Chapter 44: The Charred Road

The party left the valley after fixing the wheel of the wagon. It took time, but it was finished by noon. The lady didn’t get angry and let it slide as the party travels quietly along the roads of the overworld. The overworld is a huge place but even so, they are still landmarks that people can follow to get to their locations. Deep forests, valleys, hills, mountains, are deep holes though. No explorer dares to map them unless they have a full party filled with adventurers that are as strong as knights or as capable as Grand Magus.

A war band could map out a simple mountain. But doing so would attract packs of dire beasts or hordes that would like to feast on the sheep’s that have visited their territory. Among the food chain, the humans are just above the common insects. The Elves treats the humans as lower creature while the humans treat them back as knife-eared tree huggers.

The road the party took had a few resemblances to the south. They can feel the southern heat that comes from the Pacific Seas. The Pacific seas are comprised of many islands that are bonded together by stone bridges that connect the islands. Of course, that is only a tale that they hear through word of mouth.

The party is traveling with their swords drawn. The road will always be dangerous and in weeks the party traveled. They learned hard not to let their guard down. The carriage and the wagon are being surrounded by the party. The Mages are inside the encirclement while the others are acting as the walls. He walked in the back along with the Captain who was playing with his shark saw dagger. The captain had a cloth wristband which he turned into a tattered cloak. He was surprised that the Captain was able to do magic. The Captain, however, explained that he only converted something that was already ready to be converted.

The Captain can do sigils that allow him to [Convert] them back to their normal form. Of course, he could not do any of that now with magic crest sealed. He could, however, use [fuel] to use his magic. But doing so will be hard and according to the Captain is easier to use his mana as fuel. Hearing his head suddenly finally was able to understand why they were able to fix the wagon’s wheel.

The Magic of the Captain was interesting. But the Captain disagrees that the magic he has is a double-edge sword. Even if he does use [fuel], he would still need to use his body as a catalyst to use the magic. With a clogged up magic veins and a sealed up magic crest, doing so would be really hard.

The Captain, however, was not bothered with it. He explained that his magic like everyone’s magic has a cost and effect. And his magic that transmutes and recreates is something that will never reach anything top like true creation. He could construct and replicate what was in his mind but the Captain will never truly create.

The Captain calls his works as Paper Mache, dulled, and hollow. But even so, it is enough to be used as something to repair or construct something that can use as a weapon.

...

The party continued traveling until it encountered a row of wagons burned into ashes. Stopping for a second, inspecting the burn wagons. The party saw corpses charred, and the road was still burning despite the fire being days ago. The captain inspected the corpses, felt like the thing was done by magic. The mages also agreed, seeing the burns.

But what tick the mages are what kind of person or thing could burn a caravan so easily? The Party could not be threatened if this was just normal burns but they saw some traces of gems that are usually attached to staffs. The gems are fried, drained and there was no trace of energy in it.

There are also burned armors and swords lying around the road. If they were normal swords then they wouldn’t be alarm. But they were mithril, swords made of mithril, and no force that could wield mithril weapons and fine gems in their staff could be easily decimated like this. He saw the Lady even frowning at the amount of mithril that is lying around. She ordered the people in the party to see if they can salvage any weapons. The party complied and looted the burned up caravan only to find a few weapons that could be used. The Captain was only interested in the corpses like usual. But even so, he picked something up for the Captain and let the captain have it.

The Captain took the shortsword, though he could see rather displease expression on the Captain as he hands the slightly burned up sword to the Captain, he had this grungy expression. The Captain knows he didn’t mean it and just take the shortsword and put it on the bag behind his waist. The Captain still had that nameless sword with a cog emblem on it so he didn’t really need it, not to mention that he was using his shark saw dagger the most.

The charred road seems like it was a grim. He didn’t like the look of it and told everyone that they should go. The Captain agreed, and even the Lady herself seems to agree. It seems like even the Lady herself could sense the foreboding charred road.

The Party hurried up on their looting. And as they were about to go forward, the Lady suddenly went down her carriage, activated the surging mana on her body, and let it flow like a damn on her spear. She then directed the overpowering surge to a direction, where a beam of golden light blasted through the fields of grass, scarring the plains.

The Lady kneeled, her energy dispersed and judging by the way she is panting. The lady fired a big load of her power for that one attack. He didn’t understand why but when he saw the tall, gray-skinned monster that was about three hundred centimeters tall made him stumble back.

It was an Orc Lord Pyromancer.

And seeing this Pyromancer arrived with a party of green-skinned barbarians with bulging muscles made him despair truly. He could not move his limbs, and his heart beat so hard.

“RUN AWAY”

But as if pouring buckets of water on everyone, he awoke from his fear. He then saw the Captain telling everyone to run as fast as they can, and with the loud commanding voice echoing in their heads. The Party decided to flee with haste!