Chapter 14: Traveling to Saltstar City

Chapter 14: Traveling to Saltstar City

The last few days before the Fuller family's trip passed smoothly, with Vicente slowly getting used to his new reality as a graduate of the Academy of Star.

Ian had already left for his aunt and uncle's home in Saltstar City, where he would take a test at the Royal Academy in the city in less than two months.

If he passed, he would stay there for the next whole year until he finally had time to return and visit his old friends and family in Martell Village.

On the other hand, Vice had focused these days on getting his things ready and training as much as possible since he would be traveling for the next few weeks and would not be able to train.

He still had his responsibilities with his father, learning less these days and helping more, with more and more duties.

So the time had flown by for him, and finally, at the dawn of this new day, he and his family left the village in a carriage large enough for all of them.

While the birds were singing and the dirt streets of this village were still silent, with many residents still sleeping, the horses of the Fuller family carriage began to pull it.

Three men were at the head of the carriage, the old coachman, who every now and then Vice asked for advice and got answers to questions, and two magician warriors.

Warrior had their own classification. They were called Generals and were subdivided between levels 1 and 9. Supposedly the level 9 General had combat power equivalent to a Mage.

Between these two Generals, one was at level 6, and the other was at level 7.

On the other hand, Vicente, his sisters, father, and mother were inside the carriage. Lauren stood next to one of the doors while Nina was between her and Vice.

In front of them were Andrew and Kate, both smiling, but this woman looked somewhat tired.

"Mom, are you okay?" Lauren asked, seeing sweat dripping down her mother's forehead.

"I'm fine, honey. It's just that I get tired easily." Kate said, smiling subtly. "Your brother is pretty heavy for me, so I tire easily."

Kate was still pregnant, but the birth date of her 4th child was not far off.

It should happen in two months at most when they were already in Saltstar City.

Hearing his mother, Vice sighed, hoping that his little brother would be born soon, not only so he could meet him but so that his mother could return to her normal self.

Vice loved his family and was not against having several siblings. But pregnancy on this world had even more dangers than on Earth.

This worried him, so he couldn't help but be apprehensive about his mother's situation.

Luckily his family had enough to pay for a good doctor, and the chances for his mother and little brother wouldn't be so bad.

"Dad! Dad, how long will it take us to reach our destination?" Little Nina, currently 4, asked aloud, fidgeting a lot as she looked into her old man's eyes.

Andrew looked at little Nina, and his lips opened, showing his perfectly white teeth. "It won't be quick, Nina. But I promise it will be fun.

We'll know a few places until we reach our destination, so you'll see many new vistas."

"Hehe, I can't wait!" She said.

Lauren closed her eyes and shook her head. 'New vistas... That means we'll be stuck in this carriage for quite a while.'

Her thought was pessimistic, but her feeling was much worse internally.

Lauren was practically suffocating, constantly fiddling with the door handle next to her, feeling that she could open it and run away at any moment.

At the end of this trip, she would turn 14 and go through the awakening, something incredible. But she was a woman and would also have her engagement declared very soon!

As Lauren sighed, the carriage of this family left Martell Village, beginning the long journey to Saltstar City.

Saltstar City was practically at the opposite end of Scott Province from Martell Village.

This family could not reach their destination quickly since this was a territory of more than 400,000 square kilometers.

Their horses were fast, but there were no paved roads in the Seidel Kingdom as there were on Earth.

Carriages' wheels broke, low-level magicians needed to rest, to eat, and they got sick if they didn't take care of themselves the right way, so a long journey like this would take time one way or another.

But not only this but in a magical world, forests and roads were places full of dangers.

Not only could other humans and animals cause trouble at any time, but even the vegetation could also victimize entire groups.

If a person was carelessly traveling through Polaris Realm, they could easily breathe in toxins released by poisonous plants, have their mana sucked out by parasites, catch mana diseases, and so on.

And so, the Fuller family group would travel slowly, giving Nina all the time she would need to experience new landscapes.

...

Two weeks after leaving Martell Village, the Fuller family group had left the plains of that area where their home was to enter more rugged terrain.

The further they moved away from that area, the more extreme the relief, climate, and vegetation.

Vicente and Lauren already understood why this was. Still, these days Andrew and Kate had explained to Nina that this was because of the free mana in the atmosphere.

The denser the mana in a place, the more extreme the characteristics of an area would be.

If a place was naturally cold, it could be freezing if the mana concentration in that area was too high or just chilling if it was low.

The Martell Village was located in a relatively mana-poor area, with only enough mana for low-level cultivators, such as humans, at one of the first two magic realms.

On the other hand, the further they traveled towards Saltstar City, the closer they came to an area much denser in mana, where more powerful beings could develop.

Given this difference, it was natural that the weather and landscapes would change greatly along this group's path.

In particular, today, the group had been quite lucky, and the area they were passing through was sunny and with relatively calm winds.

The surroundings glowed a vibrant green, and the scent of nature ignored the barriers of this family's carriage until it reached the nostrils of the people traveling there.

Vicente had usually been reading quite a bit on his trip. Still, on this day, he took some time out to lie above his family's carriage, soaking up the sun as the horses raced by.

"Ah, the day is perfect." He murmured with his eyes closed, feeling the daylight penetrating his skin and warming his body.

He didn't know if he still needed to sunbathe to stimulate vitamin D production in his body. However, he still kept this earthly habit, and it felt great to do so.

As he relaxed on top of that carriage, he could hear the warriors there to protect his family talking to the coachman while his father and mother slept.

Nina and Lauren were eating something, and he could hear the sound of them chewing.

All was peaceful in the midst of this region of large green lawns.

So Vicente had a big smile on his face, unable to hide his teeth on his lips.

But then he felt as if a cloud had appeared above him as he noticed the brightness over that area suddenly diminishing.

'Uh? There was no cloud in the sky just now...' He thought before opening his eyes.

When he did, he saw something that widened his eyes as Adam's pommel moved up and down.

Gulp!

At that instant, two people appeared struggling in the air dozens of meters above where their group was passing.