Path of Dragons 17 - Chapter 35 - The Journey (Patreon)

“It still burns,” Carmen complained, looking down at her forearm.  After weeks on the proverbial road, she had finally overcome the blistering.  However, her skin still felt like someone had dunked her in boiling water. 

And that was with one of the protective amulets the Tradesmen had created.  Others who’d not advanced their body cultivation as far as she had were forced to wear the magical equivalent of HAZMAT suits just to venture outside their ship.  If they went without, they would quickly succumb to the dense atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Elijah acted as though it wasn’t even uncomfortable, and he lacked even the most basic protections.  It was infuriating right up until Carmen remembered what he’d gone through to acclimate himself to such a caustically powerful atmosphere.  She’d reached the third tier of body cultivation – and was close to attaining bronze herself – so she had an idea of just how much pain he’d had to endure to reach gold. 

Especially so quickly.

Most people took to cultivation with a slow and steady pace, spread out over years and years.  Elijah chose a different route, where he destroyed himself over and over again, as if he was immune to the agony of it all. 

He wasn’t.

Carmen knew that.  But the fact that he kept going back for more suggested that there was something undeniably wrong with how he processed things.  Or maybe he was just more dedicated than most.

Either way, Carmen was well aware that she couldn’t hope to replicate his feats.  Instead, she was secure with going at her own pace, which was still a little faster than what was considered normal.  It had taken her a bit to get started, but now that she knew how it all worked, she felt comfortable with the process.

For her, it required lots of heat and, usually, special chambers built to mimic natural phenomena.  Could she have dunked herself in lava to get the same general result?  Maybe.  But nature was unpredictable, and there was no telling when an environment might change.  Subtly, perhaps, but even that could push her over the edge into a situation she couldn’t handle.

That was how sensible people cultivated – controlled and measured.

Elijah wasn’t sensible, and he’d gotten anything but sensible results.

Carmen had already processed that, and she usually didn’t succumb to jealousy.  Not until she had those results shoved in her face, like how Elijah didn’t have any issues with the atmosphere closer to the center of Orveth Kaal. 

They were still tens of thousands of miles away from the rings he’d described, but even so, the ethera in the air had grown progressively thicker with every step they took in that direction.  By her reckoning, they’d gone at least twenty or thirty thousand miles since leaving the Vengeance.  Perhaps further, because their instruments had stopped working properly after the first week.  By now, those delicate machines could only point them in the right direction.  Accurately measuring distance was asking a little too much.

The Engineers were working on it, though.

In addition, everyone onboard the Juniper was required to participate in the acclimation cycles.  It just so happened that, on that particular day, it was Carmen’s turn.  Unfortunately, Elijah was there to supervise and ensure that no one overexposed themselves. 

“It’ll fade to a tingle,” Elijah responded, sitting cross-legged atop the ship’s roof.  He was idly toying with a seed, which kept sprouting, growing, shedding another seed, then wilting.  The seed that was left behind was visually identical to the one from before, but even Carmen could feel that it was more energetic.  He looked up, adding, “Eventually.  Do you need healing?”

She shook her head.  “Not yet.”

“Don’t be shy about asking for it,” he advised. 

“I know what I can endure.”

“Just saying – it’s been a problem,” Elijah stated.  “One kid almost died because he wanted to impress me.”

“You think I want to impress you?”

Elijah laughed at that.  “Obviously not.  But you’re as competitive as anyone I’ve met.  And I can see it on your face – you don’t like falling short.”

Carmen snorted, then looked away.  She knew she didn’t really have a leg to stand on when it came to arguing with that assessment.  For all that she’d tried to temper her nature, she still saw almost everything as a competition.  Sometimes with others.  Other times, with herself.  And still other times against circumstances. 

One thread ran through every situation – she hated to lose.

And she found it very difficult not to see every circumstance through the dichotomy of victory and defeat.  Still, that attitude had driven her to become one of the best crafters on Earth.  She would’ve been in the undisputed number one spot had she taken a more focused class.

As it was, she had to split her time between fighting, management, and blacksmithing.  She loved that, but it also slowed her progress by a significant degree.  Not in terms of experience, but rather, regarding the advancement of her trade.  A pure Blacksmith wouldn’t have had that problem.

But then again, if she’d gone that route, she would have probably died.  Or worse, fallen behind.  Carmen wasn’t blind to the reality that she’d gained quite a lot of levels by fighting or acting as a pseudo-administrator for the Forge of Creation. 

Whatever the case, while she might have moments of brief regret, she wouldn’t change her class for anything.  It fit her perfectly.

Which, according to the Scholars, was the point.  Every evolution, every Specialization – they were meant to help people home in on the combination that reflected their natures the best.  With Carmen, that meant incorporating aspects of both combatants and non-combatants. 

For someone like Elijah?

Carmen wasn’t sure what was going on there.  If anything, his skill set just kept growing broader, and he continued to reveal new abilities that skewed far away from anything else he’d gained.  Maybe that was just a testament to who was mean to be – versatile.

And powerful.

Carmen couldn’t let herself forget that, regardless of how Elijah sometimes acted, he was still the strongest person on Earth.  He’d proven that countless times, and his actions in Orveth Kaal had cemented her belief that he was destined for great things on a multi-versal level.

So long as he survived, which wasn’t a guarantee.  Not with everything going on.  Carmen had participated in the first battle against the other dragons, and she’d felt their power.  While she had managed to acquit herself well, she could not ignore the vast gulf between her level of power and the dragons they’d fought.

And those weren’t even the strongest among that alliance.  When war truly came, it would be devastating.  People were going to die, and there was nothing she nor anyone could do about it.

If peace was a possibility, she would have advised pursuing it.  But the reality was that the dragons had few reasons to negotiate.  Maybe if things hadn’t been so volatile in the Empire of Scale, they might have considered peace as an option.  However, that just wasn’t the case. 

Conflict was inevitable.  With that having been established, Earth’s forces combined with the Vyrin expedition had no choice but to prepare for the worst. 

Thankfully, Illska and the other draconic allies were more than up for the fight.  In fact, they all seemed to be looking forward to it.  Most of their combatants spent the majority of their time away from the Vengeance, but the few non-combatants who’d come to the ancestral world had proven to be quite a boon for the ship’s evolution.

Not because they were talented.

They were, but in a vastly different way than most of Earth’s craftsmen.  Instead, they were valuable because of the different perspective they brought with them.  Those forced the Tradesmen from Earth to reevaluate their preconceived notions and adjust according to the vast knowledge the empire’s people brought with them.

The result was an amalgam of new ideas that everyone was struggling to implement before the war really kicked off.  So far, they’d made great strides – more than anyone could have anticipated – and the Vengeance was capable of fighting on an entirely different tier now. 

It wasn’t perfect, though.

That reality stuck in Carmen’s mind, which made her decision to join the group meant to assist the orcs border on regret.  However, she was still eager to see their industriousness up close and witness their crude methods for herself.

Did she really think she would learn much? 

Not directly.  However, as a former academic who’d taught her fair share of classes, Carmen knew that at times, some people could learn more by teaching than by doing.  Or maybe that was her hope.

“You alright?” asked Elijah, tossing the seed aside.

The casual way he did it suggested it was nothing more than a mundane seed.  However, to most, it would have bordered on designation as a natural treasure. 

One more way Elijah was different than most people.  Carmen had stopped even questioning it.  Instead, she just rolled with the reality she saw, hoping to somehow keep up. 

“I’m fine.  Focus on the others,” she said, gesturing to the rest of the struggling shift.  There were seven of them, not including Elijah or Carmen, and they were having a much more difficult of a time with the atmosphere.  One hunched over, weeping.  Another vomited over the edge of the ship, splattering her sick all over the shining fuselage.  The others remained still and composed, though they shook with obvious pain.

Carmen couldn’t help but wonder if they would’ve chosen that route, had they known the cost.  Probably not.

To distract herself from her own not-insignificant pain, she looked across the ship.  It was a marvel of human – and dwarven – engineering, the product of Seattle and Paris working together.  It displayed some of the characteristics of both, sleek but with brass-looking fittings that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a steam engine. 

Thankfully, they hadn’t gone with the crab-like design the dwarves seemed to favor so strongly.  Instead, it was made to resemble a passenger jet, albeit with aspects of a stealth bomber apparent as well.  The end result was something that looked oddly retrofuturistic, with massive ethereal engines in place of jet turbines along its integrated wings. 

Carmen had forged most of the fuselage herself, and she knew precisely how much time and effort had gone into each panel.  Even the rivets had been perfected.  Aside from that backbreaking process, sourcing the material had been an exercise in frustration.  Thankfully, she and one of the Metallurgists had managed to combine some Silverite from Earth with an ore from Orveth Kaal to create an extraordinarily sturdy alloy that could conduct enough energy to protect the passengers from the atmosphere.

Without that, no one would have survived the trip.

Well – no one but Elijah, but he didn’t count.

“How much longer do you think it’ll be?” Carmen asked.

“Did you just ask, ‘Are we there yet?’ like a kid on a road trip?” asked Elijah with an annoyingly smug smirk.

“Shut up,” Carmen responded, gritting her teeth.  “Just answer the question.”

“Which is it?  Shut up or answer the question?”

“I will hit you.”

“Bring it on. You’ll probably break your hand.”

Carmen just ground her teeth together even harder. 

“Fine.  I think maybe a week?  Two at most.  Distance is weird here,” Elijah explained.  “Do you know that Orveth Kaal is actually bigger than our sun?”

“Makes sense.”

“Does it?” Elijah asked.

“No.  It defies physics.  But right now, I don’t care.  I’m just trying to distract myself from…all of this,” Carmen admitted.  “Unsuccessfully.”

“You want to know my trick?”

“Sure.”

“Just steer into it,” Elijah advised.  “Feel it.  Swim in the pain.  It’ll eventually…well, it won’t stop hurting, but it will get easier to live with.”

“I…I’ll keep that in mind,” she conceded.  Then, Carmen added, “In the meantime, I think I’m going to have to take some of that healing.  Just a trickle, though.  I want this to stay worthwhile.”

“Fair enough.”

After that, a steady stream of vitality settled onto Carmen’s shoulders, trickled down her back, and assuaged some of her pain.  Not all of it.  Elijah was clearly holding back.  But it was enough to allow her to think a little more clearly.

Inevitably, her thoughts settled onto the future, both for her and for the Empire of Scale.  After all, her grandson was now a dragon, so politics suddenly affected her a lot more personally. 

Not that it mattered.  Carmen couldn’t affect the upcoming civil war any more than she could turn off her pain.  Instead, she vowed to focus on the things she could affect – like the impending war for Orveth Kaal.