For the next few minutes, everything was chaos in the house as the local branch of the Darklight Host began to arrange things to their liking, and sent out messages to all of the relevant town employees and authorities.
Karl sat mostly forgotten with the children, so he took a moment to examine the reward message that he had received from the System Status screen.
[Reward Gained] +2 inventory slots
Karl thought that message was a bit odd. He didn’t have inventory, other than a storage bag that was bonded like any other piece of equipment.
Only, that wasn’t true anymore. He did have storage spaces, two empty ones, and one that contained his storage bag.
In his mind, they appeared as chests, no larger than a backpack, but that tripled his available space to store items.
No longer would he have to rely on the beast spaces if he wanted to keep something, or the limited amount of room inside his one storage bag. He could put loads of items in the chests, and keep it there until he needed it.
The first thing he was going to have to collect was food, other than baked goods. Travelling without a cleric was a massive annoyance, and not an experience that he would recommend to anyone.
Eventually, the Darklight Host members finished their work in the aftermath of the battle, and the reports from the guards who had watched the duel began to flow in.
The younger mage gave Karl an appreciative look, then called Nathan forward from his spot in the kitchen.
“Alright, we understand that you have a quest to complete, returning these youngsters to their families. So, I will open the portal for you, and you can meet with the local Mayor, who is a friend of mine. He will see to it that everything is taken care of.” The elderly man explained.
Karl stood to shake his hand, and the mage gave him an odd look.
“If you hadn’t said that you’re not from here, I would think that there is something seriously off about your fashion sense.” He sighed, shaking his head.
Karl laughed, and changed back to his Royal Rank [Bestial Raiment] skill armour.
“Better?”
The old man nodded. “Now you don’t look like you were taking hallucinogens while letting a Nature Priest make you a Noble Lord cosplay.”
In his mind, all of the beasts laughed. The suit was actually quite normal for the Golden Dragon Nation, used for everything from business meetings to politics and news interviews.
A few of the younger members were staring at Karl in admiration, or more correctly, at his tabard.
“Wow, a gold trimmed tabard, with tassels. Just how many battles have you won?” One of the younger staff members asked.
Karl shrugged, “Well, I haven’t lost one yet. But mostly I seem to have a knack for pleasing the World Dragon.”
That made everyone in the room laugh.
“I have a knack for pleasing the World Dragon, he says.” Nathan, the portal mage, laughed.
The room fell silent as another man walked in, Royal Ranked like Karl. He was shirtless and covered in scars, which was somewhat surprising, as this world clearly had healers and clerics, but his eyes were familiar to Karl.
They had the same predatory look of a combat veteran that Karl had gotten used to seeing on the faces of the Elites on the Hill Giant front.
He had a Darklight Host sash around his waist that looked like Karl’s tabard, only the trim and tassels were silver.
“Good work with the duel, Champion. I am surprised that you let him live, but perhaps that is the tradition where you come from. I am Orthos, leader of this detachment. Tell me, where did you come from?”
“Not far from Whiton Temple there was an anomaly, a cloud that no senses could see through. I passed through it and ended up here.” Karl explained.
“Whiton Temple in the Great Central Desert?” He asked, clearly confused.
It wasn’t a desert anymore, but thousands of years ago, that was what the region that was now Chiptonrith Lake was known as. Morgana had covered that in history class, and Karl was now glad that he had been paying attention.
“Yes, that is the one. Toward the south of the continent, nearly centred from east to west. Sits on top of a large hill.” Karl agreed.
“Yes, that is Whiton Temple. You shouldn’t be here.” Orthos announced.
“Well, once I deliver these little ones, I intend to find a way back home. I don’t suppose that you know how to do that?”
Orthos smiled. “Once you finish your quest, you should be returned to your home continent easily enough by the Elves. The location and the description of how you arrived here make sense when you put them together. If you give me a moment, I can ensure that you end up safely back home without doing anything drastic.”
Now he was just being cryptic for the sake of being cryptic.
But if he could really send Karl home, it didn’t honestly matter if the description of why and how was satisfactory.
Orthos gestured at Nathan, who opened a portal into what looked like a treehouse, with walls covered in bark.
“There you go, the mayor’s office in Glatt. Good luck.” Orthos informed him with a smile.
Karl stood and shook his hand, then gathered his diminutive charges. “Alright, let’s get going. There should be people waiting for you there.”
He could hear the sound of someone moving about on the other side of the portal, then shouting in surprise as the kids began to move through into the Mayor’s office.
“Eliza? How?” The voice was asking.
“Looks like that’s my cue. Thank you all for the assistance. The map said it was a very long walk.”
Karl walked through the portal to join the kids, and Nathan closed it behind him.
“Darklight Host? Did you rescue the children? Were you with the team that went after their parents as well?” The Mayor asked as Karl arrived.
Karl shook his head. “They were separated before I found the children. I don’t know where the parents are now. I brought the little ones from Bunga, and they were last together in Senau, I believe.”
The small man nodded gravely, understanding what Karl meant. He was well aware of the less savoury practices of this place, and he knew that Senau was a slave market.
“Can you wait while we contact the rest of their families? I am certain that they will all want to thank you.” The Mayor asked.
“Of course. It’s not like I’m in a hurry to go somewhere.”
The kids laughed at Karl’s casual answer. He was lost on the road to Bunga when he found them, and now he was really lost, over a thousand kilometres to the northeast, and he wasn’t even from this continent.
The young Elves had no idea where Whiton was, but the people in Bunga made it sound like it wasn’t anywhere even remotely close.
Karl resisted the urge to laugh when the Mayor stepped out onto his balcony and began to shout names. No magic, no fancy device, just shouting across town for people to come to him.
It made Karl wonder how small Glatt was. But his sensitive ears heard people relaying the call, so it wasn’t small enough that a shout would be heard all over town.
“Give them a minute or two, and they will be here.”
