A Warlock's Ascent

It had been about two hours since they had left the meeting point. And in the two hours, Dave had started to notice various things that have changed in the general topography of Ravenshade.

From what Grump had told him, the domain of Ravenshade consisted of mostly grasslands. And there were some patches of dense vegetation of trees here and there, but mostly the domain of Ravenshade consisted of nothing but grasslands. But since they started walking, they have come across many patches of dense vegetation.

They avoided most of the patches as they could be infested by Kobolds or Goblins, waiting patiently to ambush them from beyond the trees. But while avoiding the patches like a plague they did come across a horde of Screaming Bats.

There were 5 to 6 bats in that particular horde. They were all hanging out by the side of a big rock, but as soon as they spotted their group, they came flying straight to them. But Grump quickly took care of all of them with his bow. And then without any confrontation, they started moving again.

Witnessing how easily the old man took care of the Bats, made him remember his previous encounter with the bats. Then he was with three other people. One of them was even a Mage. But still, they had a very hard time taking care of those cursed things.

Thinking about his previous encounter, he realized that he could have handled that situation better. And who knows maybe he would have handled the situation so properly that they wouldn't have been spotted by Carlin. And hence they wouldn't have been captured in the first place…

It was then his train of thought was disturbed when Grump stopped walking. And following him, everyone stopped on their track. The old man without turning back signaled from his hands to come forward. Seeing the signal, he quickly ran to his side.

"Hand me the telescope," Grump whispered. Hearing this, Dave quickly glance back to see whether the old man and the young man were not close enough. He acted like he was rummaging for something from his shirt, but in reality, he mentally commanded his system to retrieve the telescope from his inventory.

He then quickly passed it to Grump. The old man took the telescope and started looking towards their north. Seeing which direction the old man was looking, Dave also started looking in that direction.

He could not tell for sure what it was, but he did spot a bunch of rocks in the north. But they were too far away to tell what was exactly wrong with those rocks. While Grump on the other hand was looking at the rocks with great interest. He then changed the direction of his search and started looking over patches of trees that were on the left from the rocks. And it was only after looking through a telescope for a minute or two, he folded it and gave it back to him. He then turn around and said.

"We have a problem," Grump whispered. The old man then came forwards along with the young man and asked…

"What is it?"

"There is a horde of Earth Porcupines north from here. And we have to go around them if we ever want to make it to the River on time."

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"Can't we take a detour?" the old man asked.

"No. You know that we don't have that much time. And even if we take the detour then we would face another set of problems. If we go from East and circle around them then we would find ourselves on Midgard Bridge. And we can't be spotted there. But if we go from the south and then circle around then we have to go through a patch of forest. And you know what that means."

"Damn" the old man cursed.

"Wait… What if we could create a distraction?" this time the young man spoke in a child-like voice.

"Create a distraction?" Grump asked while looking at the young man.

"Yeah. Grandpa, we could create a Boom Cracker with a timer, just like the one I made it a few months ago. That could create a distraction and then we could safely cross the patch of forest." The young man said.

"Wait wait… What is a Boom Cracker?" Grump asked.

"It is a small thing that he created. It is a small orb made from explosive powder. And he could explode the ball with simple Runic Circuit." The old man clarified.

"How loud would the explosion be?" Grump asked.

"Considering the silence of the night… Very loud." The old man said.

"And how much time would the ball explode in?" Grump asked.

"Around 4-5 mins give or take." The old man said after some thinking.

"Good. We could use it. Do you have one with you? Or you would have to make one?" Grump asked.

"I have one! It is in my trunk!" The young man said enthusiastically. But it was then the young man received a tight smack behind his head from the courtesy of the old man.

"Lower your voice, Ricardo" the old man then angrily said.

"Yes, Grandfather." The boy said softly and with a sad voice.

"Davy, quickly take out the trunks that you have." Hearing the instruction he simply nodded and took out the trunks.

It was only after taking out the trunk that he realized that the old man and his grandson probably knows about him being an Earthian. After all, he had been carrying their luggage. So he didn't have to pretend in front of them. He could freely use his abilities in front of them...

After getting his trunk, the young man started rummaging through it. He then fished out what looked like a small metal ball from his trunk. He then passed the ball to his grandfather. It was then the old man took out what looked like a weird-looking pen from underneath his robes. Then he started scribbling some weird symbols on the ball which started glowing as soon as the old man finished drawing them.

Before the old man drew the last symbol he looked at Grump, telling him he was ready…

"Okay then… I will run towards the East with the ball and then I would plant it there. And then make a run for it. You guys stay here for the time being. And as the explosion would resound, the Earth Porcupine would start running towards the explosion. Then you guys make a run for it. Is it clear?" Grump said while looking at everyone. And every one of them nodded their face.

Then the old man finished drawing the last symbol and the ball started vibrating. He then threw the ball to Grump, who caught it and immediately started running towards East.

Dave then hurriedly put the young man's trunk back in his inventory. He then took the bow that was dangling from his shoulders and stood there patiently waiting for the signal…

And soon an explosion resounded from their East. And that was their cue, the trio started jogging towards the horde of the Earth Porcupine that was resting in the North…

Hearing the explosion the Earth Porcupines, what he previously thought were rocks, started standing up one by one and started running towards the explosion. As soon as the Porcupines were out of their way, the trio increased their pace and started running.

As they were moving from the side of the patch of the forest, he saw a glimpse of something moving in the trees. At first, he thought that it may have been his mind playing games on him. But it was then he heard something fly past his head. He quickly glance back and saw that the thing that flew past him was an arrow.

It was then he looked at the forest once again and saw that there were tiny green color midgets running along the border of the forest. And some of them even have small bows and they were firing arrows at them. Seeing this, he started to have a bad feeling…

The intensity of arrows being fired at them started to increase. With the increased intensity of the arrows, automatically all three of them increased their running speed as well. And at that time, the lady luck shined their grace on three of them.

Most of the arrows that were being fired at them flew past them without even touching them. At one time Dave started to get a feeling that maybe none of these arrows could touch him. But his line of thought broke when the young man who was running in the front tripped and fell down.

The old man who was running behind him immediately stopped and knelt down on the ground to look at the young man. Seeing this Dave immediately equipped his shield from his inventory and gave cover to the old man…

"We need to leave now," he said while blocking some arrows that came their way. The young man was not injured in any way and started running again after hearing his voice. And following him, the old man also started running. And as soon as he realized that the old man and the young man had run away, he also started running after them…

After evading all the arrows with their amazing luck, the trio finally made it past the forest area. And they only stopped running when they have made some distance between themselves and the forest. As they stopped, the old man and his grandson fell down on the ground wheezing for air. While he on the other hand was fine. He too was breathing very heavily but he was not in bad condition like the other two.

AWWOOO

It was then they heard the sounds of wolves howling. They turned around and saw that there were three goblins riders making their way toward them. The old man and his grandson quickly got up as they also spotted the wolves coming towards them. Looking at the riders quickly closing in on their position, he started wrecking his brain, trying to come up with a strategy…

'If we were to start running now, then there was no way that we would be able to outrun them. Especially these two don't look like they are in any condition for another sprint. So we have to make a stand. And we have to do it here itself.' He thought.

It was then he tightly gripped the bow in his hands. He then took out an arrow from his quiver and knocked it. He then aimed at the incoming goblins. He looked at the trajectory of the said goblins and started breathing slowly. He concentrated for half a second and then he let the arrow go. His arrow wheezed through the air and got stuck straight onto one of the wolves of the goblin riders.

The wolf who got struck with the arrow rolled over and fell down on the ground. While the goblin was riding it was thrown forwards with the force. Seeing that he was proficient in archery, the rest of the goblin riders split up. One of them went to the right while the other one went left.

Then slowly both of the remaining riders started circling the trio. He then knocked another arrow onto his bow and aimed at the one on the left. After a split second he let the arrow go, but this time the goblin avoided being hit by the arrow by making its wolf jump in the air. And then they changed their trajectory and started moving in.

Seeing that the goblins were closing in on them, he immediately knocked up another arrow and shot it. But the goblin made its wolf jump towards the right to avoid the incoming arrow. Sensing the urgency of the situation, he knocked another arrow, this time he took some time before he fired the shot.

The third arrow hit the goblin straight on his head. The arrow to the head made the goblin get knocked off the wolf.

But the wolf that the goblin was riding didn't stop even when its rider had been knocked off. And it started making its way towards him. It was then he saw a bright light, making him remember the other goblin rider, but he didn't dare to look back because the wolf was almost onto him.

As the wolf came close to him, it jumped on him baring its fangs. But it was then he threw its bow away and took out his shield. First, he blocked the wolf's pounce, by blocking it with his shield. Then immediately after that, he took out the broken spear and quickly stabbed the wolf's stomach with the spear.

The wolf struggled for a few seconds after being pierced but then it flop down dead.

It was then he turned around and saw that the old man and the young boy were fine. And in front of them was the body of the other goblin rider and its wolf burned thoroughly. It was then he figured out that the old man used some sort of magic to kill the monster…

"We should keep moving." The old man said while looking at Dave. In return, he nodded his head and started moving again.

After moving for some time they finally met up with Grump. Then they continued on towards their journey…

The young man and the old man were very tired. And it could be seen by the way they were both walking. Their speed had significantly reduced in the last hour or so and this was also noticed by Grump. But he still persisted in moving on because they were on a very tight schedule. And finally, after a 2-hour walk, Grump agreed on a 15 min break as he saw the condition of his clients.

Dave, the young man named Ricardo, and the old man sat down on the ground and started resting as soon as Grump announced the break. While Grump with his monstrous stamina stood guard as the rest of them relaxed…