Arcane Era-Chapter 85: The Caravan (Part 2)

Following the directions Kamara got from the man she spoke to, the group was able to approach a caravan. After spending some moments negotiating—with Kamara handling all of the talking, while her team members watched in silence—they were able to secure considerable space for a very affordable price.

An interesting thing to note was that they hid their identities as Armament Wielders, so the caravan members would not treat them any different.

This was real life.

Greed and ambition were endless in Mortals, which meant bandits weren’t the only people that one had to be wary of. If Theo and his allies weren’t careful, then the caravan would be just as unsafe as traveling alone.

In fact, it could even be more dangerous, considering the sheer magnitude of members it enlisted.

As a result of hiding their identities, Kamara, Theo, Arlet, Liyah, and Kaycee were only able to secure a barely decent space in the caravan. It wasn’t as bad as the general place, where traveling Mortals would be squeezed together and would often-times have to share spaces with livestock or even foul-smelling goods. No, their space belonged exclusively to them, though it was small in size and had a slightly rickety appearance.

This caravan in particular seemed like a mesh-mash of many carriages, all of them considerably long and double-layered in size. This double-layered carriage formation, coupled with the fact that each carriage was attached to another, made it so that the entire caravan resembled a long snake or caterpillar made up of wood, metal, and several other materials.

There were several wheels supporting the trailing construct, and they were being pulled by Dragon Horses—a special race of horses highly regarded for their sheer strength and incredible size.

One of them was as tall as an elephant, yet it had the speed and vitality of a horse.

It was a beast among beasts!

There were two of them pulling the structure, and to make the burden mildly lighter, there were engines attached to certain portions of some carriage compartments. These engines offered propulsion force to the entire mechanism, reducing the drag and alleviating the stress placed on the Dragon Horses.

This entire structure might appear overly complex or incredibly strange and unusual, but this was actually the style of many mid-sized caravans.

Smaller scale ones used regular horses or cheaper variants. Large scale ones enlisted the aid of more than two Dragon Horses. Usually, they would even have more than one carriage complex, numbering at least three or more, each being considerably longer and larger than this one. As for super scale caravans, they had an unbelievable scale.

Comparing them to this mid-sized caravan would be too ridiculous.

"You all should sit tight. The whole trip should take about five days. It should have been shorter, but because we’re going to stop by a few settlements and tribes before reaching Sarvos, the duration of our trip has been extended."

"Urghh..." Liyah made a dreadful face, clearly not looking forward to the rest of the trip.

Kaycee, on the other hand, tried looking at the bright side of things. "Honestly, this isn’t as bad as I initially thought. We can rest and have a short break to explore the tribes we stop in, and we can also use that chance to gather information." freёwebnoѵel.com

He wasn’t wrong about that.

In fact, this was yet another peculiar advantage of taking caravans—the ability to naturally explore other regions without a hint of suspicion. By carrying the demeanor of a traveler or even merchant, one could gather information far and wide.

However, this information—at least, the more valuable ones—could not be obtained very easily.

It required expertise, precision, and experience.

These were qualities that Kaycee and the rest of the team didn’t have, so engaging in such activities was hopeless for them.

"Many tribes have a negative attitude to outsiders. They are naturally suspicious and unwelcoming due to their strong desire to protect their territory and the resources there. In this Arcane Era, strength is everything, which means a relatively strong person could plunder them without consequence..." Kamara chuckled. "Only Nations, using their affiliation with a Great Nation can escape such a fate."

This was one of the many benefits of being an officially recognized Nation.

—Security!

Tribes, on the other hand, had to constantly ward off external aggressors and wage constant territorial wars with other tribes. It was an endless cycle that naturally made most tribes—especially weaker ones—averse to foreigners.

The only reason they welcomed Caravans was to trade their goods for goods they required.

In essence, it was purely transactional.

As such, Kaycee’s suggestion of exploring these tribes wouldn’t fly. Not only were they not caravan members, but mere passengers, they also had nothing to offer the tribes which could offset their discrimination towards outsiders.

Even if they wanted to sneak into the tribes or try to obtain this information by force, things wouldn’t go very well.

After all, it would be foolish to underestimate these tribes just because they didn’t have the status of Nations or Great Nations. The mere fact that they could remain standing and could trade meant they had their means to protect themselves, and that meant only one thing in the current era.

—Arcane Instruments!

These tribes naturally had their fair share of Armaments whose quality and quantity depended largely on the size of these communities, the nature of goods they sold, and level of prosperity they enjoyed. Some tribes were so great that they could be called pseudo-Nations.

They had everything regular Nations had, except the official recognition that could only be obtained through an affiliation with a Great Nation.

Normally, whenever these pseudo-Nations popped up, many Nations or surrounding tribes would try to bring them down. After all, to the surrounding Nations, these were competitors, and to the other Tribes, if these pseudo-Nations rose to prominence, it would be disadvantageous to them.

If they couldn’t rise, they didn’t want others to do the same.

As a result, pseudo-Nations were very rarely seen, and even when they existed, many would do their best to hide their status, secretly gathering their strength until the time was appropriate. This showed that many tribes harbored secrets and complicated mechanisms that outsiders couldn’t be privy to.

In a period as chaotic as the Arcane Era, this was one of the only ways to survive.

**********

Five days passed in the blink of an eye.

A lot happened during this period. The caravan was attacked by bandits thrice—two times by regular bandits, while the third was by an Armament Wielder.

The former two were dealt with and suppressed, to the point where the bandits had to retreat. However, the Armament Wielder and the bandits he led weren’t so easy to deal with. Despite only possessing a defense-type Standard Grade Armament, the Caravan was forced to negotiate with him and pay a toll fee so they could pass.

This went to show the current state of the world and the status quo that existed.

During these five days of travel, they stopped at eight separate tribes and exchanged goods with them. Most of these tribes lacked the Arca for purchase, so they simply relied on trade by barter when it came to Merchants.

Naturally, Theo observed these trades and learned quite a bit about commerce with these people.

If, in the future, he needed to travel to these tribes, he would have some rudimentary understanding of their workings. After five days, the Caravan arrived at Sarvos, but it took an additional day to reach the Capital, since they also had to trade with certain places within the Nation itself, which meant the group spent a total of six days on the road.

That was nine days of travel, from the Ak’ashi Guild to their destination—the Sarvos Capital.