The Systems Challenge-Chapter 443: Which Direction to Take?
Chapter 443 - Which Direction to Take?
Jonas wasn't too worried when they left a couple days after their encounter with Stanley. At first the idea was to have stayed just an extra day, but one day turned into two as Elwin seemed to have found some sword techniques, or theories, that he seemed intent on working through. Which the cafeteria became his training grounds at that time.
Then after they made the exchange with Blot and the last book that they'd acquired in the library, Blot teleported them to the entrance. Which Jonas hoped Stanley and his group didn't have happen to them. Partly in case they had used the same entrance as Jonas and rest of their combined group. Partly because then it would allow them to get that much farther ahead of Stanley and his group.
However, as they left the divide between the two mountains that were invisible when too far away from them, dissentions surfaced on which direction to take to return to the dungeon that they'd started in. Not that Jonas was really surprised at that fact.
"We should take a more straight route there," Elwin declared when it became clear that not everyone had the same idea of which direction to go in.
"If we head out of the mountains to the east first, we should make better timing, because going through the mountains does make us go slower," Kim replied firmly, not seeming to be willing to budge on her choice.
"What if we retrace our steps?" Patricia suggested. "Only taking detours to avoid some of the trouble areas that we encountered as we made our way through these mountains to get to this place."
"The problem with all of your suggestions is that one, if we took a direct route, we'd either have to walk around impassible mountainous areas that we can't get through, or do our best to climb those. That would certainly slow us down. Oh, and not to mention we can't really be sure which direction that it from here without using Kim's sword's ability," Jonas stated flatly. "Then if we head straight east to get out of the mountains, we can't be sure that we won't be stopped by cliffs as we try to find a pass that will allow us to get past those areas."
Jonas paused as he looked at Patricia, not sure how else to describe the problems with her suggestion. However, with how he'd started, he knew he couldn't stop there. He needed to finish what he'd already started.
"With your suggestion, Patricia, not all of us came the same way until we combined our groups. So, once we return to where the fire dragon was defeated, where will we go then? Which path should we take from there?" Jonas asked Patricia before he sighed. "All I can say is that even there not all of us might remember what path we took to get there in the first place."
"Hey, I'm confident that I can remember the path that Patrick and I took to get there," Patricia protested defiantly.
"I don't expect that we'd climb every mountain," Elwin protested himself, not paying attention to what Patricia was saying, as he spoke at the same time as her.
Kim, however, waited until they were done speaking before she gave her response. "I don't mean that we don't ignore cliffs, what I mean is first getting out of the mountains so we can move faster. Besides, I am tired of travelling through these mountains. I'd much rather walk along a flat plain that doesn't let you see anything as far as the eye can see than these mountains right now."
Jonas couldn't think of a way to complain about her assertion. He wholeheartedly agreed with it, though at the moment, that wouldn't help either of them with the others still at odds with which part to take.
"It might take longer, but I agree with Patricia," Owen remarked. "At least we know that we made it into these mountains somehow, so at least we'd be able to get through all of this."
"If we come to a cliff, I could help fly us down," Sonya chimed in. "I mean, I'd have to take my dragon shape, but I could still manage it."
Jonas nodded absently. Sonya's suggestion certainly would be good in practice. Assuming she didn't have a problem with taking that shape at that particular time, that is. As that's the problem he recalled they'd had with her dragon shape recently.
Not that he planned on mentioning it. That's be rude and wasn't his place to say anything-
"Sure you'd be willing?" Heather asked, interrupting Jonas' internal thoughts. "I thought you were avoiding your dragon shape."
"I was," Sonya admitted, "but I think that I can deal with it now, since it's been a couple weeks since I was last in it. Especially if its only for a short time." Sonya paused for a moment before adding, "Though, I'd still prefer to change where you can't see me."
"Yeah, I'd rather not see her change her shape either," Elmo remarked. "It wasn't pleasant seeing her shift in front of those flowers."
"I don't mind," Heather assured Sonya, which Jonas actually believed. "It doesn't really bother me."
Sonya looked at Heather closely. Like she was torn between believing her girlfriend or not. Which Jonas could understand. Seeing Sonya shift into her wolf shape hadn't been that pleasant, but he could think of worse things to see.
"Well, aside from that, we should get back on topic," Jonas said, hoping that this wouldn't be a problem overall.
"You really don't mind?" Sonya asked, clearly ignoring Jonas.
"Only if you don't undress first," Heather clarified. "I'm not sure our clothing supply would last long enough if you didn't."
Sonya chuckled as she cracked a smile in response, shaking her head. It was clear that she was accepting Heather's assertions, thought Jonas wasn't sure if it would last. Although, he did agree that extra sets of clothing would be in short supply if Sonya kept destroying them when she shifted.
"What if you changed your shape into say, a wolf at the start of the day, then changed into a dragon when we needed you to," Heather suggested.
"As interesting as this discussion is," Elwin broke in. "We really should get back to the main topic we were discussing,"
"Sorry," Heather squeaked, clearly having forgotten about that point.
"Sorry," Sonya added, though it was hard to tell if she was really sorry or not. Not that Jonas really cared. What he cared about was getting through the discussion. That way they could at least get moving rather than waiting for others to finish their tangents so they could all be in agreement, rather than having the issue brought up again just because they weren't paying attention when they should have.
"Anyway, what if we combined heading east, but still going as straight as we can to the dungeon?" Bart suggested. "And I mean whenever we reach a place that we'd have difficulty getting over, like a steep mountain, we'd head in as much of an easterly direction as we can."
Elwin shrugged. "Sounds good to me. Though, while I'm thinking about it, why don't we have Sonya turn into a dragon and fly us all out of here. That'd save us all a lot of time. I mean, she did fly Heather into these mountains in the first place."
"Hey, just because I'm willing to be in that shape for short periods of time, doesn't mean I'm willing to be in it all day. Which is what would be required of me to fly all of us out of the mountains. I don't care if we take longer or if Stanley gets ahead of us if that means I don't have to stay for that long in my dragon shape," Sonya retorted.
"Uh, what if we see if Blot knows something about this?" Elin suggested, holding Blot in her arms as she leafed through the pages of the talking book.
Blot didn't seem to mind, though Jonas wasn't going to assume anything, since they still really didn't know that much about the book. Such as his personality outside of being helpful. Such as if he considered looking at his pages a violation of his privacy or something.
"Okay," Kim replied, though her tone indicated she really didn't think that they'd learn much from the talking book in regards to which direction to go. "Blot, do you know which way would be the fastest direction to go in order to get out of these mountains?"
Jonas wasn't able to see Blot very well as Elin looked through his pages, but the book replied anyway, as if he was in his usual position. "Not really, I'd have to look through the maps in section 3 to really know, but I get the feeling none of you are willing to go back now because of that Stanley, right?"
"Right," Kim confirmed. "We'd rather not have to deal with him if we can help it."
"Well, in that case, you might as well just pick a direction and go with it. It's not going to make much of a difference if you don't know. Especially since you don't want him to catch up to you anyway," Blot remarked.
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Jonas sighed. He doubted that remark would go over well. Especially since it really didn't solve the overall issue to begin with.
