The Journey to Hitutsa: Chapters 2-4

I took some time out for the rest of the day to go around looking at some other things in the village that might need some attention.

The people that we had saved while on the way during our first journey had mostly recovered and had assimilated in with the village. Putting those people aside, there were two villagers who would’ve recovered eventually anyway but were able to benefit from a touch of healing magic. I sent out my Elephant Frog to help with plowing some of the fields given the lack of beasts of burden, but that was more of a drop of water in a well rather than making a massive change.

The villagers were doing a good enough job getting back up on their feet on their own, with anything that they really needed like food already provided for.

I got to sleep indoors that night rather than setting up a tent in the woods, which was another reason I had taken the detour.

The next day I set out, and though nothing of interest happened, it was my first time sleeping in the great outdoors that night. Sleeping on the ground was something that I had only really done back when I had come to Arconia initially, and was a bit hard to get used to as this was the wilderness and not a city street. I considered summoning the Elephant Frog for no other reason than to be able lie on its soft belly like a giant mattress, but I wanted to save it in case I needed it in an emergency.

There was a reason why I had chosen to use the bear instead of the Elephant Frog as my primary means of transport - it was much harder to grip onto the Elephant Frog than the bear, which made loading it with the stuff I was carrying harder as well unless I also wanted to lug around a cart with me. But because it was better for getting away quickly, even if we were off the road, it was an excellent backup if I chose to abandon everything to run away. On the other hand, on level ground, while carrying a passenger and some baggage, the bear was not that much slower than the frog.

The following two nights, I was able to find a village whose infrastructure was good enough that they were able to rent me a room. Most villages were far worse off than Granny Qi’s - some of them had been abandoned entirely it seemed as there was nothing left other than the outline of some houses in the dirt. Others were hardly more than just a bunch of tents with a rickety wall surrounding them to dissuade wild animals, and sometimes not even that.

Still, that was better than lying on the ground in the middle of the wilderness even if it was just sleeping in the back of a barn. I would have my red fox stand guard over me while I slept as yet another precautionary measure, whether I was in a village or out in the wilderness. That was another advantage to traveling in groups - having someone to take turns to keep watch at night. Without anyone else to rely on other than myself, I could only turn to the Rank One summon to watch out for danger as I hit the hay.

I only traveled nine hours a day with the help of the bear, and time was about to run out, I’d find a village or a comfy spot on the ground to spend the night. If I had time, I would work on a new Rank Three grimoire.

I had already made a copy of each of the two I had already made, and after failing so many times to make one that might help me fly, I had shifted to writing something else.

The Strange Tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was what I decided to work on now. It was one of the few other works which I remembered well enough to make a somewhat accurate recreation of.

I could tell though that my memory was going to be an issue going forward - it had been over a year, and that was more than long enough to forget a lot of things.

There were some grimoires I could’ve made when I first arrived which I probably couldn’t now - because I no longer remembered what I would’ve written well enough to do it now.

I had heard of a grimoire that could boost one’s memory in the capital, though I didn’t know the specifics of how it worked. I would definitely have to look into it once I got there as a potential issue to this problem. A problem that was only going to get worse with time - I really needed to find either a way to charge my phone, or the Ruler of the Astral Wind’s treasure. Either that or just a way back home.

About midway through my journey, someone actually tried to talk to me while I was on the road.

“Sir Liberomancer!” I heard someone call out, and saw a green-scaled lizardman standing near the side of the road under the shade of a tree.

He eyed the bear I was riding on with some concern and asked, “Is that bear a summon? May I approach?” To be fair, my bear was also glaring at him as it tended to do to anyone I didn’t know, so it was understandable as to why he was nervous.

“Yes, it’s fine,” I said. “He is in fact one of my summons.”

The lizardman was still slightly nervous around the creature, warily looking at it as he advanced.

He then noticed the purple sash I was wearing. “Lord, my apologies for bothering you, however, if you would be so kind as to provide some aid. I haven’t eaten in over a day, and I no longer have coin either to make the journey to Arconia before I fear that I’ll collapse from hunger. My throat has also been parched - could you please spare me a piece of your generosity?”

“Sure,” I said. Preserving mana was always a priority, but because I was mainly relying on summons while traveling, it did free up some options as summons did not consume mana. Plus, one spell wouldn’t hurt. [Fish Haul] created a large amount of fish - so many it was hard for me to hold in my hands. That was the side effect of having a high Luck stat. “I know that many lizardmen prefer live fish, but this spell can’t do so…” I said while handing the entire pile to him.

I knew it was customary among lizardmen to gift each other fish when they first met, though as far as I knew it would usually be a single fish and generally it would be some sort of rare fish as well.

These were rather plain and common fish, but that was the best that I could do - I knew the spell specifically so that I wouldn’t starve if worse came to worse after all and not because it would let me eat gourmet food while on the road.

“Are these all for me, Lord?” he asked, shocked.

“Yes. And no need to call me ‘Lord’, I’m no one’s lord,” I said to him. Many high-ranking Liberomancers were also nobles and vice-versa; Rank Three Liberomancers could usually earn enough money or distinguish themselves in ways that would lead to them either buying noble titles or being granted them. And nobles taught themselves to read and write, and had the money and the time to study Liberomancy in depth, becoming Rank Three Liberomancers far easier than ordinary people could.

Lance had tried to give me some titles and land for my efforts during the war, which I had declined. On the surface this was supposed to be a ‘reward’, but was more like cheese in a mousetrap. Land, titles - both of these things could not easily be moved, meaning I’d be tied down to the city. I doubt that Lance intended for it to seem that way - then again, he was a politician. It was possible that those were his intentions in the end.

The bear gave me a hopeful look as I was handing the fish to the lizardman. “No fish for you,” I said to it. “You don’t need to eat.”

Summons could eat and drink - they just didn’t need to. There were many theories on how or why this was - most people assumed that since summons were created with a Liberomancer’s magic, they were also sustained by the same. The fact that they didn’t consume mana at all while being summoned or used kind of clashed with this theory. Although everyone agreed that mana powered spells, what powered skills in general? No one seemed to know. Some people theorized there was something other than ‘mana’ that people had - something that they couldn’t quantify or measure, I guess it’d be called something like ‘qi’ or something else along those lines which was used up for skills.

As with a lot of things regarding Liberomancy - when you look into things too deeply the answer was basically along the lines of ‘that’s just how the world works.’ I had gotten somewhat used to hearing that as a reply to most of the questions I had, but it was still annoying nonetheless. This world really needed a tutorial village.

The bear then gave me another sad look - one I recognized, the same look that Cheddar would give me when I wouldn’t give him another treat. Unfortunately, for the bear, it couldn’t exactly pull this off very well and I had grown immune to this as Cheddar pulled it so many times.

The lizardman polished off two of the fish right away - with an efficiency that only the lizardmen seemed to have. Their mouths were far more adapted to this than that of a human’s - there were quite a few things about lizardmen biology that I had learned while staying in Arconia, such as them preferring warmer temperatures compared to humans.

Come to think of it, I had never gotten to know the answer to one question I’d had - did lizardmen lay eggs, or give birth?

I had never found myself in a scenario where I could ask that question without it seeming extremely awkward, and as such, was still ignorant as to what the answer was, despite being close friends with at least one lizardman.

I used [Create Water] to quench some of his thirst once he was done eating.

“Master Liberomancer, I do not have the words to express my gratitude,” he said. “I had called out to other travelers, though none of them stopped to help…”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” I said. “What exactly happened to you?” He didn’t seem to be a villager, his clothes were nice but dirty, and he had some passing knowledge of Liberomancy to know what a summon was and how it functioned. Why was he wandering around the road in the middle of the wilderness with not a penny to his name?

“Ah, it is a tragic tale,” the lizardman replied, almost sounding like he was going to cry. “I am a merchant you see, and I was carting rice from the capital to Arconia which is in high demand, only to be jumped by human robbers! They took my cart, the rice, and any money I had! I can only thank my stars that my clothes wouldn’t fit them, else they’d have taken them too!”

“Bandits…” I muttered under my breath. I had already run into a group that had caused quite a ruckus back in Granny Qi’s village. “Yeah, you shouldn’t have traveled like that without any guards…”

He shook his head despondently. “I only realize that now far too late - given what happened to me, but I always used to go along this route, and such things never happened to me or to anyone I know!”

“Yeah,” I mused. “Security’s kind of gone to the dogs after the siege, but I’m sure it’ll get better with time.” It wasn’t just an issue with security, it was that there were too many people left with nothing in the aftermath of the dryad invasion.

“...dogs?”

Oh right, this world didn’t have dogs in it - which to me, was reason enough to find a way back home regardless if there still was or wasn’t anyone waiting for me on the other side who I knew. “Just a figure of speech where I’m from. I’m heading towards the capital myself, if you want, you can ride with me and I’ll drop you somewhere there.”

I was actually a bit surprised that he had been the only one who had asked me for aide up till this point. I knew there were a lot of people who couldn’t go back to their villages or were otherwise suffering in one way or the other - and I had even prepared extra food and some coins to hand over to them if needed before heading out to Granny Qi’s village.

After all, even if I couldn’t help everyone, I knew what it had been like to have nothing, not even a roof over your head. I could always help someone.

And yet, no one had approached me. I somehow doubted that was because there was just no one who really needed help desperately - and I had a sinking feeling the further that I got along that the fact I was riding a bear might’ve been the culprit.

The lizardman shook his head. “Thank you for your generosity, but I live in Arconia - that’s where my house is. I was stuck, unfortunately in the capital due to the dryad invasion, and it was only now I had the courage to make the journey back. It seems I might’ve benefited from waiting a bit longer… but what can I say? I couldn’t bear the thought of being away from my family any longer…”

“Alright then,” I said to him. “Right over there in that direction - about three hours away - or I guess about six or seven for you, is a village which is rebuilding. You can stay the night there for three Denarii, meals included.” I counted out about forty Denarii, which should’ve been enough for him to get to Arconia before moving to hand it to him.

He threw his hands up in protest, however. “No, Lord-”

“Again, I am no one’s lord.”

“-Master Liberomancer, I’ve already benefited from your kindness so much, I could not dare impose on you anymore,” he said, seemingly adamant about refusing the money. “I… I’ll find a way to earn my way back - whether it’s by doing odd jobs for the farms or the like or via credit. This is… just too much.”

I raised an eyebrow. I didn’t want to judge on appearances, but the guy didn’t exactly look like he was suited for working on a farm. “Do you think you’ll be able to do so? Do you have any experience working on a farm? It’s not easy work.”

I had no firsthand experience in that regard, though after seeing how the villagers worked and listening to Granny Qi’s stories about her childhood, I knew that life in the villages was difficult.

“I used to back when I was younger, on my great-uncle’s farm,” he said. “I can work for my meals.”

I scratched my chin. “They might not have extra food in some spaces - why not take half or even a quarter then?” I asked him. It was clear that he was hesitant to take the money, and though I wasn’t sure, I think there was a bit of shame in accepting it.

He looked like he came from a relatively well-off if not outright wealthy family, and if he hadn’t been robbed he definitely wouldn’t be in this position. There was a bit more stigma to accepting coins than there was to accepting a meal. It had been the same for me back when I had first come to Arconia. “You might be able to pay for a ride to Arconia and see your family sooner.” I gave him that last push. Really though, why was I having to be the one who was trying to convince him to take the money?

“Ah… I…” he seemed to hesitate quite a bit.

“If you’re worried about paying it back… don’t… I mean, there was a time when I had to rely on the charity of strangers as well, consider this paying that forward,” I said. “I’m sure there are people back in Arconia you’ll meet who need assistance, and when you see them, you can hand them some aide thinking of them like me.”

He did tear up a bit on hearing that, and reluctantly took the money. “L-Master Liberomancer, I mean, this village you pointed me to, is it a human village?”

Oh, right.

“Yes it is…” I said. I wanted to believe that given the recent dryad invasion, humans and lizardmen had put all their differences aside and would cooperate - though I knew from even my limited experience in this world that it was quite naive to think that way. If it wasn’t that way in the city, it would be even less so out here.

This was the most time I’d spent in the countryside, I had only really been to Granny Qi’s village and back, and that one lizardmen village I’d gone too in order to deal with an Elephant Frog. The rural areas were a bit different than the city itself. Most areas in the city were segregated in the sense that they were lizardmen only or human only, but there were also places in-between such areas where it was more mixed. You might have a human house next to a lizardman house, and when it came to shops this was even more common because most of the marketplaces were shared, though buyers and sellers still had a tendency to stick to their own species when it came to choosing a shop.

As for the villages though, they were generally clustered, as in you’d have a cluster of lizardmen villages and then a cluster of human villages, with a reasonable distance in-between the two clusters that would ensure that they might never really cross paths with each other.

There was no mixing of species in the villages themselves; in a human village, there would only be humans, and in a lizardmen village, there would only be lizardmen residents. One would think that with most of them having to take up refuge in Arconia that even if they had biased feelings, they might’ve been able to get over them after sharing a common enemy for so long.

I had rested recently in a lizardmen village twice up till now, and had never been mistreated.

Then again, I was not an ordinary human- I was a Master Liberomancer, and several of them even recognized me as the Spider King of Arconia when I introduced myself. I also had several documents from Lance himself proving my identity, as well as an invitation from the king.

I could’ve used either of them at any moment to call in a few favors if need be and perhaps even demanded to be quartered in their houses for free - though I had never needed to nor would I want to. On the contrary, I had overpaid the villagers to some degree for my stay, but I was somewhat fine with that knowing their current conditions.

But could someone like him, who was a normal lizardman, feel comfortable around humans? And would the humans treat him the way the lizardmen had me?

I couldn’t be sure of either of those things.

“Yes,” I finally said. “I don’t think they’ll treat you any differently, especially if you say that you met me, you can tell them that the Spider King of Arconia sent you… but if that still bothers you greatly there is a lizardman village further down the road which is somewhat functional, but you’ll have to run if you want to get there before nightfall. Thing is, if you arrive there past dusk, there is a chance they might mistake you for a bandit.”

“I think I’ll take my chances with my own kind,” he said. “Thank you so much for the fish and this other gift!” He made to bow but I asked him to stop for what felt like the thousandth time.

“There is no need for that, it is only natural for us to help one another in these difficult times,” I said. The dryad invasion had been much like a natural disaster - only it had arguably caused more damage than a hurricane or flood would. People were supposed to get together and aide each other in situations like this. Back on Earth, the federal government would’ve no doubt voted on a massive relief package and spending bill for such an area. The issue was that Chipker was far smaller than a country like the United States, and much of Chipker had been affected at the very least, indirectly by the dryad invasion. It was like a nation-wide disaster occurring in a poorer country back home which didn’t have the resources to mount a proper national response.

“Before you leave though, can you tell me more about these bandits?” I asked him. Though I knew many of them chose that life because of recent events, they were also only making things harder for other people. “What did they look like? And how many of them were there? Where did you find them?” I wasn’t about to go out of my way to hunt them, but if they had the misfortune to run into me on the road…

“I was sleeping at the time in my wagon,” the lizardman admitted. “And then before I knew it, I woke up with a blade to my throat. There were four of them, all human, and I didn’t get a good look at their faces - and truth be told, I am not very good at differentiating human faces from one another. It was in a clearing over there, and this was two nights ago.”

That wasn’t much information to go on, but I hadn’t expected much more. “I see. I will make a note to be more careful. Thank you.”

“Oh, I doubt that they’d pick a fight with you, Master Liberomancer. They were fine robbing someone in their sleep, but cutthroats rarely want to mess with someone who can actually fight back. One look at what you’re riding is probably more than enough to get them to reconsider.”

“I don’t think so either, but it never hurts to be careful,” I said. I couldn’t help but remember bandits and robbers in certain video games who would try to rob you even if you were dozens of levels above them.

The thing was, any rational person would know not to pick a fight with a Liberomancer - but the problem also was, if criminals were smart, they probably wouldn’t be criminals. That and these desperate times could force people to desperate measures. And despite how much magic I knew now, all it would take is a stray arrow in the wrong place and wrong time… it was a good thing I had made it a habit to wear my helmet whenever I was outdoors.

“Indeed,” he said as he started to run off. I hoped he did make it to the lizardmen village in time - or maybe he’d have a change of heart and decide the human village was good enough.

“Urru?” the bear grunted at me expectantly.

“Alright, fine, you win!” I said, using [Fish Haul] again and tossing the bear a few treats as we made our way forward.

I was basically using my mana to feed something I had created myself using a skill - in other words it was completely pointless.

But I couldn’t deny that it put me in a somewhat good mood regardless as we trekked along.

After all, he was my sole companion on this journey.

Sun Jiao tapped his foot. What was taking those idiots so long?

The sun was about to set, and they had to act soon. Their supplies were running thin.

Two of his lackeys walked in - both of them shook their heads, indicating they hadn’t found anything.

Sun Jiao sighed. This wasn’t good. But as he was about to resign himself to an empty stomach tomorrow and possibly the next few days, the last member of his gang walked in.

“I think I know who our next target is,” the newcomer said. “I saw this man, who looks rich. And best part is, he’s traveling on his own.”

Sun Jiao’s heart quickened. An easy and profitable target? Just what they had been looking for!

Sun Jiao was the leader of this small team of four - a team of bandits, that is. Though to call them such would probably be a massive exaggeration. The word ‘bandits’ would make one think of massively built, muscular brigands who were armed to the teeth. It would be more accurate to call them a glorified group of pickpockets, given that they were all relatively thin and weak, and Sun Jiao was the only one with a proper weapon.

He had a sword strapped to his belt - though in all honesty it was more for show than anything else given he had never been properly trained when it came to fencing. He probably would’ve been better off using a spear given his relative inexperience with fighting with something fancier, but this was something he had managed to steal so it had cost him nothing. He also thought that it made him seem far more intimidating than any kind of makeshift spear that he could make on his own.

And that was more important to him than actual usage - he did not anticipate a scenario where he would actually have to use the sheathed blade so long as he played his cards right.

Sun Jiao was thinly built and the weakest of them physically, which is why the impression that he had a deadly weapon with him was so important. The reason he was their leader was not just because he was more knowledgeable than the rest, but because he was a Rank One Liberomancer.

Ordinarily, as a Rank One Liberomancer, he would have employment opportunities which would make joining such a gang of troublemakers quite beneath him. As a matter of fact, before turning to banditry, he was employed in a far more productive setting.

The issue was that during such work, there had been a number of ‘incidents’ involving harassing some female customers (‘harmless flirting’ in his own words) and he had then been fired from his first job. And then his second. And his third. As well as his fourth. By the time he was on his fifth job he finally stopped this behavior but then came in to work late one too many times and after he missed a serious deadline was fired from that one too.

Liberomancers thrived and fell based on their reputation - and he had tarnished his one too many times, and was unable to get any more work. It spoke quite a lot to how much he had soiled his own name - given that when Stefan had first come to Arconia, he had essentially had zero reputation of his own but was still able to get work the very same day.

There was also the issue that he had never properly finished his education - his father had abandoned his family during his early teens, and as such, he was unable to grasp some of the longer words and sentences in the more complicated Rank One grimoires. Because of this, his advancement had slowed to the point where he had no hope of reaching Rank Two in his current condition - if he could pass that threshold however, he could probably convince people to give him another chance.

However, he was unable to sell any grimoires he made without being a member of a bookstore, and without money couldn’t buy even the simpler Rank One grimoires to pad out the number of slots he needed to fill just to get to Rank Two.

Things had still not been too bad for him and he had been able to find odd jobs here and there. That was, until the recent dryad invasion and many businesses in the capital being adversely affected and even this lifeline being snatched away from him.

And so, he had ended up in this current position. Engaged in petty theft for petty cash. Even then, he had spent more nights hungry than not. Thievery does require other people to have something to steal in order for it to be viable, and there just wasn’t enough to go around no matter how you put it. Additionally, the more such acts became widespread, the more on guard people were - either hiring guards or only moving in large groups to deter bandits.

“And where is the target right now?” Sun Jiao asked.

“Probably about to go to sleep, I saw him setting up camp about half an hour from here,” the man answered. A smile almost formed on Sun Jiao’s face - attacking or extorting a village was impossible with their numbers, so anyone who chose to rest out in the open was a tantalizing mark. However, what the man said next wiped this ephemeral smile off of Sun Jiao’s face. “One thing you should know though - he was riding this huge bear which was as tame as a maid’s old gelding. But it’s gone now - I think he might be a Liberomancer.”

Sun Jiao sighed, walked up to the man, and slapped him across the face. His patience was greatly exhausted leading this band of losers. They didn’t seem to have a single brain cell between all three of them.

“You idiot! You’re trying to tell me that you saw a man riding a bear - meaning he is either a Rank Two Liberomancer, or has a tamed bear, and your first idea is ‘let’s rob this man?’ Do you wish to get all of us killed?” Sun Jiao asked.

The reason that they had been able to operate for so long without getting caught was because they chose their targets well - that was also why they had occasionally passed up on what might have otherwise been juicy opportunities, because he had judged at times that the risk was too high.

Unfortunately, the others were clearly rather bad at doing this kind of risk analysis. For that matter, they were bad at nearly everything which is why they had banded together under his banner.

“But boss - he’s just one man,” the man countered. “Once he’s asleep, we’ll just grab what he has and then make a run for it.”

Sun Jiao sighed again. He raised his arm, and the man flinched, though Sun Jiao lowered it. “I was considering striking you again - but then realized that it would be a waste of a slap. One man? Are you aware of how powerful a Liberomancer can be? Some of them can slaughter a hundred men easier than you can take a dump!”

Sun Jiao had heard the tale of a Rank Three earth elementalist from Meloukas who had destroyed an entire castle on his own by ruining the foundation upon which it stood, sending over ten thousand men to their deaths.

More recently, there was a rumor of a heroic Liberomancer from Arconia who had slain ten thousand dryads with a single spell when it had been under siege. Surprisingly, the person who was said to have done so was neither the governor nor one of his sons, nor the famed Master Jiah Pei, but some newcomer whom no one had ever heard of before. “The fact that he’s traveling alone means he’s either exceedingly confident in his own powers, or is a demonic Liberomancer. Either way, we should stay miles away from him. How have we been successful up till now? By stealing from the elderly and the weak!”