Zane woke up the next morning and did not immediately get out of his small tent. He laid there thinking about the coming day. He had been running at about half speed and there was a good chance that he would make it to the town today. However, it would be more in the evening and possibly after sunset. He didn't think it would be a good idea to approach the town that late in the day. If he pushed himself just a little harder, he could make it with a few more hours to spare. Considering he had no idea who these people were and how they would react to him, that would probably be the best idea.
Now that that was settled in his head, Zane jumped out of his bed and quickly began to start a fire. He looked over at Gwen who was still facing the forest. "Any trouble last night?"
"Nothing of consequence."
"So, something tried to come near and you drove it away?"
"Yes, some small things came near, but I needed a snack anyway."
Zane shuddered a little then stood up, the fire now burning. He grabbed some larger pieces of wood and put it in the pit and then grabbed his breakfast for the morning. "We're going to be moving faster today than we were yesterday. I want to be to the human settlement as soon as possible."
"That sounds like an excellent idea. I will stand guard until you are ready to go."
He ate quickly and then packed up all his sleeping stuff. He got everything set with his pack and water bottle and then buried the fire pit. When silently shifted into her smaller form and then jumped up and settled in on the top of his pack. He wasn't surprised by her lack of conversation. She seemed to not want to speak as much as possible.
He brought up the map, zooming in on the line that represented the river that ran through the mountains. As he followed it, he noticed that just before the river reached the town there was a small lake. "I noticed there's a lake here, is there anything there I need to worry about?"
"Meow."
"A waterfall? How big is the drop?"
"Meow."
"Big is not an accurate measurement. I suppose, being a large feline, you have no sense of how big something is. All you know is when something is big and whether you should avoid it or not."
"Meowww."
"I am not calling you on it stupid. I am merely saying that you are uneducated." Zane smiled as he ran out into the middle of the river and began his journey.
He sprinted down the center of the waterway, setting his speed between the speed he was going the day before and the speed he ran from the dungeon to the river. He could definitely tell the difference as the landscape zipped by him. The creatures and monsters that he saw along the edges didn't even have a chance to react as he zoomed by.
As he continued down the river, the banks of the river gave way to sheer cliff faces. He unconsciously slowed down as he stared up at the Rock that had been carved and eroded over thousands of years by the water of the river. He could see small ledges where bird nests were made and the occasional odd tree that stuck out of the rock face. He shook his head as he realized he had slowed down and began to run faster, but this soon led to another problem. Where was he going to stop to refill his water bottle?
While he had been moving faster, he had to make more stops. Faster running meant more steps in a shorter amount of time. Each of those steps used mana to create the mana platform using his parkour skill. Faster steps meant more drinks of water, which meant he had to stop more to refill the bottle. Shortly after he entered the large canyon, he noticed that his water was running low. He looked around for a larger area off the river where he could stop and was not finding anything. As he took the last sip of water out of his bottle, he started to look around desperately for a place where he could refill. There was nothing except a twisted tree that was sticking out of the rock. Hoping that it was strong enough to hold his weight, he ran up the cliff face and carefully settled onto the tree. Luckily, there was a joint where two large branches split from each other, which gave him an area to stand on without having to balance precariously.
As he pulled his water bag from his inventory, he could feel the strain that the tree was having because of his weight. Trying to move quickly while balancing on a small surface and not drop what was in his hand was stressful. He soon had the bottle refilled and resecured to his pack. He laughed at the absurdity of the situation and jumped off the tree, continuing his run down the river. Luckily, he only had to refill his water bottle a couple more times before the banks of the river widened back out to give him a place to refill when necessary.
He decided that he wanted to get to the town sooner and did not stop to eat a meal. Several hours after what would have been lunch time, he noticed that the river ahead of him dropped off. He wasn't completely out of water but decided to stop and refill so that he could see what he was getting into with this waterfall.
As he slowed down to get on to the bank of the river, the noise that filled his ears changed. It was no longer the passing of air as he ran. The whoosh sound was replaced by more of a large impact that was continuous. As he pulled out his water bag and refilled his water bottle, he came to realize that he was hearing the crashing of the water into the lake below. The sound was intense. After he had everything put away and secured, he decided to go look at what was making this overbearing noise