Savage Awakening 547. Gold Rush (III)

“Hey there,” Zane said. He wasn’t sure what the proper greeting here was, but he figured you couldn’t go wrong with a friendly wave. “Have either of you fellows heard of Mount X? I’m Jack, by the way.”

He was hoping this try would go better. The last one had gotten a bit rowdy—he’d had to dust off an old ‘Jack’ technique.

They looked a bit stunned, which made sense. They must’ve seen him whack the young master back there.

“That was self-defense. I’m not here to make a fuss or wound anyone,” he explained. “I just want some directions.”

They looked like monks. One was quite young—kind of reminded him of Jin. Half-step Empyrean. The other was small, bald, with a white bushy beard. Just about peak T0 Empyrean, judging by his aura.

“Yes—of course,” said the older one. “I’d be happy to help. This one’s name is Shen. Might I call you Master Jack?”

“Jack’s fine.”

“Jack. I’ve been here once before, as it happens. I’m quite familiar with the lay of the land.”

The older fellow hesitated, as if he thought he might’ve said something wrong. “I’ve been here just once—I’m no expert,” he amended. “But I do know where Mount X is… it may be the most famous peak in the Pure Yang lands. That is, I’ve seen it from a distance. I can certainly point you in a direction.”

“Great,” said Zane. The old fellow was probably a bit worried about being dragged into being a tour guide or something, but he needed nothing of the kind. “Just a ballpark will do.”

The old fellow quickly sorted him out. He pointed out a star to head toward.

Zane nodded. “What does the mountain look like?”

“It’s marked with a cross.”

“…It has an X on it.”

“Unless something has wiped it away, that should still be the case.”

“…”

“It’s said an Overgod found the starfield at the mountain’s peak aeons ago,” said Shen. “It was such a useful treasure land that he wished to train his disciple there. He marked it with two slashes so when he flew back, seeing it from far above, he wouldn’t forget where it lay.”

No wonder Noughtfire looked so amused, saying Zane would know it when he saw it. Zane got the feeling the old fellow had been picturing Zane coming across the mountain for the first time and making the same expression he was making now.

“Thanks,” he told Shen.

“It’s my pleasure,” said Shen. He looked a little less cautious than he had at the start of this conversation. Zane had been doing his best to project a lack of ill intent. It seemed to be working. He hoped.

“If I might—just a word of warning,” said Shen. “The spark density grows much heavier as elevation increases… it’s why most opt to stay here, on the plains. Without serious fire resistances, even T1 Empyreans would find it difficult to stay for an extended period.”

“Got it.” With his regeneration and physique, he doubted most Empyreans could match him for physical stats. “I should be fine. Thanks, though.”

“There’s one more thing,” said Shen. He hesitated, like he wasn’t sure if he should say it. But he forged ahead. “You plan on making use of the starfield—is that right?”

“If it’s on Mount X, probably.”

“I see.” Shen hesitated again. “It’s true it’s quite the haven for certain Tier 6 and Tier 7 Concepts! It’s simply that a single master marks that as his territory. His name is Kain. He does not take kindly to anyone he sees as encroaching upon his land.”

“…Hmm.”

“He’s…” Shen paused. “He’s known to be rather… cranky, shall we say? It would be safest to avoid him, I think. He may be the only one who camps out there anymore.”

Zane nodded. “I don’t plan on getting involved in any drama this time, if I can help it,” he informed Shen. “Don’t really have the time for it this run.”

Just looking at all those flags and auras billowing in those distant camps—several of those auras quite unfriendly—he could already tell stuff would go down as soon as a chunky meteor struck down here.

Ideally, he’d spend most of his time doing his own thing, away from all that.

“Oh.” Shen blinked. “As it happens, my disciple and I—this is Minzha—”

“Greetings, Master Jack,” said Minzha, bowing.

“Hey there,” said Zane.

“We think much the same way as you. We’re only here to collect Creation shards for my disciple. Jack… you aren’t affiliated with a Sect. Is that right?”

“I’m not.”

“Would you be at all interested in joining us?” said Shen hopefully. “Perhaps we loose cultivators can stick together. It’d provide much more security, especially here… I fear it can get rather lawless. Lawless Empyreans… It can be a savage sight. Besides, if you plan on meteor hunting, it’s much easier without dealing with that mountain ember atmosphere.”

Zane shook his head. “I’ve got to head to Mount X. Sorry about that.”

“That’s alright,” said Shen. It seemed to be what he’d expected. “Best of luck, then. It’s good to see a friendly face around these parts.”

“You too. Maybe I’ll see you around.”

Zane made his way about ten steps, stopped, turned—“One more thing. What’s the drop rate for shards in these meteors?”

“Eh? Ah—about one in two hundred and fifty,” said Shen.

“Thanks.”

Then he gave them a wave and really headed off.

The gold rush analogy made more sense.

The nice thing about being on the mountain, by the sounds of it, was that because it was less popular, he’d have most of its meteors to himself. Himself and this Kain fellow, he amended. But still.

For now he decided he’d take a wait-and-see approach with this Kain. Zane wasn’t about to let himself be intimidated out of a Concept. Who knew? Maybe he wouldn’t be there this year.

***

Shen took a deep breath. “Disciple?” he said. “Did you notice something a little off about that Jack?”

“He seemed an honest man to me.”

“I think so as well… but he was also wearing a disguise amulet.”

Minzha gave a start. “Really?”

“He was only pretending to be a T0 Empyrean,” said Shen. “If that’s what he’s chosen as a disguise…”

“He must be even stronger than that,” said Minzha. It was dawning on him. “Was he T1, master?”

Minzha paled. “Master… did we just come across a T2 Empyrean?”

“It’s impossible to say. Whatever it is… to down that Young Master with that kind of ease, without even deploying a Universe expansion—” Shen shuddered. “That level is far beyond us.”

T2 would’ve put that man on the same tier as the Black Dragon Karagas, the Princess Jaxarys’ bodyguard and great uncle—quite possibly the strongest figure here. Outside of possibly Kain. No one knew just how strong that man was.

There were just too many powerhouses out here. It wasn't great for Shen's nerves, he'd say that much.

It was just a shame they couldn’t team up, though it had been a long shot.

“It just shows it’s best to be generous and to give all we meet the proper respect,” he told his disciple.

“Un!” Minzha nodded.

With that, the two headed on in hopes of searching for Shards.

Shen was the imperial advisor to a second-tier Empire in the Galaxy called the Fate Empire, an Empire that would only last a few more millennia. He taught his disciples the ‘Way of the Null Palm,’ a rare essence-cancelling art.

Minzha and Shen would go on to have a difficult time most of this Shard season. They barely scraped together three Shards, and even then, two were poached by greater Sects shortly after. They would barely survive being hunted by the Drawn Sword Sect. But they would come across a great boon their last night there, chancing upon one of the biggest Creation deposits to date. Enough to give Minzha real hope of achieving his dream one distant day.

But that was all far later, and by the by. 

For now, master and disciple and Zane went their separate ways.

***

Zane chanced a look back at the campgrounds. More camps were arriving by the day, it seemed, pulled by two flame stallions. He saw sparks flying down there in the far distance—had someone dragonformed? He wasn’t sure.

He’d passed by clusters of death-fire necromancers trailing skulls, tents with True Roc and dragon auras, and countless Empyrean martial artists here to seek their fortunes. The Sects’ tents were quite runed up—it was clear it wasn’t their first time here. But some of the loose cultivators’ tents were already looking a bit pockmarked by the embers.

He held out Reina’s ladder just to test, and just as he expected, it did quite well; there wasn’t a blemish on it. She’d keyed it specifically to be anti-starfire Laws. He recognized a fair few of the runes on the greater Sect tents.

It seemed alliances were being formed already down here. The Black Dragons and the rocs seemed rather buddy-buddy by the looks of it; they shared a campground. Mankind’s finest glared daggers at them from a few thousand feet away. From what he overheard while strolling by, folks seemed concerned they’d bully the other Sect. A first strike was being debated between two very bushy-bearded men. Patrol teams left quite often from every camp, scouring the land, so if any Shard-ridden meteor dropped, they’d be first on the scene.

There were also formal duels down here. He saw a necro-pyromancer fellow challenge a phoenix, and promptly get flattened by a few thousand burning feathers. The phoenix won 2 Creation shards.

…Hm.

No. He kept his eyes on the prize. No storylines for him this time. Noughtfire was pretty insistent he prioritize Mount X, and he agreed. Shards were nice, but they weren’t his primary aim. It’d be good to invest in, but he couldn’t make use of them anytime soon.

Besides, twenty years was probably enough time to gather a pretty fine stash on his own.

…Maybe he could come down the mountain for a duel every once in a while.

But he hadn’t lied to that Shen fellow—this time he really did intend to do his own thing.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but Mount X was indeed just a mountain with a giant X on it. The only thing distinguishing it was a slight shimmering, just barely visible from a distance, at the peak.

As he made his way up the craggy slope, he found Shen was right. The higher he went, the thicker the air got with Law—but that also meant fiercer embers. They started stinging his skin—knocking off a good 1%-2% Health per second, but with his regeneration, it didn’t matter at all.

The only annoying thing was he couldn’t just rocket his way up. The slower he went, the fewer embers he ran into per second. At this density, it made a serious difference. He tried rocketing up a step and ate a faceful of the stuff… it wasn’t even the raw damage. It just got in his eyes.

It took about 6 hours to make his way to the top.

Along the way, he was peppered by meteors, none of them shard-laden.

Sometimes they dropped nothing, but the most common were those Empyrean Astroliths—giant rock piles come to life, in groups of one to three. There was also a variant called the ‘Greater Astrolith’ that carried a rocky vent on its back which essentially acted as a giant starfire cannon. They had maybe 3-4 shards of Destruction. It took Zane quite a few blows to run through them, though he managed it just fine when they were alone.

There were also stardrakes—pitch-black lizards that crawled up between the cracks. They were much like normal drakes, but the fins on their backs would light up gold as they charged those star beams. If they managed to get them off, they had a rather devastating effect, as Zane quickly learned. He’d been fighting two at a time when one of them hit him, taking 25% of his health. It sent him tumbling a good quarter-mile down the mountain.

All the monsters here seemed slow-moving, slow-attacking, but quite deadly.

Still—none were a match for dragonform Haxorax or anything. He found it a good level of challenge, actually. He couldn’t just walk over them, but they didn’t need his full effort either.

He found it was a good chance to practice his new slashes as he made his way up.