How else would one obtain riches without others knowing if not acting secretive?
Yesterday, Lucien and the others returned in a bad mood, which ant that Arran had escaped.
The bastard was now stuck alone in human territory, though, and would probably be hunted down soon by an even stronger squad of veteran wizards, maybe even with one of the Magna Novem assigned to the task.
And so, Hal and the others began their return journey.
Lucien interrogated Liora along the way, his tone gradually softening over ti, while his gazes at her beca increasingly bold.
Hal was more or less ignored by the Ice Magna Prospect, as though he hadn’t just defeated a Fellkin the day before.
The squadron mbers, anwhile, were fighting an internal battle against their curiosity.
They knew their captain would be displeased if they showed too much interest.
If Lucien wasn’t asking Hal how he pulled off such a feat, then they couldn’t either.
Simple as that.
The already balding Murphy seed to lose a few more precious strands of hair over the matter.
To Hal’s disbelief, they arrived at the eastern side of the orc camp before nightfall.
’I guess this is the difference when the party’s strong enough to take on almost anything...’
Based on the path they took, however, it seed that Lucien wasn’t willing to ss around near the three camps, which also revealed that he wasn’t aware of what was going on.
"The night is upon us. Walk quickly. We shall rest at the sa spot we did the other day," the Ice Magna Prospect instructed, bringing a subtle grin to Hal’s face.
’Heh, I guess not everyone is as smart as , huh?’
He was sure Lucien didn’t know how nightti worked here and had simply decided to stop traveling at night and wait for daylight to avoid getting lost.
This was the opportunity he was looking for.
As long as he managed to sneak out, he could co up with whatever excuse he wanted when he got back, and none of them would really be able to force the truth out of him.
It was probably beneath them to do so, anyway.
In any case, if they wanted to know what he was up to, then they were welco to try leaving the area at night themselves.
They soon arrived at the campsite, a makeshift and spacious underground room concealed by dense shrubbery, courtesy of Yve.
The green-haired earth elental mage temporarily parked Monk’s coffin, which they had been bringing along by having Yve roll the ground forward, before they settled in.
The night was still young, and their cohort had nothing to do but eat, sleep, and wait for daylight, so they took the ti to roast a good chunk of hog at for everyone.
Murphy made sure they wouldn’t suffocate by acting as the exhaust, guiding the smoke out of their underground room.
Lucien, anwhile, ensured that Liora was eating well, personally seasoning and roasting a portion for her.
Hal’s mind was in full scheming mode, so he didn’t notice the maiden glancing at him from ti to ti, seemingly checking how he would react to the situation.
Ti passed.
Soon, everyone was done eating, but the atmosphere had shifted from decent to gloomy.
Therese, Yve, and Murphy couldn’t help but recall the tis they had laughed with Monk.
Who would have expected those monts to beco re mories so soon?
Lucien tried hard to seem like he didn’t care much, and that everything was rely part of the job.
But it was clear to his long-ti comrades that he, too, was devastated by the loss of one of his most trusted underlings and a long-ti friend from the academy.
Unlike Ennya, he had graduated first before officially being declared as one of the three current Ice Magna Prospects waiting for the present Ice Magna to retire.
Monk had been one of his classmates...
As Lucien and his squad mbers grieved, Hal suddenly stood up, stretched, and began heading toward the exit of their cozy underground room.
’Hal? Where are you going?’ asked Liora, prompting the rather depressed seniors to glance his way.
’I’m just going to relieve myself,’ he explained without turning back, acting as naturally as he could.
Liora simply nodded, and soon, he was able to leave without any problems.
Little did everyone know, it would be a rather eventful night for him...
**
*
Hal carefully advanced eastward, his heart racing with excitent.
He knew there would be danger waiting for him and that most of the cores would likely be either damaged or eaten by beasts that increased their power through core consumption.
But there was bound to be at least a few left.
Even a single C-ranked core could sell for ten silver coins.
If he managed to obtain five or more, and added that to the few cores left in his possession, he could probably earn more than a gold.
He could finally relocate his mother to a town just an hour or two from Aeloria without worrying about whether he could sustain the expenses after this venture!
Around twenty minutes later, he finally arrived at the danger zone.
Hal imdiately slowed his advance.
He made sure to carefully scout the surroundings using either the Spirit Sparrow or the Spirit Wolf before moving forward.
There could still be a few feasting beasts lurking around, after all.
Fortunately, he didn’t encounter anything, and there seed to be far fewer beasts than he had expected.
At least, he hadn’t detected any from the direction he ca from.
Soon, he arrived close enough to the Troll Camp, hoping the battle had taken place there.
Hal quickly lded back into the shadows using [Dark Ward], checked the skies for aerial predators, and then sent his Spirit Sparrow forward.
As it arrived above the camp, what Hal saw made his eyes widen and his heart race wildly like never before.
’Well, I’ll be damned... I just hope I haven’t used my entire lifeti of luck today...’
Reviews
All reviews (0)