A Clear Distinction

That short break gave me an opportunity to relax and rest a bit. "North-west eh? I wonder why they chose that direction". My initial journey through the forest was really bad. I had nothing on me, and very little idea how to do things. With new supplies and experience in hand, the journey ahead wouldn't be so difficult anymore.

More than that, I could return to my sword, as well as the training of my other skills or body. There was no space to do that inside the rented room, and I didn't want to show off in front of the villagers. They thought of me as some sort of hunter, but had no idea that I reached the Outer Limits stage. These sort of people were called warriors, not hunters. If Sara, Kalim and Jena heard that, they'd probably die from shock. Village people were really simple. They lived their lives without caring about limits, fighting and whatnot. They simply enjoyed their lives and worked hard for their happiness.

"I like spring much more. The trees give birth to green leaves, while grass and other plants sprout on the ground. The weather is getting warmer too", I said to myself. There was no news from the masters, and none of them appeared in front of me again. Or at least not in their usual appearance.

The forest was very peaceful over the next few days. I met some hunters from the Flatstone Village, but they weren't bad sort of people. We exchanged some pleasantries then went our own separate ways. My map's reach was about to end as well. I tried to get a map from the Flatstone Village, but no one offered to sell one. Sara's husband Tim had a map, but he needed it for his business.

About a week later, I encountered something new on my path. A tall cliff, spanning who knew how far. "It's like this cliff divides the Empire… The forest down there is a bit misty too. I don't see an easy way down, but I can't go any further otherwise", I said to myself. North-west meant north-west, that is where I was supposed to head. Maybe they knew about the cliff, and told me to head there on purpose. At least that was my assumption.

"I should look for an easy way down… Though looking both ways, I can't see any path down". Since no path existed, I had to make one. My search for a suitable place to climb down began. I decided to head south, in hopes of finding such a path. The cliffs were really steep though, but that wasn't the most astonishing thing I witnessed.

Something in the distance seemed to move on the face of that cliff. My first thought was that someone tried climbing down, but that wasn't the case. The closer I got, the clearer everything became. "What the…?", I asked myself at the sight. There were plants on the cliff's face, moving with the wind. These plants were quite weird, almost alive in a way.

They had a long green stem, and a few brown roots buried into the face of the cliff. The top part where usually a flower or bud would be, there seemed to be something like a fruit. Round and green in colour, but there were no openings as far as I could see. Some of them had three leaves growing on small stems, while others had five.

"What a bunch of weird plants. I guess they moved due to the…", I suddenly stopped myself. One of these plants moved on its own. Part of its roots came out of the rock, and 'took a step' forward. Once these roots attached themselves again, the other part of its roots did the same. That plant was walking, it was literally walking on the face of that cliff. "...Are these living creatures? Plants that can walk… This feels so creepy… Does that mean the round fruit-like thing is their head? I wonder who else came here to witness such creatures. The world is big and mysterious indeed", I said to myself.

I didn't concern myself with the creatures more than that. There was no need to disturb them, and my search for the path down had to continue. Three days went by, before I found something remotely usable. "This place isn't bad, and I doubt there's gonna be anything better further south. The cliff probably ends somewhere, though I'm not about to risk finding out where". I decided to rest for the night, before climbing down. My water supplies were not that plentiful anymore. My hopes were to find a water source below, otherwise travelling would become a bit more difficult. Fortunately, my meat supply was alright.

The night passed uneventfully. After my usual morning practice, I prepared to climb down. "This sort of reminds me of the cliffs next to our house, though this one is taller", I said to myself. There were a few ledges on top of which I could rest. My route had to take those ledges into consideration, mostly due to safety.

The climb down wasn't that difficult. I made it to the first, then second and third ledge. Half the distance went really well, the other half was a bit more tricky. There were no other ledges below me, which meant climbing down without any rests or safety. Slowly but surely, I managed to make it down the cliff. "This wasn't so bad. Fortunately, I'm not scared of heights, otherwise this would've been impossible".

The visibility in the forest below the cliff was a bit poor. The mist was really annoying, which made me especially careful of my surroundings. That was a smart move, because the animals living there were not that normal anymore. Maybe an hour later, I encountered a sleuth of black bears. There were no brown bears in their group, all seven bears were black.

Utilising my rhythms, I was able to hold against that amount of bears, slowly defeating one after the other. That was just the beginning of my problems. The roars of these bears attracted more animals for some reason. A few more black bears arrived, then another few. I killed ten bears, but the noises didn't stop.

'I have to get out of here', the thought crossed my mind after defeating thirteen bears. There was simply no end to them, as if the forest was packed with those creatures. Fortunately, I was relatively close to the cliff. After a few more attacks and one more bear down, I ran towards the cliff's face and began climbing up. The bears chased after me, but they weren't able to climb the cliff.

More and more bears arrived, there were about twenty black bears beneath me. Then a silver bear arrived. Not only was it bigger, it was much stronger than the black variant. The bears slammed the cliff, trying to affect my climbing. Falling meant death by all means. The amount of bears wasn't something I could trifle with.

"Bam! Bam! Bam!...", the bears slammed the wall relentlessly. Some of the protruding rocks got dislodged and fell down, slamming a few bears in the process. More roars sounded below me, and more viscous slamming commenced. More rocks fell down, and my climbing became affected too. Some of the rocks I was about to grab or stood on fell off, making my hands sweat like crazy.

This went on until I made it to the half point of the cliff. The vibrations were no longer an issue, giving me some time to breathe. A few of the bears below died due to falling rocks, but the group got even bigger. There were about forty bears below me, only two of them were silver, but they made the most ruckus. 'I'm glad my decision to escape was correct. With that many bears, I'm not sure about my chances of survival'.

These silver bears were really frightening though. Their strength was at least two to three times that of the black bear. After witnessing that display, I was convinced that the silver bears were as strong as me. That alone made me wonder, 'Could animals reach the Outer Limits stage?'. There was nothing my mind could think of, that would prevent them from achieving that. Any race could break past their limits to reach a certain stage. Why wouldn't that also apply to animals?

The bears below me slowly gave up and retreated back to the forest. I wasn't stupid enough to simply climb down and try my luck again. "I'm not going down there anymore. The area above the cliff is much safer. Besides, the masters didn't tell me to go there", I reasoned with myself. It took me a while but I made it back up the cliff, a relatively safe place compared to the frightening creatures below me. That cliff really portrayed a huge difference between areas. On one side you had a relatively normal forest, with usual animals. On the other side, you had the animals that seemingly broke past their limits.