Fantasy World Online I: New Roads

New Roads! Chapter 14

First chapter of the second arc of Ben's adventures!

So excited to read your comments!

Chapter 14: Welcome to the Country of Fridol

I was driving my cart on a dirt road when some bandits came out from behind some boulders. There was six of them, surrounding us, and on top of a boulder, a couple more were holding bows and arrows at the ready.

It was supposed to be a surprise attack, but I had long since been able to determine the ideal location of traps and potential setups. It was a question of troop coverage, road position, and geography along with a bit of instinct.

The two mercenaries traveling alongside me reacted quickly, I had warned them, of course. They pulled their swords out and each dismounted to clash with the two bandits that were in front of the cart's pulling horse. As for me I shot arrows at the archers, they both fell down and I jumped off of the driver seat to end their sufferings with my black blade.

Once I was done I checked on my two companions' status. They had engaged in battle with the bandit on each side of the cart, leaving me to take care of the two behind it.

Since the effect of our surprise counter-attack to their surprise attack had already dulled they took longer than the ones before, parring a few strikes Still the level 37-40 bandits were of no match against my level 68 avatar and my NPCs companion that were around level 45. It was a one-hit kill each time.

The battle was over, I added the loot to the cart and we started moving again.

This kind of small fights were a common happening for me now. Since I had left Djaden more than a month ago I had been traveling North West towards Fridol.

In the game, more to a year and a half had passed since launch whereas, in reality, it had been just five-month and two weeks had passed by. All the other players had already reached the Capital, as a player with a Merchant related job I did not stay just a night in the villages along the main road to Fridol but at least an in-game week in each town.

I always took the time to befriend the villagers by completing their quests, no matter how small they were. This had led me to obtain information on the surrounding areas of the town and visit many undiscovered dungeons and hunting grounds and learn of close by villages and settlements.

I had dutifully visited all of them, gradually mapping the integrality of Djaden, Vram, and Brem County and the two-thirds of the lower side of the Three Peeks area.

I was currently approaching the frontier of Fridol's county.

In my travels, I had been selling seeds, grains, clothes and low-quality weapons to the villagers and settlers. In the towns, I had presented the people with more refined goods and some of the jewelry and old coins I had gotten from the secret dungeon back at the Druid Conclave.

I still had most of it with me, stacked in my Small Cart, along with the many Cloth Rolls, Ores, and Grain Bags I had collected in the villages. Each area has its specialty, I had taken the time to learn of them and buy the goods with the highest durability at the cheapest price possible to sell them later for a high price at the Capital.

That was why I had gotten a cart. It was a small wooden cart originally pulled by a large bull, I had sold the bull to a farmer whose cows did not produce enough offspring and bought a sturdy, well-muscled field working horse to pull it. 

My journal had more than tripled in size since my departure, enriched by all the tidbits of information i had gathered during my talks with NPCs and my readings. I had also decided to separate my Merchant's logbook from the rest of my journal.