The day went by rather uneventful, with the exception that Luke was dragging behind everyone, doing his best to master his new improved hearing. He was focusing on it so much that he neglected to use the innate status skill.
Seeing his status, he was shocked and confused, yet again. Ever since he turned 10 years old, he would have a weird dream at some random point, and then wake from it in extreme pain. After each dream, he would find a new blessing in his status. Usually one of the gods would bestow a blessing at birth and it would have that god's name shown. However, all of Luke's blessings had garbled text instead of a god's name. Furthermore, it was somewhat normal for a person to have one blessing. On occasions, someone might even have two. Three was a rarity as far as anyone knew, in fact, Luke only knew of a couple of legendary people from history that had that many. So far, he had four, with Ears of the Forest being the fourth, which he just received.
Blessings were different from skills. Mostly because a person with high enough ability and/or aptitude could learn any number of skills. Skills also used had a cost, either through HP or through Mana consumption, though usually only a small amount depending on the skill. Whereas a blessing, could be used at any time without any cost or even a cool down period before its next use, unlike some skills.
There was no other changes to his status levels. He started to ponder this new development, as he was slowly getting further behind the group.
He finally noticed how far behind he was, when he heard someone behind them. Whoever was there was still a good distance back, so there was no need to worry about it. He caught back up with the group as they were stopping at a clearing for the daily lunch stop.
When he walked into the group, the man that had been driving the family wagon waved at him and asked. "So boy. What's your name?"
"It's Luke, sir," he answered with a slight nod.
"The names Henry, this is my wife Imelda. That is my son, Reginal. And that is my daughter, ReiAnn. We're taking Reggie to the Trasklyn Academy."
Luke nods hearing that. "I'm headed there myself."
"Well then, you might as well be friendly and stick along with us. Maybe you and Reggie will get along."
They offered him a little bit of food as he sat with them. Luckily, most of the conversation was about Reggie and ReiAnn, so he did not have to make up any personal answers for them. However, when he moved the hood of his cloak a bit, as not to be rude and keep his face hidden the whole time, he got some rather curious looks from the family.
ReiAnn could not stop looking at his hair, which started to make him feel a little uncomfortable.
"Rei, it's impolite to stare like that." Imelda told her daughter, then looking at Luke she says. "Your hair is a bit unique, but in a pretty sort of way."
Nervously nodding, Luke responds. "Thank you, mam. I'm told, it comes from my father's side of the family, though I don't know anyone with it myself."
The conversation went back to the normal small talk, mostly about the academy.
When everyone was finished, and everything packed back up, he group set out again. This time Reggie was walking along side Luke. He was the same age as Luke and close to the same height and weight although his stamina was no match, as he made it for a few hours before he got back on the wagon.
Twice, so far, Luke heard the people behind them getting closer. They were not close enough to be able to hear them talk, but they moved on the road and some in the woods, with enough noise to stir up the local wildlife.
The rest of the time they spent traveling until they reached the next stop, the group behind them stayed far enough back that none of the adventurers noticed them.
This time when camp was setup, Henry and Imelda told Luke he could set his pallet closer to their wagon. Same as the last time, he did not see much of anyone in the noble's carriage except the man, not that he was interested anyway. The merchant and his group were friendly enough, but still stayed to themselves. Frank stopped by and checked with Luke after talking to Henry, and then he turned in for the night, as did most everyone else.
About an hour or so after the camp went quiet, he heard them coming. Two people from the group that had been following were quietly approaching the camp. Even though Luke could hear them quite well, he figured they must have been using some sort of stealth skill, since the night watch did not seem to react to their presence. They only came in close enough to observe the amount of guards and the layout of the camp in general.
'Only four guards awake for this shift. Looks like those other four might be the next shift. That looks like the noble's carriage over there. He must be sleeping in it with his wife and daughter. The merchant and his wife must be in that carriage and his three men are under the wagon over there. There is the father and son of that family of four under their wagon, so the wife and girl must be in the wagon. I don't remember seeing that person next to them before.' One of the men whispered to the other.
'He looks kinda small, prolly just another youngin' the other responded.
'It'd be best to wait till they're in the middle of tomorrow evenings stretch. That way, they are all starting to tire out for the day. Let's head back and let the others know'
After hearing the two get back to their group, and being just far enough away where he could not hear them talking, Luke tried to get the rest he needed. He heard enough from them anyway to know they did not have to worry until tomorrow afternoon.
At the break of dawn, Luke was back up and started heading back out of camp as he did the previous morning. Frank was just coming back into the camp when he saw him leaving. He was still impressed with the kid's dedication to maintaining his routine.
Luke made his way into the woods, and then angled back towards the other group. He wanted to get a look at who was tailing them. They were not being very quiet as he could hear them well before finally seeing any of them. As they were packing up and getting ready to head out, Luke made out ten people total. Two men appeared to be mages, three swordsmen, four archers and one axe man. Luke knew that the adventurers would be fine with everyone except the mages, as they were the greatest ranged threat, especially considering they did not even have to have line of sight to send an area attack. Once they started to move out, he headed back to his own group. So much for my daily routine, he thought.
The caravan was already headed down the road. Luke slipped past them and found a rock out cropping that would allow him a good are to observe the surroundings and try to spot the bandits that were after them.
After the caravan had been on the move for a while, Frank dropped back to the back of the group, and alongside Henry and his wagon. He kept looking over his shoulder, trying to spot Luke.
"Did we lose something?" Henry asks Frank.
Frank turns to him with a half-smile, "Not yet… I think… Just trying to see if that boy made it back yet or not."
The father looks around then back behind them. His brow furrows a little with worry. "Did anyone see him leave?"
"He was just getting up when I came into camp to wake up the others. I figured he was going to go do his morning workout routine like he did yesterday morning." Frank kept looking around and continued with "I was hoping he'd be back before we started out. I'd hate to see anything happen to him, he seems like a good kid who actually thinks of others for a change."
Now Henry was starting to worry about Luke as well. Imelda looked at him with a little worry showing on her face as well. He just shook his said a little and turned back to Frank. "I'm sure he will catch up before long. Imelda and I will keep a look out as well."
Frank nodded and just as he was about to move back up, he heard one of the adventurers say someone was up ahead.
Looking up he and frank saw Luke standing on the outcrop, looking over them and out across the road toward their left. The way he stood there, perfectly still, with his hood pulled over and don to his eyes, was a little creepy. Almost like an evil statue.
As they passed in front of him, he dropped to the ground and came up beside Frank.
"We've got bandits after us. Ten of them total. Two are mages. Four archers. Three swordsmen and one axe wielder. Two of the archers scoped us out last night, but I wanted to check them out before saying anything, just to get an idea of what we are up against."
Frank and Henry both eyed him surprised. A 14 year old has this kind of insight, to be able to notice the recon people last night, and then to take the initiative to go and see how many there were and what they were up to.
During this exchange, another adventurer dropped back to them to listen to what they were talking about.
"They said something about attacking this afternoon, when everyone will start to wear out." Luke continued. "I have an idea on how to deal with the mages, but you all will have to take care of the others."
"Damn kid, just who are you? Not even some of the adventures with some experience would figure out that much that quickly." He looked at the boy again, and then said. "I'll go let the others know about it."
Without saying anything else