 45: Chapter 45: The Edge of Parva

Three days of rigorous physical consolidation passed in the quiet seclusion of Sunshine Home’s fenced backyard.

Between repetitive sword routines and learning to channel the denser, heavier currents of liquid mana coursing through his meridians, Eric’s neuromuscular coordination had fully caught up to his upgraded Soldier-rank baseline. Every horizontal slash whistled through the crisp morning mist with blinding speed, while Coal darted between the cedar fence posts, calibrating his Skystride and testing his aerial pivot angles with razor-sharp precision.

Satisfied with their synchronization, Eric decided the time had come to step up.

The Mortal-tier grasslands were officially beneath them. To gather the high-tier resources, practical combat experience, and capital demanded before the Beast Taming Academy entrance trials, they had to breach a genuine Tier 2 rift.

Before taking that step, his personal arsenal demanded an overhaul.

His old iron shortsword had been forged strictly for low-tier mortal skirmishes. Against the dense, calcified bone structures and mana-reinforced hides of Soldier-rank monsters, that dull mortal steel would simply glance off or shatter on impact.

He also left his heavy round buckler behind in the attic. Over weeks of relentless drilling, his integration of *Advanced Swordsmanship* and *Shadow Steps* had turned him into an evasion-oriented, high-mobility duelist. Carrying heavy dead weight strapped to his left forearm only blunted his burst acceleration and compromised his balance.

Eric made his way directly to the Beast Tamers Association’s certified armory pavilion. While an array of private smithies operated across Riverdale’s outer districts, nearly all of them were Mortal-grade craftsmen. The few masters who had attained Soldier-rank forging ran exclusive boutique commissions with multi-month waiting queues, whereas the Association kept an extensive, standardized stockpile of battle-tested ordnance.

"Welcome, sir. How can I assist your expedition today?" a uniformed armory attendant inquired as Eric approached the weapons desk.

"I need a Tier 2 straight sword," Eric replied smoothly. "Not a cumbersome two-handed greatsword, but not a short dagger either. Something light, rigid, and balanced for high-speed edge transitions."

"Understood, sir. Please follow me back to the Soldier-grade vault."

The attendant led him past the glass display cases of standard mortal steel into a heavily reinforced chamber lined with velvet pedestals. The ambient air within the room felt distinctly colder, humming with the subtle, residual elemental resonance of harvested monster bones and beast marrow.

Eric stepped along the racks, his eyes scanning the alloy blades until the clerk halted beside an illuminated display pedestal.

"This piece aligns with your operational profile," the attendant said, gesturing toward the sword. "The *Wavecaller*. Its blade is honed from the dorsal spinal segment of a Mid-Soldier Rank Abyssal Serpent, quenched in mineral brine and bound to an alloy hilt wrapped in mana-conductive threading. It channels liquid mana with virtually zero latency and naturally minimizes air resistance on the swing."

Eric took the hilt as the attendant disengaged the security lock.

The balance was impeccable. The ivory-tinted, pale-blue blade held a faint aquatic translucence, weighing almost nothing in his grip yet radiating a dense, terrifying sharpness.

"The price?" Eric asked.

"Listed at 450,000 credits, sir. A very competitive valuation for an organic-grade Tier 2 weapon."

Eric winced internally. After paying the subsidized 300,000 credits for the Mana Stabilizing Pill, his liquid savings were hovering right around the half-million mark. Authorizing this purchase would deplete his reserves down to barely fifty thousand credits.

*Every time I manage to touch a decent sum of money, it vanishes within an hour,* Eric thought with a wry, silent sigh. *Still, a high-tier blade keeps me breathing and directly scales my kill efficiency. It’s an investment, not an expense.*

"I’ll take it," Eric said, tapping his silver smartband against the desk terminal to clear the 450,000-credit transfer.

Securing the sleek scabbard to his left hip, Eric walked straight out of the armory and navigated toward the high-risk expedition wing.

The security protocols for entering a Tier 2 rift were far more stringent than the open gates leading to the grasslands. His newly minted Soldier-rank biometric data was scanned and verified, safety liability waivers were signed, and within twenty minutes, he was escorted out to the Association’s heavy transport depot.

Unlike low-tier rifts situated within walking distance of municipal perimeter walls, Tier 2 dimensional tears were quarantined far out in the barren badlands surrounding Riverdale. The turbulent spatial leakage and ambient pressure surrounding them made the nearby zones uninhabitable for unawakened civilians and low-tier mortals, requiring militarized buffer zones.

Eric climbed into the reinforced passenger bay of an armored personnel transport. The turbodiesel engine roared to life with a deep mechanical growl, and the carrier sped down the paved highway, heading toward the rugged eastern frontier.

Two hours of high-speed transit through jagged scrubland brought them to a fortified military outpost constructed directly along the roots of a barren mountain ridge. Bastions of gravel-filled gabions, automated mana-cannon turrets, and reinforced steel watchtowers cordoned off the entire perimeter.

Eric stepped down into the biting mountain wind. He had swapped his casual clothes for a set of durable, charcoal-gray explorer leathers, the standard uniform among scout tamers that provided abrasion resistance, friction protection, and lightweight padding without the suffocating weight of metal plate.

An Association expedition officer approached, gesturing toward a jagged, shadowed fissure carved deep into the limestone cliff.

"Right this way, tamer. The spatial gateway is anchored within the natural cavern ahead."

The officer halted before a shimmering, violet-hued dimensional vortex swirling silently inside the cave mouth. Turning around, he offered a stern, solemn look.

"The ecosystem beyond is designated as *The Parva Mountains*. Maintain total situational awareness at all times—the terrain features massive vertical drops, crumbling shale paths, and an exceptionally dense concentration of predatory aerial beasts. Do not allow yourself to get cornered in the open."

"Understood," Eric nodded, his thumb resting lightly against the guard of the Wavecaller. "I’ll keep my eyes on the sky."

Without hesitation, Eric stepped forward, crossing the shimmering event horizon and plunging straight into the Tier 2 rift.