15 A Warm Welcoming

"You did a good thing using me sir, the others don't know these parts of the land and are only in it for the cash. You might even be swindled!"

The coachman made small talk along the way to the city. Paska was a trade city that connected the southernmost harbor to the mainland, but due to a conflict occurring in the Southern Trade Islands, trade has become stagnant and with the occurrence of the monster swarm, business diminished heavily and many companies were liquidated to move northward.

Hard to say the south of Sanghael was a particularly popular place as of now.

The trip goes on for hours before reaching more rural and desolate.

Cottages which used to number the far side roads numbered sparsely and with less goods.

The fields became desolate upon more travel with the occasional cabin in the middle of nowhere in between plains.

The sights of farm fields and livestock became stale but after a general two weeks, they arrived.

The carriages in the city were usually magic crafted while those who lived in the less developed area would think of it as a luxury.

If he had to calculate the travel time, he would probably say it would take almost a month to arrive.

"So this is Paska...."

"Indeed it is! I reckon."

The coachman knew as well that this was Paska. The number of dead and decaying trees were numbering in the thousands at the instant on their line of sight.

"I thought it would be more.....luscious green."

"Well, due to the recent monster attacks, I'd say that those darn monsters were the roots of this say decaying trees!"

The trees began blocking their sights and slowly it became more apparent that something was near them. The groans and roars of the monsters became much more louder.

The coachman however held a straight face towards everything even with all the fear factors all around them.

Apparently he was an adventurer who did it for the money but was getting nowhere, so he opened up a carriage. Monsters were normal sightings and could be compared to a flies near a water source.

It was coming sooner or later but a monster ambushed the carriage.

It was all out of the blue and Ray started chanting the fireball spell and left it on standby.

The group of monsters were bipedal in nature with grey flesh that was falling off the bone which was visible.

These were zombies composed of mostly of peasants so they weren't very armed to go against the full impact of a fireball.

The fireball was sent flying at it which made the coachman, whose name was Lee, marvel at the fact that he didn't chant a single word.

"I haven't seen a magician done that before! All the magicians I've worked with had to."

He concentrated hard on the battle ahead and began forming Ice bolts and firing them consecutively until all of them were dead. The ice bolt would fling itself at the head of the monsters and dissipate after death.

But it seems, the usage of mana had attracted some monsters that were also sensitive to it.

Skeletons were rising from the ground and could be seen in the distance. And Ray wasn't doing so well on the mana. His mana capacity was that of a Level 1 magician and casting about three level 1 spells made a toll and he could fire another two or three.

He wasn't really good at practicing any battle arts as well so he was pretty much defenseless at that point and using the mana potion now would be just a waste.

Lee didn't mouth out a word but suddenly his carefree attitude came to a halt and he went to a compartment of the carriage right beside him and began equipping a leather chest plate as well as a simply designed iron short sword.

The carriage moved forward as ever as the mob of skeletons, which were far more armored than the zombies came rushing at them.

Lee was being overrun by two who're pulling the sides of the cart as well had already killed the horses pulling it.

They were sitting ducks and Ray just had no idea why he would continue moving in through the mob.

He was about to put his mouth on the potion so he could do his very best but a few stray arrows came out of nowhere which struck deeply in the skeleton's skull nearest to them.

A horn was heard in the background and a few men came rushing out of the thickets of trees with moderate armaments and hardened expressions. This was most obviously not their first experience dealing with situations such as these.

Thirteen men skillfully handled the situation and had one injury with a sword stuck in his left arm, which looked grotesque as it still remained, the bleeding continuing at the slowest pace as they began escorting the two.

Lee openly remarks if they could sell a horse to him so he could go elsewhere and they oblige and handed him a horse.

He paid for the horse through some silvers as well as some brew and was well off with his carriage.

The only one who remained was Ray and the band of people.

"So what brings you to these parts? Don't you know?"

"I have taken a mission to investigate the cause of the monster swarm by the Moire Academy of Magic."

"Ah?"

They didn't go much on the topic as the looks of a 14 year old kid saying that made him show his innocence of the real world.

"Well, nice to know they are trying to teach them to get first hand experience in combat I guess. Anyways welcome to Paska, what is your name?"

"My name is Ray. Yours?"

"Me? I'm Wesley. I'm a company captain of the Ironband Mercenaries."

He began the situation that this was going on for almost nine months and that was their untimely arrival to the city of Paska. The incident of a monster swarm reached the news and their sight as they began sieging the city and with their role in the whole event, they had to stay at Paska for 9 months to assure their safety. They also accepted mercenary work from the mayor of Paska to continue protecting until help arrives but no news came out of the reinforcements so they just remained.

They did it out of their hearts to protect it so their compensation for the whole ordeal was meager and would show definite losses to the Ironband. He even mentioned that their band used to have 100 men but had been reduced to 46. They arrived at the gates. Many blood puddles numbered throughout the mixed bodies of skeletons and mercenaries.

Some men on the city wall looked nervously among the group before seeing Wesley and sighed with relief.

"Open the gates!"

The gates began unhinging itself off the floor and lifted the sight of the city.

Houses were set aflame and were in total wrecks.

Large tents sprawled around the gate which became the nowadays Paska was only a fraction of the city.

It was a sight to behold that such a prospering city could suffer so much to become diminished.

A sign also was struck in the ground with force with some of the wrecked houses was.

"Welcome to Paska!"

In different fonts.

A warm welcoming indeed.