Chapter 31 - Leaving Kredon.

The captain of team 1 was also the strongest cultivator on this trip, a 2nd step spirit-refining cultivator. The man himself was called Ryan, and he was a cultivator from the Baxter family. He wasn't blood-related to them, just hired by them. If anything, he could be considered a guest elder of sorts. His mission this time was both to keep the supplies safe, and even more importantly, to keep Christopher and Chloe safe.

Ryan was already in his fifties, and even though his physique was still in great shape, his hair was slowly starting to become white. His facial features were just as ordinary as his simple attire, the only real thing that stood out about him was his eyes. His eyes were slanted and exceptionally ferocious; he could probably scare a child into tears by just looking in their direction. This ferocious look was in stark contrast to Raymond's gentle temperament, creating an interesting dynamic when they stood next to each other.

Other than Raymond and Ryan, team 1 only had 3 other members, but they were all pretty ordinary. Although all three of them were 3-star bronze rank mercenaries, none of them was higher than the 8th revolution of the body-refinement realm. Although there were plenty of experts at the peak of the body-refining realm, they were all evenly spread out across the different teams. Team 1 was already more than strong enough, they had an expert in the spirit-refining realm after all. If that wasn't enough to stop an enemy, then a few body-refining experts probably wouldn't help much.

After all the mercenaries had been divided into their respective teams, all the carriages started slowly moving, leaving the large city of Kredon behind. Whilst he walked, Raymond was busy observing and feeling the wind as it carresed his figure. He wasn't too focused on observing his surroundings, which might seem a little foolish, but he had his reasons.

The biggest reason was just the fact that he was walking next to a spirit-refining realm cultivator. If he couldn't sense someone attacking them, then the chances of Raymond sensing it before him was even lower. Since he had nothing better to do, Raymond just maintained a decent level of vigilance, and used the rest of his attention on comprehending the evasive wind that was always present around him.

Maybe it was because of his sword force being born from a sword art that was related to the wind, but Raymond had mistakenly assumed that he needed to observe and comprehend the essence of the wind to help his sword force transform. What he didn't know was that his steady comprehension of the wind element was starting to culminate into something different, something that would come to reap him many benefits in the future.

In the carriage next to him, Chloe and Cristopher Baxter were leisurely chatting with each other when Chloe suddenly mentioned Raymond.

"I saw that you assigned someone interesting to team 1."

"Right? He seems to be a noble hailing from foreign lands, but I quite liked his temperament. I'll introduce him to you later."

"Yeah yeah, do whatever you want."

...

Night came faster than Raymond had expected, and the entourage settled down to set up camp. Maybe it was because he had been so preoccupied with his own thoughts, but Raymond felt like the dull journey had been surprisingly smooth. The city they were headed to was called Bluemont, and it was only a 3-day long journey to get there. So after just a day of travelling, they had practically come a third of the way already.

"Oi kid, fancy seeing you here!"

Whilst Raymond was absorbed in his own thoughts, a somewhat familiar gruff voice brought him back to reality. In front of him, Raymond saw an older man with a 2-star bronze badge on his chest. Before he could get a word in, the man kept talking.

"To think you would be stronger than me as well, truly the new replacing the old."

"No need to call me kid, the name's Raymond, what about you?" With a chuckle, Raymond introduced himself politely.

"My name? People usually just call me old man or Owen, you can call me whatever." The old man smiled a little, enjoying Raymond's surprisingly refreshing attitude.

"I'll just call you Owen then if that's fine."

Before they could get more familiar with one another, the sound of a bell resounded throughout the camp, signalling that it was time for dinner. When he smelled the fragrance spreading throughout the camp, Raymond could hear his stomach rumble in protest. Because of his absentmindedness, he hadn't eaten anything the entire day, so he was practically starving.

"Hahahaha, let's go get you something to eat before you pass away kid."

"I don't think I'm the only one who needs to eat right now."

"I-"

Before the old man could respond, his stomach suddenly growled. Silence ensued for a few seconds before they both laughed it off and went to get some food. As they ate, plenty of mercenaries approached them from time to time and chatted with them. Old man Owen was someone with a lot of friends and connections, most mercenaries knew who he was. Raymond was a little impressed with his extensive network.

"Dawson! Come over here for a sec!"

Just as Raymond finished eating, he heard Ryan calling him from across the camp. Although he was surprised, he quickly went over, Ryan was one of the only people he could consider his superior after all. Walking in the direction of Ryan's voice, Raymond could see him sitting next to a small campfire, with a youth on each side of him.

Raymond already knew that one of them was Christopher Baxter since he had seen him earlier, but the other youth was a woman, which made her identity easy to guess. The only young woman who would be protected by Ryan was Chloe Baxter! Raymond assumed that they had called him over because they wanted him to do something, so he stopped a few meters away, and awaited orders quietly.

"No need to be so stiff kid, young master Christopher wanted to see you." Ryan's voice boomed.

Although Raymond could almost feel his ears ringing because of Ryan's loud voice, he turned to "look" at Christopher.

"You can sit down Raymond, we just called you over because we were bored."

"Because you were bored?" Raymond didn't quite get what they wanted with him.

"We just want someone to talk to, no need to worry too much about it."

Although he was still a little confused, Raymond sat down on the other side of the campfire. Soon, they all got to know each other a little better, and they started talking about all kinds of things. Dreams for the future, why they cultivated, if they had someone they liked, even their childhood. There was a lot to talk about, and Raymond was surprised that they treated him like a friend, and just told him a lot of things about themselves.. Raymond naturally shared what he could to, whilst altering his story a little, since he wasn't actually from this world after all.