DMS Chapter 176

Flinx paused his reading and thought about what Old Hank had told him regarding what he should expect to encounter the farther he traveled away from Ilioven.

The old farmer explained that the main reason Flinx had only encountered happy and content farmers was that Ilioven made sure that the citizens who provided food for the city were protected. The soldiers of Ilioven regularly patrolled the surrounding areas, and every region near the city was covered by an incredibly organized network of protection that the Ilioven army had perfected over hundreds of years.

Not only that, but the Adventurer Guild also immediately received reports regarding abnormal situations that could threaten the lives of people near Ilioven, just like when Flinx encountered Omur and his rookie adventuring group.

Omur had told him that if something truly bad happened to them, the Adventurer Guild would become aware of it because their Adventurer Guild cards could send signals to the guild. The guild especially monitored signals coming from adventurers who accepted missions related to protecting the farms around Ilioven.

Once a signal was sent, powerful adventurers would immediately be dispatched to the last known location. Even if Flinx had not rescued them, the monsters would have been eliminated after around an hour by the powerful adventurers sent by the guild in response to Omur’s guild card.

The Adventurer Guild card had two ways of sending a signal: active and passive.

The active signal was when the card holder intentionally used the card to send a distress signal. However, this function was only available to Silver Rank cards and above, and only for adventurers who had accepted missions created by the guild for the defense of the city.

The passive signal would automatically be sent once the card holder died.

Omur had been about to activate his card when he remembered Flinx, who was powerful enough to rescue them. Because Flinx saved Omur and his group, Omur told him that they would receive a bonus from the guild since stronger adventurers did not need to be dispatched to rescue them.

Flinx’s rescue did not count as a guild rescue because he was not sent by the Adventurer Guild and had simply happened to pass by.

The point was that once Flinx left Ilioven’s area of responsibility and entered regions that were not protected by any kingdom, he would encounter darker aspects of the world, such as bandits and monsters.

Old Hank had also informed him that most kingdoms he would enter would not be like Ilioven. In fact, Ilioven itself had darker areas that Flinx simply had not encountered because he had not had the chance to visit them.

Flinx remembered the world where the Torbal Slavers had taken the Earthlings. During that time, he had learned about dark cities and kingdoms where the rulers themselves were criminals and monsters, and where lawlessness was the norm. Old Hank told him that places like those also existed in this world.

When he was in the world of the Torbal Slavers, Flinx never entered those dark cities or kingdoms. He had been able to rescue his fellow Earthlings without needing to do so. Because of that, he realized that he had never truly witnessed the darkest sides of the world, such as extreme cruelty and slavery.

The cruelest things he had experienced were the ones he suffered while he was a slave to the Torbal Wizards.

If Flinx was being honest, he was relieved that he had not encountered too many of those dark realities. Otherwise, his journey toward mental recovery would have been much longer.

His biggest concern was what he would do when he eventually encountered such situations.

When Flinx was just a gamer back on Earth, he knew that he was a kind-hearted person. Even the deaths of NPCs in some games affected him, so he imagined that if he witnessed cruelty happening right in front of him, he would be extremely tempted to interfere.

The problem was that he had the power to act.

Flinx’s transmigration system had given him abilities that could easily tempt him into becoming involved in the problems of this world. Deep inside, he knew that he was not a hero. In fact, he considered himself a lazy person who lacked ambition.

Back on Earth, he never had the drive to chase success. He was content with simply existing: working for his salary, then spending his free time gaming, reading, or watching movies and anime.

Flinx sighed and opened the web-based messenger that he and his former dungeon miner slave companions used to communicate.

He asked them if they had encountered situations during their journeys where they were tempted to interfere, such as rescuing orphans or slaves.

Some of them replied, but all of them said that they had done their best to restrain themselves because they still wanted to return to Earth. Some explained that when they first began their journeys, they were not particularly powerful and were roughly equal to average adventurers, so they generally acted the way normal adventurers would.

Others mentioned that with the help of the System Shopping Site, they were able to provide charitable assistance, such as food and clothing.

When Mark asked which kingdom Flinx had reached during his travels, Flinx embarrassingly admitted that he had only just started his journey. Since he had chosen to walk leisurely and admire the scenery instead of traveling by vehicle, he was still close to Ilioven.

Most of his friends responded with laughing emojis.

Flinx defended himself by explaining that his journey felt more like a healing journey. The people he had met were kind, the weather was beautiful, and the scenery was the most breathtaking he had ever seen.

He told them that some of the distant fields and mountains looked as if they had come straight out of a painting.

Paul told him that he was glad Flinx was taking his time. He advised Flinx to enjoy the peaceful parts of his journey for as long as possible because once he reached certain kingdoms, he would witness some of the most evil and cruel things humans could do to one another.

After that, Flinx closed the chat window and continued reading The Soprano Sorceress. He was close to finishing the novel and had already purchased the second book in the series, The Spellsong War.

After another hour, he stored all his belongings in his fourth tab space and continued his journey.

While walking, he decided to practice casting his spells using only his mind.

His goal was to become skilled enough to cast spells by using only his eyes to determine where his spells should land.

Based on his experiments, mastering the ability to cast spells using only his thoughts and eyes would likely take a long time. He also began practicing casting spells with his eyes closed because Flinx believed there could be situations where he would need to use magic while blinded.

During his practice, he made sure to only cast spells that would not affect the surrounding area. If there was another traveler nearby, Pip would notify him, and he would immediately stop.

Soon, twilight arrived, and Flinx thought the area around him had become incredibly beautiful. The scenery looked as if he had entered the world of Faerie.

He couldn’t wait for all the leaves to turn gold and red, which would mean that autumn had truly arrived.

Eventually, he found a particularly beautiful grove of trees and decided to set up camp there. He wanted to experience living in the wilderness again and chose to rest beside a campfire.

Since he had already done it before, Flinx built the campfire base much faster this time. He also did not hesitate to use magic, such as using the Mage Hand spell to gather wood and Fire Bolt to ignite the flames.