NOVPUBThe journey to Eternal Forge city took as long as Alex had expected.
When President Kovac had first described the city to him as 'Quite the distance away', Alex was expecting something that might take a couple of days for someone of his level.
After all, he hadn't taken the liberty of exposing his real strength to the old man so he was half expecting that 'Quite the distance' to be in regards to someone like Darya's level.
But no, he had vastly underestimated the distance.
A week had passed and he'd only made it half way!
He had travelled over half a million kilometres so far, which meant that the city itself was over a million kilometres away!
Just the sheer distance astounded Alex… He'd only ever travelled such a distance through the void of space back in the real universe.
The prospect of travelling so far in the Primordial Expanse hadn't even occurred to him until this point.
Nevertheless, Alex exhaled a sharp breath as he stood atop a jagged cliff, gazing over the sprawling wilderness that stretched infinitely before him.
'I wonder if the Primordial Expanse really is infinite…?'
The thought had occurred to him before, but it was only after realising that the universe was so much bigger than he had ever conceived that he considered it a real possibility.
After all, humanity had been exploring the Primordial Expanse and spreading their influence in the mysterious realm for over 100 years now, yet they had never encountered another territory of an Alien race from the outside universe yet. They knew that the Aliens had access to the Primordial Expanse as well, so they knew that they had to be out there somewhere.
Had Alex not possessed power far beyond what any normal B tier should be capable of, the journey towards Eternal Forge city would have been impossible without first becoming an A tier.
Even so, he was forced to take brief respites along the way, taking short moments out of the long journey to rest.
While he was a higher lifeform now and theoretically had no need for things like sleep, water and food, that didn't mean he would completely disregard those aspects of his life.
Sleep was still the best way to give his mind and mental some rest, and it was hard to break out of habits like eating and drinking since they were an essential part of his life before becoming a higher life form.
The environment shifted unpredictably on his journey. One moment he was traversing endless forests of massive trees, some reaching over a kilometre in height; the next, he was navigating a barren wasteland filled with shifting and ever changing dunes of desert — similar to the environment he first encountered upon his first ever venture into the Primordial Expanse, only the sand wasn't constantly trying to swallow him into its depths.
The most devious of all were areas he encountered, covered in shimmering fog that not even his spatial perception could penetrate past his immediate area. The thing that most sent shivers down his spine though, was that even Brontes, a damn Divine A tier beast, seemed weary of this area!
Alex decided to avoid this area entirely and go around it the moment he sensed those weary emotions through his bond with Brontes.
If even his Divine companion wasn't sure about this place, he most definitely wasn't going to be taking any chances cutting through it.
That itself added another few days onto his journey, but it was obviously worth it to safeguard his life.
'No wonder Kovac made it sound like such an ordeal. If this is just the halfway point, then Eternal Forge city must truly be something else…'
A strong gust of wind sent his dark cloak billowing behind him as he refocused. There was no point in constantly having the armour Rothwind had forged for him always equipped, as it would only be a hindrance to him during the most boring and mundane of moments.
…Not to mention it wasn't as comfortable as just wearing his casual clothes.
There was no point in lamenting the distance anymore though – he'd already committed to the journey, and turning back wasn't even something he considered. His goal remained solely focused on finding Mikhail's forge.
***
Several days later, Alex found himself approaching what appeared to be an outpost – quite the rare sight in the middle of the Expanse. n𝚘𝚟𝚙u𝚋.co𝚖
A towering stone wall, cracked and weathered with age, loomed ahead of him, standing in defence against whatever roamed the wilderness in the surroundings.
Luckily for Alex, he didn't have any unpleasant or time consuming run ins with any beasts looking for blood on his journey so far, though he knew that was just because Brontes' presence deterred every beast, no matter the rank, from coming anywhere near them.
Out in loneliness of the wilderness, there weren't many humans as daring to explore, so Alex could make use of Brontes' menacing aura to their advantage, without worry of being discovered.
However, despite spotting the human settlement ahead of him, Alex didn't bother entering it or nearing it this time around.
It clearly wasn't Eternal Forge city, so he wasn't going to waste his time mingling with the citizens of this small outpost.
Sighting to himself, Alex continued past the distant visage of the outpost and maintained his pace toward the direction President Kovac had indicated.
After another five days passed by, Alex finally spotted something far off into the distance – something that even for someone who had seen quite a variety of things during his time as an awakened, took his breath away.
'Is that… an anvil?'
'Or a mountain?'
From what he could see, there was a singular structure that, despite being nearly a thousand kilometres away, he could make the shape out very distinctively.
If his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, then there had to be a mountain, potentially hundreds of kilometres tall, shaped like an anvil, towering endlessly into the sky.
