Commercial Flying Ship Dock, Kailan.
Main Ship Entrance Gate 05.
"Here, take this document; while on your journey, skim through it all, burn it afterward, and don’t let anyone other than you read it..."
Rio took the document from Ashtel’s hands with a confused look on his face.
"What is this? Why do I feel the presence of a powerful spell from this document? There’s a powerful privacy protection spell cast on this document..."
Ashtel nodded at Rio’s question and replied in a calm voice,
"This is all the information you will need to survive in the dwarf kingdom on your own. I have added all the deeper details I know about their nation. I have also made sure to add a lot of secrets in there..."
"There are also details about the national security plans and military capabilities, along with detailed descriptions about all the strong people and where they live and stay often..."
Rio was shocked by Ashtel’s words.
"Wha-what!? Why are you giving such a document to me? I am not going there for assassination missions, you know!"
Ashtel scratched the back of his neck awkwardly as he replied to Rio’s questions.
"Err... as you know, I once beat up their big shots... so, I kind of took away all the important documents including detailed knowledge about their military and stuff... cough..."
Rio’s jaw almost fell on the floor and he could not find words to express his shock for a while.
"N-no wonder they banned you and your entire bloodline from ever entering the dwarf nation... tha-that seems like a reasonable reaction now..."
Ashtel could only cough in embarrassment at Rio’s words. He was much younger back then and very reckless.
"Ahem! Well, just read it when you have time; once you are done, burn it or destroy it whatever way you prefer. there’s already a powerful privacy protection spell placed on them..."
"Only you can read them, and if others try, the documents will self-destruct."
Rio took the documents and placed them in his space ring.
"Oh, yes, try not to use your space ring in front of others when you are in that kingdom..."
"The dwarves are very good at building things; there is always a shortage of space rings in that nation, as they all are used to store a lot of important artifacts..."
"It’s possible to get targeted by thieves or bad folk if they notice that you have a space ring... Although you can easily deal with such people, it’s better to not catch too much attention when in foreign lands..."
It felt weird hearing the advice to stay ’low-key’ from the guy who literally raised havoc in the entire dwarf kingdom once, but Rio took the advice seriously.
He changed his shadow robe and made his clothes seem similar to a traveler’s.
Rio covered himself with a brownish robe with black designs of swords made all over it; his hands were covered with gloves that only showed half of his fingers and kept the rest of the hand hidden.
His head was covered by the hood of his brownish robe. (Kind of similar to an assassins cr*ed character’s clothes...)
This way, Rio hid his space ring and his face to some extent and even transformed his sword into an ordinary-looking ’flute.’
"Okay, then, from here on, I am just a humble bard. Rio ’The Travelling Bard’... sounds nice..."
Ashtel was surprised by Rio’s ability to instantly disguise himself.
"Wha-what are those clothes? They changed on their own; this is the first time I have seen something like this... Is it some kind of artifact?"
"Even I didn’t detect that you were wearing an artifact until you changed its design; that’s kind of amazing... no wonder you were able to become a fearsome assassin in just a few months..."
A smile appeared on Ashtel’s face as he felt a bit nostalgic.
"You... you really resemble your father you know... Sigh, if only he were here to see you. He was not a good husband but a decent man at least... sigh..."
Ashtel shook his head regretfully and stopped being sentimental, as he didn’t want to make the mood depressed.
He looked at the flying ship docked nearby and explained with a calm voice,
"This is a commercial flying ship; a subordinate of mine has a company that trades a lot of things with the dwarves and this is a ship under his name..."
"This ship is currently getting ready to leave the dock and will be staying in the dwarf kingdom for business for about half a year at most... I have already arranged everything; you can just board the ship and go with them..."
Ashtel glanced at Rio before saying,
"You can deboard the ship once you reach the dock in the dwarf kingdom; from there you will be on your own..."
"I have already given you enough details in the documents; make your way to the weak node that leads to the spirit realm and try to get back to this ship in about half a year’s time..."
"If you miss it, you will have to either wait for another ship to come pick you up next year, or you will have to somehow smuggle yourself back on your own..."
"Our relations with the dwarf kingdom aren’t all that great, so barely any ships or trade vehicles go there... the smuggling route might be a better option in case you get stranded..."
Ashtel put a hand on his chin as he spoke while thinking.
"Hmm... but in that case, it will be difficult... after all, you will be with Liam when you come back and might not be able to sneak around properly... Wait, that dragon girl can fly. yeah, you can ride on her back..."
Rio waved his hand and stopped Ashtel from jinxing him.
"No way, I want to make it back as soon as possible. I don’t want to keep my girlfriend waiting at home, you know. I want to reunite with her as soon as possible!"
"I will surely be back in a month or two at most!"
While Rio and Ashtel were talking, a man wearing thick glasses came over and introduced himself as the ship’s captain.
It turned out that Ashtel had already talked everything out with the captain of the flying ship.
"It’s an honor to help the ’Hero’ of our nation! Uh... cough... my little daughter is actually a fan; can I get an autograph... cough..."
Rio was a bit helpless and could not disappoint the man looking at him with such puppy eyes and ended up giving him an autograph.
"Oho, you have really gotten quite famous, kiddo. don’t let little Lia know that you gave your autograph to a fangirl hehe..."
Just when Rio was giving the captain his autograph, a familiar voice entered his ears; he looked back and noticed Jin sitting in a wheelchair, which was being pushed by Anna.
"Professor Jin... You are also here? Shouldn’t you be resting?... hmm wait, shouldn’t you be spending some quality time with your soon-to-be wife?"
Jin almost fell from his wheelchair at Rio’s teasing words.
"COUGH!!! Ahem... W-well, of course I will spend the time with her, you brat!"
"I just came to see you off, you know! Also, I wanted to thank you for helping in saving my life... by the way, when you using that mind penetration skill of yours... did you perchance see anything bad about me... ahem..."
Rio rolled his eyes at Jin’s words.
"No way, I don’t have the hobby of peeping into the boring life of some old smelly men! I have better things to do in life you know!"
Hearing Rio’s words, Jin threw his slipper at Rio which Rio easily dodged obviously,
"You punk! Ugh! Kids nowadays are all so arrogant..."
Rio grinned at Jin’s complaints and nodded his head at Anna as a greeting.
Aside from the two of them, Raji, Link, and Riya also arrived to see Rio off.
Raji brought out a sealed artifact and gave it to Rio.
"Take this; I have sealed three powerful spells of mine inside this artifact. use them in cases of emergency. make sure to keep a proper distance when using them, as these spells are not able to distinguish between enemy or friend..."
"I have tuned this artifact to be able to react to the fluctuations of your sword intent... even if you run out of mana, you can just use your sword intent to activate the spells inside..."
Raji could not go with Rio personally, but she was a powerful demi-god-level wizard after all; a wizard’s real power comes from their versatility. She made sure to prepare proper backup for Rio.
Riya gave Rio a few of the highest-grade potions that she herself refined with her own legendary skills; her potions were so powerful that they could even purify miasmic corruption.
Link did not have any gifts for Rio, but he bumped fists with Rio and gave him a pat on the back to motivate him.
With the well wishes of everyone and the hopes of everyone placed on his shoulders, Rio stepped forward and followed the lead of the ship captain as he boarded the ship.
He waved his hand to everyone looking at him depart from behind to say ’farewell,’ and the massive door of the ship finally closed as the flying ship finally left the dock.