Chapter 494 Farmer's Breakfast

Chapter 494 Farmer's Breakfast

The survivors and the farmers all looked at Karl like he was insane. "You met, as in stopped and spoke with, the Orc Tribes, and you didn't get attacked?" Karl nodded. "Yeah. We traded fish with the Yellow Tusk Orcs, and then greeted the ones south of here as they passed by the highway. Neither one of those tribes was just randomly violent."

"Once, I can see. But twice in a week, and you're still here to tell us about it? Are you part Orc or something?" The troll asked, sniffing the air to try to determine what Karl was.

"They just admire his brand of insanity. He threatened to punch Chieftain World Smasher in the face if the Orc didn't like his gift." Tessa joked. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The farmers blinked slowly as they stared at Karl. "You should have been the one telling the evening stories, it sounds like yours are far more wild than ours. How did you even find out his name in the first place?"

Karl shrugged. "The scout told us. Then we had a chat, and I explained that I had trade goods. It was all quite normal as far as trades with nomadic tribes goes."

The farmers shook their heads in dismay. "These few are what most villages look like when the nomadic tribes pass by. But then, most of them don't have a good relationship with the Trolls or the Demon Tribes.

I just hope that nothing comes back this way tomorrow so that we can get our supplies to the city and go back home."

The commotion had roused the closest few groups from their beds, despite the early hour, and some of them were preparing to start on breakfast, so they could eat a hot meal and still be among the first on the road when the sun was up enough for the oxen to see.

"Do we have a big pot? I think that our two clerics might be able to help you out with some Dragon Cleric oatmeal for breakfast." Karl offered.

"There is one in town for the poor. I will go get it. You don't mind, do you, Priestess?" One of the farmers asked.

"Not at all. Feeding travellers is always good for the church, even if it's not the faithful."

From what Dana and the others could discern, this was their grand plan for making it safely out of the Monster controlled territories. They were going to pretend to be merchants, and make friends across the country, if possible. There would be no reason to hide if nobody was after them.

There was a rapidly growing stack of flatbread on a small table by the pot, but with the magical assistance, and the water already hot when Tessa created it, the oatmeal wasn't going to take long even in a cauldron that large.

They were already developing a lineup, and Tessa was becoming concerned that they might not have a big enough pot for everyone, but they would have to make due with what they had, or boil another pot once this one ran low.

They didn't have to hurry out this morning, they were going the opposite direction to everyone else. But if they did have to come back this way, a little goodwill would go a long way in ensuring that they could pass without trouble.

If they were lucky, it might even start to build them a positive reputation if they did happen to come here again.

They were still young and fast-growing Elites, so there was a chance that more official missions might send them outside the Golden Dragon Nation, with the possibility that they might end up somewhere here in the Newbon Empire again.

Karl was thinking that it might eventually be an official thing, as they did have good luck with foreign trips. But the others had a very different opinion on this particular side effect of hanging out with the man who had gathered too much attention from the Gods.

As a few of the Monsters had mentioned, it was not only the World Dragon that might have taken an interest in current events.

There had been far too many strange coincidences, and the Archbishop himself had said that the System Stones they had encountered early in their travels might have been linked to the Laughing God, and not the World Dragon.

That ancient Deity was a curious one. Nobody really knew what he was supposed to be the God of, but every ancient legend mentioned him as a trickster, a deity that granted your wildest desires in a way that you could never have anticipated.

He was neither good nor evil. Unlike the World Dragon, whose very existence brought stability and magic, the Laughing God simply existed for his own amusement. That alone was enough to make his attention a dangerous thing.

Even worse, there were rumours that the Laughing God was not one of the Dragon Gods at all, but an ancient god lingering from the time of creation, even after the memory of most other primordial gods had faded. Something like the God of Magic that Karl had been named after.