At around 10pm, the family had bathed, brushed their teeth, used the bathroom, changed the baby’s diaper, etc. After working for a whole day, it did not take long for the children to fall asleep in their bunk beds on the wagon.

Maya soon arrived, driving her family’s wagon to meet with Patrick. She was wearing the same set of leather armor, shield, and spear from a few days ago. Harold, injured, was sleeping in the wagon with his children.

"Hello Patrick." Maya greeted him. "I never knew you were a rogue."

Patrick was wearing a set of black leather armor that minimized noise and maximized his agility. He was also wearing a short black robe with hood which allowed him to hide weapons and tools. Patrick was stretching his legs on the ground when she arrived.

"Hello Maya. I'm retired, and I'd rather not talk about it. Please stay here and keep an eye on the wagons. I will go check the path," said Patrick. "It could take a while."

"I understand." Maya replied.

"Divine Spell: Enhance Strength, Stoneskin, Stealth, Detect Traps." Patrick chanted. "Night vision."

The Enhance Strength spell allowed him to run faster with augmented leg strength. The Stealth spell was the combination of a light refraction spell and a sound absorption spell. It allowed him to become quiet and harder to spot. Additionally, it allowed him to hide his Aura almost completely. Detect traps allowed him to detect barriers or traps.

Patrick first headed to the town hall, as per Nathan's information, the dark-blue-haired Knight was responsible for securing the village perimeter and the gray-haired knight might assist. With his family's safety at stake, Patrick decided to locate them before heading out. As anticipated, there were barriers around the inn to detect individuals exceeding a certain amount of Mana.

"Now, what should I do?" Patrick pondered.

There was a storage room behind the inn. Patrick removed his equipment and hid it inside the room. Then, he entered the inn through the front door.

"Never thought that I would be glad to be weak." Patrick thought with a bitter smile. The alarm in the barrier did not trigger when he entered.

"Hey there Patty Boy!" the innkeeper greeted Patrick as he entered.

"Howdy Oly, what's shakin?" Patrick slid onto a vacant barstool.

"I'm doin' alright, I'll miss this place."

"Aww shucks, I hear ya." Patrick said. "Now, hand me a cold one." Patrick put a few coins on the bar.

"Drinkin' solo tonight?" Oly quickly poured him a jar of beer and a cup.

"Well, since ol' Emi kicked the bucket, ain't nobody stoppin' me from gettin' plastered."

"You drinkin' by yerself? You know your kin are countin' on ya." Oly said with concern.

"I reckon, just remember to put me in the staples when I'm done." Patrick said.

"Ain't done that in a spell, lookin' forward to it." Oly laughed. "And you know where to find more."

"I sure do." Patrick said, began drinking and reading a magazine.

It was late at night. After what happened in the village, only knights remained in the Inn. Half an hour later, Oly retired to his room for some rest.

"Divine Spells: Stealth, Detect Trap." Patrick cast the spells before exploring the Inn.

Patrick silently crept up to the second floor. He crouched in front of a door, with its keyhole in front of him. He cast the Appraisal spell.

Appraisal's original purpose was to appraise the value of an object. However, Patrick had been using the skill in other creative ways. His Mana slipped into the room, reporting everything inside to Patrick as it searched for anything valuable. To avoid alerting the knights, Patrick stopped casting as soon as he received an image of them, right before their information was shown.

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The gray-haired knight, George, and the dark-blue-haired knight, Travis, were resting in their respective rooms. The Appraisal spell also detected Mana strings connected to Travis.

"Interesting, let's find out what these Mana strings are doing." Patrick thought, believing that this would be crucial to his family's escape.

Patrick left the Inn, re-equipping himself in the process. He followed the Mana strings using his Appraisal skill and jogged stealthily towards the village's east gate for five minutes. There, Patrick discovered a barrier that would alert Travis if anyone tried to leave.

"This is troublesome. Now, we cannot leave the village." Patrick furrowed his eyebrows.

After a moment, Patrick decided, "Time to use the secret passageway. This is an emergency."

Patrick walked alongside the village wall and headed North. This part of the village wall was on top of a hill. Although most vegetations were cleared inside the wall, the outside was shrouded in a dense forest. At the bottom of the hill, there was an old stone house used by the village for storage.

Patrick opened its door, in about twenty minutes, he removed all wooden crates covering the front of the house. Then, he crouched down and pried up several wooden planks on the floor, which revealed a hidden steel door.

Patrick pulled the door up as its creak echoed in the tunnel. The smell of rotting underground mud caught Patrick’s nose. Patrick carefully moved inside the underground tunnel through a slopped stone path.

"Divine Spell: Light Orb" Patrick illuminated the tunnel. Despite him being able to see using the Night Vision skill, the light kept away rats and insects, making his exploration easier.

While the entrance into the tunnel could only fit one wagon, inside of the tunnel was an archway with stone pillars supporting its middle section. Each side of the tunnel could easily fit one wagon. The archway was choked with overgrown tree roots, and many insects, mice, and other vermin were calling it home.

Overall, the tunnel required some cleaning, otherwise the wheels of the wagons could get stuck between the roots, but the condition of the stones was good enough for a wagon to pass through.

Patrick then took ten minutes warming up his muscles, with a focus on his back, arm joints, and knees. After warming up, he murmured, "Alright, that should do." He channeled Mana into his sword, activated "Divine Spell: Reinforce Blade," and then began cutting through the tree roots on the ground. His sword worked like a saw, which cut through tree roots very quickly. After about an hour of sawing and throwing tree roots to the side, he reached the other end of the tunnel. There was another steel door facing upwards.

Patrick walked up the slope and tried to push the door up. However, it did not bulge. "More vegetation must be growing on top of the door." Patrick surmised. "If I were a Holy Knight, I could just punch through this."

Unfortunately, he was not.

He spent a minute to examine the steel door and thinking about how to open it. After formulating a plan, he decided to go back to the wagons.

"How did it go?" Maya asked, seeing Patrick coming back.

"I need to open a path and I needed some tools. I'll be back shortly." Patrick said as he took out a scissor jack, a pair of goggles, and a dust mask from his wagon. He left right away.

Patrick quickly returned to the storage house, picking up a wooden log along the way, and brought it with him. In a few minutes, he returned to the sealed exit and started working.

Patrick walked up the slope to the sealed entrance, donning the goggles and dust mask. At around the middle of the steel door, he sawed the wooden log at an angle, then placed the cut-off slice of the log on the slope. It created a stable flat surface for the scissor jack to rest on. Now, the scissor jack was about more than a meter away from the door.

Next, Patrick measured the necessary length and cut the wooden log again, making sure its ends were flat. He then placed the wooden log on top of the scissor jack.

"Perfect." Patrick thought as the gap was only a millimeter thick in the setup between the door and the log supported by the scissor jack.

Then, Patrick started jacking it up. The steel door slowly creaked open, revealing a one-inch wide gap in the middle. However, the door was bending and the ends of the door were stubbornly shut.

"Now, how should I do it?"

"Divine Spell: Reinforce Blade." Patrick took out his sword again and imbued it with his Aura. He inserted his sword into the one-inch gap and began sawing along it. Mud and other debris fell from the gap onto Patrick as the sword-saw whirred and buzzed. His goggles and dust mask protected his eyes and mouth from the falling debris. After sawing through, Patrick resumed jacking. Small gaps then started to appear at the ends of the door.

Again, Patrick sawed along the gaps at the ends of the door. He repeated the process of jacking and sawing for one more time, and the door was lifted up by two feet.

He walked towards the end of the path, pushed the door and it opened wide enough for Patrick to exit. However, as soon as he went outside, the overgrown roots and plants would shut the door again. So Patrick resumed sawing the roots outside the door and cleaned up the mud. Finally, with the area cleared, the steel door could now be opened and closed with ease.

Dense forest trees surrounded the exit. The main road was about ten meters away, but the path was again blocked by overgrown plants and tree roots. Patrick spent another ten minutes cleaning up the path so that the wagons could pass through. Patrick was panting heavily when he was done.

"If I were a Holy Knight or Knight Exemplar, I could have just punched through the door and used some cutter spells to cut through everything." Patrick thought. He had worked with knights before and he couldn’t help but to be reminded of them. He sat on the side of the road to catch his breath.