The enormous translucent dome enclosing the patch of forest in front of them shimmered, a rainbow of color flitting across his vision for a brief second before returning to a see-through white.
This was a Land Zone.
Depending on the environment and a host of other factors, zone barriers—termed Veils, officially—could manifest in a variety of shapes, but the spherical structure was without a doubt the most common. A lot of the time, such structures could be seen from a distance because of their conspicuous appearance.
Due to the forest, the Zone was a bit more out of the way than usual. He had read that in many cases they weren’t that hard to find, and stumbling upon a squirreled away one was considered lucky, or unlucky if the Zone was too dangerous for the observer to approach. After all, there was a risk of it going uncleared for a long period of time, resulting in a break. Zonebeasts would eventually escape the confines of their habitat and run wild in the surrounding area.
But it was possible to keep a balance, going inside the Zone frequently enough that it didn’t overflow but also not so frequently that the entire area would be cleared and the Veil disappeared. That was why Land Zones were treated as lucrative environments for people who wanted to increase their class and economic opportunities. They could keep farming them, over and over.
Naturally, this meant large organizations around the world had claimed plenty of Zones for their own use and that of their members, exchanging the valuable materials found inside for money. The relative value of what a zone could offer had to do with how fortunate the Seekers were when it came to the rewards from the center.
In the vast majority of cases, the center was where you went to complete a Zone run, and it would be difficult to access without solving some essential challenge or defeating powerful foes. Once there, people could find rare materials, artifacts, mana crystals, and so on. And that was discounting all the harvesting that could be done in the altered biome even without getting to the middle.
Did that mean Craswidge was rich because it had a few Zones surrounding it? No, not really. There were routine Zone runs scheduled by their fighting members, and sometimes they did harvest materials, but it was offset by the fact that these were also the least valuable Zones, given that they were low-ranking.
Suffice to say, the higher the ranking, the stronger the Zonebeasts and the better the rewards. So this one didn’t rank very high on the totem pole, surely. Despite that, it was still no place for a child with an age in the single digits.
Brennan looked around at his father, a questioning expression on his face. George, for his part, just smiled with his arms crossed, leaning against a tree. Wasn’t it dangerous to be here? He thought they were just going to farm some wood and let him look around at the trees, not go to a place that was visibly magical and also deadly to enter.
In terms of size, this Zone had a radius of about twenty or thirty steps. Quite small, to the untrained eye, but Brennan knew better from theory if not experience. Spatial distortion was a regular thing in Zones, making it so what looked on the outside to be a short distance from end to end could in fact be miles of walking on the inside. Compared to temporal distortion, expanded space was a run-of-the-mill feature.
Hesitating, Brennan put one foot in front of the other, continuing to glance back at George as if he would be called back any moment. That didn’t happen, making him wonder what was going on here. Wasn’t it dangerous to approach a Zone on his own like this?
At the halfway point, he decided to just come right out and ask. “Can I really go there?”
“Sure can,” his dad responded, chuckling to himself as if he’d just been reminded of an inside joke Brennan didn’t understand.
Fine, be that way. I’ll just go see for myself.
With that thought, Brennan marched towards the barrier with renewed determination. He had to see what the deal was, since there was obviously something he didn’t know about th—
Disrupted harmony… growing further out of balance with each passing moment. A desperate effort to contain the turmoil housed within the Veil. Twin forces of nature, fundamental opposites clashing for existence. Ancient brethren locked in an infinite dance. Duality akin to, but beyond light and darkness, beyond yin and yang, something deeper forming the base of the universe.
Brennan didn’t even register what he was feeling until he realized this was his Sense Magic skill providing him information. But the density and depth of it was confusing for what he had thought was just a barrier of mana denoting the presence of a magical phenomenon. This chapter is updated first at novelping(.)com.
The Veil was not made of mana, it merely contained some mana, but that wasn’t what gave it form. Until now, he had never experienced anything from the skill that wasn’t just another form of mana, so the difference here was immediately obvious. He was looking at a mysterious alternative force he couldn’t hope to comprehend in its entirety. The only thing he knew was that it was a core part of what anchored Zones in reality.
Skill leveled up!
[Sense Magic (Uncommon) Lv. 39] -> Lv. 42
Three levels, eh? That wasn’t as crazy as the first time he had eaten the meat of a zonebeast, but showed him he was definitely on the right track. He’d never gotten multiple levels at once just from standing and observing something. Whether that was solely caused by the weird shiny barrier, he didn’t know. Perhaps danger was another factor.
“Spooked?”
He yelped and fell on his ass. Turning his head, he saw his father standing behind him instead of at a distance like he’d been a few seconds ago. What the hell? Brennan hadn’t heard anyone approach; he couldn’t have been that lost in thought.
“We can turn back, if you want,” George offered, lifting him to his feet with a hand.
“I want to touch it,” he refused, wiping his hands on his pants.
He just received a nod, then continued his slow approach. Okay, he had been surprised by the sudden flood of information he had received when the Zone came into the radius of Sense Magic, but he was fine. Not like he had anything to worry about when he knew the magic construct wasn’t in danger of collapsing anytime soon.
Taking the last step, he saw himself in the barrier. Somewhere between a reflection and a shadow, if he had to describe it. His own appearance was muddled, even though they still proved that he took more after Doris who shared his pale skin and black hair. Unlike Junia, who more closely resembled the paternal side of the family. The one feature Brennan could normally point to in order to say he was his father’s son were his large brown eyes, but they were too milky to make out on this surface.
Stop distracting yourself.
Blowing out a last sigh, Brennan laid his palm on the dome. Nothing happened, save for the slight thrum of mana he felt on touch. The otherwise cool sensation he got from the barrier belied what he knew it hid. It made him wonder what someone without a supernatural sensory skill would feel if they tried to observe it with mundane senses. Again, probably nothing. That begged the question of how people assessed the danger of a given Zone. Something he would have to find out or ask later.
He was a bit lost as to what he should do from here. From the way it had been described to him, people were supposed to just enter the Zones. The books he had read about it didn’t go into great detail about this part of the process. Therefore it must have been intuitive, no? He couldn’t think of another reason why such a crucial component of Zone delving, namely gaining access in the first place, would be omitted.
“Aren’t you gonna walk in?” Dad asked, and Brennan balled his fist. He was trying exactly that, and it wasn’t working.
For the second attempt he walked forward with his whole body, only to bounce right off as if he’d just walked into reinforced glass. Frowning, his other palm touched the surface, exerting as much pressure as his toddler body could muster. It wasn’t much, admittedly, which of course meant he had to put his legs and back into it. Pushing forward as if he were trying to move a car.
Same result, the Veil didn’t show a hint of strain. No surprise there. This thing was built to contain monsters from the outside world, and he was just one child with shitty attributes who thought he could break through. After a few more futile attempts, he gave up. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
“How?” he asked, though he already had an idea of why he couldn’t enter.
“It’s a Rank-1 Zone,” George said in a light voice. “Little kids without a Class wouldn’t be able to enter it.”
Ah.
So that’s how it is.
Brennan scowled. This whole time, his father had just been humoring him, knowing he had less hope of succeeding than a snowball in a volcano. Why would his parents be worried knowing he was never going to get into a Zone at this age?
Looking at it from a broader perspective, this was undoubtedly a planned event. Maybe even a tradition. He could easily see other young, arrogant children thinking they were ready to face these dangers, only for their parents to take them here and serve them a slice of humble pie.
But he wouldn’t be deterred. Sense Magic had told him a great deal. He knew there were ways to affect the barrier, and if he could just figure out where it was weakest, he might be just a little bit closer to getting inside.
Honestly, he wasn’t even that eager to get into the Zone anymore. He just wanted to prove his dad wrong on principle. Thinking about it for a long moment, he decided on momentum being his next solution. If he couldn’t do it standing still, he would try sprinting.
George watched on with undisguised amusement as he walked backwards to get a running start. With his knees bent, Brennan took off. He pumped his undeveloped legs for all they were worth, reaching out both hands at the last second to slam into the unyielding shell.
The impact shocked his arms, sending a spike of pain up his nerves that made him wince. He wasn’t deterred. His arms pushed as hard as they could, and when that wasn’t enough he sensed a weak spot and pressed his head against it.
Attributes increased.
STR + 1
He used his new level of power to push even harder, gritting his teeth from the effort. During the fourth breath, his forehead pressed just the tiniest fraction of an inch into the Veil, motivating him even harder to break through.
Then it rebuffed him. He was sent flying back a few feet, tumbling in the field of green. Dirt found its way into his mouth somehow, the sounds of his father’s booming laughter adding to the humiliation.
By the time he looked up, George was already strolling to a nearby tree, readying his axe for a swing. Brennan spit out the clump of soil, helping himself up to get ready for the third try. There was no stopping now, he was simply in too deep.
Subsequent sprints had depressing but predictable results. He kept getting repelled every time he managed to make miniscule amounts of progress, right up to the minute he grew too exhausted to manage even that. Still, he continued. It was his first truly strenuous physical exercise in this world.
“If you keep that up, you might get a running skill today,” his father encouraged.
He didn’t.