At noon Sipi couldn't find Alex for dinner. After searching for a few hours when she was unable to find Alex she informed the matter to the head maid. And From there the matters escalated. All servants searched the whole castle but couldn't find Alex anywhere. When the matter went to Shallie's ears she was delighted. She tried to delay the news from reaching Gaden's ears. As a result, when the result reached Gaden it was the evening of the next day. To keep herself safe Sipi never mentioned the staff she purchased for Alex. She could vaguely guess that Alex had left on his own will rather than being kidnapped or other possibilities. Everyone was maintaining their own interest and putting up their own facade. As for Lilia, she once again fell into despair.
Alex stayed that night at a cheap inn. Trying to avoid being detected Alex kept a low profile and explored the town the next day. He also had the fear that soon the search might be started and stretch to twinleaf town. After buying a few necessary supplies Alex left Twinleaf town with a group of travelers. His destination was the city of Almon.
In the group, there were around 20 people with 6 Adventurers for the protection of the group. Each person had to pay 25 copper coins for their protection. Others consisted of merchants and middle-class people. Almond was the biggest city around this region that connected this region with the rest of the kingdom. Ray had paid additional 10 copper coins to a merchant for food in the journey. The group crossed was traveling in 6 horse-drawn carts, four occupied by people and two occupied with goods brought by the merchants.
When the night fell they had already traveled three villages and decided to camp the never-ending fields that stretched to the horizon. Meat stew was being prepared, and three campfires were burning. Alex was sitting next to a mother breastfeeding her child and kept looking towards the burning fire.
"my! My! Boy, aren't you too young to be traveling alone? " the woman asked.
"I am actually 14 years old if you believe me"
"Is that so? You sure don't look like that."
Thus Alex was having a mild conversation with the woman, waiting for the dinner, When Suddenly The adventurers got serious and one of them shouted, "Please all gather near the fires and be cautious. A group of goblins is coming this way."
Soon everyone gathered around the fires surrounded by the carts. The Adventurers stood outside. 2 of them were awakeners while the other 4 were just people with Strong will. They all unsheathed their weapons and prepared for the fight.
As far as Alex had seen in books, goblins were one of the low tear beasts that stayed in groups. Having a skin tone between yellow, green, and brown, they looked like malnourished children with big snakelike eyes and a big nose. Goblins were savage creatures but had a bit of intelligence. This made large mobs of goblins more dangerous. But these 30 overall goblins were easily manageable.
This became an opportunity for Alex to test himself. He took out his dagger and came out of the cart encirclement. The leader of the adventurer group noticed this and shouted "Kid, you better stay inside, it's dangerous."
"Please don't worry, I will take care of myself."
"Don't be rash kid, it's not the time to play hero", another girl adventurer shouted but Alex ignored her.
"Arrogant brat" a middle-aged adventurer snorted.
As soon as the goblins came into the vicinity, the two awakeners rushed towards the hoard. The Fight began. The Leader guy kept slashing and hacking goblins one by one. The girl covered her firsts with fire and kept punching the goblins and evading their attack, burning them in the process. This was the first time for Alex to see someone use a skill. The goblins that slipped past the duo were handled by the rest. The group had good teamwork. Seeing all this Alex got really excited. When in earth Alex often fantasized about this kind of life.
Two of the goblins had hidden and took a round tour to attack the merchant group from the other side. When 50 meters away these guys were noticed by the little boy's mother. She shrieked pointing towards the goblins drawing other people's attention. But the adventurers were already occupied.
Having their covers blown the goblins rushed towards the group with their blunt swords. Some of the merchants were getting ready with swords and spears in hand when Alex dashed passing the group accelerating towards the goblins. This was the time to test his VR experiences and months of hard training. Others were stunned by this little kid's momentary outburst of speed.
With a small battle cry, Alex dodged the blade swing of one goblin and jumped landing behind the other goblin. Before the goblin could react Alex slashed the neck of the goblin from the back. The increased strength of Alex beheaded the guy making it an instant kill. The second goblin screamed and hacked towards Alex, Alex blocked the blunt sword with his dagger and punched the goblin in the guts with the other hand. In the meantime, one of the Adventurer had come to the rear to protect the group, instead of finding Alex in his current state. With Alex's punch, the goblin had lost its balance momentarily. Taking this opportunity Alex stabbed the goblin in the chest and jumped back increasing the distance. The goblin swung its sword in pain slashing the air. Alex dashed once again and slashed the goblin. It felt on the ground losing its grip on the blunt sword. Alex stood on its hands and bending down stabbed the goblin a few more times until it no longer moved.
The fight soon came to end within 10 minutes.
"Not bad kid", the adventurer responded. After everything was taken care of the star of the day, the normal routine once again continued. For the people of Naya, this was a common thing to happen in the wilderness. However, this owed Alex some praise from others as well as a little bit of scolding from the girl and the women.