Risen World

Chapter 203: Uhhhh...How about we stay Away from That Area for Now

After they had figured out that Nibbles could help them build any underground area that they needed all of the architects got to work on getting the town put together. First they had Nibbles clear out the underground areas that they would need before allowing Lilly to put him away. In the end they only needed two or three areas like that so it didn't take long for Nibbles work to come to an end and the little prairie dog passed out the moment he was done, letting Lilly put him away into her soul realm.

The rest of the work was handled by a combination of the system and the robots alongside the architects that were giving the robots commands on what to do if there was something specific that they were after. Joshua's group didn't stick around for too long once things got going knowing full well that they needed to get back to grinding levels instead of sitting around and just watching. It was fun and all, but outside of Julia none of them really had any goal to actually learn how to do any of the stuff they were seeing on a professional level. Henry did a bit of planning for fun, but that was it. He didn't plan on getting it as a sub-job in the future or anything so it was time for them to head out. Julia was sticking back until the rest of her group came along for them to start grinding again as well.

When they got to the gate at the back of town they made sure that everyone in the group had a mount to carry them all the way to the prairie area without any trouble. Adrian, Aito, and Henry still had to register with a mount of their own since they hadn't at this point. Once the mount was registered they could summon them at any time as long as they were inside one of their own territories. Otherwise they'd actually have to partner with the creature if they wanted to be able to summon them anywhere and everywhere. Henry and Aito both stuck with mares as their mounts for now, but Adrian of course tried to get the next strongest stallion to the one that Joshua was riding. It took a while for Adrian to get it under control as it reared around and tried to knock him off of its back, but eventually he was able to tame the beast and get its approval.

With all things settled in town the group decided to make their way towards the wild dog forest at the start of the mountain range enclosed area. They would pass through it quickly on horseback before making their way over to the prairie area. The forest wasn't too large so it wouldn't take very long for them to pass through it, but the prairie on the other hand was enormous. Joshua and Lilly weren't able to explore the entire place the last time they came to find the dungeon in the area. So the entire group didn't have a good idea of how spread out the areas they would need to search through would be. All they knew for sure was if they kept heading in the same direction passed the dungeon in the prairie they would eventually find a new area to explore.

The reason they decided to go on horseback was so that Joshua and Lilly could show off the areas near town instead of just skipping directly to the dungeon in the middle of the prairie via a portal. They would need the horses to explore the rest of the prairie anyways seeing as the entire territory was available to them. It didn't take them to long to pass through the wild dog forest in front of the prairie since they were riding on horses. Of course Joshua made sure they avoided any groups of dogs so that Lilly wouldn't get the urge to go and try to tame some of them the moment she saw a pack running around nearby.

It only took twenty or so minutes on horseback to make it clean through the forest and then they all came into view of the prairie that was far more open and free. It allowed their horses to move at a faster pace since they didn't have to constantly avoid trees everywhere they went. Of course they came across some herds of horses that watched them pass by with weird looks. The horses would just subtly move away from them while being wary of them the entire time they were nearby. One time Adrian tried to approach them on horseback, but the stallion of the herd started to flare its nostrils at him to warn him away.

From there it took about an hour for them to reach all the way to the dungeon of the prairie before they passed by it while avoiding any of the prairie dog holes they had come across in the area. Joshua new those things were tenacious and would try to chase his group down if given the chance, so he made sure to use an aura pulse to keep a look out for any of them close enough to be attracted to his group. He would then angle them around the trouble while also making sure the horses didn't get their legs caught up in a hole as well. Soon they were in uncharted waters as the prairie seemed to continue to stretch out in every direction so they kept pushing their way straight ahead. The creatures in the area were still way to low leveled to be a challenge so they didn't bother stopping to take on any of the prairie dogs they saw off in the distance.

It took almost another couple hours of a light jog through the area to finally come across something that stood out from the rest of the prairie. It was something that Joshua had come across before when he first started out as an explorer back in the beginner area. They halted their horses as they came to the edge of what looked like a large ravine. It was similar to the cliff that separated the marsh and the beginner's area. The only reason something like this would appear would be because it was a natural part of the land like the Grand Canyon had been, or it was created in the world change as a barrier between two extremely different leveled areas. Joshua was willing to bet that the side they were currently on was definitely lower leveled than the one they were hoping to get to.

"Well what exactly are we supposed to do about this?" Adrian asked as he hoped off his horse with everyone else soon following suit. "I mean seeing as how it goes pretty much as far as the eye can see I doubt we'll find a bridge to get across anywhere nearby."

"If I had to guess the area at the base of the canyon is probably its own territory that we might have to check out in the future." Joshua said as he looked over the edge. "If that's the case then it's probably expected for us to climb down explore that space and then climb back up."

"Makes sense, but I think we should map out the areas we plan to check out first before fully exploring any big zones like the canyon down there." Henry said getting a nod from the others.

"That being the case it would be best if we can get across without going all the way down into the canyon right?" Lilly asked as she patted her horse. "Thanks for carrying us all this way now you can have a long rest." Lilly dismissed her horse now that they were in an area where they couldn't continue to use them. The second they went down into the canyon or across to the other side of the prairie they would be outside of all of the territory they officially owned according to the system and that would mean everyone except Lilly could no longer use mounts. Everyone else followed her example and dismissed the horses before Henry decided to respond to her question.

"Well I have a pretty good idea of how to get across without too much trouble, but once we reach the other side we all have to be prepared for coming across far more powerful creatures. Understand?" He said before casting a spell on each person in the group. "This spell will make you as light as a feather while I use a low level wind spell to get us across the canyon."

"You sure seem to know a lot of interesting little spells Henry. Most Mages I know try to focus on a specific type of spell." Amy said as she seemed excited at the prospect of flying across the canyon.

"Well you can learn every spell you come across if you want to as long as you have sufficient mana and it isn't a job locked ability or skill of some sort. I learn them all I just don't plan on leveling them all up, but even so they can be used in little ways like this from time to time." Henry replied as he casted the feather weight spell on everyone. Joshua and Lilly could already do this on their own with their scarf and cloak respectively, but they allowed Henry to cast the spell anyways. Soon they were all testing out the lightness of their bodies before Henry waived them over.

"Guess you're going to cast the spell after we jump?" Joshua asked turning to look at Henry. Luckily for the group as long as they had the feather weight spell on them they could just float down if they missed the jump, but it wouldn't be nice to end up in some new region where they had no idea how strong things were all the way at the bottom of a canyon.

"Yep, it'll push us the rest of the way across." Henry said as everyone got prepared to take the leap. Joshua was the first one to charge ahead and take the leap of faith with the others starting to follow his example. Even without another spell cast by Henry Joshua could tell it would take a while before he would float down to the bottom of the canyon, but luckily he didn't have to find out how long as a large breeze of wind pushed him from behind and sent him soaring across the canyon. He landed with a roll into the high grass and turned around to see how the others were doing. Amy of course was the next one to land as she shouted with joy the entire flight across. She was all smiles after landing and looked like she couldn't wait to do that again whenever they decided to cross the ravine again.

The rest of the group soon arrived and they all stayed together as they inspected their surroundings for a moment. It looked almost exactly the same as the other side with nothing, but rolling heals and tall grass, but with a divide in between Joshua was certain that there had to be some kind of difference that set the two places apart. The group carefully made their way deeper into the new side of the prairie at a slower pace since they didn't have any mounts this time around and it took almost half an hour for them to finally come across something different.

They could hear some kind of clashing happening in the distance as the whole area was shaking as if an earth quake was going off each time the impacts happened. They could tell it was coming from the other side of a hill right in front of them so they made their way over. Joshua made sure not to use his aura pulse and attract the attention of any of the creatures before he knew what they were up against and that idea seemed to be what saved their lives as the sight in front of them scared the life out of them.

Two enormous creatures that looked like giant bulls were ramming into each other with such force that the entire surroundings were shaking and breaking apart. Joshua caught his breath at the sight before observing the creatures to see how powerful they had to be to give off so much pressure in the first place. It was enough pressure to cause most of the group to freeze up at the moment and that would be a death sentence if they got noticed. Both creatures were level eighty-two which meant that they must have wondered into a level eighty-five zone. If they so much as dared fight any of the creatures at their current level no amount of boosting or aura would keep Joshua from being gored to death by the horns on the creatures.

"How about we stay away from here for now. I here Canyons can have interesting beast within them." Adrian said as the entire group slowly backed away out of sight. They all agreed with the idea and made a quick pace back to the canyon to get the hell out of there.