The Systems Challenge-Chapter 407: Heading Out

Kim already had her doubts that the library existed at all, but it wasn't like she had any better leads to go on. Especially when the book could otherwise be in almost any other place. As such, a rumor was at least better than nothing to work with.

However, while she didn't believe it existed, as she sought the location of the library with her sword, she was surprised to feel something to the north and east of where they were. Though, it was more north than east. Plus, there was an image of a valley carved out by a five tier waterfall that otherwise filled the floor of the valley.

What that image in her mind meant, Kim couldn't say. Just that it was there. She hoped it wasn't where the library was supposed to be, but without any more information, she couldn't say if that was the case or not.

"So? Where is it?" Elwin asked, though Kim couldn't say if he was mocking her with his question or not.

"I'm getting something that's pretty much north by north-east of us," Kim answered. "I can't say for sure what it is, but that's the direction that I'm getting."

"Well, let's hope it's not that far," Owen commented. "Otherwise we can't say that Stanley wouldn't get it before us."

"Maybe, maybe not," Jonas said. "For all we know Stanley doesn't know about the library and so won't be able to try to find it regardless of what method of travel he uses."

'So, you think we still have a shot of getting to the library before Stanley's group does? You know with that blynx and everything?" Bart asked, looking uneasy.

"I'm not sure if they even know to look for it," Kim replied. "They might have heard about it from elsewhere in this world, since we can't say where they've been, but even if they did hear about it, the blynx likely would only take them to places they already knew about. I doubt it'd take them to some undefined location that could be anywhere."

"Well, even if they got there first, they'd be like us: unable to read the local language. So it's not like they'd have the much of an advantage," Elwin remarked.

"Do we need to collect any supplies?" Jonas asked, surprising Kim at the sudden change of subject.

"What're you talking about?" Owen asked,.

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"Just that if we're going to get moving, we should first make sure we have enough supplies to move for a little bit at least. That way we can limit the times that we have to forage or go hunting again.," Jonas answered, looking surprised at Owen, which Kim could understand given Owen's system abilities. Which, in turn, made Kim wonder if there was a limit to how often he could peek into other people's minds. Such as if it was like MP or something.

"Let's take an hour to pack our things and take an assessment on our supplies," Kim suggested. "If we need more of something, then we can see if there's anything we can do to get it. Since some supplies are pretty much irreplaceable here and we'd have to go without if it did need to be replaced."

Packing didn't take long, since naturally they didn't have much to pack in the first place. The 'supplies' that had been inquired about also turned out to be enough for at least a week, provided no one decides to be a glutton of the meat and when that was mentioned, everyone glanced at Elwin, who protested being singled out like that. Despite the fact that he was the one who enjoyed the meat the most.

When they finally set out to the next destination, Sonya refused to fly them. Not so much because she couldn't, but rather she'd spent so much time as a dragon, that she wanted to spend more time 'feeling human' again, which Kim couldn't argue. She didn't really understand, but it wasn't like she'd spent any amount of time as anything other than human, so she didn't think that she had much place to argue the matter.

As they walked, Kim wondered how long it'd take for Sonya to feel like spending time as another shape, assuming they didn't have to fight, and would ferry them again.

After all, without Stanley's group, Kim figured Sonya could carry all of them in one trip rather than needing to make multiple ones. Not to mention that they'd cover far more ground than they would on foot. Especially with the mountains going up and down. As while going downhill wasn't too bad, going uphill tended to cost much more time than any they saved when they went downhill again.

Kim also couldn't help but feel like they were heading deeper into the mountains, rather than along them. With each one they either walked around or over, it felt like they kept getting higher and higher in altitude.

On occasion it would rain while they traveled, not that it slowed them down that much. They merely kept themselves focused on moving and afterwards, they'd split off to separate places while they waited for some dry clothing, which Patrick was exceptional at doing with his system. Although, there were a few times some of the clothing came back a little scorched.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly for once. Which Kim couldn't help but feel uneasy about. Even if the announcer didn't seem to care that they weren't experiencing any difficulty at all as they travelled, Kim couldn't help but feel like another shoe should be dropping at any moment. That the fact that they were moving along without any problem, including among themselves, that it meant something big was waiting for them somewhere.

Kim did her best to dispel the thought, given there wasn't any evidence of that, nor had that really happened before, but at the same time, they didn't encounter any monsters or strange phenomena that was remotely dangerous to them. Which in this world as already strange enough.

It wasn't until they reached swamp that they had to take more than a day before they could continue on. Although, while Jonas called it a swamp, Elwin argued that it was more of a bog, since there weren't many trees around.

Kim didn't see the issue, as it meant slower travel as well as an increase in the amount of bugs, like mosquitos, that they'd have to deal with.

Another issue with the 'bog' was the fact that it stretched on as far as they could see and Kim couldn't be sure that it wouldn't take longer to walk around it than it would to go through it.

Personally, Kim was in favor of going around, but the vote came back to go through. Which Kim wasn't overly concerned about, but there was also something about the bog that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Something that felt like it was a bad idea to pass through.

Especially with how calm the surface of the bog seemed. As not even birds were flying over it, which was part of what concerned Kim about it. Jonas had seemed to share her concerns, but with Owen, Bart, Patricia, Patrick, Heather, Sonya, and Elmo all voting to cross, there wasn't much to do in response. Not unless they wanted to break the group up, and Kim was pretty sure that Jonas wasn't' going to break up with Elmo so easily. Not with how long it took them to get together in the first place.

They took the time to tie a rope around each of them, in case they encountered quick sand, and started to slowly make their way through. Though, Kim quickly put her boots in her pack with how often they kept coming off, ending with her stepping in the knee deep mud almost every few steps.

Then there was the smell. Kim couldn't quite place it, as she didn't have any real experience with it, but it was one that made it difficult for her to be hungry for most of the time in the bog.

When they'd started out, it had been in the morning, but when it was time to call it a day, the bog still stretched as far as the eye could see. It wasn't clear what they'd do about sleeping, since there didn't seem to be any place that they could lay down comfortably. At least until they came across a small piece of dry land that didn't seem affected by the bog.

Kim wasn't sure if it was enchanted to keep from getting consumed by the rest of the bog or what, but she was grateful for it, even if there was only enough room for each of them to sit very close together.

If someone had created it with magic, Kim suspected that they were the only ones who had been travelling through here. Otherwise she suspected that this island would at least be a little bigger.

Even as the night went on, Kim found it hard to sleep with the smell that was coming off the bog. She'd passed on dinner because of it, and now her empty stomach was making it's complaints heard. Loud and clear.

Kim just hoped that the smell would be the worst part of traveling through the bog.