16 Carcer

Everything was silent. The night was slowly going away as the sun started to rise on the horizon. Amidst the bodies of the raiders, a panting sound was being heard.

Raff was holding his bleeding left arm with his mouth agape. Two youths they've been told to send to Carcer were something he did not expect at all. He remembered what the guard captain had said to him before they got out of the garrison.

"Those kids are mages but don't worry, they got the bracelets. They are nothing more than young teenagers now."

'No… they are more than young teenagers, they are more than everything.' Raff thought.

Even with the bracelets that were supposed to block mana flow on, he observed two men singlehandedly take down more than 20 equipped raiders.

One of the kids started to approach him.

….

Connor was happy, he had gained lots of reputation points even before arriving at Carcer. He looked back at the corpses and started to think about the battle that took place.

'I should carry a backpack and knives with me. I need to have enough ammo and medical equipment in case of a prolonged battle.' he said to himself as he nodded. His inventory being disabled in combat was a huge disadvantage for him.

'First things first, how the fuck am I supposed to go to Carcer now?' he thought before remembering the injured guard, he started to approach him while taking a syringe out of his inventory.

Raff's eyes were filled with obvious fear.

"Take your hand off your injury, let me see." Connor said.

Raff started to tremble as he took his hand off from his injury, however, he couldn't take his eyes off the kid.

Connor inspected his injury and nodded, it was a basic slash wound, nothing critical at all. He pushed the syringe near the wound which resulted in Raff leaking out a short growl. After the syringe was used, the blood stopped flowing and the wound closed up completely. For a wound this size, the syringe may have even been overkill. As that problem was now handled, Connor opened his mouth to ask the guard the one important question.

"So… how do we get to Carcer?" he asked.

Raff was surprised, all the other guards had already died and he was… injured, although he was still wondering how did that item solve his injury and healed it in a mere few seconds.

"We-we can't go to Carcer anymore… Everyone is dead, you will be courting death by going there like this." he pointed at his chest, he wore nothing more than simple cloth. It provided absolutely no protection against anything.

"It's okay, you have to choices, lead us or tell me how to get to Carcer." Connor said as he started browsing the equipment store and got his usual military equipment. Vest, shoulder pads, pants, rifle, sling and other necessities. He turned his head to see Miles in the same state with him, he quickly got another set of military equipment for Miles before closing his equipment store.

Raff had already decided after hearing his choices, there was no way he would go to that damned place. He got up from where he was sitting. He looked at the carriage and the horses, and the road they have been following. He then started to talk.

"If you follow this road to the south for about 2 hours, you will see a forest of dead trees in the desert. There should be a huge wooden sign that points towards Carcer, just follow that afterwards, you should arrive in Carcer." Raff spoke as he waved his arms to guide Connor through the roads.

<You have unlocked a new feature: Map>

Suddenly, Connor saw a notification popping up in front of his eyes.

'Well, that's convenient, if not a bit too convenient.' he thought he didn't have Map since he first began his journey in Allunia. But suddenly when he needed it, he unlocked it? It felt weird but… it was useful anyway.

'Maybe because he described the way?' he said to himself while he opened the map. A huge screen was in front of him with a small blue dot in the middle, he guessed that it was probably his current location. He looked around the map and found the buttons to zoom in and zoom out, he clicked zoom out several times to zoom out. After a few seconds, he saw the map on a grand scale but… Everything other than the places he knew was blue, just blue. No information, no roads, nothing. He could clearly see Westland and Ludhom Village, even the roads between them. He could see the road they have been taking since they left Westland but everything else was just blue with no details.

'So… I need to explore in the end.'

He thought that because the guard had described him the way to Carcer, there was a small yellow dot somewhere on the blue part of the map. This was probably Carcer. After ensuring which way he is supposed to go, he closed the map.

"What are you going to do now?" Connor asked Raff.

"I-I will take one of the horses and report back to garrison. What do you want me to tell them about you, sir?" Raff had addressed Connor as "sir" even though he was way older than he is.

"Uh…" Connor had never thought about this part. Almost all of the guards assigned to escort him are dead with only one surviving, if he went back to Westland and lie about the report, blames Connor and Miles for killing the guards, what would happen? Not to mention that even if the guards told the truth about him going to Carcer alone… This was a bet that he needed to take.

"Just go and tell them that I went to Carcer on my own, don't lie about anything that happened here." Connor said with a stern voice.

Raff slightly trembled, even though Connor's tone wasn't harsh, it was enough for him to be scared.

"Y-yes, sir. I will do what you say." he answered.

"You can go now, I guess. Your arm should be fine, it was just a scratch anyway. Take anything you want here, I don't care." Connor said before turning towards the tent Miles was wandering in front.

After hearing Connor, Raff felt like he was spared from hell and without batting an eye, quickly he ran to the horses and mounted one of them that was near the carriage, turning back towards Westland, galloping.

Connor walked towards Miles and opened his inventory. He equipped his items, including the rifle and backpack. He took out the other items and handed them to Miles.

"Commander, what is our destination now? Are we changing our plans?" Miles asked.

"Nope, we'll take a quad bike to Carcer and continue with the plan. This was just a small delay," he answered before adding "although it had some positive outcomes." Connor smiled.

Connor opened his equipment store to see if there was any difference, he felt down after discovering it was still the same. He got a few extra miscellaneous items that might be useful for them and did not forget to get another M9 and put it in his holster.

Miles nodded and equipped his gear as well.

Connor opened the Vehicle Hangar and summoned a quad bike. A four-wheel motorbike appeared in front of them. After he summoned it he realized that the sub-menu had reappeared. It was the same, it had the quad bike in it with the option to unsummon, he could also see the durability of the vehicle. He still did not know what happened after unsummoning, so he decided to give it a try. He clicked the unsummon button.

In an instant, the quad bike in front of them disappeared, actually, it didn't disappear, more like it slowly disintegrated, and again, the menu had disappeared.

'So this is how it works. Well, it is useful after all.' Connor thought, he was also wondering about the rifles they had confiscated back in Westland. He couldn't unsummon them. Connor summoned another quadbike and boarded it, looking at Miles and shaking his head as if saying 'get on'. The latter understood and quickly hopped over to the quad bike.

Connor opened the map to check the way to Carcer one last time. He gripped the quadbike's throttle. The duo continued their way towards Carcer.

….

Since the battle ended, Elicia was wondering if Connor would escape by killing the one last remaining guard, to her surprise, Connor did not kill the guard and used some sort of a magic item to heal him. But several moments later, something surprised her even more. Two teenagers who were wearing nothing but simple clothes suddenly taking out gear out of nowhere and equipping them not only that, they had summoned a weird looking contraption that had four wheels, similar to a carriage before it disappeared and appeared again. She had seen her share of legendary spells thanks to her master, Archmage Aldren who was a renowned mage in Astragon due to the spells he had created.

She saw that the guard quickly got on a horse and followed the road that led to Westland while Connor and Miles went to the one that led to Carcer.

'So you are not running but going to Carcer after all?' she thought, she remembered that they asked to be sent to Carcer themselves. After seeing that they are actually not escaping but heading towards Carcer, she started to suspect that they had accomplices there, Elicia sighed and continued observing and following.

….

A few hours later, it was almost noon when Connor and Miles saw a rundown city with cracked walls, crushed buildings and people with tattered clothes and dirt on them going in and out the gates. They had arrived at Carcer.

"Alea iacta est." Connor mumbled to himself. It was an old saying in Latin. He had read it in one of the history books and liked the meaning of the sentence since then. His plan… Sentinel's plan, had begun.