Chapter 62: You Need To Survive
Archmage Arlen proceeded at the gate of the village, where their wooden carriage was waiting for them.
There were two horses at the rein connected to the wooden carriage. Branna was standing beside it, facing their direction with a normal expression.
When Max stared at her, he felt guilty. Branna’s usual amiable aura vanished.
He hid himself behind Archmage Arlen, as the latter initiated a conversation with her first.
"I’m sorry for being late, Branna. I was resting in my residence."
Branna glanced at him and nodded indifferently. "It’s fine. I just arrived."
Without waiting for his response, she turned around and proceeded to the driver’s seat. She grabbed the rein connected to the two horses and waited until Archmage Arlen and Max entered inside.
Archmage Arlen sat closer to Branna, while Max sat at the opposite direction.
Archmage Arlen raised his hand and summoned countless runes. The runes flew and attached themselves into the wall.
Max observed and quietly assessed the type of runes Archmage Arlen summoned.
But he failed. It was too difficult to understand them when he hadn’t learned the rune language yet.
Archmage Arlen noticed his behavior and said, "Aside from enchanting the carriage with defensive runes, I also added the stability runes."
Max was astonished. "That’s actually a good rune."
Branna controlled the rein and the two horses finally moved, leaving the Greyfen Village and proceeded to the Dunmarrow Capital.
...
The Greyfen Village was a frontier settlement within Mirefall Province. Hence, the journey felt like a leisure travel, but at the same time, quite a perilous one.
Rather than a single road, they had to pass through several distinct landscapes and settlements that formed the backbone of Mirefall’s infrastructure.
The Mirefall Province has different provincial characteristics—extensive wetlands, ancient flooded ruins, fog-prone terrain, reclamation settlements, and numerous waterways.
The province served as a buffer between the Empire’s interior and several abandoned territories reclaimed over centuries.
Travelers would still expect to be attacked by monsters, beasts, or even demons.
Branna led the wooden carriage outside of the Greyfen Village.
They were still at the Greyfen Marshlands, which surrounded the Greyfen Village.
It was a broad wetland region consisting of shallow marshes, reed fields, mud flats, elevated wooden walkways, and small islands of firm grounds.
The Imperial engineers built a raised stone roads in the Mirefall Province, which was often destroyed by random battle.
They repaired it almost every week, allowing others to travel different settlements without worry. It was also exactly why Archmage Arlen specifically chose the date of their travel, as the Imperial Engineer had just finished fixing the roads.
At the moment, Archmage Arlen and Max were chatting.
Archmage Arlen said, "We’ll reach the Dunmarrow capital in 3 days without rest. But, we have to, so expect for a week. We’ll be staying at some settlements along the way."
Max nodded.
"The Greyfend Marshlands is not really vast. It’s rich with alchemy materials, even for fishing and monster observation. We’d inevitably encountered feral beasts, but my runes will drive them away."
After Archmage Arlen finished sharing information about the Greyfen Marshlands, he instantly fell asleep for six hours straight before his runes alarmed him that they left the Greyfen Marshlands and arrived in the Blackreed Fen.
When he woke up, Max was still logged out. However, he controlled the NovaPro Immersion Pod to inform him once Archmage Arlen woke up or when they encountered something that required an immediate attention from him.
He simply logged out because there was nothing else to do.
Once he was alarmed by the NovaPro Immersion Pod, he immediately logged into the game.
Archmage Arlen acted as though nothing happened and said, "We’ve entered into the Blackreed Fen, the largest continuous marsh system in the province."
Archmage Arlen suddenly stopped speaking and turned towards the window.
Max thought Archmage Arlen invited him to admire the scenery.
He spotted some dense black reeds taller than human, slow-moving waterways, and constant ground fog along the way.
There were also numerous hidden channels that caught his attention.
Max didn’t notice why Archmage Arlen was so quiet. His expression was difficult to read, after all.
As Max admired the scenery, Archmage Arlen suddenly mumbled, "This can’t be right..."
Max frowned. He stared at Archmage Arlen and was surprised just how terrified he appeared.
"What’s wrong?"
Just as said so, his heart skipped a beat. His body trembled out of fear.
T-This... Max was terrified. It was the first time he felt true fear in his new life.
He turned towards where Archmage Arlen was staring at, just in time the wooden carriage stopped.
Branna must have sensed it as well, despite not having the same mana sensitivity as mages.
They stared at the dense black reeds five meters away from them. It was taller than humans and was difficult to pierce their gaze through it.
Max and others were staring at it, like a prey, noticing the presence of a predator.
They waited with racing heartbeat, hoping that the predator wasn’t eyeing on them and was simply passing by.
Unfortunately, Max knew that it had its eyes set on them.
A silhouette of a giant, towering the dense black reeds manifested. It faced at them, getting closer.
They were frozen—the presence of the giant terrified them.
Branna suddenly left the driver seat and jumped on the ground. She faced the giant with a serious expression.
Archmage Arlen sighed and turned towards Max. He pulled out his storage ring and threw it at him.
Max instantly caught it. He quickly wore it and used his mana to establish connection with the storage ring.
When he saw what was inside, he was astonished.
He glanced at Archmage Arlen, as the latter shrugged. "You need to survive."
"How about you?"
Archmage Arlen shook his head. "I don’t know. But one thing is for sure."
He turned towards the giant and gritted his teeth.
"Surviving against an attack from a Greater Demon is impossible..."
Volume 1: Greyfen Village ends.
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A/N: Volume 1 finally ends. And he’s still not a summoner and I apologized. Don’t worry, he’ll definitely become a summoner in the second volume. Thank you for sticking to the story, as well. I appreciate it.
Don’t forget to show your supports by giving golden tickets, powerstones, gifts, and reviews! It means a lot since this is participating for WSA.
