105 A Favorable encounter #2
"That crazy follower of Teran!! I will get his adventurer's card banned!!" the chubby Noble said with his eyes filled with irritation as he began narrating,
"Two days before…." He spoke,
Two days before the chubby noble was attending an event in his father's stead that led him to the port city of Portum Austri, he attended the event and when he was to return, he did what every noble will do and posted a request in Adventurer's Guild for a party as an escort,
"We are sorry but it might take some time to get a party to accept a request for escort till Hinsmark" the receptionist answered, a bit reluctant as the local nobles are quick to get angry but to her surprise, the chubby noble answered,
"It is ok. I will eat stuff around town a bit… but miss, if you could please add that we got emerged dungeons of A grade in Hinsmark, it might help,"
Hearing such a simple and gentle reply from a noble she initially thought of as yet another Noble scum, the receptionist was taken aback as she replied with a genuine smile,
"I will do that for sure!!, and Lord, while you are here, please try the thing called squid they sell near the shore…. Ahh sorry to speak out of my way," she suddenly stopped as she realized she became too casual due to the comforting aura of the chubby noble,
"Really!? Why did no one tell me before... Squid, is that octopus-like thing right? I always wanted to eat it but never got a chance, where it is exactly?" seeing his excitement, the receptionist answered,
Unknown to them, there was someone else hearing their conversation.
'He seems like a kind person,' he thought as he moved toward the Noble from the corner of the counter,
"I would like to take this quest!!" he said to the receptionist, and chubby Noble was surprised at his luck when the Receptionist with a troubled look said,
"But he mentioned a party!" Noble nodded as she was right, but the man spoke.
"Am I not the only A-ranked Adventurer right now in Portum? And also someone who had been all the way to town next to Hinsmark before multiple times." the Receptionist was confused as to what to say when Chubby Noble spoke,
"Is it true, miss?" and she nodded,
"But…" she wanted to say something, but before she could, the man added,
"If you let me take the quest aside from your security, I know all the best eat in this port town" and as if he pulled the final straw, the chubby Noble held his hand forward,
"I'll be in your care Mr. adventurer" and the man nodded. The Noble give the order of changing the quest from a party to an individual and there wasn't much the receptionist could do as she prayed in her head.
'O Goddess of harvest, this Lord seems nice. May nothing bad happen…. keep Samuel in control'
"My name is Sam. Lord, I will be taking responsibility for your escort," the man said, and the Noble replied,
"My name is Faltar, I will be in your care… but for now please hurry and take me to stores," the Noble was excited like a child and as they leave, the receptionist said,
"Be safe and sound on your journey lord… I'll pray" her voice was full of concern and looking back now, the noble knew why,
When they roamed inside the city from one food store to another, Sam acted as a proper guide and host, and Faltar felt he got more than he bargained for and was delighted. He never minded eating at the commoner's place, although his father denied it.
'That is why I can never miss a chance on the trip!!' Faltar thought as he ate the squid, but strangely, Sam never ate something even when offered and just smiled saying,
"I can't ask more of the lord than I am already getting" looking back, it was quite strange, but in lust for food, Faltar did not think much of it,
The next day the carriage was ready with the driver who brought him here and they waited for Sam who was later than the departure time,
"Ahh, there you are… I thought we got ditched!!" the chubby noble complained, but moving a bag up spoke,
"I was just buying some potions and poison cures just in case."
'It makes sense it is a long journey and even while arriving here there were poison monsters in the Zerah area,' Faltar thought and spoke,
"I'll pay for them Mr. Sam, or you will incur loss more than profit from the quest," but Sam denied flat,
"I can't let the Lord pay for them as this is me just being cautious" even though he felt like trying more, Faltar's father taught him not to be generous where people deny your generosity,
With this, all of them boarded the carriage which was plated in silver and looked beautiful under the sun, all the way Sam fought occasional monsters that came in the way and Faltar thought,
'It was worth having an A rank adventure as escort'. It was till that happened, that which was responsible for the state Fusion Souls found him in,
"Ahh, we entered Zerah forest when we were coming here. There were many poisonous monsters" Faltar chuckled, but Sam's eyes were closed and he was being a bit weird,
And suddenly the driver shouted,
"There are big crocodiles out here!! Sam, it is your job!!" and it was then it happened. Sam began laughing, his wide grin full of madness, and when he opened his eyes, they were filled with blood lust,
"Are you alright Mr. Sam!?" Faltar asked, concerned, but Sam bashed out of the carriage without speaking anything, taking his broad sword and the bag filled with potions and poison cure,
"Lord, I am sorry, but it seems there are too many of them" his voice was still seemingly calm when he added laughing,
"Even if we could be safe after killing two and escaping, I can't help it!! I want to kill them all after all!!" his voice was filled with madness,
"What are you saying, Sam? Have you gone mad!?" Faltar asked, scared as somehow more and more crocodiles were coming out of the woods towards Sam.
"Lord, sadly I have to abandon the quest please get going… with my [Call of challenge] this place will soon have over 20 monsters!!" he stabbed a Mist croc's head and got a bite in the shoulder but ignoring it he switched to stab a toxic croc who jumped over him and he threw it towards the carriage and it landed on top of the carriage,
"What is happening!?" the driver was confused by the sudden occurrence and growing number of appearing monsters,
"This is true freedom!! When I can fight those, I want! Without care, we will give it our all! Hail Teran, I will live free as you taught!!" he shouted and Faltar realized,
'A follower of Teran…. This madness deviants!? How in the hell he baited me to bring him here!!' Faltar rarely feels angry, but this was one of the moments he did and he was confused about what to do there was a toxic croc on top of the carriage and the adventurer he hired for protection was attracting more monsters for the fun of fighting,
"Hahaha come here you big lizards!!" Sam shouted like a lunatic and the driver was still too shocked to begin driving when Sam suddenly threw another Toxic croc towards the carriage and it ended up on top of horses clawing them,
The horses in turn ran hard forward in pain and the driver finally tightened the leash for control when Sam shouted,
"Go fast enough and you will shake them off!! Maybe see you in the Hinsmark Lord!! Hahahaha!!"
"You idiot deviant!? I will not let a deviant like you step in there!!" the carriage moves forward fast and Faltar felt scared for his life as the Toxic croc moves on top of the carriage the driver was also scared as hell due to one toxic croc being in front of him and another behind above him on carriage top,
'Please please, I want to live, Light Goddess. Help me!!' he prayed as he maintained the carriage position on the road until he finally saw people camping on the side of the road.
'Adventurers!!' he thought and stopped the carriage near them.
"Help me!! that bloody idiot!!? If you people help me, I'll pay twice the average price for escorting requests!!"
And that was how they ended up coming in front of the Fusion souls.
"And this was how we ended up in that strange situation," Faltar said, his face visibly red from anger but he chuckled again,
"Well, I guess this meat can justify it a bit… I did not know you can eat Toxic croc mist," Aiena replied.
"As long as you remove poison sacs first,"
Ryu, who just heard the tale, thought,
'I hope I don't come across a Teran worshipper…. There are a lot of types of deities in this world, but this one is just Mad!!' and he was not wrong as Teran is the deity of Madness,
In the world of Pefrion Deities exists below Gods, various of them representing diverse concepts. there had been living beings who ended up becoming deities due to being worshiped by people for their exemplary deeds after their death,
Also, some spirits became deities and there were deities known to become God, for example, God of War and Valor, most people choose to worship deities along with one of the 6 Gods,
But there were also dedicated devotees of many deities who'll only worship them,
"Lord Faltar…" Ryu was about to ask something, but Faltar interrupted.
"Please just Faltar, I do know about customs, but having my life savior call me Lord will be very unbecoming of me,"
"Faltar, do you think that guy will make it to Hinsmark?" Ryu was curious as he thought,
'I would not want to meet someone that maniacal,' Faltar answered.
"Even if he did, I will have him exiled at once… there are young kids in town, and I would not want any being influenced by a Teran worshiper," Hearing this Ryu thought,
'Although I don't support the discrimination based on religion. But…. Teran worshipers are literally worshipping madness and the dude also sort of scammed Faltar so I guess that justifies it' and he sighed,
"Shall we get going then!?" Ryu asked and Jue enthusiastically nodded.
"Yes, big brother!! I want to conquer the dungeon!!" and hearing what Jue said, Faltar said,
"Your party planning on dungeon? I might have some things you'll find interesting… let's go. I'll tell you on the way"
Aiena carefully folded the mattress and put it in the bag, Ryu took out the campfire and Jue buried the Toxic croc bones using [Ground loosening] and they all boarded the carriage towards the Hinsmark which now they'll be able to reach just in a day and Ryu thought,
'Well, I guess this is what we call a favorable encounter!!'
