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The main roads were mushy, and the rain kept pouring making it worse. It had only been an hour since I left Green Forest Village when dark clouds formed overhead.

Why did it have to rain all of a sudden? I felt my clothes as they grew heavier, the cloth began to absorb whatever water it could leaving it completely soaked. As time went on, the rain only seemed to get worse. The storm began to grow more fierce and thunder roared in the surroundings.

“I should probably find a place to stay until this is over…” I muttered, as I looked around. The main road was a dirt road with a wideness of about 6.5 meters, and the side was lined with posts that were topped a strange crystal-like ball that seemed to emit light whenever it senses darkness.The lights began to dimly shine earlier as the dark clouds rolled overhead. The lights were most likely the result of an imbued magic in the ball.

Minutes passed by as I kept walking forward, my feet began to sink deeper in deeper into the road. The area around the king’s castle and all the big cities seemed to be made out of stone. Roads did not seem to be handled by the government like they were on earth. Each city was given an area that they were in charge of, this included the main roads and everything else. The bigger the city, the more area they were given to look over. The bigger cities had plenty of money in their personal treasuries. Some main roads on the map didn’t fall within anyone’s jurisdiction as well.

I pulled out the map using the cloak for a cover. The map has points of interest, and in those it included caves! I judged the distance I had covered and made a guess about my location. I was near a cave, and it was noted to contain no hostilities. I quickly put my map away and kept walking forward till I reached an intersection, there was a muddied side road that lead into the forest. I looked at the road a bit, there were wheel tracks as well as feet tracks. It seems as if someone had been travelling by cart past the intersection and also wanted to shield themselves from the storm.

I started walking down the path that led to the cave, as I went deeper the trees became more dense. I walked for about six minutes before a small opening appeared before me. There was a small mountain, which on the side was the mouth of the cave. There were three people sitting on the ground under the ceiling of the entrance talking, they wore leather and even were armed with iron swords. I stared at them, and activated

There highest was a level 22, the other two were level 18, and 17. They were below my level, and if they would cause any troubles, I could defend myself easily. I approached the cave carefully, one of the men took notice and quieted the other two. The level 22 stood up and waved his hand, “Hello traveller, are you looking to get out of the rain as well?” It looks like it's safe

“Yes, I am.” I replied, with that the guards smiled.

“Do you need a place to rest? Inside the cave, there is food and water if you need any. We are guards of a travelling caravan. We hope that we can get along in this time, I believe us humans need to band together in times of need,” The level 22 guard gestured me inside as he took lead. I followed behind, “By the way, My name is Jimmy, The other two are Jacob and Riley.”

We walked for awhile, until we came into a small cavern, there were 2 carts and a five horses. There was about twenty people sitting around, some sat around fires as others were tending to the horses. When they saw me, they took notice but just shook it off. A middle-aged man wearing a robe jumped up from sitting and shook off his robe before running over to me.

“Hello traveller, nice to meet you. My name's Gerald, i’m the leader of this caravan.” he held out his hand, I awkwardly reached out and shook it.

This group seems very friendly.

“So, judging by your aura you must be some sort of mage!” he smiled, “I’m an earth mage myself.”

He paused for a second, “Ah! Do you need anything to eat or drink?” He pointed towards the campfire, “We just roasted a few chickens over the fire half an hour ago, there is plenty to eat. We also have a lot of water in barrels stored in the back of the cart over there.” Gerald gestured towards one of the carts.

I walked over towards the campfire and nodded at the people sitting around it, they looked more rugged than the others and all had weapons themselves. Some were equipped with a bow and others with a simple sword or axe. There were a couple between level 25 - 30, but most of them were between 15 - 25. After I sat down, I was passed a roasted chicken leg. I stared at awhile and began to eat it, there were many people talking to each other but some people were quiet and didn’t seem interested in conversation. I sat to myself eating, as well as studying the group.

Everyone in this caravan seems to be the same level as many town guards that you would see. I guess they have to repel bandits every now and then.

I looked towards Gerald, who was sitting close to me. “So what kind of things do you sell?”

Gerald smiled, “An assortment of slaves, including some magical beasts sometimes.”

“Slaves?”, I was startled. Slavery was legal in the human kingdoms, slaves were usually lesser demons or demihumans, but it could sometimes include even humans and magical beasts. Magical beasts had intelligence. An example of a magical beast would be the lizardmen from the Forest Den, they can communicate in tongue or telepathically. In books that I read in the library in the outer castle, it said that some regular monsters can become magical beast through mutations.

“It’s a hard life, but we get through it. Are you interested in buying?” Gerald looked at me, in his mind he probably thought that all mages had money since they were highly valued in parties.

I shook my head, “No, I’m fine.”. I took another bite of the roasted chicken, the cave was filled with idle chatter.

After I finished my meal, I stood up and walked towards the mouth of the cave. The rain was still pouring as day slipped away. The sky was growing darker. It looks like I’ll have to stay here for the night..

I walked back into the cave, and sat my back down against a corner. I closed my eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

-------------------------------------------------------

“Be careful, don’t wake him yet.” a voice woke me, I kept my eyes shut and pretended to sleep.

“Mages can go for a lot of money in the capital, this guy seems to have some power at least. He’s a level 23.” another voice sounded off as well.

“If he wasn’t alone, we could’ve gone through some problems, but what kind of mage travels alone?”, I identified the voice to be Geralds.

“Alright, on four we will jump him. Get ready.” Gerald was whispering.

I opened my eyes to see that the group of slavers surrounded me in the corner. Instantly black miasma began to form around me.

“What are you doing?”, I said in a cold manner.

“We just wanted to surprise you, thats all! Nothing else!” Gerald hid his hands behind his back, his hands were trembling. He had never seen black miasma that reeked of death before.

I stared at him for a couple seconds before opening my mouth, “You’re lying. You wish to enslave me.”

Gerald made a grunt, and rose his hands,“!” The earth began to splinter around me, spikes of stone shot forward towards me. I pushed myself out of the corner and moved as quickly as I could to dodge the spikes.

“For a mage, you are pretty fast. Most mages don’t train their body!” Gerald laughed, “Guys! Get him!”

When Gerald finished, the group of slavers began to run towards me. They must not feel the need to use skills, because their is a lot of them.

“hmmph”, I raised my hand towards the closest one, he was a level 28, “!” Black Miasma began to swirl in my palm before forming a ball, it shot forward from my hand and slammed into the level 28.

He yelled as he was hit, He did not expect to take that much damage. The black miasma seemed to crawl around and eat surrounding flesh before slowly dissipating from inside the wound. He stopped and held his side, others went around him to try to get the best of me.

I grabbed the hilt on my side and pulled out my dagger, black mist leaked from the dagger as it slid through the air blocking the axe of one of the men, who was level 30.

I grunted as I was pushed back, I could tell that the power of his axe was not something I could take head on without defending. The man continued his attack, swinging his axe like a whirlwind trying to get a hit.

Blood began to drip down my hand as the dagger vibrated with each defend, my health points were slowly slipping away.

950/1200, I can’t stay like this…

I quickly, rose my speed and dodged to the left as the axe slammed downwards, it split the stone underneath.

“Get him, Jo!” A man yelled behind him This guy must have put most of his points into strength, I’m still faster than him, but I can’t get cornered again!

I slammed my left foot against the ground and propelled myself towards Jo, holding the harvester I slashed towards his face. He didn’t have enough time to defend completely, the dagger slashed at his face before my arm was knocked away. Jo touched his face and looked at his hand, he was enraged!

“You little shit!”, Jo began to run at me again.

“”, I rose my hand up towards Jo and multiple ripples of black miasma began to shoot out. It looked as if Jo was surrounded by blades. The ripples began to tear at Jo, attempting to rip him apart.

“AHHHH!”, Jo let out a yell, before a aura completely dispersed the black miasma.

“Hey, Jo’s using berserker stance on a lower level!” Another person from the group yelled out.

When I heard that, I muttered under my breath, “shit…” Jo’s speed seemed to increase and he came at me once again. This time I wasn’t prepared.

Swssshhhh, the axe slammed downwards again, but the speed was a lot faster than before! I could only try to counteract and soften the blow.

Clanggg, My dagger rebounded which numbed my arm. Jo was breathing heavily, “What kind of level 23 are you!”

I backed off quickly, but ran into one of the carts on the side of the cave. The group of men began to surround me.

A whisper was heard behind me, “Hey kid, let me out of here. I can help you” what?

“Who are you?”, I asked.

“Stop asking questions, just come in here and open my cage!”, this time it was a yell.

I quickly ran towards the back of the cart and jumped in. The group of slavers began to curse and rush towards the cart. Whatever was in it, the slavers didn’t want it to be unlocked.

“Where are you?”, I asked. There were multiple cages in the back that held people.

“Over here.” a voice came from my left, it belonged to a man, he was wearing torn up clothes and had dark long hair that covered most of his face.

I ran towards the cage, and slashed at the lock. The reason slaves couldn’t leave once they were locked in a cage was because of these locks. The locks were imbued with a special magic that strengthened the bars of the cage in the inside. The only way that it could be opened was if it was destroyed, and from the inside it was nearly impossible!

The lock fell towards the ground, and before it hit the ground the man slammed the cage door open revealing a sinister smile.

“Thank you, young one.” he said and he swiftly left from the back of the cart. What level is he?

Yells were heard from the outside, “That fucker actually released him!” the yell belonged to Gerald but there were more.

“Fuck! The boss is going to be so mad if he hears about this!”

“Just surround him, even if he’s strong. He can’t fight all of us!”

I jumped out of the back of the cart to see all the slavers surround the man. I used on him in that moment.

NPC informationName???? ????RaceHumanRankSilver AdventurerLevel32SkillsIron Hands - ????

Nullify Air - ????

Silver Adventurer? The lowest I saw were level 40’s at that rank?

The man breathed in, and looked at me. “Are you going to help, kid?” and with that the battle started.

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Cliff hanger op

My apologies, as the chapter was late this time.

I was a bit busy this Weekend / Monday (Graduation tomorrow!)

I used tuesday as a day to finish up writing the chapter, as well as a bit of today.

My sleeping schedule is completely jacked now though. (I went to bed at 10 AM and woke up recently, eek!)

I hope you enjoy this chapter though! I enjoyed writing it!

If you find any writings errors, or have any concerns / tips. Please post! ;3