Vol 2 Chapter 172 The Adventure into the Abyss

Rain fell outside the window, a light drizzle pattering against the glass, streaks of water continuously sliding down.

Inside the room, Sylutia flipped through the thick book in her hands, occasionally looking up to glance at the gray, overcast world beyond the window.

It’s been raining for a long time, the young woman thought. But such days are quite peaceful. Because of the rain, the number of travelers and teams coming and going within the town had decreased significantly.

After successfully cultivating the Cornflower, Sylutia’s life had entered a stable phase. Her daily routine roughly consisted of handling routine affairs, tending to the flowers and plants in the garden, reading, taking walks, and studying.

While such a life wasn’t bad, after several months, she also felt it was time to go out for a walk.

During this period, she had learned many new things. It was a pity she had been staying either at home or within the town, with not many opportunities to apply them.

If a skill isn’t put into practical use, once it reaches a certain bottleneck, it becomes extremely difficult to improve further. It was just like forging swords. If one always works behind closed doors and never uses the forged swords in actual combat, one would never know where the problems lie, where improvements can be made, and what is more important and crucial.

Standing up, Sylutia put the book away, then walked down the stairs with light, brisk steps to find an acquaintance in the town.

“Dorothy, are you home?”

Arriving before the closed, pale-colored door, she knocked and waited for a response.

“Hah~ It’s actually Tia.” Yawning, Dorothy emerged from under the covers, the thin blanket slipping from her body.

“Wait a moment, let me put on some clothes.”

After a rustling sound, Dorothy, wearing a fiery red wavy skirt, opened the door and appeared before Tia.

Seeing her immediately reach out to hug her upon opening the door, Sylutia, prepared for this, jumped back.

“Alright, I have something to discuss with you today,” Sylutia reminded her.

“Okay~ (╯▽╰)” Dorothy pretended to be sad, then opened the door wider to let Sylutia in.

After the two entered and sat down, Dorothy casually brought over the unfinished wine from last night, preparing to pour some for herself and Sylutia.

“I don’t drink,” the young woman shook her head repeatedly.

“Ah, Tia is such a good girl,” Dorothy sighed, then lightly shook her brilliant golden hair before fetching a pot of Elf flower nectar from the room, diluting it with water and pouring it for Tia.

“So, what is it? You came specifically to find me.” Dorothy picked up her wine glass, took a sip, then gently swirled the glass and set it down.

“I’m planning to go out for a trip. This time it shouldn’t be too long, but I still need to trouble you to look after the town.”

Most of the members in the town were still at the Second Tier, with only a few having just broken through to the Third Tier. However, their strength wasn’t stable yet, not comparable to this genius Alchemist before her.

“So that’s it. I thought it was something major.” Dorothy blinked, then seemed to remember something.

“Oh, right. Last time, didn’t I ask you to bring me Magnetite Sand and Redstone Iron? At the time, I said I’d make an alchemical item for you. I finished it a few days ago, but I just kept it aside and forgot to give it to you.”

After saying this, she got up again, walked down to the small alchemy workshop on the lower floor, and rummaged around before pulling out a golden sphere larger than a basketball.

“This is the ‘Astrolabe’ I made. It can determine the season and your own geographical location based on the positions of the stars.”

“It’s not very useful within the town. But if you enter a secret realm within the Shadow World for adventure, it can guide your direction. If you ever undertake a long journey across continents in the future, it can also help you with positioning, so you won’t get lost in the vast, thick fog.”

[Ailos Astrolabe] (Fourth Tier · Superior): A positioning astrolabe invented by the famous sage Ailos. Its principle originates from the ancient ‘Star-Gazing School’. Can be used to determine the current season and location, unaffected by fog obscuration.

“Don’t underestimate it. This is different from those cheap, shoddy goods on the market. I put a lot of thought into making it. It can be considered my current masterpiece.” Dorothy wagged her finger as she introduced it.

“Ordinary methods of determining direction are easily disrupted by the special environments within secret realms, as well as the heavy fog in the sea of clouds, which often stretches across nearly a hundred kilometers. Where Mist Shadow Aspects gather, many perception methods fail within it.”

“Last time you mentioned looking for knowledge records of the ‘Star-Gazing School’, I found the design draft from an old book. Although the author wasn’t the original creator either, but rather borrowed from the theories of the ‘Star-Gazing School’, the effect is indeed very good.”

After listening to Dorothy’s description, Sylutia became very interested and placed the golden astrolabe in front of her to examine it carefully.

The golden hollow sphere was etched with outlines of celestial bodies, containing numerous small holes corresponding to different star positions. Inside, there were movable tracks for the sun and moon that could be freely flipped and rotated. At the very center was a completely sealed metal sphere, housing complex mechanical parts, which was also the most important part of the entire astrolabe.

It was evident that creating this item was extremely intricate, requiring constant adjustment and calibration of star positions. Probably many attempts were made before one succeeded. No wonder Dorothy was so proud of it.

“Thank you.” Sylutia carefully picked up the astrolabe and stored it safely within her manor.

After finishing the discussion about arrangements for town affairs, Dorothy asked Sylutia where she wanted to go.

“Well, I plan to go deep into the Darkmist Mountains.”

Compared to the secret realms near other garrisons, the resources deep within the Darkmist Mountains would be more abundant, but of course, also more dangerous. At minimum, a Third Tier Transcendent was required to go there for exploration.

In fact, for such dangerous regions, it was generally the frontline garrisons that organized specialized teams for pioneering, determining the general situation before allowing other apprentices and Transcendents to set foot within.

“So it’s that place.” Dorothy seemed to recall something.

“Speaking of which, you’ve been at the Darkmist Mountains for 2 years now. It would indeed be a bit of a regret if you didn’t explore inside. But are you going alone? How about finding a team?”

“No need, I’ll go take a look by myself first,” the young woman shook her head.

She currently had many secrets on her person, which weren’t suitable for public exposure. Teaming up with others would only tie her hands.

“Don’t worry, I still have some life-preserving methods. I was originally worried about possibly getting lost inside, but with the astrolabe you just gave me, Dorothy, I don’t need to fear that anymore.”

“Since that’s the case, then I won’t try to persuade you.” Dorothy nodded.

“After you go inside, remember to wear the brooch I gave you too. It can provide warnings when you’re resting.”

“Also, if you encounter monsters you can’t defeat, run away quickly. Absolutely don’t get caught up in the fight. If you don’t come back, I alone probably can’t hold out for very long.”

“Finally, if you find any good stuff, remember to share with me first~”

“Mhm, mhm.” Sylutia responded with a smile.

“I’ll remember Dorothy’s share.”

After leaving Dorothy’s residence, Sylutia met with other core members of the town, gave instructions, and reminded everyone to pay attention to the various issues during the Gale Season.

Finally, she mounted that familiar Windtrust horse and stepped into the wilderness once more.

However, this time, the direction she was heading was towards a region of this land that sloped even more steeply downward, a place like an abyss, beneath the sea of clouds where sunlight never reaches. It harbored many Twilight monsters and retained fragments of land and ruins from ancient times.

And this time, Sylutia intended to test the various abilities she had mastered, to explore the direction and path of her future development. She had a premonition that the peace on this continent wouldn’t last much longer. And in the future, she would eventually embark on the journey to return home, to the First Continent.

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