Chronicles of the Exalted Sun Child

Yuriko blinked as the convoy rumbled closer and closer. She thought they would be hostile, but in all probability, they couldn't see her and the others due to the Elemental fog. Fifty paces away, she felt the lead truck jostle as whoever was driving it spotted her. The headlights blinked as the driver flashed them, then they rumbled to a stop some twenty paces away.

Yuriko called for the others to gather beside her while the door to the truck's side opened and out popped an armoured figure. Well, several armoured figures. Powered armour, from the looks of it, which had a sleek, silvery sheen on the plates. The faceplate was completely opaque, and the suit also had the same anti-perception filter that the trucks had.

"Good afternoon, Miss," the one in front said. "Will you let us through?"

Yuriko blinked, then nodded at her team, who were already moving towards one side of the road. The convoy took up most of the space, but there was easily a space of clearance on either side of the road. "I don't see why you need to ask."

"Thank you, miss, just that we are obligated to inform you that the expedition is likely to clear the monsters on the path. If you wish to hurry towards the terminus, you are more than welcome to follow closely behind, but if you wish to harvest shards, then please remain in place for an hour. This first layer's endpoint is well documented with spawn times and what sort of guardians are within."

"Thank you for that," Yuriko said with a bright smile.

"Ah, you're welcome," the armoured figure said, though she noticed neither he nor the others behind him introduced themselves or their company.

Yuriko moved next to her companions beside the cliff wall and waited for the convoy to pass. She felt eyes staring from behind the tinted glass while the trucks trundled past, and she also felt connections forming. Of much more interest was the five thicker threads that originated from the middle truck. Still, it didn't stop, nor did the other end, the Wyllan's Circle from the feel of it, move to talk or engage her. She smirked at the window when she felt their eyes on her, and she felt a pulse of trepidation flow down the thread, but nothing much happened.

Once the trucks were past them, Yuriko looked at Carina and asked, "Well, are we waiting or are we rushing?"

Carina nibbled at her lower lip. "I…think we might as well take a break and wait. This expedition is for resource gathering, isn't it?"

"We have the rest of the day, and rushing ahead won't do much," Yuriko agreed. "Let's take a break then."

Yuriko pulled at the earth and stone with her kinesis and moulded it into seats and a table. The fine application, moulding solids without resorting to a spell, would not have been so easy as a thought before she learned Bladeless Sword. The application was simply to sever the bonds that held the material together, move them with kinesis, then pretty much un-sever the bonds, accomplished by pressing the cut pieces together. Bladeless Sword could cut so finely that there was minimal damage to the surfaces. The trick was moving the severed chunks quickly enough so that there wouldn't be much of a degradation. It was an application she learned simply by continued practice and…well, laziness…ehehe.

They fetched their MREs from their backpacks, and Yuriko noted how much was left in hers. There was enough for another forty days if they didn't divert to oases to gather food. They probably would anyway since they planned to linger in the 2nd layer rather than press on. Any biome would do to gather shards. Besides, it would help them practice for the next expedition.

For a moment, she looked at the future. A 2nd layer expedition now, to fuel what they needed to run a 3rd layer expedition. Doing both would last the entire Season, probably, and afterwards, they would need to gather more funds so they could prepare for the next expedition, one that they would use to try to delve as deeply as possible. She hoped they could reach the ninth layer and the Gate to the next Eternal Tower floor by then. If they fail, they would either gather more resources and try again, or attempt to join the Martial Tournament to join that faction's upcoming expedition.

Thinking about it now, she wasn't keen on doing that since it meant submitting her team to another's authority. Something about that just felt wrong. Not the idea, or anything logical, but something within her. The same sense that prodded her to Radiance. Bucking that instinct would probably make her road to Exaltation harder, but then again, blindly following hunches could lead her down the wrong path, too.

Either way, there were logical reasons not to join anyway. Putting their lives and choices in the hands of someone she didn't even know, much less trust, wasn't logical. The counterargument being to get to know them instead; but the easier path right now was to go ahead by themselves. She wasn't even sure if Martial Faction even wanted to pass through to the next delve. The next one would undoubtedly be more dangerous than what was here now. Shangria was no paradise, but the amount of resources one could gain just by regular delving was staggering. Even limiting themselves below the fifth layer, where the spatial expansion containers failed, still meant untold wealth and potential. She was actually more surprised by the cordiality of other people passing through as well as the other delvers she encountered in the first layer…but then again, the number of biomes and the nodes was vast. Covering an entire planet as far as she could tell, coupled with the relatively low value of 1st layer shards, there was little for stronger people to fight over. She could expect conflict in the deeper layers, she presumed, or perhaps the five factions have everything sorted out that they don't encounter each other during delves?

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No, that wasn't likely. Why would factions form in the first place if there was nothing to fight over? Even if some of them are more peaceful than the others, if one was determined to compete and the others give in, then those who don't fight would likely be subsumed.

The MRE she prepped was one of the tastier ones. Pasta in cheese sauce sprinkled with bacon. She pulled the tab and waited for the meal to heat up. After a minute, the display changed colour, indicating it was ready.

The packet also came with a disposable spork. The container and utensil would degrade after the packet was opened, though it would take a few years to happen. However, any item left in the biomes disintegrated once it reset for the day. That, and the lock that limited travel, happened at dawn.

She quickly ate her meal, though the bacon bits were a tad soggy. The noodles were pleasantly cooked, with the interior slightly crunchy. The cheese was sweet and slightly tart. All in all, a good meal, if less than what she would be satisfied with. By the time they finished eating, she saw the convoy arrive on the spiral road below them.

They continued to travel, fight, and harvest. The second spiral arm took less time to traverse, but there really was no way to tell where they were on the long road, considering the monotony of the biome. The air was hot and thick, and there was an unpleasant stench that wafted from the lava pool. Heron, Gwendith, and Devotee easily bore the atmosphere, but Ryoko, Saki, Carina, and Ilvara were covered in sweat. The greenette and silverhead both wore rebreather masks, though Ryoko did not. The handmaiden used her Animus to toughen herself up, though Yuriko and the others surreptitiously recharged her reserves every now and then. Both handmaidens were still within the Imperial Path as she didn't have enough Ambrosia to convert them to Mysticism just yet. Still, it didn't mean either of them stagnated. It has been years since both have chosen to serve her, and while their ranks had not increased, they continued to hone their skill with Facet and Animus techniques. The exposure to many different Anima strengthening methods also allowed them to improve themselves in other ways. Ryoko grew well-versed in cantrips and basic spells, while Saki improved her personal Truth enough that Yuriko's Radiance didn't automatically blow away her shadows.

Yuriko still felt Saki around whenever the handmaiden hid in the shadows, but her perception sometimes slipped off the other woman, and she wouldn't notice unless Saki came too close.

The next couple of hours, and a couple of levels through the spiral road, were much the same as before. They harvested a bounty of shards, and she felt it was a good fraction of what they needed to buy a Camper Truck, though there were not enough credits for supplies. If they intended to harvest third-layer shards, they needed to schedule at least twenty days to travel one way. Anything less than a cycle harvesting on third would be a waste of time. Supplies for eight people, a large wolf, and a blue wisp thing, for at least eighty days, would be needed. A single unit cost about twelve credits, though buying it bulk would net a per unit cost of around ten credits or so. So about a hundred credits per meal for the lot, times three meals, times eighty days. Er…about twenty-five thousand credits? That wasn't so bad, come to think of it. Yeah, it was the Camper Truck that cost more, as well as the varied sundries; it actually shouldn't cost more than thirty or forty thousand credits in consumables.

Arithmetics aside, and Yuriko hummed at the fact that her strands of consciousness could brute force the calculations somewhat, even if she was sure that her estimate was off, since the bulk of the cost to enter the deeper layers was a matter of supply and space to carry the supplies, she wondered whether large expeditions were useful at all. More people meant more supply, but just as likely that the porters wouldn't contribute to the battle. Vehicles, while useful, might necessitate time-consuming detours when a biome could not be traversed easily.

If she were alone…she might have been able to brute force the delve. She didn't need to eat if she didn't have to, and she could sustain herself on Radiant energy alone. Heron and Gwendith had not finished their Physique refinement, but once they did, she imagined they wouldn't be limited in the same way either.

But she had no intentions of leaving her handmaidens and her familiar, as well as the other two, behind.

By the time evening came along, the convoy had finally reached the last strip of road that led to the lava pool and the portal, while Yuriko and the others were a single level above them. They could probably cross using the slope, which was suitably gentler now that they were deep inside the caldera. Yuriko observed the trucks as they turned down the bridge and wondered what sort of guardian would come out of the pool.

Much to her surprise, nothing came out. Instead, the lava started bubbling, and the pool started to overflow. The trucks screeched to a halt as the lava rose, reaching the bottom of the portal in mere seconds.

The land bridge was visibly disappearing, and the convoy hastily reversed directions. They weren't quite fast enough, and the lava reached the wheels. Those were reinforced and didn't pop or melt, thankfully, and left the convoy damaged but not destroyed by the time they reached the slopes.

Then, the lava receded. But it didn't lower, instead, it gathered into a clump in the middle of the pool, and the shaped itself into a vague mammalian form.

Yuriko looked at Carina dryly, who threw up her hands and yelled, "It's not my fault!"