Once they had escaped the city, with leaving turning out to be even easier than entering, the duo ran as far as they could, wanting to leave the Great Farm as soon as possible. The only problem was that the realm was far larger than any Jonathan had seen before. If the Ash Heaps was comparable to Earth, and Mire many times larger than that, then the entirety of the Great Farm was almost as large as a small star, or at least its surface area. Hundreds of thousands, if not over a million miles wide, it was filled with tens of billions of slaves, bred over the course of eons to better serve their monstrous lord. There were few monsters, at least not those of the sapient variety, but those creatures were strong enough to be legends in their own right.
Currently, Eliza and Jonathan were about twenty thousand miles away from the domain of the Harvest King, an undead scarecrow made entirely of bones. It was near the peak of Tier 6, and while not much compared to a circle lord, it was definitely too strong for Jonathan. Even from where they were, they could see the edges of the monster’s domain. A cloud bank of swarming insects stretching across the land, marked on the map as the Swarmlands. The Harvest King despised the living, save for vermin, and gathered legions of the foulest creatures in the realm to surround him.
Jonathan would normally have tried to avoid something as dangerous as the Harvest King, but the path out of the Great Farm was blocked by the Swarmlands. Traversing its edge would add too much time to their trip. At this point, even an hour that Jonathan didn’t spend leveling as one that his foes could. For a being as talented as a circle lord, ascending the Tiers was not really a challenge, but a certainty.
As he and Eliza traversed the wilder parts of the Great Farm, they talked. Of the past, present and future. At this point, both had exhausted stories about their lives on Earth, at least without delving into minutiae. Both their lives had been quite simple, without anything of any real consequence. Their true journeys had only started after death. It was there that Eliza’s story grew more interesting, with her short time in the world of Telvaria. Before meeting Malaraxia, and being sent to the Hells herself, Eliza had made a passable existence for herself. As an Outsider, she was more disposed towards growth than most, and in a world like Telvaria, where most people were Tier 1, even the Tier 2 status that she had gained over her months there had been enough for a good life. Needless to say, that had all come crashing down at the whims of Malaraxia.
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Whiling away the time with this and training, both saw some increases to their Pathway skills. While it was hard to raise skills at the Expert Rank without real combat, Jonathan still managed to gain a singular level in Blunt Weapon Mastery by sparring with Eliza. It was annoying, having to hold back his stats, but it was worth the results. He was only three stages away from reaching Master Rank, something that most people didn’t reach for decades. Then again, most people didn’t regularly battle circle lords and the very best the Hells had to offer.
In any case, Jonathan was now extremely competent with using his fists in battle. With his higher stats, he could forgo the other aspects of his Pathway Skill during training, things like the clubs and maces that had helped to create in the first place. At his level of power, there wasn’t much difference between a punch from him and a swing of a mace. In fact, the smaller size of his hand made it better at piercing through defences.
Sufficiently prepared in the realm of physical combat, Jonathan and Eliza finally entered the outer layers of the Swarmlands. A choking mist of billions of insects surrounded the literal walls of the creatures that made up the interior. Buzzing and humming in a maddening symphony, they swarmed the travelers. Luckily for Jonathan, his armor, and his Resilience, were more than enough to deal with the bites. Eliza wasn’t as well off, as despite the diminutive size of the monsters, they still were Tier 5 existences.
Eventually, she settled for surrounding her entire body with a cloak of flaming Divinity. Jonathan had taught her some of the lessons that he had learned with Alcadram and Sarknakthros, and although Eliza couldn’t make the most of them while remaining at the earliest stage of Divinity, her technique had dramatically improved.
