Gaius saw a bunch of people doing the same while he crossed hundreds of meters, but then eventually they disappeared in the distance. Gaius had planned his next steps carefully… Although he needed more information, he had a decent idea of where he wanted to go and what he wanted to achieve. Still, he started to feel a bit nervous since he didn’t know how things would play out.

“The next three days will be long… so I might as well train to kill time,” Gaius thought and then saw his hawk approaching. “Well, now… what should I do about you?”

Gaius already had a horse, but killing the new one to be able to summon another seemed bad… Still, only using the hawk, he would fly faster.

Hawk Lv 31 (1550/31.000)

Cost: 9300 mana

Charge: 00

Loyalty: 100/100

Health: 230/230

Mana: 85/85

Stamina: 520/520

Strength: 23

Endurance: 23

Adaptability: 12

Magic: 05

Resistance: 12

Wisdom: 05

Dexterity: 50

Perception: 57

Luck: 14

Free points: 00

“You have been working hard, buddy… any idea what I should do with our new ally?” Gaius asked.

The hawk didn’t reply… and in the end, Gaius didn’t know what to do either. So, he decided to take his time reaching the city… he wasn’t in a hurry right now, after all.

"Little master, are you already on your way now?" Relia suddenly asked when Gaius began to distribute everyone's status points that they obtained in the last few weeks.

"... What is it?" Gaius asked after a long sigh.

"We finished our preparation and are waiting for your orders," Relia replied. "We are all equipped, but our strength is still lacking. Should we focus on training the newbies by hunting anything or focus on gathering intel?"

"I don't think that those guys will return in the next few months, so you should focus on recovering your strength," Gaius replied once he confirmed that ninety percent of his soldiers were below level five and teenagers probably could kill them. "Focus on selling animals and beasts' bodies and then buy carriages and horses. That will be your first goal."

"Roger that," Relia declared.

Gaius did another experiment as soon as the war ended and made his new soldiers train with weapons… While they were getting experience and getting stronger, the rate was too slow. He also confirmed when he talked with Relia that she was getting stronger by defeating others way faster than before… probably because of Gaius' power. He could and was planning to exploit that.

Although they could only work at night, Rein and Herac were knowledgeable enough to tell Gaius soldiers which parts of the territory they could use freely for hunting and working. At the same time, Gaius asked about the types of creatures that he could find in that territory… Unfortunately, most of them had been hunted almost to extinction. They still existed, but they were hard to find… Still, once Gaius asked about monsters in other territories, he heard something interesting.

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"There are some dungeons in the neighboring territories… using them without permission isn't possible, but now and then, large groups of monsters would come out from them and spread around," Herac explained.

Dungeons! That wasn't a word that Gaius was expecting to hear… but it sure made him motivated. It was a pity that he couldn't visit those places now, though. Still, Gaius was determined to check them… the idea to capture one monster of each type in that world was appealing for obvious reasons.

He suddenly considered the idea of defeating only the bosses or guardians of those dungeons, but how could he do that? He didn't know if the monsters and the bosses of the dungeons would be of the same species, but it was clear that betting on the bosses to have more potential would be a better option. In the end, the most optimal choice would be to make his minions open the path until he finds the guardian.

“I gotta catch’em all!” Gaius thought while smirking.

Speaking of dungeons, Herac explained that they would appear whenever a monster would grow too strong. Either by being too old or from eating too many people or other monsters, a creature would be able to affect the territory with magic and then create a nest with it to multiply endlessly… that was a dungeon. Defeating the head of the nest was the only way to stop the multiplication of monsters, but usually, an army was necessary to pull that off. There other unknown factors and variations, but that was more or less true for the area.

“Well, I can learn more about it later… I should focus on the present,” Gaius thought.

Although ninety percent of his summons were humans, they could be more useful in other aspects aside from combat… even though their uses were also limited. Gaius also had to resume his magic training since he skipped a few weeks. He also had to study how to learn and read the language of that world… his life got busy yet again.

“Come to think of it, I can use you to deliver messages to my parents, huh,” Gaius said while looking at the hawk resting on his head.

Giving orders to his summon would be way simpler than using any other method, it also would be free of charge, so Gaius couldn’t ask for more. Perhaps he could make some money with that kind of feature too...

In any case, during those six days, nothing happened… aside from Gaius seeing some merchants heading to the village. They heard that a lot of soldiers obtained a lot of money and they wanted a part of it. Although those people frowned while seeing a kid of Gaius' age traveling alone, they didn't do anything or try to talk with him.

"Hey, it has been a while…" Angela suddenly appeared on the last day of Gaius' trip.

Call it a coincidence, but Gaius managed to level up that night as well… since he had two hundred soldiers hunting animals and beasts to get stronger. Although it took five days for that to happen, he was more than satisfied with the result since it was a passive experience.

"Yes, it has… have you been entertained with the last few events?" Gaius asked.

"You sound angry for some reason… do you really think that I enjoyed seeing dead people coming here left and right?" Angela frowned.

"No, but…" Gaius hesitated.

Gaius realized that he was being a bit too sharp with his words, he wondered why since he didn't feel particularly angry in the last few days. He thought that he had solved his distrust with Angela, but it looked like that wasn't completely true… after thinking for a while, he realized that deep down, he assumed that Angela knew what would happen and didn't warn him directly about the death of the villagers.

Blaming her wouldn't change a thing… Besides, for his own convenience, Gaius didn't try to stand out, so he held back on his power as well… he couldn't blame others when he didn't do his best and his sole goal was to bring back his father.

"Sorry, it looks like the change of environment is changing my mood as well," Gaius said and then sighed.

"Your future seems uncertain for the first time, so I guess it makes sense,” Angela said. “Anyway, I just came here to inform you again that your actions will affect a lot of things and people… I can tell that you are planning something big, so the changes will also be bigger this time."

"Just when I think that you can't see the future you say something like this…" Gaius furrowed his eyebrows. "Didn't you say something like that before?"

"I can't, but I see a bunch of people like you bringing changes and even though some of them have good intentions, sometimes, they can't see things from a broader perspective," Angela explained. "I just want to alert you because I don't want to see you depressed if you cause some troublesome situations…"

Gaius couldn't deny that since the fight against Relia and her soldiers was because he exterminated the goblins… he avoided a tragedy, but the tragedy could have happened because of his own actions… he had to think in a broader way.

"I also want to ask you to cancel the summon of your horse, I want to try riding it for a bit," Angela added while showing a bit of an embarrassed smile.

That was a weird request, even more so when the summons would be in a spirit form… still, Angela should have known a way or to deal with that. Gaius wanted to ask how she was going to do that, but he could already hear her saying that she couldn't answer. He was trying to be less moody, but all those mysteries were bothering him as well.

"Sure…" Gaius said and then furrowed his eyebrows.