Kyle entered Deep Cove and searched for a way over the river.
Swimming was way too dangerous.
Luckily, there were boats crossing the river constantly.
Escorting people over the river was a lucrative business, and Deep Cove took advantage of that.
Kyle had to pay 20 Ether Pebbles for a boat ride, and an hour later, he joined a big ship with several other people.
The ship was almost 100 meters long and held a ton of cargo.
Most of the people crossing the river were merchants, and they needed space for their cargo and carrier beasts.
Rarely, these kinds of ships were attacked by beasts, but there were defenses in place to deter the beasts in case of an attack.
As Kyle watched the ship crossing the river, he looked at the horizon.
There was water as far as the eye could see.
'Fucking small ass planet. Still feels weird that the horizon is so close. Columbus wouldn't have needed to get funding to travel across the Atlantic. Planet is so small-'
"Wait a second," Kyle uttered. "Say, Theodor…"
Theodor didn't answer.
"Why are the Winterfire Kingdom and the Skysand Kingdom fighting by traveling across the Grand Ocean? I mean, the world is round, right? Why are they not going the other way?" Kyle asked.
"Because of the Wall," Theodor said.
"The Wall?" Kyle asked.
"Yes, there is an unimaginably tall wall to the south of the Skysand Kingdom. Nobody can cross it," Theodor said.
"But can't Transcendents fly?" Kyle asked. "Can't they just fly over it?"
Theodor snorted. "The wall reaches the World's Ceiling."
Kyle blinked a couple of times. "Ceiling?"
"Yes, the ceiling," Theodor said. "What? Do you think the world is endless? Do you think it just keeps going forever? Everything has a beginning and an end."
"Our world is surrounded by a ceiling. At a height of about 100 kilometers, the world just ends."
Kyle shook his head. "What do you mean with it just ends?"
"It ends," Theodor said in annoyance. "You can't go further. Existence just ends."
"What? How?" Kyle asked.
"Don't even try to understand that with your dwarf brain," Theodor said. "Thousands of talented researchers have studied the World's Ceiling, and they all came to the same conclusion."
"It just ends."
"There is no beyond."
'What the fuck?' Kyle thought. 'Why would it just end?'
"Okay, assuming that's true," Kyle said, "then where is that weird God from the Cult from? You said it resides outside of this world."
"Separate dimension. It's the same world but also a different one," Theodor answered. "It is in this world but can't interact with our dimension."
Kyle blinked a couple of times.
"That's your explanation?" he asked.
"This is the most reasonable theory generations upon generations of brilliant researchers came up with. Trying to argue against it would be foolish," Theodor said.
"Then, what about the sun and the stars?" Kyle asked.
"They move across the World's Ceiling," Theodor answered. "We have already touched and studied them."
"Touched them? You touched the sun? Wasn't it hot?" Kyle asked.
"I personally didn't, but many researchers did. Yes, it is quite hot, but not that hot. It is simply a round shining circle traveling across the ceiling," Theodor explained.
'What the fuck?' Kyle thought. 'This sounds like some flat-Earth conspiracy shit!'
Kyle asked more questions, and Theodor grew more annoyed.
Why could this stupid dwarf not understand the basic fundamentals of the world?!
This was basic stuff!
The world ended. What was so hard to understand about that?
Eventually, Theodor refused to entertain Kyle's stupid theories about something beyond the world.
It was just naivety and madness.
An hour later, the ship reached the other side of the river, and Kyle left it.
On this side of the river, there was no big city.
There was just a wasteland.
'Looks just like the wilderness on the peninsula,' Kyle thought.
He asked around a bit, and sure enough, this was exactly like the wilderness there.
There was simply no Ether Spring in this area.
The reason was simple.
This place wasn't big enough for one.
The wasteland was only around 25 kilometers wide.
Only a couple of small villages lived here.
'Right, this territory was also empty of Three or Four-Weapons Guilds,' Kyle remembered.
There was almost no money to be made here.
Kyle traveled to the east for a couple of minutes and quickly reached the end of the wasteland.
In front of Kyle was the biggest wall of mountains he had ever seen.
The mountains were kilometers tall and extremely steep.
This was the biggest mountain range in the entire Skysand Kingdom.
The Dividing Ridge.
According to history, the Dividing Ridge used to be the edge of the Skysand Kingdom.
The original Skysand Kingdom was to the east of the Dividing Ridge, while another Kingdom was to the west.
Over many years, the Skysand Kingdom managed to conquer the Kingdom to the west of the Dividing Ridge.
Colloquially, everything east of the Dividing Ridge was called the Old Skysand Kingdom, while everything west of it was called the New Skysand Kingdom.
Officially, both were just the Skysand Kingdom.
The Dividing Ridge used to be extremely dangerous, but the Skysand Kingdom managed to create several safe passages.
As Kyle looked at the distant peaks, he saw countless clouds of Skysand leaving the Dividing Ridge.
The clouds were at a height of several kilometers and didn't pose a threat to beings on the ground, but over time, they would lower more and more.
At some point, they would descend to the ground.
If an Ether Spring were present, the Skysand Clouds would be moved to the side, into the thin channels of Skysand.
If they reached the peninsula, they would just create dangerous Skysand clouds.
If they reached the ocean, they would travel across its surface and eventually completely fall into it.
Kyle had already heard from Theodor about the Dividing Ridge.
"This is where all the Skysand is coming from, right?" Kyle asked.
"Yes," Theodor answered.
"Is this also where the current King learned the secrets of the Skysand?" Kyle asked.
"Yes," Theodor answered in annoyance.
This was it.
This was the origin of the Skysand.
This was where all the Skysand came from.
"Do we know how all the Skysand is made?" Kyle asked.
"It's a natural phenomenon," Theodor answered. "A complex mix of natural processes shape the Ether into Skysand. The old Skysand gets pushed out by the new Skysand and takes to the sky."
"So, it's not some kind of beast?" Kyle asked.
"No," Theodor answered. "There are only three Natural Gods in the Skysand Kingdom, and none of them are close to this place."
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