Chapter 149: Falkor Valley I

"Is that it?"

Aurelia sighed as she spoke with an exhausted expression.

The others looked on ahead to where she was pointing as their faces soon became filled with mixed emotions.

Relief that they had finally reached it, worry of what was about to come, exhaustion due to the journey that they had and other kinds of emotions intertwined on their faces.

On the horizon, they could see a vast mountain range that seemed to want to reach the sky.

Its brown rugged texture contrasted with the crystal clear river that ran in between them that had lush green grasses that surrounded it.

"Yes, that’s the Falkor Valley. We’ll reach it in four hours if we continue at this pace."

Alaric spoke as he looked at their faces, also remembering the first time he had ever laid his eyes on the great Falkor Valley.

’Those were great times...’ A look of nostalgia appeared on his face.

"Anyways, we’ll be able to reach it before the sun goes down so we can just go and set up camp near the entrance of the valley."

As Alaric was the one with the most experience in adventuring in the Falkor Valley, Regis and the others decided to listen to him first.

They continued their journey as he briefed them of the do’s and don’ts when threading through the valley.

Just as expected, it took them four hours to reach a camping site near the entrance.

It was nothing special, just a simple clearing surrounded by bushes and rocks a few distance away from a stream of water.

As darkness enshrouded the once beautiful blue sky, the hidden stars greeted their eyes.

At this moment, they had just finished eating their meal and were now laying on the grass while staring at the sea of stars.

It had already been a few weeks since they started travelling together and stargazing had become a routine to them.

They conversed about various topics that touched upon various fields.

And now, Regis had a question in his heart...

"Mister Alaric."

"Yes?" The priest responded without looking at the boy beside him.

"I have read some books about the Temple of Light and found out that they believed in something called Heaven."

"Well, although that’s not really a controversial topic, it still ignites conflicts here and there."

Alaric started speaking.

"The concept of Heaven is that it is a place for the dead where they could enjoy the afterlife in the embrace of the Goddess Lemetina."

"However, many people doubt the existence of Heaven since it’s something that can’t be seen."

"Though personally, I believe that something like Heaven should exist."

His words caused a reaction from the other four as they glanced at Alaric since it was strange for such words to come from a priest.

"It should exist?" Regis repeated absentmindedly.

"For a priest to say that it should exist instead of believing that it exists, wouldn’t it be considered blasphemy?"

Killian was the one to pose the question as he spoke from Alaric’s side.

The priest shook his head with a smile, "The Temple of Light doesn’t force to, nor dictates anyone how to believe."

"Everyone is free to believe what they want to believe as long as it doesn’t hurt other people."

"For me, the concept of Heaven is something that should exist, primarily because of how cruel the world is."

"I believe that everyone deserves to enjoy their lives in Heaven because of their suffering while they were alive."

"It’s really that philosophical, but that’s the reason why I think Heaven should exist."

With this, Regis and the others were able to gain a new perspective on how the Temple of Light operates.

It would be a lie not to say that they now had an improved perception of the religion.

This time, it was Alaric’s turn to ask as he glanced at Regis, "If it’s not too personal, I’m curious as to why you accepted this quest."

Since they wanted him to join them, they had also given him a brief explanation of their current quest.

The one whose attention was most piqued was, of course, Aurelia’s.

Regis, Pandora, and Killian were now the center of attention as the latter two both looked at the former.

With a sigh, Regis spoke, "It’s not really that complicated of a reason."

"Well, it’s not really normal when a group of young adventurers who were only active for around a year would suddenly accept a quest that required them to cross almost the entire human territory."

Alaric spoke with his eyes staring straight above the stars that littered the dark sky.

"I was the one who found the exclusive quest flyer among the papers and decided that it would be the best quest for us."

Regis smiled as he started to narrate in a calm and slow voice.

"As you have said, it’s too risky for us who have been adventurers for only a year to accept such a quest when we’ve only been active around the Corelli Fortress territory."

"However, we also believe that such an adventure is necessary for our future goals."

After a moment, Regis continued, "Of course, we also took into consideration the fact that the requestor was the Midas Merchant Organization."

"After all, we must make sure that we would also be well compensated for such a dangerous quest."

"In that case, who can we trust more than the famous Midas Merchant Organization?"

Hearing his practical words, Alaric couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle, "Well, that is indeed right."

Meanwhile, Aurelia could only pout as she felt quite dissatisfied at the answer.

’I’m not really expecting anything, but to think that the reason would be so bland... Well, whatever...’

They spent most of the night talking about various topics before resting while basking under the light of the moon and the stars.

***

The next day...

Darkness still shrouded the night sky when the group woke up.

They had discussed yesterday that they would have their meal first early in the morning before moving out.

This was to ensure that there would be no mishaps as they went through the valley.

"Make sure to eat your fill since we won’t be able to eat in the valley, lest we attract all the griffins."

Alaric reminded them that monsters like griffins have a keen sense of smell.

If they were not careful, then they would be surrounded by endless hordes of griffins in no time.

Understanding this, the group moved quickly and ate a sumptuous meal.

It was quite easy since the storage pouches provided by Aurelia "freezes" the food to the state that they had when they were placed inside it.

This meant that any hot meal that was placed inside the storage pouch would stay hot and fresh without going bad.

After they had eaten their fill, they immediately packed their things and proceeded to the Falkor Valley.

Their campsite was a little more than twenty minutes of walk away from the entrance.

This was to ensure that no wandering griffins or other monsters would discover them accidentally.

"It’s big..."

Pandora muttered beneath her breadth as they neared the valley.

Earlier in the distance, although the mountains already looked huge, the view from being up close was a different matter altogether.

KREEEEE—!!!!

They had just entered the Falkor Valley when a deafening screech assaulted them.

"Wha—"

Just as Aurelia was about to look upwards curiously, she was pulled back by Alaric.

Seeing him shake his head and mouthing the words "no", she nodded apologetically as they continued travelling.

Meanwhile, Regis remained alert as he scanned the surroundings.

’Hmmm, I think I can kill those monsters easily... though to do that while protecting others will be quite hard.’

When he remembered how Alaric told them that there might even be close to a hundred griffins that would attack them at the same time if they were unlucky.

Imagining him and his group facing around a hundred griffins while protecting Aurelia and Alaric...

’It’s better to just play it safe for now...’ Regis thought to himself.

Besides that, doing so would only lose the advantage of having someone experienced like Alaric on their side.

Therefore, he decided to just keep his wild thoughts to himself.

Then, under Alaric’s lead, they navigated through the dizzying maze that was the different paths in the valley.

With the experienced priest’s help, they were able to dodge the monsters in the valley.

Regis surmised that if it hadn’t been for him, then they would have gone with the normal route of following the stream that divided the mountain ranges where they would be met with countless danger.

Now, instead of just blindly following the stream, they were going through the gaps and crevices within the mountains that enabled them to hide from the monsters.

’It’s indeed the right decision to recruit him in our group...’

Besides having a priest that could heal and assist them in battle, his experience had also been a huge help to them.

’If nothing goes wrong, then we may be able to get through the Falkor Valley much earlier than expected with our pace!’

Regis smiled internally as he felt that nothing would go wrong as long as they’re careful.

KREEEEE—!!!!

It was then that another deafening screech resounded in the area.

RUMBLE!!! RUMBLE!!!

The ground trembled as rocks fell from the mountain walls.

Without as much as a word, their group huddled together before Pandora raised her hand and formed a mana barrier that encased all of them.

Since the rocks were only falling due to the aftermath of whatever was happening outside, it didn’t have that much of an impact.

This meant that the mana barrier wouldn’t take too much of a toll towards Pandora’s mana.

Still, Killian couldn’t hold back his curiosity as he looked at Alaric and whispered, "What’s happening outside?"

"A griffin might be fighting with another monster... and as for what kind of monster could handle a griffin in this area, I’m not quite sure..."

Their group unanimously decided to wait for the commotion to finish first to avoid getting unnecessary injuries.