Chapter 16 - The Journey Begins

Mathis walked the streets of the City of Mondstadt one more time before he would leave for Liyue. After some time he finally left Mondstadt and began to follow the road leading to Liyue. A half hour later and he finally began to pass by Springvale and looked forward as he saw a small canyon up ahead and a man who seemed to pacing back and forth in distress and annoyance. Mathis ignored the man as he looked at the two paths one through the canyon and one around it after looking down at his map and saw that the one going through was clearly shorter so he decided on going through there.

As he was walking past the distressed man looked at him and spoke "I don't recommend you go through here this canyon is dangerous. This place is called Drunkards Gorge it used to be a route for merchants, but recently a lot of monsters have been showing up here, and many merchants have been chased out by them. This is the quickest way and it's more spacious than the other path so more goods can be delivered through. I used to be a hunter so I decided to take my chances, but my wagon got attacked by the group of hilichurls back there. There were much more than I expected it's lucky I got out of there alright, don't be like me and take any chances go down the other way." After listening to the merchants explanation Mathis decided to ask him a question "So all you saw was a group of hilichurls, was there a Lawachurl with them?"

The merchant looked at Mathis with a confused look as if he was wondering why he asked that "Huh a Lawachurl, I didn't see one and if I did I wouldn't be standing here right now." Mathis looked at the merchant "Thanks for the warning, but don't worry I have experience fighting hilichurls." he said while wondering if he could count the few times he had fought hilichurls as experience. The merchant tried convincing Mathis not to go, but he insisted that he would be fine.

As Mathis walked deeper into the canyon he created a trident and looked towards the hilichurls that were lazing around. 'Three around that campfire, and another three standing in front of that broken wagon, two sleeping on the rock over there.' After counting how many hilichurls there were two balls of water formed around him and quickly transformed into sharks which charged at the three hilichurls in front of the wagon. While the sharks charged at the three near the wagon Mathis ran towards the two sleeping hilichurls with his trident in hand.

Hearing the loud noise the sleeping hilichurls were woken up. As they tried to get up and pick up their clubs Mathis stabbed his trident straight at the head of one of them. He turned around and looked at the other hilichurl who already picked up it's club and was ready to swing. He quickly kicked the hilichurls hand making it drop the club and thrust his trident foward at it easily finishing it off. Mathis turned around to look at his sharks only to see them floating above three lifeless hilichurls laying on the ground with large parts of their bodies chomped off.

'These sharks are brutal.' He thought as he turned towards the last three hilichurls running at him. As his sharks flew over and began chomping at the hilichurls he finished them off with ease. After all the hilichurls were defeated the two sharks broke apart and became a puddle while Mathis rummaged through the broken wagons around the area. 'These were owned by merchants so there might be some mora here.' He thought as he looked around. This was actually part of the reason why Mathis chose to go through the canyon instead of around it although it being quicker was also part of it.

As Mathis looked around he found a few pouches of mora on the wagons and on the bodies of unlucky people who were attacked by the group of hilichurls. 'Well this is all I could find I'll count how much this is later. Before I go I might as well tell that merchant that the path is clear since he was nice enough to warn me about the hilichurls.' After going back he explained to the merchant that the hilichurls were taken care of who after hearing what he did thanked him. After speaking with the merchant Mathis continued walking as he looked down at his map.

After some time he eventually passed Dawn Winery and as he passed it he looked ahead and noticed a group of cryo slimes bouncing around. Mathis looked at the three small slimes and summoned two sharks around him which charged at the three slimes, and as soon as the sharks chomped onto the squishy slimes they quickly burst into snowflakes and cold air. This wasn't his first time encountering slimes since when he went looking for ruins and treasure he saw a few. After dealing with the slimes Mathis continued walking and not long after he noticed something up ahead and said. "Ah there it is."