Chapter 148: Continuing The Journey

"Again, thank you for saving our village!!"

An old man shouted with tears in his eyes as he bowed his head.

"Gramps, you’ve thanked us a hundred times already. You don’t have to worry about it." said Killian with a helpless expression.

It was not only him as Regis and Pandora also wore helpless faces.

The old man in front of them was the chief of the small village that they had saved from the bandits two days ago.

Since then, he had bowed in gratitude towards them whenever they met.

"Please excuse my father." A neat man who seemed to be in his thirties said as he scratched the back of his head.

"However, it is true that if not for you, then we won’t be standing here today."

The man smiled and continued, "So if we can still be of help to you by any chance, please just say so."

"Thank you for your consideration, but we’re really fine. Besides, you’ve already let us have our stay here for free. You’ve already helped us enough."

Regis spoke respectfully while helping the old man stand back to his feet, "Maybe we’ll be able to visit this village some other time, so we’ll have to ask for your help then."

"Thank you again..." the old man said gratefully as he wiped his teary eyes, "Then I’ll wish you a safe trip on your journey."

The villagers that had gathered all bowed towards their heroes as they all shouted shortly after, "May you have a safe journey!!"

This caused Regis, Pandora, and Killian to have shy expressions on their faces as they responded, "Thank you."

Seeing their expressions, Aurelia couldn’t help but giggle as she took out something from her pocket.

CHING—

A flash suddenly blinked as a strange clicking sound resounded.

This caught their attention as they turned to look towards Aurelia, who was holding a circular device in her hands.

"I-Is that a Magicam? A one-time use device worth hundreds of gold coins primarily used to capture photographs for investigations!?"

Beside her, Alaric had his eyes opened wide as he stuttered in shock.

In his many years of life, it was his first time seeing someone using something so important on something so useless.

"What the hell?" Even Killian was shocked at her sudden action, "Why did you waste it?"

Aurelia only tilted her head, "What do you mean waste? Such a memory is important so it’s only right to capture it."

Seeing that his companions were already causing chaos, Regis bid farewell to the villagers before they set off.

The villagers stayed with their heads lowered until their backs could no longer be seen.

***

"Are you sure about this?" Regis asked while walking beside Alaric.

The latter nodded and replied, "Yes. In fact, I really didn’t have to think that much before I decided to travel with you."

"Furthermore, I’m originally on a pilgrimage, but I was only able to travel between the villages in the Corelli Fortress’s territory."

"So travelling with you makes my old heart feel somewhat young again."

"That’s good." Regis smiled, "We are glad to have a priest like you on board. I hope that we’ll get along."

Pandora, Killian, and Aurelia also looked back with smiles on their faces.

Alaric also smiled in response as he pushed up his glasses, "As you know, I’m a low rank priest at the One Star Realm.

"For us priests, every mana star that is blessed by divine power would enable us to learn 3 holy miracles that we can each cast 3 times a day."

He then raised 3 fingers as he continued, "The 3 holy miracles that I have learned are: Holy Healing, Holy Protection, and Holy Anointment."

"Is it alright for you to reveal that to us?" Regis asked curiously.

After all, it was common practice between adventurers to hide their skills as it could possibly be used against their benefit.

However, Alaric only shook his head with a smile on his face, "No, us priests of light are transparent when it comes to such things."

"Besides, it’s also a common practice between us to prioritize helping people rather than to hide our skills from others."

At this moment, Killian chimed in from the side and asked, "How about Rita?"

"Oh right, I didn’t see her earlier." Regis added.

Pandora and Aurelia glanced back with curious expressions.

In the past two days that they had spent in the village, they had often bonded with Rita while helping the villagers.

They easily became close due to the small age gap between them since Rita was only 2 years younger than them.

Alaric shook his head, "The last time I saw her was yesterday. She bid farewell and told me that she wished us a safe journey."

"She also said that she wasn’t good with goodbyes so she won’t be going to watch us leave and that she hopes to meet us again in the future for her repayment."

"Ehh, really? What a pity..." Aurelia felt a little sad as he heard his words.

Regis looked at the sky, "Well, maybe fate will really let us meet again in the future. I feel that it will somehow happen..."

He then glanced at the bags that Alaric was holding and said, "By the way, do you want help with that?"

"It’s fine. I’m just treating it as exercise. After all, I need to be physically capable even as a priest."

Right now, only Alaric was holding a bag in his hand while also wearing a backpack.

Meanwhile, Regis and the others only had a small pouch on their waist and their respective weapons.

"Oh, right!" Aurelia seemed to have remembered something as she took out a pouch from the pocket of her dress and gave it to Alaric.

The latter asked in confusion, "May I ask what is this?"

"It’s a storage pouch." Aurelia said without a change in expression, "I’ve also given them one to lessen the burden while we travel."

However, Alaric was at a loss for words while looking at the pouch, "A-Are you really just giving this to me? Isn’t it precious?"

"Precious? It’s just a couple gold coins at most, so just accept it." Aurelia replied.

At this moment, Killian spoke from the side as he shook his head, "It’s no use, she’s out of touch with the world when it comes to these kinds of things."

"T-Thank you!!"

Alaric received the pouch with both hands like he was touching a relic of the church.

Seeing what had transpired, Regis smiled helplessly as he looked at his own pouch, ’She is really something else...’

He felt speechless at what he had witnessed in the few days that they had been with Aurelia.

The storage pouches that she had given away were things that could only be brought from the dwarves as they were the only craftsmen that were capable of enchanting items.

Of course, there were also others who study craftsmanship under the dwarves, but they were only few and far between.

To make it simple, storage pouches were extremely rare and also extremely expensive.

One would cost hundreds of gold coins.

Therefore, just the fact that she could give it away like candy was astonishing for them.

"By the way, you told me that we’ll have to go through Falkor Valley, right?" asked Alaric, who had just recovered from shock.

He had just finished putting his bags onto the storage pouch.

Regis nodded as he gave him the map where they had drawn their route, "That’s right. It was what we had planned."

"Hmmm." Alaric thought with his chin propped on his hand as they walked.

Seeing his reaction, Regis asked, "Why? Is there something wrong with the route we had chosen?"

"No, it’s just that it’s too dangerous."

"How come? We also gathered information and know that the monsters there would at most be at the Peak Stage of the Two Star Realm to the Early Stage of Three Star Realm."

"Have demons been taken into account?" Alaric glanced at Regis.

"No..." the latter replied with a frown.

Alaric pushed his glasses, "I take it that you have a contingency plan and a backup route prepared, right?"

"Yes."

"That’s good. So the first will be the Falkor Valley, huh?"

"Do you know something about it?"

This time, it was Killian who curiously posed a question.

Alaric nodded, "Yes. I have ventured in it with other adventurers some time ago. The strongest monsters there would be the Griffins."

"The weakest is around the Middle Stage One Star Realm while the strongest would be at the Peak Stage of Two Star Realm."

"Although I believe that you three are strong enough, it’s better to not waste your energy."

"It just so happened that I know a safe route in the Falkor Valley that has the lowest chances of us meeting a Griffin."

Following that, Alaric said what he knew about the Falkor Valley to the others.

Regis, Pandora, Killian, and Aurelia made sure to listen carefully as he was someone with many years of experience as an adventurer.

Therefore, they made sure to remember what he was saying.

If one were to look closely, it looked like they were just normal children travelling with their uncle.