While Allen was trying out the Bird S summon, he noticed his Mana was not regenerating.
(Do Blessings and accessories do nothing either then?)
Allen looked at his body to make sure he had the Mana Recovery Ring and Makris' Sacred Bead equipped. In total he should be recovering 5% of Mana, but there was none.
Merus seemed to notice something then.
'...I see, that must be because there's almost no Maso in the divine realm.'
"Maso? Ahh, the thing that turns into Mana."
Activating magic or Skills used Mana, and in the Academy they taught that Mana came from Maso in the world around. Maso was necessary to replenish Mana, so many countries were researching how to produce it artificially. Some theories also suggested that monsters were animals that absorbed too much Maso, but that had not been proven yet.
Allen never cared much about the lore of games so he just ignored it when he heard that, but now it came to mind again. Without Maso the rings and bracelets could not replenish Allen's Mana, and that proved a long-running theory.
(So the Gods really didn't grant wisdom and knowledge to people. That's worrisome.)
Going there proved that knowledge had not been given by the Gods to humans.
But there were others who were noticing that now.
"Hmm? What? Is something wrong Tam-Tam?"
Merle noticed Tam-Tam was acting strange. Everyone turned to look at her.
'Merle, you don't have enough Mana. Please use it more sparingly.'
"Huh? What? Why? I'm wearing the bracelet."
Merle looked confused at her low Mana. Tam-Tam needed Merle's Mana to be active and gain Experience to evolve. To speed that up, Merle had Tam-Tam active as much as possible, but now Merle's Mana had been reduced to 0, and Tam-Tam was using its own Mana reserve.
Tam-Tam had a large quantity of Mana, so for now it was still somewhat active.
(Good thing these restore Mana.)
Allen used a Heaven's Blessing and then saw everyone's Mana had been restored.
Merle looked relieved to have Mana again, and Luck and Sophie were also relieved.
Luck and Sophie needed Mana to manifest and control spirits.
Allen's party had come to the divine realm to get stronger, but Mana was largely their lifeline.
"Hmm, this isn't good. Merus, you'll have to return to the S Rank Dungeon to make recovery items."
They would need those to have enough Mana moving forward. Only Merus and Allen could create them.
'Wha-?! That's ridiculous! Then who's going to guide you through!!'
Merus sounded completely shocked.
"I mean, there's no other choice. Maybe we should both go there and do it together though."
(I can always control summons remotely to clear the divine realm.)
In the human realm, Allen could regenerate 5% of his Mana with all his accessories.
"What are you saying?! We can't go on an adventure without you!!"
Cecile refused to be there without the party leader.
"But we've acted in separate groups before, like in Patlanta with the ville."
There had been times when Allen had been ausent before.
"No, I agree with her, being here without Master Allen is a bit…"
Sophie also did not like the idea, and the other party members agreed.
"I see. You'll have to go alone then Merus. I'll be here."
Allen decided to give in. He still had to capture Sacred Beasts himself after all.
'A-alright…'
Merus said that, glanced at the distant clouds for a moment, then vanished.
Allen felt like he could have stayed just a bit longer if he wanted.
"Alright, I'm done experimenting, so let's move on ahead."
Allen stood up and looked at the long path of clouds.
The three parties packed all the food and drinks in magic bags and followed.
(Magic devices still work. I guess those run off the Magic Stones inside them.)
Allen wondered about things like that, and in a few minutes they were all ready.
"Are we just going to walk along this?"
Rosetta, the Thief King of Helmios' party, said while looking far in the distance.
"No, we'll travel inside Merle's Tam-Tam. This path goes on for tens of kilometers."
Allen had already seen what lay ahead through Kuwatoros' Special Skill [Thousand-mile Eyes].
(That Skill is really useful though, and it doesn't even have a cooldown.)
It was far better than the Bird E's Awakened Skill [Clairvoyance].
"Hah, Mode Turtle!"
Merle struck her solid turtle pose, and Tam-Tam transformed.
"Let's all climb on Tam-Tam's back to travel."
40 people climbed on Tam-Tam, some of them drunk, but an Aromatic Vegetable sobered them.
"The clouds are so soft but somehow Tam-Tam is running properly, huh."
Cecile was afraid at first, but she quickly got used to it. Nothing could be seen below the clouds, so it was hard to say what would happen if they fell.
"Alright, turn into a chick and go see what's happening in the divine realm."
'Understood, Allen.'
Allen told Kuwatoro to use the Special Skill [Turn into a chick].
Kuwatoro's body began to glow and she shrank to the size of a dove.
Flapping around, Kuwatoro flew ahead of them.
Allen hardly ever kept his bird summons nearby, as they were mainly used for scouting, so he did not want them to be associated with him.
(I guess that's about it for Kuwatoro's abilities.)
[Abilities of Kuwatoro]
-Thousand-mile Eyes grants vision in a radius of 1000 kilometers
-Thousand-mile Eyes has no cooldown
-Appraiser Eyes lets one see the stats and elements of someone else
-Appraiser Eyes has no cooldown
-Turn into a chick shrinks Kuwatoro to a body 30 centimeters long, and stops glowing
-Turn into a chick puts Kuwatoro in an encumbered state, but can still fly
-Turn into a chick halves Kuwatoro's stats
-Turn into a chick has no cooldown
(Kuwatoro will stand out too much with all Skills active while measuring 30 meters long. I guess half her stats are the cost of making her stand out less. This is really well thought out.)
An hour later a large gate appeared on the cloud path. It was even larger than Tam-Tam, who measured 100 meters in length and was tens of meters tall.
There were two dragonkin in front of it, and they would need to get through it to proceed.
"Wha-?! Where did you come from!!"
'Get off the golem immediately!!'
"What, there's gatekeepers here too?"
Allen did as told and climbed off Tam-Tam. The rest followed suit, and Allen had to use another Aromatic Vegetable to wake up the dwarves who had been drinking again.
The gatekeepers looked really nervous.
Meanwhile Formar stood in front of Sophie to protect her. He had been tasked to be her bodyguard, and he did not forget that duty even as they both became part of Allen's party.
"D-did you come through the Gate of Judgement?"
(There's nothing else back there anyway.)
He felt like being asked that was strange.
Using [Thousand-mile Eyes] he had seen all around them, and there was nothing behind .
The Gate of Judgement was similar to the world's edge of the human realm.
"Yes, we came from there."
"Ohh, I see a dragon there, but no dragonkin…"
The two dragonkin gatekeepers said with a bit of disappointment as they looked at the three parties that climbed off the golem. Haku was there, but there was not a single dragonkin.
Ignomas had gotten annoyed with gatekeepers in the Dragon God's Village, and now he approached them too.
"Hm? A merman…"
Ignomas had scales on his face, but he was not a dragonkin.
Both dragonkin and mermen often had scales on their face.
"So what if I'm a merman!!"
Ignomas was enraged by the mocking voice of the gatekeepers.
(His commoner complex is coming out again.)
Ignomas disliked being treated as inferior. He had been born a commoner in Patlanta, so that stuck on his personality.
Allen decided to step in before things got ugly.
"No, we aren't stopping you. Welcome to the city of Boaso, of the Heavenly Country of Shandar."
The gatekeeper was shocked there was no dragonkin in the group, but they were not going to attack them. They bowed respectfully before taking out a glowing key and opened the large gate.
The gate opened with] a low rumbling sound, and a vast world above the sky became visible behind it.
"That's a big city."
"Yeah, and it seems there's a lot more like it all over the continent of clouds."
(I couldn't see all of the continent with [Thousand-mile Eyes] after all.)
Allen's group had arrived at a large city in the divine realm.
