The Beginning

Koso blinked. "How would I know?"

Hudson's face darkened. "A few days ago, I was scared witless. Brother Awei and I were guarding those craftsmen and workers when City Lord Dole, his guard dog, and Wizard Akso started fighting in the sky. My heavens, that display—it was like heaven collapsing and earth splitting apart. I'm still scared whenever I think about it. Back then, if any spell had come our way, every last one of us would've been dead."

Koso was stunned. So he had run into someone who had been there.

He immediately leaned closer and asked with interest, "They say level-seven wizards are terrifying. Tell me, how terrifying are they? I heard one spell from them can flatten an entire town. Is that true?"

And so Hudson began describing it with great animation.

About half an hour later, Hudson finally finished, still wanting more. Then he secretly grinned. "You'll see it on the road in a while. The banks of the North Plains River are covered in traces of battle. One bolt of lightning fell and boiled the whole river surface. Scared yet?"

The two of them were both in their thirties or forties, men of the same generation. Once they got talking, they went on endlessly, even forgetting about the caravan.

For this journey, everyone was traveling together. They would leave together and rest together. In any case, they were all just tagging along for the excitement, lending Dole their support.

The Rose Caravan had not sent anyone Dole knew, and he had never dealt with them either. His main attention was not on the caravan, but entirely on the North Plains Mountain Range.

Today was the official opening of the Northwest Passage. The magic beasts would definitely come cause trouble. He had already assigned the