The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 941: Over the Ridge

Once they left the restaurant, Dana nudged Karl and gave a deliberate look at the crowd near the outer ledges. They couldnʼt open the Tiny World there and risk someone thinking it was a portal.

Common courtesy was to allow people travelling to the same area when you happened to open a portal to pass through, and it would be awkward to explain that it was actually a separate space, capable of supporting life.

That was not a common sort of skill, and there were still enough powerful people around that Karl couldnʼt rule out one of them trying to kidnap him to force him to teach them the way of making the [Tiny World].

He hadnʼt been too concerned about it with the Dragons, as they only had to ask the Blue Dragons at the Libraries if they wanted to know the answer. But others would not have that same level of access to information that an Ancient Dragon of the Dragon Church had.

Karl turned them down a narrow alleyway, and opened the Tiny World across an archway, so they could walk through without looking suspicious.

Once everyone was inside, Karl closed the portal and kept walking down the alley, as naturally as possible.

If someone had been watching, it would be a mystery where the others went. Unless they thought there was a hidden entrance to something in that alley. But if there wasnʼt, it would just look like an outsider taking a shortcut to get to the light of the mountainʼs surface.

Karl made his way through the side streets and to the outer ledges, where the crowds were even heavier. That could be a bit of an issue for departure, but Hawk had a plan.

He simply appeared a hundred metres from the mountain in the open air, and circled, while Karl used [Swims Through Air] to walk over to him and take a seat.

”Oi, now thatʼs just cheating.” Karl heard one of the dwarves complaining as he walked off the ledge.

”Looks like fun, though. Can you imagine the look on my wifeʼs face if I just walked off the ledge and didnʼt fall?”

”Aye, pure disappointment.”

Karl missed the rest of the conversation as Hawk turned west and gained speed.

The warning that the server had given them the previous evening became relevant instantly. In front of them, only a few kilometres to the west, was a spine-like ridge of mountains that extended to the ocean, and then off past the horizon.

[Hawk, go south along the shore line, and follow it until weʼre past the mountains. Then we can come back northwest to the course we had planned.] Karl instructed.

It would be a few hundred kilometres of extra distance to cover if they simply went around the mountain rangeʼs southern edge, but Hawk was fast, and they could still make their destination by dark.

[I can fly that high, itʼs not a problem. The air gets a bit thin, but my flames will keep us warm.] Hawk offered.

[Alright, then letʼs take the direct route. Maybe we will see something interesting in the mountains. Those hills are pretty steep, and with no roads running over them, there might be some hidden treasures out there.] Karl agreed.

Hawk climbed as they approached the mountain pass, a portion that was only a little lower than the rest of the visible ridgeline. But by the time that he was over the peaks, the elevation was making it hard for even him to keep climbing.

Karl quietly buffed Hawk with [Swims Through Air] to make his flight smoother as they passed through the wall of clouds that were being pushed over the peaks, and their altitude finally began to increase again, putting them safely over the hills.

How and why there was such an impressive range of mountains in the centre of an island was a mystery to Karl. They werenʼt heaved like volcanic mountains, and there was no visible fault line like a mountain range formed by plate tectonics.

But as Hawk passed over the other side, Karl saw that the wall was nearly vertical, and there was a deep slash in the ground, where a river flowed.

If he followed the double ridge of mountains, and then the river, the answer became clear.

The entire five hundred and some kilometres of steep mountains were caused by a single powerful strike at the ground. Something of unfathomable power had split the ground past the horizon, and bent the land upwards.

The scar had cut so deeply that the upper layers were mostly shale and sandstone, but the river bottom was filled with volcanic rock. If Karlʼs understanding was correct, the cut must have been kilometres deep when it was first made, and then the majority of it filled with magma from whatever underground pocket had been hit.

Hawk listened in to Karlʼs logic, and examined the ground.

[Thatʼs impressive power. One day, we will be able to do that. Make our own mountain range.] He bragged.

Karl smiled and patted the feathers beside him. [Iʼm sure we will make it there one day. But that sort of power has to be a Demigod or something. I donʼt think that even the Chaos Dragon could make a mountain range in one hit.]

The second ridge wasnʼt quite as high as the first, so Hawk began to descend to an altitude where it was easier to fly, but Karl kept the flight skill active to make it easier.

[Swims Through Air] wasnʼt a fast movement skill on its own, but for a flying beast like Hawk, it was a boost to his already impressive flight abilities, and once they were under four thousand metres, the Ghostfire Thunderbird could really show off his prowess.

In under an hour, they were coming up on the Narabar river, where Hawk spotted the most glorious sight that he had ever seen.

[There are Mice. Whole armies of MICE!]

Karl laughed and leapt up off Hawkʼs back to float in the sky.

[Go hunt for your lunch. Start with the ones that are harassing that farmer. I can see that heʼs trying to defend his fields against them.]