35. The Envoy (I)

CHAPTER 35: THE ENVOY (I)

I make my way to the restaurant. Fortunately David has already started preparing for the day ahead. I order a quick breakfast from him. Just a few pastries and some hot tea. With that ready I make my way towards the the western gate.

Before that is the matter of my horse. It's one of the horses I took from Helena. It's rather fast and quite wild but I've tamed it quite quickly. It's black fits well with my ensemble.

The city is just about waking up. There are noticeably fewer people on the streets. The tea is like the same as earth. The biscuits are a bit hard but still better than the ones I had in Torak.

In no time at all I see the west gate in sight. Riele appears to already be waiting for me with a small bag. She too is on horseback like I told her. It should make our travels as efficient as possible. I can't waste more time on this. Once I get within close proximity to the envoy, the mission notification should pop up. That will confirm everything for me. After that all I need is to think of a plan to rescue while also not getting myself killed.

"You ready to go?" I ask Riele.

"I packed lightly like you told me. I'm all ready for departure." She replies.

"Good! We won't be stopping anytime soon. Did you have breakfast?"

"Yes, I'm ready!"

"Okay, let's go."

We walk out with our horses. Exiting the Fort isn't as complicated as entering it. The guards don't even stop you. They just watch the people entering the city.

We quickly find ourselves outside the Fort walls with nothing but forest in front of us. Unlike the South and South East , the west is just mostly valleys and forest.

"You're familiar with the terrain so you should lead the way." I ask Riele.

"Of course, just follow me." She answers.

And so we ride our horses full sprint away from the Fort. I should be back by tomorrow or maybe the day after.

It's about late afternoon, can't really tell the time. If I were to guess I'd say around 18 or 19 o'clock. I've been hear over a month and I still can't tell the time. More like 2 months considering the longer hours of the day.

We've been traveling through the valleys all day but the ground has evened out mostly for a while. Just a few hills here and there. We stopped a few hours ago to rest and water the horses. Since we both didn't bring lunch we just rested for an hour or so. Since then it's been non stop travel.

"The village should be just behind that hill beyond the forest!" Riele suddenly points to the massive hill beyond the forest.

Okay this is it. Either my mission starts now or not. I'm not too worried about the duration and time limit. Kyle said the time limit differs depending on the mission. The first two MISSIONS were both only 1 hour so I don't know what the limit is.

"Okay so we need to stop here. I need to check a few things." I said to her.

We quickly stop and get off the horses in a nice secluded area away from prying eyes. I drink from the water bottle Riele brought. I really didn't bring much of anything. With my insides cooled and my thirst quenched I close my eyes and face towards the village.

At this distance I should be able to sense the people and get an accurate number of hostiles to civilians.

"Hmmm... let's see..."

I count a total of 124. A total of 46 hostiles judging by their slightly larger Ki to the villagers.

"How many people are in your village, just the villagers?" I asked Riele.

"I'm not sure. Including me maybe just over 60." She answers.

That's not reliable but neither is my ability to sense different people. I cannot really differentiate between my foes and civilians. I can only tell the ones with the slightly stronger Ki but it's so minimal there's almost no actual difference.

Right now in total i can sense around 500 Ki signatures. Now I've learnt to differentiate humans, elves and Beastkin to animals. Their Ki feels slightly different. Using that I can determine there are about 124 humans, elves and Beastkin. As I said before I think 46 are hostiles but that's only based on their slightly larger Ki.

Okay think.... think. So Riele said just over 60 including her. So at the safest let me say 65 at the most and 55 at the least. If I look at it that way then an at minimum I have to face 59 and a maximum of 69. I think that's a good estimation. Okay so now I need to see the village and devise a plan of infiltration. I just need to get within 100 meters and the notification will show up if Jake Davids is being held there.

"We need to approach on foot now. The horses can stay here should we need them." I explained.

It's a nicely secluded area that you won't find your hand in front your face. The horses should be safe enough here.

"Okay." Riele agreed.

And so we begin our hike up the mountainous forest. Surrounded by a sea of green we cut across. I can't believe how fit I am now. Even walking up this steep hill I don't feel anything. The forest itself ain't half bad. The trees ain't that tall like the one I came into this world. Those trees were tens of meters and even hundreds high up. These are mostly just between 5 and 10 meters. Some even shorter. The forest floor is littered with leaves bones and twicks. A few bugs and such things wondering about.

So anyway we reach the top of the mountain. I don't really know the difference between a hill and mountain. Maybe I do but I'm too lazy to think about it.

The village is a few hundred meters ahead. It's quite small or maybe I was just used to seeing big shit. In total it's only about the size of a football(soccer) stadium. The buildings are worn down and about to collapse. The roads are made of dirt and mud. I can see just a few people walking around the fenced perimeter of the village. They all appear to be wearing some kind of red and black leather uniform. They're all big and bulky guys with weapons. If this guys are the villagers then this world is shit.

Fortunately this world is not shit and I think they are the mercenaries. Although I don't understand why mercenaries will capture a village. Maybe they're hired which would make sense.

Like a football field it's kind of a long rectangular shape to it. There are guards patrolling the entire perimeter. There don't appear to be too many openings. The forest clears up about a hundred meters away from the village. It should get me close enough to confirm what I need to confirm.

"There's something I need to confirm. It's very risky so you must follow me closely." Riele nods at my sentence.

Okay so here we go. I close my eyes and concentrate on the surroundings. All the people are just in or around the village. That's the first step. Second are the watch towers. There is one on each gate. They seem pretty high up for a maximum vantage point. It's risky but the sit should be less risky. I mean the gates are only on the north and south.

"Follow me closely." I emphasise the point. Once again she nods to show she hears me.

I start our climb down the hill. Trying my best to stay in the tree cover. I concentrate on the shadowy figure inside the tower to the south. He seems to be watching this way but he's not showing any reaction. As we continue to descend he suddenly turns to the south.

Shit! Did he see us? I quickly hide behind a tree along with Riele. Hmmm? No he didn't see us. There's some kind of commotion to the south. That can't bother me, i need to use this chance.

We immediately start running for the edge of the forest. In front the forest just cuts off and nothing but open ground leads up to the fence of the village made of sharpened plank wood. The edge of the forest comprises of tall leave trees fenced by shrubs.

"Why are they all looking south?" Riele asks.

We both turn to the south along with them. Damn it all! Fuck this bull shit! I remember that bastard from the other day.

Going towards the village I was to infiltrate is a party of those stupid Beastkin. Who's the leader at the front. Wearing some kind of long purple Chinese gi. A young man with a long red cape beside him. A super model of a chick if I've ever seen one on the other side.

Behind them is the Beastkin I fought along with the short skinny bastard who can move like a blur. Why now of all times. This only further complicates things.

"JAKE DAVIDS DETECTED"

"MISSION 3 PENDING"

"START OR SKIP"

Goddamit!! How the hell am I suppose to do this now? This is all just bulshit!

[Wassup dudes and dudets. So things finally get interesting. Pay close attention to the next few chapters. If you can't wait you can now read on my patreon page. 20-30 chapters ahead.]