Sam was walking alongside the caravan when the dungeon town of Ubrik came into view. Unlike Hertz this town had a proper wall around the outside of it. Sam had asked some of the adventurers guarding them about the town earlier in the morning and they explained that unlike the towns closer to major cities this dungeon town is less focused towards the dungeon itself and therefore has a more traditional wall around it. There was still a reverse wall around the dungeon entrance itself though much like all the other dungeons in Keivania as it was a necessary defensive measure.
Sam had decided to walk into Ubrik as he had been spending most of his last few days riding in the cart and he was starting to feel a bit restless, and his body was starting to feel stiff. Once the town had come into view it was only about another half hour walk before they reached the southern gate. The town charged an entrance fee to all nonresidents however thankfully this was covered in travel costs and therefore had been prepaid by the Academy. Sam was starting to realize why most people didn’t travel much. It was very expensive.
Once they had entered the town they stopped in an open courtyard outside the town marketplace. The passengers were told that they would be doing a resupply of food and perishable goods and that they all had about 2 hours to have a look around the town before they would depart. While Sam was interested to see the dungeon he now knew there wasn’t much point going as he couldn’t get close enough to see anything anyway. Instead, he found a bit of open ground he could use for some skill practice.
‘Ping’ another notification sounded in Sams head as he was finally satisfied with his skill practice. He opened his notifications and read through them. ~Natural Skill ‘Long Jump’ level gained. 'Long Jump' is now Level 4~ Another level to Long Jump, that was the second level he had gained during his journey to capital. While the first one was unexpected he had spent the last 20 minutes using the Long Jump skill to get it to the next level. ~Natural Skill ‘Knot Craft’ level gained. 'Knot Craft' is now Level 2~ Knot craft was a passive skill and therefore just tying knots increased his skill experience. ~Natural Skill ‘General Identification’ level gained. 'General Identification' is now Level 26~ The next level was for his general identification. To level this Sam had gone through the market and used it on every item he hadn’t seen before until it levelled up. This was the easiest to level in terms of effort required as the skill didn’t consume resources. Then there was the final notification which was the one he was most happy about getting. ~ Natural Skill Gained. ‘High Jump' LV1~ Sam had finally managed to get the second of the skills from his skill book ‘Jumping Jack’. He had struggled at first with learning it but while practicing he used some wooden boards he found lying around as a checkpoint and would jump up onto the boards getting higher each time. His final skill in the book would have to wait until he learned some more magic techniques as it was a magically enhanced skill and he currently couldn’t meet the necessary prerequisites.
After his skill practice Sam had lunch at a small café near the northern gate of the town. This was where the designated meetup point had been set for the caravan and Sam wanted to be able to relax for as long as possible before he had to get on the bumpy carts again. He had a toasted cheese and bacon sandwich which was pretty pricey however since it was their last stop in a town before they reached the capital he thought he might as well be a bit more liberal with his spending.
Once everyone had met back up at the northern gate the merchant caravan began its 2nd leg of the journey to Galadia. This last stretch was supposed to take about 4 days so long as there was no rain as the horses would have a harder time pulling the carts if the roads softened and turned to mud. Sam was starting to get excited again just thinking about how close he now was to the capital and the academy.
Sam had spent most of the last day walking alongside the caravan chatting to some of the adventurers however this had taken a bit of a toll on him. When he woke up the next morning his legs were feeling very sore due to the lack of use over the recent days. They were just over halfway to Galadia and Sam wanted to walk the final stretch and so had decided to ride in the cart for the next day to rest his legs. Sam struggled to decide whether the aching in his legs from walking a lot or the soreness in his behind from the bumpy cart ride was worse. They were about an hour away from making camp and the sun had begun to drop, lighting the sky up in a beautiful deep orange and casting deep shadows over the forest.
Sam sat there in the cart with his eyes closed when suddenly they were startled open by the sound of a loud thud on the side of the cart. Sam sat back up and momentarily studied his surroundings in an attempt to get his bearings before sounds of chaos rang out from all around them. That was when Sam spotted what had created the loud thud. Sticking about a centimetre out of the wood in the side of the cart was an arrowhead. The cart had been struck by an arrow narrowly missing the back of Mrs. Menston’s head.
It was no more than 3 seconds after the arrow had impacted on the cart that Sam heard a shout come from one of the adventurers guarding them. “Halt the carts. Everyone form a defensive perimeter around the caravan and prepare for battle”. Sam poked his head outside the back of the cart to see what was happening when an arrow whizzed by his head narrowly missing him. Startled he fell back into the cart hitting his elbow on the bench behind him. “We’re being attacked by bandits. Everyone keep your heads down” Sam exclaimed as another arrow tore through the fabric cover above them.
Moments later the forest burst into chaos, the sounds of arrows thudding against the wooden panels of the carts and trees, the sounds of magic attacks charging up and firing into the distance. It didn’t sound like the bandits had any magic users among their ranks as Sam hadn’t heard anything like what the adventurers were firing off coming towards them. Sam, however, could tell from the sounds of yelling in the distance as well as the number of arrows falling on them that they were outnumbered and surrounded.
After about 2 minutes the barrage of arrows stopped and yell rang out through the trees calling for a charge. A moment later the sounds of feet thudding along the ground closed in on them before sharp clashes of metal sang out as the bandits engaged the adventurers in melee. Sam peeked his head up to see out through a tear in the fabric covering the cart. He could see what was maybe 30 or more bandits fighting against the groups of adventurers all along the length of the caravan. He watched as blood splashed into the air and weapons clattered to the floor. Sam couldn’t tell whether they were the bandits that had fallen or whether it was the adventurers that were protecting them.
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Suddenly a fountain of blood splashed along the opposite side of the cart leaving a dark patch where the light from outside couldn’t shine in. Within a second a man wearing a piece of cloth over his nose and mouth appeared at the back of the cart and began to climb up into it. It was then that a loud thrum sounded before the bandit stumbled forward into the cart. The back of the bandit’s leather armor was scorched black where a bright orange fireball had hit him.
Sam looked back out the cart to see Winston turn back away from them and parry the blow of a sword from another bandit with his wooden staff. Sam turned back around at the sounds of the bandit beginning to push himself back up. Acting out of pure instinct Sam leaped at the bandit landing on top of his as he pulled his dagger from the sheath at his hip. Sam thrust the blade deep into the bandit’s neck ripping it across his throat. The bandit reached for his throat aiming for Sam dagger, but he had already pulled it out and stood back up.
The bandit clawed at his throat as he gasped for air blood bubbling as it poured out the deep laceration in his neck. Sam watched in horror as the bandits’ struggles finally came to an end and multiple notifications sounded in his head. “Ping, Ping, Ping, Ping”. Sam didn’t register the sounds as he quickly leaned his head out the back of the cart and threw up.
Sam, however, didn’t have time to ponder his actions as a sword cut through the fabric and caught Mr. Menston on the shoulder. He dropped to the ground clutching his shoulder as Sam quickly recovered turning back towards the inside of the cart looking to the ground to try and find his sword. Before he had a chance to find it another sword cut through the fabric stabbing in his direction. He flung himself to the ground using the long jump skill. His back slammed again the floor flooding him with pain. Knowing they didn’t have much time Sam ignored the pain in his back and started to get up. As he did he placed his hand on the sheath of his sword.
Sam eyed the hilt and grabbed it drawing the sword from the sheath. Sam stood back up quickly and stabbed through the fabric just above whether the sword had come at him from a downwards angle towards the ground. As the sword reached hilt deep he felt it hit something hard before a yell rang out from where he had plunged the blade. Sam quickly pulled the blade out as another slashed through fabric. Sam swung his sword at the blade nearly dropping it as the vibrations of the two blades clashing sent tremors up his arms. Sam managed to hold on to the sword but had to back away from the fabric as another blade stabbed towards him. Just as he was about to counter the attack the sounds of another fireball rang out and lit up the side of the fabric in a bright orange light. The sounds of more fireballs rang out, and the blades stopped piercing through the fabric.
A moment later Winston and one of his party members popped their heads in through the back of the cart. Sam stumbled back slightly caught by surprise as the adrenaline causing through his veins left him feeling on edge. “Is everyone alright” Winston called out. Sam looked back behind him, everyone but Mr. Menston seemed unharmed. “Mr Menston got cut on the shoulder but everyone else it okay” Sam called back. “Is it deep?” Winston called back. “No, it’s not too bad” Mr. Menston replied back through gritted teeth. “Okay, got it” Winston said before he and the other member of his party quickly left heading toward back towards the front of the caravan.
Sam stood guard waiting for another bandit to attack their cart. After another five or six agonizingly long minutes Winston returned to let them all know it was safe and that the bandits had been defeated. Upon hearing the news Sam sunk to his knees as a sudden wave of exhaustion hit him. One of Winstons party members Maeve climbed aboard the cart and used healing magic to treat the cut on Mr. Menston’s shoulder.
Sam quietly cleaned the blood off his dagger and the tip of his sword as another wave of nausea washed over him as his mind flicked back to what he had done. He had killed someone. Sure, it was a bandit who had attacked them but still, it was a person. Sam hadn’t felt like this when he had killed any of the rats, the wolf or the fish however killing a person felt well, wrong. Sam sat in silence for a while before eventually getting back on his feet and climbed out of the cart to see what had become of the merchant caravan.
When Sam stepped down onto the dirt road and looked around he could see pure carnage. There were bodies littering the ground, some whole some in pieces. Arms and legs were strewn all over the ground with blood pooling around those who were dead. Some of the bodies were barely recognizable as human as they had been burned, cut and torn apart. The chard corpses of those who had been struck by fire magic smelled the worst. There were also a couple of bandits that had been frozen in blocks of ice with horror and fear plastered on their faces.
As Sam walked down the line of carts Sam realized that there were no casualties among those travelling in the convoy. Sam counted the bodies littering the road and found there to be somewhere between 34 and 42. He couldn’t quite tell the exact amount due to the damage done to them however.
Sam began assisting the merchants and adventurers with cleaning up. Sam was allocated the job of assisting with replacing the cloth coverings over the carts that had been badly damaged. The corpses were delt with by the adventurers as they were used to having to clean up after a fight.
Sam spoke briefly with Winston and learned that they got off lucky this time. Winston’s party along with the others guarding them were all higher ranked with all three of them being C ranked, two higher than the minimum party level at E required for this escort quest. They had all taken on a dungeon together and had decided to take this quest as it was the only one heading to the capital that was paying a good enough sum to justify the extra travel time. Sam could only imagine what would have happened to them if lower-ranked parties at the minimum required level were the ones guarding them instead of those of a higher level like Winston.
No one really slept that night as they were all on high alert waiting for another attack to come. It was unknown if the bandits had all attacked them or whether there were others still lying in wait. Each adventurer party had sent their scouts out to look for the bandit’s lair to see if there were any further possible attacks. By time they returned to confirm there were no more bandits the sun had already risen. The following day was mostly taken up by sleep. The fight had taken a heavy emotional toll on Sam, and he was struggling to find much energy spending most of his time sleeping in the cart.
Sam still managed to find the energy to pull himself out of the cart for the final stretch out of the forest. As they emerged from the forest Sam was greeted by the sight of a mega city. The caravan came to a halt at the peak of the hill as everyone looked down on the city. There were still about a few hours left to walk to the city from where they were stopped at the edge of the forest however from their vantage point the city stood tall and stretched out beyond the horizon. It must have been nearly 10 times the size of Pexicon Sam thought as he stared down in wonder down at the city. He stood there in amazement as he pictured his future at the Royal Academy in this gigantic city.
