Chapter 20

Nothing of note happened as I was staring out the back of the wagon. We didn’t encounter any monsters, so I got really bored after a while.

When the sun was about to set, we reached our first stop. It was a campsite off the side of the road.

We set up camp, made a fire, and ate dinner. I ate some crackers and dried meat, happy that I didn’t have to break a tooth eating any traveler's bread like the other adventurers I was looking at.

After we were done eating, I and half of the adventurers were scheduled to be on night watch. The other half followed the merchants to the wagons to go to sleep, so we could change shifts in the middle.

Tending to the campfire to pass the time, I occasionally stared up at the night sky.

It was really quiet with the exception of the wind and insects, I had the opportunity to appreciate the starry night sky.

Come to think of it, I never actually noticed how beautiful it was when I saw them. Even though there was no light pollution in this world, I never really took the opportunity to look at them.

“Hey Nyx. Hraaaaaaah”

Yawning, Ned had woken up and walked up to me from the wagon.

“It's time to change shifts. Go wake up Oliver and go to sleep”

“Got it”

I headed into the wagon I was guarding, woke up Oliver and told him that it was his turn to do night watch.

After seeing Oliver grogaly get off the wagon, I wrapped myself with my cloak like a blanket to keep me warm and drifted off to sleep.

When it was morning, Ned woke me up and my body was all stiff from sleeping on a wagon.

I’m really not going to get used to sleeping outside without a bed.

We had a short breakfast because the merchants wanted to depart early.

Today we were traveling to a neighboring town next to Farsbarow, which was one of the pit stops on our way to Acton.

Same as yesterday, nothing of note happened and I got really bored till we reached the town just after the sun set.

“Want to get something to eat with us?”

We had just checked into an inn and Ned asked if I wanted to come eat with his party.

I said I was fine by it and Ned led me and the rest of the party to a tavern close by.

We entered a tavern and sat at an empty table. I saw that some of the merchants and other adventurers were already eating.

A server approached us to tell us what they have for tonight.

Thinking of what to get, I got roasted boar, bread, and soup.

“You're not going to get something to drink?”

Carl asks why I didn’t get some ale.

I replied back that I did not like alcohol in general. Even in my past life, I never really get why people even drink alcohol in the first place, it honestly tastes really nasty and bitter to me.

“That's a real shame”

Then he asks.

“What are you going to do tomorrow? We got a bit of time tomorrow till we depart”

Since we arrive here at night, the merchants are going to do some trading with the townspeople in the morning, so we got about 2 hours of free time.

“Replenish my supplies then explore the town"

“Any place in particular”

Keith spoke up after sipping on his ale.

“Maybe check out the adventurer guild outpost in this town”

We continue chatting, whenever they ask about where I came from, I just tell them a premade lie I made up or change the conversation.

I got to learn why they all became adventurers. Apparently they come from the same village, being the second or third son of their family they wouldn’t inherit the family business or farm. It was that reason they knew each other and why they all wanted to become an adventurer.

Luckily enough, there was a former adventurer that lived in the village and was willing to teach them when they asked.

It honestly explains a lot on how they manage to fight off the direwolf for a while and manage to bounce back after one of their party members has died. The person who taught them must be a really experienced adventurer if they taught them this well.

When I finished eating, I told them I was going to bed early because I was tired.

Ned and everyone else said okay and continued drinking.

Waking up the next morning, I got something to eat, then went to a general store to replenish my supplies.

After that, I headed to the adventurer guild outpost, making some detours on the way if I saw anything interesting. Overall, the town was way smaller than Acton, so it had this home town feel to it compared to Farsborrow which kinda felt like a city.

Seeing the adventurers guild sign, the first thing I noticed was that the building was way smaller than in Farsbarow, the same size as the stores next to it.

Going in, I saw that the interior was minimalistic, only having a reception counter, quest board, and some chairs and tables.

Additionally there was only one receptionist at the counter and it does seem like she is the only one here.

“How may I help you?”

The receptionist spoke up after seeing me looking around.

“Ummm… nothing, I’m on an escort quest and I have some time before I depart, so I’m just looking around town. I wanted to check out the outpost here but are all of them like this?”

“Yes, most outposts are usually like this because there isn’t a need for an outpost as big as the one in Farsbarow and it’s one of the rare exceptions"

After I was done looking around inside, I went to the meeting point since there wasn’t anything I found interesting.

I waited and watched the merchants trading with the townspeople until it was time to depart.

When everyone showed up, I went with Oliver to our wagon and stared out the back of the wagon again like yesterday.

For today’s destination, it was another campsite that is next to the river. We reached the campsite when the sun was about to set.

After we made camp and ate dinner, like last time, half of us were on night watch and when we were done, we woke up the other half and changed shifts.

The next day, we took the road that followed the river, which leads to the next town. It was a change of scenery but it got boring after a while.

Once it was late into the afternoon, we reached the second town earlier than expected.

Compared to the first town we stayed at, this one was next to a giant lake that was connected to the river we were traveling next to, and was as big as Farsbarow.

The merchants in the caravan prepared to trade with the townspeople since we arrived early.

Ned asks me what I was planning to do after we checked into an inn. I told him that I was going to check out the lake first because I had never seen a lake this big.

“Okay, have fun then. We’re also going to explore this town”

“Right, see you later”

Walking through this town, I noticed that the air was just as lively as Farsborrow but had its own charm to it.

Eventually I got to the shoreline, I was surprised by how big it was, big enough that I couldn’t see the other side of the lake.

I was also lucky enough to see the sun about to set below the water.

While the sun was setting there were people on boats by a dock, moving around their catch for the day.

Looking at what they were moving, I had a craving for some fish for dinner since I can’t remember the last time I had eaten any fish.

Before I could do that, I got to do some errands first. I went around and found a general store and replenished my rations for tomorrow.

After I was done, I went back to the inn I and everyone else was staying at.

The inn was similar to “The Early Rope Inn”, with it having a tavern on the first floor and the rooms were similar in size.

When I put my things in my room and went downstairs to get dinner. I saw Mark drinking alone.

I walked toward him and sat on an empty chair at the table he was at.

“Hey Mark, where is everyone else?”

“Oh, hi there Nyx. Everyone wants to do our own thing, none of us can agree, so we gone off on our own”

“So what did you want to do?”

“Just wanted to relax and drink”

Taking a sip of ale in his mug, he asked how the lake was.

I told him that the lake was really big and the sunset was beautiful, then I told him after that I did some errands

“Errands… oh, right!”

Hearing me say errands, Mark had an expression like that he had forgotten something.

“What's wrong?”

“I forgot to get our supplies”

Mark chugged down his ale, paid for his drink, and got up.

“Sorry I got to go”

“You better hurry then, the stores are about to close”

“Thanks, I better hurry then."

Mark hurriedly left the inn to a store to stock up on supplies.

Seeing him off, I waved for a waitress to ask what they had. When they say they have fish on the menu, I said I would like grilled fish and fish soup.

Once the food had arrived, it smelled amazing. The grilled fish was nice and flaky, and the soup had a nice herby fish flavor to it.

After I was done eating, I went to bed early because the caravan is going to leave early tomorrow.

Waking up early in the morning, I went downstairs to get some breakfast. While I was eating, Ned and his party came downstairs, looking really tired.

“Are you all okay?”

“Ya, all of us stay up really late last night”

They sat at the table I was at and ordered breakfast, trying their best to stay awake.

By the time everyone was done eating their breakfast, we went upstairs to our rooms and packed our things, then went to the meeting spot where we were going to leave.

The merchants were already up and early to prepare to depart.

We waited for the other adventurers to show up and when everyone was here, we departed.

Today is the last day of traveling and it should take about a day to get to Acton.

I stare back at the town, out the back of the wagon with a bored expression as usual in this escort job.

Honestly, I’m never going to do an escort job ever again if it would be this boring.

After a few hours of traveling, we were going through a forest and something interesting happened.

I started instinctively feeling hostility in the air.

“Hey, we are being attacked!”

Somebody shouted in the middle wagon of the caravan.

“Goblins! On our right!”

Then another shouted the direction.

Oliver and I jump off the wagon and prepare to fight. The other adventurers and Ned’s party are also ready to fight while the merchants stop their wagons and take out a dagger for self defense.

There was a group of goblins coming out of the edge of the tree lines.

Goblins are on the lower end of a D rank threat, standard fantasy stuff. They were what you expect of a goblin, with their green skin, short body, rags, ugly faces, and holding crude weapons.

I was bound to encounter them sooner or later.

I grin seeing them, thinking that this is a really good opportunity to try out my new sword.

Attacking the closest goblin coming at us, I killed it in 2 slashes and a thrust to its heart.

Then immediately took out two spikes and threw it at a pair of goblins, hitting one in the eye and the other in the throat.

I swung my sword at the neck of the goblin that had a spike in its eyes, decapitating it. Then I switched to the goblin that had a spike in its throat and swung down my sword, cutting it diagonally in half.

I held my sword in amazement, this sword is really sharp, I didn’t expect to cut through bone with relative ease. If this was made of 1/16 mythril, then I wonder what a full mythril sword would be like.

Looking back to check on Oliver, I saw him hesitating as a goblin was approaching him.

I threw a knife at that goblin, hitting it on the head, causing it to fall over. It gave Oliver an opportunity to attack it as it was on the ground.

“You okay?”

“Ya, thank you”

Focusing my attention back on the goblins after checking up at Oliver, I saw everyone else. They look like they were dealing with them fine. It was a bit slow, so I went in and helped them

I charge in grinning, killing them with a single swing of my sword or throwing a spike to give the adventurer an opening to kill them.

Before I realized it, I reached the front of the caravan. I let out a small chuckle but to my disappointment all the goblins were already dead.

Man, I wish that there were more of them.

“Ummm… hey Nyx, you okay?"

Ned cautiously walked up toward me, asking if I was alright.

I turned around, unknowingly still having a grin on my face, tilting my head wondering why he asked that question.

He for some reason gave me a weird look like I might attack him at any moment and took a step back.

The grin on my face was gone when I calmed down from my excitement and said I was fine but he looked a bit skeptical.

Then he turned to the other adventurers and asked if anyone was injured.

Everyone checked for injuries and thankfully no one was injured.

We gather up the dead goblin bodies into one spot far away from the road, into a pile and burn them.

In total there were 20 goblins that had attacked us. We went and cut off the left ear of each goblin to trade them in for money in the adventurer guild for killing them.

Each of us gets 2 ears, I didn’t know what to feel about carrying goblin ears on me, but it felt kinda disgusting. I put them in an empty pouch that I might just throw out later when I get to Acton.

The caravan resumed traveling with no issues. After about another couple of hours, I could see the city of Acton within my sights.