Having established herself in Mitsuho, Adriana remained as industrious as ever.
However, her work there focused more on her own creative desires than on education. This was largely because Mitsuho had few magi, making it an unsuitable environment for spreading the knowledge of magi-craft.
In the midst of this, Adriana turned her thoughts toward the unseen lands to the west.
"The land continues westward, but I wonder what lies beyond."
By the year 2390, the fifty-year-old Adriana had lost none of her curiosity for the unknown. That said, she understood the physical limits of what a person could achieve alone, so she planned an investigative journey that would maximize her efficiency.
"M-030, F-030, I’m counting on you."
"Yes, Lady Adriana."
Adriana dispatched the two golems to the west in her stead.
The golems maintained an average speed of ten kilometers per hour. This was their pace while conducting light surveys as they moved. They traversed rocky terrain, wastelands, forests, rivers, and wetlands.
They covered roughly two hundred kilometers a day, and upon reaching their destination, they installed a Warp Gate. Using that Warp Gate, they would return to Adriana to report. Then, they would head back out with parts for a new Warp Gate and continue westward the following day.
By installing a Warp Gate every two hundred kilometers, the two golems steadily pushed further and further west.
"So, that’s the isthmus."
They were approximately 1,600 kilometers from Mitsuho as the crow flies—roughly 1,800 kilometers by the path they had traveled. Adriana stood at the western edge of the Lauren Continent with F-030 at her side.
"I definitely feel it now. The free ether is sparse here."
Compared to the town of Miyako in central Mitsuho, Adriana felt that the concentration of free ether in this region was about thirty percent lower.
"I wonder if the free ether thins out as you head south."
She recalled that in the demon territory to the north, the free ether was dense, and magic was highly effective.
"Dense in the north, thin in the south. Is it the influence of geomagnetism?"
No one answered Adriana's question.
"Wow, so that’s how Lady Predecessor went west," Sion said, looking impressed. "But still, moving forward by leapfrogging with Warp Gates... It makes me wonder what the point of an 'expedition' even is."
"Well, I can understand that sentiment."
"You're the last person I want to hear that from, Jin."
"Why's that?"
"Why? I mean... seriously?" Sion looked at Marikka as she spoke.
"Fue?! Um, well..." Marikka stammered, caught off guard by being suddenly pulled into the conversation.
"Fine, never mind. I’ll keep going."
Because Adriana was aware that this method of exploration was practically cheating, she didn't bother naming the lands she discovered along the way.
Consequently, it is difficult to map her journey exactly to modern geography, but it is believed that the western land she reached was what is now called the Lashier Continent—somewhere along the Tropic of Capricorn.
"Hmm, it really doesn't seem like anyone lives here. Is it because the free ether is so thin, after all?"
She had seen no signs of human life on the western continent.
"If there are no people, there’s nothing to learn... at most, I can look for rare materials—! What is this sensation?!"
As she walked slowly, Adriana felt a shudder run through her body from a sensation she had never experienced before.
"Wait... was that an illusion? No, impossible. If not, then is it this specific spot?"
Adriana took a step back.
"W-Whoa... What is this? It's like standing inside a waterfall of free ether. This is bad!"
With a single leap, Adriana put distance between herself and that spot.
"...I don't feel anything anymore. Was the free ether strange only in that narrow area?"
She crept forward cautiously to test it, and the concentration of free ether spiked to an abnormal level once more. It seemed the anomaly existed within a cylinder of space about one meter in diameter.
"Strange things really do happen. Could this be the reason why the free ether concentration is so low in the south?" Adriana murmured to herself. "I want to investigate, but... I have a bad feeling about this place. My gut says I'll regret it if I don't come back better prepared."
Trusting her intuition, Adriana left the area for the time being. She made sure to install a Warp Gate so she could return later.
However, that Warp Gate was lost shortly after for unknown reasons, and Adriana Barbora Tsetse never set foot in that land again.
"Hmm, that place sounds incredibly suspicious."
"I thought the same when I read the Predecessor’s diary," Jin replied.
However, the location was unknown, and since the events took place a millennium ago, verification was nearly impossible. Jin had let the matter rest for a long time.
"Now that I think about it, I suspect it was Onogoro Island, or at least a clue leading to it."
"I have that feeling too," Sion agreed.
"Then," Jin resumed his explanation, "the Warp Gate she installed on what we now call the Lashier Continent... for some reason, it apparently became unusable."
"Hmm... there’s definitely something going on here." Adriana Barbora Tsetse crossed her arms, her expression grave. "The Warp Gates I installed on this continent are fine, but every single one on the other continent was wiped out. This smells of human interference..."
However, Adriana recognized that she was still too inexperienced to tackle the mystery.
"Weapons... I don't want to make weapons."
Whether that feeling was a womanly instinct or her pride as a creator who refused to build things intended for destruction, Adriana couldn't say.
Ultimately, she never solved the mystery.
"From our perspective, it's likely that someone related to Onogoro Island removed the Warp Gates," Jin said.
"Yeah, I agree."
"I... I think so too," Marikka added.
"And so, the Predecessor stopped her westward push and explored the northern lands instead," Jin concluded. "After that, she returned to Mitsuho and immersed herself in developing magic tools and researching golems."