It turns out that being a lonely woman makes me look like an easy target to bandits and such. Between traveling with the adventurers and now, I’ve had so many encounters I’m starting to worry. What’s the state of this country if there's so many bandits?

Maybe I should just leave the kingdom. One of their neighbors is the Namersian Empire, the biggest country on this continent. Looks like I need to stock up at the next city before heading towards the borders. It would not surprise me if I somehow got a bounty or something due to what happened at the adventurers guild.

With my destination in mind, I made my way towards Westcliff, one of the two cities near the Maland/Namersian borders.

During my travels, I’d managed to find a way to use holy magic to restore stamina. It takes a lot of mana and would be a waste of mana in most cases, but it turns out I have outrageous amounts of mana. Using my newly named Stamina Recovery spell on the horses and just stopping to feed them made the trip quicker.

But I didn’t stop there, since I learned I had a high affinity for time magic, I played around with that as well. On top of restoring stamina, I can use time magic to make them move faster. For them it feels normal, but for me, time is speeding up. I tried using the reverse effect on a bunny-like creature I hunted for food, and it slowed it down so much, I could walk up and just grab it.

I love time magic.

It should have been a few weeks to a month of travel with a carriage. It took me just two weeks. It would have taken shorter if I discovered those before I left, but since I learned the spells while traveling, it didn’t go as fast.

I could see the city of Westcliff in the distance. I still had my Adventurers ID, so unless they could edit it from the guild, I should be in the clear. But just in case, I made an escape plan.

There was no queue, so I arrived quickly at the gate entrance and had no issue entering. I left the carriage and horses by the local stables and paid the stablemaster the rent for the day and asked for directions to the Adventurers Guild.

This was a smaller town compared to Rivett and Stonehold with around 10 000 people living here, but since the town was overall smaller, it was quite dense in people. I managed to find the guild, it looked quite new, must have been built recently.

I entered and was greeted with a nice tavern looking area with counters for adventuring business and counters for drinking and eating. The guild really thought of it all, huh?

A middle aged man is standing by one of the counters, seeing as there is no queue and not many people present, it was my turn right away.

“Hello, how may we be of service today?” The middle aged man asked me with a professional service smile.

“Hi, I’d like to get some information and possibly any quest in Namersian territory, any type will do” I told him. An escort quest, while much slower than when I’m alone, would be fine. Any quest that didn't require me to return here would be fine for me.

“Of course, miss. What information do you need?” He asked and at the same time began looking through some paper he had on his side of the counter, probably quests.

“I’d like information on the political situation in Namersia, any recent conflicts, as well as a few maps, one of the entire continent if possible, one of this area and one of the Namersian Empire.

“The maps are 10 silver each, and here is a kill quest close to the border, you can turn it in, in Torkley, that’s in Namersian territory.” The middle aged man told me and gave me the quest order and made me sign it. It was a D-rank mission and I’m currently E, so I can take D-rank quests unless the guild doesn't think I can handle it.

“Thank you.” I said and handed him 30 silver coins for the maps. The mission was to slay a group of bandits that made the area their territory. According to the mission notice, there are only regular people in the group and they are a small group of 6 people.

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I take the maps he presents after I gave him the coins and say my farewell to him and go towards the other counter, to order some food and drink before I head off again.

Am I paranoid? I mean, I don’t know anything about this world, and yet here I am, practically fleeing because I don’t want to cause unnecessary trouble. After the fight against the demon, I learned that it was S-rank, but I fought it easily, same with the ogre. The ogre was A rank, but I still destroyed him without breaking a sweat.

So I could probably deal with whatever issue could have risen due to the incident in Stonehold, but I just don’t want to care about that. So I’m leaving and hopefully never coming back.

I arrive at the counter and the clerk standing there gives me a meny. It didn’t have much, since this is not a place that focuses on the food and drink.

“I’ll take the rabbit stew and an ale, thanks.” I tell the clerk and give him the menu before taking a seat by an empty table.

I began studying the maps I bought, starting with the local one. Fastest way to Torkely is through the woods, no main road goes that way. I could take a main road towards Alington, a city near Torkley, but by following the main road, I need to go halfway back to Stonehold before I get to the crossroads, heading towards Alington.

The problem now is that the carriage won’t go through a forest. And seeing as I got a quest to kill bandits that are located near the border if I go through the forest. Do I need to sell the horses and carriage already? Probably best to do that.

After getting to Torkley, I should just quickly turn in the quest and continue moving, although I don’t know where to go yet. I take out the Namersian map and start planning my route.

While I’m immersed in the maps, the food and ale arrive. I quickly put the maps away and started eating. The stew was a disappointment, I guess this is good enough to fill the stomach, and it’s cheap so I can see why it’s not good. The ale however was good, only it was lukewarm, I would have prefered it cold.

Cold? I could experiment with Water magic to make ice, maybe I can make anything I want cold. And fire, I could use that to warm up cold food! Magic sure is convenient.

After finishing up the food, I order another ale and start looking at the continent map. The Namersian Empire is massive, but their neighbor, Sidbury, big kingdom west of Namersia is also very big, at least compared to the other countries on the continent.

The Namersian Empire had 4 neighbors. The Maland Kingdom to the east, where I am now. Sidbury Kingdom to the west and then two smaller countries to the south. Durlow, a Theocracy and The Grand Duchy of Saltashia. There is also a kingdom called Coroughia south of Maland, but the ocean separates Coroughia and Namerisa.

North of Maland is something called The Wildlands. Mostly only brute tribes live there and is the home to many monsters and demonic creatures.

To the west we have Clif, a small Duchy that neighbors Sidbury, and further west, we have another Grand Duchy, called Knacuria and last we have another small Duchy on an island, west of Knacuria.

I needed information on these countries, so I made my way back to the counter. There was a small queue this time, a party of teens had turned in a gathering quest, so it went fast. I asked the middle aged clerk about information on Durlow, the theocracy and Saltashia, the grand duchy.

The clerk had just finished with the paperwork on my first request, of the political situation and recent conflicts. It costs a bit extra, but adventurers get cheap information.

While he started with my next assignment, I went back to my table with the first bit of information I bought to read it through. I ordered another ale and read through the report he gave me.

The Namersian Empire is a fairly good empire, no warmongering. At least not in recent years, I can only assume how they got so big. But The kingdom of Maland, where I am now, is pretty arrogant towards its neighbors. There have been some conflicts with Maland and their southend neighbor Coroughia.

Coroughia has support from Namersia and Sidbury though, so Maland has been careful how they handle the situation. Durlow, the theocracy, south of The Namersian Empire are very religious, worshiping the god of light. They have minor conflicts with The Grand Duchy of Saltashia, mostly because they refuse to adopt their religion.

That’s most of the information I got from the report. I get another ale while waiting for the next piece of information from the clerk.

I don’t know how long it took, but around 3 ales worth of time. Seems I have some sort of immunity as I don’t get drunk, even after 6 ales.

According to this new report, Saltashia is a very good place to live. They are the leading country in magical technology and they treat their people well. The royal family is apparently very strong and most countries are trying to get their genes through marriage, to hopefully get strong people in their countries.

Almost all the royal children are geniuses in some area. All of them have some kind of superior physique that makes them naturally stronger and durable, making them good soldiers. Though many mages have been born among them.

They also have one of the leading academies on the continent. They teach general knowledge to everyone, but also magic to those who want to be mages. They also teach their knights in this academy.

I think I’ll try heading towards Saltashia then, maybe I can get a house and start my adventuring journey there.