The path the merchants were taking was filled with different vistas.
They circled a grand mountain, walking on the cliffsides and admiring the bastions of rock that stood by their sides.
For the majority of the trip, there was only an endless, climbing, incline to the right. To left were vast swathes of flatlands. Forests filled both sides in differing densities while the occasional rivers were rushing downhill which always aided in resupplying the caravan's food reserves.
WIld animals could be spotted consistently: most were docile like the 'giagantus' deers who roamed the forests, the subterranean elephants that were akin to earthen submarines, and the rock worms who were munching on bedrock. The aggressive predators were rarer sights, from the winged serpents to the draconic lizards. Most reptiles on this planet were quite ferocious and difficult to defeat, but the caravan had to push through nonetheless.
After about a week of these scenic experiences that Athelei documented into his memory, the caravan finally arrived at a human settlement.
Athelei referenced the map in his memory and identified the place as Varis Village.
It was much smaller than his hometown but it seemed to have its own special vibe. Athelei looked at the fortress-like buildings built from intimidating Blackstone. He searched the Information Network and found out that Varis Village has a good business around its quarries.
'That's pretty cool,' thought Athelei as he admired the fresh sights. He glanced back inside his carriage and noticed that Falti and the other survivors inside were still fast asleep.
Even when the carriage was brought to a complete stop, they had yet to stir. It seemed to Athelei like they hadn't been faring so well.
'In the first hours, it was me who suffered the most,' thought Athelei, 'Is it because of my youth that I was able to adapt? Or is the reality of their lives hitting them now that they were given the chance to relax?'
Athelei would only be able to find out if he engaged them in conversation.
For now, however, Athelei was more interested in the first village he had ever visited in his life.
"Status," Athelei whispered and an orange screen appeared in front of him.
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=} User: Athelei (Tier 0 User) {=
=} Interface Authority Level: 0.2 {=
=o=o=o=o=
=} Skills {=
- Orange Analysis Skill: Judgement (Level 4/5) (Exp 3408/4000)
=o=o=o=o=
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Judgement grew at about a rate of 1000 experience points every night that Athelei went wild with his fog-body. After the course of seven days, he was approaching max level.
On another hand, Appraisal was lagging behind by around 500 experience points due to its rather volatile growth.
As for Examine? It was maxed out quite some time ago with its growth of 2000 experience per night.
Despite Examine having been maxed out though, Athelei's promotion to Tier 1 had yet to occur. His Trinity Gem seemed to have a slightly different promotion requirement than what the Nebula Gems had for the normal Users.
Athelei sneakily got off his carriage with feather-like footsteps. He then walked out of the line of carriages that formed the caravan and found himself in front of a busy square.
'So this is how the merchants do their thing,' Athelei peeked at a few familiar faces as they passionately made exchanges again, and again, and again.
Their cheeks were rather red while sweat dripped down their chins. Their clothes were already quite thin in the still-chilly air of February and despite that, they were sweaty. And even then, March was around the corner yet it seemed like the year was colder than usual with snowstorms being quite the norm in the northern parts of Illyas.
Athelei admired their hard work for a few seconds before being distracted by a few older kids running by him.
"Hey!" A kid stopped so close to Athelei's face that the latter took a few steps back in surprise.
"Hey..?" Athelei replied as he scanned the kid in front of him.
It was an older boy who was a good head taller than he was. The boy wore clean clothes, but his shoes were stained by mud and dirt. What might've been a pair of creamy loafers were now as black as coal.
"I haven't seen you before. Are you with the caravan?" The kid asked, stepping forward with every step Athelei took backwards.
"Mhm, I am." Athelei narrowed his eyes, not feeling comfortable with the approach. He dragged his coat slightly back in a manner that he had seen the knights do with their cloaks.
He rested his hand on the blood-stained dagger sheath on his waist and made a good show of it.
"I'm Orien," Athelei smiled, allowing his reflexes to continue his threatening posture despite his lack of fear. "What's your name?"
"...I'm uh, Julius." The taller kid answered when he saw the bloody sheath. Julius had seen his father return home with the same bloody items more than once and was instinctively quite fearful.
Athelei gave Julius a pat on his shoulder, and giggled, "Hi Julius. Pleased to meet you." He continued, "What were you guys playing? Can I join?"
Athelei then allowed Julius to stare at his dagger sheath a bit more before hiding it back inside his coat. When the dagger was out of sight, Athelei watched Julius lose his stiffness and hurriedly make a broad grin.
"AH! Yeah! We need another player because Nana got sick with a fever and can't play." Julius returned a few strong pats on Athelei's shoulder as he grabbed the latter's wrist and said, "Come on! I'll introduce you to the others and you can be part of my team."
"Okay!" Athelei hadn't been able to play around with other kids in a long time. It was always conversations, advice, and training with the adults.
It wasn't like he didn't fancy such activities, in fact, he was addicted to the feeling of absorbing information. It was just quite a stale lifestyle to be doing the exact same thing again and again.
It reminded him of his time in infinity. It was just an eternal loop of constant growth or constant shrinking. It was an infinite cycle with no end in sight.
Before Athelei could leave the vicinity of the caravan, however, a Harmonic Knight rounded a corner and spotted him.
"Oh, Orien! Are you going out to play?" the knight grinned as the scars on his face were scrunched up. He looked a bit scary, especially in his armour shining in the light and the blood-scented greatsword hanging at his back.
Julius was shocked and nearly bumped into the knight. He glanced back at the kid he was dragging with him and was filled with a sense of awe. 'Is he a squire? That's so cool!' thought Julius.
Meanwhile, Athelei replied with excitement in his voice, "Yep! Is there anything I should watch out for, sir Mack?"
Athelei had become quite familiar with a lot of the Harmonic Knights' names over the week, and almost the entire caravan was familiar with the only child that was travelling with them. Travelling together forges quite a few bonds, especially with the landscape and trip being so relaxing.
"Hm," Mack grunted as if in thought. Then, he pointed at a building near the caravan's carriages and said, "Nothing really. Just be careful and return to that inn over there before nightfall, 'kay?"
"Okay~!"
"Alright, have fun." Mack then gave Athelei a good head pat and waved him off.
This time it was Athelei who had to pull Julius with him as Mack waved at them. It took a few seconds before Julius regained his bearings and asked,
"Are you a squire, Orien?"
"Hm?" Athelei pondered over the question and thought that he technically was, "Yep. I just started training but I'm pretty good with my dagger."
Athelei then took out the Mystic Stiletto Dagger from its sheath and gave it a little whirl. It made a few whistles as he swung the blade around and Julius' eyes were now overflowing with admiration.
"Whoa!' He yelled out, "Have you gone hunting before? Do you wanna try? We have slingshots back at Charles' house. Maybe we could kill a few rabbits before it gets dark..."
Athelei and Julius continued to talk about random things such as Athelei's experience as a squire, the interesting stuff Julius knew about Varis Village, and the games they could play.
When they met up with other kids, Athelei saw that Julius was the second biggest kid there. The other one who was slightly taller was a bit more docile compared to the rather aggressive Julius so the latter kind of took the role of leader.
Athelei was the smallest and the youngest, but when he introduced himself as a squire, the other kids reacted the way Julius did. He was asked many questions and whatnot as they ran to their 'secret spot' just outside the village.
All was fun as Athelei played with the other kids. They played different kinds of tag, some kind of war game where they had to capture their opponent's bases, tree climbing, and even simple rock-throwing.
It seemed like a normal day of games and Athelei even showed the other kids his orange Cosmic Interface, making everyone excited.
He showed the kids the different features of the Information Network and his Analysis Skill, Judgement. There were a lot of oohs and ahs as he manipulated the light screen. When the kids realised what Judgement did, their new game became who could bring the coolest items.
'Aha, my experience is going up quite fast,' Athelei inwardly chuckled as the kids brought a variety of random items from their 'secret collections' so that they could all see what kind of treasures they had through Judgment.
They kept at it until a certain item snagged Athelei's interest amidst all the regular items, the shiny stones, coins, and rusty jewellery.
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Unknown Mystical Badge
- It should have weird and possibly dangerous effects.
- Care must be exercised.
[ +200 Exp to Analysis Skill: Judgement (Current Exp: 3998/4000) ]
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Athelei's eyes shook when he saw this as his curiosity was immensely triggered. It felt like a dam broke when he noticed the experience bonus as well as the cryptic description of the Unknown Mystical Badge.
He asked the kid who showed the badge to him if they wanted to trade with it.
"I want a knife!" The kid quickly replied. Athelei noticed that the kid who asked for the knife was a girl who joined their games quite late. Athelei recalled her name was Lisa and she was Julius' cousin.
Anyways, hearing that Lisa wanted a knife he could easily buy from the merchants with a silver coin or two, he quickly accepted the trade.
He sprinted to the caravan, bought a decent knife for a silver coin, sprinted back to Lisa, and completed the trade.
The knife came with its own sheath and was a decent hunting blade. Lisa was really happy to own one and she proudly strapped it onto her waist in a way that copied Athelei. This little transaction brought Athelei's savings down from a gold coin—which was worth 100 Silvers or 10 Large Silvers—to 9 Large Silvers and 9 Silvers.
'It's totally worth it though,' Athelei thought as he kept the badge carefully in his pocket. 'I'm going to figure out what this thing is tonight. Even if this could destroy my physical body, I don't have to worry too much if it's my fog-body... Hopefully.'
Athelei rubbed the badge in his pocket as he inwardly cackled, 'Well, that doesn't matter. If I meet my end this way, I will still be satisfied. Hehehe,'
As the sun began to set, in the end, it was Lisa who won the game. Everyone was of the same mind that the hunting knife was a great prize because they all thought that the blade was a lot nicer. After all, it was similar to the swords that the famous Harmonic Knights used, and a lot of the children, boys or girls, thought it would be amazing to be one of them.
The Harmonic Knights were all advocates of balance after all. Their overall male to female ratio was almost perfectly balanced, as all things should be. That was the general trend in Illyas, actually.
It went to show just how much influence the Church of Libra had on the culture of the Illyasians.