Vol. 3 Chap. 124 The Sea of Trees

Vol. 3 Chap. 124 The Sea of Trees

Truth glared at the forest draping itself around the Great White Mountain. It looked fine. He didnt trust a single splinter of it. The memories of Happori Village and the deep, multilayered defenses around it were firmly lodged in his memory.

Oh, happy thought- the magic storm must be playing absolute hell with their golems and talisman defenses. He couldnt see the evidence of that from kilometers away, but it seemed almost certain. The happy thought was replaced by an unhappy one- what if the forest was outside the affected area?

Only one way to find out. He sighed, and trudged on. At roughly sixty kilometers an hour. Body cultivation remained fun. Although Truth did notice that his shoes lasted considerably longer if he ran barefoot. His skin held up better than the rubber.

The forests were nice. He guessed they were mostly pine with some other evergreens mixed in. Or whatever you called trees with narrow, needle-like leaves instead of wide, flat leaves. Fir? Oak? Truth had considered adding Trees to the pile of things to research, and had firmly decided against it. The pile was too big already. Adding anything else was just masochism.

He tried to remember anything relevant about the forest around Great White Mountain and drew a complete blank. They were always just backdrop on pictures. Apparently the nations founders descended on the mountain, and when the Founding King stood at the summit, rainbows appeared that covered the whole sky as a noble phoenix landed on his arm and paid him homage.

The king then swung his sword and split apart the clouds for ten thousand kilometers, jumped from the top of the volcano to the bottom in a single leap, ate an entire cow, memorized twenty books of poetry without even opening them and learned every language in the world as soon as he heard a single word spoken. He then got married to the phoenix and fathered forty flame haired sons and daughters by her, each of which was a heartbreaking beauty and the most thunderously powerful of mages. It was just possible that the stories had been exaggerated, but Hell, Truth had seen some weird shit. Maybe that actually happened.

The last king of Jeon Truth struggled. He was sure he had heard something about him.

>

Rough.

>

Truth nodded. Meh summed up his feelings about it too.

Any insight on the forest?

>

Thanks.

There were a half dozen crossings between Minzu and Wieyon, many of them in sight of each other. And there were dozens of villages just like this dotting the Ulay, if not a hundred. This one bridge just didnt rate that much attention.

He eased his way along the underside of the bridge anyway. Its not like he couldnt hang on just fine, and there were fewer recording talismans down there. Just in case.

One act of illegal immigration later, he was trotting through Wieyon. It was unsurprisingly similar to Minzu. The signs were in different languages, but that was about it. He had the sneaking suspicion that most of the border guards forgot to ask for passports or ID most of the time. It seemed like that kind of place.

A lot of people standing around in front of their houses, or rushing back and forth from the shops. Trying to hide their purchases. He might be out of luck on the street food. There were moving carriages, and lights and things, so clearly the storm had missed this place. This was fear buying, then. Justified fear, but still fear buying.

The dead drop was supposed to be an overturned flower pot in front of a yellow painted house at a certain intersection. The house was there. The flowerpot was not. Truth looked around. For what, he didnt know. He didnt want to hang around in Jeon. No reason he could put his finger on, just he didnt feel safe. So he spun on his heel and ran back across the border.

There was no sudden explosion of hidden police, or fast moving watchers, or anything to justify his paranoia. Still. He felt much safer here amongst strangers.

He traced the distance from where he was to the caldera of Great White Mountain in his road atlas. Interestingly, while there was a reasonably direct road on the Jeon side of the border, you basically had to loop around the whole mountain and come from the north to access it on the Onis side. No reason he could see for that, so it was probably down to the terrain being too rugged. The loop around turned a roughly hundred kilometer journey into a two hundred and fifty kilometer journey.

Hell with it. He had run cross country often enough. He would enjoy the novel experience of doing it while wearing pants.

I wanted to be a talisman maintenance tech. I want that clearly established. And sure, NOW it looks like the job has a limited future, but in the short term, Id never be short of work. But no. No, I get to be the guy who runs naked through forests.

Truth was muttering. He didnt expect anyone to answer him, and his expectation was met. In the face of mass indifference, he set off to find a place to sleep. It was still early, but it had been a tiring day.

He wandered the long row apartment buildings. Identical building after identical building. Nicer than the one he grew up in, by miles. Only about four stories tall, with a lot more light coming in. No visible evidence of gangs either. So that was nice. He would still prefer not to sleep on someones floor. Somewhere, there would be a hotel. Hed skip the luxury suite this time, and just find an empty room.

The room he wound up taking was utterly adequate. Not fancy. Not exquisite or anything. Just clean, comfortable, and quiet. The whole hotel was pretty empty. It seemed that whatever travelers might have been staying there had all left. He was able to score more pre-cooked food from the local convenience stores, and it continued to be fine. He had the nagging feeling it could be great, but the essential convenience store nature of what he was eating was dragging it down.

Truth lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. If the dead drop wasnt ready for pickup tomorrow, hed scout the sea of trees regardless, then come back in the evening. There was a feeling of pressure building up. Like a coming storm, or waiting for dad to come home. The peace was an illusion. The madness and pain he felt in his little tomb- that was real. That was life in an apocalypse. Hiding in your little hole, suffering, and glad you werent suffering worse.

He laughed at himself again. Turning morbid. He would be turning mean again, soon. He didnt want that. He was the fool- a hero on a quest to save the damsel in distress. That he helped keep in distress, but he wouldnt dwell on that. He closed his eyes, and remembered the warmth of watching Pitz with Etenesh and Jember. The sheer animal joy of letting his iron horse run through the deserts and mountains.

He remembered how sweet Etenesh tasted, and how warm she made him feel. It had been a bad day. He fell asleep smiling anyway.