Guys, check out my dude Ryokuzan,
he's great.
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The following morning, after gathering our belongings and saying our goodbyes, mostly Deliva, we skipped town to head to the lone standing mountain.
Getting there quickly wasn't a problem, I had struck a deal with a merchant to get some nice horses. They weren't the fastest, but they were good nonetheless.
Anyway, we rode our way to the end of the cobblestone path leading close to the mountain and headed into grassy plains.
As we trampled on the tall grass for hours on end, the horses gradually slowed down by a tiny margin every once in a while, until the slowed to a fast walking pace.
"We should let the horses rest a bit here." I looked up to the midday sun. It looked as odd as when I first saw it, but I was getting used to it.
"Okay captain." Deliva said as we got off our horses and we began setting up a temporary small campfire.
We cut some tall grass with Aaron, in some sick combos, may I add, linked together very well.
I positioned some rocks in a circle and threw the cut grass in there. I took out some sticks from my magical backpack and threw them in the rock circle.
"[Blaze]" I pointed Aaron at the pile of firewood. Instead of being nice and controlled as I wanted it to be, a pillar of fire arose from sticks, with the force to even nock me over.
"I should find a way to limit my power." I whispered to myself before I picked myself back up again and dusted off the dirt and grass.
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After 2 hours of resting and having a great lunch prepared by me, in the hot sun, we continued our journey at a really fast pase, but not fast enough. The sun was going to set before we even arrived to the base of the mountain.
After a few minutes of contemplating if I should do something to the horses to make them go faster, I quickly dropped the idea as I remembered how far a certain animal rights group would go in my old world. In the end, we arrived at the mountain at dark and we had to camp out.
.........
The tall grass rustled in front of a small cave entrance, where two drunk guards were busy drinking. In a single moment, both guards fell dead silently in their own blood.
A black cloaked figure entered the cave with a menacing aura, as silently as could be, as it left no footprints behind.
It quickly killed all members of the cave, and quietly gave it's mercy to the bodies at a wall, covered in a cloudy liquid. In pain, it chose not to mess with the balance of life and death at this moment, as it would bring them more pain.
It approached the final, deepest room in the cave, separated by wood and had a proper door. It looked through the keyhole to find a snoring man, sleeping without a care in the world.
After lock picking the door with a new ability, it masked the creaking with a sound barrier, it's own creation.
The cloaked figure approached the sleeping man, and extended a boney finger to cut his cheek.
The sleeping man immediately sat up and put his hand to a dagger at his belt, but as he looked up, he froze completely.
For what stood over him was a skeleton, holding a weapon he had never seen before. His own fear of the unknown keeping him from doing anything stupid.
But then it moved it's jawbone and a dark and almost demonic voice rang out in his head. "You have done many crimes, many such, unforgivable. You will pay for what you have done. I may not be able to make you pay for them all here, but have fun in hell. Hope you meet your friends there." it appeared to make a smiling gesture.
The man knew very well what the skeleton meant, but he let out his loudest scream he could. But he himself knew it was fruitless, for he already knew two things, there was no one to hear him and he would not alive in the morning.
His regrets brought him a tear, but a single tear would never stop his untimely demise.
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After dealing with a little pest, we prepared for and began the trek up the mountain in the morning. Of course, we had to leave the horses back at the campsite.
The thing about Ignix Mountain is the progression of monster levels the higher up you go. It's crawling in monsters, you can't even take 100 paces before you're in another battle.
As we hiked and climbed up the mountain, Deliva was the one being targeted by the monsters. All I had to do was swing Aaron at one of them and they would scamper off. Once in a while, a brave one would challenge me and would get sliced in half.
We fought many packs of Rock Wolves, Wood Cats (which despite their name, are a fairly power type of feline), a few Wyverns, and a few other types of lesser dragons.
Even an actual dragon attacked us but flew away after it caught sight of me and Aaron. Deliva was, of course, impressed.
"I have never heard of anyone being able to scare off a dragon.".
"Well, neither have I." I sighed as I sheathed Aaron.
Eventually, in the afternoon, we finally reached the peak of the snow covered mountain, to find ... absolutely nothing.
"Well, this was a waste of time ..." I looked to the endless horizon and sat down in the crunchy snow. "Is this really all I get?" I sighed.
Deliva broke the few minutes of silence, "Kasun, I feel a little light headed, but I'm not sick. Do you know what it is?" she asked.
"I guess it is time to head down." I said as I got back up.
"But what is it?"
"The elevation, the air is thinner up here than down there." I said, which reminded me of something. "Perhaps he hallucinated the Dragon King." I sighed.
I picked through the snow and found a rock. "So much for getting my hopes up." I threw the rock off the other side and we began heading down.
But an unusual sound stopped me, the soft echo of a rock bouncing on smooth rock. I walked back up to the very top the mountain.
"What are you doing?" Deliva asked.
"Perhaps..." I only responded. I sat down and made it so I slid down the snow.
I began to pick up good speed, but the desperate chasing of the faking Luna and the true Deliva, made me chuckle a bit.
As I slid down the snow, it became thinner and thinner, until I reached a ledge. It was an unnatural ledge, seemingly designed to stop the snow from falling down.
And I slid off the ledge.
I didn't expect such that much of a drop, to the point where I was actually getting worried that my legs couldn't support the fall.
As I fell, I decided to roll forwards when I reached the ground to help with the fall. After an almost perfect execution of the moveset, I realized that I was silly and really didn't need to do it.
I turned around to find a gigantic set of doors made of wood and metal, dug into the mountain. The dug out part of the mountain had giant stone pillars supporting the weight of the mountain above.
It had the perfect amount of lighting from torches along the pillars and walls, a creepy but mysterious vibe. The design of the place was astounding and it had carvings of dragons into the pillars and walls. Although at closer inspection, the torches were recently lit.
I walked closer to the door, my footsteps echoing on the smooth stone. I stumbled on something, the rock I had thrown earlier. I kicked it aside and continued forward.
"Wait!" Luna called out as she was carrying Deliva. I pushed open the door anyway.
What greet me beyond the door was a simple corridor with another set of large doors. The corridor was decorated with large amounts of gold and sitting on tables at the sides, rare artifacts. This was the thieves dream.
By this point Luna and Deliva had caught up to me. She set Deliva down, "It could have been a trap!" she told me.
"Pff, who would make a trap with doors that big." I laughed. "To catch you." she sighed and looked away.
We walked to the final set of doors and I opened them with a bit of resistance. I threw them opened and the dragon from earlier went flying to a wall.
"Could you be more gentle with my subjects." a voice directly ahead said. I looked away from the dragon on the floor to find a gold plated throne, the size of a dragon. The king on top of the throne did not disappoint.
"Welcome, Reaper. I have been waiting for you for such a long time."