The Fated Caravan

On the outskirts of a forest, a young adult human could be seen. He held a short spear with a wooden base and metal tip. As he traversed the forest, he stopped, and took out a small coin and flipped it with his fingers. Looking at the heads presented on the coin, he said to himself, "It's Left, then." He took a left, and within seconds, a small rabbit came into view, which quickly got speared to death. "It's because I'm so good!" The human muttered to himself. He looked at the coin in his pocket and sighed. He could still remember the day that he, Micheal Marketwire first obtained these powers.

Years ago, a young Micheal of only thirteen years thought himself smart and powerful. In an effort to do something, whereas that something was already forgotten and irrelevant, he wandered deep into the forest and found a scroll. "A scroll? Good thing I can read... lets see..."

'Fortune Teller Pathway' 'Step 1 - Fortune Teller.

Description: Able to perform different types of divination to predict the future and outcome of events. Gains proficiency in basic rituals and minor talent in magic. Can more easily absorb information. They can intuitively detect danger using their spirituality.

Warning - Do not do more than once. Will only have negative effects.

"This... whats this? I've heard people talk about those with special powers, but I've never actually seen any. Is this how you gain special powers? It must be fate! It's because I'm so smart!" 'Although the fact that I'd find a scroll on this at random is..... no! It's not suspicious! It's luck! If it doesn't work then I'd lose nothing, if it works then I'd gain everything! I'd put my life in danger for a chance to gain special powers!'

Advancement Procedure - 30g of mind crystal dust - 200mg of ground sage mushrooms - 15g of quartz powder - 50g of iron powder - 12 cat or fox whiskers - 50g of ash from a dead pigeon - 1 liter of water - a fortune telling crystal ball big enough to hold to above items.

Detriments - Causes turbulence in ones mental state as its being augmented, which can cause one to fall into a deep depression in seconds if not confident or careful enough.

Workaround - Confidence in oneself to predict outcome of events. Study of cause and effect and logic. Successfully predict minor events through logic and intuition for at least a week.'

Mix together and put your hands inside. Absorb with confidence. Survive.

'Something like this....' Micheal was suddenly skeptical, but soon reaffirmed his beliefs. 'I would do anything apart from evil for power! Something like this that can hardly threaten my life, I could never hesitate! Especially with items like these which are easily found...'

Days later, in a small, wooden and dusty room. The young Micheal sat down with all the ingredients. It cost him alot, but he was content. All the money used was hard earned by himself! He would never use his hard working single mothers money. Speaking of his mother, his dad really left before he was born. He was literally an accident!

In the crystal ball which had a hole cut from the top, Micheal put in the mind crystal dust. Upon touching the crystal ball, there was a faint light emitted. Upon the addition of the sage mushrooms, the mind crystal dust seemed to stir by itself. Each additional ingredient produced more faint but odd reactions, until the water was added and mixed. All reactions seemed to stop.

'Is this it?' Micheal wondered. 'Perhaps I did a step wrong? No, it can't be. I know I followed everything perfectly. It's because I'm actually so smart! This is how the solution should be. When I put my hands inside, I will absorb everything perfectly. There is no reason for anything to go wrong!'

With these thoughts Micheal put his hands in the solution. 'How to absorb this? Well, simple, since the scroll didn't bother specifying, then I just have to think, ABSORB!' With these thoughts, the solution seemed to seep into his hands and up his arms into his body. With the solution seeping into his hands, some thoughts seemed to float into his head. 'It's being absorbed into my body! I can't handle this!' Micheals mind seemed to blank out a bit, but was quickly replaced with other thoughts. 'It works! I knew it! I will gain the power to tell the future! I knew this would happen and that absolutely nothing could go wrong!'

With all the solution dissipating into his hands, soon nothing was left. He felt like he could suddenly do more...

...

On the way back to his village while holding a dead rabbit and spear, Micheal laughed to himself. 'I sure was rash and overconfident back then. But, I guess I got lucky. It seemed that the state of mind of confidence to tell the future was to counteract those weird thoughts I got during absorbing the solution.'

Micheal stood at the entrance to a small, wooden home and sighed. 'I've lived here all my life. I almost can't bear to leave it... but tomorrow will be my 18th birthday. I will become an adult. A small village like this is hardly considered part of the Lunalla Nation. I can't let my powers go to waste! I will go to the big city, but not just any city, I will travel far to the capital and make it big! I heard that at normal cities, people don't need to hunt for food! I heard all the houses are made of sturdy brick and concrete, and they can regulate the temperatures in their house! I heard that there is never a risk of being attacked by monsters and have all sorts of wonderful inventions that make life easier.' With these thoughts in mind, Micheal opened the door.

"Mother, I'm home! I caught an entire rabbit!"

A middle aged woman soon appeared into view. "Oh Micheal, tomorrow is your 18th birthday and your still hunting? You should take it easy!"

"Mother, It's my responsibility to make sure we eat well everyday. After all, you work so hard everyday to maintain everything we have!"

There was a knock on the door at this moment. A female voice was heard. "Mary, It's me!"

"Come in!" Micheal responded first.

An older woman walked in the door. "Ah Micheal, your already back from hunting I see? I was just about to talk to your mother Mary about your birthday preparations. After all, tomorrow you become a man!"

'Mother and Amelia always talk for hours, I'll just head out...'

...

Night rises and falls. Today was Micheal 18th birthday. The celebrations were grand and spectacular, but Micheal just couldn't get into the mood. 'I plan on leaving... I really should have brought this topic up earlier.' In the afternoon, as activities were ending near the afternoon, Micheal pulled out a coin out of his pocket and muttered, 'I should tell everyone about my decision to leave now' He flipped the coin. It was heads. 'I should tell everyone.'

"Everyone." This statement by the star of the day addressed to everyone gathered everyone attention. Micheal gathered up his courage, going from nervous to confident in seconds as he remembered the results of his divination. Micheal walked up to the a raised area where he could address everyone better.

"I've come to make an announcement. I, Micheal Marketwire have a dream. I plan to go to the city and make it big. Thats right, I plan to go to the city, and use my amazing talents and become rich! I'll come back when I've made it and share the spoils with the rest of you!

The announcement shocked everyone into silence.

Mary didn't speak, as if she had already expected this. A young girl quickly rose up, "Micheal, your leaving us...?"

Micheal sighed, knowing that he should have prepared earlier, but he simply didn't. Leaving everything to the last day, this was the best he could do. 'I have a dream that I will accomplish. I can't give this up.'

Mary then spoke up. "Oh Micheal.... I knew you were always destined for a bigger stage, something more than our tiny close-nit village, come in back home. I have something to tell you."

Walking inside, Micheal walked in curiously. His nervousness was gone due to the results of the divination, but he wasn't excited either. Mary then spoke. "It's about your father."

"My Father!? That douche that literally impregnated and evacuated!"

"Don't speak about him like that Micheal.... he could never settle down in a small village like ours. I, too was a bit irresponsible back then."

"Micheal.. you've heard about the tale of the three heroes. The classic tale of a human, orc, and elf, all mustering great power and defeating the insane demon lord whose dark powers threatened the land. This story was true. Your father is the grandchild of the human hero."

'....mhmm mhmm.' Micheals thoughts slowed down as he processed this information. 'Mhmm mhmm so I'm the descendant of a human hero and I wasn't informed of this until now because... null?'

"Mother... why are you suddenly telling me this? How come I didn't know this earlier?"

Mary turned away from Micheal, and covered her face in which tears threatened to fall from. "Your ancestors all lead lives of adventure and danger. I love you, son. I wouldn't want to lose you too. I feared that if you knew this information, you would hope to be just like them."

"That... mother..." 'It's absolutely true. With how I was back then, I absolutely would have wanted to be a great hero too, and that would have still been my dream today...' "Thats true mother."

Mary looked up at her son with tears leaking from her eyes.

"But I, Micheal Marketwire have a dream which I will follow through on. My actions will no longer be influenced by information of this kind. I will come back safe and sound, bringing riches with me. I'll own a great place in the city and bring you with me to have a peaceful life."

With these words being said, Micheal walked up to his mother and gave her a great hug. "Then, Micheal.. I will fully support you. Have you already gathered all that you need to travel? The merchant caravan is set to come tomorrow. For a fee, they will take you with them on their trip which will eventually lead to the Capital."

Micheal looked up at his mother, tears threatening to flow from his eyes. "Thank you, mother."

.....

Soon, Micheal paid three hundred silver coins to the muscular, balding man in charge of the merchant caravan. Handing the coins nearly made Micheal feel physical pain. That was entire three hundred silver coins! Each silver coin worth a hundred copper coins, three hundred silver coins was equivalent to three gold coins! No one ever uses those, it's worth so much!

Micheal stepped inside one of the carriages, in which inside was a guard with a sword at his right waist and a strange L-shaped item at the left.

With the carriage departing, Micheal waved goodbye at the shrinking image of the village he lived his whole life in. He would finally go to the capital!

...

At the same time, in a small orc village. An orc of the name Dante Aduxtire was told of his future by an old and wise female orc

"It is your job to become village leader. Just like your ancestors of the past, all the men of your linage were Village leaders." she told Dante.

Dante sighed "For the past 17 years I've been told this over and over..."

"But this is the year you finally take upon this honor and lead the village into the new-" she was saying before being cut off.

"And I'm sick of it, I don't want to become village chief or lead anything, I'm sick of being expected to be this hard working man!" Dante yelled at the woman as he stormed out of the tent.

A familiar orc with a balding hairline ran up to Dante,

"DANTE! COME BACK!" The man yelled.

"I don't care that you want me to be like you, I'm leaving this whack ass village, y'all can find a new leader that's not me!" Dante clashed back.

The orc was now angrier than before "YOU'VE REFUSED TO TAKE THIS POSITION FOR 17 YEARS AND IT'S TIME YOU FACE REALITY, EITHER TAKE THE POSITION OR LEAVE AND NEVER RETURN!"

Dante turned back and smiled, "Gladly".

....

Dante walked back into his home and grabbed all of his things. His pouch of money, his clothes, anything that he ever found important, he took and packed away. Two guards meet him in his room. The forcefully grabbed him by the arms and dragged him out. All of the villagers were out of their houses. They watched as the current village chief stood and shouted.

"Today originally was the day I, Vergil Aduxtire, stepped down from the position of village chief, and my son, Dante would finally take over. But he has decided he'd rather leave the village since he's too lazy to become village chief." the balding man yelled.

Another orc stepped on stage, similar to the age of Dante.

"I will step up and take position of chief leader that Dante has unfortunately put down," he said with a smile.

Dante looked back on stage and thought 'I'll give them two months before the village somehow gets destroyed by that sorry excuse of an orc.' he thought this and was immediately yoinked outside of the village gate.

Vergil stepped to the edge of the village and yelled, "LEAVE BEFORE THE WOLVES COME OUT!"

Dante got up, brushed himself off and walked towards the path leading outside the village. He sighed and didn't turn back. 'Good job, I've planned this for 12 years, the ultimate plan to achieve maximum comfortableness while also not having to work myself to death as village chief.'

Dante had already had chosen the Apprentice pathway, which consists mostly of magic and spells. While Vergil thought he had chosen this to become a powerful orc warlock like the great hero orc that defeated the Demon Lord of the past, Dante had a better plan. He knew that there was a branched path of the Apprentice pathway, named the Summoner pathway. With this, he could have creatures that he summoned fight for him and do all the hard work as he sat back and watched.

....

He eventually found a splitting path. One path lead to the Dawn Village, another orc town that he could study on how to become a strong warlock. The other path lead to the capital of Lunalla. There, he could learn all about the Summoner Pathway and could finalize his plan to become the laziest but most successful person in the world. On that path, there was a caravan which was stopped at the side of the road.

The Caravan then started moving again. The horses began moving the carriage and headed to the capital. Dante made his choice. He wouldn't let his dream die out and ran as fast as he could towards the caravan. He then tripped and fell on the ground.

"Caravan wait!" Dante yelled out.

'So this is where my dream ends, huh' he thought as he tried getting back up.

Suddenly a carriage pulled up next to him. It was half the size of the other Caravan and its horses looked like it hadn't eaten in weeks.

"Did someone call for a caravan?" the man said as he reached his hand out towards Dante. "Only three hundred silver to get to the capital!"

Dante got up and passed the man the money gratefully. He hopped in the back and saw one guard and one other human. Dante sat down and looked back one last time towards Dawn Village.

'Fuck that' was his final thought as the carriage began to move.