"Bang!" The heavy door of the tavern named Dragon Tooth hit the wall as it was suddenly opened by someone with brute force. The grumbling drunkards, bragging adventures and shouting mercenaries who were enjoying the well-known roasted beef of the tavern suddenly quieted down.
A black-haired young man walked in, dressing in light blue, with a fancy sword at his side. The midday sunlight came in behind him and outlined the young man’s silhouette.
"Wow… wow! A young lord! Is your fancy sword able to kill a wild dog?" A drunkard shouted and whistled.
"Another young man got deceived by those bestselling knight novels," an adventurer whispered in the ear of his buddy, "…seeking those exciting stories with a ritual sword."
However, he dared not speak too loud. What if this young man was someone important? After all, he dressed very decently.
Lucien did not care. With a stable pace, he walked directly to the tavern counter.
After two-months of traveling, Lucien arrived at this small border town named Dragon Tooth in the duchy of Djibouti, located in the middle south of the continent.
"Look at his arm! No big muscles!" A robust adventurer lifted and bent his right arm. Under the skin there were lean and big chunks of muscles, "Look at his build! I bet he’s not even a of a knight squire level! Young and stupid lad!"
"You think everyone can awaken the Blessing? You have to be kidding me…" A stout man, probably with the blood of dwarf, said in an arrogant way, "I’ve been traveling across the continent for more than ten years, and I’m still only about… high-level knight squire level. But, but… if this young guy can have a chance to receive my instruction, maybe he can still awaken his Blessing. After all, it was because of my training that lord Newville in Eero finally awakened his Blessing…"
Some guys sitting around him gave him an admiring look, although Chris had boasted about that many times in the past, which made him even happier.
Lucien just ignored them, came to the counter and sat down on a stool.
The owner of the tavern did not look young. Seeing this decently dressed young man in this small tavern, the owner did not behave any different.
"My friend, what do you want today? Wine or meat? Or both?" friendly asked the owner.
"Water, roast beef, and a salad." Lucien slightly nodded to greet him back. "And I want to ask some questions."
The middle south of the continent was surrounded by mountains and canyons. The isolated land produced no resource except wood, and it was the poorest and the least developed area across the continent. Often, there wouldn’t be even a single person who was literate in a village.
For the people who were striving to awaken their Blessings there, the effort they had to make was way higher than people in Aalto. It had been a lot of years since the last war broke out here, and therefore, even if one manage to awaken his or her Blessing, the person still couldn’t obtain a title and would not be given land and field, unless they could save enough money to buy the land on their own.
"Hahaha! Water… You heard that? Water!" A drunkard nearby laughed aloud, "Innocent, naive young boy!"
And all the people in the tavern started to laugh.
Lucien remained very calm as if nothing was going on there. He was just looking at the owner.
"No problem, my friend. Information is not free, though." The owner poured a cup of water for Lucien, and asked the kitchen to prepare the food.
"I know. It’s fine." Lucien took a sip of the water.
Before he entered here, Lucien had found out that the town’s Adventurers’ Association was just in this very tavern, and the owner was also the person in charge of it.
"Then, go ahead." The owner nodded.
"I want to know where is Mr. Taylor Hunt living right now. He was an official in Bonn from the Duchy of Orvarit, and nine years ago, he was invited by Baron Eric to come to Djibouti to be the civil servant here."
Taylor Hunt was the father of the little revenant girl that Lucien encountered in the World of Souls. Lucien rerouted his trip in order to fulfill his words, and also, since he was not in a rush, he also appreciated the unique and exotic cities he visited on his new route.
"We don’t charge for something like this. It’s not called intelligence…" The owner waved his hand a bit, "I’ll just tell you for free. The civil servant on Baron Eric’s land is not Mr. Hunt. I’m guessing the person you’re looking for might have accepted another offer. If you want, you can go to the nearby city, Korsor, to see if there is any record in the town hall, since Korsor belongs to Baron Eric’s lord, Viscount Stanley. And if you can’t find it there, you might need to go to Baron Eric’s land and ask for local information."
"Thanks. Any news across the continent recently?" It took Lucien ten days sitting in a coach and going through mountains and hills to arrive here, and he felt he was as isolated as this place right now, maybe even more.
"One news for one Nar. Is it okay?" The owner smiled.
"Ten, please." Lucien directly took out a Thale and placed it on the counter.
The adventurers and mercenaries were very surprised, and their eyes were staring at the shining coin. After all, they had to spend two to three months to make one single Thale, and this young noble man was just using it for buying some random news!
A few of them were even considering if they should just rob this young man.
The beef was ready. Lucien picked up the fork and took a bite. The meat was juicy and tender, which was surprisingly as good as the dishes produced in those fancy restaurants in Aalto.
The tavern owner pulled out a piece of crumpled paper and read it slowly to Lucien, "Two months ago, Aalto…" The owner paused a bit and looked at Lucien, "a small town in Aalto, Bonn, was attacked by a necromancer. The famous musician, known as the Most Beautiful Musician, Silvia, as well as her father, died in the battle in which the princess of the duchy, Natasha, finally beat the evil necromancer with all her effort. Unfortunately, the princess was severely injured from the fight and now she is recuperating in an abbey. It is said that Natasha also made a breakthrough in this fight and has become a radiant knight."
Lucien did not show any difference after hearing the news, although his heart was cheering for Natasha’s achievement. No wonder the side effect of the vampire’s blood did not affect her immediately in the forest.
If moving from a squire level to a level one knight was challenging, upgrading from a grand knight to a radiant knight was even more difficult. The great power of a grand knight came from the person’s physical strength, in other words, a grand knight would need to boost or overly stimulate his or her body to get the power, and that was why some of the grand knights lived even shorter than the knights of lower ranks. Even with the help of some precious herbs and potions, most of them could only make it to around a hundred years old, while becoming a radiant knight meant that the person already broke the limit of human body, and he or she could at least live for more than two hundred years.
The rest of the intelligence was of nothing really special. Generally speaking, the north and the heresy again had some new conflicts; several major lords in Gusta down in the south were raising mercenaries for the possible coming civil war; and some adventurers found some ruins in the southern margin of the Dark Mountain Range, where they obtained a great amount of fortune…
After hearing the news and finishing his meal, Lucien wiped his mouth with a white handkerchief and said to the owner, "Sir, can you find me some guards and a coach? I need to go to Korsor."
Although Lucien was already strong enough to travel along the east side of the continent, he did not want to bother dealing with those minions, goblins, and other beasts, which were not even of knight squire level. Lucien would rather spend his time in his coach studying the first circle magic spells.
Within his two-month traveling, Lucien constructed another five first circle spells in his soul, and right now his soul had reached the current limit for that level. For the rest of the first circle spells, if Lucien wished to use them, he needed to rely on some magic reagents and materials, or their special runes.
The five first circle spells were: Magic Missile, Sleep, Grease, Feather Fall and Color Spray.
Because most of the adventurers and mercenaries were not willing to leave their own base of operations for too long, they would only escort their client within a certain range, what also applied to the coachmen. Thus, Lucien had to hire new people every now and again.
"Smart choice. We have lots of dark tales about vampires and black sorcerers." The owner put several glass cups back onto the counter, "I can take care of your coach and coachman, my friend. It will take you 11 days to get to Korsor. As for your guards, I recommend those three adventurers sitting on the other side. Two of them are warriors of the same level as high level knight squires, and the archer is also around knight squire level. All of them have a pretty good reputation. You can talk to them."
Following the direction of the tavern owner, Lucien looked toward the other side. There were two women and one man sitting over there. The short-haired man’s arms were masculine. And the two females looked a bit alike, although one was mature and glamorous, and the other was young and pretty. From their appearance, especially their pointy long ears, Lucien guessed that they might be sisters from the half-elf race.
All of the three adventurers were listening carefully to the bard playing in the corner, and from time to time, they were beating out the tune.