After Daniel had finished his instructions, the butler left to get the necessary artifacts. After getting the necessary artifacts, he handed them over to Axel and told him to prepare for the travel in 2 days. Axel inspected the artifacts that were given to him.
One was an immunity artifact to protect from diseases, and the other was something that would protect him from attacks for a few moments upon activation. Both were in the shape of accessories that could be worn on his body. There was another cloak that would hide his identity and face with a long hood.
He was sure that all of them must have cost a fortune. Despite the bad state of their merchant organization, his father spent a fortune to ensure his safety. He could have easily forced Axel to remain at home at all times. But he did not do that. Axel could not help but feel grateful towards him. But a sense of shame also flowed in him. Since he was taking advantage of 'Daniel Nomrad'.
He shook his head and stopped thinking about it, he then thought about next stage of his training that the Butler talked about which Vargas himself would personally take over.
When William fought him, he obviously suppressed himself to that of a normal human's level. At first, he would only last a few seconds against him when the fight started, but now, after 4 months, he could last more than 20 minutes, and the intensity of the training only increased every single day.
One had to realize that a 1st phase being with their most powerful attacks could affect and destroy everything in an area of 10-50 meters, a 5 story building for example. A second phase, on the other hand, could affect an area of 100-200 meters. Of course, that is only if we're talking about unprotected places. All noble or merchant houses had necessary protections all over the place.
The materials used to build those places were that resilient. So, if William were to try and throw his most powerful attack in any of the Nomrad mansions, his powers would be suppressed. As far as Axel knew, their mansion had protection up to the level of the quasi-5th phase Seekers.
But the matter of attention here is that his instructor, William, could squash him a thousand times like a bug. That's the amount of power and experience he holds. So, despite him suppressing all his power, for Axel to be able to fight toe-to-toe against him for 20 minutes is an astonishing feat and tt was Vargas's idea to not give any sort of feedback to Axel; overpraising him would only result in him becoming lazy; that's what the butler believed.
Axel didn't know what the butler thought, but he felt somewhat confident in his battle prowess. As far as he knew, he only needed to find the demonic plant, There could be some beasts lurking nearby, which was why he wanted to be as ready as possible. If he were too late, that guy might just take the plant before he could.
After two days, he went on his way to the Santak Village. It was almost in the opposite corner of the Dusker Dukedom compared to where the mansion of the Nomrad family was and the place where 'Obsidian Trade' operated. So, midway, he would have to use a teleportation gate to shorten the distance.
The Teleportation gates were prized possessions of the Suncrest kingdom. No one could make more of them. It is said that the first Valkyrie who was summoned by the Royal family had the power of space and had built the teleportation gates in many places of the continent, but the highest number of them remained in the Suncrest kingdom, while a few of them were in other great kingdoms' important checkpoints.
Axel brought Neil and the guards with him. His father wanted to send William with him for his safety, but he instantly rejected it. He knew very well how much of a pinch their family business is in; if an important asset as William were to be gone now, it would make the situation even worse. William was already wasting too much time training him daily.
The two 1st phase guards were more than enough. But for his security, they had changed their carriages in midway. There was no need for them to advertise the fact that a carriage from the Nomrad merchant family was going somewhere.
The new carriage looked poor and dull from the outside, but its insides were cozy and comfortable. They were stopped by some robbers at a certain point, but one of the guards killed them all without mercy. The robbers thought they could rob it, seeing the unassuming appearance of the carriage, but that was a grave mistake. Axel wasn't able to look at that scene.
Though people without power could be killed like dogs in this world, it was still hard for him to suddenly shift toward that mindset so soon. After one more day of travel, they reached the teleportation point. Since the teleportation gates were strictly controlled by the royal family. They needed to prove their identity since only the various authorities of the great kingdom could use them.
One of the two guards accompanying Axel showed their identity plaque of the Nomrad family. He handed over a small pouch of Gold coins, and the soldier nodded. Axel and his group went inside after they set the nearest destination of the Santak village.
The moment Axel placed his foot on the teleportation gate, his body was dragged by an unbelievable force, he could feel his entire existence twisting into something else. Reality itself seemed to bend at that place and only the empty void filled his surroundings. A few moments later, he suddenly found himself on the other side of the teleportation gate. He immediately vomited after coming out.
The guards on the other side had a disgusted expression on their face seeing that someone had vomited right in front of the gate. Neil did the same thing after arriving. They had to pay some more coins to the teleportation gate guards to appease their anger. The guards accompanying Axel did not have any reactions, they seem to be used to it.
The group continued their journey after buying another carriage and two more horses on that town. 2 more days passed inside of carriage and Axel was bored to death. He had nothing to do and weird thoughts started to grow in his mind.
His mind often started to wonder about the beautiful maids of his mansion; some of them were even his age or slightly younger. Then there was Clara; her mature and sexy body was just too alluring to ignore when his male hormones were at their peak.
Thankfully he did not bring a women with him on the journey, otherwise he really might have failed to control himself. Time passed and they eventually reached the village. The immunity artifact worked automatically as for the two guards they did not need to worry about the diseases of normal people.
Axel eventually learned the name of the two guards along the way, They were Thorne and Garrik. He asked one of them to help him set up a tent in the outskirts of the village, it was a rural village that did not have inn in it, nor do they ever have any outsiders visiting them.
Garrik had a space ring in his hand in which they brought all the necessities with them. Raw food, a large magic tent. Only seekers can use certain items since they are connected to Prime nexus. That is why Garrik had it in his hand; in the hands of a normal person, the ring would be useless and unassuming.
While Garrik was helping them set up the tent, Thorne went into the village to see the state of it with his own eyes and make his own conclusions about it, Axel also ordered him to see the conditions of the sick people.
Axel left Neil in the very last town they crossed since he would be useless here anyway, and it was better for him to gather information about this from the nearby town. If something noteworthy came across him, he could send that information with messenger birds.
After setting up the tent, Garrik started a fire since it was almost night. He started cooking porridge with some vegetables and meat. He smiled at Axel and said,
"Sorry, young master, I'm not too good at cooking, you'll have to make due with for now."
Axel smiled in return and said, "How many times do I have to tell you to drop such formalities?"
Garrik laughed sheepishly but did not comment on that as he focused on cooking the food.
Axel sighed, seeing that they had become somewhat close in the long journey as he always asked this and that to the two guards about anything and everything he was curious about.
Thorne came back after a while, but he had a tense expression on his face. He sat down beside the fire, and started explaining what he saw.