Axl carefully peeked out from the edge of the surprisingly deep well, [Mana Shroud] and his Perception taking a good ten minutes to look out for threats before jumping out. Moxlin even threw out illusion and detection talismans to form a makeshift perimeter, just in case their entry drew in undue attention.
The forest around them was dense with trees about as thick as his forearm. Sounds of nervously chirping birds filled the air in a dizzying racket, and a thick, loamy smell almost made his eyes water. In contrast to the relatively even spacing of the giant bamboo, these trees seemed to be very haphazardly placed, with plenty of rotting trunks and jagged stumps peppered between the intact trees.
Despite their density, it was almost as if there were nothing above them, the harsh mid-day sunlight casting strong shadows on the trunks, as if they simply stopped blocking the sun more than a few meters from the ground. As Axl focused further up, he could see that the tops of the trees in fact became gradually insubstantial, like the see-through bodies of the elementals he defeated. There was, in fact, a continuous canopy some thirty meters above the ground, but it was barely a very faint wisp shifting in the air like mist, a faint impression of mysterious sigils sometimes appearing as he stared, often sets of glyphs he recognized.
The ground was uneven with brambly bushes and knotted roots struggling for every stitch of space. He inwardly grumbled that maneuvering in this terrain would be much trickier than in the smooth ground of the bamboo forest or even the caverns. Hopefully, it would be a hindrance to both him and whatever he ended up fighting against.
More worryingly, the air was thick with Mana, but a confusing mess of countless different types struggling against each other. He could identify wood and stone Mana being somewhat more prevalent than others, but the ratio shifted substantially as well, and a lot more was stuff he couldn't even start to parse. This would make blending in with [Mana Shroud] much harder, if possible at all.
A few meters away stood the ruins of a stone building, barely more than the foundation and a few structural pillars left standing. He blinked as he focused more fully on [Mana Shroud] to see what was going on, confused at first with what he was seeing. Some trees were growing straight out of the stone, their trunks emerging seamlessly out, and some stones close to the ground looked like they grew roots. Their Mana was an even odder morass than the air that he couldn't make sense of.
"Moxlin," he whispered. "What's up with that stone building? How are plants growing out of it?"
"I don't know. Nothing sentient is being picked up by my active detection talisman."
Axl gripped [Webcutter] and drew near, and with his proper first step, a message he had been expecting appeared.
>>Entering F-Grade sanctuary [Shrouded Crescent Valley]. Accept? Yes/No.
He shared a look with Moxlin, confirming she got it too, and he accepted.
A bird dove from the translucent canopy, as if appearing out of nowhere, seamlessly entering Axl's chest and leaving the other side. It was gone far among the trees before Axl could even draw his sword, body tense, but he was apparently uninjured. Then he saw new messages.
>> New Title obtained (Shrouded Crescent Valley): Geas of the Weak
>> Produces no Fell Karma if killed by F-Grade enemies. Provides bonus Karmic Energy and path-specific benefits if killed (F-Grade).
>> Improved rift rewards while in the G-Grade. Consumed when entering the F-Grade.
>> Title upgraded (Predatorial Conclave, Shrouded Crescent Valley): Perennial Prey
>> Detectable by all beasts. Provides bonus Karmic Energy and path-specific benefits if killed by those following the Path of the Hunter (F-Grade).
>> Survive 100 days for Dangerous Prey achievement. Consumed when entering the F-Grade.
The first one wasn't a real surprise, since it would defeat the purpose of this being an F-Grade area if G-grade cultivators could just waltz in and reap the benefits without the risk of being properly targeted. The upgrade to his Prey title was not great, not only drawing in all beasts, not just hunters, but turning the target on his back from a ticking clock he'd largely already dealt with to one that would last for as long as he was in the grade. At least it looked like the reward would be better.
"Did you get any new titles?" he asked Moxlin. "I got the G-Grade one you mentioned, but it also made my wolf hunt title harder."
"Just the usual F-Grade title that said I'd get rewards proportional to my advancement if I reached the peak of the F-Grade," she said. "And a quest to kill you. So rude!"
Axl's felt a weight at the pit of his gut, even as he appreciated Moxlin telling him about it. Other cultivators would also likely get it as well when they met, or maybe just beasts? "Are the rewards good?"
"Oh, no!" she said, clearly saddened. "They really are. A choice of one of three F-Grade improvements to my bodyplan. Sentient beasts like me rely more on bodyplan than cultivators for our advancement, since our Lineage is more central to our paths, so this is a better reward than it sounds."
"Just great," he said, frowning. "Guess I'll have to be careful when we run into others here."
Moxlin nodded. "I guess the term 'sanctuary' is a little bit misleading… No wonder mommy always warned us that no system is to be trusted, that they all ultimately bend to the Deep System's bloodlust."
"That also explains why she gave me a quest to fight the leader of the wolf pack chasing me. I wonder if she got rewarded for that by the Deep System, even if she made sure to mention how much it cost her."
Moxlin chuckled. "Sounds like mommy, alright. She's so sneaky clever!"
Axl thought about his new gear and companion, all of it exactly what he needed. Was this an outcome that Nox had planned for? A way to boost his chances of making a void-attuned subsystem that could also benefit her, together with a test of his competence before she committed the resources? He honestly didn't know if he should be terrified or impressed.
Regardless, none of this changed anything, so he proceeded into the ruin, finding it empty, except for a different structure leaning against the only remaining corner of wall. It was a rickety shack, pieced together with planks of wood and tarp. Inside had a simple desk and chair next to a cot, all teetering at the edge of weathered decay and long abandoned.
Something felt odd about the desk's single drawer, a density in Mana that Axl could easily detect with [Mana Shroud], even past the ambient morass. Sword drawn and Moxlin retreated to a nearby wall, he quickly opened the drawer, ready to stab. But only a loose mess of alchemical ingredients and simple tools rattled within.
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Relaxing, Axl looked past the long-decayed herbs and the cheap-looking tools that were useless to his [Gastric Cauldron], instead focusing on a crystal shard a few centimeters long that emanated a shocking amount of Mana.
"Ooohh!" Moxlin was back on his shoulder, her legs tittering in excitement. "A natural treasure so early! How lucky can we be!"
Axl nodded, indeed suspicious. But then again, he did have over one hundred Luck, so maybe this would start paying off in this kind of environment. Moxlin could use natural treasures to refine her bodyplan and use for her glypic artistry, perhaps even trigger crafting inspiration, while he needed some to help form a core, but first he had to decide what kind of core to go for. Neither of them had any immediate use for the crystal-based F-Grade natural treasure, so Axl simply stored it in his dimensional pouch, and they moved on.
Any direction feeling equivalent to any other, so he simply started in roughly the same direction he had been heading when in the caverns, presumably going deeper into the Vale, away from the sheer cliff that surrounded the area in its eponymous crescent.
He traveled slowly, trying to get [Mana Shroud] to match the ambient Mana, feeling like his Skill's warping made him stand out even more than doing nothing at all. But he kept at it, hoping that with practice he'd get it right. Several times, a colorful bird would zip across the air with startling speed, either alone or in groups, often right into the tree trunks, their bodies disappearing into the bark, leaving behind a tiny smudge of stone in their wake.
Barely a half hour later, they chanced upon a wooden sign placed atop a neatly carved post, pointing north. It read "Warrior's Longhouse: Temporary alliances welcome. Blacksmith, Healer, and Trainer available at fair prices."
Smelling a trap, Axl simply turned and walked east, not wanting to risk either the indicated or opposite direction. Even if the notice was genuine, his new Titles made him wary of running into other cultivators, much less large groups of them.
They'd barely walked for another hour before seeing the corpse of a dead orc, naked and face down in the mud. Roken had seen quite a few of them before, since they were a prominent minority in Piril, so he could easily recognize the stout muscularity, sharp facial features, and the long fangs sticking out from the mouth, for this one, a pair out of the lower jaw.
Axl approached carefully, sword drawn and ready, Moxlin renewing her detection talismans, but they found no threats nearby. He slowly checked the orc's pulse, but it was truly dead, and he turned the body over, now seeing the stabs on his back that killed him.
"Probably a spear, right?" Axl asked.
Moxlin produced a trio of talismans and put them with a short side facing the dominant wound. The glyphs upon them glowed faintly, then the paper burned up.
"A halberd, most likely, the wound inflicted some five hours ago. The residual Mana has more weapon attunement than to any specific element or material, probably meaning a cultivator did this, not a beast or elemental."
Axl frowned. "Why naked? Are some cultivators so greedy that they have to resort to this?"
"I don’t know, maybe he was wearing expensive gear? But even the underneath clothing is gone, you large bipeds usually wear that too, right?"
"Yeah." Axl kept looking at the grey-skinned body, feeling something out of place. It seemed like this placement was a specific disrespect, this patch of mud particularly dirty compared to the nearby area, and then he saw signs of battle a good seven meters away. Meaning the body was dragged here after his death.
He mentioned this to Moxlin and she shrugged. "Maybe they had a falling out? Like two childhood lovers that grew annoyed at each other but then one found true love and the other was suddenly struck with murderous jealousy?"
Axl set aside the spider's very specific theory, then redoubled [Mana Shroud]'s detection, trying to sharpen his focus on the orc. His muscular body was littered with scars, his hands calloused from holding a weapon, in every sense a warrior familiar with battle. It felt like such a waste for him to die like this. Back on Sol he could perhaps single-handedly win entire battles with the Vikam, or at least against their rank and file.
One of the scars on the left side of the body's trunk looked odd, a bit more scarred than the rest. It could've easily looked that way for being deeper and less well-healed, but there was also a subtle Mana fluctuation coming from it. Axl bent down to touch it, then his eyes widened as he pressed his fingers in, and after some digging around the fake scar, he pulled out a ring.
"Oh!" Moxlin stared at it in awe. "An actual dimensional ring! No wonder whoever did this got so frustrated, this is likely what they were looking for!"
Axl couldn't help but crack a smile. "I'm starting to really like it in this valley."
"Me too! If it continues like this, I'll finish the F-grade by month's end!"
"I can't open this," Axl replied, his mind struggling against the ring. "Is there some trick?"
Moxlin nodded. "Yeah, if it was tied to his Mana, it will take a while for it to unbind from him. But since he died, it should just happen naturally. There are tricks to unlock these things earlier, but I don't know any of them."
Axl shrugged. "Something to look forward to later."
Apparently, dimensional storage items couldn't be placed inside each other, but openly wearing the ring was obviously a bad idea. Luckily, the Sheersilk armor set had devious little hidden pockets all over, so Axl took off his left boot and snugly placed the ring inside the one on the inner back lining, just above the heel. It wasn't visible from the outside, and even pressing against it, he couldn't really tell the ring was there. Nox was sneaky clever indeed.
"Why are you hiding it?" Moxlin asked. "If you wear it, you'll know when it can be opened."
He smiled at the little spider. It was cute, really, that she had to ask. "If this is as good as you say, I don't want other cultivators seeing me wear it, it would make me an even more tempting target, in addition to a quest to kill me. Also, if we run into this guy's friends, they might recognize it and think I killed him.
"I was thinking we should simply avoid anybody else in the Vale, given my curses. But now I'm not sure that'll be possible. Think about it, if people find natural treasures all the time, few will be of the right kind, like our crystal, so it would be more efficient to get together, if only to trade. I'm also sure this guy's ring has plenty we don't need but could sell for stuff we do. And there might be ways for artisans like you to contract out your skills, too."
"Ohhhhh! I didn't think about any of that at all!" She skittered from one shoulder to another, full of nervous energy. "This is so exciting! It's like we're in a dramatic thriller! Just don't fall in love with me, I'm not into lumpy elf girls."
Axl snorted. "I'll try to restrain myself."
Seeing as he got a potentially large windfall from the dead orc, Axl placed his body inside a fallen, hollowed-out trunk, covered by the red cloak he'd previously looted from Piril's streets. Moxlin wanted to extract his bones, but Axl felt uneasy at the idea and managed to convince her to hold off on that, even as she pouted at the waste of F-Grade materials.
As much as his thoughts softened on the idea of seeking out other cultivators, he certainly didn't want to do this just yet. Seeing what the dead orc had in his ring would give him a sense of how strong he was, as well as possibly give him and Moxlin more tools to increase their survivability. He also wanted to perhaps meet solo cultivators first, or at most small groups, not only to get a sense of how he stacked up against them, but also what their response would be.
This plan was bolstered by the fact they'd passed two more instances of improvised housing, both snuggled against the far more frequent stone ruins. One he didn't even notice until he was practically on top of it, since it was just a fire pit next to a filthy sleeping bag overgrown with weeds. But the second was a surprisingly well-constructed little hut, even looking like it had a fresh coat of paint on it, but it was empty inside. This meant that cultivators were unlikely to be very spread out, and bumping into them was just a matter of time.
Axl was reassured by this, in a way, since it meant he had more chances to get information on the metal dryad he needed to finish Terrania's quest. He only hoped that metal dryads weren't as common as wood-elves or orcs, since Nox didn't imprint on him an image of his target like she did with Puppy.
The abandoned hut barely out of sight, a creature erupted from behind a sickly bush, an endless line of insectoid legs looming over Axl. Two massive fangs snapped shut right in front of him as he stepped back, drawing his sword, a spattering of the green liquid coating the vicious fangs burning his skin.
A centipede rose nearly three meters into the air, its body bending in a tight, efficient arc, and the pair of fangs descended for another strike.