In midnight.
In the hushed embrace of the night, Alec's breaths reverberated, each one a tempest swirling within his chest.
Amidst the silence, his heart danced to the rhythm of a tumultuous storm as he was ensnared in the clutches of a haunting nightmare.
His eyes, veiled by darkness, danced with the unseen spectres of his dreams, each twitching a silent plea for escape.
With fists clenched, he battled against the shadowy forces that sought to ensnare him, his spirit a warrior in a realm where reality and fantasy intertwine.
In his dream, he is watching himself travel through a gloomy forest (Narnak Forest) with his parents and a caravan of merchants.
The season was on the cusp of autumn and spring. Roads were filled with leaves, and trees were half-naked with small green and red leaves.
Every movement on the road is causing a rustling sound. And now there were many places where dry leaves were stockpiled.
The caravan was going from Cayland, a top-tier city, to Greya Fort, a military outpost, where a famous Tier 8 physician, Joy Gregory, practices medicine.
Their main motives were to buy herbs and consult the doctor about Alec's mother, Rhea, who was diagnosed with an idiopathic disease that caused her life force to deplete rapidly.
Alec's father, Vikir, the esteemed master of the Roy Chamber of Commerce, faces a harrowing trial as his beloved wife falls prey to a mysterious ailment.
Desperate to save her, Vikir exhausts the resources of his empire in pursuit of a cure, disregarding the whispers of discontent among his peers.
As his wife's condition worsens, so does the rift within the organization, with leaders questioning his judgment and loyalty.
Vikir's unwavering love for his wife drives him to the brink of ruin as he battles not only to save her life but also to preserve the empire he's built amidst betrayal and uncertainty.
These arduous conditions made him a skeptical person. He firmly believed that the leaders were secretly plotting his downfall.
In his view, a little disagreement with someone automatically puts them in rivalry.
So he started to double-check every matter regarding his family's safety.
He made sure that no one knew his travel routes and destinations. He simultaneously deployed the same-looking caravan to other places.
Each of these diversions had some of his most loyal subordinates. This not only caused the perfect diversion but also divided his trusted subordinates.
Roy Guard's second team (Beta Group) was the one that was following him, while the first team (Alpha Group), which may have had some moles, was guarding the mansion.
Bill Mark, a warrior, was the captain of the second team, and Jess, a mage, was the vice captain of the team.
While Vikir was thinking of plans to counter the rebels, the gurads were chitchatting.
Guard 1, "Captain, don't forget to call me at your marriage party."
Guard 2, "Oh! It looks like a newbie is also interested in the captain's marriage."
Guard 3, "Yeah, because he didn't attend the first two of the captain's marriages. Hehehhe".
Guard 1 exclaimed, "What?? Is the captain marrying for the third time?"
Guards 2 and 3 agreed, "Yeah."
Guard 4 added, "I have attended both marriages."
Jess raised his hands this time.
Guard 2 and 3, "only the second one."
Guard 1 confusingly asked, "Did the captain's wife agree to the marriage?".
Guards 2, 3, and 4 burst into laughter.
Guard 3 explained, "The second wife was a scammer who ran away on the first night after poisoning the captain."
Guard 4 continued, "The first wife wanted to sacrifice the captain for her eternal youth; hehehehehe! The captain is really unlucky with women."
This time, Alec laughed with them. Though he didn't want to mock his captain, who is extremely unlucky with his companions,
After listening to the painful and agonizing ordeal, the captain couldn't keep his composure.
Bill said hesitatingly, "This time my partner is Marry; I think everybody knows her."
Jess smirked, "the florist whose father left her tons of debt."
Everybody else was laughing internally, while Bill was wondering if his new partner was good or not.
The lively environment became tense as the cicadas stopped chirping, and the time was dusk.
Which is clearly an indication of an unknown danger.
The Alpha guards who were escorting them suddenly got alert after their captain's bill said, "Attention."
The palpable environment where everybody holds their breaths, searching for a clue to their situation.
Bill noticed many heaps of leaves near them. Sensing something was wrong with them, he gave instructions to shoot in it.
After getting the sign, one archer shot an arrow in one stockpile. But there was nothing in it, so he indicated another one.
But before he could set the arrow for the next attack, he heard the sound of 'fuuu' and felt a sting on his neck.
As he put his hands on the neck's back, he found a dart. He fell from his horse after taking it out and saying, "Sir, we are __."
Two more of the guards fell from their horses, who were near small stockpiles.
Everyone got alert, and they were ready for any upcoming confrontation with an unseen enemy.
Regiment's mage Jess sought approval from Bill and got a yes sign, then he used a spell, which took me 10 seconds to chant.
At the start of the chant, blueish energy started to gather on his staff, and at the end, all energy got sucked into it.
With a 'whoosh', a circle of white fumes started growing, with Jess at the center. It was a form of detection magic to find living beings in the vicinity.
Then a red mark appeared in a stockpile, followed by a circle of white fumes from the mage. As it grew and covered more area, more marks appeared.
As dusk was already covering all the forest, the number of red marks increased from one to three digits as soon as the fumes crossed 20 meters.
After that, 10 seconds of silence fell into the forest, and in the next few seconds, hundreds of spears, arrows, stones, and darts were flying at the caravan.
While other mercenaries deflected with their weapons after the weapons passed, their small energy shields were formed by using level 1 magic.
Jess, the mage, used barrier magic and covered the carriage in which his master's were sitting.
Soon, it became a war-like situation where guards and green monsters were fighting. The goblins had an advantage in numbers against the guards.
To Alec, who was 10 years old, this fight was like a fantasy thing. He has been trained in martial arts.
He started looking outside, watching the mercenaries fighting the goblins.
This scene was not only fearsome but also exciting for him. This was the first time he was seeing a live battle, not the boring spars where one does not use his full force.
While Alec's father, Vikir Raymond, saw themselves encircled by nearly two hundred goblins, he used an ancient bracelet artifact on Alec.
At first, he was shorting his work while sitting near his wife's legs. But with the start of the fight, he panicked but soon regained his calm.
After the artifact was turned, a Tier 8 black energy shield was created and enveloped Alec's body. Like clothing, above one inch of his clothes.
Vikir then took out two gold-tiered artifacts, one for his sick wife Rhea, who was in a deep slumber due to idiopathic disease, and one for himself.
**Level of Artifacts
The level of magic an artifact can produce determines its level.
Iron/Simple Weapon, Tiers 1–2
Silver Artifacts, Tiers 3–4
Gold Artifacts, Tiers 5–6
Platinum Artifacts, Tiers 7-8
Diamond Artifacts, Tiers 9–10.
Ancient artifacts are those believed to be above the diamond artifact level.
The levels of adventurers are from Tier 1 to Tier 10, in which each tier's power increases by 10 times.
Tier 1 magic skills of any profession or class can be learned by people with little to no aptitude for them. Though it takes practice,
Like, (Tier 2) = 10x (Tier 1)
Tier 3 = 10x Tier 2
Up to level 6.
After crossing tier 7, a person's power increases differently up to tier 10.
**
Both of them were covered in a rank-6 shield. Then he used tier-one shield magic to cover his family.
The fight outside began to intensify. The winning caravan was attacked by a mysterious tier 6 assassin.
One by one, all the guards fell; other carriages were attacked too; and only captain and mage were left.
They were surrounded by nearly 30 goblins while a mysterious mist like smoke was encircling them, which indicates the presence of a skilled assassin.
The situation, which was favorable while fighting against less intelligent goblins, became precarious.
The Guards, which find dealing with 200 goblins doable, find themselves in tough situations after they were attacked by a Tier 6 assassin when their stamina and energy were depleted.
This caused them confusion if they were attacked by a group or a single person. But Captain Bill fought hard and killed all the goblins.
Now, all that was left was that assassin.
After defeating the goblins with a guard up against the assassin, Bill quickly entered the barrier created by Jess and hurriedly drank many health potions.
In a few minutes, everything was covered in thick darkness, and only the carriage with the luminous stone emitted some useful light.
Before Bill's recovery ended, Jess started his detection magic again, but before he finished casting,
With a boom, the sturdy barrier that protected the carriage was destroyed, and a sharp dart pierced the mage's heart.
Bill thought that nobody could break the Tier 5 shield easily; even if he did, they would get some time to defend.
After all, Bill had fought many times with Jess and believed in his skill, so he was in relaxed mode.
The event that unfolded in front of Bill's eyes was unanticipated; it shocked him to the core.
Before he could prepare himself, one dart flew straight into his face, which he parried with his sheathed sword.
Many darts followed after the first one, and he parried some and dodged some, but in the end, he was injured by one after losing his balance when he was dodging.
And in his next movement, he felt a shadow taking shape behind him. He turned in a thought, but there was nothing there.
Before he realized it, a dagger pierced his heart. He fell to the ground, blood spilling from his wound and mouth.
After a few seconds of silence, the roof of the carriage was blown away by force. Vikir was defending his family with his Tier 1 shield. But it was torn like paper by the assassin.
This left Vikir in a very hopeless situation; he was terrified, and he couldn't process what to do next.
Before the assassin's blade could reach Vikir, it felt the resistance of his shield. The assassin found it hard to break, so he left the place.
He left a shining, fist-sized cylindrical box with three small red lights, which were dimming every minute. The family didn't know it.
Vikir was taking a deep breath of relief that he had escaped a perilous situation, and he looked at his wife and his child.
He didn't know that there was a bomb near him, and he had not escaped his fate.
While he was taking a sigh of relief, he heard the sound of a spark coming from the box.
His mind stopped for a second, as he knew that the bomb might explode in a few seconds.
The only way to escape was to throw it away, which can lessen its impact, and with their artifact, they can survive.
Before he could reach that box, it exploded and turned everything near it into dust and smoke.
A huge crater formed from that blast, and the earth was scorched. The thick smell of burned wood and flesh started to spread. Water started gushing slowly out of the ground where the crater was.
The only thing that remained was Alec, who fainted when there was an explosion, abashed from that incident, and couldn't comprehend the whole situation.
With the explosion, his nightmare ended, and he woke up gasping, feeling breathless.