A short greeting with the friends of Liam and Fraeya convinced Ethan to join them for the rest of his trip. Thanks to his laborious fight with the bone dragon, he was still feeling a little muddled. He hoped that some relaxing time with these interesting people would be helpful.

When everyone went to pick up their food, he made his way to find captain Malik.

The guard captain was together with three different guards. They were all messing with a young kid who was trying to feed the horses, albeit good-naturedly. As he got close, one of the guards glanced at him and put his hand on his sword’s hilt.

Malik also noticed him and hit the other guard's arm with the back of his hand. ‘’Easy. I know him.’’ He turned to face Ethan, rather serious. ‘’Ethan, was it? Did you decide yet?’’

‘’Yeah. I’ll be coming with you guys if that’s okay.’’

‘’No problem,’’ Malik replied and took out a folded tent from his storage before passing it to him. ‘’We move during the day and rest at night. You can use this to sleep at night, but I’ll be taking it back after the trip. Liam’s caravan should have enough space for another person, but let me know if I’m mistaken. I’ll find you a new place if that’s the case. Also, breakfast and dinner are included in the price I told you about. If you want more food, we have many merchants with us, you can buy it from them directly.’’

‘’That’s good. Can I get one of those big tents?’’ he asked, pointing at the middle of the camping area. ‘’I have my own bed with me, but I’ll need a tent as big as this one.’’

‘’Sorry, those belong to the merchants,’’ Malik said, shaking his head. ‘’If you don’t mind spending money, go ask them if they have extra for you to rent it.’’

‘’If you pay enough, you can even rent their wife,’’ a guard commented from behind with a sneer.

‘’Stop it. They pay more than double that of the other passengers. We’d be jobless if not for them,’’ Malik scolded with a soft tone.

So you also agree but don’t wanna speak about it… Ethan chuckled awkwardly and tossed a mana stone to Malik. ‘’Thanks. I’ll go talk to them and get your tent back if I can find another one.’’

‘’That thing isn’t gonna make problems for us, is it?’’ the guard who was still holding his weapon asked, looking at Ethan’s shoulder with a frown.

‘’Of course not,’’ he said with a cold smile. ‘’But if people keep calling Beet that thing, I might.’’

‘’That’s enough, Joey,’’ Malik interrupted sternly. ‘’He is Liam’s friend. You know how that guy is. He wouldn’t invite someone he didn’t trust.’’

Joey kept eye contact with him for a little while before turning back with a snort.

Ethan gave a small nod to Malik before turning around and starting to look for a merchant. He was glad that the guy didn’t push more since he didn't want to start a conflict from the first day. Mostly because he was also aware that Malik’s warning for Joey was also intended for him. The meaning was that since you were invited here, try not to mess with my guys; If not for me, then do it for Liam.

Indeed, the old fox was simple but effective. Nevertheless, it was a bit pointless, because Ethan was neither someone who was impulsive nor would he care about Liam if he was pissed enough.

After asking around about the merchants, he learned that half of the people around were either merchants or working for them, but he had to visit a few of them to finally find someone willing to rent him a big tent.

It was as big as a small room, only a little bigger than his bed. There was a single rune on it, and that was for assembling or disassembling the tent. He paid five gold coins just to rent it until the end of the trip and was blissful to be able to keep using his amazing bed. Using his ship at night was also an option, but it was still stinky, and he didn’t want everyone to start talking about the idiot who joined a caravan group and slept on his flying ship.

He returned to where the others were and saw that they were setting a table under the biggest tent’s canopy.

Liam lifted his head to look at him while his hands were still busy. ‘’How did it go?’’

‘’It’s all good. I rented a tent from the merchants. Where should I set it up?’’

‘’Anywhere is fine. We’ll be moving tomorrow at sunrise anyway.’’

‘’If it's a big one, set it next to Hayley’s,’’ Fraeya said, pointing to the open space next to them. ‘’It’ll block the sunset so we can keep hanging out here after dinner.’’

‘’Alright.’’ He fetched his tent and put it where she pointed before backing off and sending his mana as the seller explained. Once his mana reached the core of the structure, it started to unfold itself, expanding toward every side. It merely took a few seconds to finish growing its maximum size and cost him about 50 mana. If he wanted to reverse this process, all he had to do was disperse that mana into the atmosphere, and since it was his mana, no one but him could do the same.

After watching the whole deal with marvel, he entered inside to place his stuff. Pretty much everything that belonged to his ship’s cabin was already inside of his ring since he was regularly using them ever since the gloomy town of the skeleton warriors.

Just the bed itself took more than half of the space and he used the rest of it for a small table, two chairs, and a lamp. Once he was out, everyone was at the table, digging in the food.

‘’You sure you’re not hungry, Ethan?’’ Liam asked, turning over. ‘’Grandma Lin started helping in the kitchen for the last few days, and I still can’t believe there could be so much difference! You should at least try this salmon soup.’’

‘’It’s really magical,’’ the archaeologist girl commented, shaking her head. ‘’They say that every ingredient is the same and just the way they cook had changed.’’

Ethan sat at the table and took out a bottle of wine from his ring before putting it on the table. ‘’If it’s that good, I’ll make sure to taste it, but for now, I’ll just join you with a drink.’’

As he served himself a cup of wine, everyone got into a heated debate about how a soup could be this good. A gentle breeze was waving the canopy which blocked the afternoon sun for them. Underneath, a diverse group of six people was crammed together at a small table, dining and chatting. Ethan sipped from his cup and gazed at his companions, still not quite comprehending how he found himself here right after the hellish journey to get Beet his new skills.

He was sitting next to the archaeologist girl, Vivian. Her yellow summer dress was highlighting her smooth pale skin, giving glimpses of her bare shoulders where her long chestnut hair fell over. With an exuberant smile on her lovely face and an attractive body with curves in all the right places, she was a work of art, probably one of the most beautiful girls he’d ever seen.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Next to her sat the young caravan guard with the goatee, Carl. Even during the dinner, he was wearing chainmail on top of his shirt, but his sword was thrown over next to the tent. He seemed to be falling asleep at any moment, but he was still eating with robotic moves while somehow joining the conservation.

The other member was the monster-blood girl, Hayley. She was basically half wolf and half human, but in contrast to Ethan's expectations of such a species, she acted like an arrogant aristocrat and hated fighting. In the brief moment he met with her, all he got was scorn and sarcasm. Though, he wasn’t offended in the slightest and still found her funny.

Then came the dark elf, Fraeya, and the champion of Double Moon, Liam. One looked sharp-minded but was silly, the other looked silly but was clever. They both were so much alike and also so much different.

Remembering his conservation with the captain, ‘’Oh, Malik said your wagon should have space for me, but he wasn’t sure,’’ he said to Liam.

‘’Yeah. There should be 2 more seats available. Right, guys?’’

When others nodded, Ethan raised an eyebrow. ‘’Do you all travel in the same wagon? Is that how you got to know each other?’’

‘’We do, but it wasn’t like that at the start,’’ Fraeya said. ‘’Liam pretty much swapped the people he didn’t like with the ones he likes.’’

‘’Hey! That sounds like I’m kidnapping people,’’ Liam said.

‘’You’d bribed Jenkin to switch places with me,’’ Carl pointed out.

‘’And threatened the young couple by saying you might burn the wagon because of your nervous system disorder,’’ Vivian added.

Hayley piped in without even looking. ‘’And blackmailed that snoring old lady with-’’

‘’I wasn’t talking about them!’’ Liam exclaimed before giving a wry smile. ‘’I meant you guys. You all came to travel with us willingly, right?’’ When no one answered, he turned to Ethan with a desperate look. ‘’They are just joking. Really.’’

‘’Now that I’m thinking,’’ Fraeya said, staring at the table with a frown. ‘’Why would I follow this idiot for so long? Is that one of those mental skills everyone talks about? Did he influence our minds?’’

Gritting his teeth, Liam threw a piece of bread to her, which she dodged readily. ‘’If I were to influence you, I’d make you wash my feets every day, you witch! If anyone, it's you who is capable of dark arts!’’

Fraeya stood up with a menacing smile. ‘’Oh? I forgot to give you your daily dose of beating, didn’t I?’’

‘’Bring it on!’’ Liam said, also getting up.

‘’Oh, not again,’’ Vivian said. ‘’Go away. We’re still eating.’’

A pair of white leather gloves with flame images on them appeared on Liam’s hands, and he started running at full speed. ‘’Follow me, dark witch. I will end your tyranny, today!’’

Fraeya called a double-bladed azure color staff and covered herself with a cool-looking ice armor before sprinting after him with a grin.

Ethan’s eyes widened after seeing the ice armor. Ice and fire. These two are truly something.

‘’Don’t worry about it. They are always like this, but they usually stop before it gets too dangerous,’’ Hayley said softly, which was very unlike her.

Ethan turned to look at her and noticed that she was speaking to Beet, who gave a serious nod to her. Chuckling wryly, he took another sip from his wine.

Not long after, when everyone was about to finish their meals, the duo returned from their battle, both looking haggard, but full of spirit.

‘’Ethan, do you have more of that wine?’’ Liam asked as he sat on his chair.

‘’Sure. I have some beer as well,’’ he said, looking at others. ‘’Anyone else wants some?’’

‘’I’ll have some wine,’’ Vivian said, raising her hand.

Carl nodded. ‘’A cold beer would be nice.’’

He took out a big beer barrel as well as a couple of wine bottles and not much after everyone was helping themselves. They kept chatting at the table about casual stuff. Whenever Ethan tried to ask Liam about comprehending skills or if he was doing something wrong, he got silly answers, making him regret even mentioning it.

When the sun went down, everyone was already tipsy. Ethan saw that Carl fetched something like tobacco from his pocket and put a small piece into his mouth before starting to chew it leisurely.

Intrigued, he motioned with his chin. ‘’What’s that?’’

‘’It’s Shem. Do you want some?’’

‘’What does it do?’’

‘’It’s a sedative herb,’’ Hayley replied, swirling her wine glass. ‘’People use it for recreational purposes as well.’’

‘’Are there any side effects or something?’’

‘’Not unless you’re overdoing it. Carl is already pushing the limits.’’

Carl’s chewing slowed down as his eyes widened. ‘’I am?’’

Hayley snorted.

Ethan leaned toward the table even more. ‘’Can I try some?’’

‘’Yeah, go ahead,’’ Carl said, throwing his bag at him.

‘’Me too! I never tried either!’’ Liam said, excitedly.

‘’You knew about it for a month, though,’’ Fraeya commented, rolling her eyes. ‘’Why the sudden interest?’’

‘’I started to be interested today, okay? What is it to you?’’

‘’Well, I started to be interested as well,’’ she replied bitingly before turning to Carl. ‘’It’s okay, right?’’

‘’I don’t have that much of a stock, you bastards,’’ Carl said. ‘’It’s okay for today but no more than that.’’

Suddenly, everyone at the table was chewing Shem, even Hayley put a little into her mouth.

Ethan immediately felt the effects, it was like a strong antidepressant that calmed his mind and even relaxed his muscles. Looking at everyone who was marveling at the quick results, his eyes stopped on Liam who was still hanging out bare-chested, with some small injuries already healing on his skin. ‘’Say. There are many merchants around here. Why don’t you buy yourself some clothes?’’

Liam threw a confused look. ‘’I don’t have any money.’’

Ethan’s face also turned confused.

‘’He is wondering how it is that someone at the peak of tier-3 has no money to buy clothes,’’ Fraeya explained as she usually does.

‘’Oh, I spent everything on a skill before this trip, and even though we’d hunted quite a bit before entering the Dead Plains, I’m already in debt to a few people,’’ Liam said before hinting toward Fraeya with his eyes. ‘’Some really dark-hearted people. Who only has the decency to let me have some pants.’’

Ethan chuckled and took a black robe from his ring before tossing it at Liam. ‘’Here. Don’t worry about the price. I got a lot more.’’

‘’You know that I’m gonna shred that into pieces tomorrow, right?’’ Fraeya asked, narrowing her eyes.

‘’As I said, I got a lot more.’’

‘’Another spendthrift. No wonder Liam likes him,’’ Hayley murmured while rubbing her wolf ears with a blank look.

Ethan had a sudden urge to do that himself, but he suppressed it and extended his hand toward the snacks absentmindedly. Apparently, Vivan also did the same thing, because what he caught wasn’t the plate but her wrist. Probably because of the Shem, the feeling of the touch was so intense, it stunned him for a few seconds. Vivian also stupefied for a time before pulling her hand hastily with a red face.

‘’Uh, sorry.’’

‘’No, it’s okay.’’

They quickly glossed it over, but Ethan was still thinking about the sensation even after an hour. It’s all because of that herb. Have some control, damn it. Do you have to try everything new? he scolded himself.

It looked like he wasn't the only one who couldn’t stop his thinking process, because as everyone was about to doze off, Vivian stood up and leaned toward his ear. ‘’Ethan, why don’t you show me your new tent?’’

‘’H-Huh? Now? Oh, yeah, s-sure,’’ he replied as best as he could and got up with a stagger before leading her to his tent.

Once inside, Vivian pushed him by the chest and threw him to the bed with a smirk. She got rid of her yellow dress in a single move and allowed Ethan to have his moment to gulp before jumping over him.

Ethan even forgot about the fact that he could send his clothes into his ring, instead, he undressed roughly and hastily while kissing her madly. Fortunately, he managed to remember his now favorite skill at the last moment and opened [Void Mute] to cover the tent. His last thought was the mana consumption of the skill but it didn’t stay long. Soon, there was only Vivan.