Rise of the Blood Sovereign

71  The Caravan Goes up The Mountain

About 3 hours had passed since the caravan made their way up the mountain. They made some good progress but had been attacked a couple of times on their way up.

The monsters had had enough of sneaking around and trying to sense whether the caravan was dangerous to them or not, and had decided to attack a couple of times.

The monkeys had also shown themselves and had actually managed to grab one of the long-range combatants that had been on top of a carriage.

Thankfully, his teammates were quick to respond and multiple arrows, spells, and throwing weapons struck the monkey before it was able to take the man away. The monkey died almost immediately, and the long-range fighter was saved, he quickly jumped back on the carriage, thanked those that had saved him, and continued fighting.

There had been no sight of hawks, nor any other powerful monsters, and the caravan had managed to climb up without losing any men.

The monsters were numerous, that was certain, but the caravan not only had a solid number of escorts but also a higher average level compared to the monsters.

Not only would everyone get paid for escorting the caravan, but they would also be able to level up during the mission as well. It was something that was unthinkable before, to become more powerful simply by killing monsters, but now it was reality, and adventurers and mercenaries were overjoyed to find that they had a way to quickly grow their power while also not wasting any time and being able to earn money.

One of the biggest reasons why adventurers were usually not well off financially was also the fact that they couldn't simply fight monsters all the time. As much as they wished to fight and earn more, they also needed to spend a couple of hours every day to gather mana and strengthen themselves.

One would need to pay a hefty sum in order to get personal training by a powerful individual that would tell them what they were doing wrong with their mana gathering and help them out and improve the process.

There were also books that one could buy for a large sum that held techniques that could help on improve upon the gathering. Some techniques helped with the speed at which one could gather mana, others with the total amount, and there were those that helped with efficiency as well.

Techniques that were able to improve two things at once were considered very valuable, while those that could help out with all three were almost impossible to find, and when they were available, the price they were sold at would even make an average noble family think twice before buying it.

Lyle and Adam helped out during the battles and did their best not to stand out. They didn't want to have people depending on them, and as such, they simply did as well as others and made themselves look average.

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Being powerful had the drawback of not only getting attention from others, but also from making others dependent on you, but showing yourself to be a weak person was also not a good thing as people would not just underestimate you, but also belittle you and keep an eye on you in order to check just what you were doing.

Weaklings would get bullied in this world, but they would also be recognized by many, something that Lyle and Adam did not want.

Lyle had no qualms about swallowing his pride and acting as a weakling if it would end up beneficial to him, but if not, he would never do it.

He was one that despised acting as such, as those that liked to pick on the weak were simply trash in his eyes and he would need to control himself in order not to kill them.

He and Adam simply did their job and dealt with the monsters. Lyle would sometimes help out others that seemed to be in danger, but he would make sure to make it inconspicuous so that nobody would notice it was him.

That was why Lyle bought a bunch of low-grade throwing knives back in Linston. He knew that he would need to use a lot of them during the battle as his own throwing knives were high-quality and there was a chance that some people would notice them.

Both he and Adam were wearing leather armor that was usually worn by high-level adventurers below the Bronze Knight realm and used weapons of the same quality as well.

If need be, Lyle could quickly and easily switch his weapons and armor, as could Adam since he was now in possession of Lyle's old spatial ring.

Both men took necessary precautions and if there was a situation where one could potentially be heavily wounded or even killed, they wouldn't hesitate to use everything that was available to them in order to survive.

For now, however, it was not necessary.

Night was already falling and it wouldn't be long before they would arrive on the path that went around the mountain. Taking the road at night seemed dangerous, but it was actually safer than during the day.

Most of the monsters that one could run into while taking the road were active during the day and would sleep during the night.

Most of the predators of the forest would be inside the forest during the night, which made the side of the mountain on which the road was present much safer at that time.

Of course, there was also the possibility of being attacked by some predators during the night, but there were rarely ever any things that were completely certain in this world.

Lyle had to commend the leader of the caravan, however, as the man had made sure to acquire anything they needed beforehand. He had gotten lanterns that produced a very pale light and wouldn't be very visible to monsters from afar.

That alone was incredibly important as it would decrease the chances of monsters attacking or running into them at night. The lanterns would produce enough light for them to see what was in front, around, and behind them, and it was enough for them all.

As nighttime came, the lights from the lanterns lit up their way and allowed the caravan to continue their journey, albeit slower compared to before. That was the main reason it would take nearly a whole day for them to go around the mountain.

Not only was the path narrow and they had to slowly move through it, but with the lower visibility they had during the night, they had to move even more carefully and slowly in order to not have a carriage falling down.

The people that had paid for passage would occasionally glance out of the small windows that the carriages had. Some of the passengers were relatively relaxed, while others seemed to be in great far.

Hearing the sounds of battle for hours was not something that most of them were used to. Most of the passengers were not fighters at all, some were retainers from minor noble houses that were making their way to Orsvald in order to join the main house and work there, and some were people that had managed to earn a relatively good sum and wished to continue living inside a major city and try their luck there.

Others were running away from their problems and had spent almost all the savings they had in order to afford this trip, and were only hoping to survive and reach Orsvald in one piece.

As the caravan started making their way around the mountain, some of the passengers that had glanced outside were shocked to find just how far up they were. Some of them started praying, others started shaking slightly in fear, while some just continued sitting down and relaxing.

Those that were more experienced knew that it would be hard for anything to go wrong here. The caravan was an experienced one and this wasn't the first time they had used this path. The only problem that could appear would be powerful monsters, and so far, none had shown themselves.

Everybody, even the Silver Knights, wished that no Silver Core monsters would appear.

Even though the Silver Knights could defeat a Silver Core monster, the battle would be a hard one, and they couldn't guarantee that the battle wouldn't affect the caravan and the people. The mere aftershock of a battle between individuals that belonged to Tier II was enough to kill anything below the Bronze Knight realm, after all.

The hawks suddenly appeared.

Some didn't notice them, but Lyle and Adam, alongside a couple of long-range attackers, had managed to spot a couple of black dots in the sky that was being revealed to them by the moonlight.

They quickly took up their weapons and got ready for a battle whilst shouting at the other combatants that had still not noticed the monsters. Even Lyle and Adam stared at the hawks with vigilance as they possessed incredible speed and even they could get injured if they weren't careful.