I Am Heading Northeast

Why didn’t Antenora ask anything about me?

That was the lone thought which occupied my head as the two of us made our way out of the forest and back to the campsite.

Lucrezia gave me a questioning glance as I entered the clearing. I nodded, telling her that it was something we’d have to talk about as a group after the whole conversation with the librarian was done.

I made my way to the librarian who was still trussed up and tied to a tree, squatting down in front of her. She sneered at me, but the expression was somewhat diminished by the haphazard gag that Priya had stuffed into her mouth after she woke up.

I immediately used [Devouring Healing] once I was close enough to her. She probably couldn’t cast magic since she hadn’t done it already, but it didn’t hurt to be careful.

“I’d say good morning, but I guess it’s still a few hours before the sun comes up. You gonna behave if we take out that gag?”

The librarian girl nodded begrudgingly, probably because she couldn’t feel even a smidge of mana after I approached. At least the sneer had dropped from her face, though.

After I removed the gag, she immediately had the bright idea to spit at me.

Unfortunately for her, thanks to my great dexterity stat, I saw it coming from a mile away and simply tilted my head to the side. Miss me with that shit.

I promptly slapped the librarian afterward. “Try that shit again and you’re going back to sleep.”

She tried to look away, but I quickly caught her chin and forced her to look into my eyes, holding her gaze until I was sure that she understood my message.

Well, we’re off to a great start.

“Good. First, what’s your name?”

“...Liandra.”

“Alright, Liandra. I’m going to make this pretty short and simple. I need to find someone that your cult is holding prisoner, and she’s at the ‘Precipice of Night.’ Where the hell’s that?”

Liandra laughed. “Even if I told you, you’d never get in. None of you possess a Mark of Agunta.”

Huh... So the Mark of Agunta was more than just a tool to control people. I guess it makes sense to use that as the ‘key.’

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll just break through whatever barriers you assholes’ve set up.”

“Hah! I’d like to see you try, heretic!”

I raised an eyebrow. “If you’re that confident, then you won’t mind telling us where it’s located, yeah?”

“If that’s your best attempt at baiting information out of me, then you’ll have to do better.”

“No, not really. I just thought you’d prefer giving us the location willingly rather than have us forcibly extract it from your memories.”

“W-What!?”

I leaned in toward her, my gaze unwavering. “Do you think I’m joking?”

Liandra held my gaze for a few moments before her eyes dropped to the ground.

“...Alright.”

Phew! Thank fuck my bluff there worked! I really didn’t know what extent Antenora’s telepathy reached, but I was pretty sure she couldn’t launch such high-level mental attacks yet.

It turns out that the Precipice of Night was just a fancy name for a mountain that sat northeast of here. It was beyond Juryez and closer to the Fissure, and the mountain range containing the library we’d just broken into was connected to it.

The mountain was the home of the Black Constellation’s main temple and subsequently, their headquarters.

“What do you even hope to accomplish by going to the Precipice of Night? You’re just delivering the offering vessel right into our hands, you fool.”

That was what Liandra told us after divulging the location of the Precipice of Night, but I wasn’t about to tell her that we were searching for Aurelia. It didn’t seem like Liandra knew about Lucrezia’s sister anyway.

“It’ll take us around three days to reach the mountain. Perhaps two if we killed the girl.” Antenora said.

“We need her to get through the barrier. I said that I’d break through it, but I don’t want to take any chances. If it’s some shit like [Gallant Order], we’ll be shit outta luck.”

Lucrezia nodded in agreement. “I simply wish to reunite with Aurelia again... If we must take the girl, then so be it.”

Antenora sighed, rubbing her temples. “Fine. Let’s get moving, then.”

“We aren’t going to wait for the sun to come up?” Priya asked.

“Why would we? We can see in the dark.”

“I just thought it’d be safer, you know?”

“I think it’s safer at night, actually.” I interjected. “Humans normally can’t see in the dark, and most travelers will be sleeping at this time. We’ve still got around an hour before the sun’s up, so let’s get moving.”

With that, we packed up our belongings and the shelter and started on the road once more. While we walked, I had a bit of time to think.

The way we were traveling now wasn’t exactly tiring. At least, not for me. But when we finally reunited with Aurelia, the tiny ass shelters weren’t going to cut it. It was time to consider acquiring a mount, or more conveniently, something like an extradimensional storage ring.

There was a skill in the rulebook which allowed me to reproduce the same effect, but I hadn’t gained any levels lately and it didn’t look like I was going to unless we found a dragon or something.

Unless...

My brow drew together in contemplation. I’d managed to find a way to abuse the system in order to raise everyone’s skills, so why couldn’t I do the same thing for levels?

According to the rulebook, gaining levels depended on the difficulty of the fight. Whereas I had originally taken this to mean that I needed to fight something far stronger than me, it wasn’t entirely true.

While that would’ve been a valid answer, it was by no means the only answer. So long as the fight was difficult for me, I would be able to gain levels.

The only problem was how difficulty was determined by the system. The rulebook didn’t provide much insight into that, and using [Complete Analysis] just gave me a complicated formula that I couldn’t understand.

Either way, I doubted that I could just tie myself up and fight slimes with only headbutts. I’d still be killing them in one hit.

I sighed.

I’ll think about it when we make camp.