One month passed by fast and Aric was getting ready to leave Aegis to continue his adventure to get stronger.
"It seems I got everything. Now I only have to say my goodbyes to Kail and the others," thought Aric.
As he was opening the door to leave, Kail entered.
"Hey, Aric. What are you doing?" he said cheerfully but then noticed Aric had packed his things like he was leaving.
"Oh, hello Kail," Aric responded.
"Why have you packed your things? Are you going somewhere?" asked Kail.
"It's been a month since I arrived in Aegis. I have to continue my adventure and travel to other places if I want to get stronger," responded Aric.
"What? So you're leaving, huh..?" sighed Kail with sadness.
"He's sad. But I'm sure we'll meet again. Kail has talent and he will get stronger fast. When he goes on his own adventure, we'll probably run into each other," thought Aric.
Then suddenly Kail smiled. "Wait! I have an idea! What if I were to join your journey?"
"What?" asked Aric.
"Yes! I'll join you!" Kail was excited. "I'll go get ready and tell my dad so wait here, Aric."
Kail ran off before Aric could say anything.
"Don't I get a say in this?" murmured Aric.
Aric got his bag and followed after Kail. When he arrived in Kail's dad's weapon shop, he saw Kail talking with his dad.
"Did you get everything you'll need for the journey, son?" asked Kail's dad.
"Yes Dad, I got everything, no need to worry. Bye," said Kail as he was leaving through the door.
Aric was waiting there.
"Your dad allowed you to come that easily?" asked Aric.
"Yes. I mean I have you with me Aric. You're a hero and I don't have anything to worry about."
"Okay then..., did you take everything you might need?" asked Aric. "If yes, let's go say goodbye to Ryn and the others."
They went to the guild and found their friends there.
"Hey guys. Guess where I'm going!" said Kail right after entering the guild door. Aric followed right after.
"Oh hey Kail," responded Rune.
Ryn and Elias were there too.
"Aric is leaving to continue his journey today and guess who's joining him!" said Kail, excited.
"Wait, Aric is leaving?"
"Now? Today?"
"What do you mean? Are you going to join his journey, Kail?"
Everyone asked.
"Yes, Kail decided to join me and his dad allowed him," said Aric. "So I guess he's coming."
"But don't you have to be at least C rank to go on a journey?" asked Elias.
Kail pulled out his rank card the moment he heard that.
"Look at this. I reached C rank yesterday on the quest I took with Aric," Kail said proudly.
"That was fast," said Elias. "It took me way longer to reach C rank."
"I was planning on saying goodbye and leaving Aegis before 2 p.m., but this is taking a while," thought Aric.
They ended up talking for a little while longer. After that, they said their goodbyes.
"Bye guys," said Kail and Aric while waving their hands.
They reached the city gate and were looking for a carriage that could take them.
"Where are we going now, Aric?" asked Kail.
"We're going to Verdian, the town where the Sylvanthe family lives and rules over."
The Sylvanthe family is a family made of high-ranking nobles. Their family is known to have raised high-ranking mages for generations, even the emperor has taken a liking to them.
While Aric and Kail continued talking, someone approached them.
"Hello, hero," said an elderly-looking man. "We meet again."
Aric recognized him. He was one of the merchants he saved back when he took his first solo quest in Aegis, where he defeated the high-ranking demon.
"Ah, hello there," responded Aric.
"I overheard you talking to your friend that you were going to Verdian. We are going there too," said the merchant. "Would you like to come with us? We didn't properly thank you after you saved us from that demon, so consider this as thanks."
"Sure, we'll come," said Aric.
"Let me introduce myself first. We're a small group of traveling merchants. My name is Silas Croft."
"I'm Aric the Hero, as you already know, and this is my friend Kail. He'll be joining my journey."
With that, they got on one of the carriages and went on their way to Verdian.
"How long will it take us to arrive there?" asked Kail.
"We should be there by tomorrow morning," responded Aric.
"Why did you choose Verdian as the next place for your journey? There are better places to visit if you want to get stronger."
"I'm currently going to the closest cities and towns to the capital."
"Oh really?"
And like that, they continued talking on their way to Verdian, when suddenly the carriage stopped just before nightfall.
"Huh?" sighed Kail. "Why did we stop? Did a monster or something appear?"
When Aric and Kail got out of the carriage, they saw a group of men that looked like they were in their 30s. They had weapons with them and were pointing them at the merchants.
"What is going on here?" Kail was confused. "Who are these people?"
"They're probably bandits. Bandits appear quite often on the road to Verdian, since a lot of merchants go there to trade with the Sylvanthe family and with the citizens there. Merchants carry a lot of good and expensive stuff."
Then one of the bandits approached them.
"Hey you two. Remove your weapons if you have any and stay there," said one of them while pointing his sword at Aric and Kail.
"What to do? I can take care of them fast but can I protect all of these people at the same time?" thought Aric.
Suddenly Kail said to Aric, "Leave them to me, Aric. I want to see how strong I am now that I'm a C rank."
Aric nodded. "Okay, you can go but if you have any trouble, I'll step in."
One of the bandits was still in front of them. "Hey I told you to remove your weapons!" he said angrily as he approached them.
Kail quickly got his sword, fused it with light magic, and attacked him quickly.
"What the—" Before he could say anything, Kail had already made his sword fly off his hands.
The other bandits turned around the moment they heard the sound and sensed mana being used.
"What's going on there?!" said their leader.
Aric made some small fireballs and threw them toward the bandits. It didn't do much damage, but their clothes caught fire and they panicked.
"Just one small spell is enough to make them panic. Pathetic," murmured Aric.
Suddenly Aric heard someone say "Water wave."
Water appeared and the fire vanished.
"Well, at least one of them seems strong. Kail, you wanna try and beat him? I'll assist you a bit," suggested Aric.
"Sure, I'll do it and I'll make sure that I won't need your assistance."
While Kail was fighting him, Aric took care of the other bandits. He helped Kail a bit but in the end, Kail defeated the bandit.
"Huh," sighed Kail. "That was exhausting. He was quite strong."
"Yes, and you did well fighting him on your own," Aric praised Kail.
"Of course I did! I plan on being a hero one day!"
"A hero, heh." Aric chuckled. "This is my first time hearing you say that."
"Yes, and I'm gonna be even stronger than you!" said Kail.
"Sure, sure," replied Aric.
As they were talking, the merchants approached them.
"You've saved us again, hero. We're in your debt. Thank you too, Kail, for saving us."
"It's really no problem. Let's just get going on our way to Verdian for now," both of them said at the same time.
The morning came fast and they arrived at Verdian. It was a much bigger place than Aegis and a lot of guards were protecting it. People were walking happily and kids were playing.
"Wow! This place looks amazing!" Kail was amazed.
"Is this your first time going anywhere else besides Aegis?" asked Aric.
"Yes! I've gone to some villages with my dad to sell weapons but this is my first time in a town."
"Well, this is a town protected by a high-ranking family of nobles so it makes sense it'll look amazing. Anyway, let's go find an inn to stay in, we can explore the town later."
They found a nice inn. It was quite big and luckily there was a room left. Aric and Kail shared a room with two separate beds.
"Ah, finally! That trip was tiring. I need to rest but I want to explore the town first," said Kail while laying on the bed.
"Let's unpack our things and rest first then we can explore the town. We have the whole day, it's still morning. Also wo got lucky finding a inn with a room left, most of the other inns where full."
"Fine~"
And like that, they finally arrived at Verdian.