273 Perils of Perilith
The distance between the opening to Perilith and Fordham wasn't too far. In fact, it would have been directly visible from the base if the wooden cabin had not appeared in the middle of a nearby forest.
Reaching the forest itself took nearly three hours, the fight never ceasing for a moment. The intensity of the fight varied throughout the journey, and the Juggernauts literally proved themselves equal if not greater than a hundred men.
In terms of versatility, they could not equal a true Mystic, but in terms of sheer firepower, they had the Mystics beat. Much more importantly, it could operate for much longer than any one person.
In the middle of the journey, Nero had witnessed how nearly a dozen soldiers climbed out from within the Juggernaut every hour, promptly to be replaced by another team who was waiting on standby. Nero could not presume to know what those dozen soldiers did, but they were all Arcanists, and if he had to venture a guess, he'd say they were powering some core mechanic, or core cards that allowed the amalgamation of mechanical and aetheric sciences.
All-in-all, the Juggernaut proved itself to be an amazing weapon in the absence of a Mystic, and still a pretty good one even in the presence of one. Considering the fact that going from Arcanist to Mystic, and adopting a Profession, was far from easy or simple, and that a majority of Arcanists never even qualified for it. Of the ones that qualified for it, not all succeeded.
Of course, the impressive machines were only part of the reason they reached the forest without suffering a single loss - although a few injuries were sustained. At one point, a curse had appeared that was noticeably significantly more powerful than the rest.
Its mere presence was a drain on the soldiers, and Nero felt an instinctual desire to unleash Virtuous Moonlight to protect himself. Fortunately for everyone, it had only just appeared when the Lieutenant made a move against it.
From the distance, all Nero saw was that it looked like the Lieutenant punched the damn thing using the arm in his cast. A punch was all it took to eliminate the damn curse, so Nero made a mental note to not antagonise the man.
Yet neither the tanks impressive blasts, nor the Lieutenants punches could help them in the second leg of their journey. Once they reached the forest, they had to travel with the entire convoy to the cabin itself.
Preparations had already been made, trees chopped down, and an uneven dirt road prepared that cut right to the cabin itself, but progress was still slow.
For reasons Nero did not quite understand, nor did anyone explain to him, once they reached the forest, the endless tide of curses appearing out of thin air actually ended. Instead, they were only left to deal with the preexisting curses that filled their world.
No, the real obstacle in the forest became the previously impressive Juggernauts. Traversing uneven terrain was definitely not their forte, even with them floating above the ground. Nero was genuinely amused by the fact that a lack of infrastructure would be the greatest obstacle to these otherwise impressive machines should they enter mass production. Oh, also their slow movement speed. Compared to vans and jeeps, the Juggernauts had a very poor top speed of 20 kilometres per hour.
But neither curses, nor forests, nor poor terrain could keep the convoy at bay for long. In exactly the expected six hours, Nero's van pulled up in the makeshift base that had been built around the cabin, though it did not seem makeshift.
All the trees within a thousand metres around the wooden cabin had been cleared, the grass incinerated and all vegetation cleared, even including anything that might be a few metres underground.
That had naturally been followed by making concrete floors, tiling everything off, and creating large defensive walls. Only the cabin itself and the ground immediately around it remained untouched, for obvious reasons.
As soon as his van stopped, Nero jumped out and followed his team as they surrounded the researchers once more. Although the temporary base had been secured, it was nowhere near as safe as Fordham itself. Considering Apparition curses could appear even within Fordham, they could not take any chances.
Nero had to admit, the journey was exhausting even though he didn't actually fight himself. That did not mean he could take it easy.
The researchers - the four that were in the Neophyte realm and the many that weren't - all gathered in a meeting room nearby and began discussing things that, frankly, went right over Nero's head.
What he did understand, though, was that they were immediately going to begin checking the entrance one more time before the official mission began. That would be done by first sending in a team of Arcanists, and once they returned they would send in a team of Initiates. If no anomalies were detected, then the Neophytes would enter for their first ever excursion.
After laying out the tentative plan, Nero followed the researchers as they made their way to the team of five Arcanists who would be venturing into Perilith. They had already been inside before, so they would know what to expect.
Nero, on the other hand, observed them closely so he could finally see in person all the gear he would have to soon wear.
The perils of Perilith were not few, and the most immediate and concerning for any was the fact that there was some, unidentified poisonous gas within the dimension which required them to wear an air filter at all times. There was still oxygen, which is why they could use a filter and didn't need to carry equipment.
In fact, there were even cards that could be used to prevent someone from breathing in the poison. In general, since the precautionary measures were already identified, the poison was considered as a low danger threat, though a single inhale of the poison would set someone on the path for their demise in a few hours. If one kept constantly breathing it in, then in twenty minutes they'd begin to lose mobility, and in forty minutes they'd die.
The second, relatively low risk peril… Nero coughed. The second low risk danger was the sun in Perilith. It worked just like a normal sun, except that long term exposure - meaning a few minutes of uninterrupted exposure - could begin to cause minor sunburns. If the condition were to continue, then within ten minutes the light of the sun alone would burn even an Arcanist all the way to the bone.
Once again, there were physical and aetheric precautions set in place for this. The reason this was considered a low risk danger was because the sunlight was not actually hot - at least not to the point that it should burn. Instead, it was an inherent trait of the light from the sun itself.
The final low risk danger in Perilith was darkness. The reason this was considered low risk was because of how easy it was to avoid. A simple light, of any kind at all, could alleviate the danger. But the absence of light within Perilith was a death sentence.
Ordinarily, the level of danger within Perilith was equal to the highest level person that entered within. For Nero and his team that would be the Neophyte level. But it was strongly theorised that within the darkness in Perilith lay a Sage level threat. That in itself had yet to be confirmed, as it could not be tested, nor were they keen on testing it either. Again, simple precautions could work to avoid the danger, so there was no need to dwell on it.
Then came the more prevalent, active threats within the alternate dimension, which took the form of cursed hornets. They were the most common form of cursed entity there, and were a constant danger.
More dangers included, but were not limited to, travelling quick sand, large, winged worms, a specific kind of curse they had been unable to eliminate that directly assaulted the mind, poisons, alternating gravity, spontaneous tornadoes, thunderstorms, hail storms, sand storms and basically storms of any and every kind.
On the bright side, a specific species of flowers had been detected within Perilith that not only gave off light, wading off dangers of the dark, it actively resisted cursed energy, keeping its environment safe and secure.
Fordham already had samples of the flower, so getting it was not a priority for them. They were already looking into ways of how they could introduce that flower into Niere, since the flower seemed to require the special sunlight of Perilith itself to survive.
If they could succeed, then they could usher forth a new era for mankind. Unfortunately, so far, it seemed like it was impossible for those flowers to exist outside of Perilith itself.
Once the team of Arcanists were geared up, Nero followed the researchers as they escorted the team to the cabin, and watched as they confidently stepped towards the wooden building.