We kept to the road, and the first day of travel went very smoothly. When it got dark, we got the tents out and slept. Well, I had tents, but all of the girls somehow ended up in my tent. Celeste had to shrink down to her fairy size just to fit all of us. We’d need to get a bigger tent in the future if this was how the girls wanted to travel. Well, that, or maybe we could find some kind of tent with special magic on it. It’d be cool to sleep in something that was bigger on the inside.
The next day, it was around lunchtime and I was just thinking that I was getting kind of hungry when we noticed a cart on the side of the road. They were pulled over and it looked like they had a broken wheel. We stopped a distance away from them. Celeste flew up high to get an overhead view, and I used a telescope that I had gotten for the journey.
“The guild master said that any broken-down carts on the side of the road may be a trap set by bandits.”
I didn’t know why an established country like Aberis had bandits. It seemed like the first thing a country would do is monitor their roads and ensure things like bandits didn’t happen. I decided it was like finding a turkey leg in armor and decided to just accept it. In this case, we had discussed many possible things with the Guild Master, and one such warning was to remain vigilant.
Although Lydia was my official scout, I didn’t feel her job nor her experience was high enough yet that I was willing to risk her against bandits. Celeste, on the other hand, was small and could fly outside the range of arrows, so there was very little risk for her in this situation. She came back a few minutes later.
“Master, I see no bandits around the area. The cart contains just an old man and what appears to be his daughter. They appear to be transporting food.”
“Ah, then I suppose we might as well greet them and see if we can help.”
I also didn’t see anything suspicious in my telescope. This should be safe. We approached the two stranded people.
“Hello!” The old man waved, smiling, “Traveler, good day!”
“Good day!” I responded back. “Um… you need any help?”
“Ah… that… it appears like our wheel is busted.” The man sighed.
“We’ve been out here for hours!” The girl said, worriedly.
She was a pretty girl with blond hair and blue eyes. She had a hat on her head and wore a typical farmer’s garb, or at least what I would think was a farmer’s garb.
The old man nodded. “I worry if we’re stuck out here for the night. Bandits or wolves. However, this food is my livelihood, and if I abandon it we’ll definitely starve.”
Unfortunately, no one in my party was able to fix things. I had no woodworkers or carpenters. So, I wouldn’t… wait… there was that! The White Mage ability Light Repair! Perhaps… perhaps it’d be enough!
“I may be able to help, first let’s get your cart back on the road.”
“Just you and me boy?”
“Ah… the girls can help too.”
“Oh? They’re slaves?”
“More like family.” I smiled.
The three girls blushed, but they were more than happy to help as we pulled the cart out of the mud and got it back on the street. I could see the damaged wheel now. When it fell into the mud, the frame seemed to have cracked. The farmer’s daughter moved up close to me.
“Thank you so much for helping us.” She smiled.
My girls were giving slightly irate looks, please don’t stand so close! At least, that was what I wanted to say, but I was just too polite.
“I’ll have this working soon, maybe…” I laughed, holding my hand over the wheel.
She looked at it and gasped. “Wow… is that a storage ring? I-I’m sorry for addressing you so, my lord!”
She started to try to bow, so I stopped her. “Ah… actually, I’m just a dungeon diver. Nothing so grand as a lord.”
I was getting more looks from my girls now that I was touching the farmer girl. I certainly didn’t want to reveal I was a lord or anything.
“Anyway, I’m not sure if this will work, so we’ll try.” I decided to just move things along. “Light Repair!”
Magic came out from my fingertips, and the girl looked on wide-eyed and clapped excitedly. It took casting the spell ten times, but the wheel looked like it could handle the rest of the journey.
“I’m glad to see there are still good people in this world.” The farmer said, thanking us profusely. “Here, please, have some of our food as compensation. That spell of yours likely saved me half a gold coin in repairs.”
I waved off their compliments, said my farewells and the four of us continued our journey to the capital. However, what I didn’t see was after the cart traveled about a mile in the opposite direction away from us, a dozen thieves suddenly burst out around it, pulling out their knives and spreading around the old man and the woman.
The woman smirked. “Three slaves and a storage ring. Boys, we’ve got ourselves a rich target this evening. Send Balrack in. He can enjoy the slaves however he sees fit, but remember, leave no survivors.”
“Three slaves and a storage ring..."
I see at least three major mistakes that our naive MC made.
First, since he had been told that broken down wagons are usually bandit traps: Even if he checked to make sure that there were no other people in the vicinity, he should have kept Celeste's existence a secret. Since Celeste can shrink to the size of a fairy and since she can fly, he could have kept her flying overhead the whole time, keeping an eye out and waiting in case something unexpected happens. At least this way any bandits that might appear would underestimate him by believing he had just 2 slaves, allowing Celeste to make a surprise attack.
Second, he should have definitely hid the existence of the magic ring. He could have taken it off and put it inside a hidden pocket, wore it around his neck on a string or chain, or wore a glove over it... any number of things.
Third, he should have left at least some of his gold back at their place in Chalm, just in case. He even knew better, from his experience on Earth, that one should not carry so much money around on one's person.
Celeste might shrink back and the bandits might mistook the MC as the third slave...well who knows?
Even if he hides the ring , they are still targets so whats the point of hiding the ring?
And he needed as much gold with him as they are going to capital not just for sightseeing but shopping for his , his girls and his town necessities. God knows how much much gold he needed to throw in capital.
@hichris23
Celeste might shrink back and the bandits might mistook the MC as the third slave...well who knows?
"Who knows" seems like a weak argument because anything can happen, especially in a fantasy story like this. I was talking in definites and nitpicking using logic (because I find it fun).
The point of hiding Celeste - and she can definitely hide if she wants to - is that it makes it more likely for bandits to underestimate his party and strength. Also, two slaves is a less lucrative/tempting target than three.
Even if he hides the ring , they are still targets so whats the point of hiding the ring?
The bandits even make a point to talk about how the MC is a tempting target because he has an extremely expensive magic storage ring, plus 3 female slaves. It also strongly implies that he's 'loaded' with money as he has expensive tastes. He's like a walking billboard that says "rob me blind".
And he needed as much gold with him as they are going to capital not just for sightseeing but shopping for his , his girls and his town necessities. God knows how much much gold he needed to throw in capital.
Actually, that is a good point. This is also probably why he's taking all his money. Even so, I still say this is a somewhat foolish idea, for several different reasons. It's just prudence and common sense to save some money aside for a rainy day.
Besides, even if he regretted leaving half of his money back in Chalm, he could always use one of his spells or abilities to portal back there, grab the money, then portal back. Lickity split... Easy peasy lemon squeezy... Ain't magic too convenient?
@Xpacetrue yeah, there's no reason to bring along anything other than traveling gear and pocket change because of his portal spell. Realistically, he could even leave the ring back in town and just take a day's worth of food and portal back every night to sleep. Rearrange his dungeon points to use two portals a day while portaling. The portal is a seriously OP tool that is just not being used.
The only caveat might be if he can't anchor an end anywhere other than a developed area, which would be a little strange.
Let no good deed ever go unpunished.
So the cart was a trap lol...
Here we go again... Well it looks like no preparations for caution has been made, but it may turn out to be he knew all along lol.
idk
Time to kick some bandit butt
Why is he concerned about bandits?
What can they do to someone who pretty much almost solo'd a twenty year old dungeon??
Sure every now and then he had people helping him but he went back up and then back down alone several times.
I think mcs wrong white mages are just good as priests just focus are different
idk, I think the Church has removed public knowledge of the path of the White Mage in order to lessen the competition and to keep it to their own kind only
@felinoel true least where mc started seems so, though there seems to be unsuccessful removing white mages from other areas of the world? If other white mage shows anything?
@Demain_csomic_winters but what the MC said is that getting to a tier one class, the priest, was bounds easier than getting to a tier three class, the white mage.
@felinoel true but still doesn't mean holy order doesn't suppress white mages they already done plenty of shady things, either way can't wait to find out if what happens or doesn't happen
@Demain_csomic_winters yeah I still think that, both thoughts can be true