MA: 92. The Languid Fault

0940.

“The first rays of light will appear in 20 minutes. Direction… Southwest.”

Swirls of pink whisked clouds filled the morning skies. It was still dark, despite it being over three hours past sunrise.

The Central Forests of Justicia experienced day and night differently due to their geography. The great mountain ranges that bordered Emvita and the warring Eleph region cast shadows into Emvita, plunging it into an extended night.

As a result, parts of Emvita experienced short days and longer nights. This contributed to the number of dangerous monsters that were known to roam this Region.

Then, there were the strongest monsters which were recorded in the Phenom Compendium.

Those listed in this collection of nine hundred and ninety-nine entries were called Phenoms of Contempt.

“And the level 120 prickly pear is on the weaker side?” Red yawned, scratching her tummy and rolling on a cot of interwoven leaves.

“Never judge a book by its cover. I could be level 100 but have 50 levels solely in cooking related stats.” Snow stretched, getting her body warmed up for their descent into the Languid Fault. “Its high level doesn’t change that it’s easy to avoid. Plants don’t run. Most of the time.”

“Did a fraud write that book? What does it even take to get written down?” Snow gently plopped an imaginary book on Red’s head.

“By becoming notorious enough for the Golden Index to put a bounty on your head. It’s rare for people to get put on the list. It’d take crippling a nation to get that amount of notoriety.”

“They’ve obviously never heard of Fledgling Red.” Red took the imaginary book and started ripping into it with her teeth.

“No one has.”

“But you have.” She grinned.

Snow sighed.

That dumb, cheeky smile always managed to get her. She took another imaginary book and smacked her with twice as much force as the last one.

“Fix your hair.”

“Owkway.” Red nursed a nonexistent wound.

It was far too early to be dealing with Red’s antics. A rousing Three Paw puffed out their chest as if to say: “I’ve also heard of you~!”.

Thankfully, Rockie had some tact and stood beside them like a soldier waiting for orders.

“Brrr.” Its eyes seemed to dazzle.

With hands firmly placed on her hips, and with her white hair tucked underneath her hood, she announced how they were going to approach the Languid Fault.

“Listen up. The Languid Fault isn’t going to be as straightforward as marching from one side to the other. Too many people have died here. No. Don’t ask about the graves.”

Red put her hand down.

“The wind moves from one side to the other, but there’s a rebound effect that’ll coast us across. We’re going to look for the ‘Rip’ before heading down. Only once we find it are we allowed to climb down.”

“Question!”

“Yes, girl in the red.”

“Is this place called the Languid Fault because of a monster called Languid? Is it their fault that this gorge exists?”

“I honestly couldn’t tell you.” Snow sighed.

What she did know was that the Languid Fault was one of several areas of the Central Forests of Justicia that were not governed by Justica Arms. But the reason was not because it was dangerous.

No, in fact, they could easily deal with the monsters if they wished.

The problem was that it was a waste of manpower. Ateliers did not operate out of the goodness of their hearts. Something had to benefit them.

Even Justica Arms – who were seen as the most benevolent Atelier – were tethered to this same law of transactions.

Besides, one just had to avoid the pit.

It was as simple as that.

Snow ushered them to the edge. Using the little light there was thanks to the reflection of the Nexus, they were able to witness the rolling waves sweeping across the fault from the north to the south.

They were searching for a rip. This was a diagonal wave that moved from south to north. It was much weaker, and the stirring dust made it difficult to locate.

“Just brown. Brown. And more brown. Some yellow. Can’t dust be other colors? People were talking about white dust. Is that what snow is?”

“Yep! Pretty much the same thing.” Snow hummed.

“But then the Site Workers would stir it into their drinks. I saw a Corrupted gifting a brick of snow to a Worker. They became dependent on it. Best believe the entire Level was incinerated when everyone was found to be dependent on the Corrupted.”

Snow looked at her strangely, then gave her a stern warning about eating anything that a stranger gave them, even if it looked tasty. It was another lesson, but Red couldn’t help but feel like Snow wasn’t seeing the full picture.

After all, that Corrupted was a mushroom from what she remembered. A big, tall… fun guy?

That’s what they are right? Fun guys?

  *

It took precisely seventeen minutes to find the rip. It was barely visible, but they could make out the diagonal waves that ran from south to north. The winds were much weaker here, and the rip was at least 100 meters wide.

The margin of error of missing it and risking getting crushed against the wall was low, thankfully.

“Alright! Red. You’re our vanguard.” Snow clapped.

It was a little too hard though, as Three Paw jumped in fright.

“S-Sorry… Ahem. I’m the support. Rockie is our mount and second support. Tank once we get you some ore. And Three Paw– you’re our scout and wildcard.”

“Damn. You get the cool name.” Red hissed. “I wanna be the wildcard.”

“Bwa!” The Shadewolf Pup beamed.

“Replace vanguard with bullet and I’m happy, cause do I look a knight?”

“These are Party roles and designations. It helps to know what your role is ahead of time. For balances sake.”

“Is that Adventurer talk?” Red wondered. “Hmhm… COOL!”

Her eyes sparkled as she punched the air.

“Alright! Vanguard it is! Bullet Vanguard. Fledgling Red the Bullet Vanguard of Infinite Hatred. Comma. Who Wields Weapons of Mass Destruction. Semicolon–”

Snow finished tying a rope around her waist.

“Are you gonna end up being bigger than me?” Her brows furrowed at the thought of a version of Red with assets bigger than hers. “Can your body deflate?”

“I’m not a balloon. C’mon Snow. Heh.” Red wiped her nose as she struck a prideful pose, hands on her hips. “Deflate? Even I know that can’t happen to people. Pffft – Ow!?”

Snow tightened the rope hard enough to cause her to squeal.

“You might as well be with all the air in your head.” A vein popped on her forehead.

“Hey, I thought Healers can’t hurt people!”

“I’m not a White Dove.” Snow secured a length of rope against the nearest tree.

It was a safety line in case they fell off Rockie during the long descent. The only one without a rope attached to them was Three Paw.

The shadows were his domain. Nothing could touch him while he was submerged in darkness.

They rode atop Rockie’s back and descended the vertical cliff face. The sheer enormity didn’t hit Red until they were about halfway down.

“This is a fault line, huh.”

“Fault line?” Snow had never heard of the term before. It was her turn to listen to Red. She would rarely talk about concepts that seemed to exist in an entirely different world.

Then again, it was not like other worlds didn’t exist.

Weapons like the Mana Repeaters and the Justica Arms were said to have been designed by an Otherworlder. Their original designs – which once used a combustion-based propulsion system – were awfully alike Red’s Fairytale’s Bane.

That was until Justica Arms prohibited the creation of such weapons.

“Fault lines! Tectonic plates? Never heard of those at least?” Red tilted her head. “Think about the whole wide world moving on giant plates. They rub against each other and pull apart, creating massive mountain ranges or stuff like this. Fault lines!”

“How do you know this but don’t know… Never mind.” Snow gave up halfway.

Red’s origins were confusing enough.

They broke through the layers of dust and reached the bottom. A terrible howl deafened them momentarily until they finally dismounted from Rockie.

Then, it was total silence.

Parallel walls of rushing dust flanked them

Red hopped up and down, enjoying the way the sound came and went with each bounce.

“Hehehe. Sounds like the wind is talking to me. It’s telling me adventure is out there! Onwards my crew!”

Red marched forwards but was quickly snatched by Rockie. It scooped her up from under her legs and ferried her back to the group.

“We move diagonally. You should be able to see that.” Snow sternly reminded. “Haaah. Also, be careful what the wind tells you.”

Her expression darkened. Her tone shifted as though warning Red of a terrible fate.

The girl audibly gulped. Three Paw peeked from under her shadow, trembling at the sight of Snow. Tension ran through the air as Snow walked onwards.

“W-Why?” Red dared to ask.

Then, Snow turned on her heels–

–And wore a sheepish smile.

“Sorry. I wanted to try sounding assertive for one. You’re too easy to trick Red. Lesson number forty-one: Don’t believe everything you hear.”

“… No one…” Red clasped her fists into tiny balls of hurt. “TRICKS RED AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!”

“Aaahh!?”

She tackled Snow to the ground playfully. Three Paw followed, intending to body slam Snow but instead folding on Red’s face.

Giggles rang in the sterile air.

Somehow, one of the deadliest places in the Central Forests of Justica felt like a playground.

However, the bright glint of an arrow shaft caught Rockie’s eye.

“BRRR!”

And as quickly as Red was laughing, she had blocked the incoming arrow with eyes overflowing with bloodlust.

Weak…? That arrow was slow. Very slow. Was it a warning shot? But from who? It came from inside of the dust storm.

Various robed figures emerged from the dust clouds. Their heavy, iron-clad boots were the first to emerge. These boots had allowed these hunters to walk through the wall of sweeping dust, and their bulky goggles protected their eyes from being scraped from their sockets.

“Quite the catch. Ain’t villagers this time around. Perfect. Was wonderin’ if anyone was left alive back there. If Adventurers are movin’ out, then there ain’t no point huntin’ in these grounds.”

Their accent was… funny to Red.

But what she didn’t understand was why they were pointing their crossbows at them.

They were humans…

… right?

Status.

Bandit Rat

< Hunter >

Soul Rank: Yellow | Syndicate: Trakk

LEVEL : 12     ORIGIN : Human     HP : 120     ATT : 20     MAG ATT : 0     AGI : 7

Despite their Origins being human…

… Agate called them Rats’.