In a town near the Death Mountain, all the traces of the former liveliness disappeared in a matter of days.

The rumors about the Death God being in the Death Mountain were enough to provoke a massive migration from all the nearby towns.

Those towns endured the presence of the criminals as the area was famous for its black market and the criminals were always quite eager to enter that business.

Moreover, without the criminals, the business in the area started to diminish, in the previous years, so even without the Death God it was just a matter of time to flee, and most were already making preparations from before.

Although most people had fled, there were still living there those who couldn’t leave because they didn’t have enough resources to live in another place or because they have family members that couldn’t travel due to being too old or sick.

“Hey, friend. I can see in your face that you are interested in obtaining some easy money.”

A skinny man appeared from an alley when he saw a young man walking by the nearby street.

There was a common peculiarity of everyone who still lived in that area, the lack of money.

With enough money, there was no problem to move to a different place, and it was even possible to buy carriages and escorts for those who couldn’t move quickly.

With the massive migration, the price of carriages and escorts went high to the point that only the richest could pay for them.

“Speak.”

The voice of the young man wasn’t friendly, but it didn’t show any hostility either. It was quite an ordinary behavior in that situation, so the skinny man wasn’t bothered by it.

“My family managed to buy a carriage by cooperating with another two families, and we are about to depart. However, we still lack escorts. If you act as our escort, we will cover the food expenses for all the travel and give you enough money to live a whole month after reaching the other town.”

Since the skinny man saw that the young man wasn’t old and didn’t seem to be starving, he believed that his problem was the lack of money to travel and not any family issues. After all, it was quite normal to leave most of the food for the weakest members of the family, so usually, the stronger ones had a worse appearance.

That was a foolish act since it would weaken the strongest members of the family, but the people in the town chose to be foolish instead of seeing their children and elders starving.

Given the circumstances of those towns, the skinny man offer was very good and showed that he was well-intentioned.

After all, that situation was a win for both sides as traveling with a high number of people was safer.

The skinny man was just at the Novice Rank, but in a place like that town his strength wasn’t bad at all, and since he was unable to tell the young man’s level, the possibilities were that he was a normal mortal who never started to train or that he was stronger than him.

The skinny man believed that the other party was at the Apprentice Rank, which was outstanding in the town at that moment but to travel to another town a single Apprentice Rank guy was far from enough to succeed.

“Why would you make such an offer to me?”

The young man didn’t accept immediately nor deny the offer, but the skinny man felt that it was also normal given that the offer was pretty good, and the area didn’t lack scammers.

“You seem quite strong, and nowadays it is difficult to find people like you. We already gathered almost all the Apprentice Rank experts of the area, but our lives are at stake, so we will be glad of having one more expert even if that increase the expenses.”

After the travel and paying all the escorts, the families who organized the trip would be in almost bankrupt and wouldn’t last more than two months without finding another job, but they knew that continuing to live in that dead town would end in the same way after some time.

“I see. I will decide after seeing the rest of the members of your group. If that isn’t possible, there is no need to talk anymore.”

The voice of the young man was resolute, and the skinny man knew that he was speaking the truth and would leave if the request was rejected.

“Alright. Follow me.”

In a place like that it was normal having some deadly enemies, and since there were a lot of people in his group, it wasn’t completely unthinkable that the young man wanted to confirm if some enemy was with them.

However, that didn’t bother the skinny man, in case there is some enemy, as long as one party could defeat the other, then it would be more reliable on the travel.

As for letting enemies traveling together, that was something that the skinny man wouldn’t allow since would increase too much the chances of having an internal conflict.

The young man followed the skinny man for some minutes before reaching a plaza were a lot of people was gathered.

The people were separated into four groups, the three families and the contracted escorts.

Counting the skinny man, the number of Novice Rank people in the families was three one for each family, and the number of escorts without counting the young man was just ten, and those ten were all at the Apprentice Rank.

Among the families, most of them couldn’t battle at all because they were elderly, sick, or just little kids.

“Father, you are back!”

A little girl rushed to the skinny man. She seemed to be around nine years old, but it was easy to see that she hadn’t eaten very well despite being better than her father.

“Another escort?”

The girl asked when seeing the young man.

“He had yet to accept.”

The skinny man looked to the young man who was observing the whole group.

“before, I felt it correctly… This is the right choice now.”

The young man muttered words that the others didn’t manage to hear.

“I accept the job, but I don’t want money nor food, I want information.”

No one expected those words since the main problem for everyone was the food and the money.

“What kind of information?”

The skinny man was shocked, but it would be good for their finances if the young man wanted something that wasn’t food and money.

“I am looking for some people, so I want to hear everything about strangers that appeared in the area the last ten years.”

Given how the towns in the area worked, there were a lot of strange people appearing constantly, so it was difficult to the skinny man to know from where to start and speaking about it would take a long time.

“You can tell me while traveling, no matter if the information is useful or not, I won’t ask for anything else as long you don’t lie or hide something on purpose.”

The skinny man couldn’t believe that the young man would make such a good offer, and he started to believe that maybe the young man was at the Practitioner Rank instead of the Apprentice Rank.

“I will tell everything I remember. We will depart in some hours. You can wait here while I continue looking for more escorts.”

The skinny man wanted to find more people to increase the group’s strength, but the rest of the families had already given up and decided to save their strength.

“Father, are you leaving again?”

The little girl seemed dejected by her father’s works, but the skinny man left quickly ignoring them.

Although the little girl seemed sad, she didn’t make a ruckus because she knew that her father was doing it to improve the chances of survival.

The young man waited in the plaza separated from the rest, but since no one knew him, no one bothered in starting a conversation with him.

An hour later the skinny man returned, but he was covered in blood.

“Father!”

The little girl rushed to her father without waiting even a second.

“Don’t come. There is poison on my wounds. I need to heal myself with some medicinal herbs.”

The skinny man knew about his situation since it wasn’t that strange in that town. Thieves attacked him, but since the skinny man didn’t have anything on his possession, they enjoyed torturing him a bit before leaving.

“Why? Those herbs are important for the trip. It is your fault for continuing looking for people.”

One of the other two Novice Rank men spoke coldly, and the little girl looked at him with teary eyes.

“This…”

The man didn’t know what to do in that situation because he knew that he had been far too careless, and the three families were only cooperating, they weren’t allies.

Moreover, most of the escorts were brought by the others, so he just wanted to increase his family’s influence a bit to avoid being at a disadvantage.

“No need to worry for that.”

The young man walked towards the skinny man, and after nearing him, he moved his hand, and all the blood and poison vanished.

“See, already healed. I can heal any wound without a problem, so don’t worry about people being stingy with medicines. Oh, I haven’t introduced myself yet. You can call me Yale.