Luck was on their side, or whatever happened at the place where Adam found arrowhead might have been insignificant. The group managed to reach the open fields of the stronghold by afternoon.

Adam noticed it had thick walls made of stone and a large area around it was grassland. He heard one old adventurer explaining to someone else that this place and surrounding the villages were the actual origin of the Crimson Empire. That was the reason this place had great security and high defence.

Many roads were leading to different areas from the stronghold, and the surrounding area had a considerable number of small campsites. Adam realised this place was busy, although it was not at the same level as West Coast city, to an area without a town, the number of caravans and people gathered were extremely high.

Once they reached the intersection between the roads, a small group of guards stopped the carriages. And Karina, who had experience, immediately went to them. Adam realised he was lucky to travel with this group, as he had no way of proving a passable identity unless his clothes gave him some kind of miracle to impress the guards.

Adam wanted to see the Stronghold, which was the origin of the mighty Crimson empire. He realised this place might have a history of more than several thousand years, but now, he lacked time.

“Master Adam,” her tone has changed from awareness to great respect when addressing him.

However, the latter was confused about how he became master Adam.

“We are going to camp tonight? Would it be convenient for you to stay with us and move tomorrow?”

Karina also seems to be in a hurry as she also decided to camp out in the open rather than entering the stronghold. Still, Adam wondered why they were going to set up camp now. And the leader of the adventurers sensed his doubt.

“Group of Empire Cavalry will be moving to Westwood village; it will be good to travel with them,” she explained patiently, expecting some response from the man of few words.

“Something happened?” Adam wondered if something big was happening while he was travelling toward this place. 

Empire cavalry were the highly mobile elites of the Crimson Empire. And he didn’t think they would act recklessly for no reason. He felt like it’s better to find his way to Westwood forest.

Karina’s eyes suddenly lit up. She felt like achieving a great victory. This man finally asked a question. She couldn’t help but smile. 

“Four people have gone missing in the Westwood Village, Mr Adam. Honestly, we are also going there for the same purpose. There is a high reward for solving this matter,” She was not afraid to disclose this, as only adventurers were eligible for their quest rewards. And she did not believe even if this man was truly powerful, he could solve this matter alone.

Adam on the other hand was much more relaxed after hearing the news. In West Coast city more than fifty refugees were missing. 

‘Probably because it’s a small village and the disappearance of four people must be a big issue,’ he thought. 

And there was the fact this was the area of the origin of the empire itself. Therefore, it was not a big issue to see they were giving priority to this.

They camped with many other people who were staying outside, Adam still relied on Mr Han’s food and his half-awake, half-sleep method to spend the rest of the night.

… 

The next morning, the journey was much more relaxed for almost everyone. As the group of Empire calvary made their way, much safer. Empire cavalry was a unit of the next level, unlike normal cavalry of the Black Dragon Empire, these warriors rode giant horned Bulls. Adam believed that normal horses would not be able to charge carrying these men, anyway.

Even Adam had to admit it was good to have a reliable group to travel. According to Karina, who was travelling with Adam today, even without these troops, the military often patrolled the roads from stronghold to villages. Yesterday incident was already reported to the stronghold by Karina and today the investigations would happen on the location.

Adam didn’t feel much optimistic about this, though if the other party had seen their group, they might be much more cautious from now on. And if they were strong enough and got provoked by the military, there was a good chance Karina might get ambushed on the way back. However, Adam kept these to himself. He felt that others were more experienced and had more knowledge in these parts of the world.

……………….

A couple of hours later, from the start of the journey, Adam noticed the vast tree line ending in the open fields. This time the High pass mountain was much closer and the thick trees extended all the way to the endless mountain range.

“Mr Adam, we are about to enter the Westwood forest,” confirming his theory, Karina gave him an assuring smile.

“The village is inside the forest?” The boldness of these people amazed Adam. 

He had to admit, even though the Black Dragon empire was a military-focused country, compared to the Crimson empire, where people born with an innate talent for battle, they were far behind. Still, how bold was it to build a village inside the forest? Especially in a forest bordering the unexplored, mysterious mountain range.

“Mr Adam, don’t be surprised. Most of the villages in the area are inside the Westwood forest. But none of them is located too deep. Just in the boundary,” Karina gave him a satisfying explanation.

“Our military is mostly trained in these forests areas by hunting and fighting, that’s why some nations look at Crimson empire as barbarian lands,” she continued.

“Still, that is the reason our people are strong. Even if young people born in the cities, they have to stay here for at least a year if they want to join the empire’s army,”

‘No wonder,’ Adam looked at the Empire cavalry group in front of the carriage. 

They looked much stronger and gave a weird sense of pressure compared to normal city guards. And by no means city guards were weak. He can’t imagine how strong were the Empire knights and Guardian knights.

Not long after they entered the path covered by the tree line and the same metallic sound rang in his brain.

 -Mission – The world is cruel than what it looks, Survival is only for the strong.

- Mission target – Learn to survive

- Mission Progression – Arrive at the West wood forest within one week. (Complete)

- Mission assessment –

                                          Arrival time (3 Days) F ->C

                                          Believer’s prestige established C ->A

- Final Assessment - A

- Mission reward – Authenticating as first mission (calculating reward)

- Attribute points – 2   Skill Points – 3       Ability points – 2              General points – 3000

- Special survival skill selecting – Host is not suited to survive in the environment

- Draft survival ability – Wolf Transformation (Basic)

- Host wish to receive the reward now? (Receive)

- Please wait for the second phase of the mission patiently

Adam felt happy, worried and confused at the same time. The mission was completed, but there was a second phase? He was expecting this anyway. He didn’t accept his reward immediately, ‘what if I become a wolf forever?’ he didn’t want to be like that. However, a reply from the system made him speechless.

- Please check your skills and abilities and their description from corresponding windows without making assumptions

- System assessment – Host’s rationality is below average

‘What kind of assessment is that I was just wondering,’ he complained silently before checking through the system

- Host Name                     -                 Adam

- Attributes

Strength                          -                 G

Agility                             -                  G

Spirit                                -                 F+

Intuition                           -                 F+

Attribute points – 2     Skill Points – 3       Ability points – 2              General points – 3000

- Attribute points detected please select an attribute to level up

‘Does it affect me? And what should I upgrade?’ he started to wonder. 

‘Maybe I should wait, he thought, looking at his poor strength and agility.’

Next, he wondered if he has any skills, weirdly enough he had two skills

Tracking (Basic) – Host is able to track and analyse fresh tracks (Upgradable – General points – 800 Skill points – 2)

Cooking (Basic) – Host is able to prepare a simple meal, nothing special (Upgradable - General points – 200 Skill points – 1)

He had points to upgrade tracking which will be at least useful but cooking was not going to help him much so he decided to save some points and decide later. Maybe he will be able to learn something related to combat.

As for the Abilities, since he didn’t accept system reward, there was none. He felt pity for himself. Because both tracking and cooking were the things he learned as a child and system count them as skill, that means he has no combat skills at all.

“Master Adam, we are here,” he suddenly heard Karina. 

The next moment, it stunned him looking at the giant village in front of them. 

‘Can they call this a village?’ sure the buildings were crude; roads were crude and only wooden walls.

However, the number of buildings extending far made him realise there should be at least several thousand people here, if not more.

‘No wonder they say the Crimson empire originated from here, if all the villages were like this there is no doubt about it,’ Adam thought, looking at the large number of people he could see through the open gates of the village.

Calvary made their way straight into the village, while they stopped the rest of the travellers at the gate. Adam noticed the village guards were not inferior to West Coast city guards. Maybe even better. Harsh conditions in the wild truly make tough men. He saw even the normal men in the village had something more than the natives on the West Coast.

He got off the carriage with the others, and within moments Village guards, cavalry and even normal people all noticed the unusual person in the group.

‘As expected,’ Adam sighed within. 

The system clothes brought too much attention. If he was in something normal, no one would notice him with a small build compared to most men in the group. Even with his six-foot-tall figure was quite average without these clothes.

However, now, even the captain of the Empire cavalry turned back and started to approach him. This made Adam feel helpless,

 ‘Fuck, what to do’? he could feel his palms sweating.

Lucky for him, Karina was hellbent on winning Adam’s favour, and immediately stood up to Captain. 

“Captain Carl, master Adam is with us,” she then got close to him and whispered something.

Adam had no idea that she was telling them that he was a 9th tier mage. However, he saw the giant man named Carl’s eyes lit up.

“Master Adam, allow me to introduce myself, I am Carl, second captain of East Stronghold Calvary. It’s an honour to meet you,” Adam lightly grabbed his extended hand. 

“Adam,” he simply didn’t want to say about the Wolf God part.

 “Mr Adam, are you here to look into missing people?” he asked hopefully. Adam was about to say no when the system made its move first.

-Optional Mission – Since you have established prestige as a man of the god, it’s time to defend innocents

- Mission target – Find the reason clues about missing people (within 3 days)

- Mission Reward – Depending on the performance extra rewards will be added

- Mission Failure – Losing the prestige of God will affect future missions

Adam gritted his teeth and muttered one word while cursing at the system 

‘what prestige?’ I feel like a conman,’

“Yes,”