Versatile: Alternate World

A few hours after I was attacked by bounty hunters, the players that wanted to kill me all slowly diminished before they all completely disappeared.

"Where did everyone go? I thought I would be fighting many players due to the bounty on my head but it seems to have quietened now. What the heck is going on?"

As I was wondering why the players who were trying to kill me disappeared one by one, I received a message from Hagane once again.

"Bladeheart, it seems the bounty of you and Harmless Sparrow has been retracted and you guys are no longer part of the bounty list. You guys will no longer worry about the players trying to kill you in the safe zones."

I was surprised. I was expecting it to last longer due to how the guy was humiliated on the internet but to retract it this fast? I don't know what is happening on his mind right now but that is none of my business. In fact, I should be grateful now that it is gone. With that gone, there is no need for me to worry about other players getting in the way of the Frozen Sandurk expedition.

Without anyone else left to fight, I headed to Almira's smithy. Compared to the usual times when I arrived, this time, Almira is busy gathering items around her workshop and storing them in a bag that I suspect to be a Spatial Bag seeing that she just shove a whole anvil straight inside the bag and it didn't even bulge or poke out.

"Good morning, Master Almira. I will be going to the Sandurk Continent to check on the progress of the expedition, I am here to pick you up."

"That's good my disciple. I thought I would still need to visit your place just to get a free ride from your gryphon. Thankfully, I don't need to do that."

"Well, I know that you will hitch a ride to Leona so I decided to go and fetch you instead of going to my mansion just to ask for a ride."

"Alright, but I am not done packing just yet. Go wait for me outside. Once I am done, we will depart immediately."

I nodded and waited outside her smithy. While waiting for Almira to finish her packing, I pull up the friend list and send messages to everyone who is going to join the Sandurk expedition to go to the Sandurk Continent via teleport scrolls that I left in the mansion. I also sent those messages to Mr. Teddy and Sigma who also agreed to join the expedition. I didn't expect any replies but Mr. Teddy chatted back with a single "Thank you" as content on his mail. Even though he is a big man, he is unusually quiet.

The door of the smithy opened and Almira went outside with the same outfit earlier but this time, she has a black bandana wrapped around her head.

"I am done. Should we go now?"

"Yeah, let's go outside, the Capital, I will summon Leona out there."

Once we are far from the Capital, I summoned Leona and ordered her to fly to Queen Tanya's castle. It's time to trigger the event.

...

When I arrived, there are already big caravans assembled not too far from the palace, soldiers carrying boxes and loading them inside the carts. I also saw the Sealer of Gods that Almira and I repaired last time being loaded to the cargo caravan. It seems they are all ready to go all out once the expedition is about to begin.

We landed not too far from the caravan, just enough that we won't blow anything off from landing. The soldiers are no longer afraid of Leona as she is frequently landing here and there every time we visit so you can say they are already a common scene to their eyes. As for the newcomers and the elves who delivered the Sealer of Gods, it was clear they have fear in their eyes and was ready to use the Sealer of Gods in case Leona attacks. Thankfully, seeing the nonchalant and laidback attitude of the soldiers, they didn't continue doing that and just carried on with the job they were doing.

When I recalled Leona, the Captain of the soldiers in the castle approached us.

,m "Thank you for coming to help dear guests. I am the Captain of the soldiers assigned to aid the expedition to the Frozen Region of Sandurk, Alwin. Her Majesty, Queen Tanya, and Her Majesty, Queen Tori are both waiting in the castle. Shall we escort the two of you?" the captain who was named Alwin asked.

I was about to say something to escort us when Almira decided to say something first.

"Lead my apprentice to them to handle the talks and whatnots, I am going straight to the blacksmiths to work. Apprentice, meet me later once you are done with the talks with the two queens."

I can only shake my head and shrug my shoulders then looked at Alwin. "Please lead the way."

...

When I arrived where they are, I was expecting them to be eating or drinking tea while the troops are dealing with the preparations but to my surprise, they are working. Currently, they are on a big table with the map of the Frozen Region of Sandurk. Pieces of markers were scattered throughout the map for marking several things and the two queens are discussing things about the expedition.

"Ahem. I am sorry to interrupt, but the adventurer, Bladeheart, and the Blacksmith Almira have arrived," Alwin bowed down before I approached the table and sat on the chair on the far end of the table. After that, Alwin bowed down once more before retreating from the room, presumably returning to his work or post.

"Where is the Blacksmith Almira?" Queen Tanya asked.

"She went straight to the blacksmiths working in the weapons. I think she is going to inspect things there," I answered and looked at the map.

"If she is inspecting the blacksmiths, then that is good. Anyways, we should continue with the discussion. Do you want to get the fill-in on what we just discussed, Bladeheart?" Queen Tori asked.

"Sure. Is there anything important I missed?"

"Perhaps. I received a message from the scouts back in the expedition site and they spotted at least 50 giant monsters prowling and currently scattered around the area. They are all in different species and once they crossed their ways, an all-out brawl will occur and it might cause us to have to divert into another path to avoid crossing roads with them."

"50 giants? Can you tell me the exact or estimated sizes of these monsters that are spotted?"

"Yes. According to the scouts, the smallest monster spotted is as big as a small town with a height of a full-grown Kaigara Tree. While the biggest is as big as the Resurgia's Capital and as tall as the Lumiot Mountains"

That is big. Kaigara tree is considered the second tallest tree in the Alternate World. If you compare the tree, it should be as tall as three Eiffel Towers stacked upon each other. While the Lumiot Mountains are considered to be as tall as Mount Everest in the real world. They are no longer considered to be big monsters, those are behemoths. Of course, all irregularities in the Frozen Region are common in there so I guess I wouldn't be too surprised about it.

"Did they all pinpoint the location of all the locations of these monsters? Based on their sizes, that means they are slow in movement."

"Yes. The red symbols in this map are the 50 monsters that are scattered around, All of them are just scattered around and most of them are going to be troublesome since they are currently blocking the way to our destination."

Looking at the map, the scattered 50 monsters are all scattered around the whole map that I was surprised they didn't meet any monsters when they walked to that location, It was like they dropped from the sky to their current location or maybe it was just designed just like that. No one knows and I don't think I would even bother thinking too hard on it.

The road we are going to make to go to the current destination is a bit far and it has the potential of colliding with at least 20 monsters on the way. With their sizes, even if they didn't notice us, they will be able to kill us by just stepping their feet on the ground, making it a bit troublesome.

"Did you guys already have a counterplan or any way to avoid encountering these towering behemoths? There is no way we would have to go through them without even going through the plan. Just one small movement from them is going to be big destruction to our own troops. Is there a good way for us that will allow us to do that?"

Queen Tori lean on her chair and crossed her arms before speaking,"There is indeed a way but it is also pretty risky. We were discussing if there is a good way to minimize the risk but nothing comes to mind yet. We want to utilize your gryphon but that is also just a limited thing as your Gryphon is not big enough to carry our whole expedition team which is why we decided to scrap it."

"Well, with the situation we are in, it was pretty clear we are going to face a big risk. We are in an uncharted place where enemies prowl and monsters linger. There is no way we will not face anything. Perhaps, Queen Tanya's abilities can help us?" I looked at Queen Tanya.

"My abilities are not that strong either, I might be strong enough to repel a whole demon army and defend the whole kingdom by myself but behemoths are another story. My powers will not be sufficient enough to kill a single one of them."

Then Almira enters the scene with her nonchalant and relaxed voice, she marched inside the meeting room.

"If they cannot be avoided, then our only choice is to kill them. Isn't that right, my disciple?"