[NR] The Wild Side - Chapter 448 (Patreon)

Peter in the Wilds

Peter carefully watched the sky as he moved through an open savanna. While uncertain, he felt that he should be close to a new area of the deep wilds. Then the sun changes, going from normal to bigger and hotter.

This was exactly the kind of thing he was looking for, now the only question was if the locals would let him leave or not. So with great care, Peter steps backwards, following the path he took to enter this region. While nothing changed the moment he moved back, after the 19 steps, the sun returned to normal.

Or rather, that is what it looks like. Gregor had tried to explain the exact details of what had happened to Peter before. Operative word there is “tried”. It was something about how untamed areas of the deep wild were not only separate dimensional spaces, but also all part of a Dreamland and so on and so forth.

Peter, of course wasn’t stupid, couldn’t survive out here long if you were. He knew that when a region had a strong ruler, it would take on qualities that fit that being. The few times he had been out here with powerful travellers, they had referred to the regions as open air dungeons.

Hell, some of the strong traveller organizations would take over such spaces as their home base. They particularly liked that with a little work you can adjust the point at which the place connects to the rest of NeoRealm. Well, you can until you fully link up the space with NeoRealm proper like what the Bamboo kingdom’s founder had done. Defeat the local hegemon, make a few basic changes that will persist once connected because obviously a weird sun isn’t going stick around, and then hook the place into some empty space on NeoRealm’s map.

Peter wasn’t out here for that. Instead, he stepped back into the new region and started to map out the edges. Overall, maps weren’t as useful as you would think out in the deep wilds. Mostly because the deeper you get, any area not a part of a controlled region begins to lose dimensional stability. Once you’re in a controlled region, though? Well, that you could map out, which is exactly what Peter did.

Now, Peter wasn’t moving slow and the region was on the smaller side so it only took him a handful of days to circle the place. Along with that, he had seen some of the local wildlife and so had narrowed the possible Bosses. A guess wasn’t enough though, so with much greater care he moves towards the core of this region.

All around him are classic animals to see in a place like this. Gazelles, zebras, lions, and elephants. On and on, though, it was those last two Peter suspected. Lions had a memetic force behind them to be kings of an area and Elephants weren’t far behind with a heavy emphasis on being wise.

Not that these were the only choices, but there weren’t enough rivers for something like a crocodile or Hippo to be in charge and any number of other small details that to Peter pointed towards it not being one creature or another. Especially not one of the civilization building types like some goblin variant. Even the most primitive of those would have been patrolling the edge.

So it wasn’t much of a surprise to Peter when he saw the ruler of the region from a long way out. Near the center of the rough circle he had already mapped, he easily could see the enormous forms of elephants. Though he wasn’t certain what path they took. It wasn’t likely some elemental variant as the region has been mostly balanced so far. That left one of the more pure advancement lines of something special.

It also meant Peter needed to be extra careful. That memetic shove towards being wise tended to result in sapient elephants when you got this deep. If the ruler had just been a pride of lions, then chances were they would just be some fancy variant without any real brain power.

Though, while a sapient ruler could be a problem. It was also a possibility for others. Even if it meant Peter wasn’t likely to find any ancient ruins, he would at least be able to make some money by selling the location details. After all, a normal familiar is all fine and dandy. However, what if instead you could have an elephant with a greater than normal chance of developing sapience that would eventually be big enough to hold a small cottage on their back?

Peter frowns at that thought. The last part was dangerous if the elephant wasn’t special. Normal elephants aren’t actually good at carrying things on their backs and trying to even make a small platform can cause serious damage to their backs. Peter decided that when selling the location of this place, he would make sure the buyer knew what they were doing. No first-time buyers and if it came down to it, the Adventurers Guild would buy it.

The guild wouldn’t be willing to pay full price for it of course. Peter however had it on good authority that there was actually a department not only made to help newly found sapient animals, but was entirely staffed by them as well. If someone was going to be able to sort the elephants out, it would be them.

Then Peter notices what must be the ruler of this region and he frowns. The value of this place drops like a rock as he notices that while it may or may not be sapient, it was certainly being affected by another common pillar of the elephant tribe, that of being holy animals. This particular specimen is heads and shoulders above the rest of its kin and stark white.

Not albino, mind you, if that was the case the sun would have been less intense in this area. No, the elephant was the white of holy power and upon its tusks shone natural runes that appeared to have white fire dripping off of them. Of course, since the entire savanna isn’t on fire, it wasn’t literally fire, but rather holy power so dense it took on the characteristics of fire.

Now, there might be some kind of temple near the center of the region. However, with how much power that elephant is putting off, whatever relics of the past still left would undoubtedly be powerful mystic tools of some bygone religious cult. Not to say their god wasn’t real, but rather if they were still actively being worshiped on NeoRealm proper this region wouldn’t be so deep. Instead, more likely, this was some foreign influence trying to enter NeoRealm.

Peter sighed, he had seen enough and so backed out of the region. Not enough of the wilds in general, but he was going to have to cut this trip short. The proper authorities would have to know about this because if there is one region like this, there will be more. Odd religions and forces were constantly trying to infiltrate NeoRealm and sure, the System kept things mostly under control. However, it also sometimes let stuff through to provide a challenge so couldn’t be depended on.