Dallion woke up well into the night. This was the first time he had slept so well in quite a while. Back on Earth, or even the first days in Nerosal, he would have stretched, then turned to the other side to sleep some more. Ever since he’d started training to be a hunter, his attitude had changed.

Dallion closed his eyes, then slowly counted to ten. Once that was over, he briskly stood up and started his quick training routine. As Vend had told him, it was always wise to go through a quick regimen of exercise in order to boost the improvements provided by the awakened traits. Normally, that would take about ten to fifteen minutes. Thanks to vastly increased traits, Dallion usually finished in less than one.

“You still have a few hours,” Eury said from the neighboring room.

The gorgon had clearly been up all night. Then again, she handled sleep much better than him. When he had first met her, Dallion used to think that she was one of the people that were late to go to bed and late to get up. Now he knew that all that had been an act. Eury tended to stay up all night and only take scattered naps throughout the day, creating the illusion of being a late riser.

“I’m fine,” Dallion said. “Still have to pack.”

There was no reply. When Dallion focused on getting a feeling of the situation, he could feel none—the gorgon must have already put on her blocker ring.

Taking a moment to have a quick wash in the small bathroom of the workshop, he then put some clothes on and went to check on Eury. To little surprise, she was at the workbench, working on an item Dallion wasn’t familiar with. It resembled the wireframe of a gauntlet or a strange hand brace.

“Still feeling down?” Dallion approached. Several of the gorgon’s snakes moved slightly, turning in his direction, but Eury herself didn’t turn around.

“No,” she replied. With her ring on, Dallion had no idea whether she was telling the truth or not. He very much wanted to hug her, but given her mood, it didn’t seem like the best idea. Maybe once all this was over.

“I’ll pack my stuff.”

The snakes on the back of Eury’s head moved in a wave—the “gorgon nod” as Dallion liked to call it. Clearly, she didn’t want to be disturbed. It wasn’t what he had hoped for, but gave Dallion a good opportunity to hide the thread splitter in his boot. Originally, that section had been reserved for the dartbow, but that was rarely used now. Dallion always brought it with him, of course. Having a loaded dartbow had its occasional uses, but it was something that could as well go in his backpack.

Sorry about that, Lux, he said. I’ll make you a new home once this is over.

Great! The firebird chirped, happy as usual.

Better be careful with that, Nil said as Dallion tucked the knife in the holster boot. It’s sharp enough to cut to the bone without you noticing.

Only the handle will touch my skin, Dallion replied. However, he was slightly worried as well.

Even at a slow pace, it took him twenty minutes to get everything ready. Naturally, he included several sets of warm coats. If Nil was to be believed, it was going to get quite cold in the area they were headed. Back on Earth, Dallion’s experience of low temperatures was for the outside to be cold enough for water to freeze. Here, things got considerably colder. The experience on Glass Mountain came to mind. Hopefully, the upcoming winter wasn’t going to be as harsh.

By the time he returned to the main room of the workshop, Eury had finished as well. It was little surprise that her backpack was considerably larger than Dallion’s—or anyone else in the party for that matter. Eury was the group’s forger, and as such, she would occasionally take what was needed for her to reinforce armor on the go. In contrast, Jiroh barely carried anything at all; as a scout she didn’t need to.

“Ready?” Eury asked.

Dallion nodded.

“Let’s go.”

“Didn’t you say we had a few more hours?”

“They were for you. Now that you’re up, there’s no point in wasting them.”

Five of the moons were glowing when the pair left the workshop. Dallion had yet to figure out a pattern. At this point all he could do was trust the common explanation according to which the Moons only glowed if they were interested in what was going on below. It was expected that the Purple Moon would remain mostly hidden, but Dallion was somewhat worried that the Cyan Moon was little more than a circle in the night sky as well.

Without a word, Eury took Dallion through the city, gathering the hunters one by one. All of them already had their blocking items as they joined. Their expression, however, said it all: they were aware that this would be the last hunt for them together.

“We’re still going through the city, right?” Largo said, in typical fashion. However, it was obvious that he had forgotten all grievances he had just a few weeks ago.

“As promised,” Eury said curtly. “City first, rest after.”

“Where’s Ji?”

“Outside.”

That was all that was relevant at that point.

Leaving the city turned out to be slightly more complicated than before. The countess’ soldiers not only did a good job keeping people from coming in, they were twice as strict when people tried leaving, especially at night. Being the only gorgon in the city, Eury was quite well known, as were her links to the overseer. Even so, it took a lot of convincing to let the captain in charge of the garrison to let the party through. Everyone’s emblems were checked and rechecked until finally they were allowed to pass through the gate.

While no one said it out openly, everyone knew that the number of forces wasn’t only due to the fact that the city had become a capital. This was a force build up. The only question was whether the troops were amassing for matters within the province or outside of it.

“The way things are going, we might not be able to get back in when we come back,” Largo whispered.

No one replied, but they shared his fears.

Jiroh was waiting a short distance away on the main trade road to the city. Ever since he’d known her, Dallion had only seen her in casual city attire or strapped in light armor, when circumstances required it. This time, she was wearing a considerable amount of metal armor elements, almost to the point that she resembled March.

From what Dallion could tell, the material was some sort of silver sea iron alloy. Quite an interesting coincidence, without doubt.

“You’re early,” the fury said. “I didn’t think the guards would let you out before morning.”

“Almost didn’t,” Eury said. “What’s the plan?”

“We’ll be heading northwest. We’ll have to cross a few kingdoms, but that shouldn’t be an issue. They’re used to hunters. We move quickly and quietly as a group. We don’t stop unless we have to until we reach the Shell Sea. Then we continue further in."

That sounded logical, if a little vague. When Fevre had told them how to reach the location, he had only given them a direction from the Glass Mount. Hopefully, it was going to be enough.

“Do we pass through Halburn?” Largo asked the obvious question.

“Only on the way back,” the fury replied. It was clear she didn’t want to face her sister before leaving, possibly out of fear that would make her change her mind. Thinking about it, it made sense that she left everything else behind. Burning all bridges ensured she had nothing to go back to. “One other thing,” Jiroh continued. “I’ll be leading this one. Just so you know.”

No one argued against it. Moments later, the party was on its way.

Day and night lost their meaning. Every single moment the group was on the march, walking at a fast pace, all with a single goal in mind. Hunting was avoided, as were groups of people. Guided by Eury, the party went through the wilderness, following almost a straight line. The only food eaten were travel rations, and even that was done while walking.

After five days of non-stop traveling, Jiroh allowed the party to stop for half a day to get some actual rest. Sleep was done in turns, three people at a time, and once over everyone continued walking.

Taking advantage of that brief moment, Dallion proceeded to level up as well as increase his skills a bit. The trial was remarkably easy considering what he had been through the last time: a straightforward fight against a horde of creatures, focusing on his use of abilities. The battle itself was exhausting, requiring Dallion to use every trick he had learned, however, there wasn’t any mental anguish to be felt. With that, Dallion reached his target number of twenty-five perception, leaving him to focus on other traits.

Dallion also took advantage to spend a few true time weeks learning the nymph and dryad languages. In both cases, he was told that it would be better if he focused his efforts on one of them, but he refused to listen out of stubbornness. As a result, he managed to grasp the basics of both, increasing his writing skills to four, even if he sounded like a tourist.

After another week, the process repeated. Dallion managed to sneak his way through another barrier. Having to do with his current fears, this was the only trial so far in which the goal wasn’t to defeat an opponent, but rather not start a fight. Although slightly easier than before, thanks to Gleam and Lux’s help, it too proved to be exhausting. At that point, Dallion decided to increase his reaction trait. Also, since this time around the group was granted a bit more time to rest, Dallion used that to improve a few minor items he was carrying to boost his guard and attack skills. The effort was obviously noticed by the rest of the group, though only earning a passing comment.

As the third week of walking went by, Eury pulled Dallion aside, falling back from the rest of the group

“Stop here,” she whispered. “There’s no point increasing anything else.”

“What’s going on?”

“Practice is more important than levels,” she avoided his question. “You’ll have plenty of time to reach your level cap when we get back.”

“What aren’t you saying?” Dallion went straight to the point. Normally, he’d leave it to Eury and the rest, while pretending not to be concerned. After seventeen days of traveling, he wanted to learn a bit more of the big picture.

“I don’t want you tired when the fighting begins.”

Dallion almost stopped walking.

“We’ve arrived?” he asked.

“Soon. We’ll have another rest before that. This time, I want you to rest. That’s more important right now.”

“Alright. What do you think we’ll face?”

“I don’t know. However, it’s not normal that we managed to get all this way without any creature targeting us. You don’t have a traveler’s emblem, so there shouldn’t be anything keeping creatures away. And yet…”

She didn’t finish the sentence. There was no denying that the gorgon was right. The trip so far had been remarkably unremarkable. Normally there were at least some wilderness creatures observing them from a distance. So far, that hadn’t happened, as if all monsters had been killed or chased out of the area. The Order of the Seven Moons was capable of cleansing an area of monsters, as were armies. Neither explanation was particularly good.

“You think someone has reached it before us?” Dallion asked.

“I don’t know,” the gorgon replied. “However, Jiroh told me that we weren’t the only ones trying to find a cloud citadel.”