“Have you ever been in the Outskirts before?”
Adion looked at the man who had just spoken. The blacksmith of Farfield Village had taken it upon himself to give Adion a ride to Mermi. The blacksmith, who was called Elmen, needed to fill up his supply of metals and would take the trip soon anyway.
They hadn’t spoken a lot with each other at first. Adion thought that Elmen was probably a little nervous about Adion’s perceived background. But they had been on the road for nearly three days now, and the old blacksmith had started to open up.
“I have. But that was mostly on accident. I haven’t joined the Guild yet.” Adion answered after a while.
“How do you end up in the Outskirts by accident?” The blacksmith asked back.
“Circumstances” was all Adion gave in reply.
“Hmm. Well, I wish you the best. You should know that the Outskirts are a dangerous place. I’ve heard that more than half of the mages that go there never return.” Elmen said with a serious face.
“Well, I think staying weak is more dangerous,” Adion replied as he looked at the fields and farms they traveled past.
“Maybe.” The blacksmith answered, and they continued to travel in silence for a while.
It didn’t take long before they finally saw Mermi up ahead. It wasn’t as small a place as the Farfield village; it had a stone wall surrounding it, and Adion guessed it was about the size of Remori, the town that had been built around the Remori clan for the past several decades.
They were guards at the entrance, but they didn’t trouble the two as they recognized Elmen as a local blacksmith. The town had a calm and peaceful atmosphere. Not too surprising in a place where the strongest mage was Silver, and almost all of the town's inhabitants were regular non-mages. Mages tended to live in bigger places than this and usually in an area close to the Outskirts.
As they arrived at a building where Elmen would buy his stock of metals, Adion jumped off the wagon, thanked Elmen for the journey, and turned to leave.
“Be careful out there, kid. And try to find someone you can trust your back to!” Elmen yelled after Adion as he left. Adion nodded towards him and continued walking away.
It should be just around the corner.
Adion thought to himself as he remembered the instructions that Villum had given him. He was going to travel with a merchant group headed for Billford. Villum knew the man in charge of this route and had given Adion a letter that would make it easy for him to get a ride.
As he arrived in front of the building with the words “Melorian Pavilion,” he noticed a large wagon blocking the entrance. Two men were unloading a bunch of boxes and bringing them into the building. Adion approached one of the men to ask for the man he was looking for.
“Excuse me. Do you know where I can find Mr. Dhiji?”
The man briefly looked at Adion before answering, “He should be at the front wagon.”
“Thank you.”
Adion stepped away from the man and saw that there were seven wagons lined up ahead of it, so he walked to the front and saw a short, well-dressed, fat man with a thick mustache speaking to an old man with guards surrounding them. He could hear their conversation as he got closer.
“But it’s too much. How can anyone afford such a price? I have to make a living too, you know.” The old man spoke in an aggrieved tone.
“That’s the price. Take it or leave it. You won’t get a better price even in Billford. I haven’t even taken out a transport fee as a good gesture. These are rough times, and healing pills are being stocked up by everyone.” The fat merchant answered.
“But these are Blue Healing Pills. What mage could be in need of them? Surely not regular people have the money to stock up on pills at such a price?” the old man asked.
“Even regular people have savings, and with what happened in Iitha, everyone is afraid of not having them when needed. And these pills can affect even mages, especially weak mages. So that’s the price. You won’t get a better price anywhere in the Empire, and I’ll take an Oath to that. So will you buy them or not?” The merchant asked grumpily, as if his generous offer wasn’t being appreciated.
The old man hesitated for a while before finally relenting with a sigh. “Fine. I’ll buy the stock you brought. I hope things will settle down soon. Those damn Phoenix fanatics don’t care at all for the common man!”
“Pleasure doing business!” The merchant said in a jolly voice as he handed over a box and received a large pouch of coins.
Adion walked up to the man he assumed was Mr. Dhiji as he counted the gold coins he had just received with a smile on his face.
“Excuse me, sir, are you Mr. Dhiji?” Adion asked.
“That’s me, alright. What do you want, boy?” Mr. Dhiji asked without even looking up from his coins.
“I have this letter from Village head Villum. From Farfield Village.” Adion said as he handed the man the letter.
“Village head Villum, huh? Let’s take a look.” He took the letter from Adion and started reading it.
After he finished reading, he looked up and stared at Adion with a scrutinizing look. “A young hero wants to travel with us back to Billord, huh? I guess that’s alright. What’s your name, son?”
“I’m Adion.”
“No last name?” Mr. Dhiji asked.
“Nope,” Adion answered.
“You expect me to believe that a kid barely 15 can reach peak Iron without a family clan training him?” Mr Dhiji stared into his eyes and asked.
“I never said a family clan hasn’t trained me. I only said I don’t have a last name,” Adion answered thoughtfully.
“Hah! Fair enough, boy. Well, we’re leaving tomorrow an hour before sunrise. Be sure to be here on time.”
“Mm.” Adion nodded and walked away. He wanted to look around the town a bit as this was the first time he was in a town of the Delovan Empire. Adion didn’t know much about it and wanted to get a feel for the differences to fit in better.
He was technically in the Empire illegally, as everyone who wanted to visit from outside needed to go through a check at the border. Most people would get in without a problem, but it helped the Empire keep some control of who entered their land. It was impossible to guard the entire border, but that’s why it was risky to get caught without the proper papers.
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But Adion thought that as long as he was fighting in the Outskirts and didn’t cause trouble, he would probably be fine. He could always say he was from Farfield Village if anyone asked. It would be a tiresome process for anyone to check all the facts.
Adion walked around the town for a while. He bought some new clothes for most of his remaining money as he didn’t like wearing a dead man’s old clothes, and then he checked into an inn for the night.
Once he entered his room, he decided to simply meditate through the night so he wouldn’t oversleep and miss the merchant caravan leaving.
He sat down cross-legged on the bed and focused on the mana around him. He couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed that the mana density was much lower than in the parts of the Endless Forest he had been in. He had, however, gotten a lot better at controlling mana, so the speed at which he was progressing would be starting to catch up to his previous level sooner or later.
Adion suddenly got an idea as he meditated. He released half of the mana he had in his core and covered the inn with it. It wasn’t enough to cover the entire building, but he got a good chunk under his control.
Focusing on the space around him, he could suddenly feel everyone within the inn. As they were living beings with a Will, he couldn’t infringe on their bodies with his space mana, thus painting a clear picture of every living being around him.
He tried focusing on their faces to see how much detail he could feel. Unfortunately, his mana sense wasn’t up to par quite yet, and other than their general size and form, he couldn’t get many details. The space around them was not entirely under his control after all. He only had control of a small part of the space mana in the surroundings.
If he wanted complete control, he would have to conjure the space himself. Unfortunately, the amount of space he could conjure was only about the size of a grain of sand—a massive improvement from when he first tried it in the Stone stage but still useless.
Fortunately, the wisdom pill gave me complete control over a considerable amount of space without having to conjure it. Otherwise, I would continue to be useless for a long time.
Adion continued to meditate through the night before heading out early in the morning to the place where he had spoken to Mr. Dhiji the day before.
When he arrived, he could see that a lot of people were moving around the wagons hurriedly, getting everything in order before departure. Adion saw Mr. Dhiji yelling instructions at two young men before turning and walking towards Adion.
“Hey there, kid. You’ll be traveling in wagon number three. We only take two stops a day to eat. You sleep while moving. Don’t cause trouble along the way, or I’ll toss you off and you can make your way to Billford on foot.” Mr. Dhiji said.
“I understand,” Adion responded with a nod.
He then made his way to the wagon he was to travel in and saw that most other wagons were filled with boxes, except the two in front of his. The first one was a luxurious carriage, presumably the one Mr. Dhiji and perhaps a few guards would travel in. The second one was a wagon filled with cages and chained men and women in tattered clothes.
Slaves, huh? Guess that is normal in the Empire. I shouldn’t stare too much and give myself away. They are all adults, at least. And probably criminals at that.
Even if slavery was abundant, there were still harsh regulations concerning it. The slavers that Adion had killed were definitely breaking the law. You couldn’t just enslave people just because they were weaker. Especially citizens of the Empire. It used to be a big problem during the Age of Darkness and still happens from time to time, but every nation was extremely harsh against illegal enslavement. No state could function if the farmers or ordinary people were to be kidnapped and enslaved, so most people were careful of doing that sort of business as death would be getting away easy if caught doing so.
I doubt the Melorian Pavilion would risk their prestigious image dealing in stuff like that. And even if they do, it’s none of my business. I have my own goals to focus on.
Adion jumped up at the back of the wagon he would be traveling in. There were seven people already inside: an old man, a man and woman, and what Adion assumed were their four children. The oldest seemed to be Adion's age, and the youngest about eight years old.
They all looked towards Adion as he took a seat and leaned against the wagon wall. Adion gave them a nod in greeting and closed his eyes. He planned on meditating during the journey and perhaps practicing his aura sense a bit as he would be surrounded by people for a few weeks.
“Hello there, young man. This old man is called Dern. Just let me know if my family is causing you trouble, and I will get them to quiet down.” The old man said.
Adion felt weird that an old man had such a subservient attitude towards him.
He can probably tell that I’m a mage. He’s probably worried I will do something to his family if I get mad.
“Adion. No worries, you can talk.” Adion simply said and closed his eyes to meditate again.
The old man looked relieved and thanked Adion. The family then continued talking in low voices, and Adion decided to focus some of his attention on their conversation as there was a lot he was curious about.
“Granpa, who is that?” the youngest child asked the old man.
“He is a mage, so you must be respectful and not cause trouble. When we get to Lorn, there will be many more mages than here, so remember to never cause trouble for mages, or it could result in your death.” The old man said sternly.
They spoke quietly, but Adion could still hear their conversation clearly. Adion thought it was a little harsh to say such things to an 8-year-old, but then again, it would be worse if she wasn’t prepared for how the world of mages worked.
There were laws, of course, but only a fool would trust their life to such a thing.
I need to be careful, too. There are definitely Diamonds in Billford. Maybe even Soul stage mages.
Time slowly passed as Adion listened to the family speaking in hushed voices. Just as Adion thought they were about to depart, three young men stepped onto the wagon. Adion could feel they were all 20 years old; two of them were middle Bronze mages, and one was low Bronze.
“We have to travel in this wagon all the way? Helmer, can’t your father make that Dhiji fellow allow us inside his carriage?” One of the young men asked.
“No, Geoff. Mr. Dhiji is a Silver just like father, and he works for the Melorian Pavilion on top of that. A mayor isn’t much in their eyes.” Helmer responded.
“Fine. But how come there are commoners here? Will we have to sit inside the same wagon as them?” Geoff asked.
The third man, who hadn’t spoken yet, stepped forward to the big family and said, “You shouldn’t be traveling in the same wagon as us mages. I don’t know who placed you here, but they must have made a mistake. You can find yourself another wagon.”
Gods. Are there actually people like this? Or are they just unusually unbearable? Adion thought to himself, but kept his eyes closed and continued to meditate while listening. The old man stood up and bowed to three men before speaking.
“Please, young masters. We paid for this journey to Mr. Dhiji himself. I would gladly take another wagon, but this is the only one available for passengers like us. I promise to make sure my family does not disturb the young masters.” The old man continued to bow through his speech while his family looked on nervously.
“Well, you are bothering us by being here. If there are no more wagons, you can just walk.” The man named Geoff chimed in.
Of course, they can’t. At this rate, we will alert Mr. Dhiji, and I don’t want to be thrown out for causing trouble before the journey even starts because of these idiots.
“This-” The old man was stumped and didn’t know how to respond.
Adion decided to speak up; they were about to depart, and he didn’t want to cause a scene.
“Just sit down and don’t cause trouble. If we delay Mr. Dhiji because of this, he will throw us all out.” Adion said, still with his eyes closed.
The man called Geoff looked at Adion and sneered. “What do you know, kid? You want to walk all the way, too?”
Adion had had enough with these guys, so he spread his space mana around the three and used his Authority to freeze them in place. He opened his eyes and looked at them while showing off the killing intent in his aura. Killing intent got more potent the more you had killed, and Adion had killed a lot for his young age.
The three men paled as they felt the killing intent while not being able to move a muscle. When Adion released them from his space prison, they all looked at him with wide eyes.
“You are right,” Helmer said nervously, “Let’s just sit down and don’t cause trouble for Mr. Dhiji, guys.”
The other two nodded and sat down. Adion could hear them whispering about him.
“What in Ganta was that? I couldn’t move at all.” Geoff whispered to the others.
“I don’t know. Just don’t cause trouble, and let’s keep to ourselves.” Helmer responded.
Strength is really convenient. Looks like I will get to have a peaceful journey.