Chapter 181: Because The Mountains Are There.

I traveled through the streets of my Arisen City, walking hand-in-hand with my girlfriend. I attracted a lot of attention like usual, but no one really tried to walk up to me anymore. I was no longer viewed with the same suspicion, but instead with a more neutral deference.I was the ruler of this place. They knew it, I knew it, and that was it. We just went about our separate days.

There were, of course, still the oddballs who cursed or bowed.

“We’re here,” Moonwash said once we reached the bottom steps of the pyramid.

“ No way!” I snarked. The hot air and smoke from within were already slamming towards us from here. Harpies flew above, going to and from the pyramid, or just frolicking in the air. It was all very hard to miss.

“That’s very funny, Haell,” she deadpanned. Moonwash did not bother to clarify and just walked up to the guards. They recognized the two of us, but still checked our badges or IDs.

Thankfully, they let us in quickly, and the heat and smoke instantly became so much worse. Not lethal, not for anyone our level, especially not for me with all my new ways to heal myself. I still covered my face with an enchanted mask Moonwash made, which was both pretty and soft. These things would usually require a hard rigid surface for the enchantments, but she’d learned from the dwarves how to make enchanted thread. Moonwash then applied that knowledge for ingredients other than the deceased cutiyos of the harpies, where she figured out various recipes for melting and boiling magical repositories and focuses, and then stretching them out to a . Further processing was then necessary to make them soft like thread.

I followed Moonwash through the familiar tunnels and streets. We lightly perused some stores, but didn’t linger. I didn’t like dwarven cuisine to begin with. Finally, we walked past some burydiles, climbed through some ramps, until the atmosphere began to change.

Oh, the pervasive smoke was still there, and there would always be forges at work in this place, but there were fewer storefronts as a few regular homes were instead built into the walls. We climbed up one more level, and then Moonwash knocked on the stone door of one such home. A metal panel opened well below our eyeline, before the door was unlocked in full.

“Moonwash! I’m glad you could come,” our short dwarven friend, Baldrin, smiled at us from beneath the thin fur that covered his face. Only half his body was covered in armor, so he was dressed very casually for a dwarf. “And Haell. Hello!”

“Hi,” I smiled as we walked into the house. We’d been here many times, so we knew the way to the ‘dwarf cave.’ There, a few other dwarves had gathered to talk shop and show off some things.

“I like the engraving on this dagger.”

“Do you think it’s achieved free magical reinforcement from that?”

“Every creation technically does, but I don’t think this has reached the threshold for the boost to be considered significant.”

“Everyone, check this out! Harpina got this hammer for me last week. It’s from the elves!”

“Woah.”

“That’s pretty.”

“The head is a little uneven here.”

“Actually, is this safe?”

“Oh shit, yeah…”

“A merchant was selling it, and Harpina just bought the thing. It’s not our problem how it got there. And I don’t think they’d be unreasonable about that…”

The elves did not trade with anyone in bulk, hence why their creations could be so rare. They did barter like Elfrafim sometimes, but that was often only done with raw materials. Otherwise, their craft might find itself in someone else’s hands if they gave it as a gift. But if the elf found out that a gift like that was just sold… then they might be gravely offended.

“I think the balance is off in general,” commented about the hammer.

“Yeah… I noticed that too.”

“The metalworking used is quite unique, though.”

“Can I borrow it?”

“We can check it out in the forge later. I’m not entirely confident in figuring it out on my own, which is why I wanted to show you guys.”

“I’ll help,” Moonwash suddenly announced as we both took our seats.

“Oh, hi Moonwash.”

“We’d be glad to have you.”

“Come, sit, sit.”

“She already is, dummy.”

“Oh, you’re right.”

I took off my helmet and mask, content to just listen as they began to converse about professional shit. It wasn’t the first time I’d accompanied Moonwash here to meet with her friends. Still, I tried to understand it. I wasn’t totally inept at crafting, especially forging. Add to that, Moonwash had gotten very good at explaining things in simpler terms, and I often helped her out back at home, so I at least knew some context.

“Here’s what I wanted to show you.” Moonwash took an enchanted dark-blue bowl lined with brown and red art. The dwarves leaned over, eager to watch what the object could do, some already trying to decipher it from the enchantments alone.

“This is…”

Moonwash turned it on.

Mana gathered and swirled at the center of the mythril bowl. The earth and fire mana frolicked for a long few minutes. And then they finally manifested into a brightly glowing liquid that was steadily accumulating

We could feel it from this distance, that the magic being done was

“You made an enchantment that can combine two elements!?” exclaimed. It was a product similar to my curseflame, but done only with enchantments.

“Yes,” Moonwash simply confirmed.

“That’s amazing.”

“Wait… can you make the fusion using regular magic? Did you have some kind of breakthrough?”

“No. Not for that.”

“Yeah. I do remember you saying that you’re not actually that good with normal magic. Powerful, but not masterful. Even your brute of a wife is probably better.”

“I’m right here.” I flipped off the dwarven woman. We weren’t even married!

“Did you really call me a brute?” I then asked Moonwash, now flipping off Coldrod with four hands. I made two more with hellfire magic.

“I don’t think I did. You are, though.”

I pouted and squeezed her cheek.

“Well, that’s even more amazing!” Baldrin suddenly shouted.

“This?” I squinted at him as I pinched my wife’s cheek again. “Or this?” My flying ‘fuck yous’ glowed a bright red.

“Not that! That Moonwash can’t even fuse fire and earth into lava with normal magic. That’s what’s amazing.”

“How so?” my girlfriend wondered blandly. “Wouldn’t it better if I can do it? I’d prefer it if I can.”

“Yeah! Are you making fun of her!” I piled on.

“I’m not! Being able to do things is better in general, true. But all the great crafters of our history who could make enchantments elaborate enough to achieve fusion could also make the fusion through regular magic. If you can’t do it normally, then how can you do it through enchantments? You should only be able to accomplish weaker versions of what you can already do through enchantments.”

“Really? I’ve always been able to do a lot of more esoteric things with rituals.”

“Well… that’s also amazing, but those are rituals! They are generally meant to be stronger versions of what you can already do, but it’s not unheard of for rituals to have strange other effects that cannot be replicated anywhere else.”

“I see. I think I’d still prefer it if I can do everything.”

“...We just mean that you must be really skilled at enchanting, if you can make something with it that you normally cannot.”

“I am. You already know that.”

There was silence in the room at my girlfriend’s casual confidence.

I looped an arm around her shoulder.

“That’s right! She’s great!”

I laughed. They talked a lot more about the enchantment Moonwash brought, but after that was over, I slammed onto the table my own big pack of things.

The contents spilled out, and the dwarves immediately reached for them.

“What is this?”

“Bone.”

“Yes. It is bone.”

“And this is bark… no, exoskeleton.”

“Ah, from an arbeast?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s nice. It’s been a while since I got to work with their materials.”

“Haell! How much for this piece?”

I smiled. “I would’ve brought Granuel here if I wanted to sell something. It’s a gift. Take it.”

“Oh.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you!”

“I want this.”

“I also want it!”

“Forge-off?”

“Fist fight.”

“Sure. I’m fine with that.”

I laughed and cheered as they punched each other in the corner.

Space reasserted itself, and I found myself near the base of one mountain. I breathed a sigh of relief as I felt through my dimensional scanner that the arbeast bones I’d buried were still here. I had dug the hole myself with Devilcalibur, packed the earth through sheer force, and then saturated the whole area with curse.

It was thankfully enough to deter most beasts from approaching.

The bones themselves were sturdy enough to not decay while it wouldn’t entirely be a problem if they became cursed. That just meant we had to use them for different things.

It’d have to wait for later before I could take home more of them, however, because I was here to continue my wonderful exploration of the Impenetrable Barrier Range!

I flew and circled the mountain I’d previously explored, before jumping to the next one. I landed along a familiar landscape, waiting for an attack that never came. The monsters had either not made a move or ran away.

I shrugged and started walking around. The trees here felt different, and I even thought that some of the critters weren’t the same. The grey coloration on that squirrel was weird, and it was too strong. Level 20, and it burrowed very very fast.

A quick check with my memory core confirmed that the wilderness here did differ a little from the last. Some of the animals were likely still the same species, with only slight deviations in coloration, but others were definitely species I had not encountered in that previous mountain, despite having explored it for days. The plants too were different, as those trees with purple-tailed green leaves were definitely poisonous.

The mountains here seemed to vary just a little from each other.

I explored this new mountain. I immediately came looking for a Level 80 monster that could actually give me a challenge, but they were not forthcoming. There could still be one hidden in between the trees and stones, but I decided to just keep an eye out for them as I walked along the wild nature.

From the rivers to the thick canopies. I picked a fight with the Level 40s instead. A bear that had crossed the threshold, an obivis guarding its nest, a similarly avoided by the other creatures of the mountain.

I slammed my blade on its face. The drake reeled back with a roar. Blood poured out of its broken scales, but the cut didn’t go quite as deep as I assumed. Of course, I didn’t put any magic into that swing, but the monster had still taken it remarkably well. Devilcalibur alone was a weapon beyond our level.

The drake retaliated. It tried to bite me, but I dodged. Its jaws clamped shut with a powerful force behind it. These were creatures rumored to be related to dragons somehow, like kobolds or wyverns. The kobolds were confirmed to have draconic lungs and throats, so it might actually be true. I just had no idea how that could be, as interbreeding did not work that way in this world. The offspring of a dragon would either be another dragon, or not at all.

The drake tried another bite, only to slam head-first into my blade. I slowly upped my power, and my enemy began to falter. Strong for its level or no, it still did not compare to me and how far I could punch above my weight class. Deep festering cuts appeared everywhere on its body, and its bones cracked and broke until it could move no longer.

I ended its misery, and made sure to take some choice pieces for myself. I’d limited the areas I attacked for a reason.

Nighttime loomed as I flew for another mountain. This one had no Hero-rank threat for me to test myself against either, but the darkness did invite the wilbats who had already proven to be fun opponents.

I provoked them once the sun had dipped below the horizon, and they came out from their cave in the thousands. Their sonic screeches forced me to rupture my own ears, as sound remained a powerful medium for the numerous weak to affect the singular strong. There was no actual rhythm to it, only chaos. Down one sense, I had to rely on all the others to navigate the night and rip and tear my way through the monsters.

My perception of space remained unimpeded. I used my evil eyes to taunt them in the dark. My armor stopped their bites, if Devilcalibur did not slaughter them first. Using my magic externally was bound to send many of them fleeing, so I refrained. Limiting myself only helped to accelerate my own plans.

I decided to hunt more caves of the creatures as this turned out to be very effective for my goals.

I continued to explore the mountains. Through days and months, the amount of time I spent at home began to shrink, and even then, I yet spent a lot of that time in training. Whether it be with the sword, with the help of my aging grandfather. His body continued to deteriorate despite his constant use of the healing pod.

“ARRRGHHH!” I poured those frustrations and… fears into my magic. It formed slower due to my turbulent emotions, but he resulting attack blazed hotter or corrupted harder, as I channeled my growing sorrow.

A balance had to be reached. And then broken through. Over and over again.

It was a constant journey, a constant search, and I did not intend to ever stop.

I stared at a pool of blood. It radiated boundless sin, and a hell for the sinner to burn in. .

The blood was my own. So were the promises of endless agony. Inside that foreboding liquid was a dagger. I reached in and examined the black blade. It was a shade darker than it was before, with an even darker red-tinged aura about it. I sliced my palm with the small blade, and the wound did rot, as did it burn with a piercing pain.

“Yep. It works,” I confirmed to Moonwash beside me. “It’s definitely not a fluke. We’ve made dozens of these things already.” I gestured to a table full of foreboding weapons and other periphenalia. All were cursed. Hellfire and blood didn’t always take, however, and there was no solely hellfire dagger, nor a weapon infused only with blood.

“I see.”

I remembered a very fond memory.

It was when Moonwash first suggested this operation, instead of relying on enchantments that might slowly infuse an object, with my blood as the battery. Just dunk it straight into my blood, and wait to see what happens!

I snickered then, and I snickered now. My girlfriend stared at me, and then affected a glare.

“You are annoying sometimes.”

“Don’t lie. You love it.” I pulled her into a hug.

Far beneath the earth, in a brightly lit yet still dark laboratory; a boar breathed heavily as it bled out. The dagger I’d used to stab it was both cursed and infused with blood magic. was what gave a single stab so much power, but my subject yet lived. So I crouched before its tired form, with one hand wreathed in blood magic, and the other in curse. I touched the wound with the blood mana, and made it bleed out harder. I applied the curse magic next, and it strengthened the effect, for that was what a curse was.

A constant companion. An illness that would never fade. A wound that refused to close.

Just like how I’d theorized that the in that dagger made the bleeding worse.

“Curse is inherently compatible debuff-esque effects!”

“It’s too soon to conclude to conclude that, but it does seem likely.” Moonwash wrote on her notebook.

was just confident in my memory.

All here. In my head. And the memory core in my belly.

That deserved more testing.

“We should conduct more tests," Moonwash said, finally.

“I’m glad you agree.” I nodded sagely.

After braving through dozens of its mountains, I could now confidently say that the Barrier Range lived up to its reputation. It wasn’t of hero-rank threats, but it was definitely a lot more dangerous than the lands below. Where previously, it would’ve been extremely difficult to find a random Level 80 monster in the wilderness, they existed in at least a fifth of the mountains found here.

Most of these level 80 monsters happened to be arbeasts. Monsters at a level my Grandpa could only barely achieve. My matchup with the arbeasts was good, so it was no trouble taking them out. I found a few newborns of their species, and those, I didn’t bother to fight. The little ones, who were still bigger than me, might struggle to defeat a Level 40, despite technically being an evolution above.

Other than the arbeasts, I also found other animals that had managed to evolve all the way to Level 80. A bear as large as a warsymbol attacked me, and I marveled at its sheer power, capable of shredding through trees like paper. It proved a more difficult challenge than an arbeast, perhaps in part because it was just a better fighter, or perhaps because it was that much more agile.

It wasn’t enough, to grant the bear the victory. My armor suffered significant damage from its claws, but it did its job of giving me a larger margin for error. The bear’s jaws, I made sure never had a chance to clamp down on me at all. I went for the monster’s large torso, aiming to whittle it down through attrition. First came the rotting and dismembering slash of Devilcalibur, then came the blasts of blood, then curse magic that made it lose more of the lifeblood inside.

Needless to say, I won, after a tough battle.

Another Level 80 creature I fought was a boxiall. It was one of those agile boxer gorillas with a powerful leap that I’d fought many times before.

The monster pounced at me immediately, and I was left reeling from the impact of blocking its fists with my greatsword. It had shot forward significantly faster than I could, creating a proportionally powerful sonic boom. It immediately pressed its advantage, and I suffered a few more blows that cracked and broke my armor because of it, but I quickly healed myself back to full functionality and regained the upper hand. I had the advantage in a slugfest. The monster leapt back, faster than I could follow. It jumped back in, but this time I did not even let in have the upper hand. I was ready for it. I dodged what I could of the charge, and deflected the rest. I immediately and rapidly healed my arms, to stymie the boxiall’s push.

This same cycle repeated a few more times in rapid succession. The wounds began to pile up on its body as I got a few cuts in each time. A wave of magic suddenly exploded out of me, saturating the immediate area around us. That created the opening I needed, and I seized on it by summoning the confluence of my wrath. There was no delay, I was always mad. The massive slash landed, and my enemy was sent reeling back.

It backed off, and truly ran away this time, but its unbeatable speed only came in small bursts. I caught up to it in time, and the boxiall reentered the battle, after I’d gotten a good backstab in. The monster realized that there was no escape for it. We brawled in the massive mountain, easily able to pulverize the trees in our way. My magic sapped away at its strength and resolve, and it did not take much longer until I claimed victory once more.

“RRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!” I roared, just because I could.

I remembered that theory about how wonderzones could increase the speed at which someone leveled. This applied not only to wonderzones, however, but all of existence. The average Level between places could vary, even without a single one being officially recognized as a wonderzone. I was more convinced than ever that it was true, and it would benefit me greatly to stay in the most dangerous of places.

The ground beneath me suddenly shook. It wasn’t for this to happen, there were plenty of underground monsters, especially here in the mountains, but this one felt different. Like it was coming from deeper in. The shaking only grew stronger. My instincts were proven right when the creature finally entered the range of my localized dimensional scanner. I stayed in that same spot, and then jumped at the last moment when the enemy surfaced and tried to gore me from below.

“GOTCHA!” I swung Devilcalibur, and it met a set of claws so massive, I could not see the organism that wielded them from here.

My wings snapped open, and I flew up to get a better look. I knew that this was a monster that was at least as dangerous as an arbeast. The creature clambered out of its hole, and soon I got to see what it truly was. Some sort of alien-looking monster that didn’t even have a pair of eyes. Only a slick, spiky, dark-purple body with numerous holes along the face, and of course, a massive drooling maw.

It somehow locked onto my position, and then shot out three piercing tongues like a chameleon!

I dodged one, sliced off another, and then got a hole punched through my wing. It was easily healed, but I descended anyway. The strange monster immediately rushed forth, its front claws serving as both weapon and shield. I met those massive excavator claws with Devilcalibur, only to find myself pushed slightly back. The enemy’s claws were completely undamaged. We clashed a few more times, but the monster’s defenses were hard to circumvent, even under the pressure of the confluence of my wrath.

My tail swished back and forth like a whip, with each pass sounding like a canon had just gone off. I made a series of rapid turns, and my enemy was unable to follow fast enough, earning it a rotting gash on its side, which then bled heavier after a few blasts of magic. The weird mole(?) roared and followed, but I proved too agile like this, able to make sudden, rapid turns. The cuts on its body piled on, each digging deeper than the last.

It was , I realized. A mere creature of the depths could not hope to match me on land!

The monster compacted itself, and tried to stand its ground, making sure that its claw-shield could keep facing me at all times. That was the right maneuver, but it couldn’t even succeed at that because I was just that much faster. The creature again tried to stab me with its dozens of tongues, but that only got more of its tongues cut off. I increased my use of magic, and the monster let out a piercing screech from the pain of hellfire and everything else.

It was only a matter of time until I won.

Time it did not intend to give me.

The coward suddenly dove into the ground and began digging.

“Oh no you don’t!” I complained and slashed into its backside, risking multiple subsequent uses of my anatomic mastery. The inside of the creature was ravaged by powerful waves of curse, but the monster did not stop digging. Even as its hindlegs were completely torn off. Even when nearly a fourth of it was consumed. The animal retreated further into the ground, until I dared not follow any longer. The tunnel it dug collapsed behind it, and I could not possibly keep up if I tried to make my own way.