After the shocking realisation, Arlott's sleep had vanished and he began to jog towards Paxley's capital town, Plethora.
By his approximations, he would need only 3 more days to reach there if he kept jogging the distance instead of slow walking.
Sure, he would lose out on some IP, but that meagre IP was too low compared to the rest and IP he could collect in the town.
No beasts, no disturbance. He would be able to sleep for days and no one would give a fuck.
Jogging for 3 hours without pausing and sweat covering his entire body, Arlott finally collapsed on the floor. Emily's condition had gotten worse since the stones cut a lot deeper proportional to the speed.
But it wasn't life-threatening, so it's fine.
"Haah, I hate you, Sun." Arlott panted for breath, the sunlight shining on his sweat, making him appear glistering.
He fanned his shirt for some air, feeling better when the air hit the sweat, making it dry and feel cool.
It was afternoon, the sun was in the middle of the sky and very hot.
Deeming it as an unsuitable time to jog, Arlott set up his tent and went to sleep.
***
For the next 4 days, Arlott kept up his schedule of jogging at the time of sunrise, sleeping off the afternoon, and then jogging again during the few hours of sunset.
At night, he usually hunted for some easy nocturnal prey, cooked them and then went to sleep.
"Haah… I was running one day late, but I am finally here." Arlott stood in front of a wall, his eyes glinting with unrestrained malice.
The wall was big. Humongous, if you will. Standing at a height of 40 meters, the wall was built out of stone and a strange paste that was called cement.
But contrary to a huge wall, the gate was mediocre. Barely enough for two elephants to enter side by side. It was built out of hardwood and further reinforced by metallic spikes.
Arlott smirked slightly and walked towards the door, but then paused when he noticed the guards standing by the door.
'Shit, I came here once but that was with the butler. And I can't show them my face since I am most likely marked as a fugitive.' he hummed a low tune, 'Should I sneak in? But the stupid gate is too small to go unnoticed. The wall is too high to climb, and I also have this deadweight.'
He glanced at Emily who was sleeping casually.
They were currently hidden in a forest and the capital town Plethora was built on the edge of the forest, since the town's east was in the forest, while the west was connected to a huge river stream.
On the north was a small hill, and in the south were open fields.
"I have no chance of sneaking in from the east." Arlott glanced up, finding more than 4 archer towers propped over the walls, where many soldiers were stationed.
It was only natural since the most vulnerable part of the town was from the forest. It was easy to sneak in from and was difficult enough terrain to give a chase. Horses and chariots were pretty useless in the forest, after all.
Arlott climbed a tree while hiding under the leaves to avoid the soldiers from noticing him. He made a shade over his eyes using his palm and then looked in a distance.
'Heh, lucky.' he chuckled, noticing a dust trail heading towards the town. It was heading from the middle of the forest where a small dusty path was cut.
"You stay here." Arlott stuffed a nutrient and hydration tablet in Emily's mouth before tying her to a tree trunk tightly.
He made sure that she couldn't even move a single finger, nulling her chances of finding a way to commit suicide.
He even placed a cloth in her mouth so that she wouldn't try to bite off her tongue.
After making sure of her safety, he dashed towards the dust trail which was still at least 30 minutes away from the town.
The carriages were made out of wood and pulled by horses, and on bumpy paths such as the forest path, it was best to drive those slowly unless they would snap.
After just 3 minutes of skipping trees, Arlott found a small convoy of people that he guessed to be merchants.
There were 3 carriages, loaded to the brim with boxes and driven by a few humans dressed in tattered robes. Arlott guessed those to either be slaves or low-class workers hired on a daily wage.
"Let's see if someone is a threat…" Arlott sat on the trunk and stopped moving, focusing his mind on his heart, or rather, the magic core in his heart. The core was more of an ethereal object rather than a physical one, hence no one has ever seen a human core yet.
Only a few selected magical beasts had the ability to coagulate their mana and form mana cores.
But by checking the core structure of a 5-circled Rabid Rat, the mana core's structure was finalized.
It is said to be in the exact shape of the heart and is the inner heart, while the outer heart is just a flesh covering to cover the core. All around the heart, there are circles present that never stop to rotate.
'Oh-' Arlott realized he was too lost in observing the core, so he coughed and refocused on the carriage.
Soon, a blue streak of light began to flow through his blood vessels into his eyes, making his eye get a bluish tint.
His vision improved by miles, if it used to be 10/10 before, it was now 40/10.
He could even count the number of pimples on a young woman's face who was sitting in front of the carriage!
Some people in the convoy also began to appear in a bluish tint, though some had a darker and brighter shade, while some were dimmer and lighter.
Obviously, the darker ones were stronger as the darkness of mana signified its density, and thus, the white mana was considered the weakest, while the black mana was considered the strongest.
"Hah, they are weak." Arlott scoffed, "Only two 4-circled mages, five 3 circles and the rest are either 1 circle or commoners. How dare they travel in the forest of Plethora when they are so weak?"
His hand moved towards his back, where his iron spear was slung. He gripped the handle.
"This will be the way I get inside the city, whether with alive people or the corpses."