Next destination

Each one of mages had their own tent, which, while not too big, was enough to spend the night comfortably. However, non-mages had several communal tents divided between women and men. Even so, Atlas let Faun sleep in the same tent as him since the young girl was still unaccustomed and somewhat nervous.

There was enough room for both of them, so it wasn't a problem, but sooner or later Faun would have to adapt to the conditions and get closer to the other non-mages when Atlas was busy.

A couple of days passed, and finally all the tents and supplies were finished being collected. The clan had several magical storages to store things, otherwise the convoy would be spread too much with so many supplies to carry.

And when everything was ready to leave, a meeting was called for all the mages.

Atlas approached the place seeing that most of them were already there, everyone was wearing their uniform and some had extra accessories. Atlas himself wore the [Maiden's Cloak] over his uniform since he felt more comfortable that way.

Atlas moved to one end of the meeting place, which was actually just in a circle around a large rectangular table.

A few minutes later, Basgran approached with a long scroll in his hands while the elf followed him as always. The mages immediately fell silent and greeted the dwarf, who only smiled back at them in response.

Then, the dwarf stopped at the table and placed the scroll on one end before spreading it completely.

Atlas was somewhat far away, so he couldn't see the contents of the scroll, but from the whispers around him, he knew that it was a map.

'A map?'

Atlas had seen few maps since he came to this world, mainly because they were rare, scarce, and very expensive. The few he had seen only mapped the territories within the kingdom of Elherud.

But seeing the size of the scroll on the table, Atlas knew that the map was much larger than any other he had seen. Furthermore, it made sense knowing that the clan was nomadic, so it was easy for them to map the places they passed through.

"Okay, now let's decide where we're going to go, any suggestions?" Basgran said once the map was spread out.

Atlas was slightly surprised seeing the way the clan decided they're next destination. Soon, several hands were raised and some mages began to express their ideas.

Atlas didn't have a destination in mind, so he simply stayed silent waiting for the others to decide.

After about ten minutes, when several places had already been proposed, Basgran massaged his beard while he thought.

"Hmmm, there are pretty good proposals. However, I have a different idea"

Basgran walked towards the map and pointed to a specific place.

"Lately there are rumors that several fissures of the abyss have opened in this place and now monsters graze freely throughout these lands"

"Is that place…?" one of the mages asked casually.

"Yes, it is the Skalhan Empire" Basgran responded and immediately continued. "It has been ten years since we know what is happening inside, but the signs of the abyss are difficult to ignore"

'The Skalhan Empire?'

Atlas had learned some geography in his spare time, so he knew most of the continent's kingdoms and some of the other continents. He mainly knew the kingdoms and empires that had borders with the kingdom of Elherud.

To the north was the kingdom of Yhanfora separated by the range of mountains that Atlas had visited years ago when he went to the dead forest. Beyond the Yhanfora kingdom, was the Elven kingdom from which Aryn had come.

To the east of the kingdom was where the Skalhan Empire was located, which had the largest territory on the Western continent. Meanwhile, to the south of the kingdom, were the frozen mountains. It was the place where barbarians lived like the one Atlas knew years ago at Dewborough, and beyond the mountains there was also territory, but as it was difficult to cross the mountains, little was known.

There was also the Eastern continent, but since it was so far away, Atlas never paid much attention to it.

Finally, there was the abyss continent that was to the north of both continents and was the smallest, but as its name indicated, the abyss had already completely devastated the continent hundreds of years ago, even before the age of heroes, so it could even be thousands of years old.

"So, you propose to investigate what is happening in the Empire?" asked another mage.

Basgran nodded.

"Exactly, then from there we would approach the middle ocean, which we could cross to go to the Eastern Continent"

The mages began to talk among themselves, then, after about five minutes of arguing, Basgran got everyone's attention.

"Well, now that you have discussed, let's vote" Basgran cleared his voice and said: "Votes for going to the Skalhan Empire"

Most of the mages raised their hands and Atlas followed shortly after. Basgran counted the raised hands and nodded, making everyone lower their hands.

"Well, with 22 votes in favor, 5 against and the rest neutral, our next destination will be the Skalhan Empire"

Once the clan's next destination was determined, the mages began to leave little by little, but Atlas stayed for a while waiting for the majority to leave. Then, when there were only a few mages left who were talking to Basgran, Atlas approached the table to look at the map.

He knew the kingdoms that were on the Western continent and some of the Eastern continent, but he did not know the shape of the continents. Therefore, with curiosity Atlas stood in front of the map, then he remained in complete silence while a cold sweat began to spread around his body.

Basgran finished talking to the mages, then turned and looked at Atlas, noticing that his face was pale.

"Something happens?"

Atlas swallowed and looked up, meeting the dwarf's eyes.

"N-no, it's just that I've never seen a map of the world"

Basgran smiled and nodded.

"It's impressive, isn't it? It took us many years to map the entire world, although there are even areas that we do not know about"

Atlas nodded, but his mind was elsewhere.

'…Why?'

He again directed his gaze to the map, then he couldn't stop his fingers from trembling when he saw the distribution of the continents on the map.

'Why is this world the same as mine?'