XXXIX

  Pulling out his map once he was on the main path, he quickly did some calculations in his head. Kaz measured the distance with his fingers the rough distance of the path he took. If it took him roughly a day to get through the path area, given the time he wasn’t fighting, then he realized he was in for a long walk.

  The distance to the general area where these new monsters were spotted were roughly three to four days away if he did his calculations correctly. It also did not help that Kaz was slightly smaller than the average person, so his strides would be around half the distance of say, an average Human.

  Laelara, the Guild Receptionist who helped him out with choosing Quests, said it would be a few days of traveling to reach the area for the Quest, but Kaz doubted she took his small strides into account. With a mental shrug, he continued onwards, as debating with himself was not going to change anything, and he should just keep on forging ahead.

  After traveling for a half a day, Kaz was surprised by the lack of monsters he encountered. He knew that if he stayed on the main path, very rarely a monster would wander out onto the road, but he didn’t have a single encounter. He did notice a variant of the Timberfang Wolf stalking him in the tree line, but it never came out to confront him on the path.

  It really put into perspective that Kaz really was the one searching for conflict, and while it made sense to him, as he was looking to Rank his Abilities and elevate his Resonance, it also put him in more danger. If he traveled like this to Sarus, never straying from the main path, he would’ve arrived safely.

  Well, he did advance his Calling, but at times he stretched himself too thin, and with the few close calls with death, it was definitely building up something within him. It was neither negative nor positive, as he still craved the feeling of gaining more power, but he grew mentally fatigued of the constant fighting.

  And even after advancing himself this far into his Calling of the Mage, which he still could not believe how he received this Calling, Kaz wondered why he hasn’t unlocked his third and final Skill Ability for this Tier. And while Kaz did unlock his Skill Abilities and Passive Abilities at a rapid pace, he was still missing his third one.

  It was a growing concern, always gnawing at his thoughts in the back of his head, as Kaz looked at his other Abilities progressively Ranking. He knew he had a lot of time, and was definitely ahead of those around his age, but something felt off. He was missing something. It felt like he had that third Ability, but it wouldn’t unlock, and he didn’t have any insight into what would help him to unlock it.

  Sure, he could ask Elder Aelon for some help to unlock some common Skill Ability, but he almost felt as if his mana core was waiting for something. Kaz felt his mana core pulse when he thought about it, and his mana throughout his body tingled slightly, but quickly returning back to normal as he shuddered slightly.

  As he was deep in his thoughts, he almost didn’t hear the wagon approaching from behind, only reacting when a deep but tired voice called out to him, “I would be careful kid, I’m coming through!”

  Quickly turning around, Kaz saw the approaching wagon. While it was a normal looking wagon, being pulled along by a large brown maned horse, there were two similar looking people on the front seat of the wagon. There was a young blond Human lady, and another equally young blond Human male, which confused him. Where did that deep voice come from?

  Kaz stepped aside to let the wagon pass, but then he realized he could maybe ask for a ride, as any distance would be worth it, as the first intersection was far ahead.

  Mustering up the courage, which made him feel a bit queasy, he yelled out to the pair on the wagon just as they passed him, “Excuse me!”

  The blond man pulled on his reigns and spoke out to his horse with a monotone, “Woah, woah, easy buddy,” to get the horse to stop.

  The pair looked back at him, and the man with the deep voice asked him without emotion, “How can I help you, kid?”

  Shuffling forward, not being able to raise his head to meet their eyes out of shyness, he quietly asked them, his voice pitching higher than it should, “Would I be able to join you on the wagon? I can pay for it! I just have quite a distance to travel, and I would really appreciate a ride, even if it is for a short distance.”

  The blond lady immediately perked up, and nodded vigorously, replying to Kaz, “Of course! Hop on the back, there should be plenty of space for you.”

  Kaz couldn’t believe his luck, and quickly sprung into action, easily jumping up into the back of the wagon, surprising even himself with his agility and strength. I thought I only received boosts to my physicality in combat?

  As he settled in, the blond lady immediately struck up a conversation, turning herself back to face him. She introduced herself, saying, “Hi, I’m Bellatris, and this is my twin brother, Kevan. We are on our way to Goset to deliver our family goods.”

  Nodding politely at the introduction, noting that Kevan, the blond male, simply huffed his greeting. He probably didn’t like conversations, so Kaz noted to avoid talking to him directly to not agitate the man.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “My name is Kaz, nice to meet you two, and thank you for allowing me to ride along with you two. I am currently on the way down to this area,” and Kaz pulled out his map, to show Bellatris the area where he was headed for.

  Biting her fingernail, she analyzed the map that Kaz gave her and pointed out an intersection that was rather close to the area he needed to get to. She explained to him, “This is where we will have to turn off, as this part of the path takes us to Goset. But it seems like you are a lucky person today!” Bellatris exclaimed with a bright smile.

  Kaz felt slightly uncomfortable with the energy that she had, but he had to accept it, as they were doing him a large favor by taking him along, which he decided to bring up. He prompted, “As I mentioned earlier, I would be able to pay a price for taking me along. I can offer five Silver tokens, if that is alright with the two of you?”

  Panic flared within him when he saw Kevan raise his hand, not even turning around to face him. In his monotone voice, he told Kaz, “We are going the same way, so no need to pay us anything.”

  Enthusiastically nodding, Bellatris agreed, confirming, “Yeah, we are already going this way, so there’s no reason to give us anything. Instead, maybe you could tell us a bit about yourself?”

  With an internal sigh, he wondered how much he should tell these two. They were strangers to him, although they didn’t seem hostile to him, well at least Bellatris didn’t. Kevan just seemed indifferent to him, which he understood, if some random Gnome asked for a ride while Kaz was delivering something, he wouldn’t really care too much about them either.

  Kaz then started speaking, recalling his adventure up to this point, but very generalized. He stated, “I am Kaz, and I possess the Calling of the Mage. I left my old town and traveled to Sarus, in hopes of becoming an Adventurer for the Adventurer’s Guild. I did not attend an Academy as I am only a one star Mage. During my travels, I had a few run ins with various monsters which helped me progress towards my first Revelation. Finally made it to Sarus, got signed up with the Adventurer’s Guild there, received my first two Quests, and here I am.”

  Bellatris blinked at him expectantly and opened her mouth and closed it. Kaz tilted his head in confusion, wondering what caused such a reaction.

  “You’re a Mage?” She managed to eek out.

  “Yes…?” Kaz confirmed slowly, not understanding the reaction from her.

  “We have a Mage in our wagon. We are traveling with a Mage,” she mumbled to herself.

  “You’re making him uncomfortable, Bell,” Kevan scolded her.

  Flushed with embarrassment, she quickly fumbled out, “I am so sorry. It’s just that, you don’t meet a Mage every day, especially us common folk.”

  Common folk?

  “I am sorry, I hope I am not being rude. What is a common folk, and why are you referring to yourself like that?” Kaz asked confusedly, already dreading this wagon ride.

  “Common folk are usually people who don’t have a Calling related to combat. So, Craftsmen, Foragers, Laborers, Merchants, Performers, Scribes, and Tamers are usually called common folk, especially since the rate for these Callings are way higher than those with combat oriented Callings,” Kevan replied in his usual uninspiring, monotone voice, cutting off Bellatris who was about to answer his question.

  Kaz had even more questions, especially the combat oriented part. He remembered Helenesta, who was part of a group of Adventurer’s he ran into near the cave, and she was a Forager. He decided he might ask Laelara, or even Broff’s group, on the way society worked.

  Growing up in an orphanage definitely hid him from most common things out there. Plus, he also never really paid attention to stuff like that, as he was belittled everywhere he went. So, Kaz nodded softly a few times, mumbling a soft thanks, just to make sure they wouldn’t ask him anything else stemming from his questioning.

  The day passed by relatively quickly, as Bellatris started to talk his big ears off, illustrating her life, from her family owning an herb growing business, and that was what they were delivering. They were technically Botanists, well their parents were, and they were Foragers still, waiting to reach their first Revelation hopefully within the next two decades, which surprised him at the slow progression for them.

  She then started telling him all about the herbs that they grew, and what they were used for, occasionally getting cut off by Kevan, who scolded her again for getting too carried away. Kaz could only weakly nod, his brain probably bruising from the constant nodding.

  As the sun managed to disappear from the sky, they finally reached the intersection where they had to turn off to get to Goset, which seemed to be even more to the east. Kaz politely thanked the two of them, and thankfully Bellatris was already tired, probably from all the talking, and they both waved at him without any additional conversation, riding off into the distance.

  The forest was slightly thicker in this part, resembling the forest that was around Forith. He assumed that the further south he would go, the forest and nature itself would get thicker and livelier. He took some deep breaths, and took out his map, hoping he might see something with the last light escaping from the realm for the day.

  The Quest automatically pinged him mentally, showing that he was near the spot he had to get to, which put him on a slight edge. Kaz didn’t want to fight that much, tired of the recent bloodshed he witnessed himself. He was glad for the peaceful journey this past day, although it was too short being only a day without combat.

  Folding up his map, he was probably a few hours away by walking to his location that was marked on his map. Knowing he shouldn’t be traveling at night, he decided to find a tree to sleep on during the night. Again, he thought to himself that he was lucky that he was his size, because it allowed him to be able to spend the night in the trees, instead of being on the forest floor where anything could walk up to him while he was sleeping.

  Climbing a relatively large tree with ease, he settled among the denser part of the branches, and wrapped himself up tightly with his robe, which had a few tears in it already and crusty around the areas where blood dried up in. He quickly found sleep, and to his relief, it was filled with no dreams. Just as soon as he fell asleep, he woke up the next day, the pinkish red sky greeting him.

  Eating one of his rationed dried meats, he climbed down the tree and began his walk towards the destination. He didn’t encounter any monsters, and didn’t even see them in the forest, which was slightly off-putting for him.

  As he approached the area, his Quest suddenly pinged, and then went quiet, not mentally nudging him anymore in any direction. He was here.

  He heightened his senses, trying to be aware of his surroundings and to find the new monsters. Kaz then realized he didn’t know what they looked like, and face palmed, wondering why he didn’t ask Laelara for a brief description on how they could possibly look like.

  Gripping his glaive tighter in one hand, he delved into the forest away from the main path.