章節 18: Heading Off

Foster quickly rushed out of the inn that he spent the night in. He had a pretty good sleep, so good that he actually nearly overslept. Although, he didn't really know how late it was in the first place, and he wasn't able to see the town's clocktower from his room.

But luckily, since it was still dark out, he knew that he at the very least wasn't too late, and quickly rushed toward the 'Highland Company'. He could see a couple of carriages standing in front of it, most likely the ones that they were going to be heading off from here with. There were about a dozen employees working and making sure that everything was fine, as well as a handful of people that clearly weren't direct employees, but were most likely people meant to come protect the carriage out on the road.

At the very least, they were the only ones carrying weapons or wearing anything resembling armor. They were all talking to each other, until one of them noticed Foster approaching with his bags around his shoulder and on his back.

"Yo! You another adventurer that was hired for this trip?" He asked. Foster approached him while shaking his head, "Ah, no, I'm not an adventurer. I'm just here to help out a bit in exchange for a ride." He explained, and the group of four standing in front of him looked him up and down with surprised expressions.

"But you look like you're a martial artist?" They replied to Foster.

"Yeah, I know, I'm just not particularly strong, you know? More of a beginner, I guess?" Foster said, trying to come up with an excuse that made any kind of sense.

"...Are you going to come along for the whole trip, then? All the way to Arcadum?" One of them, the oldest of them, asked. With a slow nod, Foster replied, "Yeah, that's the plan. I heard it's a good place to find work."

"Well, it is growin' pretty fast lately." Another of the group pointed out. She looked back at Foster with her arms crossed, "So what kinda work are you going to be lookin' for then?" She asked him.

"Anything that I can use to make a living to start out, I would say? For now my goal is just to get to Arcadum, I'll figure it out when I'm there."

"Seriously? You're going to Arcadum without even a plan for what you want to do? What's your class even?"

Luckily, Foster already thought about an answer for this question. Since he saw that Aaron and Joyce reacted in such an extreme manner, it made sense that there were some things he should try and hide for now, at least until he developed a bit of a common sense for this world. And one of those things was his 'Class' that he received through this metallic snake wrapped around his wrist.

"I'm an Apprentice Martial Artist. As I said, I'm just a beginner."

"An apprentice, at your age?" One of the group members said, before closing his eyes with a light smile, "I see. Must've been a pretty sheltered kid growin' up, huh? Well, I guess Arcadum is a good a place as any to become independent."

"H-Huh? Right, yeah... Anyway, it was a nice talk, but I think I have to go talk to George for a second." Foster explained, trying to get out of this conversation since it was taking a somewhat bothersome turn for him right now.

"What, you don't wanna keep talkin' to us?" One of the others asked with a laugh, and Foster scratched his cheek awkwardly, "I mean, we'll be traveling for a month, I doubt we won't have other chances to talk."

"Right that. George's in the back, you can't miss 'im."

"Perfect, thanks." Foster smiled at the group of adventurers and then made his way inside. The employees were looking at him somewhat curiously, but that ended pretty quickly as well. And it didn't take long for Foster to see George either

"Ah, there he is! You're late!" George exclaimed with a frown on his face, and Foster looked back at him apologetically, "Right, sorry, I just kind of overslept."

With a sigh, George pointed at one of the carriages, "Put your stuff in there, you'll be ridin' in there for now. It's mostly empty for now, but you're gonna be sharing the space with some of our wares, so be careful in there."

"Of course, thank you. Is there anything I can help out with after that?" Foster asked, but George quickly shook his head, "Nah, I don't think so. Not right now at least. Just introduce yourself to the others and then wait for us to head off." George explained. With a quick nod, Foster turned around to get to that immediately, although he was quickly given one other small task before he left.

"Ah, and if you see another adventurer comin' in here, a bit shorter than you, wearing a cloak and a mask, send him to me. He's late as well." George added. While that seemed like a rather loose description, for some reason Foster figured that he would know exactly who George was talking about when he ended up seeing him.

Either way, for now, Foster brought his things over to the carriage that he would be riding in. It felt a bit weird to just leave his things in there, but he figured that it was fine, since there were personal belongings of some people in the others as well. Since there was nothing in here, it looked like Foster would be riding in here alone, which he really didn't mind at all.

That left him enough time to do whatever he wanted at least. And after putting his things away, Foster started to walk around the place and introduced himself to the employees, since he was going to be working with them for the next month or so. That in itself was still somewhat baffling to Foster... that this trip was going to take a full month. But it wasn't like Foster had anything better to do right now anyway. He just wanted to get as far away from Aaron and Joyce as possible, so something like this might actually be the the perfect thing.

And more importantly, Foster would get something to eat, had a place to sleep, as well as the people and time available to him so that he could slowly figure out a few more things about this place. Just as he was dwelling in his thoughts, Foster was told that they were going to head off soon. Those small t-rex like things were attached to the carriages and everyone got into their respective carts or got ready to walk beside them. Those adventurers from earlier belonged to the latter, apparently.

Foster got into the carriage he would be traveling in and sat down, just leaning against one of the boxes as he could feel the bumpy ride begin. George came to check in on him for a moment, and then they really headed off. And just as that was happening, Foster, who was in the hindmost carriage, saw the guy that George was talking about just earlier. Or at least, it was a rather unique look.

Just like George had said, he was wearing a dark cloak over his whole body, as well as a wooden mask that covered every bit of his face, not revealing anything of his body at all. He stepped up to the company's building and was looking around. With an annoyed expression, Foster stood up and leaned out the back, "Hey, you there! You're supposed to be with us, right? Come on, we're leaving!"

That cloaked man turned his head and looked at Foster, and started to run forward toward the carriage, catching up within just a few seconds, and was now walking right behind the entrance to the carriage, "George is at the very front, just go and talk to him real quick... Maybe next time you should come a bit earlier to a job." Foster suggested, and the cloaked man silently nodded his head, before rushing past the couple of carriages to go meet with George.

"Well, that guy's kinda weird, huh?" Foster muttered quietly as he looked at his bracelet. It moved around as if it was moving just yesterday, so it wasn't that weird to talk to it... right?

Either way, for now, Foster opened up one of his bags and pulled out a couple of the books that he had stuffed in there. The first one that he wanted to read was this general book about 'Martial Necromancy'. In the front, the writer noted down who it was for. 'For the one who will inherit my legacy'. It was probably written by Thiodrus, then, for whoever he chose to take on his legacy. And that 'whoever' was Foster.

He already flipped through it a little bit last night, but this book seemed to describe the basics of this class to the reader, and then had general instructions for movements that were a good fit for this class, ones that Thiodrus himself probably used.

However, before any of those instructions, that were paired with sketches to actually allow the reader to figure them out, there was a clear message written down.

"Martial Necromancy is not a school of combat... it is a tool of combat. It can and may be paired with any and all schools of martial combat the user may choose. This action will be fully supported by my legacy." Foster read, and when he then turned his attention to the instructions once more, he saw the eyes of his snake bracelet glow with a dim light.