Chapter 191

With the forging done I moved onto sharpening before engraving enchantments and adding the final touches to make it an actual weapon. Satisfied with my work I focused for a moment to conjure water to clean myself before I got dressed once more. Opening the door to the forge and stepping outside, it was early morning, the sun just beginning to crest the horizon.

My head had been cleared and I now had a general idea of what I should do going forth. I wasn't willing to completely abandon those who cared for me, but I also wanted to ensure that it was truly of their own free will, and the only way to do that was to spend some time away from them. As such I took some time to scrawl out a letter that I placed with the blade just outside the door of Kaliel, as she would likely be the first to awaken.

I spent some time gathering the supplies I would need for extended travel, placing them in the extradimensional space that was connected to the Eldur House heirloom Marian had given to me. The space inside wasn't extremely large, but it was enough for my purposes, which for the most part was to hide, conceal, and offload my heavier equipment, along with emergency water, rations, and other things needed for basic survival that I wasn't able to easily produce myself.

Standing in the courtyard alone I looked at the sky and realized that for the first time in this life, I was going to be truly alone for this excursion. That said it wasn't as if I was incapable of being by myself, in fact the majority of my past lives had been loners, and so much of their experience transferred to me. I gazed at the sky for a bit longer before a pair of flaming purple wings appeared behind me and lifted me into the sky, a precaution so that  I couldn't easily be tracked, the Communication Jewelry had also been placed in the heirloom, so it wasn't possible to track my location through it unless I took it out. I could only hope that the letter I'd left would be enough for them to understand where I was coming from and why I had suddenly left.

Flying was quite a bit faster than traveling by carriage, even with undead horses, however, I only traveled in such a manner for a few days, just until I exited the Rymiz Kingdoms territory. If I was trying for the quickest route I would have just crossed over the Forest of Darkness, but I had decided to go around the long way traveling eastward before eventually landing and continuing on foot. I had brought a Status Plate that I had filled with false information, keeping only a bit of information that was likely outdated anyway. If a Shadow Elf were to take a close look they would be able to tell it was fake, and probably that I was unable to connect to a Status Plate, but as an extremely rare occurrence I figured that even if I did run into one, they likely wouldn't be checking for false Statuses.

The land outside the borders was wild and untamed, even the roads were in disrepair, and I didn't see any other travelers. This however, didn't strike me as too odd since the Rymiz Kingdom relied almost entirely on domestic products, and rarely had imported or exported goods besides those that came from the sea trade, and even then, most of those didn't make it too far inland to the other cities.

It took three days of travel, alternating between walking and flying before I ran into anybody, and it wasn't even a peaceful encounter. All I heard was the sounds of battle and decided to take a look to see what was going on, perhaps offer my services in exchange for information. The map I'd taken was clearly incorrect as it indicated that I should have hit a town by this point, yet before me was what felt like a wasteland.

The battle was between five Adventures, however one was gravely injured, and the others were not faring much better. The monster they were up against was a Troll, and not even a lesser variant. I only debated for a moment between rescuing them and moving on before I rushed towards the troll with a single naginata in my hands as dual-wielding them would be a bit too  conspicuous for the time being.

I was as quiet as I could be while approaching before leaping from behind it and piercing into its neck, channeling small amounts of Yinfire through the naginata to kill its lifeforce and prevent it from regenerating. The four conscious Adventurers looked at me with gratitude and relief on their faces as the troll fell before them, the cloak I was wearing fluttering a bit as it did so.

A younger blonde man stood forward from the group and bowed his head to be gratefully. "Thank you for the timely intervention, I didn't know if we were going to make it."

I shook my head as I stepped off the troll's corpse. "No need for thanks, I didn't do it out of the goodness of my heart." I said, which caused the man to look at me warily, however I waved my hand at his look. "I don't have any nefarious plans, I'm just looking for information, the map I have seems to be out of date, or I might be lost, so I'd be grateful if you could guide me to the nearest city."

The man looked between his companions who, while still grateful, had suddenly become much more guarded towards me. The man looked at me as if trying to discern my intentions. "I don't mind taking you to a city, but I just need to know two things. Where did you come from and can I see your Status Plate?"

Neither of those things were a large problem for me, so I didn't understand why the man had become suspicious of me, but regardless I pulled my fake Status Plate out and handed it to the man. "I hail from the city of Phoenicia, in the Rymiz Kingdom."

The man had been nodding as he looked at my Status Plate, but he suddenly froze before his eyes snapped to meet mine. "Your from Rymiz? How did you make it through the forest?"

I cocked my head not quite understanding what he meant. There had indeed been sizable forest, but it had struck me as particularly dangerous, though I had mostly just flown over. "I just passed through normally, fending off the occasional monster, why?"

The man appeared bewildered as he handed my Status Plate back to me. "The Rymiz area has been cut off from the land for nearly a decade now, the Forest of Darkness suddenly expanded and made the area impassable for normal folk, even most Adventurers don't dare head too deep since all manner of extremely powerful monsters lurk in there. Passing through normally, is not something that should be possible, even for someone with your Status."

I could only shrug since I didn't know what to tell the man. "Perhaps I just got lucky." I said. There wasn't any way to prove that was where I had come from, but at the very least he should believe me as a member of the races that wasn't a criminal since he'd seen my Status Plate.

The man could only nod in agreement. "I guess so." he said, somewhat defeated. "Ah, the name's Ferrick. I don't mind helping you get to the city, but with Ulrick injured it will be slow going."

"I don't mind. Though if you're okay with it, I could take a look at him. I'm no healer, but I know some basic first aid that might help."

Ferrik's face loosened a little at my offer. "Anything you can do to help would be appreciated."