Sarah finished speaking, but Isaiah asked a question. ''Why would they throw him away? Tiefel said he's powerful, and the spells he can use are unusual?''
She shrugged. ''The Duke is a proud man; he was shamed in front of the surrounding nobles, who, as you know, spread the news, causing the Duke to overreact and banish him.''
She was looking at the handsome boy who only had one person in this world who he cared about. ''But the Duke will come to regret what he has done.''
Sarah couldn't stand to see the boy spiraling even more, so she jumped out of the carriage and approached him. As she got close, she asked. ''Archer, are you okay?''
He was muttering to himself. ''No, no, not okay at all.''
''I'm sorry, I didn't intend to pry. I just noticed you're talking to yourself, and I was concerned,'' Sarah asked.
''It's alright; I'm not sure if I'm talking to myself or someone else; a lot is happening in my head now.'' He replied while shaking his head.
''I understand. Would you like to talk about it?''
Archer looked at her before replying. ''It's personal.''
Sarah continued to walk alongside him. ''That's what I'm here for; it's not good to keep all those thoughts and feelings to yourself; they can consume you.''
Nodding while looking at him. When he heard her, he sighed. ''I don't even know where to start. I've been through so much, and it keeps haunting me, the memories, the nightmares; it's all so real.''
She placed a hand on his shoulder as she spoke. ''I'm listening.''
Archer trembled at her touch and quickly backed away from her before trying to speak. He didn't want to talk about it yet; it was still a sore subject for him; she noticed his hesitation and spoke calmly.
''That's okay. You can talk to me whenever you feel ready.'' Sarah smiled at him and returned to the carriage; he watched her walk away as he remembered her words.
After their talk, he managed to calm down the violent turmoil wrecking his brain by thinking of Ella's smile.
He decided to train his short sword mastery skill when they camped for the night. A month passed just like that, and the caravan was only attacked twice: once by a pack of goblins and once by more wolves.
Archer managed to kill ten goblins and eleven wolves, which netted him a lot of experience and heart. He laughed as he slaughtered the beasts, spooking everyone in the caravan except Sarah and the group Fate's Fortune, who watched with sad faces.
The wolves attacked during the first month, and the goblins attacked as they crossed the Cardina Bridge. The bridge was crossing the Serpent River on the Rhodora Kingdom's side of the border.
Archer thought the kingdom must be in chaos for them not to clear a bunch of goblins ambushing people by the bridge. As they were walking down the old-looking stone road, Archer checked his status.
[Experience: 2050/3000.]
[Level Up: 47>48]
[SP: 0>21]
[Cosmic Shield: 2>3]
[Cosmic Sword: 2>3]
[Eldritch Blast: 2>3]
[Fire Missiles: 3>4]
[Fireball: 0>1]
[Aura-Detector 0>1]
[Short Sword Mastery : 0>2]
Archer was happy. Although he could have gained a lot more experience, he trained his sword skill, managing to get it to Level 2. Due to practice, many of his spells also leveled up.
The caravan approached an open mountain pass, and Archer was sent to scout ahead with Baradar. As they reached the top of the hill, they were met with a chilling sight. The open mountain pass dirt road stretched out before them, dark and menacing against the muted sky.
Jagged rocks lined the sides of the path, seeming to loom over the narrow way like sharp teeth waiting to devour anyone who dared pass through. The cold wind blowing through the valley below added an eerie soundtrack to the scene, howling through the twisting mountain peaks and carrying a faint, unsettling whisper.
It was as if the pass itself was alive, and it could sense the fear that crept into people's hearts. Despite the creeping dread, Archer could not help but stare down into the abyss below.
There was something magnetic, almost hypnotic, about the mountain pass, as if it held some hidden secrets and mysteries that begged to be uncovered. But as the seconds ticked by, the darkness of the pass worsened, which scared some of the caravan guards.
He stepped back, staying safely perched on the hilltop rather than venturing into the unknown. Archer looked at the tall blonde man and saw the man's green eyes widen. Barador was shocked by what he saw before them.
They nodded at each other and quickly returned to the caravan. As they walked back, Archer asked, ''Why are we transporting carriages of food and other materials instead of storing them in storage rings?''
Barador looked at the boy and laughed before answering. ''Well, Arch, food is perishable in the rings, so there's no point using those for food; the guild members do have things stored in the rings, such as clothes and medical supplies, but they can't store food, so they keep them in ice chests to last longer.''
Sarah, the head guard Arthur, and the man in charge of the caravan, Elric Hardwillow, manager of the Hardwillow merchant family, were accompanying them.
The two arrived before the group, and Elric turned towards them, ''So what was there?''
Barador answered the man, ''The mountain pass looks clear, but there's something strange about it. I suggest we travel through it at first light as it will be dark by the time we reach it.''
Sarah and Arthur agreed, but Elric didn't and voiced his objection, ''No, we travel now to the guild; we are four days away, so let's not waste time.''
Everyone tried to protest, but Elric didn't hear it, so the caravan continued towards the mountain pass. When they reached the entrance, it was already dark. The men who knew light spells surrounded the caravan and lit up the area.
The group who helped with the wendigos also stayed, thanks to Sarah convincing them to join the mission. Archer was sitting on the roof of the first carriage. He had his Aura Detection on and picked up nothing.
Hours passed as they traveled through the mountains, and that's when he picked up three signatures moving toward them. He quickly stood up and aimed in the direction of firing an Eldritch Blast without warning anyone, and the night was lit up with a violet glow as the blast hit something.
Something fell from the sky smashing next to the road a few meters in front of the caravan, Archer made his way over to it and looked at the thing. It was a giant bat-looking creature with wyvern-like wings and twitching. Archer summoned his sword and stabbed the beast in the head.
The thing stopped moving, and he stored it in his item box. However, as he turned around, he saw two adventurers being picked up and dragged off screaming. Jaen was firing water spears at the beasts, Baradar was shooting arrows at them, and Tiefel was healing the injured guards.
Isaiah rallied everyone and managed to take one down by hitting it with an aura slash, and the two beasts were taken down with some effort.
The caravan lost three men and had four injured, which Tiefel and another mage were healing. After the wounded were healed, the caravan started moving again.
A few hours later, more flying beasts attacked, but they were prepared this time. Spells flew towards them, tearing their wings apart and causing them to smash into the ground.
Archer fired some fire missiles into two things, bringing them to a burning stop. As the beasts dropped, he ran over and started looting them.
He got six hearts from all the beasts and stored them away. The bat beasts he killed gave him 3000 experience, so he wanted to kill more.
They continued as Archer was eating some sweets and checked his status.
'Status.'
[Experience: 300/3000]
[Level Up: 48>49]
[SP: 0>2]
"Stop, we're camping here for the night!" the head guard, Arthur, called out from the front.
As the moon rose high in the sky, casting an eerie glow over the land, the creepy grassland took on a new dimension of strangeness. The tall stalks of grass rustled and swayed to the rhythm of the cool night breeze, casting strange shadows on the ground below.
The sky was dark and clear, save for the occasional cloud that would pass overhead, blocking out the eerie, silver light of the moon. But the large rocks, jutting from the earth, seemed alive at night.
They stood like silent sentinels around the grassland, casting ominous shadows that seemed to twist and turn with every gust of wind. The rocks looked almost like figures, frozen in time, watching over the fearsome landscape, waiting for something or someone.