There was one more thing that was left to do after the business with Adventurer’s guild was finished and Lucas kept an eye out. Unmistakably, as soon as Lucas and his party left the premises of the courtyard, a gold chest materialized out of thin air, landing a meter in front of Lucas. Excitedly, he went to it and opened it, finding a pendant inside it. Taking it out of the chest which then disappeared in the same way it showed up, he activated his “Sharpsight” and went to identify the item. The world got its light blue filter which always showed up when Lucas activated his skill, but he focused on the item.

Pendant of Truesight (Epic)

Pendant forged eons ago by some long forgotten race of the multiverse with the ability to grant user boost in his Perception, its power going so far as to allow the wielder to discern truth from lies.

Bonus ability: Immunity to illusions and mind spells that affect the user’s perception of reality, +5 Perception

Lucas was amazed at the general utility of the item, especially blanket immunity that the pendant provided. Those kinds of items were generally hard to find and highly sought after all over the multiverse and Lucas just got it as a reward. He snickered as he thought of faces on multitude of powerful individuals that were going all around the vast expanses of the multiverse looking for rare ingredients to craft items like he just got. He put on his newest item, instantly feeling the boost of his Perception as his vision got a little sharper. Without further ado, he continued on his way, the party behind busy with reading the description Lucas shared with them of his new pendant. Arriving at the outskirts of the city, they said their goodbyes and Lucas set the course toward his house, knowing he had a lot of preparations to go through if he was to be ready to move out tomorrow.

The next morning came rather quickly and found Lucas already on his way to the gate he was rarely using, the so called Merchant gate, named after the type of people that was mostly coming through it, being the gate that was on the side that held more civilized parts of Earth, including all of the small settlements that were serving as agricultural centers for Camp Hearth.

Passing through the still empty streets of his settlement, Lucas marveled at the progress he and Bruce labored for. Large number of buildings were renovated and expanded, needing to accommodate more people, serving now more as apartment blocks than single houses they were just six months ago. Even the people on the street looked happier, more focused that they were during Lucas’s childhood, the settlement providing more jobs and opportunities and goals than before. Lucas was content knowing that he was leaving settlement in competent hands of the old Loremaster, hoping that the burgeoning settlement will fulfill a part of his potential when he comes back and will start to provide Lucas with the support he was sure to need when his trip was over. Arriving at the gate he found his party already there, waiting for him. Surprisingly to Lucas, they were in the company of Bruce, Goldilocks and the hermit alchemist, Martyn, that Lucas hadn’t see from the moment the man got his workshop built.

“Finally” Margaret exclaimed as she noticed him approaching.

Lucas greeted everyone present, casting inquisitive glances at Bruce, trying to discern the reason for their presence.

“Good luck out there to all of you” Bruce started speaking “I do have one small request, if you would indulge me. This stone her should be a portal core, if my colleagues got it correctly. If you put it to next to a power source to act as a battery, it can make short range teleportation possible” he finished, Lucas nodding his head, accepting the request.

“I put down words through our canals. Whenever you arrive at some new place, look for taverns first. If some of our spies managed to get there, he will meet you and share information” Goldilocks spoke.

“If you all finished being so formal, let’s get to the best part” Margaret spoke up before turning to alchemist “open your stocks, oldie”

Martyn looked at Bruce who nodded his head and then started taking out bottles from his pouch with heavy sighing. The rest of the party started browsing the wares and Lucas soon joined in. Aside from basic health, mana and stamina potion whose stock Lucas already replenished yesterday, there were a lot of highly rare or highly specialized potions. Lucas quickly found his old favorite, flashbang potion, and decided he would like to buy at least five of them. After expressing his desire to the alchemist, he took the requested bottles from his pouch, which obviously was some kind of storage space and handed them over to Lucas. The rest of the party also found the stuff they hoped would work for them and after everybody got what was requested, Bruce spoke up.

“Don’t worry about paying, we will put it on the city tab. Me and Martyn are in the middle of making a standardized set for every member of the Town guard to have, as first step of improving our defenses. Martyn also have some interesting idea for stationary defenses, but you will se that after you get back”

Lucas listened Bruce intently, content that the old Loremaster reinforced his belief Camp Hearth will flourish while he was away. After some more small talk, Lucas and his party were through the gate and on their way.

“I suggest Broken Back tavern as a resting spot” Goldilocks yelled after them and Lucas committed to memory the place she was talking about.

“What are our plans, anyways? Wander the countryside, doing selfless heroic acts?” Margaret asked, her voice dreamy as she started fantasizing about heroics they will accomplish.

“Nobody gives wandering adventures anything meaningful, trust me” Maggie answered “we would be lucky to get some job that doesn’t involve some kind of sewage or musty, abandoned basement” she finished.

“Yea. Mags, remember when we were in Pearl, when some merchant fuck sent us to clean his new house?” Ted continued. Maggie shivered at his word, capturing the interest of rest of the party as she recounted the tale.

“And after going through something like hundred slimes, we wound – up in basement, infested with rats who were having a gang war with the slimes. I was close to just abandoning the job” Maggie said.

“That merchant ended up trying to cut agreed sum in half” Ted reminisced “The idiot tried to accuse us of not doing the job correctly because there was a ton corpses left” he finished.

“So, no saving princesses from towers?” Margaret asked with slight hint of defeat in her voice, flaring some painful memories in Lucas.

“Believe me, princesses in towers are worst. I would rather face an army of slimes” Lucas said lightheartedly, trying to deflect from his own dark memories. The rest of the party chuckled and conversation soon devolved in their usual chatter, making a trip pleasant all around as they traversed the road.

Lucas watched the map as they moved, awaiting a fork in the road which would mark their first major decision. They could stick to the road, either left or right path, which would take them on the tour of all minor villages surrounding the Camp Hearth, ending with New Flame village which served as a hub for all those villages to send their products which were then shipped on Camp Hearth markets. Other option would be to cut directly through the plains, which should take them directly to New Flame. Of course, the wilds on post – System Earth always had beasts, monsters and even bandits to contend with, making the trip potentially last longer even if the distance was shorter.

Lucas was aiming to cut through the plains, of course, the point of this trip for him being to constantly challenge himself and grow, but he had to take into account the rest of his party would see it as unnecessary hassle, as the chances for truly powerful monsters were slim. And as the first fork slowly came into view, he asked the question to the rest of the party.

“Is that even a question? I thought we were here to explore and fight” Ted asked, the rest of party saying similar things. With the decision made, they got off the road and started making their way through the plain. There were multitude of signs that demarked a rich wildlife and as they got further from the road, the number of signs only increased. Maggie kept her eyes sharp, serving as the scout for the party and she soon started reporting marking that signaled a pack of especially vicious predators were nearby. The ground was littered with tracks and corpses strung around were almost stripped to the bone, what little remained of them showed signs of hard fight.

The culprit for the scenes soon showed itself as the pack of wolf – looking creatures with needles on their backs, at least fifteen of them, surrounded the party. Lucas activated “Sharpsight” trying to identify the creatures.

“Thorn wolf, level 30”

“Thorn wolf, level 30”

“Thorn wolf, level 31”

Whole wolf pack was in the early thirties and Lucas hoped they shouldn’t be much of the problem, even with number advantage they had. After some initial snarling, the beasts made their move, first lines leaping, with claws poised to strike, while the back row put started launching needles from their back at the party. Lucas activated “Dodge”, precognition ability helping him to avoid attacks. After managing to avoid a vicious swipe from the wolf that followed him after his initial jump, Lucas activated “Guiding strike” and struck the beast’s flank. The wolf howled in pain before another “Guiding strike” Lucas activated managed to find its way into the throat of the beast, ending its life.

The rest of the battle was also going well, although not all of the party managed to weather the initial attack without taking damage. Maggie had some needles sticking from her thigh that impeded somewhat her during her duel with the wolf pack back row which were desperately sending volley after volley at the menace that was thinning their ranks. Ted had bloody scratch on his palm, but that didn’t slowed him down much, seeing as he was in the process of clubbing one wolf down. The wolf pack was losing its number advantage pretty fast, already six of their number downed.

Lucas spotted his next target prowling on the edges of the battles, trying to get the angle to shoot at Maggie. “Infused piledriver” was muttered and instantly Lucas was spinning towards his target. The sword connected with the flank of the wolf, gladius shredding flesh and wrecking whatever internal organs it managed hit. There was a short yelp from the unfortunate beast before it fell to the ground, unmoving.

To their credit, wolves were starting to get aware they were fighting a losing battle, so they tried retreating orderly, a notion that was quickly shattered by Maggie’s arrows and another “Infused piledriver” from Lucas, which made them lose two more of their already depleted number. Beasts were now frightened and they simply scattered in all directions, their instincts screaming at them only to survive. They were cheers from the party as they celebrated victory and as Margaret moved to heal whatever damage there was, Lucas activated “Sharpsight”, confirming his suspicions.

“We have our first real challenge” he spoke and proceeded to explain he discovered a beast den nearby, probably belonging to wolves they just fought.