Chapter 22 – Glimpse of the Divine
Chapter 22 – Glimpse of the Divine
The sky around Tyler shimmered like a dream. Wisps of clouds formed walkable paths, soft and pale beneath the glow of the sun. He stood in silence, awestruck, his breath nearly stolen by the sight stretching before him.
“Is this… heaven?” he murmured to himself, glancing at the pale white surface beneath his boots.
He wasn’t entirely convinced he should take a step. The beanstalk had stopped growing, and now he found himself standing atop the clouds themselves, impossibly high above the surface. Far below, their mansion looked like a mere pebble. The great lake was now just a puddle. Even the camps and tents of Yandi appeared as faint specks.
He reached out with his sword and poked the cloud beneath him. The tip of the blade didn’t pass through completely — the cloud had substance, just not quite like normal ground. With cautious precision, Tyler tested it further. He slowly pressed one boot down, feeling resistance, then another. The cloud surface gave slightly, but held.
“Okay… one step, two…”
He took a few paces forward, each more confident than the last. It was like walking on a trampoline made of mist.
For a while, Tyler simply stood and admired the world from above. The view stretched on endlessly, a kingdom of clouds. He wondered if he could spot one of the sanctuaries from this vantage point. The vastness below, from the Great Dunes of Ardun to the Ebon Hollows, seemed almost traversable from here. If only he had some kind of map overlay or marker.
“Maybe I could use the magic bean trick to scout from the sky in the future,” he mused. “But getting back down is going to suck.”
With that sobering thought, he turned back to the beanstalk, gripping it tightly. He was just beginning the long and slow descent when something flickered at the edge of his vision.
A shape.
No — a structure.
He squinted and turned, his breath catching. For a moment, there it was — a massive temple, built of ivory and gold, suspended amidst the clouds. The pillars stretched skyward, and banners flapped with no wind.
Then, in the blink of an eye, it vanished.
“What… was that?” he whispered.
He stared long and hard, circling the area slowly, searching again. But the temple — if it had truly existed — was gone. Tyler frowned.
“Mental exhaustion… must be. I need to rest.”
It took several hours of careful descent, but he finally reached the base of the beanstalk, muscles aching from the sheer effort.
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Milo was lounging nearby, chewing on a slice of pumpkin pie.
“You took your sweet time,” he said with a grin, offering Tyler a slice.
Tyler waved it off, groaning. “Bed. Now.”
The next couple of days passed in a haze of rest and light training. Tyler and Milo each took to different parts of the forest. While Tyler practiced his new [Fireball] skill in deeper woods, Milo took responsibility for clearing brush and setting traps around the mansion.
Their efforts bore fruit.
[Level Up! Tyler Level 67 → 70]
[Level Up! Milo Level 27 → 35]
Milo seemed especially motivated, perhaps still feeling the sting from Tyler’s previous remarks. Tyler noticed the change.
“Guess I lit a fire under him,” he said with a smirk, dumping five attribute points into Power Energy.
[PE: 30/30]
Fireball had become his go-to spell, but it was costly. He now knew when to cast, when to hold, and when to back away. Wearing the wizard hat increased his PE pool to 53, but left his defence paper-thin. Trade-offs.
Still, they couldn’t laze around forever.
The mansion had cost them heavily. If they wanted to build outer defences and keep intruders away during their absence, they’d need more gold.
So off they went to Yandi.
Filbert greeted them with a wide grin, arms crossed over his apron. “Glad to see you two haven’t been lazing around entirely. Got a small errand, if you’re up for it.”
[Quest Assigned: Melongutan’s Mischief]
[Objective: A mischievous Melongutan has been stealing crops from Filbert’s supply barn. Chase down the thief and retrieve what was stolen.]
[Reward: 100 gold]
[Will you accept the quest?] [Yes] | [No]
Tyler raised a brow. “A monkey problem? Really?”
“Don’t underestimate Melongutan,” Filbert warned. “That critter’s slipperier than an eel in butter.”
The monkey-like creature was swift and agile, leaping through trees with wild, unpredictable movement. Tyler gave chase, but the Melongutan dodged with uncanny precision.
“Hold still, you furry freak!” Tyler shouted, launching another spider web.
Miss.
Another one.
Still a miss.
Tyler growled, his frustration mounting. Melongutan darted around trees, flipped off branches, even mocked him with a chatter.
Finally, Tyler activated [Sprint], blurring forward with boosted speed. He timed it just right, leaping from a ridge and launching another spider web.
Splat.
Direct hit.
Tyler smirked. “Gotcha.”
He wiped sweat from his brow, muttering to himself. “Might be worth putting a point or two into Accuracy next time… That was more tries than I’m proud of.”
Returning to Filbert with the bound creature, Tyler handed it over.
[Quest Completed: Melongutan’s Mischief]
[Reward: 100 gold]
Filbert grinned. “Knew you’d get it done. Here’s your reward.”
Tyler eyed the pouch of coins. “That’s it? Doesn’t even multiply like last time…”
“Eh, monkeys don’t pay in XP.”
Disappointed, but realistic, Tyler moved on. The next stop: Vitamin Ape.
The blacksmith was hammering away at something when they entered.
“Yo, Ape,” Tyler called. “Any update on the magma shards?”
Vitamin Ape wiped his brow and nodded. “Still working through it, but I’ve cracked part of the material. These shards… they’re not just tough. They resist fire. Completely.”
“So… the new armour…”
“Will make you immune to fire-based damage,” Vitamin Ape said, grinning.
Tyler licked his lips, imagining himself shrugging off fireballs.
“That’ll be fun.”
“It’ll take time to craft properly,” Vitamin Ape warned. “But once it’s done… you’ll have armour and weapons that outclass even your titanium set.”
Tyler nodded, satisfied.
His gaze drifted toward the beanstalk in the distance, still rising toward the sky.
Whatever that thing he saw was… temple or hallucination… he knew one thing.
He hadn’t imagined the feeling it gave him.
Awe.
Something greater was up there.
And someday, he would find out what.