"It's Lord Siegfried of the Pale Eagle!"
"With him here, old Bam can rest easy!"
The dwarf Bam shouted excitedly.
The man was powerful — that was Lin Lei's first impression. That Siegfried had at least a fifteenth-rank class level, and there were even fluctuations of magic item energy emanating from his body.
Not only that, the party members behind him all looked extremely elite. Lin Lei even spotted a mage among them!
The mage was wrapped head to toe in black robes, but that distinctive quality of Spiritual Power was impossible to conceal from Lin Lei's eyes — though the rank didn't seem particularly high, probably no more than the third layer of the
"Is that Siegfried very strong?"
Watching the Pale Eagle mercenary company merge with several mid-sized trade caravans, and seeing the signal to depart issued immediately after, Lin Lei asked Bam.
"Of course! Lord Siegfried is the only Mithral-ranked mercenary in all of Aimon City! Mithral-ranked, you know? And he himself is a veteran high-rank warrior who's fought in countless battles. The city hall even once invited him to serve as Aimon City's garrison captain, but he turned them down…"
Old Bam launched into a never-ending stream of praise the moment Siegfried's name came up, as though he himself were a member of the Pale Eagle.
The man's fame was indeed considerable. His appearance had stirred up the entire large caravan, and everyone else — mercenaries and merchants alike — wore looks of delight on their faces, as though with him taking action, they needn't worry about safety on the road.
"Another batch of pathetic souls pinning their hopes on someone else…"
Lin Lei sighed inwardly at the sight.
"Even if he's powerful, he'll obviously prioritize protecting the mid-sized caravans that actually paid him. Why would he stick around watching over you like a nanny? And the ogres this time number over a hundred…"
But the others remained lost in their pleasant fantasies, and the entire mixed caravan set off amid a cacophety of noise.
"What a tedious procession…"
Lin Lei was still dressed as a warrior — wearing a half-worn leather armor, with a long sword forged from fine steel at his waist, its grip wound tightly with hemp rope so he could draw it smoothly at any moment.
The large caravan moved exceedingly slowly. Drinking water, food, and nighttime campsite setup were all enormous headaches — even a regular army wouldn't necessarily manage it well, let alone this ragtag collection of merchants.
Conflicting commands and other troubles caused the caravan's progress to crawl. There were days when they couldn't even cover a few dozen li.
Lin Lei had long anticipated this, but he still stayed with the caravan in perfect comfort — with so many people, even if they ran into ogres, there would be plenty of targets to draw fire, giving him a smooth escape route.
He had already made up his mind: once they passed the stretch of road plagued by ogres, he would immediately break away from the group and travel light.
As for the remaining commission and reputation issues? Would Lin Lei care about those?
As such, having no urgent business of his own, Lin Lei even struck a deal with a small-time merchant for a few silver gellers. He secured a spot on a freight wagon, and every day besides his necessary patrol rounds, he would sit with his eyes closed, resting his mind, secretly meditating and running experiments through the Chip.
"Chip, pull up my current data!" Lin Lei commanded.
[Lin Lei Faolan | Age: Sixteen | Race: Human | Level Ten Mage | Strength: 5.2 | Agility: 6.5 | Constitution: 6.3 | Spirit: 10 | Condition: Healthy | Innate Talents: Tough, Learned | Spell Slots: Fourth-level Slots (3), Third-level Slots (5), Second-level Slots (7), First-level Slots (???), Zero-level Slots (???)]
[Weave Analysis Progress: Zero-level Weave 100%! First-level Weave 100%! Second-level Weave 37.31%! Third-level Weave 16.78%! Fourth-level Weave 2.01%!]
The Chip faithfully executed Lin Lei's command.
"My Spiritual Power has long far exceeded my meditation speed. And now that the effect of the Devil's Blood Dagger has also been greatly weakened, leveling up my mage class is completely out of the question… For now, I can only try to raise my other stats. At least all of them need to reach 10!"
In Lin Lei's view, the improvement of each stat was essentially the self-perfection of his genes.
Once every stat broke through a certain threshold, his partially perfected genes should be able to give him a rather pleasant surprise.
As for his own data, Lin Lei only glanced at it briefly before shifting his gaze to the Weave — this was his greatest task.
"The Weave analysis progress is the same as always, painfully slow…"
Lin Lei felt quite helpless about this. After all, the entire Weave was still controlled by the Weave Goddess
"Besides, after entering the second-level Weave analysis, the speed has become even slower. If not for my mage level going up, I'd hardly notice any change at all…"
"Perhaps… I should try a different approach…"
Just as Lin Lei was contemplating his path forward, an uninvited guest opened the wagon door and stepped inside.
"About what happened before, big sister Hera explained everything to me. I'm sorry!"
Just from the voice alone, Lin Lei knew it was Rafinia.
He opened his eyes. Even in the dim darkness of the freight wagon, he could see her flushed face.
"I'll accept your apology graciously then. We're good now, right?" Lin Lei made a gesture toward the door.
"How can you be like this?"
Rafinia's already flushed face reddened further, this time with anger: "I came here specifically to apologize to you! Do you have any sense of decency at all? And besides… Bam and the others still every day…"
"I completed my daily tasks too. The rest is just Bam and the others being unwilling to pay the price… And besides…"
Lin Lei stood up, and the mere hint of natural aura that leaked from his movement made Rafinia stumble back several steps, shrinking her neck in, as if she were witnessing her father's wrath.
"And besides… who is it that spends the entire day holed up in the employer's wagon? Who tries to dodge even patrol duty?"
Lin Lei's gaze fixed straight on Rafinia, immediately making the young Knight bow her head. Only now did she realize that, measured against herself, Lin Lei had actually been doing his job quite well.
"Th-that's different! I'm a girl!"
Rafinia stamped her foot in frustration: "Who knew that traveling would be this grueling? Not only is filth everywhere with nowhere to even set foot, but finding a washroom is harder than anything…"
In front of Lin Lei, she had unconsciously blurted out her true feelings. Then she caught his half-amused, half-smiling expression and felt her face flush red again, bowing her head.
"Now you understand the hardships of life on the road? Don't always get fooled by the glamorous facade heroes put on. In reality, behind the scenes they're probably far more awkward and worn out than you are…"
"Go home, little lady!"
Lin Lei showed a rare moment of kindness — and since it only required him to open his mouth, he didn't mind doing a good deed along the way.
"You make it sound so convincing — do you actually know anything about this?"
Rafinia turned and walked off, as though she'd grown tired of this lecture, leaving only Lin Lei behind to sigh: "A child in her rebellious phase…"
Days passed one after another, and the mixed group drew ever closer to the region where ogres were rumored to roam.
Up until now, they hadn't encountered any real trouble. After all, their numbers alone were enough to deter petty thieves and those with ill intent. What did happen was the occasional theft within the merchant caravan itself, which made things miserable for the rogue-class members — no matter where they went, they were watched with suspicious eyes.
It was time to make camp again. The caravan chose a stretch of flat terrain, and the numerous mercenaries set to work erecting tall tents. Bonfire after bonfire was lit, pots of boiling water and dried provisions bubbling away, along with some wild greens that a few veteran mercenaries had foraged from outside the camp, all simmered together with jerky into a fragrant stew.
Old Bam the dwarven musketeer clutched his rum bottle, drooling nonstop at the iron pot and occasionally taking a swig straight from the bottle.
"Everyone's worked hard today!"
Hera also got off the carriage with Laphinia, and sat together with the Dark Hall mercenaries around the bonfire.
After spending some time together, Linley had actually come to revise his opinion of Hera somewhat. Though she had her share of scheming, it was born out of necessity, and she held no condescending attitude toward the hard-working mercenaries who guarded her.
Whether her actions were genuine or feigned, Linley's experienced eye could tell at a glance.
As for her younger sister, named Arani if he remembered correctly, she was very well protected by Hera — remaining in the carriage almost the entire time. Linley had barely seen her more than a few times. It seemed Hera was keenly aware of the dangers of traveling outside.
After Hera took the freshly cooked dinner back to the carriage, Old Bam eagerly guzzled his rum and launched into his usual chatterbox routine.
Still, on a long, cold night, this was one of the few entertainments available, so the other members tacitly tolerated it. Laphinia, in particular, seemed to be listening with genuine interest, likely taking Old Bam's boasts at face value.
"Excuse me, is this Miss Hera's carriage?"
Just then, a person in charge from the merchant caravan walked over.
"What's the matter? You can speak with me!" Laphinia stepped directly in front. A few days earlier, she had thrown out a couple of men who had designs on the Hera sisters' beauty, so she was on her guard.
The caravan representative furrowed his brow slightly at being rebuffed, but quickly put on a smile: "Here's the thing — tomorrow we'll be entering a dangerous zone where ogres have been spotted. Lord Sigrfried sent me to let everyone know that you should stay vigilant even at night and assign people to patrol…"