That country was called Hotareia… it was mostly composed of deserts and inactive volcanoes. Still, the temperature was no joke… it had been a while since he felt like complaining, thanks to the weather alone.
Aion kept flying for around three hours until he reached the middle of that country, and he couldn't help but frown since it was filled with active volcanoes. He couldn't even begin to understand how that was possible.
"Arlana said that the creature moves from one volcano to the other and attacks everything in sight that approaches its territory… despite that, this country threatens it like a guardian…" Aion furrowed his eyebrows. "I should have asked if the creature was being mind controlled when I killed it in the future."
Checking all the volcanoes was too much, so Aion decided to see if his relics could help him with that. The relics actually pointed to a volcano in the distance, but nothing happened when Aion got close to it. When he used the relics again, around the mirrors appeared, and one of them was shining way more than the others.
"This isn't supposed to happen… is it telling me to check this timeline?" Aion rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
Arlana never mentioned that, so she probably didn't know that such a thing could happen. It was hard to imagine that the relics would make Aion go into a trap as well… in the end, Aion decided to check it even if it wasn't his real mission.
Once he crossed the mirror, Aion noticed that the temperature had decreased a bit, but the scene around him was not so much.
"Well, now… where to go?" Aion thought.
Aion decided to go down a bit, and it didn't take long for him to see that in the desert below him, he could see a lot of monsters moving around. Most of them were scorpions that had flames on their backs. Aion finished them off by firing some ice arrows.
"They aren't that strong, but I guess there is a dungeon nearby that people are having a hard time controlling," Aion thought. "Maybe I should tame some of them and make them fight each other."
The scorpions were barely one meter long, but they had some sharp pincers and a tail that looked quite fearsome. They should be able to do well during ambushes, not to mention I need to level up his class even faster…
After he did that, after freezing some scorpions, Aion decided to head to the nearest city or town to gather Intel. He could return to the same moment when he crossed the portal, so he didn't need to be in such a hurry.
Although that region was quite harsh, it didn't take long for Aion to find a town… there was also a dungeon nearby, and that was a business opportunity for many, after all. Still, before going down, Aion wondered how he should approach the place… all the people there were using those long cloaks that protect people against the light and the heat of the desert, and he didn't have that. So, he was going to stand out like a sore thumb. Still, he eventually moved to the nearest dune and then landed.
"At least I can pretend that I am walking with magic… I am too heavy with my armor in this desert," Aion thought, and he approached the town.
Until he understood why he could head to that timeline, Aion couldn't drop his guard. So, taking away his armor wasn't an option, even if he stood out like a sore thumb.
The buildings of that town resembled some of the buildings that Aion imagined that some tribes would have in the desert back in the day. They were all basically made of clay… at least, from a distance, it looked like that. Once he got closer, he frowned since it looked like the walls and the ceiling were more like a junction of a lot of pillars made of earth and rocks… their designs were pretty much the same, even though the place had more than five hundred of those.
Some people were moving around while carrying jugs filled with water. Others were traveling, riding Camel-like creatures that had some long tongues out of their mouths and had horns and three tails.
The people that noticed him looked at Aion for a while… Even though he was unarmed, he still looked weird and suspicious. It didn't take long for him to notice some guys armed with spears approaching him. They didn't look that strong, but it was better if he avoided confrontation for a while.
"Who are you?" A Blackbearded man asked while glaring at Aion.
"... My name is Arc, and I am a guard that got separated from his caravan during a sandstorm," Aion replied once he realized that using his real name might cause some issues.
"Sandstorm? They aren't usually at this time of the year…" the guard said.
"Just because they aren't usual, it doesn't mean that they don't happen," Aion said while furrowing his eyebrows since he was starting to get pissed.
While Aion didn't show much hostility aside from that, the guards got a bit tense… they probably could tell from his aura that he wasn't a pushover, and that was something since they had five on their side.
"I just need to gather some Intel and a place to rest while I confirm if my caravan passed through here or not," Aion said and took a gold coin from his pocket and then tossed it to the guard. "Is that enough to pay for all that?"
"It is… but we don't want confusion here since you look like a foreigner," the bearded man said. "Follow me, and there is a tavern nearby where you might get the Intel that you need."
Aion nodded, and then he began to follow the man. He couldn't help but curse his own hurry for ignoring the terrain around him while he was flying… Thanks to all that, he didn't check for cities and towns along the way. If he had done that, he would know if he was in the past or in the future… he couldn't tell since the shining mirror appeared right in front of him.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l