Chapter 31: Departure 2

After that, Kent bought a detailed introductory book on alchemy.

He wasn’t interested in finished formulas or fixed recipes. What truly fascinated him were the kinds of things he had known back on Earth—especially firearms and their underlying principles.

Kent also knew that the Mage Guild possessed the largest reserves of both gold and magical materials on the continent. Magical cores, in particular, were astonishingly cheap there, especially low-level ones.

He had been itching to experiment for a long time.

The explosives from Earth might not seem impressive in small amounts, but what about dozens of kilograms? Kent could already see a vast road of possibilities opening before him.

That was exactly why he needed to understand the most basic principles first.

"Are you kidding me?"

Kent casually flipped through the book, and his expression immediately changed.

The contents were almost like traditional medicine recipes from Earth.

They only listed ingredients and production steps.

The properties of the materials, their interactions, and the principles behind the process were barely explained.

For example, a mana recovery potion was described as a mixture of magical beast blood, bone marrow, Azure Sky Flower, Black Star Grass, and several other ingredients. After more than a dozen complicated steps, the final solution was obtained.

But there was absolutely no explanation of why it worked.

Kent frowned.

Even the function of Azure Sky Flower was never mentioned.

He had spent two thousand gold coins on this so-called "Complete Guide to Low-Rank Alchemy," yet the book felt completely unreliable.

This made Kent extremely frustrated.

"Brother, everything is arranged."

Kweilin walked into Kent’s temporary room.

He immediately noticed Kent sitting there with a troubled expression.

Alice was meditating while holding a magical core in her hand, absorbing its energy. Delis was sitting nearby playing with Big Nose.

However, Big Nose clearly wasn’t paying attention to Delis anymore. The little Earth Demon Rat kept glancing toward Alice’s magical core, its tiny eyes full of curiosity.

Seeing this, Kweilin grabbed Kent and pulled him outside.

Kent wasn’t surprised.

After all, someone who could assist those old monsters in the Mage Guild obviously had his own abilities and connections.

"So, when do we leave?" Kent asked.

"Tomorrow," Kweilin replied. "We’ll take a carriage at noon, and in the afternoon we’ll board the ship."

"Poor..."

Sitting inside the carriage, Kent looked out at the scenery passing by.

Endless farmland stretched across the land.

Low, broken-down thatched cottages stood scattered along the roads.

Farmers walked barefoot through the fields.

Children ran around without clothes.

All of it revealed the poverty of this continent.

For a moment, Kent felt as if he had traveled back to medieval Europe on Earth.

In the distance, he could vaguely see castles rising above the landscape.

But these were not the wooden fortresses of ordinary knight lords.

They were true stone castles—massive structures built entirely from carefully stacked stone.

Kent couldn’t help sighing.

Kent’s group joined a massive merchant caravan.

Originally, he had planned to leave Delis and Alice behind.

But neither of them was willing to stay.

In the end, Kent had no choice but to bring both of them along.

Before leaving Alliance City, however, he asked Kweilin’s family to take care of Alice’s father and brother.

Alice’s father, Terry, was still traveling toward Alliance City.

Meanwhile, Alice and Kent were heading away from it.

Now Kent sat inside a private carriage with Alice and Delis.

The carriage was similar to a modern hired vehicle—a private carriage reserved specifically for their group.

Kweilin’s arrangement was even more extravagant.

He not only brought two guards but also a beautiful female servant.

The two guards were middle-aged men. On the surface, they appeared to be only third-rank swordsmen.

But Kent noticed something unusual.

There was a hidden pressure around them.

It was extremely subtle, almost impossible to detect.

Yet somehow, Kent could sense it.

These two men were definitely not ordinary third-rank warriors.

The merchant caravan traveling with Kent’s group was a massive one. It included three first-rank magical beasts known as Giant Crocodiles.

These creatures were enormous, measuring more than twenty meters in length and around four meters in height. They were omnivorous magical beasts with extremely gentle temperaments. However, only the largest merchant guilds could afford to raise them.

The caravan was carrying everyday goods such as salt and cloth. Dozens of wagons were loaded with these supplies, though where exactly they were being transported remained unknown.

The caravan also had twenty guards, half of whom were swordsmen.

The road from Alliance City to the port was paved entirely with stone. It was wide and well maintained, and merchant traffic was constant. There were traveling merchants carrying loads on their shoulders, small businessmen driving ordinary wagons, and large merchant guilds with Giant Crocodiles pulling their goods.

In truth, Giant Crocodiles were not particularly expensive magical beasts.

The problem was their enormous consumption.

Only large organizations with enough resources could afford to feed them.

Along the road, merchants carried all kinds of strange goods. Some even traveled with Saru Beasts, herbivorous animals that specialized in eating Saru Trees. They were extremely docile, almost like pigs from Earth.

Saru Trees themselves were very common shrubs, so raising Saru Beasts was relatively easy.

From time to time, Kent also saw knights wearing leather armor patrolling the roads.

They were light cavalry.

Alice was in an excellent mood that day.

The previous day, Kent had spent more than two thousand gold coins to buy a fifth-rank water-attribute magical core for her.

Alice had already been close to advancing into a first-rank mage. After absorbing the pure magical energy contained inside the fifth-rank core, she immediately broke through and became a first-rank water mage.

She spent the entire day practicing and becoming familiar with her new spells, especially Water Ball.

Kent, meanwhile, was fascinated by the scenery outside the carriage.

Delis, on the other hand, was half asleep.

There was no helping it.

Kent had exhausted her quite thoroughly the previous night.

The magical energy inside a magical core was extremely pure.

A mage did not need to waste mental power slowly gathering elemental energy from the surroundings. They only needed to guide the energy inside the core and transform it into their own mana.

Compared with ordinary meditation, absorbing a magical core was far more efficient.

After all, magical cores were naturally formed from condensed elemental energy itself.

There were no impurities to remove.

"What a huge river!"

As they approached the great river, Kent stared in amazement.

The river looked almost like a massive canyon stretching across the land.

The port itself was surrounded by two enormous castles. Between them was a broad road leading directly down to the docks.

It was currently spring, and the river was in its low-water season. The water level was more than twenty meters lower than usual.

Because of this, Kent and the others had to descend dozens of stone steps to reach the ships.

People nearby saw their appearance and immediately moved away.

After all, this group contained four mages.

Even Delis was wearing a mage robe.

"Kent, why are people from the Church of Light here?"

Just as they reached the ship they would board, Kent noticed a group of knights and priests standing nearby.

They wore white robes and carried the distinctive badges of the Church of Light.

Kent looked at them curiously and turned to Kweilin for an explanation.

"That’s perfectly normal," Kweilin explained with a smile.

"The Light Empire is separated from the Magical Beast Forest by the Dark Empire. Every spring, the priests and knights of the Light Empire undergo their trials, and they have to pass through our Alliance Empire to get there."

"But they never truly enter Alliance territory. They only transfer ships at the port. Besides, the Dark Empire would never dare attack anyone on the Quin River."

Kweilin glanced at the group of knights and priests walking ahead of them and continued explaining to Kent.

"But the Dark Empire borders the Magical Beast Forest. Aren’t they worried that people from the Dark Empire might ambush them there?" Kent asked curiously.

Kweilin shook his head.

"That’s because you don’t understand the Magical Beast Forest."

"Once someone enters the forest, unless they have extraordinarily bad luck, even if the Dark Empire sends people after them, they might never find them."

"Forget ordinary people—even if the entire force of the Dark Empire entered the forest, there would be no guarantee they could locate anyone."

"There are countless trees there that are over a hundred or even two hundred meters tall. They block out the sky completely."

"Inside the Magical Beast Forest, even ninth-rank experts dare not fly casually."

"And mental detection from mages is almost useless there because magical beasts are everywhere. The interference is simply too great."

"Besides, the Dark Empire is not allowed to act recklessly inside Chaos City."

"It is said that there are legendary mages stationed in Chaos City. Regardless of which faction enters, everyone is warned to follow the city’s rules."

"Even the Mage Guild has to obey."

As he explained, Kweilin slowly moved forward with the line of passengers waiting to board.

Kent listened while looking at the massive ship before him.

He couldn’t help sighing inwardly.

"No wonder people in this world are so knowledgeable. They have grown up with this kind of information. Compared with them, I still lack even the most basic understanding of this continent."

The ship before them looked almost like the ancient Chinese tower ships Kent had seen in history books.

It was roughly one hundred meters long and about ten meters wide.

The front half of the deck was occupied by a four-story structure, while the rear was dominated by a huge sail.

At both the front and back of the deck stood enormous crossbows.

The sharp arrowheads gleamed coldly in the sunlight, clearly warning everyone that these were powerful weapons capable of devastating enemies.

Kent and his companions had already reserved their tickets in Alliance City.

They had booked two private suites.

Their rooms were located on the third floor.

There were ten suites on this level. Each suite contained a small living room, followed by two bedrooms—one large and one small—as well as complete facilities such as a bathroom.

Kent’s room was right next to Kweilin’s.

The upper floor and the remaining suites on the second and third levels had all been reserved by the trial group from the Church of Light.

The lowest level was where the mercenaries stayed.

Inside were rows upon rows of hammocks, packed closely together.

Beneath the deck was the ship’s engine area, where the rowers and workers responsible for powering the vessel lived.

At the very top of the ship was an open-air terrace that served as a restaurant, providing passengers with drinks and various meals.