Chapter 1803 Third Island [6]
Traveling was becoming easier by the day.
When crossing oceans, "distance" could be negated. Unfortunately, this strategy only worked if one knew one's destination exactly, so it wasn't practical for a journey like this one.
On the second island, people walked. Here, there was more development and change so people had vehicles and mounts. It also became more possible to traverse the lands by canceling distance in increments. Because there were always small towns within sight, one could go from place to place and make judgements more easily.
It was the benefit of a populated island.
Nevertheless, Damien didn't cancel distance to move. It was the most similar method to teleportation, so he could use it more efficiently than the average person, but it was also too much work. Why would he take the difficult approach when there were far easier methods?
As Damien was a wanderer, nobody was going to challenge him. He would have a relatively peaceful journey to the Earth Temple as long as he didn't run into stray beasts or living creations that other people accidentally let loose.
At a time like this, he figured that a road trip to see the sights would be better. He was going to enjoy this place as his current self, but even his current self quite liked the atmosphere of the third island.
It felt more like home. It was a real society, so of course Damien was going to explore it sufficiently in the time he spent as a part of it.
The third island had an established road system going through every city and town on its surface. Damien didn't know exactly where he was going, but getting lost and stopping in random towns to interact with the people and find his way was part of the fun.
Well, to be more precise, it was training to get a little better at small talk before he arrived at the temple. But that was something Damien would never admit.
'...it has to be a car.'
There were vehicles being sold by the denizens of this land, but none of them appealed to him.
When it came to land transport...
'...it has to be a car.'
Damien wasn't particularly a car geek, but he did love to drive for the little time that he was able to. He had experienced many vehicles over the years, of which his absolute favorite were some of the starships in Grand Heavens Boundary, but obviously those wouldn't be useful here.
Genuinely, Damien hadn't found a more entertaining form of land vehicle than the cars of Earth.
'That really says something about my homeworld's creativity.'
Maybe some of it came from the fact that it was a new world created and built by an Unrecorded, but the achievements of humanity belonged to only them.
Damien scoffed in amazement as he stared up at the temple above.
'Nobody would ever think that this entire structure is mechanical.'
It made sense that they used an earthen column considering...well, Earth Temple, but they knew just as well as anyone else that raising it to such a height only made it inconvenient to reach.
In reality, the temple on top of the column was mostly for show.
The highest authorities and the Temple Master lived there, but the member residences, facilities, and everything else existed within the column itself.
The doors leading inside were themed to match the column. They were comically massive dirt and moss-covered behemoth pieces of stone that acted as sliding doors.
Only when they receded could one see the technological nature of the column's interior.
Damien walked in, staring up at the ceiling that was too far away to even be seen through normal means.
The entire circumference was populated with over a hundred different floors, but the central area remained hollow for most of the column's structure for the sake of a mystical lobby experience like the one Damien was having.
After being in operation for so long, the systems of these kinds of buildings had long been established, and a job system had been made for the normal residents of the island. Damien approached a front desk area where several attendants were dealing with the people who had business in the tower.
'That being said, there are more people than expected.'
People who wanted to return to battle, people who grew up in this realm and were only now entering temples and partaking in the island trial, and even newcomers from the second island who didn't have as efficient methods of transportation as Damien.
It seemed that the island's population was far more robust than he originally expected.
'And, I guess I'm about to be treated like a rookie again, huh?'
In order to become a member of the temple, Damien had to go through a test given by its staff.
However, thinking that he was going to be treated like a rookie was a bit much.
After all, even if it was a procedure that he hadn't experienced since he was weaker, he wasn't currently weak enough to have to suffer through it.
Just like everything else, he would be fine breezing through this test.
In fact, it was the Earth Temple that had to be thankful that he decided to choose them!