As a rchant, Jas Orchard had seen every inch of what Aetheria Continent had to offer and interacted with a few of the continent's strongest Mages, yet he had never seen soone like Lucian before. The young man, who was calmly standing in front of the entrance looked harmless as though he could not even kill a common mosquito, yet his indifferent eyes told a different story.
The eyes were the windows to the Soul.
Jas felt the young man was quite mysterious. Despite his young appearance, Jas felt Lucian was an ancient monster.
However, Jas did not feel any malicious presence from Lucian. Trusting his senses as a successful rchant, which had helped him thus far, he went back into his carriage after saying:
"We're leaving. I want to arrive at Harmony City before nightfall."
After hearing Sir Orchard's words, the guards broke out of their daze, hastily closed their mouths, and got into formation.
anwhile, Lucian had just finished greeting Garrett and the others.
"Owner Lucian, don't forget you promised to cook Siren's lody Poached Egg for us!" Hervy reminded one last ti as if he was afraid Lucian would renege on their deal before getting into formation around the lead carriage.
Imperceptibly, Lucian's eyes twitched as he nodded and then replied:
"As I said before, as long as you pay, I will cook." Then, he walked to the right side of the carriage, where Cody and Coby were standing in formation. Out of the five Lion's Liver mbers, Lucian preferred the quiet, overly respectful twins.
From the other side of the carriage, Garrett shouted:
"Let's move. Rember to keep your Mana Sense on for any bandits."
The guards nodded and remained vigilant, with their Mana Sense spread to as far as it could reach.
As the only Bone Tempering Mage in their group, Garrett had the most authority, second only to Jas Orchard. However, that was only because Hervy and Lane had kept their Mage Ranks a secret by not releasing their Mana.
Suddenly, the Fire Hoof Horses neighed in acknowledgnt and stomped the ground as they began moving forward.
The caravan started to move, as the clops of hooves and the creak of wooden wheels filled the quiet atmosphere.
Lucian calmly walked beside the carriage, keeping pace with the Fire Hoof Horses.
After five minutes, the four Fire Hoof Horses neighed and slowly ca to a halt.
From the nearby guard tower, a man with a tiger's tail and tiger's ears ca forward, and despite his stern expression, he politely said:
"Sir Orchard, despite your esteed status, we still have to check everyone who goes in and out of Thunderfall City."
Jas opened the window and nodded, not minding. He was used to inspections when going in and out of cities.
"Garrett, open the doors to the carriages for the guard."
Lucian subtly frowned. Before, he did not care about the escort quest. For him, the quest was just a ans to finish his quest, nothing more. But ever since he saw the caravan, he could not help but find it odd.
In a world where Spatial Rings existed, why would a rchant store his wares in a caravan?
Quickly, he checked the mories he got from Wang Chen and found the answer. To prevent the smuggling of illegal rchandise into cities, all rchants were required to be part of the rchant Guild and were not allowed to use Spatial Rings. If they were caught using a Spatial Ring even if the rchandise they were selling was legal, they would be punished by the rchant Guild.
The more Lucian read the information, the more he was speechless.
Even the System was speechless. This was the first ti it had encountered such a situation. After a mont, it could not help but say:
[What a bunch of idiots. In the omniverse, where only strength matters, who would listen to rules?]
Lucian nodded in agreent to the System's words. He could not agree more. He was sure the stupid rule had been broken countless tis.
Heck, even without overwhelming strength, just a simple bribery would do the trick.
However, since it had nothing to do with him, Lucian did not voice out his opinions. He watched as the Tigerkin and ten other city guards checked each carriage one by one while writing down the rchandise within the carriages.
Two of the carriages were filled with goods for everyday living purposes. However, what intrigued Lucian were the last three carriages, which were filled with Grade One, Two, and Three Magical Beasts.
Ten minutes passed, and the Tigerkin nodded to Garrett and then bowed to Sir Orchard's carriage.
"Sir Orchard, thank you for your patience. We have found nothing illegal, you may now leave. I hope you have a safe travel."
Jas smiled toward the Tigerkin from the carriage's window as he closed the curtain before closing his eyes.
After the city guards moved aside and opened the city gate, the Fiery Hoof Horses showed why they were called that na.
Each footstep of theirs left a fiery footprint on the ground. However, compared to a non-mage running at full speed, the horses were barely trotting forward at a walking pace.
Lucian frowned and thought:
'At this rate, it will take hours to reach Moon Grove Forest.'
Previously, it had only taken Lucian two hours of running to reach Thunderfall City from Moon Grove Forest.
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After walking for five hours into their journey, without anything happening, Lucian finally saw withered, black trees. It was precisely Moon Grove Forest, which ant he could finally begin the Quest.
Since the System had not announced he had failed the Quest, he knew 'Wang Chen's body' was still in the forest.
But the issue was, how should he 'find' 'Wang Chen's body'?
The process of Lucian finding the body had to be accidental.
Even now, he did not have a good enough reason to enter the forest … other than having to take a leak.
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