Shang nodded. "Thanks."
"Just wait for a bit. My replacement should be here pretty soon. Aaaaaand, he's here!" the scout said with a smirk. "Punctual as always."
Shang looked around, but he couldn't see the other guy.
The scout saw Shang's confused expression and chuckled a bit. Then, he showed his wrist to Shang. Shang could see a small device attached to the scout's wrist. It looked almost like a wristwatch.
"It's this thing. It's been created by Mages, and it keeps us all informed. I just got informed that my shift ended. Let's go," the scout said as he gestured to the front.
Shang nodded.
Then, the guard shot forward, and Shang followed him. They weren't sprinting or running, but jogging comfortably, which was still very fast compared to normal humans.
While jogging, Shang kept looking at the Farm Line. "What are these dogs?" he asked.
"The Farm Dogs?" the scout asked. "They are there to deal with rogue beasts and Pest Cats. If they see any beast that isn't accompanied by a human, they will kill that beast."
Shang nodded. That made sense.
"Do these dogs have affinities?" he asked. After all, Shang had seen plenty of beasts with Elemental Affinities.
"Most of them are Wind or Earth," the scout answered. "The ones with Wind Affinities deal with Pest Cats and weaker beasts. If a powerful beast arrives, the dogs work together to bring it down. Basically any beast that comes here will be killed as long as it's below the Commander Stage."
Shang nodded. The Commander Stage was the Third Realm, which was the Realm the hedgehog had been in. If the hedgehog came here, it could probably kill every dog with one needle each.
As the two of them kept running, one of the dogs suddenly barreled towards them at a much faster speed.
Shang looked over nervously, but the scout only smiled at the dog.
The dog ran circles around them while they were still running with incredible speed, and the scout extended his hand.
The dog quickly stopped and let the scout scratch it behind the ear. Usually, a human wouldn't even reach such a high place, but the dog was lowering its head with happiness.
Shang only smiled. 'Well, some things don't change, even if we are in different worlds.'
After a bit, the dog ran away again to get back to its place of work.
"Don't try to do the same thing," the scout said. "The dogs know me, but they don't know you. They are used to killing, and it's dangerous to interact with them without supervision."
Shang nodded.
The two of them continued running for another twenty minutes.
By now, Shang couldn't see any farms anymore, which meant that they had left the Farm Line. Instead, Shang could see thick forests a couple of kilometers away from the main road.
"This is the Wild Forest," the scout explained. "The streets are safe since the dogs and guards also patrol here, but the Wild Forest is filled with beasts. The beasts in the Wild Forest are only at the Soldier Stage, but if you stray too far, you will eventually reach the Wasteland."
"Behind the Wild Forest, the wind becomes so strong that only very few plants can grow there, making it a wasteland. That's the Wasteland, obviously, and the Wind Mana is so strong there that you can basically only find beasts at the General Stage."
The scout chuckled. "Us soldiers don't call it the Wasteland but the Workland since most of our work is being done there."
Shang listened with interest. "You hunt wild Beasts? Isn't that more of a job for hunters?"
"Oh yeah, definitely," the scout answered. "However, we don't always get enough hunters to take care of the wild Beasts. Sometimes, all the good hunters finish at the same time and go to sell their wares, leaving for a couple of days. Sometimes, a couple of tricky and troublesome Beasts appear."
"When that happens, we soldiers have to fulfill the quota for hunted Beasts. If we don't regularly kill enough Beasts, they will become so numerous that the Wasteland won't have enough space left for them, which forces them out of the Wasteland and into the Wild Forest and human territories."
Shang nodded. "What about-"
"Wait a sec," the scout suddenly interrupted Shang as he stopped.
Then, the guard quickly took out a folded bow and expanded it to its true form. In one fluid motion, the scout took out an arrow and shot it towards the right side.
BANG!
Shang looked over, and his eyes widened.
Shang saw a Pest Cat that had been nailed to a tree by an arrow just two kilometers away!
"What was your question?" the scout asked as he put the bow away again.
Shang was a bit absentminded.
That had been way too fast!
The guy had killed a Pest Cat in one or two seconds from two kilometers away!
Shang got reminded of the guards in Duke Whirlwind's garden. They had been about as powerful as this guard, and they had pointed their crossbows and bows at Shang.
If Shang had acted incorrectly back then, this Pest Cat could have been him.
He couldn't evade something like that!
"That's a Wind Bow," the scout said when he saw that Shang still didn't speak. "I can't shoot such an arrow without its help. If I used a normal bow, my arrow would only fly at half the speed."
"Does everyone get such a bow?" Shang asked.
"The scouts do. After all, it's our job to take out troublesome beasts. I usually don't deal with weaker beasts, but Pest Cats are an exception. They simply multiply too quickly, and they are everywhere."
Shang nodded.
That arrow had definitely been impressive.
"What I wanted to ask earlier, what's beyond the Wasteland?" Shang asked.
"Oh?" the scout uttered. "You do know more than I thought. Why do you think there is an after?"
"One of the guards in Blizzard's Edge said that the strength of the beasts keeps escalating until even the Duke has to be careful."
When the scout heard that, he chuckled. "A funny way to put it, but yes, he's right."
"Beyond the Wasteland is the Canyon. The wind there is so powerful that it ravages the land and creates powerful wind tunnels. You can only find beasts there that can completely live off Mana. That means that all beasts there are at the Commander Stage or higher."
"If you go even further, you find the Crater. Only the most powerful beasts with Wind Affinities live there, and they are as powerful as our Duke and the Headmaster of the Warrior's Academy."
"In the center of the Crater, you can find the most powerful beast, the actual Storm Eagle, the beast this zone is named after and the source of all the Wind Mana. No human in the world can take down that beast," the scout explained.
"No human in the world?" Shang asked in surprise.
The scout nodded. "The strongest people in the world are the different Kings. They are the only Archmages in existence, but even they are helpless in front of the Storm Eagle. Even among Zone Beasts, the Storm Eagle is one of the more powerful ones."
"Then, what stops the Storm Eagle from just razing us to the ground?" Shang asked.
The guard chuckled a bit.
"Nothing."
"Nothing?" Shang asked.
The scout nodded.
"If the Storm Eagle wanted to kill us, we could only run away and accept our fate. Luckily, it doesn't seem to be interested in us. Even when it flies over our city, it doesn't even look at us."
"It flies over the city?" Shang asked in shock.
The scout nodded again. "Does it all the time. It even lets its little chicks fly in the city."
pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Shang became shocked again and again. "Chicks?" he asked.
"Yeah, its little chicks fly and walk around in the city occasionally, and as soon as we get news of one, a squadron of guards is sent out to keep the chicks safe until they leave the city again. After all, we don't want to anger the Storm Eagle."
Shang asked more about Warrior's Paradise, and the scout kept answering Shang's questions.
Twenty minutes later, the forests on the side of the road vanished, and Shang could see the ground vanishing. The road continued to go straight, but Shang felt like the road was climbing upwards.
In another ten minutes, the one-kilometer-wide road was the only visible piece of land, and everything around them had sunken into the earth.
The scout pulled Shang to the side of the road and pointed to the ground.
Shang could see a vast land nearly bereft of plants below them. He could also see over ten different beasts walking around and even fighting.
All of these beasts were more powerful than Shang.
"That's the Wasteland?" Shang asked.
"That's the Wasteland," the scout answered. "It angles downward until you reach the Canyon. It's currently dark now, but when it's bright, you can even see some huge pillar-like structures in the distance from here. That's where the Canyon begins."
"There are also more beasts walking around during the day. Right now, you can only see the beasts that are active during the twilight hours. Those are the weakest beasts, and they only come out when the strongest ones are still asleep or starting to rest."
"You can actually also see Warrior's Paradise from here. You just didn't pay any attention," the scout said with a smile as he pointed towards the end of the road.
Shang looked over, and his eyes widened.
This was Warrior's Paradise?