As Alexander and the old man chatted for almost an hour, Hector enter the house. "the carriage and the beast mount is ready." Following that, Candice also enter the house. Alexander nodded "alright, thanks for the tea old man. How much is the rent for the beast and carriage?" he asked. Before Candice give out her reply, the old man raise his hand to stop her. "Mr. Alexander, as you can see I'm already old. The stables will also be permanently closed."
At this point, Alexander somehow understood what the old man wants however, he only stayed silent. "grandfather, what are you talking about?" Candice was confused however, Hector on the other hand had his fist clenched. "Mr. Alexander, in exchange of the carriage and the beast mount, I hope you could take care both my grand daughter and grandson. Their father and mother suffered an untimely death…" the old man wanted to continue to talk but tears can't helped but escaped from the old man eyes. But to Alexander, when he heard the last sentence, though he saw sadness in the old man's eyes, it was mixed with hatred and guilt. "the story of this old man is not simple." He said to himself.
"I don't have any issue on that old man however, what about you? Are you not coming with your grandchildren?" Alexander probed. When the old man heard the question, a hint of hesitation was seen but the old man shook his head and steeled himself. "no. This where my wife's burial and I wanted to be with her in my end days." Alexander nodded and accepted the old man's resolved. He fling a gold coin to the old man. "buy yourself a good food and wine." Then he walked out of the house. Candice and Hector run towards the old man and hug him for the last time and followed Alexander. As the old man stare at the leaving backs of his grand children, he clenched his fist and smiles and goes to his room with full of weapons and a black suit. "Elizabeth my love, I'll be with you soon." He muttered as he slowly closed the door.
"Wait up Mr. Alexander!" Candice caught up with Alexander. "let me and Hector coach the carriage." Alexander just nodded and invites the two kid inside the carriage. Candice and Hector sat at the front of the carriage and coached the carriage. As they hit the road, Alexander open up his status panel.
[Status] [Mission Board]
Name: Alexander F*cking Mcdowell
Age: 16
Occupation: Merchant(Apprentice)
Money: 125 Gold (4 days before deduction)
Power Level: 1690(Blue Ranker 1)
Strength: 295 Intelligence: 175
Charisma: 180 Wisdom: 183
Endurance: 314 Luck: 225
Agility: 318
Skills:
Hide(Mastery) Tracking(Mastery)
Appraise(Mastery) Apothecary (Intermediate)
Smithing(Beginner) Haggle(Beginner)
Secret Land(Beginner)
Titles:
'The one reincarnated for the 100th time'
'Chosen of the Elements'
'Beast Farmer'
'Raging Demon'
'Sole Survivor'
Mission: Mission 5(Special): Sell 200 gold worth of beast product.(5 days left)
Upon checking, he can't helped but sighed. He asked Candice if there is any village on the way and there is actually one which is 2-3 days away with their current speed. As time pass, it already sunset "let us camp here for the night" Candice stopped the carriage and together with Hector, prepared to camp. "you two just stay in the carriage okay?" said Alexander at the two kids. The two kids nodded, and he exited the carriage. "is there any beast in this forest?" he asked Candice "yes there are some wild beast here but I am not too sure." "okay! Just prepare to camp and I'll be back."
As he hasn't finish his hunting quest, he tried his luck in this forest. After for more than 3 hours of hunting, he was able to hunt five yellow ranked beast but only 3 wild beast. He sighed "its not that bad of a harvest." Then he decided to go back at the camp. As he is going back, he smelled a scent of iron in the air "hmm… blood!" he immediately cast haste to hasten his return. At the camp, he saw two forest wolves corpse but there are still 8 or 9 of them. On the other side was a bloodied Hector who's holding a dagger but it seems that it was the wolf's blood instead of his. He was guarding the carriage door meaning the kids and Candice should be fine. "Nice work kid!" his voice rang, Hector was startled Lulu also stopped crying "Big brother!!" she shouted. Then Alexander appear beside Hector and patted his shoulder. "let me handle this." He calmly said. The wolves bare their fangs growling at him. He calmly walked towards the wolves as he circulate the elemental energy in his feet.
On the side, Hector is carefully watching Alexander's back. As Alexander neared enough with the wolves, the wolves suddenly jump at him altogether. He smiled "perfect." Then he intensify his circulation of energy in his feet. "Echo Stomp!" as he stomped his right foot, a massive earth explosion sounded in the forest.
As the dust settled, corpse of forest wolves litter the ground. "Ding! Mission complete! Rewarding 20 silvers per head. Please check your panel." Alexander was satisfied as he completed his missions. Hector was dumbfounded on what he witnessed "holy crap! This brother is so cool!" he said to himself. He clenched the dagger his holding "I want to get strong as him!" Hector decided to ask to be his apprentice.
As Alexander walks back to the carriage, the door opens and Lulu jump down and run towards to him "big bro, your so cool and strong!" Alexander only smiled and patted her head as he giggle. Kratos still calm as a pole like he expected this. "Brother!" Hector immediately run up to Alexander and kneel down. Even Candice was taken aback by the action of his little brother. Alexander only raise his brow "please make me your apprentice!" he kowtowed to Alexander. Alexander pondered for a little while "I'll think about it. If you show some promise then I don't mind taking you in." since he was not in a rush on taking an apprentice, he decide to delay it for a while. "no problem! I will not let you down master!" Hector said "alright, alright, all of you, you can rest inside the carriage for now and I'll be on the watched. We will have a long day ahead." As he said this, he carry Lulu back to the carriage.
After journeying for another day, they arrive at the Spring forest village. The village seems richer than the sleeping forest village. As they make way to an inn to check it for the day, Alexander decided to roam the village around hence he gave Candice some money for them to settle in an inn. Alexander goes in a restaurant to get some information. As he was gathering information, something pique his interest "hey, hey did you hear, the guard commander stationed at the sleeping forest village was assassinated. I also heard that the assassin was able to escape but took a grievous wound." "I think that head commander deserve it, I heard that this commander tried to raped someone else's wife but the husband was able to come in time but they were killed." Said by the patrons beside his table. "sighed, don't worry old man, I'll take care of your grand children." Then he drank a cup of wine. As he was filling for his cup, he heard another interesting information "hey did hear that the Golden Valley Kingdom is in turmoil, it appears that the demand for the beast meat has reached by another level and the villages that is under the Kingdom is currently being ransacked of their beast meat. Even the aristocrats was unable to evade to the demand of the kingdom." "sighed, fortunately this village is under the snow mountain kingdom, though there is a scarce in the meat, the royal family still didn't force any village for their meat stock." Alexander sneered when he heard the news and continue to eat and drink at the restaurant.
In the sleeping forest village, "how's the situation in the kingdom?" Merck asked one of his shadow. "not good, the royal family already forced most of the village for their meat stocked. Some of the stables in the villages was the most victim of this decree." Said by the shadow. "have we got information about the mysterious seller of the meat that arrived at the kingdom in the past 2 weeks?" "yes master. The one who sold the meat was Bob, he is the owner of the restaurant in the market plaza." Merck nodded "did you asked where did he got the meat?" the shadow paused and frowned as he read through the report. "this… I think it's better for you to read it master." The shadow handed the report to Merck. As he read through the report, he hit his table so hard that it was smashed. "bastard! What the hell is this?! Are you joking with me?!" Merck was seething in anger. As per on the report, the seller of the meat was Alexander. Not only he sold almost 2 tons of meat previously, he also sold about half a ton of elemental beast meat. What's more, he was about to sell 10 tons of meat which cam help to alleviate the demand but a bastard royal chef ridiculed, humiliate and threaten Alexander hence ended up him cancelling the deal. Not only that, now the kid has gone to snow mountain kingdom.
Merck almost vomited blood in anger. "fi-find shadow 0 and 1 immediately and informed them to get in touched with the kid. If needed, beg for him to sell some meat!" the shadow was dumbfounded with the order but he immediately took off. "Shadow 4, ready your brothers! We will visit the kingdom at once." Shadow 4 also took off and prepared for the trip. "old shadow! Inform Grease and Lars to get ready as well, in case there's a need to leave the village." "master, Lars is not in the village anymore, as per on the reports, he fled the kingdom after getting 5 gallons of royal honey and some other herbs in the royal vault without his majesty permission and his location is currently unknown." Said by old shadow. Merck only laugh and instructed old shadow to inform Grease to prepare heavily as they might need to fled as well.