The crowd stood in stunned silence. A bomb? In Licentia?
A gaurd spoke up "all right, everyone stay where you are, and don't panic, this will be contained. There will be no bombing."
Jackson started to breathe faster.
The gaurd that spoke to the crowd talked to another gaurd, the the guard he was speaking to ran off. Presumably for backup or to catch the other caravan.
Jackson breathing sped up.
It felt like the crowd was getting closer to him, the tension so thick you could cut it with a knife.
"Do you think that other caravan had more bombs?"
"What's happening?"
"This is taking too long."
Jackson felt his chest get heavy, his breaths quicken even more.
Not again!
"The a-air, too m-much!"
It barely came out as a whisper but he still felt everyone staring at him. They wouldn't stop. They never stoped. Their glares only harden.
I need to run. I need to go. I need to stop!
Jackson sat on the ground, trying to slow his rapid breaths.
123 in, 123 out, 1- shoot, 123 out.
It took a while longer than other panic attacks. But long enough for more gaurds to come back.
"Everyone gather in a single file line!" the headgaurdsman shouted. Pretty loudly as well, must've been an ability.
Everyon fell in line quick, which also got Jackson to get up and try to get in line quickly, he was still near the back though. He could still see the front of the line though, no carvans thankfully. Although, he could'mt be sure that was a good sign anymore. He saw people getting checked for bombs or anything incriminating. Like guns. Bows and wealons like swords were fine though. You didn't need a liscense for them. Guns could easily kill the average human though, they were also less clunky than a bow or sword. You also needed to be relatively skilled with a bow or sword to actually use it well. Guns required practice but were otherwise straightforward. Plain guns weren't effective on monsters as much as a sword, bow, or magic gun though which is why you didn't need a license to carry a sword wherever you go, there be beasts around.
After thirty or so minutes, Jackson was up (it was way quicker this time around) and after the pat down, surpirsingly the gaurd told him to gi to the gate and be on his way after his ID would be checked.
Why would they let people through after a bomb threat?
It just... didn't make any sense? Why have a chance for other criminals to escape? To keep up looks? Actually... that might be it! Libertas has almost always been a major superpower. Making bomb threats seem easily thwarted could help deter and discourage enemies from trying again. Though, it still doesn't make that much sense.
...maybe they already caught everyone? Maybe to stop the citizens from doing something drastic? Maybe they knew everyone leaving was innocent and it was only the people coming that had the bombs?
Jackson didn't know, but it was good for him, he still got to leave. He showed the gaurd at the gate his ID and was let through. And that was it. Off to the forest.
...
First thing to do was to find a water source. He already had about 4 litres of water he brought with him, but that wouldn't lat till his birthday on the 23rd of April. That was about a month away. Anyway, he brought filters and a pot to decontaminate the water as well, just in case. He didn't gave an Alchemists Purity Flask sadly. Those things were expensive and while not fragile, aren't exactly the toughest thing out there.
Alchemy typically required pure water so smiths and enchaters made purity flasks to help them obtain clean water easier. Cost a pretty obol though. It was a staple of adventuring though, and he'd need one eventually.
...
It took an hour if walking before he was met with something that wasn't trees. A notification.
| Congratulations! Healing magic has leveled up! |
Ooh, a sweat treat. Jackson had been using healing magic as he was walking. It also helped his mana control as he hot another notification 15 minutes later.
| Congratulations! Mana manipulation has leveled up! |
It made sense to him that it helped mana manipulation level up. He wouldn't be surprised if he would gain a point in mana control soon as well. Speaking of it Jackson though it was kind of redundant to have mana manipulation as a skill when you had mana control as a stat. Sure they had minor differences, mana control made spells more effective and helped you control them. Mana manipulation just helped you control mana. Eh, not that important, back to walking.
...
30 minutes later he finally found a river. He was sweating and already took a few sips of water so ot was good to finally find water. He wouldn't make camp here though, he isn't the only one that drinks water. He'd leave a path though, Jackson pulled out some string, chose a direction, and walked towards it.
...
15 minutes later he got a level up in walking and decided this would be a good place to set camp. Could use a bit of clearing out though. It wasn't too hard of work to clear out the space it was already a small clearing. Took a while though, an hour by Jacksons estimate by the sun. Now he had a good pile of wood for a fire later, and started on the tent. While putting it up Survivalsm leveled twice.
His skills had been leveling quite quickly lately. He had been actively working on them though. He had also been under a good amount of stress. Thinking back on it, he never really properly worked on his skills. after his brother died he had become a recluse, well not just because of his brother... Now's not really the time for that. Either way he was happy for the level ups. After rhe tent was done, his sleeping bag ready, he started to work on a firepit. It was getting dark and he was getting hungry, but he had dried foods and wasn't actually planning on staying up. He just wanted to be prepared. Jackson gathered rocks. And his fire wood from earlier and tried to clear a space from grass, which was annoying, but doable. He made a circle of rocks, than a took some grass, put it in the middle, and made a teepee around it of sticks. The grass would help catch fire once it dried out and he had time. But... He had heat magic. He started off slowly, he had no illusions he could start a fire yet, he couldn't make the wood that hot, but he could most likely dry grass. It hadn't rained in a short while so it was already pretty dry, heck he could light it on fire. He just wanted his tinder a little better.
It wasn't hard, it was actually pretty easy, he raised the temperature if the grass by maybe a few degrees, it worked technically. But he didn't want to sit there for ten or so minutes till it was drier. The work had mostly refilled his mana but left him really sore and all that healing made him hungry, coupled with the work, and regenerating that mana, he was practically starving. He got in his tent zipped it up and did some work on a beef jerky sandwich. Kinda ghetto but it worked. Just before he went to bed he healed himself, silently regreted it as it made him more hungry to the point he had another sandwich. then used slow metabolism on himself and went to bed.
This morning was iffy but after he got to the forest he had a good time. A nice hike, and setting up camp made him feel fulfilled, all accompanied by sweet levels.
Jackson yawned.
Tomorrow us another day.
