"Always had this nightmare of yours?" Lionel asked while his hands sharpened his sword with a small rock.
The rock glowed with light as magical runes on it enhanced the magical runes on the sword.
"No, before this I rarely had any nightmares, much less the same one repeating every night." Valthar answered as he stared at the fire.
"You think it's related to your banishment?"
Valthar feels his stomach sink as if he swallowed a brick.
"I hope it isn't, I rather not think about what happened back there."
Lionel hums in understanding, even though he doesn't know why exactly Valthar got banished.
"Makes sense, just don't dismiss it completely." Lionel says before chuckling to himself. "Like my father used to say, 'every problem you ignore is a demon that will come back to lick your foot in the middle of the night.'"
Valthar scoffs at those words but grows quiet for a moment..
Though barely a week had passed since he entered the caravan this clearing was already the farthest place he had ever been from the capital.
In the coming weeks he would be even farther still.
And yet it was not far away enough for him to stop feeling like a small and pathetic rat hidden under the floorboards of a noble house.
"How long until we reach the Outlands?" Valthar changed topics, glancing at Lionel's sleeping companion.
How envious to sleep so peacefully even in the middle of a forest, unburdened by worries.
"A day or two." Lionel too glances at his companion with a smile. "though the night watch will only be in full swing in a couple weeks when we reach the outer area of the Outlands."
"Sound's more peaceful than I expected.Thought I was about to see an alive wild beast for the first time in a matter of days."
"Haha, Yeah, the royal family doesn't play around when it comes to beasts in their backyard. Wait, you never saw one alive? Not even in dungeons?." Lionell asks, surprised.
Even commoners could enter the numerous dungeons spread through the territory, granted they had to register with one of the guilds to do so legally.
And from what he knew, every noble house was granted a dungeon for themselves as a mix of boon and responsibility to the empire.
"My education was more focused on theories and magical practice, the plan was to go visit one after forming my first mana ring, but… I got banished first." Valthar motions to the mask and cloak as a bit of bitterness seeps into his tone.
Linel glances at the mask, that he only saw Valthar take off during the caravan meal times.
"Why are you still on the 'I'm a criminal' getup by the way?"
Valthar hesitates for a second, trying to find words to explain this… act of shame.
"I rather not show my face around before the Outlands, lest I see someone I used to know before."
"Chances are low, nobles rarely pass by the places the caravan goes. Especially ever since the empire built those teleportation circles."
"Even then…" Valthar shook his head.
He had brought enough shame to his family by being a cripple, there was no need to risk doing even worse.
Though the highest nobles of the empire knew the truth, Valthar had no doubt the family would spread the word of him as dead instead of banished.
Of course he didn't say that outloud, he didn't need or want pity. He wanted to be better.
As Lionel finishes sharpening his sword he throws the now magically empty small stone into the tree line.
The stone flies fast through the air disappearing in the night in a blink of eyes.
Valthar senses no mana fluctuations from the throw, making it clear such a launch was done with pure strength and technique.
No doubt Lionel is a knight, though if he is a F, E, D or even higher grade one Valthar couldn't distinguish at the moment.
"Single use sharpening stone?" He asked with a bit of genuine interest.
Not that he had much interest in how the merchant used his money or in sharpening weapons.
But the single use runes used in such items had been a recent topic of study in his magic education.
Lionel answers with eagerness though much more focused on the immense amount of money the creator had gotten then on how intricate such runes were.
Like that the two keep jumping from topic to topic, chatting the time away on this peaceful night.
Slowly Valthar's heart lightens and at least till tomorrow when the nightmare pays a visit his troubles remain forgotten on the back of his mind.
*
Days blur together, as the caravan travels through both stone and dirt roads.
On the way they stop at a few cities, though Valthar didn't go sight-seeing in any of them.
In the wagon he now shared with a few new additions to the caravan he kept meditating, working relentlessly on forming his first mana ring.
It would be a lie to say he wasn't bitter at this point.
He didn't mind putting in the work, but with no results or even the certainty this was the right path frustration and doubt started to gather inside him.
Was he doing something wrong?
Would he ever become an actual mage?
Did all this suffering mean anything if he ultimately failed in the end?
Valthar did not have answers for such questions, so he shoved them down and kept moving forward regardless.
In contrast to his days of toil there was some respite at night, as the caravan moved deeper into the Outlands, more people started joining the night watch.
And with his dreams locked at the bottom of a well every night, he didn't meditate disturbed, taking the time after nightmares to talk to people at the firepit.
A lot of them were actually recruited through the cities the caravan passed by, paid with silver and promised work in Deep Bonfire.
For what he heard, the city itself seemed to have a recruiting deal with the caravan and it didn't seem to be a recent thing either, with many from the villages telling such caravans passed by every few months recruiting to Deep Bonfire.
Meals and travel expenses were covered.
To untrained non combatants they paid in silver, a deal rarely found in any other business.
And for those well trained knights and mages they offered gold, though throughout the journey Valthar hadn't seen a single trained person accept the offer.
Individuals of that level could gain coins easily enough that moving to a poison riddled land at the extreme edge of the Outlands was a very unappealing idea.
Seeing such recruitment efforts made Valthar raise the danger level of Deep Bonfire in his mind.
That after years of such aggressive scouting the city still needed more people meant people either left the place in droves or died at an alarming rate.
And by the amount being forked by the caravan for even untrained villagers Valthar would bet with two to one odds the reason was a large death rate.
A notion many recruits seemed to share, only to dismiss it in view of riches and a chance of a better life.