Races: Online

What would one encounter down the path to the Capital? Would they pass through secret passageways to reach their destination or encounter a princess escaping bandits? Would they meet a hidden master that was travelling on foot? Perhaps they'd meet a wandering bard or a minstrel? All of those plot lines formed themselves inside Han Jing's mind, watching countless movies and reading too many web novels meant that he was more than ready to face anything on the road! 

Except there wasn't anything.

It was a lot more boring than he assumed it would be. Four hours had passed since they left Rockfall village and there wasn't much he could do except sit down and watch the scenery they were passing through. They had travelled the precarious and uneven terrain downwards from their village and then turned a sharp right away from the Enchanted Forest into a more smoother road—at least less uneven than a rocky trail.

"Few merchants come and trade in Rockfall village, that's why more often than not, I or somebody else have to get to the Capital and trade our goods. We do it perhaps once a month or so, we're actually pretty self-sufficient." Old Man Joe Light explained once he asked the man about it.

Timothy simply snorted, "You're pretty dense to not notice that."

Han decided to ignore that remark—it wasn't his fault that he didn't get any memories or recollection! He just made this character for pete's sake, who knew that the Creators would have made a convoluted backstory plot for him already? A couple more hours had passed, Old Man Joe Light was humming to himself while Timothy now simply stared at the sky listlessly.

If this was a moment in an RPG game, he would have skipped this cutscene and be at the Capital already! Han sighed and nudged the person beside him, finally bored out of his mind. "Hey are you dead?"

"Do you think I'd answer you if I were?" Timothy answered with a sigh of his own.

He wiped the beads of sweat forming on his forehead, "Just checking, it's actually hot ugh… hey, Old Man Joe, won't the vegetables spoil under this heat?" They were now passing through a forest, but the air around them was still hot thanks to the burning sun beating down on them.

"Huh, that makes sense, Han. You have a good head on your shoulder, why don't we put up some covering for you guys when we have our stop."

"We actually had a covering?!" Timothy sat up, glaring at the back of the old man. "Why didn't you set that up before we left, old geezer?! Are you out of your mind, it's not only the vegetables that'll shrivel up at this rate!" 

Han tried not to slap a hand over his face. Timothy had a point, but they didn't need to be so rude. Didn't this guy know that they had a retired hero driving for them? Apparently not if he had to judge by the man's disrespectful attitude.

Old Man Joe Light shook his head, "A little morning light is good for the body, young lad. Don't act too pampered."

"Well… the sun is at its highest now, can't we take a break?" Han sheepishly smiled. "It would be a good time to rest the animals too." 

"These mules are more hardy than the two of you—but alright, let's stop here for a moment and I'll let you two set up the covering."

"That sounds fair, but we should all eat first." Timothy spoke up, clamoring for his things among the crates of fruits and vegetables.

Eat? He looked at Timothy with a frown. "That sounds—"

"Of course, this guy forgot to bring anything." Timothy chuckled as he fussed over his bag. "Since we're surrounded by vegetables, how about you chew some of them—"

The cart stopped abruptly as Old Man Joe Light gave them a 'friendly' smile. "Listen here boy, not one of you ain't touching my vegetables unless you want to be tossed off the cart. Is that clear?"

"Er, yes!" Timothy and him answered in unison—it could have been his imagination but he had noticed an aura of light enshrouding him like some kind of super yansai.

It only took a quick matter of time as they settled on one side of the road, Old Man Joe Light stuck a stake on the ground and tied the mules to it. Meanwhile, he and Timothy had set up the covering before they decided to eat. Now they were under the shade, Timothy had pulled out some stale biscuits.

Han sighed as he bit into the hard biscuit, "It's so tasteless."

"It's a hard tack, what do you expect? Loafy bread with a generous dollop of butter on it?" Timothy bit into the biscuit, munching on it. "If we had time to make coffee or something, it would have been a bit easier to swallow along with it."

"C-Coffee?!" Han choked on his biscuit—which wasn't exactly a hard thing to do.

Timothy wordlessly passed him his waterskin, the expression on his face told Han that the guy thought of him as an idiot or something.

"Ah, I raised coffee beans—acquired them in Avreodhari Temple back in my younger days." Old Man Joe explained as he joined them inside the now covered cart. "Those were the old good days, I had to escape those demonic apes so I kept running and running."

"Really now? Aren't coffee beans available in the Capital?" Timothy asked, rolling his eyes and looked at Han. "It'd be easy enough to acquire them there instead of making up stories."

"Suit yourself, lad!" The old man took out his own food, getting one of the long strips and began chewing it happily.

Timothy stared at the man. "...is that meat? Dried meat?"

"Mhmp, you want some?" Old Man Joe munched happily. "I'm not sharing though."

Han tilted his head, "What kind of meat is that?"

"Cow."

Timothy and Han shared a look. It was a good thing that a certain someone wasn't accompanying them.

"You know, this is a really good time to tell stories, and I do have some really good ones." The old man told them. "You guys could find it useful, I've had a lot—"

"Er…I'll pass." Timothy answered as he bit into his biscuit, frowning at him. "I'm good enough with the silence."

Han blinked but decided to say nothing. As much as he wanted to hear about an old man's adventure stories, he couldn't help but feel another emotion pass through him. If he could pin it down as an emotion. It was quite similar to that feeling he had at Enchanted Forest, but this forest wasn't anything like it.

There weren't any giant spiders or anything of that like in here right?

"Hey, this place is pretty safe right?" He asked. "There's nothing like any wild beasts or anything that'll be out to get us?"

Timothy raised a brow, "We're in a forest, of course there'd be beasts around here. But it's not like some [ Black Bear ] or [ Grey Wolf ] will be rampaging down here anytime soon—as long as we stick down the trail, right Old Man?"

"If there's anything, it'd be easy enough to scare them away. Don't you wet your pants boy, I've been travelling this road for years—nothing out here will get you. What are you so frightened about?" Old Man Joe Light laughed. "You and Timothy here will be learning under the Kraelonia Academy—gather up some courage."

"Right, right…"

.

.

.

Of course they'd jinxed things.

"What in tarnations?!" Old Man Joe Light quickly swerved the cart as several arrows woozed past his head and struck against a crate right above Han's head. 

Han blinked for a moment, the two arrows flew past him but one had missed him by a hair's breadth. His attention flew to the forest around them, several glinting eyes were within the dense foliage as another arrow flew their way. 

The Old man cursed and ducked to his seat. "How could there be a—" 

The arrow skittered past another crate."Old Man Joe—" Han's voice stopped at the sight of the old man now lying flat down on the wooden chair.

"Ugh, I think I sprained my back by avoiding that arrow—I'll leave you boys to it." The old man winced.

He blinked. What? Wasn't the man supposed to be alright?!

"It's a good time for a hero to show his proper skills now eh?" Timothy's voice caught his attention, the man was crouched down and holding his hand over his head but had the nerve to give him a look.

"I don't have any weapons!" Han quickly got down for coverage, assessing their situation. It seemed that the ones shooting the arrows had a bad aim and couldn't hit them unless they moved out of their cover inside the forest.

Timothy sighed as more arrows blasted and thwunked against the crates. "This isn't any good, we're sitting ducks."

"Can't you fight?" Han frowned at his complaint.

"If I were actually any good—wouldn't I have saved the village or something?" Timothy snarked at him. "I expected you to do something, but it seems we're both incapable of doing anything. Give me a minute, I'll think about this."

Han felt his head throb as he turned away from the man, "No use thinking about this [ Inventory ]" He immediately grabbed for the closest thing and threw it in the direction of the forest.

A pretty pink shell went flying in the air and hit one of those glinting eyes.