Chapter 27: Reef’s disappearance!
‘Translated by: Chua
Edited by: TN and Elkassar
Presently, they were enshrouded in a fog of unfathomable mystery. Only two choices presented themselves to Sheyan – To advance or retreat. If they retreated, they would have to once again cross over that strange lake, the desolate forest and the icy cold winter valleys. Lastly, they had to face the risk of capture by Uruk-hais….. These matters have already been witnessed personally by them. They knew of the terror and dread it held, thus Sheyan wasn’t willing to experience it again.
Hence without much deliberation, they affirmed their decision to carry on proceeding forward. No matter what danger lay in store for them, as long as they could drag on further an additional second, it would be worth it.
Though they were both formidable contestants; but in this ‘A’ difficulty world setting, they had been suppressed to just slightly stronger than an ordinary character. They had experienced numerous scares and sudden twists, this region of frozen corpses; though it shocked them initially, they were already used to this mysteriousness. Reef sat down on a piece of pine wood, as he swayed a wine pouch in his hands before asking curiously.
“What did this bunch come here for?”
In this era, craftsmanship was still undeveloped. Primarily due to plastics not being invented yet, bringing along water supplies on a long journey was extremely troublesome. Even the wine pouch he was holding; its inner lining was made with animal bladder, and tanned cowhide for its exterior. It was able to seal up water effectively, hence its value wasn’t low. If Reef were to exchange this pouch with the elven race, even an empty pouch could be exchanged for 2 oxen.
On the other hand, Sheyan’s emotions were fluctuating excessively. He was surrounded by overlapping mysteries. On his way, he kept feeling that faint premonition, as though he was gradually nearing a huge profound truth. Such emotions caused him to be rather annoyed, as he picked up another wine pouch and drank from it.
The wine pouch had been sitting in the snow for a long time, hence the alcohol was strong yet cooling; producing a boiling sensation in their throats. Reef gulped down the drink, a burning warmth flushed his body as he suddenly spoke up.
“How about we stopover for a rest here?”
Sheyan ferociously gulped down several mouthfuls, then he forced a smile and replied.
“Look at these frozen corpses, you still dare to stopover here? We are considered to be relatively weak in this world’s difficulty setting. But…..my greatest worry is that….I’m afraid the realm may weaken us further once again!”
Reef astonishingly replied.
“Another weakening?”
“Yes.” Sheyan smiled bitterly. “The first time was when our interspatial region was sealed. My bet is that the longer we stay in this world, we would activate different checkpoints. I reckon it is about time for our second checkpoint to be activated.”
Reef who was all along refined, suddenly couldn’t resist the urge to curse.
“F***! Don’t tell me the next time they will seal our abilities?”
Sheyan helplessly replied.
“The second checkpoint shouldn’t be that bad. But I can foresee every checkpoint intervals becoming shorter and shorter, stricter and stricter. The last outcome could be that we would be demoted to the conditions of an ordinary person. Completely devoid of the realm’s benefits! When that happens; don’t even talk about others harming us, even the cold temperature and the scarcity of food would be our greatest foes. We may very well be forced back to the realm.”
Reef seemed to deeply believe Sheyan’s words, he paused and replied.
“So your intention is that; before we reach the final stage of weakening, we have to find a safe and warm shelter first.”
Sheyan nodded his head earnestly and continued.
“Yes, that is my idea.Contrary to the place we first entered; even though there was the dreadful presence of uruk-hais, at least the environment wouldn’t have been detrimental to us.”
After settling their emotions, they continued ahead. The alcohol gradually seeped into their bloodstream, as they felt a cosy warmth and fatigue fading away. After several miles, they exited the pine forest. The mountain valley gradually narrowed, finally turning into a ravine. Sporadic clusters of snow scattered around the ground. The vegetation wasn’t tall here. Only disorderly piles of rocks laid around, their surface had traces of erosion; it seemed like there was a previous flood in the area when the season was warmer. As they raised their heads to observe, the surrounding precipices continued to stretch endless ahead on both sides. The only trace of the sky was in between the precipices.
The terrain here was physically draining. Fortunately, Sheyan and Reef still had energy as they walked without much difficulty. Their only worry was their route ahead would be a dead end, that would be desperation itself.
Because Reef was the stronger and empty handed one, hence he was the group’s front scout. The two trudged through hundreds of metres of rocks, finally obstructed by a fairly wide and towering boulder.
This boulder was most probably a remnant of the lateral mountain, perhaps a fractured component of the cliff that tumbled down. It was covered with cracks. On their left was a pitch-black gap between the boulder and the mountain wall. Placing their head near, they could feel a wave of wind blowing out. It was obvious the hole channel was long, squeezing through it was impossible.
To continue forward, they had to climb from the top. If it was an ordinary person, they would have to lament at their inadequacy and return to the pine forest to craft a ladder. Yet this height wasn’t enough to hinder the two contestants.
The agile Reef attempted to sprint from far, borrowing his momentum to leap up this gigantic boulder. Yet his fingers seemed to miss the fringe of the boulder by a huge fraction.
After several attempts, Sheyan then stood in front of the boulder as he formed his hands as a supporting platform. Reef then took flight, pushing off from Sheyan’s hand!
Propelled up by Sheyan’s 37 points of strength; in addition to his natural agility, his fingers successfully grabbed onto the edge of the boulder, successfully pulling himself up.
Instead, Sheyan was thrown off balance by the tremendous recoil from Reef, as he fell seated to the ground.
Beneath his butt was a tiny rock, painfully piercing his ass. Sheyan frowned as he cursed loudly, and reached his hand to grab it. After picking it up, he realized it was a black row the size of a ping pong ball. He was about to toss it away, but suddenly discovered something peculiar. Why is this rock so light? Its surface seemed to have several fresh cracks, how did his butt even deal such devastation to a rock?
Sheyan’s curiosity was pricked, as he started to inspect this rock carefully. He realized its exterior was like a round black rock, yet its weight was too light; meaning that its exterior was just a solid crust. As he broke open the cracks, he discovered his innards had a faint lychee red, and had a plain cyan core inside.
Yet surprisingly, there was a radiation emitting from its inner folds, its entire composition felt like a scorching sun! An unappealing black rock, actually hosted such a strange phenomenon, it was really a peculiar and admirable creation of nature.
For some unknown reason, Sheyan felt like it was missing something as he gazed upon this rock. It was like drawing the portrait of a beautiful lady, yet missing her most crucial eyes in the painting.
While he studied this strange object, he suddenly felt a wave of dizziness, before hearing a loud cry from opposite! Then it returned to a deathly silence.
Sheyan was jolted up like being pricked by a needle, that shout obviously belonged to Reef. Did something dangerous surface? He instantly shouted in response, trying to get an understanding of the matter.
Sadly, even amidst his panic and frantic yells, no response was returned from opposite the boulder. Even after he tried to use the nightmare imprint’s transmission, nothing happened!
What kind of grave danger, was able to cause such a powerful MT like Reef to vanish without a trace???
The air was still, his surroundings deserted. Only his shouts continued to echo. Under such a depressing and lonely environment, a person’s mentality would start to collapse. He couldn’t even understand what was going on, yet suddenly another burdensome mystery compounded onto him. For a person with a weak spirit, he would’ve already committed suicide in this desperation.
However, Sheyan was always a resolute and determined person. Also, being able to return to the realm anytime, he naturally felt that he was still in control. After deducing that something unbelievable had happened opposite the boulder, he hurriedly left as he carried Melody and retreated to a spacious region.