Chapter 144 Wuirsec, Wasteland

The sun shone in the middle of the sky brightly.

In the middle of barren terrain, a lone wooden carriage moved at a slow pace above the tracks.

"Take this" Zick lightly threw a brown book at Varine.

Catching the book from both her hands, Varine looked at it closely. There were unknown letters on it which she saw for the first time in her life.

The book's title was the basic letters and definitions. Zick had already finished reading it by now, he learned everything perfectly.

After he became a middle-rank mage, Zick's mind was strengthened enabling him to learn and think faster than before.

"Finish learning that book within two days." Zick ignored Varine's eyes which were filled with absurdity.

Though there was no change in Varine's expression, Zick had learned how to see through it by now.

Zick turned toward Seveleen and spoke in a graceful tone: "I hope miss Seveleen can help her in learning, I would be thankful."

["I will have done it without you having to say it, mister Zick. You can leave her to me without a worry."]

Zick nodded his head and concentrated on controlling the horses.

They were currently traveling through the Wuirsec, a wasteland where no plants grow throughout the years. Many mutated monsters were found there and they were all several times fiercer than normal monsters.

These monsters were beings who survived the extreme heat for a long time and had superior instincts. There were only a few people who used this route as the danger was just too great.

But Zick wasn't worried at all, after all, there was a high-rank mage and he was a peak-rank knight too. They could take care of any monster that appeared.

It would take three days to reach Chertel city using this route. If the normal route was to be used, it would have taken more than a week to reach their destination.

'I don't have much time on my hands, I can't waste my time by taking longer routes. After reaching Chertel city and recruiting the two talented people, I should be able to reach Heifer's family territory in a day.'

A while ago Seveleen couldn't help but question Zick, confused about his destination and goal.

Zick skilfully gave his reasons, first, he presented the information he got from the organization about when and Where the Revelner disease started spreading the most.

Zick stated facts one after another and spoke decisively saying that count heifer's mansion was her last hope. It was not easy to deceive Seveleen so he had come prepared for any kind of question she asked.

Where did he get the information?

From the information guild of course.

How did he get the funds to buy such information? Zick showed off his high-quality mana crystals.

How can he be so sure that there would be a cure in count heifer's territory?

"It isn't that I am sure of it, it's just...I want to believe in it. Believe that we will find a cure to Revelner disease there." Such was Zick's answer.

This immediately moved Seveleen, making her feel ashamed of her prior suspicion. Varine's impression of Zick also slightly changed, she was aware of Seveleen's situation too now.

'If Seveleen can fall in love with me before going crazy, that would be for the best too....' Throwing this thought out of his mind, Zick thought of another matter.

'The Witch...her territory is just beside the region this carriage is passing through. There shouldn't be a problem until I enter her territory.'

With it turning lunchtime, Zick let the horses rest and made a tent, and passed out food to Varine and Seveleem from his space ring.

["Ah...I forgot to consider about food."] Seveleen apologized.

'It has already reached this stage?' Zick thought and nodded his head outwardly: "You don't need to worry about it, I will take care of stuff like that. You should let your body rest and not move unnecessarily."

["Thank you and I am sorry for the inconvenience...."]

Zick started chewing the steam bun in his hand: 'If you are sorry, be sure to repay me a hundred folds in the future and not let my effort go to waste.'

After finishing eating food, Zick started teaching Varine how to control mana and make it her own, so that she could take the first step to becoming an assassin. After that, he would make her go through hellish drill classes without any mercy.

After an hour, Varine lay motionless on the carriage, feeling her whole body tired and muscles protesting in agony.

'She has such a skinny body, some muscles wouldn't hurt.' That is what Zick said to Seveleen and Varine. Seveleen had no experience in creating mana nerves or much bodybuilding so she just stayed in the corner and looked.

Some lizards type monsters headed toward the carriage but were scared away the next moment by Zick's dragon fear.

Zick's dragon fear had also seen an immense boost in its ability, though it was hard to say without checking out in reality, Zick felt it to be a lot stronger than before.

'I should try out the black ice innate ability against some strong monster too.' Zick thought carelessly.

He has gotten no time to see the new changes to his ice-creating innate ability. This ability was developed after his body absorbed the snow essence and it had high offensive power. It was ranked first in Zick's list if only looked at the destructive might.

Continuing to travel, a day went by quickly.

Zick and the others had to sleep in tents as it was hard to travel at night.

The next morning they started traveling after finishing eating breakfast.

The journey was very smooth, no monster got in the way nor were there any terrain problems.

In the middle of traveling, suddenly Zick came across another carriage which looked superior to his. There were dozens of demihumans riding on horses around the carriage, guarding it loyally.

Zick's eyes flickered with uncertainty: 'Almost all of them are high-rank mages. The leader of this group is someone with immense influence for sure.'

Zick continued moving forward ignoring the unknown carriage.

"Hm....." Zick squinted his eyes, the other party started heading toward his carriage for some reason.

'It would be very hard to kill all of these high-ranking mages and there might be someone stronger too, avoiding conflict is for the best.'

Zick knew that — Battle wasn't the main point, but what he got from it was important. If the losses are higher than what is gained, it's not worth it at all.

NEIGH!

The other party stopped at some distance from Zick's carriage. Slowly the door opened and the leader of the group stepped down gracefully.

"You...." Zick was tongue-tied seeing the person walking out of the carriage.

'Anelete...so she survived.' Zick calmed down the next moment.

On the other hand, Anelete was pleasantly surprised, understanding what Jerg had said about feeling a familiar presence. Soon Jerg walked down the carriage too.

"It's been a while, miss Anelete." Zick was the first to speak after getting down the carriage.

"Yes, it's been a while, mister Zick. I would have liked to talk about how you have been doing but I am in a hurry so sorry for appearing rude." Anelete spoke with restlessness visible in her eyes.

She started what she wanted: "Do you have any mana crystals?"

Silence descended on the barren ground.

Zick's mind ran at lightning speed, thinking of the reason Anelete needed mana crystals.

'I see, so that's it.' Zick's eyes narrowed.

Next, he thought of the benefits he could get from making a deal with Anelete.

'We have taken an oath seal so she will not be able to violate it.'

Thus, Zick decided: "I have mana crystal with me, b-"

"I am ready to pay any price so please sell it to me, I will be sure to repay this debt in the future for sure." Anelete knew Zick, he was someone who only moved when having something to benefit so spoke with carefully selected words.

"Listen to me correctly before speaking," Zick said angrily, his eyes drooped down and a little dragon fear leaked out.

From the moment he lost his Melvix family heir position, people kept cutting him halfway through speaking. This had started pissing him off.

'Do I appear like someone who they can treat without care? It is my fault that I kept such an image in front of others.' This realization made him aware of his shortcomings.

So he just had to change it.

The dragon fear just made the people around him feel uncomfortable.

"....I am sorry, please continue, mister Zick."

"I only have high-quality mana crystals with me, so do you have the money to buy them?" Zick folded his hand looking at Anelete arrogantly.

"..." Anelete felt a sense of helplessness.

The value of high-quality mana crystal was above 500 platinum coins without a doubt.

Could Seveleen make such an amount in just two to three weeks, in this unknown land? Of course not!

No matter how talented she was in business it was impossible to make such an amount in such a short time.

In the end, Anelete could only do a lowly thing like taking a loan, which was only done by lowly merchants.