Having observed the High Elf Ranger's daily practice, Sir Lothar quickly arrived at the terrace on top of the Cliffside Tower to survey the situation in the Searing Gorge with a telescope.
What Sir Lothar saw through the telescope was a huge rift valley with fire glowing at the bottom of the gorge.
On the mountains along the edges of the rift valley, there were many active volcanoes in an active period.
This caused magma to flow constantly across the ground.
The shattered earth, the magma flowing everywhere, and even the clouds in the sky seemed to be burning.
That was the firelight of the magma reflecting into the sky, dyeing the white clouds into fiery red clouds.
Except for the Dark Iron Dwarves with very high fire resistance, no normal living creature could live in the Searing Gorge.
The Burning Steppes to the south sounded even more severe by name.
However, there were relatively better places there that could allow Orcs and Ogres to live in peace.
Because it was a huge plain, road transportation was also unproblematic.
Yet the Searing Gorge, that scar of the earth, could only be traversed by the winding mountain roads on both sides of the gorge.
Those were paved by the Orcs at great cost just to pass through here.
Stone slab bridges were built over places where magma flowed, and fiery lava cracks were blocked with stones.
Although it seemed like there was not much of a problem.
Yet who knew whether it would collapse upon stepping on it?
Understanding how terrible the Searing Gorge was, Sir Lothar helplessly put down the telescope.
He had originally thought the Burning Steppes were already harsh enough.
He had not expected the situation in the Searing Gorge to be even harsher than the Burning Steppes!