Unknowingly, a month had passed ever since I became Rain Scarlet.
Everyday I spent my times studying and reading books in the afternoon looking for more informations that I might have lacked while living leisurely.
At night, I trained my mana control. It was hard doing it without a teacher, but thanks to Rain's vast knowledge and combining it with the knowledge I knew from the game, I managed to create a self-style mana exercise.
I could ask Irina to guide me in controlling mana as she was quite a talented magician, but I want to hide my power as much as possible.
Every 3 days, Ash would beat me up in the morning until I couldn't stand up anymore. And sometimes I went to visit the town to accompany Irina shopping.
I have completely used to living in this world by now. Maybe because Scarlet was a rich household even among the nobles, my life was rather easy.
Today, I planned to leave for my journey to the premium dungeon. It's official name is "Abyss of the Clouds Tower". It could only be entered by having an item called "Sealed Abyss Key". The key itself can only be obtained from buying the dlc pack.
I have been planning for this journey for three weeks. Back on earth, I got a treasure map that shows the coordinates of the key location.
Although I don't have the treasure map with me, I still remember the coordinates for the key location.
It was buried under a certain tree inside the "Forest of Spirits". It would only appears on midnight for 5 minutes before it disappeared.
It takes a week to reach "Forest of Spirits" from the Scarlet territory. School will start in two months, so I only have a month and a half left before I left for the capital. I won't have much time to explore dungeons once I come back to school.
And so, after discussing my plan to train in the "Forest of Spirits" with my father, I managed to get his permission to train alone. It took a lot of effort to convinced him, albeit on the condition the guards will escort me. They will leave me alone once we reached there, so I won't expose the key location.
"Have you prepared everything, Rain?"
My mother was looking at me with worried eyes
"Yes, mother. I have been preparing for this journey for weeks"
"Rain, you can give up anytime you want if you can't endure it"
"Sis, can you stop treating me like a kid?"
"But, you are a kid!"
"I'm 16 alright!"
"You're still younger than me, so you're a kid!"
"Dear, why did you gave him permission to go on a journey? Rain is still too young for it"
"A kid will always grow up. Please believe our son, Eva"
"Shut up, dad! What if Rain got hurt?"
"Come on, Irina. I was killing monsters in the dungeon when I was his age"
"It's different, you idiot! You've been aiming to be a knight since young, while Rain was forced to train by you"
Ash let out a wry smile at her answer.
Seeing their interaction made me remembered what a wiseman Sun Tzu once said "Never argue with a woman, and you shall not lose the battle".
In this past month, I slowly accepted my new family into my life. I feel sorry for my parents on earth as I was the source of their headaches. If I could turn back time, I would be more filial to them.
"Rain-sama, everything is ready"
Two fully-armored knights came to pick me up. One of them was Orland, a middle aged man on his 40s with brown hair and a scar on his face. He was the vice-captain of the scarlet knight. The other one was Bruce, a man on his mid 30s with blonde hair.
Both of them have the aura of warriors who have survived many battles even though they didn't draw their weapon. I practiced with them sometimes on the day Ash couldn't beat me up because of his work.
Soon, I got into the carriage and say my farewell.
"I'm off"
"Take care, Rain"
∆ ∆ ∆
No one knows how long "Forest of Spirits" has existed. According to the legend, this place used to be home of the spirits. A long time ago, they lived harmoniously with humans, plants and animals. Until one day, all the spirits disappeared.
No one knows the reason of their disappearances. Some said they lost their trust in humans because they were betrayed. Other said a greedy merchant kidnapped the spirits and sold them away. There are also those who believes that they were invaded by the demons.
Those who knew the truth have long disappeared. Perhaps, I am the only one who knows about the truth excluding those who played "War of Generations".
The truth is far from rumors. An apostle of evil spreads the abyss seeds corrupting the spirits turning them into abyssal monsters. In order to stop their plan to spreads evil on the entire world, the spirit king at that time build a tower to sealed them away, while hoping the tower will purify their souls and bring them back.
Countless years passed, but the tower couldn't purify their souls. It could only weakened the abyss seeds, so it won't interfere with the world balance.
This world was more dangerous than earth. Evil forces, monsters and demons looms around.
Oddly enough, we almost arrived at the "Forest of Spirits", but we never encountered a single bandit. So far, the only I've seen was just wild animals. And they died after receiving a single slash from Bruce. Moreover, they became our rations.
Maybe it was because I'm a mob, or maybe because I'm just lucky. I, who imagined an exhilarating journey was disappointed by the boring trip.
The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment. I guess that saying was true after all.
I let out a sigh.
Anyway, peace is good. Although it was rather boring, at least I'm safe.
Soon, we arrived at Blake, a small city near the "Forest of Spirits". This place was quite bleak compared to Scarlet territory. Although this place was just a small city, there are a lot of adventurers here.
Even though there are no more spirits in the "Forest of Spirits", a large amounts of herbs grows in here. Maybe because this place used to be the home of the spirits, the soil was particularly fertile.
Unfortunately, no high-grade or rare herbs can grows in here. But this place is still quite popular for alchemist and low-level adventurers because the highest monsters is only around level 10 or 11 and there are a lot of herbs that can be used to make low-potions.
After solving our lodging, I told Orland and Bruce to go to the tavern. There a lot of people in the tavern be in the day or at night. It was a great place to gathering information or rumors. Even judging from how the people behave at the tavern, an experienced person like Orland could make a guest about the safety of the city.
While they were looking for informations, I visited the an alchemy workshop to buy some potions. I don't know the situations inside the dungeon, so its better to overstock potions than not having enough potions.
Afterwards, I looked for general store to buy some ingredients like dried meat, vegetables, bottled-waters and spices that could last for about two weeks. Next, I visited the blacksmith shop to buy a shovel. I didn't bring one with me to hide my real purpose because I use training in the wild as my excuse to fool my family.
After buying all the necessary stuff, I came back to the inn. All hail magic bag! Fortunately I have this item or else I have to carry everything in hand. Just imagining it destroy my motivations to explore the dungeon. It's nice being in a rich family. If I was a poor boy then even if I work for ten years I probably still couldn't buy it.
The space is small though, as it only have 3 meters cubic space.
After waiting for an hour, Orland and Bruce came back. I listened about the things they heard in the tavern. There are various informations like the suspicious old man selling candy, a girl looking for her lost cat, a cheating husband and a certain widow's panties color. Umm, forget it. There is no important informations, which means this city has good safety.
And so, I decided to move after the sun sets down to avoid being seen by someone.