Walking back to the caravan Mark thought about the direction he wanted to take in the future. It has been some time since he has reached perfection in his craft on Earth. Since he was stuck then he started taking on students, like Jake and Tom he found pleasure in seeing others improve, but it was never the same as his own improvement. But now his skills did not possess that limitation, that barrier anymore. He could continue improving nonstop since he arrived here, and to be honest it was pretty addicting.

The knowledge that you are better at something than you were yesterday and being able to improve today, in an endless cycle. He forgot how addicting it felt to improve, and seeing the evidence of your improvement only made the training even more satisfying. It was to the point that he was basically always walking around on seventy percent of his stamina, always training no matter when or where.

And in the end, it brought results, after weeks of trying he finally found a little trick to combining abilities, it could also have something to do with his abilities reaching higher tiers. but he was finally able to combine Snipe and Double Tap, making it an extremely deadly combo. It allowed him to send two arrows wherever he wanted on the target, so far never missing, or sending the arrows to two different targets, at angles almost impossible by using just Double Tap.

Shortly after that breakthrough, he learned another deadly combination, using Pierce, Bolster, and Quickstep together, allowing him to pierce directly through heavy iron armor like through butter. It could be different against enchanted pieces, but people wearing unenchanted armor could just as well not be wearing anything. The energy also coated the daggers during the attack, making them very resilient against damage, not that he was able to damage the weapons in any way so far, they were truly an incredible pair of tools.

After an hour's walk, they finally saw the caravan camping in a little cleared-out area by the side of the road, by the looks of it, the area was prepared with the thought of this caravan, with many semi-permanent fixtures like fire pits and little wooden alcoves, and a fence encircling the whole clearing. People were milling about, about finishing their meals and preparing for sleep. They were a little late, but along the way, Mark made Donny Stealth and try to get to the caravan undetected.

He failed, not like he could escape Mark’s sense, but it wasn’t the point. After seeing the power of Forest Stride against stealthed opponents, Mark realized the innate danger. There was no way there weren’t any other skills to use against thieves and assassins, so he was trying to devise a way to hide even your inner Stamina from detection.

Walking up to the protection ring, they went through the transparent barrier erected about a hundred meters from the carts. In the last couple of days, Mark learned they aren't protection but detection enchantments. Apparently, setting up a protection barrier of that size would bankrupt even the biggest of merchant guilds, and the efficiency for that size would be subpar to the point that hiring people for protection is many times cheaper.

Walking through the barrier, it glowed bright yellow in the night, announcing their crossing. That very moment five crossbows were aimed at them, only to relax soon after seeing that it was their guests coming back. Over the last few days, they have grown used to these two going and coming whenever they wanted, though Mark, had to admit they impressed them a little, they never completely ignored them, always vigilant till sure, they were who they thought they were,

Walking up to the carriage they were assigned, they dropped off the loot next to the other sacks at the back and sat at the stove the merchant’s servants had, as always, prepared for them, eating a thick broth with some mystery meat inside with some bread at the side.

“Where did we leave it last night? The Elves?”

“Yes, I believe I didn't yet mention their belief systems master.”

“Good, continue then.”

Over the last few days, Mark decided to use the advantage the Servant Bond has given him. It allowed him to silence his servants in any way he deemed fit, making them unable to tell anyone anything their master told them not to spread. Even under the threat of death or the death of their loved ones, the Servants would be unable to speak. Using this Mark gave Donny a series of commands, making him never tell anyone, anything relating to Mark.

He made sure to not leave any loopholes in his wording, not giving the kid any chance of spinning out of the Bond's control. Then he started asking questions about the world, the everyday activities of the people living here, the inner workings of the System, the religion of the land, the politics and kingdoms around. Of course, Donny was just a peasant boy, but he still possessed a vast amount of general knowledge that was invaluable to Mark.

The world they were living on was called Gelantis, and their continent was named after some Dragon God from millennia ago, Ezzam. The continent wasn’t that big, housing the two biggest kingdoms Tuerrthia and Arencia, divided in the middle by the mountains. To the south of Tuerrthia, there were a couple of smaller kingdoms, Dansigg, Rotth, Bergd, and Fauer, all four creating the Union of Four, combining their strength and creating a united front, to dissuade Tuerrthia from attacking them.

Further South-West of them, there was the Beastmen Jungle. The heaven for beastmen, a place inhabited by many different, independent tribes of beastmen, thanks to the climate in the jungle, they were rarely attacked by the Union.

To the North-East of the jungle, there was the Merchant Kingdom Geldgierig, with each city there basically owned by a different merchant guild, creating their kingdom through the Council of Handlers.

Right now they were discussing the Kingdom of Elves the Lelav’elan, located to the North-East of Arencia. Not much was known about them lately, as about fifty years ago, they retreated into their forests and stopped accepting visitors and guests, cutting off relations with the continent.

“Their religion is a little strange and different from our Creation Myth, that was why there were some hostilities between them and Humans lately. Mom said they believed it was the Gods of the Sun and Moon who have created our world, citing the Power of the Stars, as their justification, but everyone knows that the Stars are the Servants of the Creator, the administrators of our world, helping the Creator's Children in overseeing his creation.”

Mark could only sigh at that, Donny was a simple Hunters boy, living his life as his parents have thought him, and they lived the way their parents thought them, it was not strange for them to leave in the conviction that their religion is the right one, but Mark knew better, especially in a world filled with magic, unless you are the creator yourself, you will never know for sure, who is right.

Especially as he has already heard from Donny, that the gods in this world were much more active, many times conversing with their priests, which would make him trust them even less. A powerful being calling itself god, telling you that they are the rightful rulers of heaven and that the other religions are fake. Yea, it sounded like a load of bullshit. Though there was no denying that their power was unfathomable, just taking under consideration the Legend of Megalo.

“So, were they prosecuted by your church? I would also close my borders if that happened.”

“No master, the Church of Light is benevolent, they do not judge nor prosecute, at most they try to show the light, it was the people of Arencia that started harassing elves on the daily, at first they just restricted access to their villages to elves, then they started harassing them on the road, some were even kidnapped and sold as slaves. Of course, the Confederation quickly found and killed the offenders.

But it didn’t stop, soon even bigger cities didn’t allow elves entrance and even more elven slaves started appearing in the homes of the higher-up Magisters. Of course, the offending Magisters were also put to trial and executed, but in the end, Elves stopped appearing, and no one has seen them in fifty years. Every delegation sent into their forests has never returned, so soon the Confederation stopped sending their ambassadors, deciding to leave the Elves alone.”

Mark didn’t like the way Donny was speaking about the “Church of Light”, and he was almost sure that the villagers and common people’s hostility didn’t come out of nowhere, though he would have to investigate with someone more informed if he wanted to find out more. But for now, it was unnecessary, he wouldn’t be coming in contact with elves or even the Arencia Confederation any time soon, he would file that information for later.

“Ok, that would be enough for Elves, for now, you also mentioned the Orcs to the north of Tuerrthia?”

“Yes, the orcs are a very war-loving race, our Kingdom was forced to raise many fortresses along the Thethyar River to stop their unceasing raids on our lands. They are…"

At that moment when Donny was about to continue a quick flash of yellow light exploded in the night causing everyone to look to the south. Soon screams of pain and terror spread through the sudden silence, followed by an enormous thump as two carts in the ring to the south were blasted back creating a hole in the encirclement.

From the darkness outside an enormous figure slowly walked into the light of the camp.

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