=Agreed.=
=As long as he doesn’t find out, we’ll be fine. =
...
[You know... I don’t think we’ve actually been on a proper vacation before, ] Hurricroak comnted to her fellow kaijin. [Like...at all.]
[What are you talking about?] Nepherage asked. [We’ve definitely been on various vacations before.]
[Not...really...] Frosttusk disagreed. [We...simply...did things...while...waiting...for...other things...to resolve.]
[He’s not wrong,] Razorstella agreed. [Every little excursion we’ve been on has been less like an actual vacation and more akin to...what happens when a businessman brings their kids or spouse on a business trip with them. It’s a vacation for them, not so much for the main man himself.]
[I don’t think that analogy applies to us,] Springerdermain pointed out. [I an, we’re usually doing work in these taphorical business trips as well. So...I guess this would be a company retreat.]
[I think we should stop before this analogy escapes us and soone makes the suggestion that we should all dress like office workers,] Screamira interjected. [I am not putting all of this into a tight-ass suit.]
[Ooooh, I would look good in a business suit,] Hurricroak fantasized. [With a skirt of course; pants are a no-go on these lovely legs.]
[Would we wear color-coordinated suits or suits that matched our color palette?] Corpse Doll asked her twin.
[We could try both and see which works better.]
[That’s smart.]
...
^By the ancestors! It’s a miracle!^
^I know, I know!^
At the Skydipper inn, a miracle had occurred.
The son of the inn’s owners, a young man who had once been lauded as a genius before becoming horribly crippled in an "accident," had sohow been healed of his affliction.
None of them knew why or how this miracle occurred; all they knew was that the young warrior’s life had taken a dramatic turn once more and that his once humble future could now be even greater than before. That stated, there was precisely one group of people who knew how this miracle occurred, and they were in the process of enjoying a simple yet hearty dinner.
That, and they were busy doing their best in ignoring this wonderful miracle.
"Hey...XIao Liu. Do you think that we should—"
"I am going to stop you right there," Zhen Liu interrupted before Jinju Ren finished asking her question. "The way I see it, those divine weirdos did that little miracle as a ans of testing whether or not their abilities work and nothing more. Whatever situation that guy is about to get involved in the future, we should probably have little to no bearing on it. Or at the very least, try to interfere with his life as minimally as possible. Moreso than what has already been done."
"..."
At this comnt, the young sword master who had lost his ways for several long years, the originally mute insect huntress with abandonnt issues, the forr rcenaries with questionable pasts, the dragon-blooded princess who was originally ant to be locked away in an ivory tower soday, and the two scions of what was originally going to be a very small branch clan in the middle of nowhere all directed strange gazes towards Zhen Liu’s direction. More specifically, they were staring at the collection of kaijin accessories that were dangling off of his person.
This was actually one of the few tis where he didn’t actively try to ignore them this ti around.
"I am painfully aware of the irony of my words," Zhen Liu retorted before taking a bite of his al. "Let’s please focus on the task at hand."
"...okay."
That aforentioned task that Zhen Liu wanted them to pay attention to, was determining where exactly they were going to be heading to next while on the Dozing Salamander continent.
...
After finishing their al, Zhen Liu unfurled a map he had borrowed from the [Library of Nowhere] and placed it upon the table for all of them to see.
The map wasn’t an old copy or locally sourced; rather, it was sothing that Logos and Pathos drew up based on the information provided by their native allies and so maps that the kaijin managed to copy into their minds at various shops beforehand.
In other words, this was probably the most up-to-date map in existence...sans any changes that may have occurred in the last twenty-four hours due to warfare or the activities of uppity high-tiered aether warriors that radically shaped the map.
Surprisingly, despite literally everything that had happened to them up to this point, they had only traversed a small part of the Dozing Salamander continent. Granted, that small part was sohow around several hundred miles give or take a couple dozen, but such distances get wonky in a world where travel was done via magical energy and giant beasts.
"Okay, so we’re currently here, about ten miles away from Rainbowden," Zhen Liu pointed out on the map. "And the warfront between the Sacred Fla Theorcray and the Erupting Dawn Empire is...right here."
"Wait, then what are all of these red crosses that seem to lead there from our current location?" Zhen Xing asked.
"The reported incidents where skirmishes had broken out between the Theocracy and the Empire," Olstenna answered.
"Oh."
The aforentioned war was a solid six thousand miles away from their current location; however, the last reported skirmish between the two empires was a asly ten miles away from their current location.
The people gathered at this table assud Zhen Liu was going to suggest that they move away from the crossed sections of the map, given his vocal statents about wanting a vacation away from all of the fighting and other shenanigans.
As such, they were more than a little shocked at Zhen Liu suggesting that they make their way towards those locations.
"Wait, what?" Zhen Xing asked as soon as it registered in his head what Zhen Liu was suggesting. "I thought you wanted to avoid conflict."
"Yeah, that’s why I’m suggesting we visit these places," Zhen Liu began to explain. "These forr battlefields are probably going to be a ss due to the aforentioned fighting and will most likely be avoided by either side of the conflict because of everything going to shit in the imdiate area. Not a lot of people like to hang around battlefields that are filled with corpses."
"That...makes a lot of sense."
Olstenna, Antonio, and Jinju Ren to an extent, were all familiar with mass battles and understood that even though both sides of a battle underwent painstaking efforts to clean up their fallen, bodies were still inevitably left behind.
These bodies would then decay and attract wild aether beasts or worse, depending on the cultivation level of the body.
Aether Masters and below simply left bodies that would eventually rot away, while Aether Grandmasters and above underwent...a different thod of decay.
Concentrating all of that aether into a mortal shell had a tendency to produce weird effects unless properly treated, but that was an issue for another day.
Understanding Zhen Liu’s logic, his friends were now more interested in these forr battlegrounds. Hell, if they were lucky, maybe they could loot sothing off of the dead.
’Wait a minute...’
As soon as that thought crossed their minds, they realized that Zhen Liu and his kaijin may or may not be a bad influence on them.
"Anyways, since these crossed out locations will probably be bereft of combatants, we have a wider variety of locations to choose from. But out of all of these places, I’m the most interested in this place right here," Zhen Liu stated as he pointed to a cross that was along the coastline.
The text next to the cross marked the location as being known as "Charcoal Shell Beach."
"Oh! I know that place," Olstenna stated once his mind registered the na. "There’s a tiny fishing village there that has this really good smoked conch curry. Been a couple of years though, so I’m not entirely sure that that village still exists...."
"Well, the map seems to suggest that that village is still there," Antonio noted. "But whether or not the people are willing to host guests is another question entirely."
"I an...worst-case scenario, the village is now ho to a militia of assholes or a bandit force that we can easily take care of," Lythero noted. "I an, there aren’t exactly many things in this world that can take down a kaijin."
"Except for buddhist monks, dragons, other kaijin, those weird [Law] motherfuckers, and aether musicians," Zhen Liu sardonically pointed out. "How the hell can I lead an army of invincible monsters and yet still have so many weaknesses?"
"It’s not that weird," Rianna assured Zhen Liu. "Steel-Belly Beetles are known to have a weak point between the joint of their head and back. Regardless of their tier, one strike there and they die instantly."
"I...good to know."
Zhen Liu quietly hoped, after hearing this fun fact, that it wasn’t foreshadowing of his fate.
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