Chapter 101 – Plateau
Selva still wasn’t up when we finished washing ourselves with a basin full of water. Wico shook her, trying to motivate the girl.
“Selva. Time for breakfast.”
“Hmm… Stop it, stupid master.”
“You’ll be hungry if you don’t eat now.”
“Hmm… Later.”
“She’s no good. Whatever, let’s go eat first, Tila.”
“Is it fine to leave her alone here?”
“She’s still a rank 2 sorceress.”
“Isn’t this inn full of people stronger than her?”
“Imagine someone came in and beat her up. That would be a good lesson for her! Kahahah!”
We closed the door to our rental space and went for breakfast. It was raining quite heavily today, which was unfortunate. The mood was more hurried now, with folks finishing eating early and leaving for their destination, others soon coming to replace them. No one made any trouble for us this time, and we ate a delicious breakfast peacefully.
Selva still wasn’t up when we returned. Wico took charge of her while I handled the carriage and horses. Ten minutes later, we were back on the road, Selva sitting next to me and Wico lying on the weapons behind us, for some reason. The carriage was waterproof, with the covers on top of the main vehicle and the trailer, both being oiled profusely. Even the seating area where we were was protected by a cover that could be retracted at will. The ones having a sad time were the horses, getting drenched in a matter of minutes.
Not too long after, Wico fell asleep, and I tried to start a discussion with my neighbor.
“Can I ask a few things, Selva?”
“Ask.”
“Isn’t it hard to learn combat from a flying species while being a grounded one?”
“It’s fine because master also knows how to fight on the ground. She rarely does, though.”
While mages needed a mentor of the same affinity, it wasn’t the case for sorcerers. All sorcerers, no matter their affinity, needed to do the same things to rank up, which was to create a perfect sel “attunement” of their body. This was one of the greatest advantages sorcerers had over mages, making it a more accessible choice. For example, there might not be any mage of your affinity to learn spells from close to you in your childhood, and you might have no other choice but to go with being a sorcerer.
One had a great advantage if one of the parents was already a mage, just like what happened with the Muyal bunny family. The mother was a mage and the father was a sorcerer, leaving it up to the children to become whatever they wanted.
In Selva’s case, she was of earth affinity but her master was of lightning affinity, and this wasn’t a problem at all.
“Do you have family in Geola?”
“Yes, my parents live there.”
“Why didn’t you learn from them?”
“They’re not fighters and they’re not very high in ranks. That’s why I had to learn from someone else. And now, I’m stuck with this master.”
“Why don’t you change master if you hate her so much?”
“She’s annoying but she’s strong. I’ll ditch her as soon as I’m rank 6.”
‘Doesn’t that mean you’ll stay with her for a few more decades?’
“I’ve always been impressed with you reaching rank 2 at nineteen. Aren’t you a genius?”
She smiled a little.
“I tried hard.”
“What about when you become rank 6? Are you going to try to find a master who crossed the wall?”
“It’s still too far away so I haven’t thought about it. Anyway, master said there’s no point in doing that because the way to reach rank 7 can’t be taught. Not many sorcerers managed to get that far so it would be hard to find one in the first place.”
“What about Lady Vejas?”
“As if someone that great would care about me.”
We continued to chat leisurely, passing the time in this manner. The scenery subtly changed as we moved forward and we soon reached a small mountainous area. It might have been an exaggeration to call those mountains but they were at least nice hills. We took a short break before climbing the one on our way, to allow the horses to catch their breath before the effort. We then began the ascension, the horses combining their power to pull the heavy carriage through the slope.
After around thirty minutes, we reached the top of the hill, which was a sort of large plateau overlooking the surroundings. We took another break here, letting the panting horses catch their breath. It was raining less heavily now, but it still didn’t look like it would stop soon.
A couple of minutes later, we heard some noise coming from our right and noticed a group of unarmed feline sorcerer men rushing toward us. Right after, the same happened on our left, each side consisting of around ten people, with ranks between 0 and 3.
“Master! Bandit attack!”
Selva shouted toward the back but Wico was already awake and smiling.
“Hehehe, in the rain, too. Selva, I’m taking the ones on the right. You handle the ones on the left.”
“Yes, master.”
The rhinoceros jumped out of the carriage while the eagle flew at high speed toward her targets. The men attacking from our right noticed her and stopped straight in their tracks.
“Rank 6 sorceress! Shit! Flee!”
The rank 3 among them shouted in fear and their group immediately dispersed in all directions. The ones on the left were too far to see what was going on and continued to charge our way.
I urged the horses to gallop as fast as possible while turning them toward the right, to follow in the safest direction.
“Selva, stay close to the carriage! Don’t fight them head-on and just defend yourself!”
We both knew she wouldn’t last long against a group of ten people including one stronger than her and a few of the same rank. She nodded and ran together with the carriage, keeping an eye on the advancing attackers.
Read 30 more chapters here: https://subscribestar.adult/dictatelion or here: https://www.patreon.com/Dictatelion