Following the dirt path up north, Sol continued on his journey. While having never traveled these parts or anywhere for that matter, he found it simple as he only needed to follow the path.
While traveling, Sol started reflecting on his performance in the kobold cave and decided that while walking, he would practice some of his magic to gain a better understanding of them. He didn’t want to enter another battle and accidentally spend all his mana and pass out like before.
"I only know two spells from [Basic Wind Magic], [Tailwind] and [Wind Cutter]. The huntress I learned the skill from seemed to have recently picked up the skill."
When Sol siphoned a skill, he obtained all the experience from the previous owner. For physical skills, this tended to not be an issue as it mainly improved his techniques and increased power. For magic, it worked a bit differently. Each level of any magic skill did not actually give the user new spells upon reaching them. The spellcaster needed to learn the spells on their own by studying under other mages or from magic books. The other, much harder way to learn spells was to research and create them from scratch, which was also a very dangerous endeavor. Luckily for Sol, he had a third way to learn them, with [Siphon].
Having already cast [Tailwind] before and knowing its effects, Sol chose to try out [Wind Cutter] first.
"Gather and slash forward, [Wind Cutter]!"
Holding his hand forward, Sol saw air gather in front of his palm before launching itself. It flew faster than an arrow and collided with a tree. Inspecting the mark left on the tree, Sol saw that the spell cut a third of the way through the tree before stopping.
"It took 10 mana to cast, and it looks about as strong as my basic attack."
While Sol had a much lower intelligence stat, being only 10, its power rivaled his 40 strength. The downside being that such a spell costs mana and could only be used 10 times before he ran out. Unlike his normal attack which he could use hundreds of times before getting tired.
Getting a better understanding of his wind magic, Sol then moved on to try out his fire magic. Siphoning it from an experienced wizard, the fire spells he knew outnumbered his wind spells by a lot. The only problem was that all the spells were mostly for dealing damage, lacking a lot of variety.
"[Fire Bolt], [Fire Blast], [Fireball], [Flaming Sphere], [Explosion]. These all serve the same purpose, the only difference being the mana cost and power. It seemed the wizard only had a one-track mind for just doing the most damage possible."
The only two non-attack fire spells he learned from the wizard were [Control Flame] and [Fire Wall].
"Last time I used [Explosion] as it was the strongest spell I knew, but I should stick to these weaker ones until I raise my wisdom a bit more."
After giving every spell a try to gain a better grasp on their cost and impact, Sol had to stop for now as he was running low on mana.
By the time the sun was at its peak, Sol guessed he was a little over halfway to the city. On the way there, he encountered other people traveling south but only exchanged greetings before the travelers continued on their way.
Eventually, Sol did encounter some friendlier people willing to approach him. They traveled with a carriage, being pulled by 2 horses. There were 4 adventurers guarding the carriage, and when the merchant driving noticed him, he stopped the horses and greeted Sol.
"Hey there, young man, are you heading to Kerman alone?"
"Yeah, I am. I plan to stay there for a while."
"Really? I wouldn’t recommend going there at this time."
"Huh? Why?"
"Frostaxe Clan has been getting real active at the border lately. There might be another invasion soon."
The Frostaxe Clan was the Kingdom of Crestelia’s northern neighbors. They were a clan of Orcs who had made the freezing Orna Mountains their home. While called a clan, their numbers were similar to a small kingdom, and their land was much bigger than the Kingdom of Crestelia. The problem with their territory was that the majority of it was located in harsh Orna Mountains, making it hard for any civilization to truly prosper. The orcs who made it their home had developed special resistance against the cold, but even so, they wish to constantly expand to more habitable lands. This placed them at eternal odds with Crestelia as they had plenty of rich soil and good weather almost all year round. The Frostaxe Clan had tried to invade and take these lands for the past 40 years to no avail, but every time they invaded, they caused a lot of casualties and destruction.
Though Sol was from a small town, even he had heard of these invasions. "So soon? Didn’t the army push them back a year ago?"
"Yeah, but they’re back again. On top of that, the bandits have been getting more active near the city, likely taking advantage of the chaos. Do you still intend to go?"
After contemplating for a second, Sol nodded his head. The other nearest town was a week away and he didn’t have enough supplies to travel such a distance.
The merchant helplessly shook his head at his response.
"Alright, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Good Luck."
The merchant then pulled on the reins, making the horses start moving again. The adventurers didn’t say anything but gave Sol a nod of acknowledgment before following their employer.
Sol watched them leave for a moment before turned around to continue on his way.
In a forest located not far from the city, four men hid behind some trees and watched the road. One of the men had a bored expression as he looked at their leader.
"I still think we could have taken them."
"Are you crazy? Why take the risk when half of our normal crew isn’t here today. It’s better to wait for easier prey."
"But no one is going to leave the city at this time, and with those orcs causing trouble at the border, who would come to the city?"
"We know that, but news hasn’t spread far yet. We can still catch a few unlucky people heading to the city, speaking of which."
The man who seemed to be the leader looked at the path as he saw a skinny young man wearing simple clothes carrying a backpack making his way towards the city. They did notice he had a sword strapped to his waste, but who wouldn’t travel with some iron for self defense? What really mattered was if they could wield it well and the young man’s appearance they didn’t believe it to be the case.
"What about him boss?"
"Look at him, he’s got nothing on him, why bother?"
The lackey insisted, "Hear me out boss, we can capture and sell him to the Black Market. Should fetch us a few gold. If he has a good talent, it might be hundreds of gold."
"We don’t do that Isaac, you know this."
"Boss, c’mon. We haven’t got anything good recently and we even let that carriage slip past. You want us to starve?"
The men all looked at their leader for his decision. The leader knew from their expressions that he had to make a choice he didn’t agree with.
"Okay. Let’s get in position then."
The men then spread out to all directions to prevent any chance to escape, and when they were in position, the boss signaled them to start.