There are still a bunch of questions that Kairos wanted to ask this ‘True Lord’ person, and although his thoughts could all be heard, he was sent before those questions were answered.

The very next day, having learned all they needed, Kairos and the Snowdrifts gathered by the gates, to begin their descent down the mountain.

To the surprise of many young disciples, most of the elders from the Solitary Blades came out to see them off. Having seen how the immortal behaved was too much of a shock for them. Before the boys arrived, Old Ye was still living like a king amongst them, and even the clan leader could only speak softly in front of him.

Since the boys are going to find his god-son, Yi De couldn’t allow them to leave without anything. He gave them several of his personal time-space rings that are filled with items that he thought could be helpful. Most of the items are recovery pills and healing salves, things that they will never have too much off. Thankful for their hospitality, the boys bid them farewell and started to leave.

Old Ye~ Aisa is leaving now. Bye bye!!

“Hold on, what?!” At this moment, the poor immortal is still patiently waiting at the place where the dragon told him. But it appears that he had been completely forgotten.

When he heard that they are about the leave, he flew towards them and hovered in the air. Being forgotten is something that the immortal has often experienced in the past, so it wasn’t that he minded. Instead, he has other matters of urgency in mind that he needed to halt them.

“Esteemed one. Young Lord. Old Ye have a message!”

Kairos looked upwards and saw the seriousness in his eyes, then nodded and indicated a place nearby to talk. The others politely stayed away and allowed them the privacy they desired.

“Young Lord, this old one have to apologise that I am unable to follow you on this journey. Any form of exertion would drain my power rapidly. This one will be assimilating the dragon’s gift until your return.

Instead, I would like to give you some personal artefacts of mine, to assist you in your mission…. as an exchange of gifts. If you would honour me, please accept it. Though they are incomparable to the fruit of life, this one believes that they may be of help to you.”

He handed another time-space ring into Kairos’ hands then smiled embarrassedly. He truly felt that his gifts are insignificant when compared to what Aisa had given him. Even if he had scraped together all that belonged to him, it would not be able to match even a thousandth of the fruit. But for Kairos, items from the immortal realm would prove to be extremely advantageous for a long time.

Inside it contains a vast amount of spirit stones of unknown grade. These stones will serve not only as currency but also allows them to increase their cultivation speed. Besides spirit stones, there are a few trinkets and three plants made of precious metals, but the best of them all is the Time-space ring itself. The container’s size is far larger than anything Kairos had seen or heard before, as expected of a treasure from the immortal realm.

After going down the mountain, plus another day and half of travel, they finally arrive at Tiny Town. When the place came into view, they realised it was like its namesake.

“Captain, we’re here, but what should we do now? There are no clues on how to start finding Jones at all,” Edward asked. They have rushed here only knowing that this is one of the suspicious spots.

“We’ll start at the adventurer’s guild, it’s the best place to gather any news is there. But before that, let’s get a place to stay.”

They asked around, then went to a large tavern that could hold their number and Kairos walked up to the counter. His father stood back, as usual, allowing his son to take the lead. Vouno He arranged this party, therefore

“Sir, have you got rooms for our number?”

The sharp-eyed attendant took a glance at the group.

“Hmm, there’s twenty-seven of you, eh? Shouldn’t be a problem. Business has been cold recently with the sudden surge of monsters. We have rooms for six, four, twos and singles. Look at this,” He took out a charted book and pointed at the vacancy left for them to pick.

“That’s good, there are so many rooms. I have a token here from the Solitary Blades clan,” Kairos said, taking out the item from Yi De’s ring.

Most of them preferred the six-person rooms since their squads are in groups of five. They booked the place for an entire month, fully paid for, courtesy of Jones’ clan thanks to the token.

That evening, after settling down, everyone gathered at Kairos’ room. As this is the first opportunity to break-ice, Vounce decided to address the group, “I believe that you young gentlemen, and young ladies, might feel uncomfortable to have an old fellow like me to join you on your quest. I’m sure that you already know of my purpose of being here. Most of you are here because you owe something to that boy, Jones, but I am here to right a wrong. So, just do whatever you feel is right, and don’t feel hindered by my presence.

I have no intention of interfering with my son’s plans. It’s about time the boy stretches his wings, and I believe he has done an excellent job so far.”

The others nodded in agreement. Surely Vouno knows that ‘good job’ is an understatement. He has already become a pillar in their heart. They privately think that as long as Kairos is here, they would not fail in whatever they endeavour.

Afterwards, they freely discussed what the current plans are. The clues that are left will be limited since quite some time has already passed. To gather as much information as possible, they will be taking up missions at the Adventurer’s Guild.

In the past, loose cultivators - practitioners who chose freedom over joining any faction - created this establishment after realising how difficult it is to pursue one’s Dao without the support of a powerful sect or family.

Although as itinerant cultivators, they gained the liberty of choice, many turn weary of the risks they had to take to get the training resources needed. Many of the dangerous ruins where such treasures lie require a strong and reliable team to venture in, but inside, it is everyone for themselves.

And even if they managed to find a good item, the artefact needs to be strong enough to be of use, yet not too valuable as to garner unwanted attention. Their savage in-fighting and their disadvantage against large factions needed to be resolved one way or another. And over time, these loose cultivators that wanted a way to protect themselves made this establishment.

The Adventurer’s Guild provided a solution by allowing any practitioner to join as a member and receive missions together, or to place their own requests. It is met with overwhelming success, and soon, even the local magistrate started sending in missions with promises of great reward.

Nowadays, loose cultivators will gather and head out where fame and fortune lie just like before, but because of the ironclad rules of this establishment, any betrayer to their group would find their membership void, and their bounty added to all the guilds in the continent.

This way, they could no longer act like lawless thugs when tempted by fortune, and slowly their organisation turned into a new powerhouse in the empire. Over time, many great sects that also wanted to be free from the direct jurisdiction of the royal family joined the Adventurer’s guild’s neutrality, and together they became the third greatest faction in Saint Empire. With such widespread influence, gathering information at the guild became their first choice. Of course, their other option is naturally from this tavern that they are staying at.

Later that same night, Vouno called his son to the bar in the tavern. Although he is still too young to drink, he immediately became curious with the mug of ale his father ordered, and when no one was looking Kairos bravely took a sip.

His face turned pale immediately, “Gah! It’s bitter.. and this horrible smell!”

“Wahahah!! It has a strong taste to it, right?” Vouno laughed boisterously until Kairos decided to puke.

“Too strong! How could people even drink this?”

Looking at his son’s face, Vouno had to struggle not to swallow his own tongue while laughing. Slapping himself repeatedly on his leg, he happily took the mug back, “Well, don’t waste it, it’s been many years since I’ve tasted ale.”

Their family had been poor since his mother passed away. Lemni had one day came down with a sudden illness and never recovered. And the cost of medicine for her spent their last coin.

But, although the symptoms were identical to the common cold, Vouno always claimed she was murdered. It was a claim with no logic, nor motives behind, except for his gut feelings, yet he did not doubt it. Unfortunately, even if it was murder, he had no directions nor means to seek his vengeance.

While the two are sitting by the counter, they started listening in to the conversation around them. They don’t expect to hear anything about where Jones could’ve gone, such a possibility is too low. Instead, their ears were focused on finding out what are the latest events that the town is concerned with and thus prove them with which missions they should accept.

Before long, the duo noticed a nearby table discussing that the past few months saw to a general increase of wild beasts in the vicinity, an unprecedented influx of monsters. It was the same thing that the innkeeper had mentioned previously.

Kairos immediately stood up and went over. Joining in naturally, like a young child who wanted to hear stories. The adults that were talking did not shun away from him either.

“Hi mister~,” Kairos spoke in a manner most unlike him. If the others saw him right now, they wouldn’t be able to hold their laughter: This is the great commander of the red team?

“Hey kid, what are you doing here? Are your parents around?”

“Yes, dad is over there!” He pointed, then turned back and said excitedly, “What are misters talking?”

“Ohhh? A curious one we have here, don’t we?” The gentleman looked at Vouno’s directions and gave his father a friendly nod.

“Well, what do you want to find out, boy?”

“Mister, I have just entered the town with papa, but everyone has been talking about monsters. Why is that?”

“Ahhh… You’re a caring boy, you are worried for us, aren’t you? Recently, the number of monsters indeed have increased to a dangerous amount, and we adults are concerned that they might turn into a horde. Well, this is nothing a young boy like you should care.

Aren’t you already ten or eleven? You need to get ready for school soon, the Cadets Academy is a difficult place.”

The gentleman spoke with kindly concern. His own child is about eight and soon to enter the academy, so when he saw Kairos talking like this, he had assumed that this child may be near the age as well.

Vouno who is listening in had to stifle a laugh.

I guess there are people terrible at judging a kid’s age.

Kairos, however, replied with a most convincing, innocent-look, and nodded to the man. Then continuing in that child-like manner, “Mister, why is there an increase in monsters? Are there yummy food here?”

“Bwahahaa. You’re a hilarious kid. Those scary monsters are always looking for humans as snacks, didn’t your papa tell you? But to answer you, this all began when the Orcs mysteriously vanished around two months back. After that, the nearby monsters seem to have nothing left to keep them in check and their numbers begin to grow like crazy.”

The Orcs have disappeared from even this place?