Two days of travel took us to finally reach the dense forest that was apparently on the edge of the barrier. Behind it, according to Hailwic, was supposed to be the end of the barrier. We had one more 'giant' problem on our way, but my friends dealt with them easily. Tam actually was eager to go and fight, but I didn't throw him.

Mainly because the same joke doesn't work twice.

We had to cut our way through the dense bushes, just to discover that things changed. Behind the little jungle, wasn't the end of what was behind the barrier. The influence of our sapling clearly has expanded.

We found ourselves on the edge of a cliff, with a vast valley below us filled with many rivers running from one lake to another, coming from the mountain range on the left. There was the provider of all that water, a giant, wide-ass waterfall that would put the Niagara to shame. There was a rainbow arching above everything, originating from the big lake under the falling water, and from it, all the mentioned previously rivers were spreading out.

The forest continued there, although it was not as dense, and clearly adjusted to the needs of hunters by the device, although the beautiful greens were still mesmerizing.

- That wasn't here before - said Hailwic.

- It's beautiful - said Alice.

The rest also sacrificed some time to admire mother nature. I on the other hand started looking for a way to get down there. It didn't take me long to find a pathway gently descending on the edge of the cliff on our right. With this information, I returned to the whole group, who didn't even notice my disappearance.

- There is a pathway down on our left if we want to go down there. We could also go around the whole thing. But that could cost us days - informed everybody.

- Let's go down. I'm curious what monsters are living there - said Martin with a big smile.

These words made me realize that I should drop an anchor right here, which I immediately did.

- Shouldn't we avoid going down? You don't know what type of monsters might be living here, don't you? This might be dangerous - said Sudarshana.

Martin gave me a look, then turned towards her.

- We will be fine - he assured.

Nil was already moving from the direction I came, not even waiting for the end of the conversation.

- We should be avoiding the risks - continued the linguist.

He suddenly turned around and slapped me on the shoulder.

- It's not a risk - he said, smiling, and just walked away.

It seemed like all of the hunters outvoted the researchers, and the caravan in the end started moving towards the pathway.

It actually wasn't very steep, so we didn't have to fight too much with the carts. Although it was quite long, so we had to sacrifice a bit of time to finally get down to the valley.

It was just as beautiful down there, as we witnessed from above. The forests were full of beautiful plants bearing flowers with vibrant, rich colors. Reds, yellows, purples, and blues. Everybody was hypnotized by their beauty, even me.

- I wish I could take a picture - said Tihana.

- Right! - shouted Mika Sawamura, as he had to hear that.

She rushed towards one of the carts, and after rummaging through it for a moment, pulled out a camera. This one had to be bought in the device. Then she started taking a picture. The situation very quickly evolved in some kind of a nature photo shoot with everybody wanting to have a photo of themselves with such an amazing background.

People were posing and doing strange stuff. I seemed to be the only one not interested.

Tihana, on the other hand, was completely into that. She insisted to have a photo with Ki'rai and Martin, as they sat on his flexed bicepses. He got quickly on board, and they somehow managed to convince my little lizard that it's a good idea.

There were a bunch of other strange combinations after that, with the giant in the center, as everybody had some crazy idea of how to utilize him, and his large frame.

This took over two hours. I felt like we totally wasted the time, but the rest had a different opinion on this matter.

Then we finally restarted the journey and made it past the first trees, slowly approaching one of the rivers. We could hear it humming.

It seemed more like a walk in some nice city park than a hunt to me. This changed, as we emerged in front of the running water, and it came alive. Yes, it came alive and jumped out of the river on the riverbank.

The water elementals were shapeless at first, ever-morphing, but then they assumed something that looked like a quickly drawn silhouette of a man, with two hands, a shape that was supposed to be head and one giant leg, ending with a puddle on the ground.

Martin charged at them, shouting, and started smashing, sending bits of water everywhere. It took him quite a lot of heavy swings to make the shapes turn into smoke, and leave crystals behind, but he did it.

Then he sat on the ground, tired, gasping for air, so we had to take another break.

Quickly the crossing on the other side became a topic of the conversations. Nobody said anything, but all the hunters were glancing at me, thinking that it will make me come forward and offer my shadow walking services. I didn't. I know, I'm an asshole.

Ki'rai normally wasn't very interested in humans talking and was usually doing her things, or speaking with some of the hunters, kinda avoiding the researchers. I bet this had to do something with them wanting to examine her or something, but his was taking so long, and she finally joined the talks.

- Why won't Peter take us to the other side? - she asked confused.

I facepalmed so hard, it was probably heard by the whole valley.historical