Chương 64: Chapter 62

"Nope, nope, no and nope." Wade looked back at the others, one finger pointing down with pure accusation.

"No way in hell am I going to limp my way down goddamn death cliff. It's wet, it's cold, and if I slip up even once, I fall straight through the mithril sea and land somewhere that is, quite literally, worse than actual hell. That's like finding the basement of a basement. I say we setup a camp here, and hang out till the end of the day to see if the round ends naturally."

"Ach, quit the bellyaching yank. It ain't that bad." Illy said, walking up to the lip to look down the cliffside herself.

"The slope itself is fine."

"And the wet, cold and slipping?" She gave him a smile and a pat on the back, "Well, ye made it this far, right?"

"Yeah, and I already died this far." Wade countered.

"I'm trying this revolutionary new approach called 'not dying twice.' It's going great so far, don't ruin this for me, please."

"What else are you gonna do bampot? If you think Selena's going to fly you down there with an inflight meal and a peck on the cheek, you're off your marbles."

"She did for the golem fight." Missing the inflight meal and peck, but Wade was happy enough he'd put a five star review in if asked.

"I must point out," Selena said, getting involved.

"That I used the last remnants of my mana crystal to accomplish that feat. I have no true reserves for another flight." She reached a hand out, testing the wind.

"Additionally, with strong winds here, any flakes of floating mithril can strike my wings, ripping them apart. At best I could reduce my weight and jump down myself to the boat on a small glide."

"That'll work, could you cast that on us?" Wade asked.

"Featherfall is a control of personal internal mana, I cannot cast it on anyone else." She said, shaking her head.

"Of us all, your skeletal minion will have the easiest time scaling this cliff." Since Eri weighed like a pile of bones put together, and had all the juice needed in his bones to cast things, he could easily jump straight off the cliff and Featherfall down to the boat. Only he couldn't miss, because falling in the mithril sea would probably be a tad dangerous for a being fueled by mana. This whole cliff may as well be just as dangerous for him in the end as it was for Wade, just in different ways.

"See?" Illy said, hands on her hip.

"We'll have to climb down this cliff the traditional way one way or another."

"Well we can't all be part scottish mountain goat." Wade shot back.

"Some of us - with limps I'll add - have a healthy fear of plummeting to our death. Second death, to be clear." He brought the phone out.

"Play back me up here." But think of the XP you could get fighting the blackrot under the mithril sea? ♡(>ᴗ•)"... Why did I even ask." Wade rolled his eyes. Of course Play would hyper-focus on that.

"Come on, you really afraid of a wee little hill? Big strong yank like you?"

"First, that's not a little hill. And second: There's no protections out here, this isn't some tutorial level for how to parkour with your character. We slip and fall, it's over. I think fear is a perfectly logical response to all this. Getting squashed by Lapushka is instant, painless death at least. Here? Lot of screaming involved." They both turned to Leon as the unworded tiebreaker, who was suspiciously far away from the cliff. He sheepishly scratched his back.

"The romans have a good saying, ' Timor altitudinis est gravitas intelligentiam complens.'" Wade's blessing translated. Fear of heights is gravity complimenting one's intelligence. Roughly speaking.

"That's not a real saying." Illy shot back, eyes narrowed in betrayal.

"Could be." Leon grinned.

"Very obscure." The Scot threw her head and arms back.

"Bunch of babies! A playpen slide is just slightly steeper than this! I've scaled worse mid rain with nothing but spite to keep me going."

"That's fine for you, aren't you like ninety five percent spite, five percent water?" Wade asked.

"Check your debuffs, it's probably written there somewhere."

"It says ninety nine and it's listed under the buffs. But really, this ain't nothing, can't be more than a grade three." She raised a finger and pointed a few spots out.

"Look at all those nooks, you could easily sit down and rest just about everywhere. Only a few parts turn actually difficult."

"How about we look for alternative?" Leon asked.

"Christ on a bike," Illy threw her hands up.

"In case you turnips haven't noticed, the boat won't sail itself up here. And we have zero fecking idea if there even will be a boat if we wait a few hours from now. Or come back tomorrow." Illy walked closer to the edge, a finger pointing down a few times over.

"Downright easy compared to some places in the highlands. You're just nervous from the height of it, it really ain't that steep." Leon and Wade shared a look with each other. Wade slowly blinked.

"Not a steep hill she says."

"Will be fun, she says." Leon answered back. Both of them gave each other an unworded nod of manly understanding.

"Fine, feck! If ye want to gamble that the boat stays here or more pass by, then we can wait out the timer and try again tomorrow with gear. We'll get you to go buy the stuff and spawn right back here with rope and baileys. I'll send ye a list of items to ask for. With that, there should be no objections to climbing down this hill tomorrow." One finger snapped in Wade's direction.

"And no buying the cheap shite either. We need as high quality as we can get. Go to a real sportshot, not the dollar store you yanks have." Wade hummed in deep thought.

"I changed my mind, let's take our chances with the cliff right now. The boat's not going to stay there forever, we should hurry." Illy stared at him for a moment.

"Right. Should've seen that comin' a mile away." She cleared her throat.

"Lemme try again soup-fork: I didn't say you needed to foot the bill, I can cover it for now. I just need you to bring it back here."

".... Why didn't you mention that earlier? It's never too soon to start up my Azdrial Smuggling Service." He paused, reading Illy's renewed glare.

"You make an excellent point, the acronym wouldn't work out well." He coughed to clear his throat, and tried a different direction.

"Azdrial Delivery Services. LLC, paperwork pending."

"Would be very funny if keeping other name. I voting for that one."

"Shut yer hole Leon, don't encourage the yank." She turned to Wade, "So long as you don't use ' smuggling' in your business name, it'll work well enough I guess." That would keep the yank pacified for a bit.

"Excellent choice Miss Blackwood-Sinclair." Wade rubbed his hands together, happily smiling.

"I'll send you an invoice first thing."

"One problem." Leon said, "I need one more coin to buy boon. Can't simply wait here until round is over." And the post-round scoresheet might not award Leon much credit at all, considering the heavy contributions to this fight had been mostly Illy and Wade. Leon ran as a distraction and used his knockback to reposition the enemy. But damage wise he hadn't done all that much.

Illy sighed, "We could head back into the city to pick a fight, and that'll also let us give the civilians running around a hand now that we've found ourselves a proper escape route. Gives us an extra day to come back with actual climbing equipment. Plus we might find something useful. Exploration gets easier once we've got a dedicated escape route and base camp here." She stopped talking, eyes narrowing down at something.

"Feck, got a quest to do that now. Setup a basecamp here and bring at least ten civilians out of the danger zone. One coin. Not too bad."

"Runs opposite of Selena's quest though." Wade said. Selena on her part was just staring at the two. Still ramrod straight, keeping a passive resting face as if a soldier waiting for orders. The ears on the other hand, gave her away. She wasn't even aware of them moving.

"We really should tell her about this." Wade said.

"Now that she can understand us, she's going to hear all kinds of weird shit. To be fair, it technically is weird shit."

"Might take a while to do that. Time we don't right have now." Illy said, then turned to Selena.

"When we're back on Earth again, I'll sit you down and explain everything. For now, just trust us." Selena gave a small bow.

"Lady Illy, by your command."

"How fast do you travel in world?" Leon asked, turning to the elf.

"How far away would your estate be?" She frowned.

"It depends on where in the infernal realm we have been taken to. The spirit realm has many known trade routes, once we find out which one we are by, I can plot a direction back to the moonwing territory. Speaking to a local would also greatly speed up our progress."

"So, can you explain in a little more detail how people use the realm of the goddamn dead, as trade routes?" Wade asked.

"Or why you would even think of doing that?"

"It is a compressed realm," Selena said, voice sounding more confused as to why this is a strange thing at all.

"An hour of travel within would be eight to ten on the mortal realm. There are dangers unique to that realm, however they are generally easier to handle than the ones on the mortal realm and the spirit realm is parallel to every realm, making it the common denominator. The center trade routes are well mapped, we may be able to find a caravan passing by and join them, especially if we depart from one of the towers in hell, they are all well known locations."

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Okay, an' dead spirits don't cause issues?" Illy asked.

"Not usually, no." Selena said.

"A necromancer is typically hired in caravans to handle those. Salt can also work as a temporary barrier if no one with training is available. But if the caravan has enough hired mercenaries, wandering souls are hardly a threat. The larger creatures that eat souls are the true dangers. I will guide us through most dangers there and bind anything that's too large of a threat to handle."

"Lovely." Illy nodded, "Well, can't be certain about Selena's situation, but we can be about the civilians trapped in the city. They'll survive for a while longer. I owe it to knife-ears here that she don't lose her fecking home just cause we yanked her out. I'll climb down meself, get them to stick around or come back tomorrow at the same time. You lot can hang behind." Wade winced watching her casual disregard for the deadly drop. Selena followed behind, clearly at ease with large drops into the void too.

Given she could fly, it wasn't much of a suprise the elf seemed completely fine with heights.

"Makes me nervous just to see you both that close." Wade said, and Leon nodded next to him. He limped a little closer to one of the rocks near him in the clearing, picking it up. Cold as ice, and just as wet.

"Uh, you sure you can actually make it down?" He asked, imaging the rest of the cliff just as cold and wet.

"I'm a part of SAR back home, I'm no stranger to this sort of shite." Illy shrugged.

"SAR? Some kind of british military thing next to SAS?" She waved him off, "Search and Rescue, yank. It's all volunteer work. Rest of the time I'm a forest ranger. My own personal middle finger to me family, lets me put all that training they gave me to actual use, help folks who need it instead of being a glorified pencil pusher. Doesn't pay much, but it makes them all upset to hear every time we talk. They're horrified a Blackwood-Sinclair would dare work such a peasant job.

Makes me go to bed each night with a smile." She knelt down to touch the ground, testing how slippery it was. The mithril sand everywhere wasn't completely pure mithril either. Erosion from these storms slapping against the rocks had sprinkled in more dirt and actual sand overtime than mithril. Still just as wet as anything though. It was like they were standing on a very sandy cold beach mountainside, with pale cloudy skies. Minus the clouds below.

"What about the cold?" Wade asked. She shrugged, "Yer right on that one. Lack of proper shoes and the chill is what hurts the most here. But it really isn't that hard to climb down. A few spots get steep, otherwise plenty of places to catch a breath."

"Do you want my boots?" Wade asked, shaking them in her direction. She waved him off.

"I can tell they're a few sizes too large. I'd rather have proper control over where I'm puttin' my feet, and when they start going numb, I'll take a break to warm them back up. Plus, I don't have to get all the way down there. Just far enough they can spot me. After that we can negotiate a deal or something." Leon shuffled, took a peek over the edge, then instantly backed away. A little too fast.

"... You're scared of heights?" Wade asked. Leon gave a sheepish smile, then waggled his hand side to side.

"Mild vertigo. Happens only on cliffs or high ledges." Of which this was exactly the case.

"Ah, shite." Illy deflated with a sigh.

"All right, all right. We'll cross that bridge tomorrow when we have gear for it. If you got vertigo, this'll probably be the first time climbing anything for ye?" He nodded.

"Never went to climbing gym in life. Too high." Wade hadn't either, the monthly costs of a climbing gym were right between ' fuck you'and' fuck this' on his personal cost scale.

"Not even a tree when you were a kid?" Illy asked.

"How bad's the vertigo?"

"Eh, top of roofs in city were fine. This? Not so fine." Leon laughed, then scratched his back, "And no. No trees. Never thought to."

"We'll have to figure something for Leon here." She looked back down the cliff, calculating.

"If he gets a panic attack mid-climb, that'll actually be a right problem. Can't blindfold him neither, shite." Wade looked over the cliff again, checking on the progress of the demon pair under. With only the sound of the wind even here it was difficult to hear each other talk. Shouting wasn't going to work. He still gave it a shot, cupping his hands and yelling at loud as he could. They looked to be chatting together, until the larger humanoid one made a hand gesture.

Difficult to tell what, since both were wrapped up in large amounts of shiny metal-looking rags and pockets. But whatever it was, it was some kind of order among themselves and the two started working different sections of the boat, checking integrity. They didn't seem in any rush, so they hadn't heard anything. The moment one of them started messing with what Wade figured was a rope, a System message appeared.

New Regional Quest: Rejoin society - Negotiate passage with the Demonic Fishing Boat before it sails away. Reward: One storefront coin. Estimated Time Remaining: 3 Hours, 19 Minutes.

"Ach, bollocks." Illy hissed.

"This would be the ticket for his last coin if we could get him down there."

"I think we'll need to get Selena another mana crystal and have her help Leon down instead." Wade said, looking at the Russian. Poor guy seemed far too pale, even in this strange half-light.

"Getting to the boat might be the way. They might have a crystal on them." If they were demons like Zinny had described their kind, then he knew they ate and survived off mana crystals, and they'd also hold them as prize liquor bottles they were proud to display. The two had to have some mana crystals on them for trade. He wasn't super thrilled at the thought of limping down this cliff eventually, but the more he looked at it, the more he started to see what Illy meant.

It wasn't how steep the thing was, it was the vast expanse beyond that stretched on for miles. That's what was freaking him out. If he fell down here, it would be more of an uncontrolled tumble, rolling downhill. He'd probably be dead before he passed through the mithril sea just from bashing his head against the rocks enough times. Okay, that made it a little bit scary again. What a rollercoaster of emotions. He looked over to Selena, "How rare is it to have a boat docked to the side of a mountain like this?

If it doesn't happen often, we might just have to go for broke here and make the attempt." Her ears twitched.

"I am sorry, my knowledge of this realm ends with what I've explained. I do not know much of how demons here live, other than hearing mentions of floating towns near the towers, and demon survivors that manage to climb out of the mithril sea." Fair enough, he'd go ask the local expert: The NEETess, specifically her butler. Who would know a thing or two about hell. Wade took out his phone and talked to it like it was a radio.

"Play? Got any info for us?" Text came back quick: Don't slip lol"Riveting advice. Do you have anyone else you could ask for help from?" Naw, he's out getting me snacks ╮(︶▽︶)╭"This is kinda, you know, important." snacks are more important, go for the boat. Easier than going back into the city to herd ten cats out. Plus, if you slip and fall, Doomslayer time ☆(>ᴗ•) I even got the youtube music pulled up in another tab, you could even say I'm prepared as hell.

She sent a full stick figure gif of a bad joke pun drum roll. This twerp…" Play." Fiiiiiiineeee, I'll send him a text. Not my fault if he doesn't answer thou That's the best he could do. He turned to the rest of the gang, and shrugged.

"Play's going to get us some answers from her sources but no idea when the answers will come.

"Got one last request before I go down there." Illy said.

"We don't need the wardkey anymore right?"

"Uh, we do have the quest complete. Even if we needed the key, the System says we can enter any Nathir Shelter-city. Why?"

"Going looking for the civilians trapped in there is suicide, I know that." She started.

"But, thinking we can at least bring the wardkey right to the entrance, and leave instructions on how tae use it?"

"Oh. Not a bad idea." Wade said, nodding to himself. It wouldn't be dangerous at all, and if there were any stragglers, they'd probably try to rush for the sewer as an exit. Only to find it blocked off. Unless they dropped the wardkey right there.

"I go back inside and drop off the key" Leon immediately said.

"More cozy, less cold."

"We'll need Eri going back in too, he's the only one who knows how it works." Illy said, "So that's Leon and Eri for the wardkey team. As for the climb, I'd get it done in under an hour. Yank, you good to hang out here with Selena and keep her company? I don't want her coming after me in fecking plate armor for a climb."

"Lady Millicent, I insi-""I'm ordering you to stay put." Illy said. Selena closed her mouth with a click of her jaws, "Very well. I suppose death means less to you than other clients would find natural." She gave her a thumbs up, and then cut off some of her pajamas again into strips and tied them around her hands and feet for better grip and protection. After that, she gave one last look at the shimmering sea before them.

"Come to think of it, reckon I should know ahead of time, Knife-ears! What happens if you get blackrotten an' try to climb back up through the mithril sea?" Selena had the answer, and it was gruesome. The way she explained it, Wade now realized blackrot was more like seaweed floating in the ocean. The leaves could move around the current, flatten out, get cut and float off somewhere new, but there was still a root deep down held to the rocks. That part would be too intrinsically entrenched.

If he'd still had his blackrot in his arm, jumping into the sea would have him suspended by his arm, simply from the force exerted against the blackrot. And if someone on the other end pulled him down anyhow, they'd eventually rip his arm off. Apparently techniques using mithril are used to help amputate blackrot from their victims. Stretch out the blackrot as far as it can be pushed, and then cut through the limb. But most people didn't bother with mithril and simply cut off the limb entirely.

Faster, does the same job, and dirt cheap. Healing it is a matter of enough mana for divine flavored healing.

"Essentially if you fall beyond the mithril sea become contaminated, you will not be able to return through the sea again without having the infected parts torn away. Hence why utmost care should be taken Lady Illy." Selena finished. Illy, of course, wasn't listening to that part. Wade could tell she was already plotting the route out, eyes scanning from section to section.

She then turned to Selena, "You reckon they'll be curious enough to stick around when they hear there's people that can walk into a Nathir bunker? Might be the only bargaining chip we have so far." The elf wagged her ears in frustration."' Aight then, guess that settles that." Illy said, nodding back.

"Unless anyone besides knife-ears has a problem?"

"Maybe we use rocks?" Leon shrugged before the two could start an argument with each other.

"We all hit at same time, make rhythm that clearly sound unnatural to local area. Would be high pitch, travel further than shouting." He shrugged.

"Not certain about the science of sound, not my expertise. But maybe it work?" Wade thought about it, mulling over options.

"I think the rock plan's something we should try out, five minutes shouldn't make that much of a difference if it doesn't work? Illy's got three hours to get down there." Then Wade had a better idea. They didn't have a flare gun, but they did have the next best thing: Magic. And one member among their team that could still use it. Maybe that skeleton had some tricks up his sleeve and could light a giant flare or beacon. He looked backwards, to the sewer entrance, looking for their resident technically-a-mage.

Eri was knelt down on the ground, bony hands scooping up dirt and mithril shards, watching them pass through, wisps of mana leaking out each time, sucked out. The skeleton's skull tilted up next, empty eye sockets raised to a skylight, lifting the sand to see it sparkle in the light. Given the scratch marks all over the mithril sand, he'd probably done this multiple times now. That skeleton hadn't even heard a word the crew were speaking. And Wade could clearly see why. All the writings they'd found left behind.

Those final words scrawled in Nathir script, in three simple compound words. One of us has to make it out of this cursed city alive. Everyone else took the sky and land here for granted, but for Eri, this was what he and all the others had dreamed of this entire time. Problem was that at this rate, he wasn't going to stay alive for long. The mithril he kept scooping up was eating his health bar each time it touched his bones. He wasn't anywhere near death thankfully, just clearly too happy to care or notice.

Wade lunged out at full speed, "Shit! Eri, you're killing yourself doing that!"