Ray left the restaurant with a big happy-to-go smile on his face. He smiled so hard that it turned into a grin which due to grinning constantly turned eerie and made the kids walking around the trade city scramble away from Ray.
Yet, just like always, Ray was none the wiser, that was even more so because he never paid attention to his surroundings when he was happy to such an extent.
Ray continued walking around the trade city. However, he just walked around the whole perimeter of the city. Neither did he enter any establishment nor did he leave. He just continued walking until the sun descended and gave way for the countless stars to appear in the sky when night finally gained the throne in the sky.
As night came, darkness occupied the skies while countless glimmers lit up. Making the sky look mesmerizing. The streets of the trade city also changed as merchants closed their shops and food stalls opened. People dressed in more casual clothes came out of their homes to enjoy the nightlife while hunters came back to the city after a long day of hunting.
Like this, a versatile ecosystem between all types of people, whether they be normal humans with no power or hunters that hunted beasts capable of sending down shivers through one's spine or whether they are rich tycoons of the city or the soldiers protecting the city.
This way, everyone lived in harmony with no one crossing another's way. Ray looked at the people in the city and sighed.
He wished for people on Earth to live like this, without any prejudice, without any distinction of race, color, and heredity, and lastly without the distinction between rich and poor.
He wanted to see humans live together and be aligned towards a singular goal while the strong helped the weak. But he knew that this was nothing but wishful thinking from his side.
As far as he knew, humans were creatures of greed. They would use all means to get what they wanted while what they had was never enough.
Ray understood that even he was like that, in search of more. Even he wanted more power and more strength. But for what? just to provide his family with a better life. Hence, Ray did not linger much on the topic. He made his way to his hotel room late at night. The receptionist was snoring at the reception.
Passing him, Ray crossed other rooms and could hear the people in those rooms having the time of their life while some rooms were silent as their owners slept to overcome their daily exhaustion.
Ray swept past other rooms and reached his.
'creak!
The door opened, Ray entered the room and the door closed behind him, he sat down and took out a quest token.
"8 hours until the carriage leaves the city. Have to be 5 minutes before departure. Destination, "The Rysal Royal City.
Duty: Protection of the goods and people traveling the Royal city".
Ray once again read the information on the token and made sure his preparations were all set for departure. Seeing that all his preparations were done, Ray sat down in a lotus position and began observing his mana and trying to comprehend the changes brought by the condensation of the mana core.
****
The night passed and morning came as the darkness faded while light gained authority over the skies as it shined down on the world illuminating the vast lands.
With the arrival of morning, Ray also stood up, he changed his clothes and put on his beast souls while he made his way towards the city gates. Where he would meet his employer.
Ray walked along the streets and quickly reached the city gates, as he reached the city gates, he saw around 20 people standing in front of a stout-looking man.
He naturally verified the stout-looking man to be his employer while the other 20 to be those who took the quest just like him.
Although Ray did not know the reasons for the other 20 to take the quest. For him, this quest was the most convenient way to leave the trade city and reach the Royal City. After all, with a company of 20 people, there wouldn't be many problems. While they would be provided with food and rations and they would just have to look out for the carriages and their safety from bandits.
Furthermore, for Ray, these people would make him enter the Royal City without any issues. This way, he could further his plans of getting stronger while the journey to Royal City would go smoothly as his employer would know the safest route to Royal City.
* * * * *
"Your job is to protect the carriages and the goods from bandits and beasts. Furthermore, I assure you, there won't be any beasts beyond the intermediate tier, so do your best to protect the goods, along with the goods, there are 5 passengers in one of the carriages, so you have to protect them too and oblige with their needs".
The stout-looking man explained the details to Ray and the other people. After Ray joined with the other guards on the mission, 3 more people arrived making the count go to 25.
Then the stout-looking man looked pleased with the number of people who would serve as their guards for the journey. He hoped they would reach the Royal City safely.
After all, what no one knew was that one of the princesses of the Rysal Empire was inside the carriage and the goods were nothing but a ruse for the safety of the princess.
Meanwhile,
Ray met up with the other guards and chatted with them as they all settled to start their journey towards the Royal City.
Ray got to know a lot about the guards. Of the 25 guards appointed to keep the carriages safe, 9 of them were females while others were males. However, no one dared to touch or patronize any female nor did they do anything foolish, instead their behavior towards them was without any wrong intentions. However, they did so not in respect of gender and values, they did so due to the strict rules imposed by the Guild's Association to uphold the law and safety of their workers.
Although many males controlled themselves and did not do anything without consent, there were some who although controlled themselves, could not control themselves from eyeing the female guards. After all, the females also wore battle armors that clung to their curvaceous bodies which increased their appeal. Therefore, many gazes lingered on their bodies.
However, this did not hinder the females in any way.
Ray got to know more about the journey and realized that the route they were taking, although not void of danger was much safer compared to other routes. There were not many beasts lurking in their route while the highest one would find were pseudo-intermediate tier beasts and intermediate tier beasts. However, the beasts weren't the danger, the greatest danger was bandits.
And that was also the reason for the merchant to hire guards, to keep them safe from the bandits. As after all, for a merchant, to be loitered by a bandit would be the worst. Furthermore, Ray also got to know more information about the type of beasts they would encounter on their journey.
This helped Ray to prepare himself for the journey and gave him a journal idea of the difficulties that would arise through the journey.
Therefore, shortly after meeting with the employer, the carriages started their journey toward the Royal City and so did Ray's journey to Royal City started.
A journey during which a lot would happen for someone as young as Ray.
.