Chapter 153 - The Road Trip

The group travelled down the overgrown road in the same straight line formation that they left Megalopolis with. The trip was ultimately uneventful, as nothing in such a weak area would bother such a large group.

Unlike the previous expedition where it took them nearly an hour to reach Acacesium, the wagons allowed them to reach it within half the time.

And while the group didn't stop at the abandoned town, all of the rangers took in the sight of yet another town that they were once familiar with, or even had family living in, now devoid of any signs of life.

"Those damn cultists." One of the rangers growled. Merlin turned to face him, and he could immediately tell that the man was on the verge of tears. The rest of the rangers on his wagon, including Callisto herself, all had expressions with a mix of emotions, but the most prevalent ones were sadness and rage.

Merlin turned his gaze to his surroundings. The town seemed to be untouched, appearing exactly as he had left it during his first expedition. Although it seemed there was at least some form of life thriving in the town, as Merlin caught a glimpse of a fox carrying its baby into one of the abandoned houses by the scruff of its neck, only to poke its head out from one of the windows and observe the travelling group a few seconds later.

Although they had started their journey westbound, after leaving the town, they began moving more towards south-west. Had they continued west for quite a while, they would have eventually come across Charisia, the walled city that has been isolating itself from the outside world for a yet unknown reason.

So, while looking for a safe location to give their horses and themselves enough rest to continue on their journey, they decided that their safest bet would be Parrhasia.

At this point in time, what was once an early morning had slowly been shifting towards the afternoon.  Merlin was half listening to several of the rangers talking about their feelings and recounting the memories they had with some of the victims. This helped him pass the time and resolved some of his curiosity, but having so much negativity brought up at once had started making the mood of the group quite depressing.

After almost another hour into their journey, the group could now see a large walled off town in the distance. The sight of civilisation helped the mood recover, and the signs of life that they could barely make out from a distance gave them hope.

Merlin noticed that some of the horses seemed to be getting somewhat tired at this point. Carrying around several large teams over a poorly maintained road while simultaneously keeping a fast pace seemed to be taking its toll on their bodies.

Although he wasn't happy about the choice of forcing the march, he understood the dangers of being stationary in the wilderness for too long. Especially when there were so many horses in one area, which seemed to always be a prime target for ravenous monsters.

Sometime along his travels, a red alert box appeared before him.

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[Message from the devs!]

Group one, there is only one hour left for today's session, you will receive another notification when it's time to log out.

If you do not leave by that time you will be forcibly disconnected, please make sure you're in a safe

location when you log out.

└───────────────────

And during the late afternoon, the group had finally made their way to the outside walls of the town. The walls surrounding the town were thick logs stacked side by side, and the top of each log was sharpened to a point, forming an impressive looking stockade.

There were several tall structures within the walls that were tall enough to provide vision over the wall, and upon each of these watch towers was an armed guard. There seemed to be a set of watch towers for each of the large gates that were scattered around.

It seemed as though all the gates that Merlin could see were closed, and it was likely that they mirrored this behaviour on the other sides of the town too. 

The wagons started approaching one of the walls, and without any words being said to the guards from anyone in the ranger group, one of the guards ordered for the gate to be opened. Merlin watched as the gate was slowly opened, and the wagons were allowed inside.

'They're a bit laid back in regards to safety, aren't they?' Merlin thought to himself, 'It's not like all large roaming groups are good, there's the Despoina cult after all.'

Merlin thought of a few reasons behind it, perhaps they were made aware of the group's arrival ahead of time, or could easily recognise a few faces in the crowd. It wasn't like the wagons had any easily recognisable icons or an insignia printed on them, so there surely had to be some reason that they didn't so much as ask for a name or the group's intent.

As the wagons drove further into the town, Merlin was too busy taking in his surroundings to notice the wagons come to an abrupt halt. He felt his body jerk, causing him to almost bump into Callisto before he caught himself.

He turned to face the front of the wagon, where he saw an army of armoured knights marching down the street. Each bearing the insignia of a wolf's head wearing a crown on their armour.

"Oh, great." Callisto groaned as she stared at the soldiers, "Father's personal army... He's getting in my way as usual."

"It seems he's gotten impatient. I didn't think he'd go so far as to occupy a frontier town as a base of operations while trying to reestablish contact with Charisia." She mumbled, "At this rate he might end up listening to one of those bloodthirsty advisers he keeps by his side." 

The army of knights marched towards one of the north-western gates leading out of the town. Once they had gotten out of the way, the wagons began moving once again.

'I suppose another possible reason they would be less cautious is because they have the king's personal army residing within the town, that might be the answer...' Merlin thought, 'Although wouldn't they ramp up security in such a case? They would be putting the king's army at risk for no reason.'

It was probably something simple that Merlin just found himself overthinking. After noticing that Callisto or the other rangers didn't seem to care, he eventually dropped the thought.

The wagons made their way to a large stable, and all the rangers were ordered to dismount. Once everyone was off, the drivers of each wagon made their way further into the stable, while the rest of the rangers were pointed in the direction of a local pub.

Although he had no intention of eating, nor the requirement to do so, Merlin followed the group into the pub.

An interesting detail that Merlin noticed within the pub was that, those who were drinking seemed to be doing so in moderation. Merlin wasn't sure if it was the case here, but he had visited several villages located in monster dense areas during his time as a lore hunter, and while learning about various cultures he discovered that several villages outlawed severe intoxication outside of major events.

The reason given was always that death was always a single monster raid away for a lot of these villages, and having your warriors at least somewhat capable of standing on their own two feet while fighting was always going to be more advantageous than having them debilitated by their drink.

There would almost always be at least one group of rowdy drunkards in every pub, but that rule never applied to these villages.

While thinking to himself, he noticed Callisto approach one of the tables where a group of four men were sitting around enjoying slices of what looked to be honey glazed ham and a pint of alcohol.

"Glad to see you're enjoying yourselves." She muttered, and as the group of four finally realised who they were talking to, they dropped their food back on their plates and greeted their guild leader.

'So I suppose she found the scout team she sent out here.' Merlin thought to himself as he stared at the four.

Callisto turned to the expedition party who were now crowding around the pub entrance.

"The horses are resting, so we'll be setting off early tomorrow. We'll be meeting at the stables at sunrise, don't drink too much." She announced. "You're all dismissed."

A few minutes later almost everyone in the group had started making their way to the various tables and began ordering food. Merlin received the information he required, so he decided to slip out of the building and explore the town.

By the time he logged out and back in again the next day, it should be time for them to set off, hopefully. It was tricky managing these sorts of quests with such a limited amount of time to play, but this wasn't much of an issue once the servers were permanently on and everyone could play at their own pace.

Merlin walked around the town, giving his viewers a tour, and himself a refresher on the town's layout. He came across what seemed to be a makeshift barracks located on the southern side of town. In reality, it was just a repurposed inn that was flying banners with the same wolf insignia that Merlin saw on the knights previously.

Merlin spent what little time remained wandering around the town, but eventually it came time to end the stream as he received the red alert box telling him it was nearly time to go.

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[Message from the devs!]

Group one, your session will end in five minutes, please find a safe place and log out.

The server will forcibly disconnect those who do not log out in time. Thank you.

└───────────────────

"Sorry for the lack of content this time around everyone." He apologised to his stream before promising them some interesting content next time. "But tune in tomorrow for what sounds to be a massive war against an orc army."

He ended the stream before making his way back towards the pub, as he walked past, he peered inside and saw that most of the rangers were still inside. But it seemed that several others had called it for the night or were enjoying their time somewhere else in the city.

He did notice that the group of four scouts and Callisto were nowhere to be seen.

He made his way over to the stables, the place he was supposed to meet the group tomorrow, before uttering the command to logout and then confirming it.

Then not long after, the world around him faded to black.