113 Entering Sylvomurkuwar Fortress

After they ran for the few kilometers to the gate the look on the Captain's face had become even more green, to the point where even his intestines had turned green. This brat was certainly in good shape to keep up with his mount! He was unable to even throw her off by a little bit with his fast pace, he even saw that the way she ran was possessed of some kind of profound footwork he couldn't see through.

Envy coursed through every fiber of his being, but he understood now that she had not been going all out with him before.

He was no match for this little girl!

As they entered the city gates once again the Captain, fuming, volunteered his Lieutenant to finish the task of escorting Yun to the General in charge. Looking at her with a strange glance, he quietly motioned her to follow him before leading her deeper in.

As they exited the rear of the inner field, between the two gatehouses, Yun discovered that on the far side of the gates was a massive quarry. Within this quarry was the entire fortress of Sylvomurkuwar, towering stone constructs reinforced with ironwood and array formations. In the center of the huge space was a massive solid stone main keep, towering so high that the highest tower reached above the walls and featured an open air space to observe the surroundings and see any enemy actions for themselves.

After pausing for a few moments and looking around the incredible fortress Yun looked over at the Lieutenant who was patiently waiting for her with an understanding look on his face.

"I had the same reaction the first time I visited this place. Isn't this an incredible work of art? They say it took nearly a decade for Neidan Forging masons to carve out this place, and that most of the stone that was taken from here was taken to build Myhhrwar's walls."

Yun nodded, "We've been told that the great stone walls around Myhhrwar were quarried from the great fortress in the north, but I don't think anyone really associates that fact with this kind of reality. . ."

The Lieutenant let out a short laugh and nodded understandingly as he began to walk down the winding stairs that would take them to the first level of the quarry. As they neared the bottom Yun slowly began to realize that what appeared from above to be the bottom of this space was really only a shapely interlocking floor of quarried stone, and beneath this first floor was a great deal more space that had been quarried out, but was inaccessible in order to allow accumulated water to seep back into the Cradle's water tables. Additionally this provided an excellent source of fresh water, as this space was sealed and only accessible to the highest echelons of military authority.

They finally reached the floor and Yun could only describe it as astonishingly well made. It was incredibly smooth, with beautiful patterns cut into the polished stone surface that also created channels for rainwater to flow into the small spaces that allowed it to fall into the basin below.

There were even supreme tempered windows built into the roadway's surface every once in a while that allowed one to see below. Beneath the buildings was a true empty space. Every so often there would be massive stone constructs braced with wood that organically grew from the walls and provided the necessary support for these massive stone edifices to stay standing without shattering the free-standing floor beneath their behemoth weight. This entire fortress was a marvel of ingenuity and engineering prowess, as well as the skillful use of array formations to reinforce materials beyond the normal limits.

After nearly two hours of walking the complex roads of this fortress Yun and the Lieutenant finally arrived at the central keep, aptly nicknamed The Greyspire. Upon entering there was a large tavern-like lobby, with the adventuring guild counter to one side and an actual tavern to the other.

The adventuring guild was a pretty typical existence in this world, and mainly catered to those loose cultivators who either found their own cultivation techniques or were from small families that were in possession of a technique to pass down. These cultivators, without the resources of a sect, frequently either chose to risk their lives completing minor tasks for the local governments to earn themselves a greater rank and title, progressing all the way from Bronze ranked through Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Mithracite ranks. Many of these cultivators would never receive enough resources to be able to advance past Yun's current cultivation in the early Body Tempering realm.

Finally passing through the far side of room under the envious gazes of many young adventurers, who still hadn't grown past the bitterness they felt towards the Sects that had denied them access, couldn't help but leer at Yun and her Disciple robes as she passed into the heart of the military forces in this region.

On the far side of the door was a massive hall featuring a great deal of small rooms on each wall where many tasks were being performed constantly. In some rooms there were lower cultivation officers who were tasked with monitoring and relaying communications from various sources, in others there were many older and higher ranked officers pouring over documents, presumably intelligence reports, and annotating anything they found important.

Yun was surprised to see the bee-hive like activity in this space, especially considering that this extreme northern fortress was one of the least likely places for a Volvaka attack to occur. She looked quizzically at the Lieutenant at her side to ask about this.

"Well, while this fort is certainly the farthest from the typical conflicts, we do have our own hive up here that frequently attacks us. We also maintain intelligence reports on much of the rest of the Cradle and provide a place where all the ranking officers of the other regions can access information to make intelligent decisions. You could consider this installation as part regional security, part archive and information center. As a result we also have the highest proportion of officers of any installation."

The Lieutenant puffed his chest out proudly, happy to show off his home turf to this young girl. He wasn't quite sure why he felt like he needed to impress her though, considering the age gap between them was significant.

Nevertheless, they continued on and soon mounted the stairs on the other side of this massive chamber, heading up past multiple floors until they reached the highest floor in this section of the building.

Yun then realized that the stairs for the structure were split into sections based on the footprint of that section. As the structure rose higher the footprint of each successive section also reduced, eventually ending in the small spire that rose up above the city walls, having little room within for anything more than a central pillar and a spiral stair.