30 - Entering Loka Town

The 4 young adventurers along with Val headed to Loka Town once Val had finished packing up and storing his things. The adventurers immediately noticed that Val used a spatial ring, not a spatial pouch.

This young boy in front of them was a mystery to them. He was powerful, talented, and now clearly rich, as spatial rings cost a fortune and are quite rare. Usually, only nobles, rich merchants, and high-ranking adventurers would have a spatial ring, everyone else with a bit of money would just use a spatial pouch.

Both Lizzy and Bindy had noticed his good looks and slim but very toned body. They both found his appearance very pleasing, especially his silver hair which reflected the light and really stood out. There were a few elves in Loka town, so they had met elves before, but none of them had silver hair like Val.

Val chatted with the 4 young adventurers as they hurridly walked to town. Val shared a little about himself, that he was an orphan, and that he had only just become an adventurer 2 weeks ago.

They were all surprised, they had thought that Val might be a noble or the heir to a large commerce chamber, but they could not be further from the truth.

The 4 of them shared a little about themselves as well. Bobby and Dobby were twins, their father was a blacksmith and their mother a seamstress.

Lizzy's mother and father were both adventurers, she had a lot of siblings, who all became adventurers. In her family, it was kind of like tradition to become an adventurer at the age of 10, and go off on your first adventure by yourself. Val thought it was rather harsh for parents to not assist their child but she still had formal training before she left which was better than what he had received.

As for Bindy, she was an orphan like Val, from a town in the Viscounty. She was similar to Val in the sense that adventuring was her only option but she had also known this was what she wanted to do from a young age.

The group continued to travel at a good speed, they would make small talk, slowly getting to know Val, and Val was slowly getting to know them.

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After a few hours, they reached the walls of Loka Town, which were being guarded by a few guards. The group approached, and the four young adventurers were recognized by the guards.

However, the guards could clearly see something was off with the group. They could see that the young party leader was missing and a new boy with silver hair, who they had never seen was with them.

The guards were a little cautious when they approached. Lizzy realized the guard's concern and exclaimed,

"We have an incident to report!"

The guards looked at the group and then called over a few more guards.

Lizzy then approached two guards while two other guards watched the gate. Lizzy explained what had happened and who Val was.

The guards were a bit concerned, Jim and his brother were arrogant, but Jim's brother had the strength to back it up. Of course, he never did anything to the guards, so the guards never needed to deal with him, but the guards were still aware of the plethora of incidents with other peasants involving the brothers.

Once Lizzy finished explaining the situation, the guards turned to Val and asked if there was any proof of the incident,

"Do you have anything to support your claims?"

Val was a bit confused,

"Is his ex-party members as witnesses not enough evidence?"

The guard sighed,

"Kind of, but it's not concrete evidence."

Val frowned but he thought he might as well give that a shot.

Val took out Jamal's sigil from his spatial ring. When the guard saw a noble sigil his entire demeanor changed. His back straightened immediately and he became far more formal.

He looked at the crest on the sigil but did not recognize it, this was not that big of a deal, he was just a guard and was not taught about all noble crests.

He explained to Val,

"Sorry sir, I will have to get my Captain to have a look, I am not familiar with this crest."

Val was a bit surprised, he did not like being called 'sir' by someone so much older than him but wanted to play it cool,

"Okay no problem, and you don't need to call me 'sir', that makes me uncomfortable, I am a lot younger than you and a peasant."

The guard nodded and went to get his captain. He was very confused about the situation.

He thought the kid was part of the noble family, and that is why he had the sigil, but if he called himself a peasant he must have received it as a sign of friendship. But that was very hard to believe, Val was a young boy and a peasant, so why would a noble give his sigil and want others to recognize the boy as a friend?

The guard decided to stop thinking about it and leave it to his captain to figure out.

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Val and the group were waiting patiently by the gate, eventually, the guard and another man, who had a more distinguished appearance and equipment, came toward them.

The captain had been briefed about the situation and the silver-haired boy by the guard. So when he arrived at the group he introduced himself,

"Hello, I am Guard Captain Johnny, I have already been briefed about what happened, may I see the sigil please?"

Val nodded and brought it out of his spatial ring, Johnny did not miss the fact that Val had a spatial ring. Johnny took the sigil and recognized it immediately.

As the Guard Captain of an important town in Broski County, he was taught about many noble families and their crests. Count Giovani Broski was a part of Duke Dolan's faction, therefor he had seen Knight Jamal's crest before.

The Guard captain had many questions for Val but decided to ask the important things first,

"May I know how you received this sigil and from who?"

Val could tell from his tone, he was being tested, so he answer honestly,

"I met Jamal and the Blue Trident merchant caravan on my travels here, I ended up traveling with them for a few days, in which time we were attacked by the Sharp Sheild Bandits, we ended up eliminating them all, and Jamal gave me his crest, along with a spatial pouch containing the bodies of the leaders. He also gave me a letter to give to the adventurers guild master to confirm what happened."

When everyone heard Val's story they were stunned. The Sharp Sheild Bandits were notorious and feared all around this area of the Kingdom. If what Val said was true, it was truly a blessing.

The guard captain needed to confirm the validity of Val's story and report it to the Count,

"May I see the corpses and read the letter to confirm the validity of what you just said?"

When Val heard this he frowned, it was not that he did not want to prove his story to the guard captain, but Jamal had given him explicit instructions to hand over everything to the guild master. Val decided to explain the situation, so as not to cause any problems,

"Sorry, but Jamal has told me to hand over the letter and the corpses to the Adventurers Guild Master."

The guard captain was unhappy initially but when he heard that Val had been told by Jamal to hand over everything to the guild master, he understood. A noble had asked him to do something, so going against the noble's request would be an insult to the noble.

The captain gave a nod in understanding and then spoke to the entire group,

"Okay I understand, you've done the correct thing, it's smart of you to follow the request of Sir Jamal. You should all follow me, we will head to the adventurers guild and have the guild master confirm everything."

The other 4 young adventurers had not spoken since Lizzy explained the situation to the guard. Val had surprised them so much that they did not know what to say. Though they all now understood why Val was not worried about Jim or his brother. Val was backed by a noble, so to him Jim and his brother were nothing in comparison.

The group entered the town following the guard captain. The guard captain is easily recognized by the towns folk, raising the curiosity of everyone that witnessed the scene. They did not know why a bunch of young adventurers were being escorted by someone so important. They were not tied up or in handcuffs nor was the guard captain wary of them so they did not think they were under arrest.

The group walked through town for about 10 minutes. Val was amazed, this was the first time he had been to a town outside of Vicla Town. Vicla Town was a small town, which could only barely be called a town. Whereas Loka Town was a well-established town, which had received large investments in its development.

Val looked around and saw all the buildings were made of red and brownstone, with nice tiles on the roof. It was far more developed and of higher quality than the wooden houses in Vicla Town.

Val also noticed the brick roads they were walking on which seemed to be of far higher quality than Vicla Towns. The roads were also much wider, they had clearly been designed with the consideration of carriages and carts.

Val also noticed there were a lot more people around than in Vicla Town, and the percentage of young people was much higher. Val was not surprised about this, after all this Town was primarily developed for the use of young adventurers exploring the dungeon.

After walking for a bit they reached a tall and wide brick building. The building was the largest around and had a rather majestic aura around it. It regularly had young adventurers coming and going, and Val was very impressed by the demeanor of the building. The building was the Loka Adventurers Guild.