DMS Chapter 54
DMS Chapter 54
During the next two weeks, Flinx's life became very simple. He spent his days either relaxing inside his wagon, watching shows, or reading novels on the internet, talking to the caravan merchants, and roaming the surrounding areas through the eyes of his owl familiar, Pip.
They stopped at a couple of towns and a village, but there were no noteworthy things there, so he usually just spent those stops assisting either Camryn and Oliman or Rendra and her family with selling their wares. He was aware, though, that the merchants just found his assistance a little bothersome but were just polite to shoo him away.
The caravan merchants taught him a lot of things regarding being an adventurer, and because of those teachings, Flinx would probably not look like an ignorant foreigner once he arrived in Ilioven. He even learned the prices of the items there, and that meant that Flinx would not be scammed.
Flinx was truly grateful to Camryn, Oliman, Rendra, and her daughter and son-in-law. They were generous in teaching him the common sense of regular people inside the city of Ilioven, and the only payment he could give them that would not be pretentious was the food that he cooked.
Through the eyes of Pip, he managed to detect bandits and monsters. The bandits were just small groups of men and avoided their caravan because, apparently, Barthos’s caravan was already well-known as a well-guarded caravan, and most of the bandits who attacked it usually ended up six feet under. He would warn Barthos by sending the caravan master a message using the 3rd-level spell Sending. The caravan guards were grateful for his warning, but Barthos accepted the message as something like his duty and did not thank him at all.
The monsters who attacked the caravan were low-level ones that were easily dispatched by the caravan guards. Camryn and Oliman told him the route the caravan was taking was usually that safe, but reminded Flinx that it would not be the case in other places.
The arms merchants told Flinx a story regarding a caravan arriving at a village filled with monsters, since most of the villagers had been killed. Another tale, which Camryn admitted that they did not know if true, was a caravan stumbling into a village that had become a nest of an undead wizard who turned all the villagers into undead, causing half of that caravan's people to die before that caravan managed to escape.
After two weeks with the caravan, Flinx started to get antsy. Oliman told him that it would still take a month and a half before they arrived in Ilioven. He wanted to reach the city sooner, and after learning that the way to Ilioven was straightforward, which was to follow the road east, he started thinking that maybe it would be better for him to leave the caravan and travel alone.
Still, staying with the caravan was the best thing that happened to him so far since the merchants basically taught him how to become a local. His expertise in the common language increased, and he even adapted in his speech some of the local slang and jargon.
After a day more of staying with the caravan, Flinx had finally decided to venture by himself to Ilioven, but before he did that, he would need to plan first. He wanted to make sure that he would be able to use the best spells while traveling alone. Before the day he decided to leave, he created a plan on how he would travel.
First, he would travel by using the 3rd-level spell Fly. The cooldown for 3rd-level spells was three minute but since the duration of the Fly spell was 10 minutes, that meant that he could fly as long as he kept casting the said spells.
Second, to make sure that he would remain safe while flying, he would cast the 1st-level Mage Armor spell before starting his journey. The Mage Armor spell had a duration of 8 hours, so casting it once or twice a day would be fine. He would also cast the 4th-level spell Stoneskin every time he recast the Fly spell, even though the defensive spell could last up to one hour.
Since Flinx would keep casting the Fly spell before the 10-minute duration was done, he could just cast Stoneskin at the same time. Thankfully, he could see a visual timer in his view regarding the current buff spells that he had active on him, and would know when to recast the Fly spell.
One peculiarity of the spells of the Earthlings' transmigration gifts was the difference in what was supposed to be the concentration spells. According to the original website where their spells were based, which came from the most famous tabletop role-playing game, a caster would need to focus while using a concentration spell, such as the Fly spell, and they could only concentrate on one concentration spell at a time, but on their version, there was no such thing as concentration spells. Flinx and the other Earthlings could just cast all of their spells, and they would activate. They did not need to focus on them. That meant that there was no limit on how many concentration spells they could cast at any given time. The only limit they had was the number of their spell slots, the spell duration, and cooldown, which were also different from the original tabletop role-playing game magic rules.
With those differences, Flinx could understand why the wizard kidnappers were deathly afraid of the Earthlings' transmigrator gifts.
Third, when it was time for him to rest when night arrived, Flinx would cast his Galder’s Tower spell so he would have a comfortable home while he was on the road. He would make sure that he set up his Galder’s Tower far from the road, so it would not be immediately apparent to travelers.
Fourth, once his Galder’s Tower was set up, he would cast several defensive spells. He would follow a little the guide on the internet regarding which defensive spells he would surround his Galder’s Tower with. He would cast the 1st level Alarm Spell, then his newly purchased 4th level spell Hallucinatory Terrain, which caused him 15 low-level mana stones, then the 2nd level spell, Arcane Lock, to keep his door shut, and finally would let his Familiar guard the surrounding area so that Pip could warn them if any passerby went near his Galder’s Tower.
There were more powerful spells that the guide from the internet advised wizards to cast to protect their place, but Flinx thought that they would be overkill, so he planned to stick with those three spells plus his familiar for now.
Once he was done planning, he left his wagon and went first to Camryn and Oliman, then to Rendra and her family, since they were the people with whom he had become closest. He told them that he decided to leave for Ilioven the next day to travel by himself, since he truly needed to reach the capital and traveling alone would be so much faster than sticking with the caravan. His new friends from the caravan hugged him and then told him to take care, and that they understood why he would leave the caravan.
After that, he went to where Barthos' wagon was placed and told the caravan master his plan of leaving the caravan the next day. Flinx was a little confused when he saw Barthos looking reluctant, but then he realized that the man did not want to return the coins he paid.
Flinx just sighed and told the Caravan Master that he would not be getting his payment back. Once he said that, Barthos smiled and told him good luck on his journey.