City of Sin (Yanyu Jiangnan)

Outpost

The fleet of battleships slowly left Norland, heading west across the boundless ocean as they made their way towards Lithgalen. While the journey was bound to be a long one, Richard thankfully wasn’t without anything to do. He spent an increasing amount of time in Sharon’s library, quickly unravelling book after book in the third level. As he grew stronger, he found himself able to crack the barriers much more quickly, and he found the laws he now had access to concerned the foundations of secondary plane. Mastery of this level would bring anyone to the epic realm, and going through the fourth would push them to the limit.

However, he now knew that the epic realm wasn’t the end. The library had two more levels and the ball of light right on top, which showed that the primal celestials were far more advanced than Norland could ever dream of.

Still, he showed incredible restraint and spent only a third of his days reading; more of his time was given to looking through the lives of those he had absorbed, giving him a much deeper insight into both humanity and the workings of the world. He didn’t know just how the change to his mindset would help him, or if it would at all, but the more he saw, the more he felt like these ordinary lives had a unique charm to them. Most of these commoners led rather bland lives, but the millions upon millions of them left him in a dazed epiphany.

Richard only snapped out of his routine when an attending mage called out to him, informing him that Lithgalen wasn’t too far away. He was a little surprised that they were already at their destination, but he followed the mage to the sky bridge and noticed a bird in the distance. The avian presence indicated that land couldn’t be far away, and with confirmation from Greyhawk, Mina, and the other envoys he could be sure that this truly was their destination.

As he saw Richard approaching, the navigator spoke up, “Your Grace, we are roughly one hundred kilometres away from Lithgalen. With the current wind conditions, we will reach it in half a day. We do not know if we can dock or anchor near the coast, so I plan to head us a little south to find a natural harbour.”

Greyhawk made his way over as well, “We’re likely in range of the elves, they should notice us anytime now. We should be careful.”

Richard nodded and turned around, “Strengthen the guard.”

A few mages immediately sped away from the bridge, carrying the orders to the crew. Drones transmitted the same message across the other six ships, and it wasn’t long before the entire fleet was glowing faintly. The battleships also picked up speed, forming small waves in their wake.

Richard suddenly stretched a hand out, forming a portal that he walked through to appear a thousand metres above the sea. The entire process was so natural that even Greyhawk who was mere inches away didn’t sense anything, the former Scholar’s eyes going wide in surprise. As a legendary mage himself, he had been able to sense Richard’s limits back in the final battle against the reapers. Now, there seemed to be none. At this point, it was even difficult to tell that Richard was a mage; if not for knowing that this was an epic being, Greyhawk would think he was a commoner who was no more than level 3.

While Greyhawk gaped in surprise, another portal formed and Richard walked back through, “The patrol is to the west. They haven’t discovered us yet, let’s go say hi.”

Richard sent out a mental order, having the night elf mage in the Blue Moon’s bridge change the heading of the fleet. A few dozen mages and hundreds of sailors manoeuvred the huge ships westwards, still picking up speed.

A few enormous eagles quickly appeared on the horizon, their lavish neck ornaments showing their true identity as elven druids. The flock panicked at the sight of the approaching fleet, but only one of them flew away while the rest headed towards the battleships instead.

The eagles stopped only a few hundred metres away, speaking in Norlandic tongue, “Where are you from? These waters belong to the Elven Empire; stop your ships and prepare for inspection, or we will sink your fleet!”

The druid’s words were laced with arrogance that immediately left Richard frowning, regardless of how prepared he was for exactly this behaviour. He looked at Greyhawk, “I know I have silvermoon blood, but these guys really are annoying.”

Greyhawk shrugged in reply, “Don’t expect me to comment.”

“Alright then,” Richard looked back up at the four huge eagles, “You’ll sink us? Before that, people flying above my head really annoys me. Get Down!”

Those last words were said in divine tongue, and this time Greyhawk got the mana ripples he wished for. However, the man couldn’t decipher the spell at all, not even finding a base. It didn’t feel like a gravitational spell or a paralyser, but the eagles suddenly screamed as their flapping wings simply refused to catch air. Three of them crashed into the sea, while another slammed down on deck.

While the one falling onto the ship broke its bones, the three that hit the sea barely managed to adjust themselves so they wouldn’t splatter amongst impact. Archeron soldiers covered and captured them at Richard’s command, having to knock them out as two of the eagles bit the warriors trying to catch them. In the end, the rebels were beaten to a pulp and had their beaks tied together before being ushered into a cabin where they were faced with Richard.

“Wake them up,” Richard said to Ginley who had been summoned with a wave.

“Easy,” the old woman smiled, stretching out her withered hands to caress the eagles’ heads. The very next moment, she showed surprising strength as she kicked each one in the abdomen. She didn’t use much strength, but the eagles quickly woke up and screamed in pain. They struggled against the ropes tying them, but this only caused more pain that increased the volume of the shouts.

Greyhawk winced at the sight. Pain spells were nothing too amazing, merely amplifying the sensations felt by someone until it hurt, but to leave four eagle druids in such pain that two of them were starting to revert to human form was a frightening feat. Ginley had to have tortured a frightening number of people to be so skilled.

“Enough,” a supreme order stopped the old woman, immediately releasing the four druids from the pain spell. Richard then looked at the two druids that were still in eagle form, “Transform back.”

The two eagles immediately returned to elven form, four naked bodies huddling together in a ball of shame. Three were male and one female, all of them level 16. A patrol like this was an indication of the strength of the elven empire, but ever since his battle against the reapers Richard no longer felt like that was worth much. He looked at them and sneered, “Remember to be polite next time, at least the basic request demanded by an epic.”

“You’re epic?” the female druid yelled out, but one of her companions quickly stopped her. The four didn’t know how powerful Richard was, but they did understand that it wasn’t easy to instantly stop their flight. Even now, they didn’t know just how this had been managed, unable to sense anything significant from him.