Strokes of orange brushed across the views above like the wilting reeds of a stream. The clouds of piercing acid had disintegrated. It split into smaller fragments, which toiled with the light of the sun and ejected it in a soft, cheek pink. The emerald jaded trees rustled in the coming breezes and shook off small droplets from its impervious surface.
Quies walked alongside the thin river bank. The waters seemed to rise just a bit higher, even if it was only a short downpour. Despite its contents, the river was beautiful in its own way.
The cold wind bit at the surface of his wounds where the fabric had been melted and carried away by the rain. They burned a slightly hotter red-pink than the clouds above. Whenever the wind winded down, golden light washed away the frigidness.
Boom
Quies paused for a moment.
'What was that?'
He looked around the Burning Stone Garden. Up the trees, across the rock face…
At this point, he was pretty deep into this region—the forest—of upper Erisia. The acid rain had poured less than an hour ago, so he wasn't able to fully look around the place just yet. He had taken much more time navigating through the towerstruck lands mainly due to the geography of the place, along with him needing to plan out a route in order not to get lost.
As stated by the adventurers from earlier, Quies needed to find a building which resembled a manor, of sorts. He didn't know exactly what it looked like, though. Perhaps it was a standalone building built in a random clearing somewhere… or maybe it was a stone structure carved into the burning cliffside.
However, the way it looked, Quies was sure he would be able to spot it. If it is too small to be obvious, then it wouldn't be called a manor, would it? At least, that's what he thought.
But this shaking beneath his feet—the ground trembling—was new. It was as if something large had fallen over; maybe a part of a cliff in Upper Erisia had crumbled from the downpour earlier.
He continued walking, observing the scenery around him.
If he were to, for some reason, construct a manor in the upper reaches of the drifting island, where would he put it?
'To know the enemy, you must become the enemy… or something like that. I skimmed a lot of the philosophical stuff when I read the combat manual back at Vigil. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have done that. I still got the main idea, though!'
First, he should probably consider the status of the duke.
Well… it was pretty obvious what status the Duke of Erisia held, or at least what that status meant to him. To the Duke, he was duked the duke of Erisia, or just The Duke for short, perhaps also being named Duke yet not having to duke any other dukes to be duked as the Duke.
'Yeah… I would much rather prefer the title of Great Divine Sovereign of the Eastern Erisian Isles.'
Anyways, considering that the title of Duke held some prestige, his ego would—most likely— subconsciously influence him to place his Great Divine Residence of the Sovereign of the Eastern Erisian Isle—Manor, for short—in a not so hidden place. A Great Divine-
'Nevermind, I'll stick with The Duke'
As he was thinking earlier, A Duke of an entire island shouldn't be living like a hermit, and definitely shouldn't be living in a hermit's home!
Ah, it seems that his thoughts ran off course…
'So, basically, the Duke's manor shouldn't be hard to find if I just explore this region, which isn't even that big.'
The forest, or the Burning Stone Garden of Upper Erisia, was only one region of the many, diverse areas on the drifting island. It was one of the larger bits, sure, but it wasn't huge. Given the amount of time he has—even with the self-set deadline of midnight—he should be able to cover a lot of land. Then, once he finds the manor, he'll return to the Isle of Vigil and discuss with Evengarde what to do next.
'And get my payment…'
Of course, the fact that the Forge of Sin was even in the possession of the Duke was not confirmed to be true just yet…
'I don't think Evengarde would expect me to challenge the Duke of the Island.'
Sure, they trained a bit, but the key word in that phrase is 'a bit'. During their brief sparring session, Evengarde was definitely able to capture Quies' skill and understanding over his own attunement and swordsmanship. He even outright stated that the first spar was conducted for that specific purpose.
'He did also say that I'm brimming with potential…'
In that case, then maybe Evengarde would send him to go challenge the Duke for the Forge of Sin. Maybe, he would, but Quies would rather find that out later when he was safely back at Vigil.
Boom
The ground trembled once more.
'The soil and rocks here must be really unstable-'
Boom
It sounded, and felt, much closer than last time, like footsteps.
'Okay, maybe it's not the land.'
Quies paused and immediately moved away from the stream and open areas. Maybe it was because he spent so much time, uneventfully, in Upper Erisia that he forgot about why he had been hesitant to come up here in the first place.
Who knows what creatures lurked here?
Suddenly, a blinding flash of light from the edge of his vision made him jolt backwards. He didn't know how, or where it could have possibly appeared from…
Zhsooom!
A blinding beacon of death shot towards Quies. Out of instinct, his focus drew towards his legs and he dashed to the side immediately.
'What the depths-'
Landing on the ground with an uncalculated hesitancy, his eyes flicked towards where the beam came from. He swore that the cliffside just-
'Oh…'
What he saw immediately answered his thoughts.