A Journey
Life is hard, especially when you are travelling. He is now on the path towards the undead country. According to rumors, the undead country Stelloid has the best cursed items in the nearby stars. Their craftsman are the best and they can make almost any cursed items from weapons to accessories. Of course, the prerequisite on using the cursed items is that you know how to use it properly. In the ancient times up until now, secondhand cursed items are not popular. A cursed item has certain ways of activating them making most finders of cursed items vexed. Also, cursed items are durable, but they look like rags or trash and they doesn't look aesthetically pleasing. Those two reasons combined makes the cursed items' reputation to be great for those who don't want their stuff stolen albeit at the cost of their equipments looking like trash.
As he rode Stubborn, the stubborn Terronyx, he saw from a distance a caravan being attacked by what looks like people. Probably bandits. The merchants from the previous town often went towards the huge cities to sell the products they gained from the grassland and buy supplies and luxury goods from the cities and sell it to the grassland. In this way, it was regular for them to form a caravan that will travel towards the cities. And with bustling trade came the bandits. They are like a cycle. One won't exist without the other.
He stopped for a while and watched from afar as he felt pity at the merchants being killed. Sure he can save them, but at what cost? He's no good samaritan and he's not an idiot. Those heroic stories of knights helping those in need are just stories. Practicality is the one that matters.
After half an hour of fighting, the sounds of battle cease to exist as the bandits looted the caravan and went away. Sounds is heard from behind him and as he turned around, he was not the only one watching. A group of ragtag individuals is behind him who may have been watching the seen but they did nothing just like him. People die every day so why should they help everyone in need? This may sound cruel but this is reality. Stories narrates of someone saving the protagonist at times of needs but it was the other way around in reality. It was always the bad guys having the reinforcements to beat the living daylights out of the good one.
The travel went smooth after the incident as the day passed and night came. No bandits attacked him because in the bandit's eyes, what can he compare to? They prefer attacking caravans than lone men as caravans have much more wealth to plunder while a little bit of money is gained from a lone man.
The next day, he saw another caravan but no bandits attacked this certain caravan. The reason? Its a goblin caravan. The previous caravan is made up of demi-humans so they're easy targets. But goblins are different. Money is their life and trying to rob them will make them go berserk. A berserk goblin is a suicidal goblin and it will take anyone trying to rob them down with them. Then there is the fact that items looted from goblins are normally just a bunch of trash other species could not comprehend what for. All in all, robbing a goblin caravan will incur loss.
Bandits were intelligent these days. They have their own code of honor and their targets to rob. Among the races, there are three races they dare not to rob. Goblins, because money is their life. Undead, because most of the time they carry cursed items. And the last are devils, because devils have their own innate spatial dimension where they can store their own items so even if you kill them, they won't drop a thing and if they escaped, devils are a bunch of vile and resentful creatures so its better to work for the angels once you failed robbing them.
The plains are vast as he enjoyed the scenery as he travelled. Most of the time he would just stare forward, anticipating what sight would appear in front of him but soon enough, boredom came. He just casted the tier III spell Focused Mind as he read a book. The spell allows a mage to read books and do meticulous stuff even when they are riding a steed.
Only mages are bold enough to read a book while riding a steed and he can see some bandits eyeing him from afar as it is common sense for most planets that mages are both wealthy and penniless. They are wealthy as they can easily earn tons of money and penniless because they are good at squandering it to fund their experiments. The bandits just let him be as his clothes looked tattered and his rucksack looks as if it was a thread away from giving up. The bandits probably thought that he has no wealth left so they left him after a while.
A forest entered his vision soon enough. The forest looks cold and gloomy, with a thick layer of mist in its surroundings. This was the border of the Empire of Gloom, a somewhat weird country if he were to describe them. They are a country ruled by an energy life form. Energy lifeforms aren't that rare but an energy life form that formed his own country and governs it directly was extremely rare enough. There are different kinds of energy lifeforms and their common characteristics is that they are aloof and arrogant. They despise flesh lifeforms that can't can't magic. But one good characteristic of theirs is that they like to explore things. With all those nature combined, it is hard for an energy lifeform to settle down. Add in their almost immortal lifespan and you can wonder how they went from one place to another.
"Halt!" A hissing voice is heard as an apparition appeared in front of him. Apparition are commonly used by energy lifeforms as their servants and their appearance confirmed that the energy lifeform truly existed. Only ghost kings and energy lifeforms can command apparitions to stay put and guard after all. In fact, he wouldn't have to meet this apparition so long as he entered the Empire of Gloom through the main roads, but where is the fun in that? You would typically see nothing if you entered a foreign country through an official channel. Its more adventurous if you were to enter it through other means.
"Border inspection!" The apparition said as its moved its body closer.
He had stopped a while ago and soon enough, he saw the apparition clearly. It has the appearance of a man without his left leg and with torn clothing. There are two types of apparition, the natural and the undead type. Natural apparitions are considered as an energy lifeform and they have no fixed appearance. The undead apparition on the other hand is considered as an undead and it will have the look of a person who recently died on the spawning point of apparition.
The apparition suddenly vanished but he felt that its still there. He could feel as if he were being observed meticulously as he looked around. The sensation is gone as the apparition appeared and left him. He then proceeded to enter the forest as he continued his journey.
After passing through the inspection, he entered through the forest and it was different from what he saw from the outside. The forest he is seeing right now is lush and lively. Birds and other animals are seen everywhere and plants of all sorts grew abundant. The borders were probably inhabited by the apparitions for a long time as places where apparitions resided tends to be distorted and the line between reality and illusions will be thinner.
He silently casted a combination spell. The tier III spell Calm Mind which forcibly calms the mind of the user and the tier II spell Clear Vision. Both spells were used by mages whenever they encountered baffling situations and meeting an apparition is a baffling situation. A mage who did not take proper precautions even if it is a safe area isn't a proper mage as mages uses their minds not their bodies so a safe situation for others might not be necessarily safe for them.
After taking in the sight of the forest and confirming that what he was seeing isn't an illusion, the first thing he brought out is a piece of paper riddled with various lines, letters and symbols. This was a map he created he bought different maps and compared them with each other. He also added the knowledge he got from the library so that he would have additional knowledge to places that he would travel in the future. His goal is to find a trail or a path in the forest as travelling without a guide will get you lost most of the time.
After wandering for a while, he found a trail and followed it. He was now walking as the stubborn bird behind him was good for grasslands and open areas but performs averagely at forests or enclosed areas. These birds suffers mental and psychological stress when entering a place without much open space and that trait has been in their blood ever since the beginning. It may be attributed to their ancestors, the Terronyx. Those birds are massive and for them, the forest is as good as grass and a gigantic mountain is a mound in front of them. Though its descendants haven't inherited its size, they inherited their behaviour.
Soon enough, he went out of the forest and the bustling scene of a city greeted him.