Published: July 5, 2025
The group arrived at the edge of the cliff in the central western area four days after their reunion.
"This is... unexpected."
"..."
Even Graham was surprised, and Stefania was completely speechless.
"Experiencing looking down from a height of four thousand meters is not something one normally does."
"Abel, you really shouldn't jump off if you feel like it."
"I'm not going to! What do you mean, I feel like jumping off?"
"To be honest, whenever I look down from a high place, I feel like I want to jump."
"Hey..."
Abel instinctively looked at Ryo’s face after his words.
"But you said you wanted to fly, didn't you?"
"I did, but that doesn't mean I want to fall!"
"Don't worry; up until the moment you hit the ground, you'll definitely be 'flying.'"
"That’s not reassuring at all! I would die if I hit the ground!"
"Well, that's true. Knowing that, I won't actually jump even if I feel like it."
"Yeah, that's not something to boast about."
Ryo puffed out his chest with a proud expression, and Abel looked at him in disbelief.
"Lord Ryo, it's not that I doubt you, but can we really make it down safely from this height?"
"Yes, Graham, it'll be fine."
Ryo nodded confidently.
Then, he moved to a slightly wider area and began to chant.
"Ice Create: Flat-Bottomed Boat."
A boat reminiscent of those once used on Japanese rivers was created, with a flat bottom.
However, it was large.
With no roof, it had a good view.
Inside, there were no chairs, but there were poles to support the body.
"That's huge..."
"Looks like everyone can fit on it."
Abel and Graham nodded in agreement.
However, there was still a problem.
"So we're going to go down in this, but how do we do it? Are we going to float it like the podium I was on?"
"I thought about that, but there are over a hundred people, right? If those on board move, it could shift the center of gravity, and even I think it would be difficult to adjust... so this time I decided to go down a slope."
"A slope?"
"Downhill! We're aiming for the fastest descent!"
"Okay, but that sounds a bit ominous, so take it slow."
Abel gently restrained Ryo's declaration.
Risk management, as expected of a king.
"If we have a ten percent slope, we would land 40 kilometers away... so we need to create an ice slope of about 42 hundred meters."
"That's long; can you do it?"
"Impossible."
"Hey."
Ryo completely denied it, and Abel couldn’t help but retort.
"Even I can't generate an ice road longer than forty kilometers. But if I create it bit by bit, it should be fine."
"Bit by bit?"
"If we generate the area we're in and a little ahead of us..."
As Ryo thought, he began generating the ice slope they would descend on with the flat boat.
"We'll descend on an ice slope like this."
"Hey, doesn’t this boat... or Ryo's ice slope, look strange?"
"What do you mean?"
"Isn't it... floating in the air?"
From a distance, it would indeed look as if it was suspended in midair.
"Wonderful, Abel. You're absolutely right."
"How is that possible?"
"Because it's magic."
"...Huh?"
Abel tilted his head in confusion.
"That's something I've long found mysterious. For example, my Icicle Lance flies through the air."
"That’s true."
"Things created by magic sometimes behave as if they ignore gravity... yet at other times, an Icicle Lance floating in the air gets pulled down by gravity, or an Ice Wall floating in the air falls."
"Oh, I've seen that before."
Abel recalled the scene of an Ice Wall generated high in the air crashing down and crushing a wild golem.
"The relationship between things created by magic and gravity is intriguing. If I consciously generate something while aware of gravity, it will fall to the ground; if I want it to not fall, it won't."
"Huh?"
"Gravity is a force that acts on everything with mass. It's very strange."
"I'm sorry, I don’t quite get it."
Abel couldn't keep up with Ryo’s spontaneous musings.
"Well, anyway, we don't need to generate everything from the start; we can generate as we go down."
"I see."
"Since going all the way to forty kilometers would be a bit much, let's do it in 99 switchbacks."