A New World, an immersive game experience

Chapter 223: A wasted hour

"Precisely, I want you to find the cause and fix this entire mess!" Fanon quickly answered.

"You do know it isn't that easy, right?" Evale asked, needing to make sure of this fact. Too often she met people who just wanted things done, not understanding what it takes to actually do so.

"Of course I know that! Do you think I don't know how bloody long things take in war? Especially when it is something so strange and unknown?"

"Then what was the point of complaining?" Evale pressed.

"To vent." Fanon replied without any shame.

"And for bringing us onto the wall?"

"To show you a top view. This should help you figure out where the corruption is coming from. If not, it should tell you the direction to start."

Evale just nodded to this reply, slightly impressed that Fanon actually thought of anything other than his anger. She had heard rumors of this commander, he really could lose his cool over something small. This never impacted his troops as his leadership was always great and his tactics well thought out. But when it came to other things, smaller things, the rumors always had field days.

The rest of the group all stayed quiet and obedient, none of them daring to say a word. After being beaten by Evale they knew how strong a veteran Tier 7 was, now there were two in front of them. The new one clearly not capable of keeping his anger in check, they did not want to enter his eyes at all.

Eldrian on the other hand did not give a shit about any of that, he walked to the front while all the others, except Evules and Kydone, tried to stay as far back as they could.

"Is the decay clear from the walls?" Eldrian asked, treating Fanon as he treated everyone else. He didn't care for etiquette, and less so for rank. While it had its place, he felt he didn't fit into that module. Still, he did try to sound respectful, as he knew that being a commander was not easy.

"Who are you?" Fanon asked with slight irritation, not used to someone other than leaders or nobles talking to him. He was even more shocked when he realized how weak Eldrian was.

"I'm Haru, and I believe the question is valid. If it isn't possible to see the decay, then this walk will be useless." Eldrian replied, having become too used to being familiar with strong people. First Old Sword, then Boran, then the Alicorns, and now Myropsis, Pelaros, Evale, and Evules. He saw them all as just more experienced people, and while he respected them, he didn't fear them.

"What!?" Fanon shouted, angered by the fact that Eldrian clearly felt he was dumb enough to not think of that.

"Fanon, he has a point. Can we see the decay clearly from the walls?" Evale asked before Eldrian could reply. She knew Fanon was a brilliant fighter, strategist, and extremely loyal. His biggest flaw was his anger and the second his pride, which was also the cause for most of the rumors. Normally he wouldn't deal with anyone who was below Tier 5, or with nobility under the rank of count.

"You can!" Fanon grunted, not happy that Evale accepted this interruption without dissing out some discipline.

"How far?" Eldrian suddenly chirped in again, causing even Evale to sigh.

"The fucks your problem, just walk and you will see!" Fanon shouted in irritation.

"True, but how far? Have you looked at it each day, how much has it spread in the last week?" Eldrian continued to ask, while he had only read a couple of the notes on the corruption, he already had a few theories on how it might spread.

Silence ruled as Eldrian asked this, Fanon's face twitching as he looked at Eldrian. Realizing that he might explode at this point Evale quickly rushed to Eldrian, her hooves echoing on the stone wall through this silence.

"Don't ask any more after this," she whispered before heading to the front, smiling she asked in a light tone, "We do need to know this."

"Then asked the cleric that is going to join you. It is her responsibility to keep track of that!" Fanon replied, annoyed by the questions from someone so weak.

What is the use of doing this sightseeing if we don't get information along with it? Eldrian asked -not aloud- even though he really wanted to. Walking on the wall did allow them more sight into the forest, but it also caused the journey to be much longer. Eldrian quickly thought of something else and asked this without much thought.

"Do you have any samples of the decayed trees? Oh, and of the rotting corpses they sent over the walls?"

Everyone stopped upon hearing Eldrian's questions, Fanon taking a deep breath before simply spitting out, "Ask the cleric!"

Rude... Eldrian thought, not realizing that his question seemed absurd to everyone, even Evale who thought well of him. If he was at the very least a true mage, Tier 5, then it would make sense that he was asking all this. Seeing as he was Tier 1, it just irritated everyone.

No one knew how different his understanding of magic was, and how he also had science as a background. While he didn't know much in either category, it allowed him to think differently than most everyone else. He could also ask for help IRL if he felt it needed.

Around half an hour later they finally reached the other side of the wall, the traffic on the walls and especially the divisions of the walls, created by towers built atop them, slowing them significantly. In many cases they had to wait to pass on their horses, the walls were made to bottleneck traffic. Generally, travel would rather be done on the ground, soldiers climbing up to where they were needed, rather than traveling on the wall itself.

Standing on the highest point of the wall, everyone could see the floor of leaves spreading over into the horizon. With an occasional tree top sticking out slightly more. This floor of leaves seemed solid enough to even walk on, though it certainly wasn't. Eldrian slightly wanted to try it though as it reminded him of a common fantasy trope where entire races lived atop such a floor of leaves.

In the far distance, the floor of leaves turned a sickly gray, though this was nearly at the horizon. The distance, and also how the sickly gray covered large batches of trees in all directions made it impossible to tell anything from the wall. At least not without knowing where this had first come into sight, and how it spread.

Eldrian really wanted to say that this was a total waste of time but he didn't as he knew that Fanon already disliked him. Eldrian didn't really understand why, his questions would have saved them all this time, yet he kept everything to himself. He didn't want to press it and cause trouble for Evale.

"We will meet again tomorrow, at the foot of the keep. The cleric and array master will be there." Fanon said after they had climbed down from the walls.

Evale felt slightly irritated that he had actually lied about how well they would be able to see the corruption, and even more irritated when he mentioned the array master. No one else in the party had known of that before this moment.

As Fanon left they quickly asked what Fanon meant, Evale simply told everyone to just go find themselves a place to spend the night. Not wishing to explain everything to them, believing they didn't need to know about it for now.

With this everyone quickly split apart, the party not a military unit and most of them not wishing to stay with people they didn't really know. Soon just Eldrian, Evale, Evules and Kydone were left.

"Why the hell did you keep asking questions?" Evale asked as soon as they were alone.

"Because they needed to be asked, and it didn't look like anyone else was going to ask. It would also have saved us an hour." Eldrian quickly replied.

"I get that, but Fanon really doesn't like talking to people he believes are under him..." Evale replied, Eldrian interrupting before she could finish.

"Then why didn't you ask the questions? If you had pressed then we would have known the journey was a waste of time." Eldrian counter-pressed.

"What the hell, how can you just openly counter me like this?" Evale asked, too shocked by this fact to even bother about the actual question. Generally no one would dare talk so straightforwardly with her, except her brother.

"What do you mean?" Eldrian asked, not understanding.

Hearing this Evules started laughing merrily, saying between bursts of gasping for air, "When was the last time someone... Other than me press you like... This?"

Evale faltered as she heard this before joining the laughter. That was just what she had asked her brother when they had first met Eldrian. "Seems like you really don't care for rank or strength."

"Well, I mean I respect it. But it won't stop me from asking what I feel needs to be asked. Unless there is an actual reason for me to not ask." Eldrian replied, adding with slight sadness, "I didn't need to lose my hour..."

"What the hell are you on about a single hour so much?" Evale asked, her curiosity overcoming her irritancy of Eldrian's actions.

"I wanted to read." Eldrian quickly replied, causing Evale to fail even more in understanding Eldrian's thoughts.

"Read?"

"Yeah, Myropsis gave me this book on rejuvenation magic. It is so interesting!"

What the hell? He pissed off Fanon, a Tier 7 commander of a fort... Because he wanted to use the hour to read instead? Both Evale and Evules were left speechless when they realized this. Kydone on the other hand was impressed.

"Well done, people shouldn't waste our time like that." She said with a rare smile.