Chapter 10: A Strange Woman
"Be careful and don’t wander into dangerous places after going out," Elena said as she carefully inspected William’s backpack, checking whether he had packed enough food, water, clothes, and other necessary items.
"Don’t you think you should bring a little more food? How about I make some dumplings for you?"
William showed a helpless smile at Elena.
"Mom, I will be back before tomorrow’s nightfall. You have already packed enough food to feed three pigs for three days. If I bring more, I am afraid I will have to stay outside for ten days just to finish it."
Elena paused when she heard William’s words and reluctantly nodded.
"Alright, but if it’s not enough, don’t try to save money. Just buy something for yourself."
"Yes, yes, my dear mother. Before coming back, I will make sure to increase my weight by five pounds."
Karl shook his head at the banter between his son and wife and spoke calmly.
"Since you are planning to camp in the mountains, make sure you choose an area around the flower scenic spot. That area is regularly cleared of monsters, and soldiers patrol it all the time."
"Yes, Father," William nodded at Karl’s advice, and after bidding farewell to a still somewhat nervous Elena, he finally escaped from home.
"It’s really not easy to leave home," William muttered as he walked toward the exit of Rosco Barony.
The Kolva Mountain Range was about fifteen miles away from Rosco Barony.
Normally, William would have needed to take a carriage to reach there.
But now that he had completed the first Chapter of the Supreme Star Scripture, he did not have to waste money on such things.
With his current strength, running fifteen miles wouldn’t be a difficult task for him.
Walking along a narrow soil road, William looked at the different farmlands around him stretching into the distance.
Farmers in humble attire, carrying farming tools, were heading out to do their daily work.
As a farming community, most of the people were familiar with each other and also knew William.
Most of them smiled in greeting when they saw him, while some asked where he was going.
William did not put on any act; he greeted all of them naturally and answered their questions.
About fifteen minutes later, he left the farmland area and reached the main town, which also served as the marketplace of Rosco Barony.
Although it was still morning, the market was already very lively with people.
Vegetable, fruit, and grain shops were in abundance, with many farmers selling their crops to merchants.
There were also meat shops, and some of them even sold meat from monsters that soldiers and rogue adventurers had cleared outside the barony.
Unlike most nobles, Baron Xing, the lord of Rosco Barony was a decent ruler.
The tax rates in the barony were not excessive, and two years ago, when a drought struck, he even lowered the tax rates to relieve pressure on the farmers.
As William reached the end of the marketplace, a tall gate made of black stone came into view, with walls about ten meters high stretching out on both sides, enclosing the entire barony.
He could see people carrying weapons such as spears, swords, sabers, shields, and many others walking out of the gate, leaving the town.
There were also soldiers stationed at the gate, monitoring people going in and out.
At the side of the town gates, several carriages were stationed, with their owners shouting out their travel destinations, trying to attract passengers so they could earn some money.
William took everything in and soon reached the town gate.
The soldiers guarding the gate glanced at William, but they did not say or do anything and let him pass, as there were many people of his age who went out to visit the Kolva Mountain Range during the spring season.
Coming out of the town gate, without the obstruction of the walls, the view before William opened up.
The flat terrain stretched to the horizon, with the tall Kolva Mountain Range standing in the distance.
There were many people heading in the same direction he intended to go, though most of them would enter the deeper areas of the mountain range to hunt monsters and earn money.
William did not linger outside the barony for long and soon walked toward a quieter side where there were not many people.
He walked normally for some time, and once there was no one around him, he slowly began to run.
At first, his speed was not fast, but as he continued, it gradually increased, and soon he was running at nearly 30 km/h.
It wasn’t his fastest speed, but in order to conserve energy and maintain it over a long distance, he did not push himself to his limits.
While running, William went over the plan he had formed in his mind, looking toward the distant mountain range.
’I don’t know the exact location of the Astral Rift. I only know that just a day before the Astral Energy Affinity Test, the people who came to oversee the test found it somewhere in the mountain range.’
Normally, it would have been difficult, almost impossible for someone of William’s level to find a Rank One Astral Rift in such a vast mountain range.
However, William was not a normal person.
’With my excellent-grade aether energy affinity and the Supreme Star Scripture, I should be able to detect unstable energy flows within the mountain range. As long as I find traces of such instability, locating the rift will only be a matter of time.’
About an hour later, William panted slightly as he stopped at the foot of the mountain range.
Because he had stopped at the side of the mountain instead of the usual entrance, there was no one around him.
"From this point onward, I am going to change everything that will happen in the future..." William muttered under his breath before stepping forward, finally taking the first true step toward changing his destiny
****
Somewhere within the Kolva Mountain Range, a woman with red eyes and long black hair walked leisurely. Around her, monsters that had already reached the Star Commander level trembled in fear, prostrating themselves on the ground.
"I feel like something interesting is going to happen soon," The woman muttered in a tone filled with interest as she looked at a tiger nearly five meters tall, trembling at her feet.
"Don’t you think so too, little guy?" She said with a smile, before turning and walking away without doing anything to the trembling monsters.
