Kitsume started heading towards the chief's residence followed by chief's personal aid called Bob. Without realising, his pace was steadily increasing. He had waited for the bard's message for five days and was curious to know more. The sudden change of pace in his movements surprised even Bob but he decided not to say anything to the magic caster. After all, unlike Chief, Bob was not the type of individual who could trust an outsider easily.
After moving for some time Kitsume looked back towards Bob who was hurriedly following him. Kitsume was aware of Bob's suspecting nature so he cooled down the uneasiness in his mind and walked towards chief's residence at a normal pace.
"Is the chief at home?" Kits inquired looking at bob.
"No, the Chief had a meeting with the elders so he left the letter addressed to you with his son." Bob informed kits in a flat tone and then asked. "Will you be leaving the village for some time again?"
"Who told you that?"
"Chief wanted to know that..."
"Well I haven't decided yet, I can't stay here forever and I visit other places trying to remember something about my past."
Bob heard his reasoning but remained indifferent. An outsider leaving the village was none of his concern.
"Why you didn't bring me the letter then?" Kits inquired, as there was no point in him visiting the chief's place if the chief himself was not present.
"Well the Chief's son wanted to meet you." Saying that Bob gestured towards the door.
The Chiefs house, obviously better than most of the houses of the village has few magic items for lighting purpose and other household items all placed at a proper place.
"Hello Kitsume-san, I was waiting for you."
Kitsume greeted him by nodding his head towards the chief's son. Chief's son a young centaur engaged with his girlfriend last month and quite good as a warrior himself.
"Bob told me you wanted to talk to me about something"
"Ah yes, I wanted to talk in private" saying that he gestured towards Bob to go outside. After ensuring, the door was properly closed and no one was in house to listen to their conversation he continued. "I wanted to know something about magic".
"Well, I didn't know you will develop an interest in magic".
"Yes, but I don't want you to tell dad or anyone else about this". Kits simply nodded and gestured towards him to continue.
"I wanted to know if I can learn that invisibility spell." He said in a low voice.
Kits was both surprised and speechless. Having known him for past one year Kits exactly knew what kind of thoughts were developing in this young centaur's mind. Therefore, he simply took the role of a teacher and stated.
"Invisibility is a fourth tier spell so I don't think you will be able to learn that in a month or two". Kits stated smiling. Even though he had items from Yggdrasil, which can grant greater invisibility to the wearer Kits decided not to mention those.
"I don't want to learn other spells just one spell."
"It doesn't work that way you have to grow step by step learning each tier spell before you can cast 4th tier", Kits stated. Chief's Son was visibly disappointed to hear that and then took out the letter.
"Oh, well here's your letter".
"So how did you know about invisibility spell?"
"Lia was running around with the list of spells you had given to her yesterday so I called her to have a look at them."
"Well she might be able to learn a 4th tier spell someday, anyways thanks for the letter".
Nothing else to say he simply grabbed the letter and after wishing him, left the Chief's house.
Kits had apparently dictated and listed out many spells of arcane magic upto 5th tier to Lia for record keeping and for their study purpose.
Kits walked outside opening the letter as fast as he could and started reading.
Dear Kitsume- san
I have heard things about Sorcerer Kingdom from both merchants and adventurers, but I cannot give any guarantee if the same are true.
Merchants and adventures are literally scared to visit there hence the trade and info sharing between human kingdoms and E- Rantel has come to a halt.
Those who left E-Rantel are mostly from rich or other influential families, they left for The Kingdom or The Empire before the handover to Sorcerer Kingdom so are not aware about current scenario in E-Rantel. Therefore, things are but rumours'.
However, yesterday I got news from another bard from Empire's Royal Capital Richard that E-Rantel became a place the neighboring countries scarcely believed could exist, a peaceful city without bloodshed, existing under the rule of Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown. He told me about an incident of confrontation between Momon, the adventurer I told you about, and Kings' subordinate and thus became his enforcer in exchange for lives of people of E-Rantel.
If you like, you can meet Richard at merchant inn at Royal Capital. Apart from this, Ainz owl gown has atleast two elf children, a beautiful woman with horns and wings, 2 dragons, and an army of 500 (Death Knights and soul eaters) under his command. He also uses Elder Liches for administrative jobs, soul eaters for pulling carts and Death Knights as city patrols. These things might seem insane but are from one of my most trusted source.
Most importantly, if you are planning to visit Sorcerer Kingdom, do send me some info. It's a hot selling topic for bards after all.
Regards
Eric
Kitsume read the latter half of the letter 3-4 time's but now he was confident that the person Ainz Owl Gown was a Player. This letter cleared his many doubts but now new doubts were arising.
"So he is a Player after all. I will have to visit him myself", he mumbled.
"Seems like Dungeon crawling days are about to start", he thought and smiled
The most important thing while dealing with a neutral party is to understand their thoughts and objectives, if possible without putting oneself to risks. Being a mercenary Kitsume was well aware of the same.
Therefore, he walked up to Bob and informed him that he will be leaving the village for some time. Bob was aware that Kitsume had the habit of leaving the village to try to learn about his past, so he decided not to say anything. However, deep down Bob was just skeptical about him.
Kitsume then visited Lia's father.
"So what brought you here today at this time"
"Well, I will be leaving village for some time."
"Did you recall something?"
"Maybe, and yes there is a chance I might not be able to come back"
"It's hard to believe but I know that you are strong. So where are you going this time?"
"Sorcerer Kingdom"
"Well I haven't heard about it. So where is it?"
"It's far away, among the human nations."
"Human nations? It's quite dangerous you know that" there was clear indication of worry in his face.
"Don't worry, I will be fine. And yes don't tell this to all others, I don't like people making fuss about it"
"Well I know you won't change your mind. Anyways good luck"
After wishing him, Kitsume met many others before leaving for the new journey. He also visited his students and gave them homework since he will not be present for next few days.
It was noon and Kitsume packed a bag and moved towards the village gates.
Even though Kitsume had everything in his personal dimension he needed, he still had to show to others living in the village the act of leaving.
Kitsume walked out of village gate and started moving south towards the forest with the bag at his back.
After moving, much distance from the village and ensuring that no one else was watching he chucked the bag in his personal dimension.
He raised his hand and
[Greater Teleportation]
The scenery in front of him changed. He was now in another place inside forest and a road was in front of him. He simply walked towards the road.
The path forward lead towards the Kingdom and his back was the way towards the Republic.
This was the farthest south he had travelled in the past one year. He could teleport to only those places that he had already been.
He looked around and the path was empty as far as he could see. He used an eighth tier spell.
[Area Scan]
He could now sense the presence of animal's, insects, snakes and birds in the forest. It was just an ordinary forest.
Then he started preparing for his journey. He activated the ring placed it in his index finger and his form started changing from a centaur to a human. It was a ring of doppelganger. He changed his clothes and other rings for the journey.
Satisfied with his new appearance he started moving forward.
The items, which he was wearing, were all collected from this world and were literally useless but important for his disguise. He wore a brown leather jacket with shirt and pants with chainmail armour and a sheathed sword. The bandits who decided to attack him during his past journeys gave him these items. Obviously, they were dead. He sold many of their items but kept those, which were fit for himself for keeping his disguise.
He moved forward using his agility of lvl 100 player along with use of [teleport] and [agility boost] spells in between.
He was aware that there was no one in the Kingdom compared to his abilities so he was not worried about using his mana for faster travel.
Moreover his [Scan Area] spell was already active.
After moving for an hour, he sensed a carriage moving towards his direction so he slowed down. The coachman looked towards him but decided not to stop. Kits looked towards the carriage as it passed by.
Adventures riding on horses were guarding the coach, which had few people who looked like merchants (humans). Kitsume in his getup seemed no threat to the adventures and they were not even bothered about him.
Kitsume smiled and then continued his journey, satisfied from the fact that his human avatar was good enough.
He avoided overtaking anyone during his journey and went on without stopping. His speed was already far greater than a horse drawn carriage so he avoided overtaking them to avoid any suspicions. Sometimes even detouring from road to avoid any unnecessary encounters. He wanted to save as much time as he could. For him travelling alone was much faster than travelling in a group. He didn't need any sleep, food or rest and being a lvl 100 player his mana regen rates were also quite high.
He passed by few villages lying in the outskirts of the kingdom, not bothering even to visit them.
The probability of useful info to be gained from these small villages was anyways far less.
He continued his pace until he could see a small city E- Ansenarel and his encounters with passer-byes started increasing exponentially.
Manned strong walls and watch -towers, surrounded the city.
Walking at a human pace, he went towards the city gates, inquired about the way towards the capital, and then asked the guard.
"Is there a place in this town where I can have a drink?"
"There" The guard smiled and showed him a building at the end of the street
"Oh, can I visit there"
"Of course"
After giving them some false info about himself for record keeping, he headed towards the building.
The children in the city were running around but he could also see many elders doing various tasks. He also noticed those eyes of the elders who had lost someone close to them, a city whose citizens had just suffered a serious defeat from a war and lost their family members.
Then it occurred to him why the guards did not cross-question him. The reason was simple. The city was itself suffering due to lack of work force and they might had got orders not to reject anyone either for labour or for conducting business. Else, elderly people are never employed in labour intensive tasks.
Yes, it was a sad city.
He walked slowly towards the building looking around and then entered the building.
