52 Around The World

*According to the map, this thing should be around here.*

I survey my surroundings once again, this time I'm looking for a giant petrified tree covered in crystals. The map was way less precise than I first thought, and it took a lot of Rewinds until I found the right directions.

I'm lucky that this planet is filled with unique looking fauna, or I would be completely lost.

But let's get back to the present. Only one 'real' minute passed since I pillaged that village, but I've been teleporting around for at least five hours. The good news is that I'm definitely making progress, but the bad news is that I'm still far from my objective.

Right now, I'm in the middle of a swamp with barely any vegetation other than the occasional spiky vines, and all the trees are dead and petrified. They look like someone carved a gnarly tree and polished it to a mirror shine.

I have no idea what happened here, but I think the liquid in the swamp might be responsible for this state of affairs. The swamp is full of an oily, amber-colored liquid that is sometimes bubbling for no apparent reason.

*Well, at least there aren't any animals here.*

There aren't even small critters running around, the area is completely devoid of any living creature aside from the vines. And their yellowing color shows that they probably aren't doing so well.

This biological desert is intriguing. Especially since it's one of the main routes to go to the capital, which is naturally protected by a ring of tall snowy mountains.

Or at least that's what the map describes, from what I can tell it is only affecting those who are coming from my direction.

How lucky I am, I always wanted to explore a toxic wasteland!

My armored boots slightly sink into the mud with each step I take. The soil is so engorged with this liquid that it almost has a tar-like texture, so I have to tread carefully. I can easily survive sinking into a pit of possibly deadly liquid, but getting out might be a hassle.

I teleport on top of a large rock in the middle of a lake of weird liquid and take a quick look around. The sizzling noise and the smoke coming from the bottom of the rock show that this liquid is highly corrosive. Because being extremely toxic apparently wasn't enough.

My survey of the surrounding area doesn't help me since a brown fog starts to cover the entire swamp.

*This can't possibly be worse.*

A raindrop stops me in my tracks and shows me how wrong I was. A veritable deluge covers the entire swamp, making the already abysmal visibility even worse.

The fact that my shield is constantly up also shows that this isn't regular water, so it's probably the corrosive liquid.

*Great, now it's raining acid.*

I refrain from complaining further since I might accidentally trigger an apocalypse.

For crying out loud, I can't see shit and it's getting worse. I also that I'm slowly sinking into the ground...

…??? PoV…

"Sir, we have an interesting proposal from the Ironwings Family concerning the troublemaker." my secretary reports, so I take a glance at the contract. It's a standard contract, if I sign it then it will warn the emitter that it was accepted. Reading the terms causes a grin to creep on my face and I massage my beard in satisfaction.

The power vacuum created by the extermination of the Scalebound Family caused their faction to collapse and fragment. Those who survived the 'Beelzebub Debacle' became political pariahs for their involvement with the Dragonewt Family.

Their only options for survival are to either huddle together to form micro-factions or to offer their loyalty to other Families in exchange for clearing their names. The Ironwings and many others chose the latter.

Sweeping up the Families desperate for protection is an easy way to quickly increase the power and influence of a Family. Getting more of those two things is always good, especially in the current situation.

The negotiations for the partition of the territory and wealth of the Scalebound are still ongoing. Alice Wolfheart, the figurehead of the victorious party, has to contend with the greed of all the Families included in the battle, and there was a lot.

Not to mention that external Families, who are claiming that they lost some territory to the Scalebound at some point in their history, are doing everything they can to get a piece of the pie.

*They are all greedy fools!*

I'm not too worried about the pompous ones who are wasting their breath each time there is a Council meeting attempting to resolve the situation. The real enemies are the ones who are, just like us, using this opportunity to grow their power base.

A powerful Family will always have more clout in negotiations, especially when said Family is on the side of the winners.

*But the negotiations are at a standstill, and I wouldn't be surprised if they turn into a free-for-all.*

Old factions are fragmenting, secret deals are made and flames of ancient hatred have been revived as everyone scrambles to the opportunity to get more territory.

Our faction, the Wolfheart faction, is no exception to this. Dissent has started to arise since a lot of people deemed Alice's leadership to be ineffective. Some Families even said that her hesitation is what caused the whole debacle.

And I'm part of those people. I may also have spread the rumors to get those on the fence to join my side.

The alliance between the Stonecrushers, our Family, and the Wolfheart has held up for more than three hundred years. But Alice is clearly not cut out for leadership compared to her now dead husband.

She's afraid of taking action, and she refuses to fight unless completely cornered. This whole situation could've been avoided had she struck at the Scalebound earlier. We would've lost far fewer men since the Scalebound would have been taken by surprise.

But she had to wait until the last possible moment, she was too afraid of how the Council would react.

To hell with the Council, might makes right!

I can't possibly understand why she would care so much about the opinion of those sycophants. Most of the Council members are ruling over a speck of dirt, the only reason they are still alive is to bolster the numbers of seats of the more powerful Families to manipulate the votes.

*This wouldn't have happened if her husband was still alive…*

Alice's husband was a brave man that I met a long time ago during our youth. We immediately became friends and formed an alliance between our two Families when we ascended to power. He never backed down, his cunning and ruthlessness in warfare turned our two inconsequential Families into powerhouses.

But the network of alliances and vassals that he so painstakingly assembled is crumbling in front of my very eyes. His wife was never meant to be a leader, and she had done a tremendously bad job. But this will soon change since the Stonecrushers are rapidly rising to the top.

Our important role in the battle, coupled with our rapid diplomatic expansion will soon make us a match for the Wolfheart. My strategy of spreading anti-Wolfheart rumors in our faction is also starting to pay dividends since certain Families already agreed to swear fealty to us instead.

Of course, all of this happened in the utmost secrecy, and bit by bit I'm gaining control of the empire we sacrificed so much to build.

Enough rambling, let's get back to the Ironwings proposal. One of the main conditions for clearing the names of the Families who were aligned with the Scalebound was pretty straight-forward.

Contribute as much as possible to the bounty on John Thomson's head.

The Beelzebub Debacle has spawned another problem, and that is John Thomson. At first, he was an inconsequential Outsider who stumbled into the Hidden World because of the carelessness of Alice's children.

*It's true that he played a role in the resolution of the Edmund Incident, but it had to be minor at best. The majority of the work was probably done by Alice's children.*

His story should've ended there since, from the look of things, his involvement with the Hidden World had been going on for quite a while now.

The trial that Erdis started was yet another attempt to diminish the Wolfheart's status, and he certainly succeeded. However, no one took John Thomson into account. His fate was an already foregone conclusion, and his trial was more of a formality than anything else.

But, against everyone's expectation, the Wolfheart asked for a trial by combat. This decision shocked a great number of Families, but everyone thought that it was a symbolic middle finger to the Scalebound. There was no way an Outsider would win against a reputable warrior like Erdis' daughter.

We were wrong.

John Thomson, against all odds, completely crushed her. This sent ripples through the Council. He had to have someone powerful backing him since Alice denied ever helping him. She even forbade her children from talking with him since they were, in her words, responsible for the situation.

So John Thomson became an accepted member of the Hidden World, a surprising turn of event but not too worrying since he was just a powerless human.

However, the Mana Burst Incident was also caused by him. According to Wolfheart reports it was an aftereffect of effectively wiping out the Black Claws.

And, as if it wasn't enough, he had to kill Beelzebub while the entire world watched.

At this point, the key players started to notice him. His rise to power was just too great to ignore, he went from struggling against an, admittedly quite powerful for her age, fledgling warrior to evenly matching a Demon that most people considered a legend.

As a result, people started to praise him for his heroic actions while condemning the Families for their incompetence and cowardice. This, in turn, gave him a hero-like status in the eyes of the public. Meaning that taking any public action against him will result in a huge backlash from the masses.

Then what would happen when a powerful individual, who is almost worshipped by the public, openly challenges the Enforcers?

It's a recipe for disaster, and I had to take action. I can't let Alice handle it since she would just act when it was already too late. From what we know, he currently has no one following him and I want to keep it that way. We are actively suppressing all the discussions we can find that are showing him in a positive light. I even hired a group whose sole purpose is to pose as regular people and discredit the Outsider on every possible platform.

His rebellious message also reached the ears of external Councils, who sent a warning to the major local powers. The message was clear. Take him down or we'll intervene.

An Inter-Council war would be disastrous in our current situation. The Beelzebub Incident has already caused a lot of animosity between nearly every Family, so we wouldn't be able to form a united front if we were attacked.

But all is not lost, from what we know he's still alone so there's little he can do. Crushing a rebellion is not that hard, but it can lead to a loss of manpower that we can't afford considering the current situation.

So I killed two birds with one stone and put a large bounty on him. This shows that we are taking care of him, so the other Councils shouldn't intervene. And it saves manpower since the ones doing the work will be mercenaries.

Furthermore, it provides an easy road to redemption for Families who don't have a large stockpile of resources or Credits due to their small territory. That way I can rope them into my camp without crippling their finances, and it allows anyone to join. It also makes John Thomson a better target since his bounty keeps growing as time passes, so his death is all but guaranteed.

"Acting fast was the correct decision," I mumble to myself as I sign the contract, causing the piece of paper to glow for a brief moment.

If I didn't issue the bounty then John Thomson might have gathered some support and began to organize an army.

And that wouldn't be good.

…John's PoV…

"Fucking finally!" I shout before kicking the pulsating crystals embedded into the giant petrified tree. I was forced to wait until the rainfall stopped since it became completely impossible to navigate. At least the acidic rainfall only lasted for ten minutes.

My attention focuses back on the crystal I just kicked, it's slightly wobbling like it was made of jelly. I take a step back and sigh, this place keeps getting weirder and weirder.

But at least I found the massive tree marked on the map, so I'm definitely progressing.

*The next landmark should be the twin hills, I wonder how could I-*

Using my phone's zoom to look over the horizon revealed the next landmark, and calling them hills was doing them a disservice. Two balls of dirt, which are so big that they poke over the clouds, covered in blue grass and trees are side by side, leaving only a small road of trodden dirt between them.

I get why they don't call it a mountain since it's completely covered in vegetation, and the shape is way too hill-like… Or maybe it's a mistranslation, the translator showed that it had a bit of trouble with this place's written language.

I rest my phone on the barrel of my Portal Gun to use it as a makeshift scope and fire towards the hill before firing under my feet, causing me to emerge on the side of one of the hills. The first thing I notice is the blue grass that's almost reaching my waist. In fact, most of the vegetation here seems to be gigantic since every other unknown plant is at least taller than me.

But there's no time to waste by looking around, this area is probably populated with its fair share of dangerous predators, so I memorize the coordinates and Rewind before teleporting back to the same area.

I arrive just next to what could be best described a six-legged ant-eater covered in blue feathers. The creature jumps back and looks at me with its beady eyes. I reach for my Field Pistol but the creature makes a high-pitched, almost sheep-like noise before running away at a surprising speed.

*Well, I guess this wasn't a predator. So far, I think it's the only living thing I found on this planet that didn't want to kill me.*

I glance around, but my vision is obstructed by the vegetation. I can't possibly get my bearings like this and it's too cloudy to go at the top since I wouldn't see anything. So I can either teleport down the road or on the other side of the hill.

Teleporting on the other side of the hill seems like the better option, that way I can get a better picture of my surroundings, and if the map is to be believed then the next landmarks are all massive, so navigation should be a lot easier from now on.

I glance towards the massive forest that forms a sort of dome that cuts the hill in half. It's almost like a dense tropical forest, which is weird considering we're so high up. But I can probably put this on the account of alien biology.

Speaking of alien biology, there's no way in hell that this area isn't populated by some horrific creatures that want to eat me. I'm not too worried about the regular wildlife since the only thing they can probably do to me is just slow me down. But the threat of finding a Spirit still exists.

I've been lucky so far since I didn't encounter one, but I need to be extra focused now since it could easily hide in the forest, and my portals spewing mana everywhere might attract one.

I shake my head and take a deep breath of recycled air before firing my Gun into the forest. Immediately, some high pitched noises echoes and the trees shake. This is soon followed by a flock of… scale-covered flying sloths.

Why is everything so weird?

The flying-lizard-sloths (a strong contender for this year's 'best name of the year' award) soon settle in another part of the forest, so I step through the portal.

My sudden appearance causes a few weirdly shaped critters, which were curiously sniffing my portal, to run away while screaming their tiny lungs out.

I can somewhat understand, I would freak out too if magical Iron Man teleported into my backyard.

But let's get back on track; this dimly lit area doesn't look friendly at all. The vegetation either looks very toxic or about to sprout legs and eat me whole.

I fire portals after portals to speed through the forest, not stopping for even one second to look around. I have no interest in a potentially deadly rainforest, and I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulder when I finally get to the other side.

The breathtaking view stops me in my tracks for a few seconds: The rolling fields of blue grass, the snowy peaks in the distance, the faint but still visible large cobblestone road that looks like a grey snake from this distance…

I shake my head to get out of my stupor. I didn't come here to enjoy the scenery. From what I can see, I'm in the right place. But I still check the map to make sure, and the more noticeable landmarks seem to more or less match the ones on the map.

Great, so Snaga said that the Roses should be on those mountains, but they are bigger than expected.

Exploring those is going to take some time, but I have no choice.

The Scanner, while impressive in its own right by being able to parse through all the planets in the universe, was lacking in precision. The area described as containing both of the materials was quite large, but the sheer size of those mountains made me realize how big those numbers displayed on the screen truly were.

I shrug and aim my Gun at a rather flat section of the seemingly infinite peaks. I better start now, I just hope the Roses aren't too hard to find…

And that I don't stumble upon some ancient evil.