>>5496507Since this is, for all intents and purposes, a trial run. All of you set out in disposable gear, leaving valuable equipment such as your Tyrant’s Will in the city bank. The only items remotely expensive on your persons are the high-grade flying swords you and your party members are currently riding on. They’re light and fast, if a little brittle, only able to withstand a few hits before you’re dismounted. Usually, they’re not very good for all purpose travelling, especially in the Outlands, but for a short, speedy journey without the guarantee of return, they’ll serve your party just fine.
“The path ahead looks clear.” LK comments. This is the first time you’re hearing his voice. It’s a slightly airy, lacking a little vitality, but youthful. He’s probably around your age.
“I’m sure we must’ve been spotted leaving the city.” You respond. “We can’t afford to be careless.”
“Any scouts they have stationed at the gates will only take note of the general direction we’re heading in. They probably won’t follow.” Skyfrost adds. “Still, not bumping into people is always a plus.”
“Will it really be possible to do this with only five people?” LK steers the conversation in another direction with a question.
Yellow-Hawk cuts in, “I would like to know as well. Though I have full trust in Stormgale and his high assessment of you and Distant-Cloud, I find it hard to believe that we’ll make it past the first boss.”
You hear a slight snigger under Autumn-Moon’s breath as he says, “Just wait and see, you two.”
Soon enough, the entrance to the Igneous domain enters your field of view. Flanked by tall peaks, it's a massive opening stretching terrestrially from the base of two mountains, both violently merged at the foot. The surrounding ground is ashen, dyed an obsidian black in contrast to the pallid brown grass characteristic of the Outlands. And from the depths, a menacing orange light claws forth, almost like a trapped beast longing for emancipation. Perhaps if you were in the game itself, you would be able to feel a hostile heat emanating from the caverns below. The usual packs of monsters patrolling the outskirts of this gate to hell are nowhere to be seen, indicating that other players have likely entered recently.
You and your party members take advantage of this and dive straight in. Somehow, the transition from vast skies and mountainscapes to a wide underground chasm is not the least bit jarring, making you wonder how much thought was put into the environmental design of the game. In any case, a lot of passion was poured into crafting every inch of this place, you can tell. The ground below you slopes down gently and expands outward, like a downward facing trapezium, forming something akin to a massive atrium from which many “vessels” diverge from. From the available pathways, a third of them seem to have been taken as can be observed from the lack of mobs moving through them.
