“Alright, I see the encampment,” Jane said. All of us were down on the grass to conceal ourselves. If there was anything odd about us, it was Vojma who had his left arm tied up so that he couldn’t use it and he had iron weights attached to his right arm. This was his idea of having one arm by handicapping and off-balancing himself. I was very doubtful, but what would I know?

“I’ve never seen goblins, orcs, and werewolves hanging out together,” Duman said after making an observation. That was true. As far as I knew, different monster races didn’t coexist together. There seemed to be hierarchy as well. The goblins were acting like servants by tending campfires and cooking. The orcs were like soldiers by guarding, and werewolves were acting like higher ups and were slacking off.

“Does that mean they have a unified language?” Roseline remarked. She has always been a scholar type, asking weird stuff.

“Woman, you are not going there to attempt to strike a conversation,” Duman quarreled as if he had seen her doing such before. She only pouted and didn’t talk back as if he hit bullseye. She was always an oddball. Now with her white hair, she looked the part as well. At least, she was opening up a bit. Until this moment, she had barely spoken a sentence. But then that was her. Even before the event, she was hardly talkative. She talked only when she had to or something to talk about.

“There are about twenty seven of them,” Vojmir said, looking awfully awkward with his setup. I mean, I get that. He is trying to help me, but … it was a bit too much. He looked awkward as hell. I almost laughed out loudly when I saw his tied arm and iron weights for the first time. But then I had to appreciate him going this far for me.

“You go first, Faro. I will follow. Show me what you’ve got,” he said to me, to which I nodded back.

“You guys do know that I can wipe them out in one spell, don’t you?” Roseline pointed out. Ever since the elementals started to become visible, magic in general became much more powerful. So, she wasn’t joking when she said that. With a water element affinity of nine, she was capable of wiping them out in one spell, probably. Now, she wouldn’t be able to wipe them out completely, but her big spell would probably cripple them to a point that it would be easy pickings for whatever was going to be left of them.

“He needs to train, and Vojmir needs to get used to fighting one-armed,” Duman pointed out. “You sit this one out, Roseline.”

“Why did I even tag along then?” She said with a pout.

She had a point, I felt. But … hang on. Is it just me or Duman and Roseline get along pretty well? She had been pretty gloomy but she was acting pretty normally with Duman. Did they get along this well before? I couldn’t recall exactly because they rarely interacted. Yes, they rarely talked to each other. I wonder …

“Sir Vojmir, shall we go?” I spoke, shaking off the thought. This wasn’t the time to have such thoughts.

“Are you confident? Duman told me that your balance is quite off.”

“That’s only when I fight on the move. I will try to fight standing still.”

He gave me a firm nod. “Very well, good luck.”

I did fight Vojmir before embarking on this mission, and he did acknowledge that my strength and reflex was above average. He also told me that I should be able to get used to not having an arm in a fight. But getting used to and having deep knowledge in how to counter the off-balance was another thing, he said.

“You can count me, sir,” I replied gleefully, standing up and dashing toward the encampment. “Elementals of Earth, heed my call! Grant me armor to pend off my enemies: Stone skin!”

I cast stoneskin which Roseline taught me not long ago. I did feel my skin harden. Glancing at my arm, I could see that my skin turned dark brown for a moment before turning back to its normal color. Stoneskin was a basic spell for Earth mages but it was an important spell for melee fighters because it provided the same strength as plate armor. I wouldn’t have been able to cast this, but my brother, the King, cast bless on me, increasing my affinity to Earth element a bit, ultimately allowing me to cast stoneskin twice a day.

“Thanks, bro,” I whispered to myself. Drawing out my short sword, I ran as fast as I could. A pair of orc guards noticed my presence and barked loudly to alert others. I couldn’t care less and ran up to one and shoved my short sword right through its chin to the top of its head. I knew I had gotten stronger because I wouldn’t have been able to do this before. Not wasting time, I dashed toward the second orc and shoved my sword right into its side and twisted it, potentially dealing internal bleeding. The orc was as good as dead at this point although it could stay alive for days potentially. Of course, it wasn’t going to live for that long before my mentor sliced off its neck shortly after. He was a big man although not as big as Duman but still he was fast, probably as fast as me in terms of raw speed. When every monster in the encampment turned their attention to us, crossbow bolts started to hit their heads. Duman was doing his bit. At this point, werewolves howled and got their claws out, ready to strike. Goblins, meanwhile, were looking left and right in fear. Orcs were growling and changing at us already. If this was the old days, I may have panicked and may have sought a way out. This time, however, I was fairly confident of my abilities. Besides, I had stoneskin on me. Several hits would pose no issue whatsoever. In addition, Vojmir was really good. In spite of the handicaps he placed on himself, he was literally flying around the battlefield and cutting down one after another. If he was this good with just one arm, he might be able to take all of the encampment alone with both arms. I wasn’t going to let him have all the glory, though, and proceeded to cut down as many as possible. I did try to avoid fighting on the move because I stumbled somewhat frequently if I did so.

“Woah!” A werewolf’s powerful claw just barely scratched my chest as I attempted to dodge during which I tripped but I rolled away swiftly enough not to pose any issue. I retaliated immediately by dashing forward low and slashing its lower hind leg. Then I felt a heavy strike on my back. An orc apparently smashed my back with a crude wooden club. If it wasn’t for my stoneskin spell, I would have been hurt pretty badly.

“Damn you!” My mentor exclaimed as he put an end to the offending orc. “Get up!”

Grunting, I got up as far as I could and rammed at the werewolf in front of me, allowing my mentor to slash twice at his chest as it was pushed backwards.

“It’s not down yet!” I shouted and was going to deal the final blow. But a crossbow belt struck at its forehead, and it was truly a goner this time. With its eyes rolling up, it fell backwards. Its death signalled a defeat, and goblins were the first ones to flee. Duman’s crossbow got the most of them that tried to flee. Orcs tried to resist but ultimately they went down as well. That left just one more werewolf, but I was nearing my limit. My body was covered in sweat, and I had taken several hits. Taking down twenty-something monsters with just the three of us wasn’t an easy task. Besides, I wasn’t quite used to one-arm swordplay, thus I was draining more stamina due to higher concentration. Thankfully, Vojmir was there to finish things up. Once the encampment was cleared, Duman, Jane, and Roseline approached at once.

“Oh my, you look beat,” Jane said to me with a worried face.

“Water!” Roseline exclaimed, and several baskets of water dropped right on me from thin air. It was sudden but did feel refreshing. Mages with a high affinity to an elemental did not need a fancy spell incantation.

“Uh…, thanks,” I told her while wiping water off my face.

“Alright, let’s loot up,” Duman said while kicking a crudely constructed camp. His kick was enough to completely turn it over, revealing a mess of stuff. Gemstones were what we were looking for. Jane was our designated looter and support. While carrying and selling orc equipment was an option, there was only so much she could carry. Goblins had a knack for hoarding gemstones or stealing jewelry from nearby human settlements. They adored anything shiny. It was safe to say that adventurers did not assault monster encampments if there weren’t any goblins unless the reward was large enough to compensate for the lack of loot.

“Don’t mind if I do ~,” she said gleefully while picking up gemstones from the destroyed tent site. Meanwhile, Roseline was walking around and taking notes. I had no idea what she was writing about. Vojmir walked around and made sure that every monster was indeed dead. After having done that, he approached me after untying his left arm.

“I see the main problem. As suspected, it’s the balance,” he told me.

“I know that much,” I replied.

“A partial solution to the imbalance is improving your left leg and changing how you use it.”

I blinked a few times. He came up with a solution already? That was fast.

“We will get into the details once we get back.”

“Thank you, sir.” I gave him a firm nod. It didn’t take long for Duman to wipe out whatever tents there were and it didn’t take long for Jane to pick up gemstones, either. We were two days away from Ceres, and it was morning when the encampment was cleared. We decided to head back to Ceres right away to reduce the need to camp twice because camping outside was always a dangerous affair. Someone had to stand guard all night as well. It was just better to avoid camping if possible, so that was what we were doing. Instead of camping twice to get back home, we were trying to camp only once. It would burden us more, but we were heading back home anyway.

“I think we’ve got around 20 silvers in gemstones,” Jane declared while weighing a small pouch in her hands. She was a guild receptionist. Therefore, she was able to make a rough, but accurate, estimate on our earnings. There were five of us, thus we’d get four silver coins each. It was a lot of money for Jane who saved up just 15 silver coins over two years. It was the first big income for me in a while as well. I spent quite a bit lately, so I had to save up also. I wasn’t a kid anymore. I had a wife and a house to save up for. We weren’t going to have kids yet. Jane wanted a house first, so we were saving up for a house together. Yes, I had the gold coins, but she advised me not to use it unless necessary. We agreed that it was our emergency funds essentially.

“When will you be able to complete the airship, Lord Sluple?” She asked.

“It’s about half way done. I’d say two months, give or take a bit.”

She seemed to be in thoughts for a moment before speaking. “I wonder how many encampment missions we could take on until then.”

“Do you want to do more of these?” Duman seemed a bit surprised.

“Of course, this is nice money.”

“What do you need money for? Faro should have enough money.”

“I have 14 golds and 96 silvers,” I answered. Ten silver coins were spent to persuade Jane’s father, and I had spent some on shrimps and whatnot.

“Fourteen??” He seemed confused. “Wait, how much were you paid?”

“The Duke…, well, the king has granted me 25 gold coins. I entrusted 10 golds to my mother for my brothers.”

“Twenty five?” He seemed to have come to an understanding. “I see. We were paid 50 gold coins each, Roseline and I.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Jane’s and Vojmir’s eyes went wide. I, too, was surprised although not much.

“It’s understandable that you were paid twice more,” I said. “I was just a pilot, you know.”

“Well, twenty five gold coins is still a lot to be fair. I feel like you shouldn’t have spent the ten golds for your brothers, though…”

Perhaps he was right. But … the reason I left five gold coins each for Taro and Abel was that it was the only thing I could ever do for them. I wanted them to remember me by something and hopefully the gold coins will leave some impression of me.

“That is a lot of money we are talking about here…,” Vojmir mumbled. Yeah, it was an inconceivable amount of money for most. Talking about money did make me wonder how much my mentor was being paid for all this. I decided not to ask anything about that in front of everyone, however.

“The risk versus the reward, Vojmir,” Duman said.

“I do wonder whether it was worth it…,” Roseline mumbled with vacant eyes. I was certain that only those who experienced this would know what it really felt like. For example, my mentor would probably go for it due to the money involved. In contrast, both Duman and Roseline would refuse such a mission at this point. As for me, I wouldn’t accept it anymore, either. Really…, once was enough. The nightmares and pains…, yeah, once was more than enough.

“Ok, let’s camp here,” Duman declared. The twilight-colored sky was a good indication that we should indeed camp. Jane was quick to start by setting up a campfire after setting down her large backpack. Only she was carrying a large one. The rest of us were carrying either medium or small bags. Roseline and I were carrying small bags. None of us was helping her, but we weren’t being inconsiderate. We generally let each other do their assigned roles without disturbing them. For Jane, this was her role.

“I will stand guard tonight,” I volunteered.

“Thanks, let’s eat,” Duman said.

By the time everyone sat down around the campfire, the ground was already pitch black. Cracking from the campfire was the only sound for a brief moment before Jane handed out boar jerky to everyone.

“Mentor, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“Yes?”

“What was it like in the North during the Age of Darkness?”

The North was completely devastated, and there was still nothing left at all.

“Endless of waves of monsters,” he replied while chewing his strip of boar jerky. “Most people couldn’t flee even if they wanted to. They would never make it to another settlement.”

It’d take days, if not tens of days. Surviving in the wilderness was entirely another level of danger. It was true that they’d never survive unless they had an army with them.

“You made out, though?” Duman asked casually.

“Yeah, I had to flee alone. It was far easier to hide and move undetected that way.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“If I had a family, I would have probably never made out.”

The mood darkened immediately. Well, fuck, I didn’t mean to do this. In an attempt to lighten up the mood, I ended up doing something stupid.

“Um, Roseline, since when did you get along with Duman so well?”

“Excuse me?” She sounded surprised. From Duman’s quick glare at me, it was something I shouldn’t have asked. It was time to come up with a way to change the topic.

“Nevermind. You know, Jane and I are house-hunting right now. We are looking for a four bedroom home. How much do you think it will cost?” I said hurriedly while scratching the back of my head. I was sweating here a bit. To my dismay, nobody answered. Of course, nobody did. The others weren’t looking to settle down and would have no idea about real estate. How silly of me.

“Just ask the carpenter like I told you before,” was Duman’s brief answer.

“R, right…”

It became really awkward right after, and we eventually laid down to get some sleep. The others were sleeping apart from each other. I was sitting down right next to Jane who laid down. She was already soundly asleep. Well, everyone was tired after fighting and walking all day long. Besides, unlike the others, Jane wasn’t used to this kind of workload. Looking down at her, I caressed her well combed brown hair slowly and gently. I slept with this woman two times now. I must admit that I started to see women in a different light after sleeping with her. Women were … different and delightful to be with. I really didn’t see why guys were itching to end up with girls until I got to sleep with one of them. My seemingly goal-less life had a clear path now. I was going to look after her, raise kids with her, and see them grow up. The first step to that was buying a house. I looked up at the dark sky with many glistering stars. You generally don’t get to look at the night sky unless you are out adventuring. It was beautiful scenery which not many get to enjoy actually. Those living underground would never see this for example.

“...........”

Hours passed while contemplating this and that. It was still pitch dark, but I could see faint silhouettes approaching very stealthily. I have yet to tell anyone but I have been able to see in pitch darkness ever since I was healed by the water elementals. It wasn’t as if I could see clearly, though. I was barely making out the shapes.

“Wolves!” I shouted which woke up the others while drawing out my sword.

“Where?! Can’t see a damned thing!” Duman grumbled. I could see eight of them, and they had surrounded us. Dashing to one of them, the wolf seemed shocked that I was coming right at him. With a loud whimper, the wolf was dispatched with a well-aimed thrust into its throat. A nearby wolf jumped at me, but I was able to evade with ease and didn’t miss a chance to slash at its belly as it flew over me. With its blood and intestines pouring out, it fell onto the grass.

“You can see in this darkness?!” Duman exclaimed.

“Just barely!”

“Well, that’s better than not seeing anything at all! Keep up!”

“Jane, get the campfire back up!” Vojmir demanded.

“Y, yes!”

Another wolf had a go at me which I fended off by shoving my sword right into its mouth. It started to bleed hard from its pierced jaw. In fact, I believed that I cut off half of its tongue. Jumping backwards, it started to run, leaving five wolves to deal with. With the campfire back on, Duman and the others were finally able to see the wolves. Their momentum was completely gone at this point. The final nail in the coffin was Duman’s crossbow taking down yet another wolf in the head. The last remaining four wolves dispersed at once into darkness.

“Well, thanks to you, that was easy,” Duman said.

“You can see in the darkness?” Vojmir questioned.

“I can’t exactly see. I could barely make out its shape.”

“That’s better than anyone could hope for really,” he replied.

Duman approached one of the downed wolves. “You guys wanna eat meat? We have plenty here.”

Jane’s eyes lit up instantly. “Of course!”

Taking out a knife, he began to skin a wolf in front of him. I did the same, skinning and cutting off good bits with a knife. Generally, the thighs of hind legs were the good parts and easy to exact quickly. I was sure that there were better bits, but we didn’t have the time to properly skin and exact the meat. Its fur could also be sold, but then Jane wouldn’t be able to carry them. Truthfully, some opportunities for further earnings were wasted. But then we weren’t that hungry for money, so it was okay for us.

“Oh my, this is good!” Jane exclaimed joyfully as she bit into a juicy piece of roasted wolf leg meat that was skewered by a stick. “This is as good as the roasted boar!”

“Yeah, wolf meat is not bad. It’s just not as readily available,” I replied.

“It beats the boar jerky for sure,” Duman said.

“I wonder if werewolf meat is edible,” Roseline said suddenly. “Wolf and werewolves are closely related afterall.”

I wasn’t sure I agreed. Yes, the names were certainly related, but a werewolf was more of a humanoid than a four-legged animal.

“As far as I know, those two are the same. Cursed werewolves have an ability to transform into werewolves,” Vojmir said.

I did not know that. How do they become cursed in the first place anyway?

“I am aware,” Roseline replied while taking a bite on her share of the wolf meat. “I’ve researched on the curse a bit and came up with nothing but superstitions.”

“Hmm?”

There was a fire elemental nearby the campfire. It resembled a translucent orange salamander that was the size of the forearm. It was staring at the cracking fire. It was near Jane, and she poked at it cautiously. Her finger went into it without resistance.

“It’s not hot,” she remarked.

The fire elemental turned its head to her and then looked back at the fire. What was it thinking, I wondered.

“Why do you think elementals suddenly decided to show up?” I asked.

“No clue, but our king has something to do with it for sure,” Duman said. Roseline frowned meanwhile.

“Too many mysterious unanswered…,” she mumbled, again, with a frown. It looked like she was displeased about not having answers to many things. “We don’t even know what elementals are exactly,” I said.

That was true. As far as I knew, elementals were like spirits that were bound to specific elements. We knew virtually nothing about them.

“The king probably knows more than anyone else. He is called ‘the elemental king’ for a reason,” Duman pointed out.

“I should have asked when we were given titles…,” Roseline whispered.

I heard that. Well, no, that wouldn’t have been appropriate. To be honest, I felt that her interests were everywhere as if she was constantly looking to set her mind on something. As someone who went through what she had gone through, I realized what was going through her mind exactly. She was trying to keep her mind distracted so that she would not be haunted by the past. I understood her reasoning but felt that her method was not very effective and healthy. Was there anything I could do to help her?

……………..

In the end, it all came down to one aspect: reasons to live on. People had to have a reason to go on even if it was insignificant. If grief outweighed reasons to live and such situation would go on for a prolonged time, then one might commit suicide. Then the next question was … how I would help her to find reasons to live. Quite frankly, I had no methods to help her except…

“Do you want an audience with the king?” I said to her, to which she responded with wide eyes.

“What?” She blurted. She didn’t see that coming clearly. Hell, even I didn’t know.

“I could make it happen. You could meet up with the king.”

I could ask my mom and make it happen.

“How? How would you make it happen?”

That was because the king was my brother. If I asked my mom, she could easily arrange an audience. I wasn’t ashamed to use my connections for something like this. I really, truly, wanted her to reocver on from the bottom of my heart. This was when an earth elemental emerged from the ground and patted my back as if it knew exactly what was going on in my mind. I really don’t know what my brother did to the world, but it had become a bit weird to be honest. Thankfully, because it appeared behind me, only I noticed its presence.

“Trust me, Roseline. I can make it happen. Only once, though.” I tried to downplay what I was doing. From a side glance, I could tell that Duman knew what I was talking about. He must have known that I was the king’s brother. “So, make it count.”

After a moment of silence, she beamed a subtle smile at me. “Sure, I will take it. I am going to make a list of questions for him and ask away.”

Jane, too, looked at me with curiosity but she didn’t ask. The secret of my true lineage was going down with me; I wasn’t going to tell anyone, not even Jane. It was my mother’s wish to keep it that way. Nothing good would come out of revealing the truth, she said.

“Duman.”

“Yeah?”

“Is my mentor going, too? I mean with the airship.”

“Oh, I didn’t actually ask him.”

“What are you two talking about?” Vojmir asked.

He explained his plan of traveling the world with the airship, the Fat Lady. His reaction was unexpectedly lukewarm.

“Is there money in it?”

“Uncertain. There could be since we will be helping people in need.”

“Unlike you, I need to keep on making money. I am close to retirement,” he said, sounding a bit passive aggressive. To me, it looked like he was turning a bit sore after finding out that Duman had 50 gold coins. Regardless, we needed at least one more person. Duman, Jane, Roseline, and I were not quite enough to operate the airship adequately. Jane would be staying behind in the ship most of the time, and we needed someone else to be with her so that the airship could be guarded. To be honest, Vojmir was too good just to stay behind in the ship. Perhaps, it was better to let him go after my training was over. Thus, I gave a subtle nod over to Duman who noticed my intention.

“You will be paid well for training Faro,” Duman said. “After that, I guess that’s it.”

Realistically, I should have been the one who paid him, but my expenses as of late were spiraling out of control. So, if Duman wanted to be the gentleman, I wasn’t going out of my way to pay.

“I will think about what to do after,” Vojmir replied. He was absolutely considering his options. Sticking with rich people like Duman and Roseline may be an option for him. Whatever the case, he was expandable for us. Putting the matter aside in my mind, I glanced at Jane who was busy devouring the cooked thighs. Food was always one of the top priorities for her. She told me that she always starved during her childhood and admitted that she was addicted to good food, so I never bothered her when she was eating, especially when she was eating something good. By the time we were done with our meal, the sun was slowly creeping out of the horizon. It was time to get a move on and return to Ceres. It was going to be another day of full walking. We should be able to reach our destination just barely in time before the night.