Chapter 193 - Go To The Lake
I watched as they all moving to the lake with my Divine Vision. In the first place is Kron. He's still running without slowing down. It has been about half an hour since the training started. I guess he has a lot of stamina. As expected of a veteran hunter. If it goes on like this, he will arrive first.
In the second place is Jewel. She's already tired of running, so she takes a short break. Not only she's tired, she's also thirsty. But I didn't tell her to bring some water, so she can only stop to rest.
If it's like this, then it will be soon when Kayla's group passed her by. Then Jewel will be saved. I have told her to be calm, and I thought that she remembers my advice after hearing how she wanted to be my disciple yesterday. But in the end, she hurriedly run toward the lake and ignored my advice.
This is also a lesson for her. I won't help her unless she's in danger.
As for Kayla's group, they are moving in a steady pace. Whenever they heard the sound of a stream, they will split up. Two people will stay in the same spot, while the other two will get some waters. Although I said no magic, Kayla still told Shirley to create water container from ice so they could carry it. Since it's not a movement magic, it should be okay.
After getting some waters, they will regroup back in the place the other two stayed in. I think it's because they wanted to catch up with Jewel. If they move away from that route, they will not be able to meet Jewel.
Hmm? Jewel started moving again. I guess it will be a while until they meet.
Oh? She's not moving toward the lake, but to the river. I guess she's too thirsty. If it's goes on like that, she won't meet Kayla's group.
But then she stopped before moving. She grabbed a branch from the ground, and marked the path she takes. She wrote water, and an arrow pointed at the river. That must be her message in case Kayla's group passed by.
Jewel went to the river and dives her head into the water. After finished drinking, she returned to her previous spot where she wrote the message, and erase it. And then she continues going to the lake.
Hah! She's quite smart, isn't she? But she's too hotheaded. If she's much calmer, she's about as smart as Kayla. Now that she's tired, her mind is cooled down a bit and she must be thinking it would be great if Kayla's group catching up with her. She must be regretting her rash decision to run alone.
Now she's walking to the lake. She's waiting for Kayla's group to catch up without moving a step outside the route.
I looked around her and see that there are no monsters there. Kayla will catch up to her soon, so I think it's a good idea to watch how Kron is doing.
He has gotten quite far that my Divine Vision can't reach him anymore, so I have to get closer to him. I can leave Jewel to Victoria until she meets Kayla's group.
When my vision reached Kron, I can see him fighting three goblins. Since they are quite weak, Kron decided he wanted to beat them with his fists. It will take quite a while, but as a veteran hunter, he should be able to beat them. He knows the danger of even weak monsters such as goblin has, so he won't let his guard down. I hope.
Kron finally managed to defeat one of them after fifteen minutes, and goes for the next one. But the goblins decided to escape.
What will you do now, Kron? If they escape, they will call for reinforcement. You should have known about goblins, right?
And I'm right. Kron won't let them escape, but he can't catch up with them. So he has no choice but to use his magic to kill them before they escape. And those two goblins died with Kron's Wind Slash magic.
And now… he's stopped? He's looking around. Then he looked above at the sky, and clicked his tongue. Don't tell me…
I approached Kron quickly knowing what happened.
"Oh, Roy! It's good to see you here!" Kron looked at me as if I'm his savior.
"The lake is over there." I pointed at where the lake is.
"Thank you!" Then Kron run to the lake again.
I can't believe he's lost. Well, knowing how he can fly, he must be thinking that he can fly whenever he wants if he got lost. But I told him to not use magic unless it's an emergency, so he refrains from flying.
It won't be long until he arrives at the lake. I don't have to worry about him since there are no strong monsters in the path. For now, let's go back to see how Jewel is doing.
I retrace my steps back to where Jewel should be. But before I can see her, there are several monsters blocking my way. I have been evading them so I can watch the other, but seems like they followed me from my smell.
Well, I can defeat them easily since they are just wolves. And since it's not a stampede anymore, let's try the usual.
"Hello. I come in peace." I said to the wolves. Thought I doubt none of them understand my words.
And as expected, they ignored my greetings and start attacking me. I guess it will be the first time I tried using my daggers I made from the leftovers of the Giant Salamander's scales.
I made two daggers, and I tried to wield both of them together. Dual wielding is difficult, but this is a practice anyway.
Two daggers. One in my right hand, one in my left hand. To use them well, I need to get used to them. I can practice to use one to attack, and another for defense, or maybe both for attacking, or even using both for defending. I can swap which hand is for attacking, and which is for defending. Quick thinking is important in dual wielding.
But the wolves are too weak that I only needed less than five minutes to take care of them although it's the first time I wielded two daggers in real fight.
Well, I can train later. For now, the others are more important.
When I see Jewel again, she already grouped up with Kayla's group and they went together to the lake. And I see Victoria is with them chatting. Well, since Jewel is fine in the group, it's fine for her to not protect her, I guess? Maybe she's giving some advices as their mentor.
But they are not safe yet just because they are together. They encountered skeleton soldiers after a few minutes. Skeletons wearing helmet and carrying swords.
I heard that skeleton soldiers are from people who turned into monsters after they died. And they carry equipment they have from the day they died. So skeleton soldiers are humans who used to be soldiers.
Not to forget, that it has been about a thousand years since Aura user disappear. There are no more people who fight using sword in hope they can gain Aura ability. Which means these skeleton soldiers are about a thousand years old. Even the equipment they wear are rusty.
And it's easy for the group to defeat them. Lina and Jewel are not combatants, so they stayed in the middle while the other three are protecting them. Well, two actually. Just Shirley and Kayla.
As for Ian, his fighting method is quite interesting. He can change form into that of a huge falcon. And he used his talons to attack the skeletons in high speed. He would also grab a skeleton and dropped it from the sky to its death.
Now I understand how he is so fit despite his age. He fights like a beast he transformed into instead of using his other magic. Well, he could even carry Albert from Cassau to Melk, so it's obvious how strong he is.
There's only one skeleton soldier left, and it seems Ian asked the others to let him subjugate that skeleton. Then Ian transformed again.
As a Beastform mage, he has three transformation. First is normal human form, then next is their beast form. Lastly is in human beast hybrid form. Half-human, half-beast.
Ian transformed into his hybrid form, and he turned into an old man with wings, and talons as his feet. That's so cool! Not the old man part.
Then he grabbed a sword dropped by one of the skeletons, and fly as fast as he can to the last skeleton and stabbed it with that sword. Is he trying to be a flying warrior? Maybe he wanted to learn more fighting methods.
All the monsters are defeated and they continue going to the lake. There are no more obstacles on the way, and reached the lake right before the sun sets.
As for Kron, he's taking a nap while basking under the sun. He wakes up when the others arrive.
"Congratulations on coming this far! Now, how do we return?"
"Go to hell!" Kron is angry.
Well, since they are tired, I guess I should help them return.
I turned Victoria into a wagon, and have everyone ride the wagon as I pulled them back to the city.
With my speed, we reached just before the gate is closed. At least I won't have to carry them over the wall.