<h4>Chapter 164: Going</h4>


    "There it is." Lake had been starting to worry about Having gone the wrong way because the map had a town on it and he had thought he should have already been to it by now. That being said he had no ns on stopping here because he was currently traveling through a battlefield. The town was little more than a ruin from what he could see so there was no point in stopping.


    ...


    Lake had finally reached the capital wall, this was the first big thing on the map but he didn''t think he was going to have any problems getting through because the gate had been destroyed. It was wide open so he just ran straight through and as soon as he did he saw where he was headed.


    The map had his goal as a mountain range and it was sorge he could see it from here. That being said it was really far away so he didn''t know if he was going to be able to reach it today or not. The line on the map said he had about 3/4 of the trip to go still and it had taken him about four hours to get here so that meant he had another 12 hours to go.


    It was fine either way; he had no problems sleeping outside tonight if he started to get tired before he got there.


    ...


    After a while Lake passed the first vige he had seen since leaving the capital wall. It, like all the others had been burned down and it made Lake wonder why they were burning buildings. He was sure there was a reason but it seemed like a waste of time to destroy wooden buildings unless you were doing it for fun.


    It wasn''t like they could really be used as a base by your enemies so there wasn''t a reason in his mind so he thought maybe he was right about them doing it for fun. Lake stopped staring at the vige and started running again and after passing a few more burned viges he finally found something big enough to be called a town.


    It seemed once you were outside the capital wall the frequency of towns and such increased. Lake wondered if it had something to do with it being less safe out here so people didn''t like to travel as far or sleep outside in a makeshift camp so the towns ended up being closer together.


    He guessed it could also be because the quality of the carts dropped so they were slower making these shorter distances take the same amount of time for them. He had ridden quite a few carts at this point and Stan''s cart from corn town was slower than he could walk and the carts the guild had were about half as fast as he could run.


    ...


    Lake had been running for seven or eight hours at this point if you added everything up and he decided to stop and sit for a little while. Oddly his legs weren''t getting tired and after thinking about why he remembered his Endurace was technically in the 200''s now even if it said 15 because of the effects of Grip Strength and Increased Synergy.


    Grip Strength (L) Lv.1


    When unarmed your Strength is added to your Dexterity.


    Increased Synergy (U) Lv.1


    If your Dexterity is higher than your Agility or Endurance they be equal to your Dexterity.


    If your Agility or Endurance is higher than your Dexterity, gain a bonus to your Dexterity equal to the difference.


    And because of the effects of Refreshed he didn''t really need to stop to let his Stamina refill. Even after all of this running his Stamina''s natural recovery rate was keeping him full. He was really only stopping because he was bored, bored to the point that doing nothing felt refreshing.


    It was making him consider trying out his top speed but he was still kind of apprehensive because he was afraid of hurting himself. Burst didn''t double anything but his Strength and Agility so his Endurance would stay the same and while it didn''t seem like a big deal if his Agility was double his Endurance there would be a gap of over 200 points.


    In the past he had felt his legs feel a bit strained when he had gone all out and he was afraid a gap of 200 points would be enough to cripple him and cause him to waste his health potions healing himself of an avoidable injury. That being said he wasn''t dumb enough to go all out right away or anything but he also had the problem of his Perception being too low; even for his current speed.


    That problem would get much worse if he was to go any faster so he didn''t think he could even go slightly faster without running into things and that might cause serious injuries as well. After thinking all of this Lake took his boots off and did his best to shove them into his already full bag.


    Once he was satisfied they wouldn''t fall out he activated Burst. After taking a few steps Lake started to slowly pick up speed until he was going at his normal running speed and then slowly increased it further. After about ten steps Lake stopped and looked back at the cloud of dust he was kicking up.


    Normally his top speed was around 236 agility, whatever speed that was, and he was pretty sure he had only increased it by 20 or 30 points there and the difference was crazy. The sound his feet were making when they hit the ground was like the biggest pping sound ever and like he had suspected going that fast wasn''t a good idea for him just yet because he was unable to process what was happening in front of him quick enough to react.


    Thankfully the road was pretty smooth so it didn''t really matter where he put his feet as he ran but he could see himself tripping over something or missing a turn. Getting his boots back on Lake resigned himself to the next eight hours of running and went ahead and started running again without using Burst.


    ...


    The sun had gone down hours ago but Lake had just kept going. He didn''t want to have to get up tomorrow and get right back to running so he had decided to push through and make it to the mountains today and it was almost over because he was now close enough to see the base of the mountain where he could see lights.


    He was pretty sure they were fires and as he got closer he knew he was right because he could see people camping around a giant gate set in between two mountains. He wasn''t sure if there being other people here was a good thing for him or not but he was sure it would make it easier for him to find a ce to sleep that wasn''t the ground.


    He didn''t have anything like a sleeping bag so a pile of leaves would have been the best he could do. After thinking about it more he wondered if he would be able to summon his bed from his room back at the guild if he was to try.


    He had definitely held it before as he used it so he guessed it would be worth a try if he ever really needed a bed he was just worried all he had technically touched was the sheet and never the mattress but he was pretty sure it would work like how it did when he summoned a box of something. The sheet being the box and the mattress being the contents.


    Getting into the camp after taking a few minutes to make sure it would be safe from a distance, Lake started to look around and noticed the gate was closed for the day and the first thing he wondered was when it would start letting people through again. Hopefully it was an early morning thing and he wouldn''t have to wait half the day because he didn''t sleep for very long which meant he would be just sitting here awake till he could go through.


    After looking around the camp for a while Lake found there were really only three groups and he just chose the biggest one and tried to integrate into it. Sitting at one of the fires he just sat quietly and listened to the old man who was telling everyone else about his wife. Lake could tell by the way the man sounded his wife was dead but he couldn''t tell if it was recent or not.


    He did find out though when the man said her passing was what had caused him to leave the Metal Domain in the first ce and how he had never nned toe back but now that the war had destroyed the house he had bought there was no reason for him to stay here either. Lake decided to move after he could feel his mood take a hit because of this old man''s ramblings and was able to find a better ce to sit next to a different fire.