During the time when Wain fought with Warren, Four Fingered Dylon had managed to eliminate all of the remaining guards, clearing his path towards the carriage, which was now defenseless, since even Norwards decided to hide somewhere.
"Haha, it's mine!"
Despite his injuries, Four Fingered Dylon limped towards the back door of the carriage, opening them. However, his bright smile suddenly disappeared when he saw the inside of the carriage completely empty.
"Where... Where is it?" He stared dumbfounded at the empty area, containing several wet spots and smelled after a fish.
Did I get tricked? He wondered, considering the validity of the information he received, when the ground around him suddenly exploded, and he was grabbed by several hands.
Caught completely off guard, Four Fingered Dylon failed to resist and got dragged underground, leaving no signs of his existence.
What was that?! Wain immediately raised his guard, observing his surroundings. There were no guards or bandits in the vicinity, but the existence of the monster which ate Dylan terrified him.
Even in his wounded state, Dylan was still extremely powerful, and no ordinary monster could hope to successfully ambush him. However, one such monster was currently somewhere in the ground around here.
Wain carefully observed his surroundings, when he noticed several corpses were missing, finding this behavior familiar and then he saw it. Several tentacles emerged around a corpse of a bandit and dragged it underground.
It was Octader!
[Octader] (Earth Lifeform, lower 2nd-grade)
Level 36
Hp 1905 / 2050
"What did he eat to grow so strong?" Wain was dumbfounded, finding his familiar even more formidable than himself. At this rate his pet would destroy the world sooner than him!
He hurried towards the carriage, finding the same scene as Dylan. While everyone was busy fighting, Octader cleared whatever was within this carriage, and he became a new, terrifying lifeform.
At that moment, Wain looked around and realized all of the corpses were almost gone. His pet was trying to steal everything again! He quickly began moving, collecting the mana cores from the corpses of guards and bandits before Octader ate them.
…
Soon, all of the corpses disappear underground, but Wain managed to save several mana cores before his familiar, though the ones with highest-grade were already long lost.
Wain ordered the goblins to retreat and scouted the carriage for anything else, when he found another body.
[Norward Clemson] (Human, No-grade)
Level 6
Hp 35/51
"What is this, he isn't dead?" He looked at the body, inspecting it closely. "Did he suddenly need to sleep in the middle of the battle?" Wain tried to explain the situation, since he as well had problems foreseeing when he was tired and needed to sleep.
At that moment, Norward suddenly opened his eyes, looking at Wain. Startled, Ollios quickly slapped him, wondering why he did that. It was simply instinct.
"I am awake." Norward quickly said, worried Wain would slap him again.
Following the event, Wain didn't know what to do with the human. Compared to everyone else he met, Norward showed no hostility towards him, so he didn't know whether to kill him.
"What happened here?" Norward was shocked by the situation, when he walked around, observing his surroundings. When he lost consciousness, he was in the middle of the battle, but there was nothing around.
Wain also looked around and noticed that the carriage was gone. Either the horses ran, or it was eaten by Octader. After everything that happened, he would no longer be surprised if his familiar was capable of eating the whole carriage together with horses.
Noticing Norward was staring at him, waiting for answers, Wain made up something. "The bandits won and escaped with the carriage, unfortunately I was able to save only you." He said hiding the tracks of his familiar, who was responsible for everything.
"I see." Norward answered with a sad expression. Despite all his work, the bandits still stole the treasure. But at least he was alive. "Thank you for saving my life, I will definitely pay you back." He said, but Wain wasn't too interested.
Seeing Wain's lack of interest, Norward decided to introduce himself properly. "My name is Norward Clemson, you have probably heard about me." However, even after hearing his full name, Wain's expression remained indifferent.
"I am Wain-" Wain followed suit, but didn't finish his sentence as the adrenaline from the battle faded and exhaustion from the previous fight overwhelmed him.
"What happened?! Where is the army you came with?" Norward began to panic and tried to seek help for Wain.
"There is no army... it was just a skill." Wain lied to conceal the existence of the goblins, he didn't know how would Norward react if he learned the truth. "I have overused my mana, it will get better soon- '' He tried to assure the merchant, but his current condition was much worse than he thought and he lost consciousness.
...
Upon regaining consciousness, Wain discovered himself in a rather comfortable bed inside a cozy wooden room. He also noticed that he was mostly naked and his clothes were clean, laying nicely arranged on a chair next to the bed.
He dressed and found out that his clothes were no longer tattered as someone sewed the holes. There were actually two sets of clothes, his old one and a set of farmer clothes as his host didn't know what he would prefer. But Wain didn't even look at the other set of clothes, he had some kind of bond to this robe and he didn't feel comfortable in any other clothes.
Slowly scanning his surroundings, he tried to assess his current situation, when a familiar sound of system notification rang in his ears and a system window appeared before him.
[The First Step] (Ollios's quest)
Quest description: It's bad to always be alone, go and find someone you could use up.
Completion requestment: Make a humanoid sign a servant contract with you.
Time limit: 5 days
Reward: 100 Chaos Points
Penalty: None
"Servant contract?" Wain frowned after reading the description. It was the kind of contract that would make it impossible for servants to disobey their master, and he didn't expect anyone to sign such a contract willingly.
Perhaps Norward would consider it? He wondered, considering his options, although there was no penalty for failing the quest, 100 Chaos Points was still a tempting offer.
However, why did Ollios even want such a thing from him? He couldn't help but feel that Ollios was messing with him. Or maybe he tried to teach him that trusting others was dangerous, unless they were your slaves.
Wain wasn't sure of the reasoning behind the quest, but fortunately, it only mentioned humanoid, so a really desperate goblin would be sufficient.
He concluded the matter regarding the quest aside and put on his hood before leaving the room to find out more information about his whereabouts.
When he left the room he got in another larger room, which smelled nicely. It was an ordinary room, with an elderly woman, who was cooking something on the other side of the room.
"Oh my, you're already awake?" The woman turned around when she heard footsteps. Her dark brown hair framed her face as she held a wooden spoon, and she greeted him with a bright smile.
"My name is Rahel. Norward brought you unconscious to our village two days ago," she explained the situation.
"I'm Wain... Wain Sageroar," he introduced himself while studying the interior of the room.
"You have a surname... are you a noble?" Rahel was startled. Commoners usually didn't have surnames, only wealthy merchants like Norward could afford to buy one. So she was worried about being impolite.
"Noble? No, I'm just a wandering magician," Wain replied, shaking his head, although in truth, he had no clear memory of his past.
"Magician..." Rahel dropped her wooden spoon and covered her mouth in shock. In this remote area, magicians were extremely rare, and even nobles treated them with great respect.
Moreover she heard tales of magicians being easily offended and capable of causing great destruction for a slight offense.
Despite her initial concerns, Wain didn't seem offended. "Could I get something to eat?" he asked, his stomach growling. He hadn't eaten anything for two days.
"I am sorry... of course you can." She calmed down, seeing Wain wasn't that type of magician, and quickly prepared him some food.