A great journey begins with a small first step
"It was a long winter", I thought as I stood in a long line at the old Mercenary Guild building to officially register as one, the beginning of spring brought with it a frantic increase in activity in the Ciliana city, lots of people came to try their luck as adventurers and mercenaries, although the mountain pass that connected Ciliana with Dumai remained open all year, as most magical beasts and animals hibernated, in addition, due to the extreme climate, the exploration of caves, ruins and labyrinths became too dangerous, the city practically came to a standstill in winter, with the arrival of spring the new adventurer and mercenary candidates filled the city, all thinking of making money quickly, the competition was fierce and everyone sought to intimidate each other to secure the best missions.
While I was in line, several misaligned-looking guys gave me intimidating looks, I had become the center of attention because my appearance stood out, not only because of my white hair, my equipment was of high quality, which aroused the envy of the other candidates, when I thought there was no way that a person would stand out more, he called me by my name, "Maester Lif", shouted a person and immediately turned in the center of the gaze, when I turned to see who it was, I spotted an employee of the Merchants Guild waving at me, it was a familiar face, the person who always received the goods sent by the gray wolves, "Maester Lif, you don't have to go through that cumbersome procedure", the person yelled.
Hearing those words the looks of contempt directed at me became even more intense, then the person approached accompanied by an employee of the Mercenaries Guild, "Please Maester Lif, she will accompany you to a private room, you are a highly recognized contributor to the Merchants Guild, as one of our star guides, we guarantee your capacity before the Mercenaries Guild so you don't need to do the initial procedure", he said as he pulled me out of line, "sometimes it is very convenient to have influenced", I whispered as I walked away from the line accompanied by the guild employee, I could feel the looks of utter contempt stabbing my back.
After completing the paperwork and removing the identification plate that certified me as a mercenary, I again found the employee of the Merchants Guild, "his father sent us a letter explaining all the details, it certainly makes us sad that we no longer have you here, but as a token of our sincere appreciation for the years of service we will support you in any way we can, you can even send letters to your family using the Merchants Guild service", said the clerk of the merchants' guild, "Wow", I exclaimed, so that was why my father delayed my departure, to go with the first caravan.
"I understand and thank you, I understand that the guild sends caravans to Dumai, I would like to be able to travel with one of the caravans", express my intentions, "of course, we want to count on you Maester Lif to join the escort of an upcoming caravan", said the clerk of the merchants' guild, "then everything is settled, just tell me where the caravan will meet", I replied, "of course Maester Lif, It will be tomorrow in the courtyard of the Merchants Guild headquarters, the exit will be at the north gate of the city", said the employee with a smile.
"Excellent then I will rest properly today and tomorrow I will stop by early to say goodbye to all the staff members", express my good intentions, "I'm sure everyone will appreciate the Master Lif gesture", the man said smiling, "so see you tomorrow", and I said goodbye to the good man.
There was one last thing to do, to honor my father, visit the temple of the God of War, I prayed for my family and the Gray Wolf tribe, it had been a good 21 years, what the future holds for me is a mystery, but of one thing I'm sure, I will faithfully follow the principle of the God of War, each man forges his own destiny, so with my determination reaffirmed, I left the temple and headed to an inn to rest.
It was early in the morning, after a refreshing bath in cold water I had everything ready for the long journey, "magic bags are convenient," I said to myself, had bought a high-quality magic bag from the Mages Guild with the capacity to store 1 cubic meter and up to 500 kilograms of weight, if that mass was exceeded, the sub-space of the bag would collapse and all the content would be lost, so I must always keep it in mind.
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I said goodbye to the staff of the inn, I had been a regular customer for the last 3 years, spending all spring and summer in the city, right now I did not know how long it would take to return, in my previous life I traveled a lot, I visited all the continents, but air travel was monotonous, from now on I would travel mainly on foot, occasionally by wagon and possibly by boat.
After a short journey, I was in front of the Merchants Guild, it was more than 11 years ago the first time I set foot in this place, I entered the building and greeted all the employees one by one, they were all familiar faces, I properly said goodbye to everyone and went to the courtyard where the carriages were being readied, given the enormous distance between Ciliana and Dumai and the absence of intermediate points to re-supply, he had to take a lot of provisions, there was only fresh water in the desolate mountain landscapes that awaited us, vegetation was sparse and animals were practically non-existent.
In total, about 40 4-wheel carts would be sent, with 3 trade guild employees per cart and a 100-person escort between mercenaries and adventurers, luckily I was paired with a group of adventurers that I knew, the 《Red Claw》 were all from the same town and were all childhood friends, Vance the leader of the group brandished a spear, he was tall and thin, his long red hair stood out, he wore a leather armor reinforced with chainmail, he was quite charismatic and smart, Gilbert was a strong man who acted as a vanguard, he was a six-foot giant and a prominent physique, he shaved his head and always wore a helmet, he wore heavy plate armor that covered everything, a round shield, and a one-handed longsword, he was quiet and calculating.
Sophia was the healer of the group, she was of medium height, with delicate features and blond hair tied with a small tiara, he wore sturdy leather clothing and a light chain mail, as she was not a combatant she always went to the middle of the group, she was laden with jewels that were amplifiers for her magical power, she was the smartest of all and kept the group's accounts and records, Valentina or Val as her friends called her was a hunter and attacked from a distance with a longbow, she was tall and thin, she had beautiful brown hair, she also wore simple leather garments with reinforcements, chainmail identical to Sophia's and a cloth ribbon holding her hair, acted as Sophia's direct escort and was very outgoing.
Katarina was an attack mage, specialized in the fire element, she dressed the same as the other girls but used a leather raincoat to hide her voluptuous figure as she had a shy personality, she used a big braid that made it look like she had short hair, but in reality, her blonde hair was very long and beautiful, finally, Jonas who was a light fighter armed with a rapier and a dagger, his hair was black, he wore light leather armor reinforced with chain mail, he was the expert in spotting traps in the group as he had a keen sense of danger and his personality was somewhat grim, reminding me of emo.
"Hi, guys! It's been a while", I greeted them happily, "oh it's the lucky Lif", Val yelled, "welcome Lif", they greeted the group's challenge in chorus, 《The lucky Lif》is how I am mostly known in Ciliana, the nickname arose when a group of adventurers who were acquaintances of my mother once visited the village to rest and stock up, then my mother told them the story of my illness and how lucky I was to recover from it, by the way, my formal name is 《Lif Erikson Greenhill Greywolf》, my name Lif was chosen by my mother, Erikson by Erik's son, Greenhill is for my birthplace, a grassy hill where is the main settlement of the tribe and Graywolf by the translation of the Gray Wolves in the northern language.
"So you finally decided to spread your wings and take flight", said Gilbert as we walked beside the carriage, "if I finally finish with my preparations and I feel ready to travel the world", I replied, despite being of a quiet personality Gilbert was a good conversationalist, I guess you only chat with the people you are really interested in, the girls were sitting on top of the carriage, Vance and Jonas had gone to speak with the leaders of the other groups to coordinate surveillance efforts, the first 15 days of travel would be uneventful, it was practically impossible for any group of bandits to settle in the first half of the road that ran through the mountain pass, due to the scarcity of natural resources and the absence of other populations outside the city of Ciliana, there was no way they could stock up, as we got closer to Dumai if it would get dangerous.
We had gone 24 days without incident and we were only a 4 or 5 day trip from Dumai, Val, Jonas, and I had been sent as the vanguard to reconnoiter a part of the road where an ambush was most likely to be prepared, bows at the ready Val and I watched in the distance as Jonas scanned the road, we were partially hidden behind some big rocks, "so, is it true that you have never killed anyone?", asked Val, "yes, so far I have only hunted animals and fought magical beasts", I replied, I was not lying, in this life I had not yet stained my hands with blood, there were no bandits among the tribes of the great black forest, in fact, humans couldn't survive in the black forest unless they organized into large groups, built defenses and were permanently on guard, for the same reason, it was almost impossible for there to be a war between the tribes, at best the most serious conflicts between individuals were resolved in showy and elaborate duels.