The old man was writing down on the ground near the campfire, the light was enough to read it. It seemed that Joshua at least knew how to read.

Large Gold Coin = 100 silver coins

Medium Gold Coin = 50 silver coins

Small Gold Coin = 10 silver coins

Silver Coin = 50 bronze coins

“Then this is a lot of money,” Joshua said, he felt shivers that he had that amount of money on him.

“Don’t fret it kid… how old are you?” the old man asked in wonder.

“I’m 9 winters old,” the kid said but he was large for his age.

“… I see, you wanna travel with us for a bit?” the old man offered.

In the back of his mind, the old man wondered if he was fated to run into troubled children.

“You are not going to steal my money and leave me dead aren’t you?” Joshua said… the old man was too nice to him, to the fact that the old man was a stranger, Joshua was thinking somewhere between ‘a very rare kindness or the old man has an agenda behind it.’

“I saw your fight… you have a good intuition… follow your hunch, it's up to you,” The old man left the decision to Joshua.

But Joshua just had to ask that, he had already decided.

“Old man I’m going to go and practice Flow,” suddenly Simon said, he had already finished cleaning the wooden plates and bowls.

“Yeah, we are still going to talk for a bit,” the old man said, Simon then went near where they already laid out their bed, his going to practice Flow until he passed out.

“Does he do it every day?” Joshua asked, his curiosity of the boy called Simon grew.

“Yeah, everyday… we were doing sparring earlier too after he passed out” the old man added.

“So he was holding back against me?” Joshua asked.

“Yeah… I told him that he can’t break your shield,” the old man confessed and the old man stood up.

<--->

The 3 woke up early, they were already traveling north before the first light was waving in the sky. The little boy was carrying so much and the old man was travelling light. Joshua only had the gold bag and his clothes.

Joshua was still sleepy, while Simon was literally a bond of energy. They were busy walking but Simon still kept watch around their surroundings, his eyes scanned the horizon for anything at all.

“Old man… check that out,” Simon suddenly notified the old man.

There were small hunch-like stones that were walking, northwest of them, west side of the donkey path to be exact. It was moving very slowly, really slow. The donkey path was a bit inclined going up into the north that's why it was immediately noticeable.

“Ooh! Crap we have to run before it passes the road!! Boys we gotta run!!” the old man immediately said as he started running. The 2 began gaining speed, and Joshua tried to keep up. “This is bad we are too far!!!” the old man commented, it was really far.

“What is that old man?!!” Simon asked.

“It's Rock Turtles, they would block the road when they pass, they can’t be slayed!!!-” It was Joshua the one who answered. “-A single one blocked me once when I was delivering some crops to the fat fart in the arena!!” Joshua added more.

That time Joshua had to wait until some adventurers lured it using large amounts of food out of the donkey path, that single Rock Turtle was really troublesome, that was 3 moons ago. The Rock Turtle attack was inevitable, the Rock Turtle probably reported its finding to its bale.

The 3 rushed as quickly as possible.

…

But of course, they were late, the Rock Turtles were already on the road. They could still force to cross but the old man stopped. It was a bale of turtles around a hundred of them crossing the donkey road. On the east side are some of the humans preparing in a formation to defend the farmlands. There was a formation of knights and some more adventurers.

Rock Turtles usually hibernate for 3 to 5 years near a body of swamp or water but never near the sea, the larger it was the longer it hibernated. They usually go out pre-winter times, during those times this cluster of disasters would go around and eat some meat or plants, they are omnivores. The farmlands suffered these attacks twice every 10 years and it was this year again.

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These large monsters would try and eat anything that was moving. “…” The old man then remembered something, when he arrived here at the eastern frontier he took on a quest. It was also to defend the farmlands against the Turtle Rocks. That was around 8 to 9 years ago.

“Follow me!!!” the old man said as he continued heading into the east, in the direction of the knights forming a line of defense.

“Don’t go too close to the turtles or they will try to attack you!!!” the old man warned the 2 boys. He was right, the Rock Turtles were already aware of them.

Some of the knights in the front could see the 3 rushing into their front. The message was quickly passed, knight to knight, and finally in just moments, it reached their commander. The commander who was standing up on the wooden plank used some binoculars to look at them.

He might look older but he immediately noticed who it was. It was the old man, he was also here when the turtles attacked years ago.

The 3 was faster than the Rock Turtles (Well they are Turtles) they immediately arrived at the front lines, and the commander rushed into the front, very glad to see the old man.

His hands landed on the shoulder of the old man “Alphecca!!! Alphecca!!! Please!! Help us!!!” the commander hailed, he was a man in his early 40’s. By his attire and armor, he was of a noble lineage.

“Didn’t I already tell you how to resolve the Rock Turtle problem? Why is this happening?” the old man asked. The two already knew of each other.

The commander felt a bit of shame that his ears blushed a little after a while the noble glared at the old man. “I will pay, You have to kill the damned turtles!!!” the commander said but now he was saying this with authority.

The old man stepped on closer to the commander getting closer to his face, intimidating him. “I hate nobles… you know that right?” the old man said. It was known widely around the realm, as a matter of fact, it was even written in history how the hero of the era hated nobles, and he was infamous because of it.

“Please… help us… Sir Alphecca,” from behind another noble came closer, she was the wife of the commander the old man was talking to.

“Lady Farris… can you explain to me why this shit is happening again?” the old man asked comfortably without honor, the commander was clearly agitated.

The commander’s name is Sir Wilfred Seldon, his wife 6 years younger than him is Lady Farris Seldon, Wilfred holds the title of a Count and so the Lady is also a Countess too. Unlike the nobles in the central, the nobles of the eastern frontier would fight every now and then. Lady Farris was in her armor, she was a good user of the spear.

“We actually failed to hire a ranger that would protect the forest… it seems that the Marcians have a problem inside their family,” Lady Farris answered this with her knowledge. The old man immediately believed but then he looked at her husband.

There was still something behind it all. The rock turtles when slayed have plenty of minerals inside their shells and it's not shy with gold showing up. He looked around, the Count’s weapon and armor looked brand new even the Countess’s too.

The Countess sweat, she knew that the old man was not an idiot.

“Old man… there is something bigger coming,” suddenly Simon tapped the old man’s back.

The old man scanned the bale of the rock turtles which was like a moving mass of land. “Ah crap… it has awaken…” the old man said. The Count and Countess were perplexed with the comment.

“You should have followed my advice, you better use all the gold you have collected and call for an emergency quest… the ancient turtle is on the move,” the old man said as he pointed out far away to the west, there was an utter disappointment as he bent his neck on one way.

“Boy, if that continues to move at that pace when would it arrive here?” the old man asks Simon.

The boy gazed out far into the horizon… “3 days probably but the small ones will arrive any time now” the boy said.

A rock turtle was as big as a normal house and seeing lots of it move would make one think that the earth was moving, Simon was actually enjoying the view of the moving land masses.

“Are you sure!!!? Little one! Are you sure?!!” the countess asked a bit panicking.

Simon just nodded. “Preposterous how could you believe a little boy?!” Wilfred was clearly in denial. If it was real, then the whole farmlands would be trampled down.

“Your great-grandfather took its eyes, you know that legend right? That’s where your crest came from…” the old man said… he met his great-grandfather when he was still little. Wilfred put his hands on his head, all he wanted was a little bit of wealth, if the farmlands got destroyed then the whole eastern frontier would fall.

Wilfred for some reason fell his eyes into the shield of one of the knights, the old man was right, he shouldn’t have slayed those Rat Fox, they were the natural predators of the Rock Turtles, he would send knights and even post-quest on the adventurer’s guild for slaying the those damn Rat Fox.

“Their blood is in your hands… you thought that you would only lose a few didn’t you?” the old man said. “We will help you… send for the adventurer’s guild… Joshua come here!” then the old man suddenly called for their party's guest.

“You have to get out of here,” the old man told him in a very sincere manner.

“No, I wanna try fighting it,” Joshua said so with a smile on his face.

“I see… watch behind the lines first, you will change your mind quickly,” the old man said so.

The faces of the knights were pale, the old man was right, a single Rock Turtle needed to be taken down by 20 to 30 knights, and still, 2 to 3 would die, but a hundred? Just calculating it through those facts would totally make the knights turn pale.

First of all Turtle Rocks are very slow, it was easy to be surrounded the problem now is how to damage it, magic that isn’t at least in the level of magic laws wouldn’t do anything against it.

They only moved when they were hungry and hunger was a great motivation. They would eat anything they see alive. To that note, they could tear through armors of almost any kind. This is one of the nastiest monsters that populated the eastern frontier even before.

The large one that they called the ancient turtle had lived for god knows how many winters and eons already. There were even legends that some more of these ancient turtles still exist but nobody knew where they were.

Although it was already written in the history books and the adventurers guild had the information on this large rock turtle on the western side of the Farm Lands, the named protector of the farmlands didn’t do the right thing and now they are in a really bad situation.

It would be possible to ask for reinforcements. The problem was that the politics of the nobles would always go in the way.

A noble won't expend its resources without an exchange or an agenda to follow through.