St Chaos Healer

Ch 15 - The Train Stop

Once our horse carriage left the town we left on a route on a particular road heading towards the wild forest of Meol. The forest was like a shawl covering the town almost in a 360 degree. Thankfully the town was located at the edge of the forest, protected by a protective mana array.

But the destination we are heading to, we need to cut through the forest to reach our destination.

The wild forest is riddled with powerful mana beasts and strange mana anomaly zones that no human dares to tread. Only some group of brave adventurers can tread inside this forest and survive. They usually go looking to hunt for various mana beasts or to procure rare herbs or spirit fruits.

So common folks like us have a hard time passing through the forest without the danger of getting attacked by stray mana beasts.

Thankfully the kingdom had created a safe route and installed some professional forest rangers to guard and ensure safe travels. Although this route leads to a bit of a detour it's better than travelers losing their lives.

The road was broad cutting through the forest like a giant serpent in a zig-zag manner. The horse driver was also vigilant in the lookout while maintaining a good speed. Although it's a safe route, there were stories of people losing their lives while traveling this route.

We came across a few guard posts at some intervals near the roadside. There were few archers glancing at our carriage and looking around the forest. They were dressed in a particular uniform, should be the forest ranger uniform.

We only saw one or two carriages while traveling for an hour.
Most of the time we were alone on the road.

Meanwhile, my parents didn't seem to be worried at all. They seem to be trusting our driver full-heartedly while gossiping about their experience in the Steam mana train ride. Although their memories are a bit jumbled up but still told me anything they remembered.

My mom had a lot to tell.

She even gave me tips and tricks on how to participate in the ceremony.
She also gave advanced tips if I become a mage on what academies I should enroll in and what academies I shouldn't. She also gave deep bifurcation on what magic academy is good according to what element attribute I might awaken.

It was a very long lecture and her advice seemed to have no end.
She was like an encyclopedia of a beginner mage advisor.

My dad has been silent all the time looking outside the window, glancing at me from time to time.

I was so exasperated with so much advice that I just interrupted her and asked how she knows so much stuff about magic and academies?
To my surprise, she just dodged the topic and changed the subject while totally shunning my question. She still didn't wanna reveal to me about her past as a mage.

I didn't force it and let her continue to do so.
She was later retelling me the experience of a close friend who is a mage. She told me how her friend was a fire mage and told me all about her adventures and her idea about how mana works.

Somehow the experience of HER friend totally aligned with the story that my dad told me about mother's experience as a mage.

But I was pretty keen on getting to know her experience... I mean her close FRIEND's experience.

Our journey was quite smooth without any hurdles.
We had to camp at night, thankfully there was a resting camp area inside the forest for passing travelers. This area was specially protected by rangers to let travelers sleep and rest with a piece of mind.

We also met a few travelers camping at night followed by singing and dancing around the bonfire. My mom and dad also joined in the fun and quickly befriended other travelers like they were some lost siblings.