Melina stood beside Bai Shi, watching his wounds gradually heal.
She regretted her words as soon as she’d said them. She shouldn’t have commented on Bai Shi's fighting.
For Bai Shi, such a superficial wound didn't even require a potion.
But for some reason, her heart had suddenly ached for him.
Bai Shi hadn't expected Melina to speak up, especially after she had hidden away in embarrassment earlier.
He was about to say that he was fine, that a small injury like this was nothing to him.
After all, acting tough in front of a girl you liked was something even a clueless schoolboy would do.
But on second thought, Bai Shi realized that would probably only make Melina worry more.
So he nodded and agreed.
“Alright, I'll be more careful in the future.”Although Slude was nearby, Bai Shi still lowered his voice and replied directly to Melina.
“Hey, there are people around. Didn't we agree you don't have to answer me at times like this?”
Melina quickly tried to stop Bai Shi in a fluster.
It was clear she was still not entirely comfortable.
“It’s fine. I wanted to talk to you.”
Melina’s voice fell silent.
Perhaps it was her most direct way of preventing Bai Shi from continuing the conversation—by not replying.
Of course, it was also possible that she had hidden away somewhere out of shyness again.
Honestly, what’s there to be so secretive about?</<>
Bai Shi smiled, feeling like he had more and more to look forward to each day.
From a short distance away, Slude heard Bai Shi muttering something.
She knew very well, however, that he certainly wasn't talking to her.
Slude glanced around Bai Shi, confirming that there were no other living beings nearby.
She recalled their journey since setting out; it had always been just the two of them.
Who was he talking to, then?
Though curious, as a subordinate, she knew it was best not to probe too deeply in such situations.
She had overheard the first half of Bai Shi’s conversation with Ranni and knew he was not someone to be trifled with.
It was best to just listen to orders and do her job.
—
Bai Shi flipped over the corpse of the crystal lizard on the ground.
Looking closely, he realized this thing really did look like the Crystal Lizards from Dark Souls.
In Dark Souls 3, one could be found right next to the starting area, a creature so beloved it had earned the nickname "Bugatti Veyron."
Of course, this thing hadn’t run over from the Dark Souls set next door; after all, it wasn't Patches.
Although it looked similar, that was as far as it went.
This crystal lizard also had several short, thin horns on its head.
They were not shaped like a dragon’s horns but were the spiral horns of the Crucible, proving this was indeed a creature of the Lands Between.
It was likely some form of life that coexisted with crystals, born in an ancient age.
After all, the ecosystem presented in the game was far from complete.
It was either bears, dogs, and prawns, or just reskinned mountain crows and bleed dogs.
The actual number of species couldn't possibly be so small.
But that being said, this was the first time Bai Shi had seen an animal not present in the game.
And it wasn’t weak, either.
Fighting on its home turf gave it a geographical advantage, and its abilities were rather unique.
This creature was probably much stronger than an ordinary bear.
Physically, it wasn't as tough as a bear, but the crystals on its back more than compensated for this.
The crystals were incredibly sharp and hard. Combined with its massive size and weight, it was no wonder its rolling attack was so devastating.
Furthermore, the frost it breathed out was not low on damage.
Speaking of frost breath, this ability intrigued Bai Shi.
A creature wouldn’t learn such a skill just by looking like a Bugatti Veyron; it had to be influenced by its environment.
That made the location of this place highly questionable.
Combined with the abnormal cold he had felt earlier, Bai Shi had a bold guess:
Could this portal have sent him to the Mountaintops of the Giants?
He couldn't be certain yet. The answer would reveal itself once he found the exit.
Bai Shi kicked the crystal lizard’s corpse.
It didn’t seem like he could find any valuable loot from it.
Bai Shi turned to Slude and asked:
“Have you seen this kind of creature before?”
“Here in the Lands Between, I have never seen such a thing. Is it an ancient creature?”
As a long-lived Numen, Bai Shi thought Slude might know something about it.
But Slude shook her head.
“Never.”
“Perhaps, as you said, it is an ancient creature.”
Since Slude didn't know either, there was nothing more to be done.
After some thought, Bai Shi stuffed the crystal lizard’s corpse into his spatial disc.
He would have it dissected and studied when he returned to Stormveil.
Passing through the gap in the glintstones, the two arrived behind where the crystal lizard had been hiding.
The ground was littered with the shattered armor and bones of Cuckoo soldiers, as well as what appeared to be the crystal lizard's droppings. This was clearly its den.
It seemed the Cuckoos had grabbed something from the outer area and then retreated from here, showing no intention of killing the crystal lizard to avenge their comrades.
They probably felt that the lives of a few Cuckoo soldiers weren't worth the effort of revenge.
But that was fortunate. At least the area ahead hadn’t been explored by the Cuckoos, meaning he might find something novel.
More importantly, Bai Shi wanted to know where this cave led.
The path ahead was not as smooth as before.
After leaving the crystal lizard’s den, the space ahead was equally vast, followed by another passage leading to an unknown destination.
Once inside, the path twisted and turned, full of forks.
There were markings in an unknown script at the forks, possibly indicating the way, but Bai Shi couldn't read them.
Bai Shi didn’t ask Slude to split up and explore again. Unlike before, with so many forks, they would probably get lost if they separated.
Bai Shi concentrated, sending the wind outward from his position.
As the wind touched the glintstone crystals or the cave walls, Bai Shi memorized the outlines of these obstacles, creating a three-dimensional map in his mind.
This was a method he had thought of after realizing his lack of scouting abilities, and he was only just beginning to practice it.
Because he was not yet skilled, the speed and range were not up to his expectations, and it required his full concentration.
However, despite the mental strain, it was more convenient than mapping the area out bit by bit.
If he had to rely on walking to explore, it would take who knows how long.
Once the wind reached its farthest point, Bai Shi chose a route based on the map he had created.
His pace slowed slightly, but since he no longer had to backtrack from dead ends or take wrong turns, their overall progress was actually faster.
Along the way, Bai Shi found more traces of crystal lizards.
By avoiding them in advance, the two were neither discovered nor attacked, and Bai Shi didn’t actively seek them out either.
There couldn't be many of this species left in the Lands Between; he didn't want to drive them to extinction here.
As he advanced, Bai Shi became more and more proficient at using the wind for scouting.
The speed and range of his scouting improved during the process, and it became less taxing.
At first, he had to walk very slowly, or even stop completely, to let the wind record the surrounding environment.
Now, he could move at a normal pace while continuously mapping the path ahead.
This trip served as good practice for a new skill. The next time he went into a cave or a catacomb, he wouldn't have to rely on old-fashioned exploration.
Bai Shi also found a few more tools similar to the glintstone cutter along the way, as well as traces of human habitation.
The other glintstone-cutting tools were quite crude; there was nothing of better quality. The one he held was already comparatively excellent.
Judging from the signs of human life, this cave had been in use for a very, very long time.
This confirmed for Bai Shi that the cave had once been a mine, where countless miners had excavated glintstone.
The space inside this cave was quite large, so the glintstone yield must have been high, and the quality appeared to be good as well.
Suddenly, Bai Shi detected something in the wind.
The terrain outlined by the wind ahead was strange. No, was that outline really terrain...?
Walking out of the current passage, the view suddenly opened up, and a colossal beast appeared before Bai Shi's eyes.
The massive corpse of a dragon lay on the ground, its body stretching out as if without end.
Its entire corpse was covered in crystals, emitting the unique glow of glintstone.
Rather than a dragon with glintstone growing on it, this looked more like glintstone had grown into the shape of a dragon; that was how numerous the crystals on this dragon were.
Its wings were spread out, its scales shimmering with a brilliant crystal luster, exuding an ancient and solemn aura.
The enormous dragon head drooped to one side, its open maw still displaying its past ferocity, yet now glintstone grew wantonly within it.
Its teeth were like sharp blades. Each massive tooth had once symbolized power and majesty, but now they were helplessly squeezed and pushed aside by the growing glintstone, falling out of its mouth in disarray.
A faint light shone down from an opening in the cave's ceiling, refracting off the crystals to illuminate the dragon's massive corpse.
This was a Glintstone Dragon, but not one Bai Shi recognized.
Because it was simply too large.
Although this glintstone dragon's body was much smaller than Elder Dragon Greyoll's, in a confined space like a cave, it completely dominated his field of view, making it appear even more freakishly large.
Bai Shi had once seen Elder Dragon Greyoll from afar.
Because of the great distance, he couldn't get a true sense of just how enormous Greyoll was, but he had gained a clear understanding of the size of a typical dragon.
An adult dragon next to Greyoll was barely the size of one of her claws, yet this glintstone dragon’s corpse was probably half the size of Greyoll.
Compared to a normal dragon, its size was completely overwhelming.
Bai Shi stood before the dragon’s head, observing its corpse.
Its head was bowed, its body having fused with the glintstone crystals below over the long years. Its posture looked relaxed, with no signs of struggle before death.
Crystals, a dragon, a dead dragon. Might as well call this the Land of Dragon Crystals.
But this was probably the only dragon here.
Bai Shi followed the glintstone dragon’s back with his eyes, seeing its tail extend all the way to the ceiling of the cave.
Bai Shi looked up and saw a white light near the tip of its tail.
It wasn't the glow of glintstone, but light from the outside.
Bai Shi jumped onto the giant glintstone dragon’s back and walked up along its tail.
The tail rested on the edge of a platform, which was the exit to the outside world.
After all this time, he had finally found an exit.
Bai Shi walked towards the light and found that the cave's exit was completely blocked by glintstone crystals.
His exploration in the cave had taken much longer than expected.
Time seemed to stand still inside the cave, but in reality, a whole night had passed.
It was already bright outside, with layers of light filtering into the cave.
Bai Shi approached the glintstone crystals blocking the exit and found a crack between them, trying to get a look at the situation outside.
But looking through the crack, he saw that beyond the glintstone was a thick layer of solid ice.
Through the crystal and ice, he couldn’t see the outside clearly. Instead, a biting cold seeped through the crack, freezing his eyes until they ached.
He never thought the portal would actually send him to the snow mountains.
He had thought the temperature in the cave was already low, but now he realized that he had the crystals to thank for blocking the wind and snow. Otherwise, he couldn’t imagine how cold it would be.
He just didn't know if this was the Mountaintops of the Giants or the Consecrated Snowfield.
Bai Shi told Slude to head back along the path they came, return through the portal, and wait for him at the Four Belfries.
The temperature of the snow mountains outside was not comparable to that inside the cave. Even with her excellent constitution, her thin clothes couldn’t withstand the extreme cold.
Bai Shi planned to go outside, activate a Site of Grace in the snowfield, and then teleport back to the Four Belfries.
Bai Shi took out the glintstone cutter, preparing to clear the exit.
But looking at the layers of glintstone, of unknown thickness, he suddenly felt that perhaps a specialized tool wasn't so effective after all.
So, Bai Shi drew his Sword of Night and Flame again. After briefly gathering magic, a torrent of comets pierced through the thick layers of glintstone crystal and ice.
The moment the torrent of comets stopped, biting snow blasted through the opening and into the cave.
Bai Shi faced the driving snow and looked out from the cave.
His entire field of vision was a sheet of white. The cold air seeped into the cave through the shattered glintstone crystals, instantly dropping the temperature to match the outside.
Outside the cave, an endless blizzard swept across the land like a flood. Distant peaks, majestic and towering, were covered in white snow, appearing even more desolate in the ice and snow.
Aside from the native Rowa fruit pressed low by the swirling snowflakes, there was no sign of life.
The rapidly spinning blizzard dominated this beautiful yet cruel world.
Bai Shi pulled his cloak a little tighter and, following the guiding light of grace, stepped onto the snowfield.