Solaena's [Guided] Journey (Fantasy LitRPG)

The most important thing, above everything else, was to maintain my [Cycle] at its utmost efficiency, preserving my paste for when I absolutely needed it.

Beyond that, I needed to keep an eye out for anything that stood out, as from my repeated observations, anything that stood out on the rust wastes was probably a rust abomination waiting to catch the smell of anything that wasn't rust.

And I couldn't permanently [Will] my smell not to disperse; it would directly render my [Cycle] unable to sustain me.

Other than that... I was unrestricted in my actions.

I could walk leisurely, enjoying the unchanging scenery of rusted panes of metal.

I could run steadily, killing time by telling myself I was at least doing some [Exertion]s.

I could sprint until my legs gave out and risk being ambushed by a rust abomination that suddenly grew smart enough to lie in wait underneath the rust...

Okay, [Guided] would never actually allow me to sprint when I was in such a dangerous environment and could need all my strength at any unexpected moment.

Not that it should ever come to that if I strictly kept to the rules of [Darkness] and didn't allow myself a single moment of unreadiness.

Which could maybe be an ordeal for others, having to mind where they stepped, how they stepped, how they breathed, and many other small details, but for me, [Guided] through the entire thing at all times while only having to maximize my [Perception] of my surroundings, it felt as easy as breathing.

Thus it was that I consistently journeyed through the rust wastes, my [Cycle] never dipping into unsustainability, always taking large detours wherever I spotted odd protrusions...

I passed by those previously massive panes of metal that split the wastes, their true immensity only growing more impressive the closer I presumed myself to be to them, only to realize they were still such a long way off.

I sighted yet odder things, too, like the scattered remains of buildings that had no reason to be so isolated from everything, or the occasional baby rust abominations, their shells oh-so fragile once I stepped on and crushed them underneath my feet.

Then, before I realized it, after orienting myself repeatedly towards Red Sand Rift City by referencing landmarks that were all basically some manner of rust patterns inscribed in one metal pane or another, some of which I barely made out from their small drawings, the horizon had taken on strange hues of red.

It wasn't instantly apparent when those strange red hues took over the gloomy [Darkness] that I had formerly supposed was simply the way horizons—the farthest distance at which my [Perception] could enhance my sight enough to discern—looked, but all it took was one oblivious turn around for me to realize how much it had changed.

And there was no turning back once I realized the horizon in one direction was different from all the others.

That change hadn't been drawn on the map...

Or was it the meaning hidden behind what the giants called "writing"—those strange series of symbols present in so many places?

I needed to learn those as soon as possible if they were that important...

In any case, now that I literally had a guiding light, or rather a guiding horizon, to steer my journey, one that I reasonably presumed originated from Red Sand Rift City, I opted to increase my pace.

Like so, alternating between a brisk walking pace and short periods of rest so as to never be completely defenseless, I experienced the gradual changes of the rust wastes before my very eyes.

The air grew rougher and drier, yet richer to my [Cycle].

A layer of small grains barely larger than rust powder started covering the ground, shortly rendering entirely silent steps a near impossibility until I called for a momentary severe reduction of my gait to adapt and find a workaround.

A workaround that consisted of taking off my boots and replacing them with tightly wrapped bands of fabric, allowing my feet to match the increasing ruggedness of the terrain without crushing the small grains against each other and generating a loud grating sound.

Not that this workaround had been strictly necessary, considering that by the time this layer of small things grew to the point of swallowing my feet, I opted to wear my boots once more, favoring secure footing over ever-increasingly convoluted silent steps.

Then it grew hotter and hotter, and the rust abominations became more and more difficult to make out as the small grains kept piling up in progressively more irregular fashions until the flatness of the rust wastes was but a long-forgotten memory.

That led to my first near encounter with a rust abomination, having only caught sight of its still form when I had already entered what I had determined to be their sensory zone from lots of observations and personal passes through them.

Luckily, it still hadn't detected me, allowing me to retreat safely by conforming single-mindedly to the rules of [Darkness].

A massive detour and a stern reminder that my environment was transforming in ways I hadn't prepared myself for later, I left this embarrassing matter behind me.

I maintained that state of caution and wariness until a first gust of hot air unexpectedly hit my face, bringing small pricks of pain along with it as a few small grains were picked up from the ground and struck whatever portions of my skin were exposed.

There and then, I paused, truly paused, taking many deep breaths for the sole purpose of grasping how out of my depth I was.

Then, and only then, did I resume walking, a sense of wonder and extreme vigilance alike suffusing my being as I beheld a redder and redder horizon that showed no signs of my destination, either in the form of traces left behind by travelling giants or obvious remains of buildings.

Red Sand Rift City couldn't have also been destroyed, could it?

The redder the horizon, the hotter the air, and the harsher the wind, the more it felt like I would never reach my destination.

Walking became more and more of a serious [Exertion] as the grains piled up deep enough that I could fully submerge myself underneath them, and with it, the possibility of rust abominations lying in ambush rose to such a degree that I didn't dare venture unknowingly forward anymore.

Now, whenever I crested another mountain of small things, I took as many breaths as I felt were needed to scrutinize the next area.

And I did so over and over again, more and more often as the mountains towered higher and higher, increasingly preventing me from looking sufficiently far ahead to feel safe.

This was turning into such a hazard that I considered summarily turning back and picking a new destination.

But then I told myself that if I had already come this far, what was the point of turning back...

I told myself that for one more ascent...

And another one...

And another...

Such stupid reasoning in hindsight.

Still, as a result of my indecision, I never stopped journeying towards a destination that may or may not exist, foolhardily braving all that barred my way.

Even when the air became so hot that every breath I took felt just like what I had experienced back in a pipe connected directly to an ignited paste furnace, I forged ever onwards.

Until finally, rising from piles of small things that stacked higher than the top of the tower I had made my home, a massive pillar of metal, missing huge chunks of its frame, rose from the horizon, connecting the transformed floor straight to the ceiling.

I recognized that pillar.

It was part of the last series of landmarks drawn on my map before I ought to find Red Sand Rift City.

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When I finally glimpsed the actual origin of the red hue that had colored the horizon and served as my guiding light until now, everything suddenly made sense.

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It was exactly like it was drawn on the map, a jagged line etched into reality itself, one radiating an ethereal red radiance so vivid and intense that it ended up coloring all horizons in a circle around it from an unimaginable distance away.

And so close to it, finally, I found signs of others.

Lonely buildings.

Standing buildings.

Whose doors were seemingly open to anyone stumbling upon them.

They were empty of anything, sure, but it wasn't like I needed anything with the richness of the air I could [Cycle].

The significance behind the existence of such open buildings was what profoundly impacted me.

Semi-safe refuge.

Provided just like that.

It was unthinkable to me that anyone could ever willingly do that.

And yet the reality of this being an actual thing was repeatedly imprinted into my eyes with every standing empty building I passed by.

Was Red Sand Rift City truly as nice as the giants made it out to be?

No way.

Absolutely no way.

Everyone would have gone there if it were.

But then...

What kind of world led to a bunch of perfect refuges being left behind for anyone passing by?

I couldn't wait to find out.

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Giants.

Alive giants.

Wearing strange clothes that appeared to cover their entire bodies from head to toe, including any strange appendages.

So that's what clothes adapted to this environment, where small grains kept flying everywhere, looked like...

At least, for all that I was getting my first glimpse of what the world of Red Sand Rift City looked like, I was comforted by the fact that they were also carrying massive backpacks.

I got that part right.

When my reasoning came to whether to approach them or not, however, that's when everything went wrong.

Beyond the giants who had brought me up in the refuge, a few of whom had outright disliked me for being born as a fairy, the majority having been wholly indifferent, and only a select few like the gray-haired one having ever shown me what true warmth felt like...

I had never actually interacted with other giants in any meaningful way.

And beyond rarely talking to myself or shouting when I was too excited, I had long stopped practicing anything closely relevant to my ability to talk, from my pronunciation to my delivery to my...

Should I really approach them?

How should I approach, if I did?

What should I say?

Would they want me to open my backpack?

Was I strong enough to defend myself?

Was I fast enough to escape?

Which clothes should I wear?

Should I make myself look like them?

How much skin should I expose?

Should I hide my weapon to give a harmless first impression?

Should I wipe myself clean of the grime of travel first?

Should I smooth out my hair or make it messier?

Should I keep my wings hidden, or should I expose them?

Should I just go ask them some questions and then leave? Or should I then tag along?

What could they help me with that I couldn't eventually get by just trailing them, anyway...

After silently stalking them for way too many breaths while agonizing over my decision to make contact, analyzing it from all angles and perspectives I could imagine, along with all their consequences, I finally made my choice.

I would go for it.

After a good wipe to clean off all the grime of travel and a change of clothes, I would go for it.

I would have to start talking with others sooner or later, if only to ascertain I was going in the right direction, so why not sooner?

Sooner, in that case, meaning... now.

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The far reaches of the Red Desert were a truly monotonous place to make a harvest run through, regardless of how rewarding those could be if one had satisfactory luck.

In other words...

I was bored out of my mind scanning the dunes in search of anything that sparkled or looked unusual enough to warrant further inspection.

That was...

"He- hello!"

Until a tiny voice, which I was absolutely certain didn't belong to any member of our convoy, sounded out of nowhere.

And it appeared I wasn't the only one to have heard it, as I caught the peculiar sound of shifting sands that accompanied my and the others' abrupt stop as we suddenly looked for the source of this unfamiliar voice.

I didn't find it.

"Anyone else heard that?" Stus shortly asked aloud, confirming we had all heard the same thing.

"The- there, me."

The high-pitched voice echoed once more, and this time my [Insight] was prepared for it and naturally carried my [Attention] to where it originated.

That's when I finally made it out, standing perfectly still, nearly melting into the dim red obscurity of the ambient afterglow originating from the faraway Red Sand Realm Rift.

Carrying a backpack as tall as she was—the height of my knees—her clothes a haphazard mess of fabric, with a wickedly sharp-looking needle half the size of my forearm fluttering dangerously on her belt...

A tiny fairy.

A tiny fairy lass who had absolutely no business being there.

"He- Greetings!" she suddenly squeaked with, would you believe it, an even higher pitch than before, obviously uncomfortable from being stared at by so many.

But that only gave me more time to realize how bizarre it was for a lone fairy to suddenly greet us out in the middle of the far reaches of the Red Desert, where only a rare few heavily protected caravans coming and going from the surrounding towns ever moved through.

And talking about bizarre...

Taking a second look at this lass...

With crystal-clear wings that shimmered under the distant red afterglow of the Red Sand Realm Rift, big, innocent-looking iridescent eyes of indescribable purity, and short, messy white hair from which one could subtly make out traces of a chaotic mix of pale colors ranging from blue to purple, pink, green, and yellow, this...

This was no fairy lass from the streets if I had ever seen one.

This was a proper young fairy lady.

One who perfectly epitomized the fantasized depictions of her own kind in stories as what I had heretofore believed to be an unrealistic ideal that didn't belong in this dirty world, but now found was actually real.

Though again, probably only for those born in circumstances under which they never found themselves wanting for food or support...

Which, somehow, simultaneously both completely absolved her of looking like a threat and made this encounter all the more unusual.

"You havin' issues with your Origin Aspect, lady? [Lost] or something?"

Averill, showing off his quick wits, which usually revealed themselves at the worst times but came in extremely conveniently this time, inquired with a polite question I hadn't even realized could explain literally everything about this outlandish fairy's presence here.

"La- lady?" She tensed up at the term, stuttering it back before stilling unnaturally. "I don't believe I'm [Lost], I- I'm heading for Red Sand Rift City. And you- you are too, right?"

No way.

Was she a legendary sheltered lady who had never been allowed to interact with the world?

No way.

There had to be another explanation I wasn't thinking of.

"We're on a harvest run, so... yeah, we are heading back to the city, in some way," Grard, the unofficial leader of our ragtag group, finally gathered his wits and spoke up, being the right nice-talker we needed him to be right now.

"And this city is... Red Sand Rift City, right?" She looked straight at Grard and asked the stupidest question I had heard in a long time with an insistent stare.

"Y- yeah. Not like there's another city in the Red Desert other than Red Sand Rift City..." It was actually so stupid that it caused Grard to stutter through a perfectly straightforward answer and even overcomplicate it to the point of making it an offense to the fairy lady's intelligence.

I was ready to intervene and cover up the mistake by bringing up the possible existence of a lost city buried underneath the sands, but when I observed the fairy's little face brighten up, I wisely opted to keep my mouth shut.

"Good." She nodded firmly, then inquired without blinking, "Can I... follow you?"

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"...no, young lady, that's not considered a normal thing," Averill insisted for the umpteenth time, but I could already see how the words flew over her head and landed uselessly in the sands without causing so much as a ruffle.

And why would she ever believe our words when, from her mere demeanor, it was obvious that the degree to which she had been sheltered was so high that she had pretty much lived in a different world from us since birth?

"What's normal, then?" she asked back, her lively eyes always darting in all directions, as though it were the most normal thing, alight with a burning inner curiosity that seemed like it would never be quenched.

"Well, I don't know how it is for you fairies with your Origin Aspect getting your Essence all messed up, but for us pure folks, the Faith tells us to form one or two Aspects and then focus on advancing them until we can synthesize them."

"The Faith... Synthesize them..." she mumbled something I couldn't hear to herself.

Not that I minded at this point, as she so often became lost in her own thoughts that it was pretty much her habitual state.

"What about your strength? Can you kill a ru- an abomination on your own?"

"You mean the rust abominations? The walking piles of rust? It's rare for them to end up in the Red Desert, much less for them to roam it. Too much sand getting into their shell for their liking, I guess. As for how I would fare against them, if it were one of those building-sized ones, probably very badly. The grunts, though..."

The more she heard of that answer, the wider her eyes grew, and her mouth naturally opened into an o-shape, until for some reason, she breathed a large, audible sigh of relief and hung her head in dismay.

I wouldn't let that fool me, however.

Whatever she realized from what she had just learned, it had absolutely no consequences on the training that had been instilled in her.

She still walked as silently as she could.

Her body still flowed forward without so much as a single bump, regardless of how unstable the dunes were.

Yeah.

From the way she moved, to how she breathed, to how she naturally stared everywhere, to how she stilled whenever a gust of wind so much as ruffled the desert wrong, to how she never ate, to how she never slept for more than a couple dozen minutes at a time...

I positively wouldn't be surprised if, anytime soon, we found ourselves beset by a whole hired squad of the Nexus Order sent to escort their missing princess back to where she belonged...

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