The Howling Cliffs were a shapeless-looking region whose mountains looked more like fallen obelisks from an ancient world than actual rock formations. Each small hill merely resembled a colossal thorn from hell that could reach tens of meters in height. The place's ambiance was grim, causing a bad feeling even from a distance.
A large black cloud was blowing over the region at all hours of the day and every day of the year. Possibly, this weather phenomenon, supernatural, to say the least, had turned the region into a dead, lifeless place. Nothing was growing in the entire radius that this cloud covered the area, even a weed.
Kaizen spotted these cliffs after climbing a hill that separated the oak forest from this gloomy region. He felt no fear as the other players usually did when approaching the Howling Cliffs. In fact, Klaus smiled with excitement. His smile was as frightening and malevolent as the giant cloud.
Without much analysis, Kaizen threw himself onto the gravelly part of the hill he was on and slid downhill smoothly.
The moment his feet touched the area, a screen appeared to him.
*PING*
[You have just entered the cursed region of the Howling Cliffs.
(Please note: The indicated level for exploring this region is Level 20 or higher.)]
'You tell me this is a cursed region and then give me a level warning? Are you really thinking of challenging me!'
Kaizen threw the notice away and immediately started walking.
His metal boots made a lot of noise as he walked. The ground was covered with sandy and fragile stones, which broke with each step of the Psyker. The sound emitted by this was similar to the sound of walking normally on pebbles. Anyway, Kaizen didn't mind attracting attention and continued to walk into the area.
The further he walked, the darker the area became. The colossal cloud that covered everything was even more imposing when one was beneath it.
Blue thunder cracked the sky every 30 seconds on average, turning the darkness in the abyss between each peak into daylight. The impression was of being in the middle of a major metropolis during a torrential downpour and total blackout.
'Where are all the monsters you talked about?' Kaizen was forced to ask himself. Normally, he was not someone who was impatient, but traveling for three days to this place made him create high expectations that the monsters would not stop attacking him. However, that was not what happened initially.
While he was thinking anxiously about the monsters, thunder rumbled across the sky, and this lit up everything for a split second long enough for Kaizen to realize where he was about to step. In front of him was a deep precipice, and Kaizen almost threw himself down it without realizing it. Luckily, the light of the thunder stopped him from doing so.
*Troommm*
In a cold sweat, Kaizen took two steps backward and fell flat on his butt on the ground. Immediately, he raised his two hands and slapped each cheek.
"Wake up. Focus. You are no longer in the vicinity of the start town, Klaus."
He stood up, supporting Theus' Spear on the ground, knelt on the cliff's edge, and had an idea.
After opening his inventory, he looked for the item Ironstone Origin Lampion and equipped it in his left hand. He then turned it on, and the lantern emitted an intense bluish-green light that illuminated everything around it within a 5-meter radius. Kaizen moved the object closer to the edge where he was standing, but that wasn't enough to show even one place he could jump to.
'Right. I'll try plan B.'
Kaizen turned the round metal part under the lamp with force and removed all five small glowing crystals inside it. First, he tested the resistance of one crystal by biting it. The crystal was hard as iron. After this, he picked up this crystal and dropped it from the edge.
The crystal fell freely for a few meters, then hit something that made it jump, and finally stopped at a distance that Kaizen could only see a faint glow from it.
"Shit. The fall must be at least 10 meters."
*Trooommm*
"But there's nothing to do... If I want to find monsters, it looks like I need to keep going down."
Finally, Kaizen had learned that the danger of the Howling Cliffs was not only the monsters but also a mixture of the treacherous terrain and the lack of visibility. Luckily, he had the lantern to help him at least see where he was going in between each thunderstorm.
Kaizen had no climbing equipment, nor did he see a natural decline nearby, so if the only alternative was to jump off the cliff, Kaizen would do so without hesitation.
He put the crystals back inside the lantern, put it away in his inventory and the spear, and took some distance from the edge. When he sighed, he felt ready and jumped with everything he had, planning to land where the crystal was because he knew it was safe there.
In mid-air, the sound of the wind buzzed in Psyker's ear. He had his hair, and cape was thrown back.
It was a terrifying feeling to fall into the darkness. Besides, if he dared to jump from 10 meters in real life, he would surely die, so his human instincts told him that he had made a big mistake. In the game, any other player would probably die as well, or if he had enough life, someone like a Tank Class player, could survive with serious injuries. However, Kaizen didn't need 500 HP to survive a fall like this.
When he was only 10 feet away from crashing to the ground, Kaizen activated the <Telekinesis> ability and enveloped his armor with this mysterious aura he could control. Since he and his armor were heavy, his mana bar went down quickly.
As soon as Kaizen's feet came within inches of touching the rocky ground, he deactivated the skill.
His boots touched the ground safely, but since his MPs were practically zeroed out after this move, a sudden despondency afflicted him, leaving him with a sleepy expression.
To make matters worse, the sky was cleared by another thunderclap, and in front of him, the silhouette of a gigantic insect darkened his face.
*Trooommm*
The sound of the thunder echoed throughout the vast region.
...
Edited by: DrHitsuji
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