The Runic Alchemist

Chapter 928: The Wild Continent

24,578 Km from the Mainland, The Wild Continent, Apex Vector #3 Ace Pilot, Valery Crowbar.

Valery landed the Apex upon a high hill overlooking a distant, vast village. It wasn’t exactly a village; the size was more of a medium-sized town, actually.

But only the number of people and huts indicated the town; the lifestyle and technology were not on par with those of any mainland villages. Even the villages of Faerunia and Empire were more advanced than the one present before her.

Valery activated one of her armor-helmet spells that zoomed her eyesight and noticed some villagers looking her way from a distance, but most just spared a passing glance and went on their way. This wasn’t the first time they had seen an Apex Vector runic jet.

It was the second VoidWing Commander, Ryoden Nightblade, who first discovered The Wild Continent. They named it as such because on the entire eleven million square kilometers (Approx 4000 x 2700 km) vast continent, the only species they found were these distant beastmen tribes spread across vast forests and meadows.

[Note: By mistake, in earlier Chapters, I wrote that Malveria was 2300 km big. It was supposed to be 230 km, around 34500 square kilometers. For comparison, the entire Mainland is around 570,000 square kilometers, approx 1900 x 300 km.]

There were several uninhabitable regions between them and different climates, even though it was all just one landmass.

It was so weird that there was not a single human or elf anywhere on this massive land. The researchers gave several theories for that, but the most popular was the Seaborn Beastmen Theory. Humans can’t survive in water, but many beastmen species can. Although the Mainland now has a small number of Seaborn Beastmen, there must have been more once. They must have travelled this far somehow and reproduced.

Unlike humans, beastmen bloodlines were very different. Seven out of ten times, a union between a wolfman and catwoman would either result in a wolf race beastmen child or a cat race child. But sometimes the child born will inherit neither bloodline and would end up becoming something unique, like a goat beastman or hawk beastman.

There was an old saying passed down among the Mainland’s beastmen that goes like, ’Through us, the old hunters still run the wilds.’ It meant that each beastman carried the blood of all the beastmen ancestors who lived before them. And the existence of these tribes was proof enough.

“Should I activate the waygate, Commander?” Lora, her co-pilot, asked.

Valery deactivated the helmet spell and removed it, breathing in the fresh air.

“Yes, the King’s men are already coming to receive us; let’s hurry up,” Valery replied.

They were part of a delegation mission today. After spending two years among various tribes, they were finally welcomed enough among them to have a decent conversation with the leaders. Before that, they were always chased out by tribesmen shouting in their native language. Several times, the flying beastmen had chased behind their runic jets and Axiom ships.

Avery knew for sure that if it was the Empire, Faerunians, or even the Eldoris people, they would go charging with swords in hand and make all these beastmen submit to them and take their dungeons and land. It was a blessing that Sanctuary and Lord Damian were the ones in charge here.

He recruited thousands of beastmen from the Mainland, gave them training, and let them mix in with these tribes spread across the whole continent. It took two years and lots of small and big missions, but finally, the tribes considered them both harmless third-party and somewhat friendly.

The missions involved healing injured beastmen when tribes fought among them, giving them good and clothes when needed. And later, even education on farming, building houses, and several other things.

Even Valery herself at times thought just fighting and taking over would have been much faster and more efficient. But only with time and seeing the result of Lord Damian’s effort by staying with these tribes for a long time, she understood what he was trying to do.

It wasn’t about conquering the land or controlling the dungeons or people; it was about setting an example. Fighting will only lead to revenge and, in turn, more fighting and death. But if they win the hearts of these people, the whole image of the human race will improve in the eyes of these people, and eventually they will become people of one world.

Lord Damian was doing this in a better way than their own ancestors did with beastmen in history. He didn’t want to bring the past conflicts to these new lands. His methods did not just win over people of these tribes, but also gave hope to the beastmen of Sanctuary when the tales of the various missions spread back home.

Lora, her co-pilot, a goat-girl beastmen activated the waygate function of the runic jet after placing backup mana containers as a power source and connected the blue portal to the new Explorer city called Farpoint.

It was on the other side of the wild continent, where no tribe had reached yet. The nearest tribe was the snow bear tribe, which lived 700 km away from Farpoint. There was a massive snow-covered mountain range that stretched for hundreds of kilometers, which prevented the snow tribes from spreading south. Only with flying ships could anyone hope to cross it. The cold was bone-chilling, too.

The coastal land stretched along the edge of the continent, more than five hundred kilometers wide in some places and nearly fifteen hundred kilometers from one end to the other. The sea softened the climate, bringing steady winds, regular rain, and milder winters compared to the frozen regions beyond. Much of the land remained open, shaped by salt air, rolling shores, and long beaches.

Even untouched, it felt inviting, a place where life could take root easily once people arrived. But despite being a haven for life, no beastmen or any men would dare to live here. Both the ocean and the land had tons of dungeons, and the worst ones. The untouched dungeons had filled the whole land with so many monsters that clearing them all would take years, even with the best of Sanctuary’s weapons.

The monsters had spilled out of dungeons for so long that they had become part of the ecosystem. The city of Farpoint was protected by Lord Damian’s barriers, runic machines, and giant mech-legendaries.

It was a problem that just needed their time and focus to solve. They had cleaned quite a region by now, but it was still not safe for civilians to live here.

Out of the deep blue swirling portal stepped out the members of the delegation team: Lord Tristan, Theren, Jorven, Qotus, and Lady Seraphina.