Black Onyx - Forgotten Magic

It was at that time that Gerald cast another volley of Stone Bolts, preventing them from advancing.

"Forget it! We can't win like this, two archers and three mages at the back with two warriors at the front…" one of the bandits said. "We already lost too much, there is no point in throwing our lives away!"

The rest agreed with him. Their beasts were already dead and dodging arrows and deadly stone spikes was too much for them. They weren't insane enough to continue doing something that obviously didn't work.

"Trying to run? Why don't you stay, since you went through so much trouble to come here?!" Gerald yelled when he saw them retreating and cast another Stone Shower.

Unfortunately, his Mana was exhausted and he couldn't use a speed boost by using air pressure bubbles. He guided the Stone Bolts as best he could, but when they went more than twenty-five meters away, he lost control and they simply fell from the sky and stuck themselves in the ground.

"Tsk, I'm still limited by the short distance. You were lucky this time," Gerald complained as he watched the bandits escape. He was speaking to himself, more than anyone else.

As the fight ended, everyone could finally relax. Two attacks in two days was a bit too much. Usually, bandits attacked small groups or lone travelers. Oftentimes they would give up quickly if they encountered some opposition, unlike these two times. They were even ready to lay down their lives to achieve their goal.

It bugged Gerald to no end. Even if humans were greedy, it shouldn't be to this extent.

He went to the wagon to put away his chest when he saw something that piqued his interest. He removed a few wooden planks and to his surprise, there was another chest there. It looked quite similar to the one he was carrying.

Now he finally made sense. The bandits were obviously trying to steal a chest and probably took his by mistake.

"Mister Rulgo? Would you mind telling me what's in the box?" Gerald asked with a little higher voice to attract attention.

Mister rulgo quickly turned around and saw what Gerald was pointing at. He dismissingly said, "Just some old tools. Don't wanna get them wet, you know?"

Gerald squinted his eyes, "Is that so? Then I guess it's fine if I take a quick peek inside?" He stretched his hand towards the chest.

Shink!

The sound of a sword being unsheathed sounded in Gerald's ears and before he could lay his hand on the chest, a sword was already at his neck.

"Hands off the chest, boy," mister Rulgo spoke in a cold tone. His matter of speech and tense body language gave no room for negotiation.

Gerald glanced at him from the corner of his eye. The grumpy middle-aged man from before was gone and replaced by him was someone that gave off an aura of a seasoned warrior. He was cold and unyielding, just like his sword on Gerald's neck.

"Haha," Gerald laughed and lightly pushed the sword away from his neck. He stepped a few steps back and said, "Mister Rulgo, I don't know what's in the chest, but it's definitely not some old tools. It's fine if you don't want people to know, but you could at least warn us about the difficulty of the job, right?"

"For so many bandits to attack us, I guess the chest must be full of gold, eh?" Gerald jokingly added.

Mister Rulgo squinted his eyes and blew air out of his nose, "Hmph, just do your job and don't ask questions. We will need to speed up to arrive on time." He sheathed his sword and returned to his donkeys' side.

"I don't know about others, but I'm exhausted. You can go if you want, but I have to rest my body for a while," Gerald quickly reminded.

Looking at the rest of his escorts mister Rulgo sighed and said, "One hour. After one hour we must continue!"

Honestly, apart from Gerald, the rest were quite capable of walking for the rest of the day. But, of course, they didn't complain about having a short break after so many shocking things happened.

'Who knew that we were guarding a freaking bandit magnet?' Derrick helplessly shook his head and sat down. Like the rest, he was also curious about what was in the box, but as a leader, he had to show more maturity so he didn't join the conversation about its secrets.

People looking at Gerald would think he was asleep. He was laying down on the grass with his hands behind his head and legs spread apart. But he was, in fact, meditating.

Usually, meditation required a person to sit in a lotus position, but if the desired effect was to relax then in Gerald's opinion, laying down in a comfortable position was much better.

His Mana recovery rate was currently at 3.2MP/h without meditation. With weeks of training, he was able to slowly increase it somewhat. If he focused on Mana recovery while meditating, then that amount could go over 15 MP/h.

Healing magic could be stacked on top of each other a few times. It wasn't additive but instead had diminishing results. Four spells working simultaneously were just a bit more than twice as effective as a single one alone. Still, it provided a fast recovery.

After the hour was up, Gerald completely recovered. Muscle fatigue and soreness were the simplest damage to recover from after all.

During the time he was relaxing, Sera and Kara collected the pelts and Earth Crystals from the dead beasts and distributed them evenly among everyone.

Because of the many unpredictable factors, like donkeys' slow speed and bandit attacks, the group barely missed their target. They were supposed to arrive at the capital in the evening, but when the night came, they were still a good ten kilometers away.

They had no choice but to set camp in the open once again.

Finally, in the late morning the next day, they, at last, arrived at their destination.

In the distance, they saw the magnificent white walls of the capital Auralba. Supposedly it meant white gold, which was quite fitting for the shining white city.

The walls were more than fifteen meters tall and were extremely massive, made of white limestone, with great ornaments and giant statues around the gates.

The entrance was heavily guarded along with massive black iron gates that stopped travelers from simply walking in. There was also a fee for entry, which came to be five silver coins per person.

If the guards deemed you were not fit for entry, then it was best to just walk away and not make a scene. There were some poor people that tried to squeeze past in the crowd, but they were quickly captured, beaten up, and then mercilessly thrown out.

Mister Rulgo stopped his cart a good one hundred meters from the gates and went to talk with a guard.

He then soon came back and spoke in a strong voice, "Alright people! We came to our destination and here is where our travels together end. You did a good job protecting this expedition and the Guild will definitely hear about your good deeds! And now, it's time for your well-deserved reward."

He took out a silver key and pulled his chest closer. When he turned it around, the group was able to see a massive lock in the front.

Everybody bunched around with interest, waiting to see what secrets it held. Finally, mister Rulgo placed the key in the lock and turned it around.

Clack!

The mechanism made a sound and the lid opened. At the same time, Gerald's eyes almost jumped out of their sockets.

"Holy shit! It's actually full of gold!"