"Fren! Wake up, we need to get going soon!” That’s what Gregory says early in the morning, far earlier than necessary. There is no denying it, Gregory is most excited for this adventure. Fren slept well and early so he did wake up with energy. Gregory had hardly time to sleep at all, and instead he pictured in his mind all of the quests he and Fren will run into and what folks they will meet and treasure they will share. His mind kept running and after he finally managed to sleep for some time he woke up still too eager.

“Calm down, it’s barely lit outside. Isn’t it too early?” Fren asks as he sits on the bed after just waking up.

“Yeah but we need to get ready, right? Adventurers get up early to prepare for a quest, right? What do we need to do?”

Fren thinks for a bit before getting up. “Yeah, I guess we can do some morning training.” Then he drops to the floor. “Let’s do some push ups.”

Gregory knows about push ups, he knows for example that he was never good at them. After 5 he felt his hands waddling, 3 more he couldn’t maintain himself and fell on his chest. Fren kept going a while longer and moved to crunches. Again Gregory couldn’t complete the same amount as Fren, and definitely not move to the next drill so quickly.

“This is called lunge.” Fren said and waited for Gregory to get into position. Barely even breaking a sweat he finished the lunges while Gregory is huffing and wet as a fish from sweating. He’s also shocked when Fren drops down again. “Two more sets” Fren explains and starts. Gregory thinks he’s insane, two more? Needless to say, the excitement Gregory had temporarily subsided. He does not manage to do well on the subsequent sets too. People waking up are looking at them. It isn’t normal for a priest to do sports just after waking up.

In the end Fren is also sweating and huffing, looking at Gregory and smiling he asks “Are the baths open?”. Unfortunately the answer is no, they woke up so early that the bathhouse won’t open for a while.

“No, hhh, I guess we woke up too early. Hhhh I’m sorry for waking you up so early, hhh, for nothing.” Gregory pants still.

“That’s fine. We can take a look at the shield that I got as a reward. It looked a bit odd.”

They walk out to the yard in front of the chapel with the shield. The shield looks like a lid for a small pot, it has a handle and a round area about twice the size of a fist. It looks bronze but it’s very light, Gregory doesn’t make sense of it . “Is this supposed to be a shield?” Gregory is astonished by how ludicrous the notion is. It could block a dagger at this size but you should not count on it in a sword fight.

“I think it’s going to be alright.” Fren says, he extends his shield arm and closes his eyes. Nothing happens, for a moment. Then a yellow aura extends from the shield, Gregory is in shock. It looks like a yellow ring extending from the edges of the bronze core, it’s a large round shield made of yellow aura, big enough to cover an attack now. Gregory moves around to examine it, he’s absorbed by the yellow aura rings extending from the center to the edges and back around to the front of the shield, it’s almost hypnotizing.

“It does put a bit of a strain to use, want to try and attack it?” Fren asks, the aura stops and it returns to the small bronze-like pot lid.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Now?”

“What? No, not now, when it’s up. Go grab a stick or something. Just don’t miss and hit me in the eye instead.”

“You already got two of them.” Gregory jokes “Haha just kidding, alright.”

A hit connects with the shield, and another, and another. It’s strong, and it deflects even with no force applied. They are both amazed, and more tired than before, Gregory worked out a lot today, and Fren is no doubt tired from the magical strain on his body. Allous told him not to overuse his mana. I wonder if he remembers it. Either way they both enter the bath and after a quick wash they need to pack their things. Some food and the like.

“Don’t forget the rocks.” Gregory tells Fren.

“Rocks?”

“Yeah, the money you got yesterday. The rocks.”

“Ohh, the coins? They’re called rocks?” Fren looks confused, probably never delved into money before.

“Yeah, the ‘coins’ they’re called rocks. The smaller ones are called pebbles and the bigger chunky ones are boulders. Don’t tell me that you never heard that before, did your village have different names for these?”

“Ahh.. no it’s just…” Fren thinks, will he tell Gregory that he never had money in this world? “I think you should carry it.”

“You earned it, besides I can be looked after in any town by the church in it. Well, any town nearby.”

Another long thought by Fren. What is he waiting for? “It’s just… I never had money. I don’t know how much anything should cost.” uninspired.

“It’s easy, 64 pebbles are a rock, and 16 rocks are a boulder. It only gets harder when you go out of Uesteroza, they take things by their weight, it makes silver and gold different in value and everything is a mess. Well, adventurers do go out of Uesteroza so we will settle that later.”

Fren hands Gregory a small ringing purse. “You handle it until we get to Mandoza.”

Gregory reluctantly takes the purse.

They’re ready, Gregory’s pack is larger than Fren’s, he brought more food and a change of robes and underwear. Fren only packed a little food and some underwear he got at the chapel. They looked odd to the driver who came to pick them up. He knew where he was going but he didn’t know who it was he was driving. An ordinary priest makes sense, even if they normally don’t travel alone, but a man in dark brown leather studded with, are those animal teeth? And a sword too, and a.. Bronze pot lid? With no pot?

“Come on board.” He called them, trying not to sound so hesitantly.

The cart was smaller, there was barely any place for the two to sit in. This glorified wheelbarrow was pulled by a single horse. It was clear this is a smaller cart than the ones they rode before, and it’s for loading cargo rather than people. Gregory asked himself why not take an adequate cart, the truth is no one else wanted to drive so far to Mandoza. Still, the drive was nice, and even though it wasn’t fast, it was consistent. All until the afternoon.

Suddenly in the afternoon the cart gained pace. Around the time when Fren and Gregory played a game called ‘herald’ to pass the time, near a forest a fair distance from any village, with tall pine trees to the left and a large field with wild grass.

The two felt the cart getting faster, and didn’t slow down. They felt the rises and falls, and the struggles of the wheels on the rocky ground. Before they knew it they themselves struggled and held on dearly so as not to fall off their seats and wind up on the road.

“Hey, driver! Go steady.” Gregory called out to the driver to slow down. This didn’t help and the ride became faster and more hectic. Then they heard a SNAP and immediately the cart stopped. Followed by the sound of a horse galloping into the distance.

“Run! Run! Run!” The voice from the driver came. Fren climbed on his seat and looked to the driver to see what the commotion is about. He then realized what happened. To their left, three horse riders, and they don’t look friendly.