Chapter 1521: Not Yet

The four Dragonborn entered the small house and immediately began looking around. The interior was simple and functional containing only the basic furniture needed for someone to live there.

A few wooden chairs stood around a rough table, several shelves had been built into the walls to hold whatever belongings the previous occupants had left behind.

The walls were made from a mixture of stone, wood, and metal, with several sections reinforced with crude repairs. None of it was particularly impressive. Just like any other walls in this settlement.

Erend looked around the room before exchanging a glance with Eccar, Aesa, and Sylven. The four of them shared nearly identical expressions of disappointment.

After spending so much time in the luxurious quarters of the Elven palace, returning to a house like this felt like a considerable downgrade.

"This is certainly different from the palace," Eccar remarked.

"It doesn’t need to be comfortable," Aesa replied. "We’re not staying here permanently."

Erend nodded. "We can sleep somewhere else tonight. Once we’re done, we can return here through a portal. So we don’t have to spend the night in this place."

Sylven immediately agreed. "Sounds good to me."

The others also accepted the idea. They had no reason to become attached to this house. It was simply a temporary base.

They placed their backpacks inside one of the bedrooms and left the rest of their belongings there. When everything they needed was stored safely, Erend looked toward the door.

"We should start gathering information now," Erend said. The others agreed to that immediately.

They stepped outside again and stood in the dusty street while looking around the settlement.

They had no clear lead yet so they decided to divide their search once again.

Each of them would investigate a different part of the settlement and ask questions without drawing too much attention to themselves, hopefully.

They would return to the house once night arrived and compare whatever information they managed to get.

—

Erend headed toward the central market area first. The settlement’s market was small but surprisingly active. Several merchants had arranged tables beneath patched pieces of metal that provided some protection from the harsh sunlight.

Erend walked between them and casually asked about the surrounding region, ancient ruins, and places that people avoided, saying that he wasn’t from around here and just been saved by Norma.

Most of the answers were ordinary. The merchants spoke about nearby hunting grounds, water sources, monster territories, and the occasional traveler who passed through the settlement. None of them knew anything about an ancient trial or a Dragonborn legacy.

Eccar chose to investigate the settlement’s workshop area. He spoke with several craftsmen and scavengers who spent their days repairing old machinery and processing materials recovered from the wasteland.

He asked whether they had heard about ancient structures or unusual ruins hidden beyond the settlement. Some of them mentioned old ruins scattered across the mountains, but none could provide anything specific enough to be useful.

Aesa moved toward the defensive wall section of the settlement and spoke with several guards. She asked about the surrounding wilderness and the places where monsters were most active.

The guards knew that she had come with Norma earlier so they knew that she was new here. They gave her information about dangerous regions and several abandoned settlements, but once again, there was no mention of anything seemingly connected to the Dragonborn.

Sylven spent most of his time speaking with travelers and people who regularly left the settlement.

He hoped that someone who ventured farther into Valthoria might have encountered something unusual.

Unfortunately, most of the travelers only knew the routes between nearby settlements and the locations of reliable water sources. Their knowledge rarely extended beyond survival.

By the time the sun began disappearing beneath the ash-filled horizon, the four Dragonborn had learned a considerable amount about ordinary life in Valthoria, but almost nothing about what they had actually come here to find.

Night gradually settled over the settlement. The already dim world became even darker as the last traces of sunlight disappeared behind the thick layers of dust and ash covering the sky.

One by one, Erend, Eccar, Aesa, and Sylven returned to the house.

They gathered inside the small room where they had left their belongings earlier and exchanged tired looks. They had searched the settlement thoroughly but they still had no real clue where the ancient trial was located.

The four Dragonborn remained silent inside the small house for a while, their expressions showing clear disappointment. The search had yielded almost nothing useful and the lack of information was beginning to make their journey feel more difficult than they had anticipated.

But none of them looked particularly discouraged. They had already expected that finding the ancient Dragonborn trial in a world like Valthoria would not be easy, especially when they had arrived without any information about where to begin.

"We should leave this settlement," Aesa suggested. "Maybe we can join one of the groups that go out to collect water or scavenge the wastelands. We might learn something useful that way."

Erend nodded slowly. "Yeah. I’ll try to get inside that large building. It seems like the place where important information is kept. If we’re lucky, I might find something there."

"I’ll try talking to the plants around here," Sylven said. "Or whatever that is still left. There might be something useful hidden among them."

Eccar nodded, they agreed with the plan.

Since they had already decided what each of them would investigate, they did not waste any more time.

Erend, Eccar, Aesa, and Sylven raised their hand and opened a portal in front of them inside the house. After that, one after another they created clones that would remain behind and maintain their appearances in this house while they were gone.

The four Dragonborn stepped through the portals and left Valthoria temporarily, heading somewhere better to rest.

Their search would continue the next day. They could only hope that tomorrow would give them better results.

—