Encounter on the Road

More than twenty days later...

A staggering and exhausted teenager walked out of the sparse forest.

The long robe with yellow, black, red and other colors was not much better than a rag now.

At the age of fourteen or fifteen, with black hair all over his head, strips of cloth were wrapped around with tender green vines, barely covering the important parts of his body.

The pieces of bark tied under his feet acted as shoes. Only the small backpack behind him was intact.

"Unfamiliar places, I can never rush in like this again in the future..."

In front of him was a wide and flat dirt road. Silently taking a last look at the forest behind him, Raymond sighed in his heart.

In just 20 days, Raymond, who could remember seven symbols, finally walked out alive from the forest behind him.

Since the talking big tree ran away, with the help of the chip, Raymond avoided the ferocious beasts along the way, and occasionally friction with the bloodthirsty plants in the forest, but overall, he came out safely.

And because of the man-faced fruit, his genes have also changed slightly.

He became stronger, his speed improved significantly, his endurance and skin toughness were undergoing subtle improvements.

In the forest behind, there were all kinds of strange beasts, and the strange plants made Raymond sigh.

After the talking big tree ran away, Raymond rested in place for one day before continuing on his journey.

While carefully avoiding large wild beasts, the chip also collected a lot of audio information of the roars of ferocious beasts. Out of curiosity, Raymond fully recorded the audio information of several wild beasts over 5 meters high with black manes across a big river.

This kind of beast that almost killed Raymond was named "Black Mane Bear" by Raymond. They were relatively dominant beasts in this forest. So with this information, after being edited and translated by the chip, Raymond had the means to communicate with this ferocious beast.

On the road behind, although other beasts in the forest were puzzled that Raymond's body size was completely different from that of the black mane bear, the roar from Raymond's body was authentic and fierce. Occasionally, some unexpected beasts would immediately turn around and flee after Raymond played a roar like driving them away, allowing him to avoid many fatal attacks.

What put Raymond in a dilemma were the plants that grew on the ground and looked harmless. Such predatory plants in the forest brought Raymond a lot of trouble.

The movable vines, the big trees that sprayed fog, the plants that emitted alluring fragrance and produced illusions all made Raymond take risks several times and almost died in this forest.

Dozens of images and audio information of ferocious beasts, thousands of plant images, these were Raymond's harvest during the many days crossing the forest.

The ferocious beasts daring to approach were frightened away by the various roars of beasts played by Raymond. And with the comparison of plant pictures, those aggressive plants could no longer trick Raymond into approaching.

However, on the 15th day in the forest, a slightly smaller black mane bear was misunderstood by the roar played by the chip, and this male black mane bear suspiciously followed Raymond for two full days.

This male black mane bear was obviously in heat, probably just becoming an adult. It was less than two meters tall. In the two days following Raymond, its eyes were always on Raymond's butt, and it would come up affectionately from time to time to sniff.

Fortunately, this ferocious beast did not have the habit of using force. After two anxious days, the ferocious beast in heat finally reluctantly turned and left, leaving Raymond relieved and fearful at the same time.

Recalling the experience in the forest for so many days, Raymond frowned and quickly stopped recalling these unpleasant events.

After changing into the last intact long robe, Raymond pinned the shining badge on his chest and turned his eyes to the road ahead.

A wide and flat yellow dirt road, the deep wheel marks showed that vehicles frequently traveled on this road.

Patiently waiting at the side of the road for a long time, when a huge caravan finally appeared in the distance, Raymond became excited.

However, when the caravan on the road saw Raymond standing at the side of the road, it stopped altogether, and several riders rushed out of the caravan.

Watching the approaching galloping horses, Raymond narrowed his eyes and became more vigilant.

The leader riding the galloping horses in a hurry wore exquisite armor, with a frightened expression on his face. And the men in the caravan were all dressed in gray and black clothes.

Hundreds of meters away, when the galloping horses approached Raymond, these riders stopped the galloping horses a hundred meters away from Raymond and got off their horses and walked over hurriedly.

The leader, a muscular man with a full beard and sideburns, did not wait to come to Raymond, bowed and asked fearfully and tremblingly:

"Noble and powerful wizard, do you have any orders?"

"..."

Seeing the people bowing their heads in front of him, Raymond was speechless.

Raymond's silence made these burly men standing even more frightened. The leader lowered his head even more: "I am the guard commander Hagel of the caravan. If you have any needs, please just order!"

Seeing the frightened expressions of these people, Raymond couldn't help narrowing his eyes.

After a moment of silence, guard commander Hagel's sweat flowed down. His hands behind him seemed to move slightly. He immediately took out something with his hands raised high and slowly came to Raymond. In his hands was a money bag, filled with golden coins.

The surprised Raymond looked at the young man standing bowed in front of him. Although he dared not look up at Raymond, his twitching cheeks and shaking body showed that he was very nervous.

Understanding that there must be some mystery, Raymond finally asked, "Where are you from and where are you going?"

As if relieved, Guard Commander Hagel immediately answered.

This caravan left the Oland Empire two days ago. They were transporting this batch of goods to the port of Octon in the Ogaso Kingdom. Along the way, they would pass through several small kingdoms and arrive there in about a month.

On the surface, Hagel, the guard of the caravan, was actually the commander of the forbidden troops of the lord of Octon Port. Because the transportation time of this trip was relatively tight, he was assigned to the caravan.

Seeing the guards of the caravan standing respectfully in front of him with their heads lowered, extremely nervous, Raymond slowly breathed a sigh of relief and stated his purpose.

"I want to go with you."