Three-man team

“Neigh neigh neigh… neigh neigh neigh…”

“Tsk, what’s with these two horses today? If this keeps up, we won’t be out of this forest before sunset.”

On a small path within the woods, a young man who looked to be about sixteen or seventeen was forcefully pulling on two reins.

On the other end of the reins were two sturdy-looking brown horses.

The two sides were locked in a stalemate.

The young man was desperately trying to pull them back into the forest to continue their journey, but the two horses refused to comply.

No matter how hard the young man pulled, they wouldn’t set a single hoof into the forest.

A long drag mark had even been scraped into the ground beneath their feet.

The man and the two horses remained in this standoff.

“Come on, you two, move… go… through here… I’ll… buy you… more… car… ro… pfft-ah…”

The confrontation finally ended with the reins snapping.

The horses backed away to their original spot, trying to break free from the ropes connecting them to the carriage.

The young man fell backward, landing headfirst on the ground.

“Vic, what’s wrong? Are they still unwilling to go in?”

“Sophie, as you can see, it’s the same as ever. I don’t know what’s gotten into them, but they refuse to go in no matter what. By the way, that guy Snow, is he back yet?”

The girl named Sophie extended a hand to pull the fallen Vic up, patting the dust off his clothes before walking over to the carriage to try and soothe the two clearly frightened horses.

“Snow isn’t back yet, and I haven’t seen his signal, so he should be fine for now.”

“Is that so.”

Vic shook his hand, walked to the back of the carriage, took out a waterskin and chugged a few mouthfuls, then picked up a spare set of reins and came to Sophie’s side, preparing to try and drag the two horses back onto the path again.

“Vic, maybe we should just forget it. Their unwillingness to go in probably means there’s something in there that scares them. Even if you forcibly drag them in, you can’t possibly drag them the whole way, right? Let’s wait for Snow to get back, and we can turn around and take a detour.”

Sophie didn’t move aside.

She reached out and blocked Vic’s attempt to put on the reins, trying to persuade him.

“Hah!? A detour means we’ll be a day late to Kexel Town. Not only will this half-month of work be for nothing, but we’ll also have to pay a breach of contract fee.”

“If we lose the money, we can just earn it back slowly later. But if there’s real danger ahead, we might not even have a later.”

“This isn’t just about the money! If the request fails, our reputation will drop. Who will trust us with requests in the future? Besides, this is the main road to Kexel. So many people travel back and forth, and there are even guards patrolling regularly. What danger could there be? If you ask me, these two horses are just too timid. A couple of whips after we drag them back might get them moving.”

Seeing that Sophie had no intention of moving, Vic directly pushed her aside.

“Vic! We…”

“Alright, that’s enough! Don’t say any more. We’ll leave once Snow gets back.”

Sophie’s brows furrowed, and she opened her mouth as if to say more, but Vic looked at her with an unyielding expression, showing no intention of backing down.

The atmosphere between the two grew tense.

Just as they were at an impasse, a sound of something rapidly approaching came from not far away.

Having been adventurers for a few years, both of them immediately drew their weapons and took a stance, looking towards the source of the sound.

“Sophie, Vic.”

“Snow? Don’t scare us like that, man. Can’t you just walk back normally?”

Recognizing the familiar figure running out of the bushes, Vic sheathed his sword back at his waist and walked up to his best friend, who was about the same age, patting him on the shoulder.

Sophie, on the other hand, took a waterskin from the carriage and handed it to the still-panting Snow, while shooting a displeased glare at a certain reckless person.

“Snow, what did you find up ahead? You didn’t send a signal. Was it a person?”

Snow took the waterskin and drank a couple of mouthfuls, said thanks, and placed it back in the carriage.

He then took out the weapons from inside and tossed them to the two who were not yet fully armed.

“It’s strange here. I checked the entire vicinity. Forget monsters and animals, I barely even saw any insects. But in this strange place, I saw the light of a fire and an indistinct figure up ahead, so I thought maybe…”

The two, who had caught the weapons and armor, looked at Snow in disbelief.

Their years of friendship told them Snow wouldn’t lie about something like this, but…

“Are you talking about those renegade mages? But how is that possible, especially since this is a major transport route. Snow, could that figure have been a passerby just like us?”

“Sophie’s right. Those dogs raised by the nobles, even if they betrayed them, wouldn’t come to a place like this. And it’s just one person, what’s there to be afraid of?”

Although they said this, their actions of putting on their armor didn’t pause in the slightest.

“I also hope I’m wrong, but it’s better to be careful. This place is too bizarre. We’re abandoning this request. Let’s turn back and take a detour now, before that figure discovers us.”

Saying this, Snow took the reins from Vic’s hand and swiftly began to harness the two horses again, but he was interrupted halfway by a hand.

“Why are you like this too, Snow? When did you become so timid? This is just a simple transport request, but the reward is ten gold coins. Ten gold coins for each of us! We might never see a request this good again.”

“Vic, we can’t take this risk.”

Snow forcefully shook off Vic’s hand and continued what he was doing.

“But we’ve put in so much to complete this request, we even bought these two horses and the carriage specifically for it. Are you saying we should let all our previous efforts go to waste, Snow? And even if we don’t talk about our losses, think about Aunt Eri. You could completely cure her with this reward plus your previous savings!”

Hearing his mother’s name, Snow slowly stopped his actions, a look of struggle appearing on his face.

This request was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him.

If he succeeded, he was completely confident he could cure his mother before her condition fully deteriorated.

But if the request failed, considering the penalty and the damage to his reputation…

“Snow, if something happens to you, Aunt Eri will be the one who truly loses all hope. As for the penalty fee, I can help you with that. I don’t really have much need for money anyway.”

“Sophie, but…”

Looking at the two before him, Vic frowned tightly and let out a loud, displeased ‘tsk’.

He then drew his longsword and walked towards the direction Snow had returned from.

“The danger is just your guess, right? We don’t really know what the situation is. I think you’re just scared out of your wits. Since you two don’t dare to go, I will!”

After saying that, he disappeared into the bushes.

“Vic!”

The two stared blankly for a moment at the back disappearing from their sight, then immediately drew their weapons and followed.

“Vic, wait for us.”

……….

“Abub abub abub… I overflew. Once I find a town, I’m definitely stocking at least two stacks of mana potions in my inventory.”

An Ye sat by the campfire, chewing on dry, hard bread while staring blankly at her game interface.

She had flown into the vicinity about two hours ago.

At that time, relying on her dragon’s vision, she had discovered the road here.

In order to cut down on travel time, she got a little greedy.

It was really just a matter of one extra flap of her wings, which caused her mana to drop to twenty-three points upon landing.

In terms of feel, it turned her into an awkward state where she could move, but it was so tiring to move that she might as well not move at all.

Before transmigrating, if she fell into such a state, she would usually choose to curl up on the sofa and scroll through her phone.

But this was another world.

There was no phone, and the only thing to relieve her boredom was the character interface in front of her.

During the time she was paralyzed here, she thought that since she was too lazy to move, she could try to make something useful that she could use for bartering later.

Anyway, all she had to do was move her fingers.

As it turned out, after she dragged all the materials on hand into the crafting interface for experimentation, she actually managed to make something a little useful.

[(Tainted with faint Dragon Qi) Fire Starter*98: It’s just called that. In reality, it’s just a small wooden stick filled with gel mixed with wood shavings as camouflage. It needs an external fire source to be lit. But compared to a normal torch, it burns faster, longer, and brighter, and the dragon qi that dissipates after it burns has a certain beast-repelling effect. However, if used in a place where dragon-type species exist, the effect is completely different.]

One gel could make three.

An Ye couldn’t guarantee that she would get this kind of gel with a special affix one hundred percent of the time after defeating slimes in her dragon form, so for now, An Ye had only made a shallow ninety-nine.

It was enough.

If it wasn’t enough in the future, she could make more.

It was fast to make anyway.

Right, she had just taken one and tossed it into the campfire in front of her to test the effect.

There should be ninety-eight left now.

After confirming the number of fire starters in her inventory, An Ye tried to move her body and found that she had pretty much recovered, so she slowly stood up.

“My mana is full again too. It’s much faster than yesterday. It seems to be the effect of [Meditation]. Next time I save up skill points, I’ll upgrade this skill first…”

The sound of human voices faintly heard in the distance interrupted An Ye’s thoughts.

She immediately turned to look at the source of the sound, her right hand grabbing her main weapon, the Oak Staff.

This place was some distance from the road she had discovered.

It wasn’t strange for people to be here, but she couldn’t let go of basic vigilance, especially since she now looked like a very cute girl, the type that could easily attract malicious intent.

So, after some thought, An Ye put on the cloak from her inventory and retreated into the bushes behind her.

She deliberately did not extinguish the campfire.

If people came, their first action should be to check the campfire.

At that time, she could hide here and ambush them.

As for her method of attack, considering skill cooldowns, she would start with [Fireball], followed by [Arcane Missile], then another [Fireball], and then an [Empowered Arcane Missile], striving for maximum firepower coverage in a short time.

If the opponent broke through her firepower and got close, she would use [Dragon Claw].

If a situation arose where she couldn’t defeat the opponent after using half her mana, she would use [Dragonification] directly.

Everything was to prioritize her own survival.

With a plan in mind, An Ye slowly lowered her body, held her breath, and quietly waited for the other party to arrive.