Departure

The rose knights and soldiers celebrated their victory through the night.

And on the next day when the sun rose up again. The rose knight trainees were getting ready to depart. All of them were extremely eager, a few day's journeys and they could reach the training center and finally be promoted to a rose knight.

Jason had just woken up and logged in to WOW. Right after he recruited Natalie and her son, he had decided to entertain Lyle's antics for a bit and promptly lost 1 silver from betting on the red barrack member's competitions.

Jason had remembered to hand the [altered goblin hide] to Charlie when there was a lull in the party. When Charlie saw the hide and the dark purple energy that was emitting from it.

He quickly tucked it away in his pouch and rushed off somewhere.

After that, he went to sleep, and return to reality where he cooked up a meal for Perseus and Arjuna finally letting his cooking skill reach level 4 after all of the meals he cooked.

Perseus kept on talking about the new business trip that he was planning. And after Jason told him about the new person he just recruited he beamed in happiness, joyful that the problem of leaving all of the kids unsupervised would be solved soon.

Arjuna on the other hand was talking about his new friend/rival Alanis and how she was really helpful in picking herbs and stuff. The gnome master was out doing something so, they had stuck together waiting for his return.

Jason also talked about his adventures, the twins laughed at how fast they took down the commander ranked monster and held their breath as he talked about Welf and the battle the Blue 2 team had with him.

When Jason woke up the next day and logged in. He could already see the rose knights gathering at the front gate. He hurried over their running through the streets and giving hasty nods to the townsfolk that greeted him as he ran by.

Finally, as he reached the front gate. His run turned into a walk. Lyle was waving at him at a distance and Jason joined the Blue 2 team again.

Everyone in the blue 2 team was there except for Charlie. Charlie was talking with the Baron about something in the back of the gate far away from anyone else.

Judging from the Baron's concerned and worried face it was something bad and Charlie also had a rare worried expression on his face. The two talked in a quiet but heated discussion. Until finally Charlie looked at the sun and saw it was already getting quite high in the sky.

As Charlie was walking away the Baron spoke in a loud voice that caught everyone's attention

"You're always welcome back Charlie! we are extremely proud of what you have become"

Charlie turned around and said in a lighthearted voice

"pfft, your not my dad"

And the baron responded in a much quieter voice that Jason could only hear a few words of

"yes, but i th..n.. of y..u a.. ..y s..n"

Charlie looked back at the Baron and the city of Muno behind him. Its beautiful walls that protected and encased the city. The boundless valley that stretched on the sides of the city. The busy sounds of the main street a bit behind them.

The rows of houses made of brick and wood. The lord's mansion that looked like a mini fortress and the mysterious crystal tower right next to it.

Charlie looked back at the Baron and said in a cheerful voice

"of course ill be back, its where I was raised most of my life after all"

And saying that Charlie walked towards the group of rose knight trainees that were waiting for him.

Jason started to understand why Charlie was so desperate to reach the city of Muno once he heard that they were under siege.

Charlie walked towards them with a nostalgic smile on his face. But as he looked at Jason he seemed to remember something and a somber expression replaced it. He walked up to Jason and whispered.

"that goblin hide you gave me... we need to talk about it privately"

Jason nodded and followed Charlie to a place that was full of crates.

Nobody was nearby and Charlie and Jason hopped onto one of the wooden crates and looked at each other.

Charlie started to talk

"that goblin hide you gave me... I could already detect ominous energy coming out of it the moment I touched it. I immediately went to the Baron to have it investigated and he brought out some tools to help me look into it."

Charlie clenched his hand

"that energy in the goblin commander's hide isn't natural, it's not from the forest like what we thought. Something or somebody altered the goblin using this energy giving it enhanced growth. We are lucky we took it out in the early stages or it could have become a goblin general or worse."

Jason started to talk

"so that means, somebody behind this, any ideas?"

Charlie nodded sadly

"yes, there is one person that comes to mind, right across this valley and mountain range, past a few kilometers of plains is the territory of a noble of Baiseon. He is known for doing unethical experiments and I fear he is the person behind this one event and possibly the entire Baiseon kingdom is too"

[you have completed the side objective of finding the person behind the event of monsters assautling Muno]

[additional rewards will be given at the knighting ceremony]

Jason looked at the notifications and confirmed that it was really that noble but that was only for one event, Jason felt like there was something deeper then just a simple noble setting this up. He didn't really know what it meant for the kingdom as a whole. But he knew that it was big news and could cause some damage to both sides if it was released to the public.

Jason asked Charlie

"Why are you telling me this?"

"you're the one who found this, it's only right I would tell you"

Jason shook his head

"fine, do what you want"

Charlie laughed gently as Jason and jumped off of the crate and headed back. Jason followed thinking hard about everything he just learned. I mean he was kinda expecting something like that but it was still hard to digest.

And so the rose knights set out, on their final journey as trainees. They walked at a steady marching pace, with the wolves on their wagon along with Natalie and Adaran who were tagging along.

The rose knight trainees intended route was to go through the various villages to rest there for the night since sleeping in the open fields wasn't always the best.

They all walked down the path singing songs and laughing everything felt more relaxed and even Jeffery wasn't as motion sick as before.

In the afternoon Jeffery stuck his nose up and smelled something. He barked out

"BOSS YOU SMELL THIS?"

Jason quickly checked his map to see a group of goblins on the corner of his map running to the north.

Jason yelled out to Charlie

"a group of goblins heading north about 400 to 500 meters away from here"

Charlie registered the information and muttered to himself

"heading north huh? wait that's where the Three Streams village is"

Charlie quickly yelled to the rose knights to halt. He said to them quickly

"everyone we are heading north, that village might be under attack by goblins right now"

And so the rose knights changed their course heading for the village.

Finally, after long period of grinding, more and more players were appearing in the world of WOW. Jason had been in the WOW world for so long he almost forgot that it was a VRMMO world.

But that period Jason had to prepare for the incoming players was soon coming to a close as more and more players reached level 15 and teleported into their starting villages and cities.

All of the players were extremely excited it was like living a new life in a new world. The starting villages were cool but the main world of WOW was always the best.

Players now started to teleport into WOW and the new age for the world was beginning. WOW was the only thing people talked about now, soon guilds would rise and fight for power and individuals would rise to the top with this game.

The period for preparation was almost over now Jason and the twins needed to face the millions of players that were now immigrating into the game each with dreams and ambitions of their own.

This was WOW, the world of wonders.