The Tales of Draconic Warlock

The coach was slow, so slow that I was bored of the travel. Luckily, I kept a lot of books in my storage. I picked one and started to read it.

From the coachman, I learned that it would take three days to reach Endis town. It is quite a long journey considering that we are not travelling on foot, but rather on the back of a beast.

This way is much faster than travelling on foot, and that's if the person were a common man. If I were on foot, I would reach Endis Town a lot faster than this beast.

The only issue was that I didn't know where it was. I could have learned from the locals but as I decided before I want to enjoy this second chance at life. I don't want to rush my life as this is a life that I would have for hundreds of years as long as no one kills me in the middle.

Yes, I kind of became a bit lazy with my training trying to slow down my life. What I need is to find a balance in my life.

I want to enjoy my life and for that, I need to be strong enough to survive whatever comes my way. So training is a must but I don't want that training to eat my life and stop me from enjoying my youth.

In a few years, I would be considered old according to Earth's standards. Even that is true on Ragos as not everyone would be able to live such a prolonged life as of now.

Most of the people died before they were hundred due to old age. Even among the awakened not all would cross a hundred years, as they would die either fighting a monster or another enemy.

After crossing into my thirties, I would be considered old. There is no other alternative.

So I have to do whatever that young men have to do before that. If I miss this chance, I may not get another chance.

This is why I chose to ride the beast, which would consume a lot of my time. In this way, I can read peacefully and also could mingle with others.

I mean the academy was supposed to be for that purpose but others were mainly concentrated on improving their ranks and many were way too arrogant and were not my choice of friends.

This made my friend's circle very small. I need to expand it a little bit.

After all, living as a loner for a long time wouldn't be so great. In a long life, it's best to have a few friends in all ways of life. It would make life much easier.

This was something, people wouldn't understand in a feudal state.

Feudal state is not always bad. It has its own pros but not many can rise their opinions in such states but things get done quickly and easily and won't drag on for too long.

Anyway, I spent the time mingling with a few around me and reading a book or two as the journey progressed.

---

"We'll rest here for the night", the coach driver said as the beast stopped moving.

As soon as the driver spoke those words, everyone got down from their seats. I too followed them down. I have been sitting for too long. It's better to stretch my legs a bit.

When I got down I saw that we are not alone. There were other coaches that arrived at the place.

It was a rest stop, where the travellers would rest for the night when they had to travel long distances and there was no human habitat in sight.

It used to be the same on Earth until modern times.

Humans on Earth were small compared to animals in ancient and medieval times. There were huge cities and large empires but the population was small, which made the travel between places dangerous.

If someone went out to travel, they had to spend a lot of time in the wild. Many times, they would sleep in the wild too if the distance between their starting point and destination is too long.

It was not as if there were cars or aeroplanes that could bring people hundreds of kilometres away in a few hours. They had to make multiple stops, unlike the machines that can run for hundreds of kilometres without rest.

I mean no a man can't run a few kilometres without making some pit stops. The beasts are similar to that. However, as they were supposed to be used as transport vehicles, the beasts that were used in this line of work were of low rank.

There are many beasts in this world that are very strong and huge but are not powerful, sometimes even timid. These are the ones that are tamed for domestic purposes.

Unless you have awakened, no one would be idiot enough to tame a violent beast, even if it was a cub at the time when you took it and raised it yourself.

The violence in its blood wouldn't disappear. It would always bite in your ass one day or another.

The reason why the awakened dared to tame them was because of magic. Unlike the unawakened ones, the awakened have access to magic, no matter what their profession is.

Even a swordsman would have magic, though it was quite negligible but magic does pass through his body. This was what was needed for making contracts with beasts. Without the magic pathways, they can't be involved in anything that is magic.

If there are no pathways, magic that enters their bodies would become a toxin, which would slowly damage their bodies.

Yes, even without being awakened, one can make contracts but that would be slowly killing oneself.

So any unawakened ones would use timid and non-violent beasts for domestic use in farming, transport etc...

The only issue was that during transport, they could be easily spooked and they were usually trained to not fear small threats that could be easily dealt with.

You can understand that they can be of no use when there are threats, unlike the violent beasts turned mounts which would help their masters to fend off the threats.

This is why there are guards accompanying the travellers, and the reason behind the hefty prices of travelling.

---

I found a tree near the camp, climbed a branch and made it my place of sleep for the night.

Sleeping on the ground means, giving chance to any monster an easy chance at pouncing on you. Of course, there are a few monsters that can climb trees easily but I can only eliminate a few.

Moreover, there are bandits who roam the wilds. They would attack the travellers and steal their belongings. Many times they would kill the travellers, and kidnap children and women. These kidnapped people would later be sold into slavery.

Though it was illegal and frowned upon, there are many who actively seek slaves and paid a lot.

The bandits are someone who committed a lot of crimes, for which there is only the death penalty. So they don't care about the slavery issue, as it would give them a lot of gold too.

They would also take fighting men as they are much in demand in nations plagued by constant wars but keeping the fighting ones as slaves was not easy. many times they rebel while in transit or in the dens.

Even trying to subdue them would not be easy. It would cost them more than what they would get. So they never take fighting men as slaves and always choose to kill them to avoid further trouble.

Being on a branch of a tree instead of on the ground would give me a large area of sight. I could see into the distance and if I find someone who shouldn't be here, it would give me time to get ready and act, rather than getting caught with my pants down.

Not literally but you should understand what I am trying to say.

---

While I found myself a cosy place to rest, the people around the camp started to eat. Everyone was eating cold and hard rations as there was no way one would cook here.

Even though there are a lot of people, there are always dangers. The campfires are already signals that could attract the monsters and bandits in the forests to the camp but they were essential.

If one starts to cook, the smell of the food will attract even more monsters. Though they eat raw, that doesn't mean they have no taste. It was just that they couldn't cook anything good themselves.

Moreover, to cook they need cooks and cooking utensils, another burden to carry on such long journeys. Unless the travellers have space equipment, they wouldn't bring items like this.

I didn't offer because they are not my friends and showing you wealth unnecessarily could cause greed among people and dangers. It would be like inviting your own death on purpose.

While the ones in the camp were eating, I too took my food from my storage and ate it until I was full. I made myself comfortable on the wide branch so that I wouldn't fall off in the middle of the night and disturb my sleep.

---

Rush! Rush!

Huh? What was that?

I quickly woke up from my sleep feeling that something was wrong.