Read Novel Full Chapter 2297 Portal Problems
Chapter 2297 Portal Problems
--- Kat ---
Once they were back up and moving exploration was the name of the game, and yet despite that interesting things were mostly missing. This chunk of rock they were on just... didn’t hold much. It was large and filled with glass sure, but the contents of it were lacking. They didn’t find monsters, and though it took quite some time to navigate to the fringes of the broken platform, no portal was found there.
Kat and Appoline were currently standing atop the edge of the area looking down. It was mostly straight and allowed one with good enough eyesight to see all the way to the bottom of the area... which didn’t have any easily spotted portals there either. It was possible that some where on the ’main’ side of the mountain segment they were on but Kat didn’t consider that too likely.
There was a chance up here. Which was kind of nice? Except they didn’t have a key for it so it was just something to hang onto again. Kat tapped her foot a few times before shrugging and deciding just to ask. "Do you think it’s worth going to the bottom and checking for portals there? We could fall off the edge here and then I could fly along the edge until we get back to the main side... or we could just fall back down to the portal and go through it. What are your thoughts?"
Kat held Lily up in her arms and glanced between her girlfriend and Appoline to show she was talking to both of them. Appoline shrugged, "You’re the lead on this expedition and that glowing mark on your hand proves that there’s things to find here. My question for you would be, in that case, is going to the top of the mountain even the way forward?"
Kat grumbled, "Oh that’s just great to hear. I hate that you have a point. I didn’t find this ON the mountain and at. Shit..." Kat glanced at the glowing mark on her hand for a few seconds. "Yeah... I mean... we should still probably go upwards... I think? There’s no way there isn’t another one of these at the top. Even if there isn’t more on the way, there will surely be one for the person who makes it to the top first... I think."
Appoline shrugged, "Well this place doesn’t exactly have much for me to use as ingredients. I was hoping for some cool flowers with glass incorporated into them or even some unique ores but whatever has happened here didn’t seep into the magic of the place enough. So there just... is glass everywhere and it’s not that useful for me. I’d be happy to leave for somewhere else now."
[I’m sort of with Appoline. I think if there were portals we could use here we’d be able to see at least some hint of them from where we’re standing. I think this is especially likely considering we haven’t seen any other monsters yet.]
"Alright everyone thinks we just leave, so let’s go. Appoline, hop on and I’ll just jump down. Should be able to aim for the portal and the fall isn’t going to hurt me..." Kat began explaining as Appoline nodded and hopped into Kat’s arms. Once Lily had moved to a more secure spot, Kat simply jumped.
It was easy to glide around the rocky outcroppings but Kat didn’t use her wings too much. The had a rather large target to aim for and as long as she wasn’t going to run into anything she didn’t really need to steer. It was far swifter to descend the mountain then it had been to climb up, even with Kat flying. There was no need to look out for alchemy ingredients, watch for monsters, or even just be careful with where she was flying or stepping.
Of course, it still took a few minutes of falling, but that was all. Once Kat hit the portal, the world seemed to shift under them as Kat went from going straight down to falling sideways. She had enough speed that it didn’t really change her trajectory. No, Kat let her wings do that. Looking around as she made a sharp turn she could see the remnants of the battle with the squirrels around here. None were visibly present but Kat was sure at least one scout was hanging around.
Too bad for them. There was a second portal close by and Kat had no reason not to take it. Angling herself into an arc, Kat kept as much speed as she could while sharply performing a nearly 180° turn. Kat was less prepared for the portal to send her completely upside down when she was spat out of it. Kat had even been flapping her wings to keep herself level. So when gravity flipped on them, she flapped right into the floor. Rolling, Kat made sure to use her tail to keep everyone else from getting hit by the multiple follow up impacts.
Kat soon flipped herself back to her feet, wobbling a bit as she did. Gravity... seemed normal. It felt like she was standing right-side up again. Which after so long in awkward gravity, now also felt awkward. "Is it weird that I find this more uncomfortable then the last two gravity switches?" complained Kat as she looked around. It seemed to be another area similar to the one filled with glass. This one just had less glass and about the same number of rocks. It was, in a word, kind of boring.
The big difference was that unlike the glass area Kat could see a portal at the very top just by glancing upwards. The worry, at least for Kat, was that she could only see a single portal. Letting Appoline down, Kat moved to the edge of the flat area the portal stood on... and found there was also a portal at the very bottom of the area. "Lovely. Two options and no good ideas as to which is the best one."
"Do either of them look to contain multiple portals?" asked Appoline.
Kat nodded at the question before pausing, "Um, I was nodding because it’s a good question, not because I’m certain they do... and I’m really not sure. I... we can’t see the ’shards’ all that well from here, certainly not all of them. And even if my eyes are good enough to see them, that doesn’t mean I can see them all clearly. I think, it might be best to go upwards, if only because we can travel down a lot smoother and faster. If the top portal proves to be a dead end we can jump down to the bottom without issue.
"The main worry would be if we’re say, three or four steps from a true dead end, but that nothing after this portal is actually going to get us where we need to go. I hesitate to say it’s likely, but I have no idea how these portals were made, or why. Assuming they were made at all..."
[That IS a good question. Even if practically we know they were made by time, what is the ’lore’ for the area meant to be? The portals clearly exist to make it harder to get to the top, and perhaps also to ensure that it’s possible to get to the peak without the ability to fly... but how intentionally designed are these? Did Thyme set them up but didn’t path them out? Were they brought into existence randomly?]
*I don’t know that we really can make any sort of guess. As much as I might like Thyme as a... tree? Person? Tree-person? Whatever, as much as I’m fond of Thyme and know some of how they think, there’s no way I can remotely guess what they’d find most amusing for something like this. I suspect that there’s multiple paths to the top because that’s more ’fair’ but that doesn’t mean there’s not a bunch of dead ends as well. I guess it depends what’s at the top.*
[Assuming there’s anything. How are we doing on orbs?]
*Still oddly fine. I think there has to be a hidden rule that the bracelets wind down slower here, or maybe time itself is desynced? We’ve got plenty stocked up and the bracelet is still about half full.*
Appoline shrugged and said, "I’d personally like to leave this area as soon as possible. Though I agree it might be more efficient if we climb just in case we need to backtrack. This area seems oddly dead. Sure it’s not particularly hospitable but there’s nothing here. No grass, the dirt should have at least a few weeds in it... but there’s nothing. I honestly wouldn’t recommend staying here long. I don’t smell or taste any poison but..."
"Well that’s suitably ominous coming from the Poison Mistress herself," grumbled Kat.
Appoline shrugged, "Well it wasn’t meant to be comforting you know. There is something odd here and it isn’t odd in a way that produces ingredients."