Chapter 43 The Overbal Canyon
On a world very far from Taprisha, a roughly 60 meters tall lion, with a beautiful mane that flowed with golden light stood, its head raised forward. The lion had powerful, blue eyes that were full of depth, a faint color emanating from within them. Its fur was luxurious, faint sparkles of white light flowing from it. A majestic air of dominance and power rolled after this fantastic beast in devastating waves, distorting the air itself.
This lion currently stood upon what had once been a large mountain peak. A flat, even surface was all that remained, the top of the roughly three thousand meters tall mountain long since hewn off, many years prior.
"Why do you think we are alive?" A rich, enthralling voice rang out from the Divine Golden Lion, causing the air to shiver.
Another damaged peak, its top portion sliced off to mirror the peak the lion was upon, stood opposite the first. Around these two peaks was a large, empty desert, covered in drifting sands.
A massive beast, extremely vast in scale, lay upon this mountain, staring at the lion.
Its body was huge, thousands upon thousands of meters long, wrapping around the mountain several times. It was shaped like a vast, enormous snake, with a white, scaled underbelly, but golden fur covering its upper half. A pair of large, feathered white wings emerged prominently from the top portion of its long body, currently pulled in tightly. The mouth, and face, of this creature were a pale white, and draconic in nature.
This was a beast long forgotten from this world. A Heavenly Quetzalcoatl, or Heavenly Feathered Serpent as it was known.
(Example image – https://i.imgur.com/lNz75N5.jpg)
The Quetzalcoatl did not answer, but instead merely flicked its tongue out and back in, its attention perfectly focused on the lion before it.
"Fourthborn…" The lion sighed, its eyes turning more focused,
"I have decided to take a name for myself. No longer shall I be known as Secondborn." The lion continued to speak aloud,
"If I am to live in this world, I will fulfill the purpose our Father created for us. I will become the perfect being."
"Not for Father. But by my own will. To reach the culmination of existence, to achieve the unknown." The lion went on, his voice filled with charisma,
"We are the explorers, Fourthborn! The ones who will take the steps that lead all of existence forward, to bring forth perfection which has never been seen before, ushering in the new Era of reality in which the impossible is possible!" The lion seemed to smile, its grand vision expanding outward. White light began to fall upon it, as if the heavens themselves were soaring in approval.
"I will exceed the purpose Father set for us. I will not be constrained by any being, not even Father."
"But for that to happen… Fourthborn…" The lion's eyes seemed to dim sadly as it turned to look at the serpent.
"You must become one with me."
"Every title and bloodline given out by Father must return to me."
"I, Zero, demand it."
..
"How about a human, a Myyr Dragon, Great Black Bear, and a Titan?" Dorian queried, nodding his head.
'…No applicable permutations exist.' Ausra replied, her voice concise.
Dorian shrugged, thinking up other combinations.
He was currently standing at the edge of the plateau that housed the city of Potor, many miles from the city proper.
After transforming into the Great Black Bear, Dorian had slept through the night. He'd woken up to a fully transformed and evolved Sky Class bear.
–
-Great Black Bear – Growth Stage: (3/3) Great Bear –
Growth Progress – 2,102/0
–
The wooden legs of his bed had, unfortunately, disagreed with the weight of his bear form, and collapsed in his sleep. Dorian had winced when he saw this. When he'd informed the Innkeeper, a portly old man with a friendly smile, the man had looked at him in astonishment, and then given him a small round of applause and a weird glance.
Dorian had paid for the bed, and ignored the weird look, and left on his way to shop for a few small things.
He tapped his Spatial Ring now, looking at its contents.
In particular, a Cloud in a Bottle, a unique type of magic artifact.
The artifact was expensive, costing him nearly 5,000 gold mints, halving his fortune.
There were three main ways to get around Taprisha.
The first was reserved for those less well off. Physically traveling through the bottoms of the oceans of nothingness by taking some of the stone paths hewn into the side of the giant plateau.
Many would travel to the depths looking for fortune, hunting down natural treasures or Magic Herbs spawned by the laws of the universe. You could also encounter powerful beasts in the depths, proving an ample supply of food, blood, and hide, creating a thriving economy.
The second way to get around involved using many of the forms of transport offered by several competing organizations. The Grand Wind Alliance, the Potor Space Wizards Association, the Graphal Merchant Group, several different companies offered flying transport options to any of the nearby islands, for a price of course.
Some of the spells they cast could move hundreds or even thousands of people at once, proving a viable method of transport to areas that were high in natural resources or beasts, safer than the dangerous empty ocean floor.
The last method of transport was reserved for the wealthy. Using your own means to get around. Whether that meant through personal spells, trained beasts, or magic artifacts.
The Cloud in a Bottle that Dorian had purchased was a magic artifact hewn from Darkiron, a type of metal extremely conducive towards magic energy. A Wizard that studied Cloud Magic worked with craftsmen to cast the spell Cloud Levitate on the bottle, and store it there. Through some arcane process that Dorian wasn't familiar with, this artifact could repeatedly cast the spell Cloud Levitate.
The artifact was reusable, with a short cooldown time. It would let you float upward or downward at a decent rate, and move slowly forward or backward.
While it had been expensive, Dorian had thought it worth the price, just to have it as an option if he ever needed it, and to provide cover for him if he ever needed to hide or act like a humanoid.
Dorian pulled out the Cloud in a Bottle, glancing it over. It was, unsurprisingly, shaped like a bottle, but one made out of a black metal. Strange symbols were carved into it with magic, and a large cloud could be seen, painted on the sign in dark blue.
"Cloud Levitate." He said aloud, activating the artifact.
Immediately, a small white cloud began to stream out of the bottle. Dorian felt an innate connection form between his soul and this cloud, as it came under his full control.
"Woah!" He muttered, feeling the strange flow of the cloud's energy. He instinctively knew how to operate and control it.
He smiled, and then looked out at the vast ocean of nothingness.
From so many miles above he could make out virtually nothing on the ground floor, deep and far below. Faint white fog formed about a mile or so down, obscuring his vision.
About a mile off to his left, he could see a group of miners taking one of the hundreds of stone pathways that had been carved into the side of the plateau over the years. There were several rare metal mines down below, owned and guarded by various groups.
He took a deep breath, quashing the small seed of nervousness in his heart, and then took a few steps backwards. He smiled once more as he looked forward.
Without a step of hesitation, Dorian broke into a sprint and hurled himself off the edge of the cliff, into the vast ocean of nothingness below.
"WOOOOOHOOOOO!" Dorian couldn't help but yell out as he rushed through the air in his humanoid form. The feeling of air rushing past him was exhilaration, especially given the unknown nature of the floor below.
A few of the people in earshot scaling down the cliff-face gave him odd looks.
Dorian continued to dive downward, keeping the Cloud in a Bottle cloud clung closely to his body. To any of the people nearby, he would seem like a wealthy human diving downwards using magic, nothing out of the ordinary.
From what Dorian had gathered, the bottom of the oceans of nothingness was around two miles below the visible fog. His body rapidly hurtled towards this fog, almost embracing it.
After a few more seconds of free fall, Dorian entered the foggy area. As he did so, he put away the Cloud in a Bottle, the protective clouds around his body vanishing.
'Ausra, combine my Myyr Dragon and Titan bloodlines and transform me into the Giant Myyr Dragon.' He mentally commanded, a grin appearing on his face.
A moment later and his body began to transform. His arms and legs began to elongate, densely packed scales starting to cover him. It took only an instant for his body to expand, from his normal human height of just under two meters to a massive, hulking 6 and a half meters tall.
Luscious green scales shined dimly in the fog as he finished his transformation, becoming a Giant Myyr Dragon. The process had only taken a single second at most.
"Woah!" Dorian felt the wind whip around his much larger body as he spread out his wings, slowly forcing himself upright. As he did so, he felt a cool, refreshing sensation swarm his mind.
–
-Giant Myyr Dragon – Growth Stage: (4/4) Elder Giant Myyr Dragon –
Growth Progress – 102/0
–
Dorian – Soul Status
Soul Stage: Pseudo-Lord Class
Health: Perfect
Maximum Energy: 1,451/1,452
–
He had successfully become a Giant Myyr Dragon. Even better, there didn't seem to be a soul adaption period needed, and the bloodline was fully grown. It did, however, cost him roughly 2,000 points of energy.
'Ausra..?' The question in his mind was implied.
'When transforming into forms you have created from bloodlines you mastered, your soul will not need to adapt. You have already adapted to the base forms, the hybrid forms are merely an expression of the base. You can always revert back to the base bloodlines. Each form, however, will require a certain amount of energy.' Her answer was succinct.
Dorian soared forward, the wind rushing behind him as he managed a steady gliding speed. He felt himself be drawn forward, floating out into the unknown.
Well, it wasn't quite the unknown anymore. Dorian called up a mental image of a map he'd purchased and subsequently memorized.
He was headed towards a wide canyon found on the floor of the oceans of nothingness, intent on testing out his Giant Myyr Dragon form, to see how powerful he truly was.
After he woke up, he had run through all the simulations of possible combinations of the bloodlines he had mastered.
He had found out, to his surprise, that his human form, the one he thought the weakest, was the one that could combine the most times. According to Ausra, humans had the most adaptive body in the 30,000 Worlds in terms of reacting or combining into one thing or another. It was part of why humans had become so widespread, among other reasons.
There weren't any surprise Abilities or particularly powerful forms among any of the other combinations he tried. With the addition of his Great Black Bear, he was able to create a Scaled Black Bear, a Giant Black Bear, and a Black Bearman, but none of those forms stood out. All of them were limited to the Sky Class, with the exception of the Giant Black Bear which just barely reached the Master Class.
He'd tried combining more than 2 bloodlines, and found that it was possible, but none of the bloodlines he had right now created anything interesting. Only his human form could merge with two of his other bloodlines, and even then, he only managed to create weak Earth Class forms.
For the next form he would Evolve into to grow its bloodline, Dorian was currently stuck between two choices.
On the one hand, he wanted to pick the Fire Elemental so he could take his first steps into studying magic.
On the other hand, Evolving into a Black Ambian Eagle would give him the ability to have a form that could fly freely, a huge perk.
He decided to make his choice between the two later, after testing out his new Giant Myyr Dragon form.
A minute passed as Dorian soared through the air, gliding quite a distance. The fog around him gradually began to fade away, dissipating as he went lower and lower. The fog only existed in the middle of the oceans of nothingness. The bottom and top halves were completely mist free.
Down below, Dorian could make out an unusual landscape.
A long river streamed through what looked like cracked, broken earth, moving off into the distance. Tens of thousands of odd, grey trees with pale leaves dotted the earthen floor, giving the land an odd appearance.
Several hundred huge, jutting mountains could be seen, out in front of him on his left. They were shaped like hexagonal cylinders, shooting off from the ground several hundred meters in the air.
He saw the forms of several different types of beasts moving through the forest or on the collection of jutting mountains. It seemed that, despite the danger, the ground floor of the oceans of nothingness was quite populated.
He craned his neck backward, looking to his rear.
A massive, huge wall of stone greeted him, dotted with thousands of wooden or stone carved structures.
The 'island' that Potor City was located on was actually an enormous plateau. Over the tens of thousands of years of its existence, hundreds of stone pathways had been carved all the way down to the ground floor. Many large structures had been installed near the ground floor or a few dozen or hundred meters above it. Merchant shops for the workers or fighters scavenging the ground, healing stations, restaurants, tool shops, and more.
He could also make out a line of people moving towards one particular mountainous area, a well-worn path carved into the ground and through the forest towards it. One of the rare metal mines.
Such an unusual, fantastic world.
Dorian turned his head back forwards, however, as his eyes rested upon a large collection of very wide cracks in the earth, past the collection of jutting mountains.
The Overbal Canyon.
One of the most dangerous zones close to Potor City, it was a huge, thirty-mile wide canyon. Several small oases could be found throughout the canyon, and rare Magic Herbs or other natural treasures were found relatively commonly here.
All the Magic Herbs Dorian had ever seen were relatively normal. Some were unusual or exotic, but he had never seen any Magic Herbs that could be called a natural treasure. Those were ones that were imbued with the laws of the universe and had exceedingly strange properties.
This was mostly because Magic Herbs of that nature were extremely rare, and the Elder Mage he had received his initial collection of Magic Herbs from had used up any rare ones he obtained, over the years.
Some Magic Herbs could go for tens of thousands of gold mints in price, even millions of mints.
Dorian soared towards the canyon, his body gradually tilting downward as he covered the miles. The widespread forest began to become larger and larger in his eyes as he fell close to it, his momentum slowing.
Soon he was almost touching the tops of the trees he was passing over.
CRASH
Dorian's large draconic form knocked over a dozen of the grey wooden trees as he crashed down hard, unable to find an opening. He heard a few panicked yelps of wild animals fleeing as he landed, throwing up a spray of dirt and rock.
He was about a mile and half off from the large canyon, not too shabby for a mostly blind first jump.
Dorian's eyes flashed as he moved forward, his dragon body rampaging through the forest towards the canyon.
..
Several miles to the west of Dorian, traveling down one of the well-worn paths towards the Overbal Canyon, a large group of vampires, Aethmen, and humans could be seen.
The men and women in this group all wore dark grey leather armor or robes, clothes that were designed to blend in with the pale color of nature down here on the floors of the oceans of nothingness.
Two vampires seemed to be in charge, leading this group. Both of them were warriors, wearing dark leather armor. One a male, and one a female.
The man had the usual elegant appearance most vampires had, the only thing marring it was his clearly many-times broken nose. The female vampire had several long, curled scars tugging at her lips, her dark black hair wrapped in a tight bun.
"Who do you think killed the City Lord, Rathven? Which of the Palace Owners do you think will take control? None of them are fully Lord Class yet." The woman asked, scanning the surroundings as she moved forward. Her voice was filled with an undercurrent of worry.
The male warrior shrugged,
"It's not for us Hunters to judge or decide. All we need to do is search for that Golden Fruit that supposedly appeared."
The man's eyes tightened as he looked off to the east, where the sounds of a large beast crashing through the forest could faintly be heard.
"Let's keep moving."
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Author's Edits: All Anomaly names will go by "Numberborn" instead of "NumberBorn" like previously.
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