Yamamoto accepted without hesitation.
He spent the next hours making preparations, doing illogical gamer things that would look like foolishness to the normal man.
First, he rented a canoe from the docks—a simple wooden vessel, but sturdy enough for what he needed. The rental cost was 20 copper for the day.
Then he sailed the canoe to a specific location about a mile down the coast—a rocky area where the water was relatively calm.
Yamamoto secured the canoe and after taking off his clothes and taking some time to get used to the water's temperature, dove into the water.
The cold still sent shocks through his body, but after a bit he got used to it. He dove into the water, swimming about, looking for something specific. The water was clear enough, but what he was looking for had blended with the colours of the seabed and algae.
After searching for a while, he found what he was looking for. There—embedded in the rocks at the bottom, covered in algae and rust—there was a rusted metal rod with something tied to it.
Yamamoto grabbed it and kicked back to the surface. Looking at it now, in his hand was an old iron key, tarnished and corroded, attached to the rod with a waterlogged cord.
Holding that felt kind of disgusting from its looks and feel. He hurriedly put it into his inventory and climbed back into the canoe after rinsing his hands as much as possible.
After equipping his clothes back on and his weapon, he rowed the canoe back to shore and stored even it in his inventory. He had it for the entire day after all, so it was ok to do so.
With that, he started his journey into and up the mountains.
The journey took almost the entire day, following a route that was more mental than physical, having to navigate some strange and dangerous terrains, and even having to take detours for some places, since he couldn't risk death from some mistake.
By late afternoon, he had reached the specific location. He was standing at the edge of a crevice in the mountain—a deep gorge that split the rock like a wound.
Now the biggest problem was the fact that he had to go down there.
In the game, there had been a specific spot—a precise pixel location—where you could jump and take no fall damage. It was a glitch spot that messed with the game's collision detection, which provided players a way to access the otherwise unreachable gully.
Yamamoto spent quite a few minutes studying the crevice, trying to identify that exact spot, even though he already found it… he still wanted to be certain.
He stood at the edge, looking down at the thirty metres/hundred-foot drop, maybe more, his heart pounding.
This was insane. In the game, if you missed the spot, your character died and you respawned. Here? Here, he'd just die. Permanently.
Well, so far he had confirmed a few glitches, so he was willing to take the chance, but then again, if he was wrong and there was no glitch there… he would be very dead…
Yamamoto took several deep breaths, positioned himself carefully, and then jumped.
The fall was rather brief, lasting barely 3 seconds. Before he knew it, he hit something soft and massive that broke his fall, then tumbled through it into water below.
He surfaced, gasping for air as it felt a bit disorientating at first, then he felt around, finding his footing in the rather shallow pool. Luckily and rather surprisingly, he truly was unharmed and completely fine! He was almost expecting worse, but it worked!
"Hahaha… this is insanity at its best." He said to himself, quoting a line from a famous movie back on earth, as it fit his situation.
Curious, he looked up to see what broke his fall. Surprisingly, it was a nest.
It looked massive, constructed from branches and what looked like bones, built on a ledge a few metres above the water, and inside it, scattered around where he'd crashed through, were eggs… Huge eggs, each one at least two feet tall.
The eggs were broken now, though, and old, long since hatched. Whatever had been inside them was gone. That aside, the size of those eggs… he really didn't want to find out. He quickly scrambled out of the water and made haste to where he ought to be.
The gully was a narrow space, barely nine metres wide, with sheer walls rising on either side. Yamamoto followed it, splashing through the occasional shallow water, until he found what he was looking for; a small figure huddled against the rock wall, dirty and frightened but alive, shivering in the cold.
"Toby?" Yamamoto called out.
The boy's head snapped up. He was maybe twelve, thin and sunburned, his clothes tattered. "Who... who are you?"
"My name is Odinson. Your father sent me to find you."
Toby's eyes filled with tears. "Dad? Is he... is he looking for me?"
"Yes," Yamamoto said. Approaching the young boy, he took out water and had him drink a little, then after a short moment, fed him some bread.
While Toby ate ravenously, Yamamoto surveyed their surroundings. Clearly, getting out the way he'd come in was impossible, so it was only natural that he knew another way.
"Come on, let's get out of here." Yamamoto said to Toby, once he was done with the little bread.
He led the boy through the gully, continuing on the path. After walking for a bit, they reached the correct spot Yamamoto had been looking out for—and underground creek, flowing through a natural tunnel in the rock.
Out of thin air, surprising the young boy yet again, Yamamoto pulled out the canoe from thin air and placed on the ground.
"Are you a wizard?" the boy asked, eyes wide.
"Something like that," Yamamoto said. "Get in."
After Tobey climbed into the canoe, Yamamoto set it into the creek and jumped in. They paddled through the underground creek, the ceiling sometimes so low they had to duck.
After perhaps half an hour, the tunnel opened up into a larger cave, and there, set into the rock wall, was an old wooden door—weathered and covered in moss, but still solid.
"We're here."