To access the fort, there were smaller paths divided from the main route, each heading towards one of each of the nine hills. William could tell how hard it was to climb upwards towards the fort using these hills. But for a reason, the chariots down there didn't face any trouble, kept marching up as if they were walking on flat land.
"They must have used some sort of an array on these hills, or else these huge caravans won't be able to make it!" William developed more admiration towards all the thoughts given by the leaders of this fort, even to this small detail.
As long as there was no gate to knock down, no clear and easy path towards top, it was safe to consider this fort impregnable.
The only way to take such a fort would be from inside, or from air. William knew finding aerial monsters in this tiny world would be rare.
So, this place was going to be safe as long as the ones ruling it didn't lose their grasp over the entire place. And that made him question again how the dark spirit masters did it back then when the world came down and fell.
This was just a single fort in this world. Thinking about other big places, like capitals of the kingdoms and empires in this world, William could tell how big and hard the dark spirit masters thought and worked for long years to cause such an apocalypse back in his past life.
"The dark spirit masters must have a grand net all over this world," William was quite sure of this. And for a reason, he felt all the dark spirit powers in this tiny world were connected, led by a single figure or a tiny circle of scary individuals.
The situation wasn't like this in the outer world. There, dark spirit masters always tend to be aloof and not work together unless in special situations. There was no real top goal for them to unify, nor was there someone quite scary to lead them using force.
Even that damn fox, it was considered the enemy for everyone, monsters and dark spirit masters included.
William felt like this tiny world, despite all the many negative points it had compared to the outer world, got something new that the vast outer world didn't.
"It seems I'm going to have more fun here than I expected," William thought to himself, evilly grinning, while walking towards the fort.
"Halt your steps. Identify yourself, your origins, your purpose from visiting the fort!"
Just at the foot of one of the hills, William got stopped by one team of guards there.
He was stepping towards the small road that branched from the main route, heading directly towards the fort.
But around that road, many spirit masters working as guards scattered, blocking the path of many like William who were coming from the forest outside.
"Good security," William commended in his mind, "I'm William, bronze grade disciple of the Aspire academy."
"Aspire academy? We rarely get anyone from your place, kid. And what makes a kid like you travel all alone, for all this distance, and come here?"
William felt heavy pressure coming from the direction of this dude. And such pressure instantly attracted the attention of many around, including the rest of his team members.
"A gold grade spirit master? You are trying to pressure a bronze kid using your power? Just relieve the pressure and let's hear what the kid has to say!"
"He is just a kid! Stop dealing with him like he is a criminal or one of those despicable bastards!"
"Fine!" The next moment, the pressure William suffered got relieved by that dude, "now can you explain yourself? A big battle is going on around, and lots of dark spirit masters are on the run. So, it's normal to inspect any suspicious individuals."
He said his last pieces not to William, but for everyone else who gave him blaming looks. William cleared up his throat, didn't really care that much about what this dude said or thought about as he slowly and calmly said his next words.
"I came here with a team of mine to do a mission for the Mercenary department here. But my team got in the middle of a big incident in the forest, something related to the Lockheart impact. And I'm here now to visit this impact's place, ask about my friends' fate."
"This..."
"Not these maniacs again!"
"Poor kid! He lost his friends, and he is here to look for them."
"Let him enter. I'm supporting this dude! Let him get inside!"
William's words got lots of support from those around. And from many comments, William could tell such incidents weren't that rare to happen actually. Not to mention the public opinion was against what Lockheart impact used to do.
"Fine, but don't cause trouble in there, or else I'll come and find you personally."
"I will adhere and respect the law," William knew he got his pass just from the support he got from the people around. He didn't think much about this and went towards the path leading towards the fort.
The moment he stepped onto it, he felt some sort of power that controlled his body and altered his orientation of directions and gravity.
It was just like he guessed, some sort of array that manipulated gravity and let anyone and anything walking over this path feel no disturbance or face any problems at all to walk almost vertically upward.
William was in the middle of a large number of spirit masters and caravans, all heading like a pilgrimage towards the top.
He heard many discussions going on around, mostly speaking about the expected gains the merchants would get from the precious cargo here. He also heard little information about the situation up there, and how things were quite chaotic in the upper echelon circle these days.
According to the discussions, William learnt that the new generation of many big families up there weren't that great at all.
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