The hinges on my door creaked as someone entered my room. Although trained to be ready for everything, I couldn’t do anything when I was falling asleep. Thankfully, the person who entered wasn’t a rogue bandit but the guard leader. Still, I didn’t know what was up when it came to appliances in this chiefdom. Tiny chairs, no tables, and doors without locks.

The man who entered carefully closed the door behind him and crouched down next to me. “We’re leaving, let’s go.”

I understood what he meant so I quickly took my scabbard and woke up Yoruze. “Don’t talk and walk quietly.”

The boy nodded and the guard leader gave me a hoody, and robe. Since he didn’t know that someone else would come, he hadn’t brought another. Thankfully, Yoruze came packaged with one. Outside, the streets were pitch black say for the glints of moonlight which crossed the clouds.

When we reached the town’s exit, there were eight camels and six people. This included the young master and Fresia.

The young master came up to me but soon found his eyes wandering to Yoruze. “I didn’t count for another person.”

“Don’t worry he’s light. I had a deal with someone to take care of him if anything were to happen to her.”

He nodded, “I understand, but I don’t know how you got along with her so quickly. Let’s go, lead the way.” He turned and took the reins of his camel. “Wait, do you know how to ride a camel?”

“A horse,” I answered.

“Then it’ll be fine, we’ll have someone else take care of its needs. We need to leave.”

I climbed onto the first camel, and we left towards the desert. I made certain not to head towards the oasis town since that’s most likely where the cavalry would head next.

After twelve hours of travel, the young master told us to stop and take a small break near a small river.

We disembarked and took out bread from the bags slung over the camels’ backs. Although it didn’t concern me right now, I needed to know a bit more about the chiefdom’s state. I went to the young master, and asked him, “How are you feeling?” While munching on some bread.

“I’m fine. Why are you asking?”

“Oh, do not be so worried. I’m just making casual conversation.” I sat down next to him. “You’re still young. You should loosen up a bit.”

The young master snickered, “You speak like a merchant.”

I shook my head. “It’s just the people in your village who are too straight forward. In truth I just want to know why you’re taking such a big risk, why do you even trust me?”

“Why am I taking such a big risk?” He looked down to the earth. “What a farce, but I understand. You aren’t from here. The soldiers who came asked for us to provide support. That means sending soldiers and goods. Do you know we lost one hundred people during the last war? And this time they want more. If we don’t do anything, we’ll lose everything. Plus, as a caravan don’t you think the pillagers would target us? Apparently, they don’t carry food. Just swords, shields, and death. The rest they pillage. That’s why I planned this excursion. This way, not only would I be gone for the duration of the pillaging. But I will also come back with plenty of gold and a new trade route. With this the village will be safe. Without it, it will disappear, and I rather die in the desert than in my village’s ruins.”

I nodded to the truly commendable mentality. “I can’t disagree with you since I have done the same. Well, I got my answer, so I’ll let you enjoy your meal.”

I went back to Yoruze and Fresia. Something seemed off. On one hand, you had a girl who ate her weight in a half minute, and on the other, a thin boy who ate half a slice of bread in half an hour. However, Yoruze’s hands were empty, and Fresia still had bread to spare.

“Fresia did you eat Yoruze’s portion.” She shook her head while stuffing a piece of bread into her mouth. I yanked the bread out of her hands and gave it to Yoruze. I turned to Yoruze. “I am your father now.” I said in an authoritative tone. “You will finish what I give you no matter if it’s a flatbread or a whole chicken. Now finish it or I’ll leave you to rot in the desert.” I didn’t know if this was a good way to treat anorexia; however, it was the only thing I could think of.

Finally, five minutes later, the palm-sized piece of bread had disappeared into his stomach.

“Good, I’m going to sleep.” I lay down on the tarp. “Make sure I don’t die,” I said to Fresia, the default night watcher.

#

For the next few days, we continued unobstructed through the shrublands. And we soon found ourselves at the entrance to the desert. The hills of pale brown earth became yellow sand dunes, and the shrubs had become cacti. From here on out, it would be the most difficult part of the journey since no one knew where we were going.

“Can you look over the star map once again?” asked the young master.

He was starting to get anxious and often looked back towards the village. I grabbed the parchment and looked over star map once again to convince him that I wasn’t leading them to their graves.

To appease his worries, I had told them that while I traversed the sands, I spent my nights stargazing. Thanks to this I supposedly gained the skill to follow the stars. And with this skill, I would guide them across the desert.

When enough time had passed, I handed him the map. “Yes, I’m certain,” I said with a deep nod.

The kid nodded in confirmation and gave the order to advance; however, beads off sweat still trickled down his forehead. He was anxious not only for himself but no doubt also for his people and his chiefdom.

For three days the camels marched through the desert without finding an oasis, however, I soon learned that the young master had a magical bag which could store up to fifty litres of water before needing to be refilled. This would be used if we couldn’t find an oasis in the next two days and had to head back. Thankfully, a day later we saw from atop a dune of sand a patch of greenery a few kilometres away.

“It’s really an oasis, eh,” said Feria as she squinted her eyes.

“The trade town is one as well. This isn’t your first time seeing one,” I replied.

“Sure, but finding an oasis, and following a route to an oasis ain’t the same thing.”

“True, but for now let’s keep going.”

As we descended the dune, bipedal insects’ figures came into view. They had a hard dung beetle-like shells, and legs covered in a black exoskeleton.

“Those are grizzos!” exclaimed the guard leader. “I’ve only ever heard of them.”

I decided to play along. “You call those grizzos. We call them beetles, I’ve killed a few of them on my way here.” I couldn’t let the young master have any doubts.

“Is that so? Well, if it’s you, I can see you killing them; however, I’ve heard that you need to be at least grade 3 to crack their shell.”

I simply nodded. Where they saw danger, I saw experience points. And although they weren’t comparable to the grade 4 scorpions, they should give me a decent amount of experience points. Especially since I could see nine of them from here. I wanted to deal with them alone. As soon as I became grade 3, I would become strong enough to deal with the entire guard detail on my own.

“Guard leader, I’ll clear them on my own. Stay here for now.”

“Are you sure?” He glanced in my direction. “You’re the second strongest here, we’ll be in a pinch if anything happens to you.”

I smiled at his words but still shook my head. “You’ve never fought them, and I’ve dealt with more than ten while starved so don’t fret. I’ll be back so don’t cry.”

The leader unwillingly grinned, “Sure, go ahead.”

“Thanks.” I got off the camels back and left it in Yoruze’s hands. When I had walked down the dune, the grizzos buzzed their wings and flew towards me. Their eyes were a bright orange, and their wings shinned in the colours of the rainbow. I prepared my sword and cast the numbing spell on my blade. When the first humanoid insect arrived in cutting range, two large scythes sprung out of its back, however, when it intercepted my blade, he became incapacitated and fell to the ground. With my quick-hand skill which consumed one mana point per minute, I quickly stabbed its head before blocking the second grizzo’s strike. It also fell to the ground due to my numbing spell.

But then my brain implant buzzed in alarm. Something had snuck behind me. I used a quick step to dodge the blow of a grizzo which had snuck behind. It had probably flown high in the sky to avoid my detection. The second grizzo which had attacked me had now gotten back on its feet and gave out an inaudible shriek. However, my brain implant managed to pick up a low vibration at the same time. They were planning something.

And to confirm this the insects all backed away and started to surround me; however, they didn’t seem to have any long-ranged attack. If I stayed on guard, I could deal with them. I wasn’t big enough for more than two of them to attack me at once, due to their large blades.

When the expected attack came, I jumped to the side, made a quick ninety-degree turn while dragging my right foot on the dunes to sweep up sand and obscure their vision. At the same time, I used this momentum to cut two grizzo’s face, which was their least protected area.

When the sand settled, the others started to buzz yet again. They started to slowly approach me all at once, tightening the encirclement. They wanted to scare me into attacking, however, I stayed still, and they stopped right before entering my range. The wind displacement of their wings made the sand rise into the air creating a cloud of sand which took away everyone’s visibility. That’s when one of them got tired of waiting and attacked me.

Thanks to my brain implant which could interpret sound data, I managed to jump in the opposite direction of the strike just in time. Another grizzo which tried to stop my escape ended up paralyzed on the desert sands. Once outside the encirclement I started to hit their hard shells with the numbing spell. With this I managed to indispose four grizzos which I quickly killed after turning them on their backs, exposing their soft heads.

With this there were only three of them left, however, instead of continuing the fight they flew away into the sky. Evidently, I couldn’t catch up to them and my mana wasn’t doing too well either. Anyhow, I wouldn’t lose sleep over letting them go.

Level 4 --> Level 7

Grade 2 --> Grade 2.5

Gained 1 job point

Exp (600/900)

Intelligence

Resistance

Endurance

Strength

Agility

Perception

Charisma

Mana

32

27 (+2)

42 (+3)

30 (+2)

39 (+4)

36 (+1)

46 (+3)

170 (+3)

Although mages probably didn’t have one hundred points in intelligence, it was probably much higher than what I had. I would need to do something about it soon. However, this a classic problem when you got to be a mage in this operation. To increase your intelligence, you needed to study and studying took time. Yet what we lacked the most was time. Although we might overpower 99% of the people with our high level. We would undoubtably stumble when we met a proper high levelled opponent. Well, I can rely on my charisma for those occasions.

On another note, I also received another job point. However, I was going to use it only when I needed it.