Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Me Judy and Alana were on the way to the market. As soon as we turned the corner we could see the caravan packing up and getting ready to move on to the return trip to Lessis.

The three of us must have looked comical, me being quite a bit taller and more muscled than both of them but they both carried bigger bags on their back than me, something not all that surprising since they must have had strength stats easily 2 or 3 times my own.

“Ajax is good to see you again, I have mostly packed up but seeing how much you brought I’m sure I can get some things unpacked for you” the merchant who usually buys my herb greeted me with a sleazy smile, his eyes fixed to my luggage.

“I’m not here to sell this time, going to pay a visit to my brother in Lessis so I’ll try to sell these in the city, no need to pay a transportation fee if I’m going there anyway.” I answered back not looking to give away the fact that I was on this trip because my parents wanted me to be away from the village for a while.

He must not have liked that answer because his smile soured and he got back to work without another word.

“Wow, that ruined his mood quick, he must have been making bank on those plants of yours, when we get to the city I’ll show you where you can sell them without getting ripped off” my sister reassured me while Alana was talking to the owner of the cart we were boarding for the next 2 weeks.

It didn’t take long for us to get going and since most of the merchants knew me as the impossible kid who always wanted to argue and not buy anything, from my time raising my skills on them, word that I was along for a visit to Lessis spread quickly and I was promptly ignored by all.

“So what are going to do for the next 2 weeks?” I ask my sister 30 minutes into the trip already bored from just sitting in a slow moving wagon.

“We have to stops on the way where we will probably spend a day but other than that this is what the trip will be like all the way there, if you want to stretch your legs you can walk beside the caravan or try to find something in the forest off the trail, just don’t wander because nobody is going to wait around or look for you.” Her response told me that she saw through my boredom but her warning made it clear that I shouldn’t be too far away.

I took off my bags and hopped off heading towards the woods a bit out of sight to begin my training, or more specifically to try to recreate what that kobold had been doing with mana. I tried to focus the mana release into feet to start off with after all that must have been easier than doing so with a weapon.

“Well next time, how about you pop back every 2 hours or so, I was this close to going to look for you” She said, picking a twig from my hair.

“Ok ok, I’ll do that tomorrow” I said lying down to sleep, in the same position that I saw the night crew were doing knowing I will sleep for quite a bit longer tonight restoring my mana pool and meditating after I wake to fill up the rest of the way before starting my new training sessions tomorrow.

When I woke up in the morning it was still fully dark but I could feel something pressing down on my left side, a small glint of moonlight revealed that to be Alana snuggled up to me. I wasn’t going to complain about a hot girl cozying up to me but then reined in my hormones and started meditating looking to be training my augmentation in a few hours.

Alana moving is what finally broke me out of my meditation, there now being a bit more light I looked around and saw most people were waking up even the day driving crew.

“I don’t get how they do it, sleep all day, drive all night and then when we get to a village they are all ready to trade” I comment looking and the sleepy merchants swapping places with their tiered looking night counterparts.

“Well they swap every stop, if you were driving at night on a way to a stop you’re driving during the day leaving the stop, that's how most partners do it.” Alana explained it to me.

“Yeah unless you’re the newbie they are teaching, in which case you get all the night shifts” my sister groaned awake from opposite me. “ I got lucky, me and Alana joined together and we got to split the nights for the first 3 years. I don’t know how people can drive all night and expect to be able to learn something the next day.

While she complained a lot and didn’t seem to take things seriously both Judy and Alana showed promise, with the merchant organization they had joined cutting their training days short from 5 years to 3 and signing them up as low level merchant duo. No doubt that rare skill of hers was paying dividends, and I suspected Alana had one of her own to keep up with her.

“Well I’m going to see if I can’t catch something fresh for breakfast” I hopped out of the cart and made for the woods, my thoughts with all sorts of different ideas to change how I manipulated my mana. Ideally I would learn how to get any desired effect, but I wasn’t kidding myself that my progress was going to be slow.