Departure

When Rick woke up, he found Carla and Leon's body lying just right beside him. He then turned his head around to look for Narlie but he didn't find her figure.

'Ughh... head still hurts' Rick inwardly said as he touched his head. Shortly afterwards, Carla and Leon woke up.

"Rick? What happened?" Carla weakly said as she touched her head. Leon just looked around and noticed that he had a ring he didn't recognize on his middle finger.

"Where's teacher Narlie?" Leon asked as he looked at Rick.

"Beats me. I just woke up and as clueless as you guys are" Rick said as he lied down.

"I don't recall wearing a ring. I don't even recognize this ring" Leon said as he showed his hand with the ring and took it off of his middle finger.

When Rick saw Leon's ring, his eyes lit up.

"If I'm not wrong, this is a spatial ring" Rick said as he held the ring.

"How did you know?" Leon asked as he looked at Rick.

"There seems to be a sealed folded space inside the ring. I can sense spatial fluctuations so I know" Rick replied.

He then inspected the space inside the ring and found numerous items, scrolls, clothes, and food. He took them out one by one and gathered them.

"Hold on, this seems to be a letter" Carla said as she grabbed the seemingly unassuming piece of paper. Rick and Leon's eyes lit up when she said those words and turned their gaze towards her.

She then read the letter in front of the two.

"Dear Kids, this is your Teacher, Narlie. Something happened inside the village so we sent you out of the barrier. Find a woman named Lisa Ferlon at the Golden Gate Academy. She'll take care of you.

Also, remember this. Don't easily trust anyone from the outside world except for Lisa. She's also from the village so you can trust her. Take care of yourselves and look after each other.

Most importantly, you can reveal your affinities to Lisa but don't ever reveal your affinities for space and life magic until you reach a certain level. Also, Rick, don't reveal your connection to the Gordon clan.

Don't worry about us inside. We're safe here. Worry more about yourselves in the outside world.

When the time comes, the village will show itself to the outside world so don't be in a hurry to get back here" Carla narrated the letter.

The trio looked at each other for a while before they turned their gaze towards the outside world. The scenery didn't look that much different from the one on the second layer of the village. After all, the second layer is just a small part of the Loren Forest.

'I can't sense spatial coordinates I sealed inside the village' Rick thought to himself.

"I can't believe we're actually outside the village" Leon said as he stood up and looked around.

"What happened to the village?" Carla asked but Rick just looked at her with a firm look.

"Teacher Narlie told us not to worry about the village so let's not, okay?" Rick said with his hands on his hips.

Carla then lowered her head for a while before she turned to look at the surroundings.

"What do we do now?" Leon said as he looked at Rick.

"For now, let's find some other people and learn more about the common sense of the outside world" Rick said as he rubbed his chin.

"But Teacher Narlie told us not to trust the outsiders except for that woman named Lisa" Carla replied.

"She said we shouldn't trust them easily, there's that word easily. Besides, She didn't say anything about not interacting with the outsiders. We can talk to them but that doesn't mean we should totally trust them" Rick said as the corners of his eyes narrowed.

"That's right. Otherwise, there would be no point in sending us to the outside world if we can't even talk to the outsiders" Leon added as he looked at Carla.

"That makes sense" Carla said as she raised her head.

"Alright, let's depart. Pack up your things. We can't rely too much on the spatial ring. We don't know much about the outside world. Who knows, spatial rings might be a rare commodity here and the moment other people see us, they'd rob us of this ring" Rick said as he picked up a bag from the ring.

Carla and Leon then picked up their bags and were about to depart when Rick suddenly said "Hold on, leave the spell scrolls inside the ring. Others can rob us of our things but we can't let these spell scrolls leave our grasps until we learned them"

Carla and Leon nodded and put the spell scrolls inside the spatial ring.

"Alright, let's go" Rick said as he looked at the two of them.

"Hold on.." Leon suddenly said. Rick and Carla impatiently looked at him.

"What?" Carla said with an annoyed tone.

"W-which way do we go?" Leon asked, a bit intimidated by Carla.

"Isn't it obvious? Just head in a straight line until we meet others. In any case, we don't know anything about the outside world so we just have to move forward" Rick replied.

"Anything else? Otherwise, I'd go crazy with you guys constantly saying 'hold on' every time we were about to go" Carla said.

"Let me take a leak.." Leon said as he approached a nearby tree on the left side. Carla rolled her eyes when she heard his words.

"Me too" Rick said as he approached a nearby tree on the right side.

"Can't you guys just take a leak together? Why does it have to be on the opposing sides?" Carla said with a somewhat loud voice so they could hear her.

"No man does that Carla. It's an unspoken rule between men" Rick replied while taking a leak. Leon just chuckled as he was able to relate with Rick's words.

"What about you, Carla? Do you have to take a leak?" Leon asked as he shook his organ to get rid of the lingering pee.

Carla looked around to see if there's a nearby place closed place for her to pee but found nothing and said "No way"

"Well, up to you" Leon replied as he approached Carla. Rick also finished taking a leak and went back.

"Alright, let's depart" Rick said as he walked forward. Carla and Leon just followed him from the sides.