The others quickly packed the camp and piled it in the wagon to use later. If nothing else, they could use the cloth as a prop to make it look like they were an average travelling group.
It was obvious now that being able to store items in a separate space was a rare ability, and travelling without large amounts of supplies made them stand out.
That might change soon, with the Dungeon here. But for now, they would have to be careful.
They also didn’t know who could be awakened by the Dungeon. They had heard from the Beast Clerics that the last time this happened, the continent was left behind because they only got Common Grade dungeons with the system active, and that wouldn’t awaken the system in anything powerful.
This one could also come with caveats, even if it was Commander Rank. If it didn’t want to awaken every species that went in, there could be unintended side effects and a massive power struggle.
But Tessa also remembered that the ones awakened by the Dungeons weren’t able to advance past that point last time. There was a chance that species with higher potential might get very little out of it, if it didn’t give them anything more than an inventory and skills that were worse than what they had already.
It would be insane to stick around and find out, though.
“What are we going to do in Halsearing once we get there?” Tessa asked Karl as they watched the trolls run off into the distance.
“I say that we pick up some trade goods and turn ourselves into proper merchants. We can claim any destination that we want for you and Lotus, and if the wagon is loaded with trade goods, we have an excuse to go to any city we want.” Karl suggested.
“So, no hiding or elaborate schemes, just trading random goods until we get to a safe border?”
Karl nodded. “I think it’s going to work. See how everyone has reacted to us so far? As long as they thought that we were merchants, they didn’t really care what we were doing.”
“It would be better if we could actually disguise the rest of the team. Travelling with so many women in a nation that keeps slaves is a dangerous proposition.” She sighed.
“Do you think that we should hire more guards? Like, actual hired guards.” Karl asked.
“And have to hide who we are and what we’re doing all the time? No, thanks. Hopefully, Remi’s bodyguards are enough. If yours had come out the same, it would have been better, but with you calling a pair of lamias, that’s just more females.”
There was laughter from behind them as Ophelia came out of the camp with an armload of cloth.
“He’s got that sort of luck. I’m surprised that the bodyguards didn’t come out as smaller copies of Remi, to be honest. We’ve got most of the camp packed now, so we can leave whenever. Do we have a plan?”
Karl nodded. “We’re going to sell the gear we got from the Orcs, then reload the wagon with trade goods and head out of town on one of the major roads. I don’t think that it matters much, one runs east, one goes northeast, and they both head near a safe border.
We just need to trade where we stop to keep up the appearances, and we’re good to go.”
Ophelia nodded, then loaded the supplies in the wagon.
“Alright, we will trust you. How long do you think that it will take to get out of the country that way?”
Karl thought of the map, and the distances that they had managed to cover each day with Thor pulling the wagon.
“A full week of travel, so likely close to two weeks with trade and rest days. It looks suspicious for a merchant group to be in too big of a hurry if the town is safe, so we will likely stop at a few of the towns along the way.
If we go up to Berwickham, that’s two or maybe three days. Then we can go east into Northesia, which is human controlled. Then east across their territory to take a short ship ride to the south coast of home, sailing past the Wilds.
Or we could take a bit of an overland detour and go through the beastkin nation, headed for Whiton temple.
There are no roads for that route, but with the lake, it would be very hard to get lost.”
Ophelia frowned, and Tessa took out a small map as Karl described the routes. “The other option would be to head north after Berwickham, and go cross-country to the Divine Beast Nation, where we would have to circle around the Mountain Giants to go home.
Or, I suppose that we could go to Lutonade and try to pay off a Captain to take us all the way home, but that is even more risky than walking across a nation of monsters.”
The look on everyone else’s faces said that was the very last option that they were willing to try, and only after every other option had failed to get them out of the country. The Captains had already tried to capture them once, so just turning up at their home base didn’t seem like a great plan.
“Alright then. We’ve got cash from the bandit clearing, so we at least have local currency, and the items from the Orcs to trade. Does anyone want to stay here a day? Or do you want to get on the road as soon as we’ve finished our business?” Karl asked.
“I think that we should get on the road today. We can take a bit of time for lunch, but we should get out of town before more nations come for the festivities. Orthos warned us that they would be there not long after the event, and they are likely to be looking for us on the description of those who were there.
They might not know that we stabilized the dungeon, but they are likely to guess that we gained a treasure from being the first group through, especially if the Orcs are dead and no treasure was recovered.” Tessa suggested.
Dana frowned under her mask. She hadn’t thought about that. Dungeons usually gave a big reward for the first clearance, but they hadn’t seen anything notable.
Or perhaps they had gotten it, but because it went straight into their inventory, they just hadn’t paid enough attention. She could almost guarantee that Karl hadn’t even looked at what was in his inventory after they left.
Karl realized that everyone was looking at him, but he wasn’t sure why. They were all on the same page with the plan, so why was he getting that look?
It didn’t matter much. They were all loaded up now, and he just had to hook up Thor so that they could head out.
“Alright, everyone on board and in position. Let’s get this show on the road.”
The Golems moved to the back, and the pair of bodyguards took their place on the sideboards, while everyone else entered from the back as Karl and Rae finished the work with Thor’s harness.
It was wagon time, and Thor hardly let Karl get on the wagon, much less seated, before he was on the move, headed for where Hawk said the road into the city was.
