Book 5 Chapter 22.1 - Rest
The Land of Rest full of mysteries was just an ordinary small coastline town. There was a small natural harbor here, the rising and falling sea waves continuously beating against the time-worn pier, rocking the few old-fashioned sailboats leaning against the pier. These sailboats should all have a few decades to even a century of history, yet they were still maintained rather well, and from the looks of it used often.
Due to the exceptionally rich warm ocean currents, this harbor never froze year-round, so it was quite normal for there to be sailboats. However, the great oceans of this era were seas of death not only in name but in reality as well, the existence of mutated underwater colossuses already no longer a secret. Even if they never encountered these ocean overlords, the storms, frigid cold, and radiation would still ask for the lives of all those who tried to steer a boat. Just like the skies, the sea no longer belonged to the human race. Who then was it that took these old-fashioned sailboats without even any propulsion devices out to sea?
The great sea under the darkness of night was quiet and sinister. This was a bottomless world. No matter who was it that gazed into it, they would all unconsciously feel as if they were being devoured by the cold and darkness.
Su was currently standing under the shadow of a small house by the coast, his eyes fixed on the pier and sailboats they had access to. He completely fused together with his environment, not even the slightest difference able to be sensed. A young man hung his head, hurriedly walking over while facing the cold winds, accidentally running into Su's body. He rubbed his shoulder, gave what he bumped into a look, mumbled a few curses, and then continued forward, not realizing that what he bumped into was a person at all.
Only when the young man walked far away did Su retract his gaze from the pier and sailboats. He gave the young man's departing figure a look, and then gave the sailboats another look. Only then did he leave the shadows and walk calmly towards the coast. Even while walking, he constantly released an ice-cold inhuman aura, as if he was a walking stone statue. Indistinct bone plate armor protected his vital areas. The surface of his body was covered in a layer of faintly discernible flowing radiance, allowing him to hide in the surrounding environment, yet not completely merge with it.
The small town was extremely peaceful, the several hundred buildings of varying sizes surrounding the natural harbor. It wasn't time for sleep yet. In the low-hanging curtain of night, a warm and gentle radiance shone from the windows of every building. The small town's air was filled with the surplus fragrance of food, most families just having finished their meals, currently the warm and comfortable time where their families gathered.
Su discovered somewhat unexpectedly that this small town, whose veil the Black Dragonriders hadn't been able to remove all this time, was mostly made up of abilityless normal people! In a moment of absent-mindedness, Su almost had the illusion that he was currently in an olden era federation's small coastal town, a peaceful, slow-moving, and warm place. Only, the faint radiance that wandered about him constantly reminded him that he was currently in the enemy's home field. Moreover, this was a home field domain that covered this entire small town, an area reaching several hundred square kilometers, enormous to an unprecedented level!
When the home field's domain made contact with Su's body, it would twist and be directed in a different direction. Part of it was warped and crushed, turned into pure energy Su could absorb, becoming part of his power. Compared to this enormous domain, the amount of power Su could absorb was negligible, so regardless of who it was that managed this home field, they would all assume that this power had naturally scattered, and they wouldn't discover Su's existence. Su didn't do this for the sake of seizing energy, but rather to get a glimpse of the enemy domain's composition and structure, searching for the support nodes. At the critical moment, he would release a large-scale attack to attack these nodes, thus destroying the enemy's home field.
However, after infiltrating the Land of Rest for a period of time, as his understanding towards the domain's composition and structure deepened, Su instead felt more and more puzzled.
From his current understanding, these domains usually carried three distinctive features, the first was that it restricted the enemy's abilities, the second that it could amplify one's own strength. The first two characteristics didn't always need a large scale field to display, as terrain and special environments could similarly display the effects of a home field. Of course, a large-scale force field's effects would be much stronger than that of relying purely on the surroundings. The final point was that the home field was normally constructed from meticulously constructed and selected nodes, normally only mobilized when needed. The energy consumption needed to maintain a large-scale domain was tremendous, something difficult for even a high rank holy level ability user to support for a long time. Su's Panoramic View could also be regarded as a special type of domain.
However, the Land of Rest's large-scale force field didn't have the aforementioned third characteristic, all of his analysis pointing towards this conclusion. This meant that this home field's greatest use was similar to the four large-scale force field devices, filtering out excessively powerful radiation and providing ordinary people with an amicable environment for survival. However, the Land of Rest's domain had far greater power than the force field devices, and it covered much more area as well. The domain was simultaneously used to prevented heat in the surroundings from dissipating, as well as a large-scale, low intensity anti-physical impact function. The latter, to put it bluntly, could stop great winds, or even a tsunami's attack. The oceans of this era were much more violent than those of the olden era.
This was a conclusion difficult for Su to accept. This enormous domain, could it truly purely be used to offer a better environment for those living here?! There was no conclusion more absurd than this. Even if ability users and ordinary people had equal status in the Holy Crusaders, there was no need for there to be such an enormous amount of consumption all for the sake of giving a thousand or so ordinary people this type of living environment. Even Su who had always been willing to help those who were weaker survive found this extremely inconceivable. However, no matter how he analyzed it, Su couldn't come to any other conclusions.