Taol's Compendium of Nent

Chapter 5: Ingentes Mountain Range (Flos)

Days had passed since our encounter with the monster that we faced in the ruins – the reason why I said this was because I only awakened days after said encounter. Tirza had been tending to me this whole time after finding out that I was still alive when I had passed out in the ruins. With nothing left to explore in that disaster-filled ground, she quickly hightailed it out of there with me in tow, which was nice to know.

According to Tirza, we would continue venturing through the Spatium Plains, with the dark elf using my map to see where we should to go to next while attempting to steer clear from any trouble, at least until I wake up.

When I had awakened after spending so much time being out of service, we were currently out in the open, most likely within Spatium Plains itself. It was during the daytime, most likely in the morning, judging by the sunlight that was permeating through the tent that she had set up the day before. It would seem that she was still fast asleep, but she was probably looking after me to make sure nothing had gone awry while I was out.

That being said, I would slowly get myself up and stumble out of the tent, looking out into the vast expanse of grass that surrounded us while a gentle wind blew against me. Our horses were stationed close by, with Tirza managing to keep them restrained by having their ropes nailed down into the soil. My sight was still blurry, probably because of the fact that I was out for so long, but it was gradually returning – I soon noticed that I was wearing different clothes as well, with me wearing a pitch-black bodysuit that was very similar to what Tirza was wearing. At first, I was wondering why I was wearing this in the first place and not my uniform that I had been wearing almost this whole time…

But then I realized that my uniform had probably been dissolved by that monster after I was struck in the chest by one of its acid attacks – looks like my companion was left with no other choice but to give me one of her clothes, which…well, it did leave me red-faced when I thought about it at the time.

Nevertheless, this wasn’t the time for embarrassment! Precious time was being wasted here! Once my eyes had managed to have its sight returned back to its former state, I would squint my eyes towards what lied ahead of us, and sure enough, my eyes didn’t deceive me – it was the last major landmark that was left to explore in the Continent of Flos.

The Ingentes Mountain Range.

I would glance back towards her tent, letting out a sigh as I walked back inside, and sure enough, just as I showed up, the dark elf had already begun to wake, with her sitting up as she groaned a little before glancing over at me in a rather lazy manner – it would seem that her mind hasn’t caught up with everything that is happening…fair enough.

Both of us raised our eyebrows at each other, staring at each other in a disinterested fashion before I walked back outside, and just like that, in a matter of seconds, I would be crudely knocked in the head as she bonked her fist over my scalp, much to my surprise. Before I could even say anything, here she was, launching a massive tirade as she yelled at me about how I basically burdened her by being…well, unconscious.

Well, that was a good way to start the day.

At least it isn’t all gloomy and whatnot – if anything, she’s acting pretty normally, considering how she’s just a big ball of frustration and fury. Either way, once she managed to vent her anger on me, she would finally manage to calm herself down before getting to work by taking down her tent and packing her things, just as how I prepared for the journey ahead.

Journeying a mountain range is going to be very dangerous, but it certainly won’t be as bad as taking on that monster in those cursed ruins just days ago…I hope.

Once we were ready, we set off, attempting to leave the Spatium Plains as fast as we could to make sure that we were able to make up for the time lost by me being unavailable. It would take days, considering the sheer massiveness of the grasslands, but we would soon reach the end of the plains, and we could tell, too.

Less and less grass was beginning to show up, and in its stead were rubble and rock. Less trees were around us as well, and in response, we were beginning to see more stone columns as well as rock arches – we were beginning to reach the mountain trail. You know, it was a good thing that people of the past were able to create a whole trail to help journey through a mountain range as great as this one, but I always couldn’t help but wonder how many people it took to get through these mountains…must be a lot. I wonder how many had died…

Either way, they’ve made the job easier for us, and that was what mattered.

Sure, the trail had been greatly eroded with nature acting on it over the years, but it was still clear enough for us to follow it, and that was enough to keep my nerves in place. More importantly, it wouldn’t be as difficult as when we initially tried to seek out the ruins.

It wasn’t long before we found nothing but brown and grey all around us – this is it; this may well be the End of Flos. I honestly can’t believe that I made it this far – of course, I have a certain companion to thank for helping me out up until now. And maybe this power that I have gained from that entity…I might find myself using it more often in the coming future.

It was during the afternoon when we managed to arrive at the start of the trail, and upon seeing just how far it stretched out as it twisted and turned deep into the mountains, I squinted my eyes before letting out a rather pained groan. I glanced over to my companion, who looked just about as irritated as I do. The trail looked really narrow as well…so in the end, our hands were rather tied on this one.

We were forced to let our horses go – this was the end of their journey. They served us well, galloping throughout Flos to make our adventure a whole lot easier. But it would seem that they are unable to help us further now.

Once we were able to shoo them off, with the horses running off into the distance until they were out of sight, we swiftly shifted our attention back to the mountain trail, and from here, the start of our intensely strenuous trek began. We knew we had to be mindful of our supplies – I’ve heard that the mountain range here is notorious for having certain ‘spike spots’ where temperatures are higher or lower than normal…this was probably due to the fact that this mountain range is in both Flos and Novus territory…Novus being the next continent that we will reach once we are past these mountains.

The first day of trekking proved to be a literal hell – sometimes we would have to take short rests during the day mainly due to the fact that we were basically sweating buckets…

Honestly, this was just the start of our problems.

During one of the days of our long trek through the mountains, we had unknowingly found ourselves in one of those aforementioned ‘spike spots’, and by the time it was nightfall, our feet were plagued with blisters due to the dangerously high temperatures that we were dealing with at the time, which forced us to halt our progress for a few days so that we could of recuperate away from the heat. I…never really felt anything from the blisters, but she certainly did, and we didn’t like the fact that our feet were afflicted this badly because of the heat. We knew we had to rest before getting a move on. Thankfully, there was shelter for the vicious heat wave that came from the spike spots, and that usually came in the form of caves.

This usually meant that we could only hike during the night, when the sun wouldn’t unleash its searing rage down on us and attempt to probably kill us with heatstroke.

There was…one event during our trek which I never saw coming, though. But that would come a lot later, when we soon arrived at our second spike spot, where it was basically nothing but freezing cold temperatures during the dead of night.

After managing to escape the heat spike spot once we were able to fully recover from our injuries, we had a few days of normal trekking before being met with freezing cold in our second spot of the mountain range – sure, it was pretty normal during the daytime, but once the sun goes down, the biting cold becomes clear as day…which sounded pretty ironic, now that I mention it. Anyway…

While we were trying to find a shelter to avoid the freezing winds, Tirza had suddenly collapsed on the spot, much to my surprise and shock – upon realizing that she was suffering from hypothermia, I quickly hoisted her up and quickly got a move on. Strangely enough, I wasn’t affected by the cold at all, much like how I didn’t feel a thing from my blisters…it most probably had something to do with my newfound magic defending me from everything around me, which was enough to make me think about what I had wished for.

I wished for something to defend myself…yeah, that sounded about right.

Again, shelter from the cold was the same as shelter from the heat – caves. Once I managed to find one as fast as I could, I quickly brought ourselves in and laid her against the wall as I tried to find anything which could provide a quick source of heat. There seemed to be nothing that I could’ve used to make a fire, but all of a sudden, as if my magic had learnt of my plight, my blackened hands were suddenly consumed by a bright blue flame as I immediately raised my hands up in shock – upon noticing the flame however, I squinted my eyes at the blazing embers before closing my eyes and concentrating.

Sure enough, the fires had weakened to a reasonable level as I felt its temperature and size drop considerably – without much wait, I would rest my flaming hands against the dark elf’s chest as I attempted to raise her body temperature.

In a matter of seconds, I was gratefully repaid for this life-saving favor…with a slap to the face. I had no idea how that happened, she was most probably…shocked into reality.

Either way, I found myself losing my balance from the impact before falling back down to the ground, admittedly dizzy while she rushed over to me, profusely apologizing for what she had pulled off, with her attempting to explain that the shock just overcame her in an instant.

Well, it’s a good thing she did that – at least that told me that she was back and not…you know, dead. Or possessed.

We would stay in that cave for the night, knowing that we had to steer clear of the frigid temperatures that lied outside the cave. Apparently Tirza was close to having hyperthermia due to constantly hiking under the sun, but her innate, but somewhat minor resistance to heat and fire meant that she was able to tolerate the temperature around her – however, as soon as she got to the cold, the sudden drop in body temperature had completely overwhelmed her, which probably explained why she had passed out back there.

I…actually got frustrated with her. Here I was, wanting to know why she didn’t just tell me that she was feeling unwell during our trek, and here she was acting very defensively – the fact that she didn’t want to bother me was understandable, but this was something that was very, very dangerous. If she had continued to resist and ignore her ailing state, these mountains would probably be her final resting place.

It was a good thing her body decided to shut down involuntarily, knowing that she wouldn’t say a thing towards me. Talk about convenience. Dangerous convenience, but…whatever.

The next day, once she was back to optimal form, we got a move on, and from there, we would become extra wary of the weather as well as the time while we were trekking, repeatedly taking shelter from the cold during the nights – of course, the opposite would occur whenever we were caught in a heated spike spot, with us taking shelter during the day and only making our move during the night.

We constantly followed this ever-changing cycle…day after day, week after week.

After weeks of near-endless trekking, we soon reached a point in the mountain range where we finally got past all the spike spots within the mountains – to many, this was considered to be the halfway point, which was definitely encouraging news for us.

However, the bad news was that the trail was now getting harder and harder for us to walk on as the terrain around us began to grow more and more hostile once we were past the halfway mark. We had to constantly watch our footing to make sure that our balance was intact, for a fall on the second half of the mountain range was bound to be deadly. Perhaps it wouldn’t be a problem for me, considering I have supernatural forces by my side, but I don’t think the same can be said for my dark elf companion.

Progress began to exponentially slow down for us as we tried to walk, as well as climb our way through the rest of the mountain trail – we knew we had to keep things steady, for if we were to rush things, danger was bound to be guaranteed in the long run. The worst part was that there were very little spots to rest in, mainly due to the mountainous nature that the range now possessed from the midpoint.

I honestly wished this didn’t take as long as it did…but that was exactly what happened. It took weeks for us to get past the first half of the mountains due to its brutal temperature spikes, and it definitely took weeks for us to get through the second half of the range due to the terrain forcing us to act as sluggish as possible in order to prioritize safety. I wanted to make things fast, but even I know that is not the best choice.

Exploration isn’t about speed – it is about safety and detail. We are not being rushed.

Not yet, at least.

By the time we finally reached the end of the mountain trail, almost two months had passed – admittedly, on the final day of our trek, during the morning, we came dashing forward like a bunch of hungry animals when we found out that flat land was upon us, just so, so close to our reach. We were so hysterical that something as trivial as that was enough to set us off in a fit of absolute joy and happiness.

Still, once our streak of jubilation eventually subsided as we saw the end of our ordeal, we soon realized that this was the beginning of a new journey.

We were now in a completely foreign environment…a new continent.

The Continent of Novus.

It must’ve been a full year since I’ve last left home…I couldn’t help but wonder how my parents are doing. How Lord Bell is faring. What my friends have been up to. If they could see me right now, how would they react? Would they be proud of me? Would they cheer me on and continue with my massive quest?

To explore and adventure the entire Continent of Flos…it certainly must be a big deal, right? And for someone like myself to do it…it does make the feat just a bit better in my head.

However, the lingering thoughts had to come another time – once we gave ourselves a fair amount of time to regain our energy by taking a few bites from our rations and resting our feet a little, we would continue on, and minutes after we continued with our walk, we were met with a carriage which was stationed nearby.

Upon learning that the carriage was meant for those who had traversed through the mountain range, we were quick to get on…finally, some relaxing!

We learned from the carriage driver that the journey to the nearest town would last a few days including rest stops – honestly, I couldn’t care less. This just meant that we weren’t going to walk for those few days, and that was completely fine with me. For the first time in a year, doing nothing was something I desperately wanted to do, because I’m sure my legs were about to fall apart and crumble into nothingness any second now.

For both me and Tirza, this rest was well-deserved.

As the carriage progressed while time wore down, we could see the brown colors of the mountain range slowly fading away, and instead, the brown that we were beginning to witness were whatever little amounts of trees we could come across as we began to approach the tundra – we could feel a comforting chill gradually overcome us as we moved on.

The Continent of Novus…a realm enshrouded by ice and frost…this was definitely going to be even more dangerous than our previous endeavors in Flos. We had to be careful, and more importantly, we had to mind our health. To freeze to death in these icy lands may well be worse than death itself.

Still, amidst all the fatigue, there was this underlying sense of excitement. Sure, I was still a long way away from the Edge of Nent, but I was definitely making progress.

I wonder if the same could be said for the rest of the Exploration Team?