1 minute later…
With his sword stabbed on the ground as a support for his body right beside him, the boy knelt with one of his knees toward the girl, Gertrud. Which is now grinning at the boy, "You are bad and weak! You are the weakest adult I ever met in my whole life!"
[You have lost the duel with Gertrud]
With his heavy breathing, the boy couldn't really say anything at that moment, but then he heard a loud shout coming from his left direction. He looked toward it and saw a muscly man with a black beard hanging on his face, shouting, "Gertrud!!! What are you doing here?!"
The girl was shocked and ran but the man was faster and caught up to her and brought her to Abel, which is still in his same posture, "Kid, sorry if my daughter bothered you, what are your business in this village by the way?"
The boy stood up, all his tiredness were gone in an instant, he placed his sword back to his inventory and faced the man, "I wanted to buy some supplies for my party, we got hit by a storm and our ship were sunk by it, barely escaped using the emergency longboat"
The man nodded, understanding the situation, he directed his open palm toward the village and said, "Go ahead and buy the supplies, good luck on facing the locals though, they are not friendly toward outsiders"
Abel nodded and gave his thank you before he ran to the village as far as he could and entered it. While he was searching for the small market, people kept staring at him. Some even took their axes from out of nowhere while he walked by them.
But all went well. He located the marketplace and bought the food with the gold coin, the normal currency in the world of Xenia, which amazed and surprised the seller that looked like as he never saw it.
[Items acquired, 200 portions of food]
[Lost 50 gold coins]
The boy then returned to the beach and saw his friend, sitting on the land, Halius noticed him and waved at him, "Abelard! Here!"
The boy went to him and Halius then led him toward a beach cave where Thorgrim are currently waiting right at the entrance. The prince of the dwarf, Thorgrim, was about to say something but he suddenly took out his axe ran toward the two boys.
The two of them were surprised at first and froze right at their position, Thorgrim just went around them, stopped and shouted, "Reveal your face! I know you are stalking these two boys!"
Both of them turned around and a person could be seen emerging out of nowhere while opening the hood of the cloak the person was wearing. Abel was shocked when he saw the familiar face, the one that just defeated him in the duel earlier, Gertrud.
She chuckled when she saw the boy's expression. She placed her hand on her hips and said, "Well, I didn't think that you were speaking the truth, I thought you were just some liar. I'll go away from this place, don't really want to bother your feast!"
She wore the hood of her cloak back again and was gone in an instant, dispersing to thin air, leaving the three of them shocked. But they didn't really care about it and entered the cave where the crew were waiting for the food.
The cave became a place where they feasted on the simple food.
…
The next day, while Abel was just lying on the ground with his back against the wall and his hand on his belly, Thorgrim approached him, "Well, Abelard, now that we are full, I think we can make our way to our original destination, the city of Valfield"
Abel quickly stood up and was about to say something, but the dwarf interrupted him, "Let's not waste our energy talking. If you can bring me some information, I might be able to locate the city, even just the name of this land is enough"
Then the boy remembered about the notification he received yesterday when they arrived on the land, he informed the dwarf about it, "Well, Prince Thorgrim, I got some information that might be of use for us, heard this land are called the land of the most north"
Thorgrim raised one of his eyebrows, but then he placed two of his fingers at his chin, with an expression as he was looking for a piece of information. He found it not long after, "The land of the most north! I remember, if we can go south, we should be able to find the city!"
Abel smiled upon hearing these words but the dwarf continued his words, "Well, I don't know what part is this land though, was recorded in some ancient text on the library I once went to. But I remembered the general information"
The dwarf informed the boy about the information, "The land is divided by 4, east, west, south and north, if we were in either east, west or south area, we could easily go from this place and return to the dwarf territory. But there must be a reason as to why there was only so little information on the ancient text, finding a way back home might be harder than we thought..."
The boy smiled at the dwarf and quickly made his way for the exit of the cave while shouting to Thorgrim, "Wait for me here, I'll go to the village and collect some information for us!"
He made his way back to the village and was greeted by the sight of some armoured soldiers, in some sort of line right in front of the village. There's a man right in front of the formation, shouting inaudible words if heard by the distance where Abel is currently standing.
He slowed his pace when he saw them and casually entered the village, but with the uncomfortable stares directed toward him, the boy didn't know what to do. He was wandering all around the village, looking for someone with a kind and warm face to ask for information, but he never found any.
Now tired of all that walking around the village and having no place to rest, the boy ended up placing his palm against someone's house and sighed as he looked at the ground. He was catching his breath when he noticed a shadow on the ground slightly in front of him.
He lifted his head and saw the familiar face once again, Gertrud, now smirking at him, "Well, tired of all that wandering around the village? What are you looking for anyway, are you just here to cause trouble? I doubt it, a weak person like you?"
Now face to face with her and when he was still catching his breath, Gertrud continued her words, and it shocked Abel, "Well… I admit you do look cute, why don't you go to a place with me and I'll give you everything you want!"