Chapter 136: Setting Off on the Journey

Joann had originally planned to rent a horse at the Riverlight Inn, leave it at a post station upon reaching Port Leiden, and pay a small fee for traveling merchants heading south to return it to Derlin Town. However, his companions had already made better arrangements; Dick, Roger, and Tom had pooled their money to buy a sturdy, gentle colt as a parting gift for him.

The colt’s mane was as smooth as silk, and its coat was pitch black, save for a diamond-shaped white patch on its forehead. It looked at the young mage approaching it, lowered its head, and nudged his arm, as if it already knew this was its new master.

Before leaving, Joann remembered one last thing. He opened his dimensional bag, took out the Trident of Cold Blood, and asked Roger to return it to Viss on his behalf. After embracing his three friends one by one to say goodbye, he stepped into the stirrups, mounted the horse, and rode off in a cloud of dust. The galloping horse carried the young mage toward the rising sun, gradually fading from the sight of Dick, Roger, and Tom, until it finally merged into the brilliant golden-red morning glow and vanished at the edge of the horizon.

...

In this world named Vares, more than two-thirds of the planet's surface is covered by oceans. The two most famous oceans are the Meteor Ocean and the Storm Ocean. Floating between these two oceans are two continental plates; the smaller one is commonly known as the "New World," and across the sea from it lies the "Old World," officially named the Continent of Atlas.

The New World is narrow and elongated, shaped like a dumbbell with two large ends and a thin middle. The two "heads" are the Wilnoa region in the Northern Hemisphere and the Grabelen region in the Southern Hemisphere. The narrow handle connecting them is the famous Sword Isthmus. It is said that in ancient times, this narrow isthmus was once submerged by the sea; there was no "New World" then, and Wilnoa and Grabelen were merely two islands separated by the ocean. Later, radical climate changes in the world of Vares caused sea levels to drop, exposing the continental shelf that had been underwater to form the Sword Isthmus, thereby opening a land route between Wilnoa and Grabelen. These two islands, now linked by the isthmus, together form the New World.

The Wilnoa region, located in the southern part of the Sword Isthmus, is the homeland where Joann was born and raised. According to ancient mythological epics handed down by the indigenous people, Wilnoa is divided into several sectors. Along the east coast from south to north, these are Muspelheim, Alfheim, Midgard, Jotunheim, Niflheim, and Helheim at the North Pole. Additionally, there is Vanaheim on the west coast, Asgard atop the Cloud-Top Plateau between the east and west coasts, and Svartalfheim—also known to surface dwellers as the "Underdark"—located beneath the Great Abyss of Ginnungagap, said to be the home of dark elves who fear the sunlight.

Compared to the Old World, which possesses numerous ancient civilizations and a total human population exceeding three hundred million, the New World was developed much later. It lacks historical and cultural depth, nor does it have independent and powerful human nations. Before the indigenous people could complete the task of unification, the east and west coasts of the New World had already been occupied by colonists from the Old World. Today, colonies have been established in five of Wilnoa’s nine regions. The Muspelheim colony belongs to the Blue Sea Kingdom of the Old World; the Alfheim and Midgard colonies are overseas provinces of the Old World’s hegemon, the Holy Ashan Empire; and Jotunheim and Vanaheim on the west coast are firmly held by another major power of the Old World, the Kingdom of Feizhen.

Since the beginning of this century, traditional powers in the Old World have launched waves of magi-industrial revolutions. The rapid growth of heavy industry and new technology has led to a population explosion in these countries, while land has become increasingly scarce and expensive. The idyllic old era was swept away by the surging torrents of capital and industry. Those who lost their land had to leave their villages to find a way to survive, and they had only two choices: move to the city to live in slums and attempt to become industrial workers, or be bolder and trade all their belongings for a ship ticket to the New World to chase their dreams in that vast, sparsely populated virgin land. If the Goddess of Fate smiled upon them, they might carve out a life and become estate owners with ten thousand acres of fertile land and swarms of servants.

Every poor soul from the Old World carries a dream of wealth in their heart, and every sailing ship docking on the coast of Wilnoa is packed with these "adventurers," a trend that has continued unabated for twenty years. To date, the total number of immigrants settled in the New World has exceeded ten million, and in the foreseeable future, this large-scale migration from the Old World to the New World will continue.

Relying on superior social organization, more advanced magic and technology, and sharper weapons, the colonists from the Old World quickly gained a foothold on the coastal plains of the New World. They began by establishing settlements and trading posts. As immigrants continued to arrive, the population grew day by day, and temporary settlements expanded into permanent towns. Relying on the convenience of shipping and trade, these developed into metropolises with populations exceeding one hundred thousand, rivaling the historical cities of the Old World motherlands in prosperity. Port Leiden, the destination of Joann’s journey, is one of the most famous port cities on the east coast of Wilnoa and the capital of the Alfheim colony.

In the Alfheim region, metropolises with developed industry and commerce like Port Leiden are few and far between. Most are small, rustic rural towns like Derlin Town, nestled among mountains and rivers and adhering to traditional lifestyles. This is primarily determined by the local geography.

The most prominent natural feature of the Alfheim region is its undulating forests. Human habitation is fragmented by forests of various sizes, and dense thickets of juniper, spruce, fir, red pine, and masson pine obstruct traffic between towns, making it difficult to develop large-scale cities. Colonists from the Old World are mainly concentrated near the estuaries and ports along the east coast, while the edges of the forests in the central and west are home to the various tribes of the indigenous "Asa" people. Deep in the forests where firs grow thick, it is said that reclusive elves and fairies often appear, though humans living in towns rarely have the chance to see these mysterious creatures with their own eyes.

On the morning of March 26th, Joann set out from Derlin Town, located in the south of Alfheim, traveling alone toward Port Leiden on the northeastern coast. In order to arrive at Leiden Academy in time for the start of the term on April 1st, Joann had to take a risk and choose a route that cut through the jungle—a path rarely trodden by men.