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He looked at me and said, “Before I answer, I want to check something.”

Moving his gaze to scan the landscape, he gave a sigh. “I have a few suspicions, but for now let’s get a quick look around. I want to see if the four we killed had horses, or if there’s another hiding spot.”

We left Freya to rest on the side of the road and circled around the ambush location, one for each side.

I didn’t find horses, but not long later I saw another similar but bigger spot where they could have been hidden. It was farther away from the road, behind a slightly elevated part of the ground. There was a difference from the other one though, since there was a hole in the form of a door where the ground went down vertically.

After I called Zeph over, we found out it led to a small underground bunker with a few bags and bedrolls lying around.

We also found some food and waterskins.

“That explains why they didn’t have anything on them. It was probably made by the same Mage,” said Zeph after we looked around. “The only thing I can think of is that they were here to stop travelers from continuing, or to warn someone if trouble was coming, probably both. I have no idea of the reason, though.”

“Is it because they have a base ahead?” I asked since it was the only thing I could think of.

He shook his head.

“No. It would be stupid to have a base near such a road, and even if that was the case it looks too bare; it’s just a hole in the ground. This is probably some impromptu plan they put together and executed as quickly as they could,” he said, indicating the surrounding space.

It was indeed just a hole. They didn’t even have a door.

“So, what do we do?” I asked again.

He sighed again.

“I have no idea what they’re doing down the road but, while I’m not pressed for time, I’d prefer to avoid waiting an indeterminate amount of time on the last village we visited. Besides, even if we try to run back to it, it’s two days of travel away, and they have horses.”

I wasn’t afraid of racing against a horse, since I could surely outlast it in the long run. After I worked on getting my coordination back, I could probably even be faster than one.

I’ll be too slow if I have to carry both of them, though. Freya was small enough, but Zeph wasn’t that much shorter than me, though less bulky.

Too bad we didn’t find someone with good horses to sell until now. It seems they were a hot commodity.

“So,” he continued while I was lost in my thoughts, “We should probably continue. Just not on the road.”

“We can travel parallel to it. They won’t be able to run on horses with this kind of terrain,” he said, pointing at the ground interspersed with rocks.

That meant I couldn't train with mana anymore, since I had to pay attention to where I put my feet, but It was fine anyway.

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I already decided to stop my training while marching anyway. I had been a bit too lax by trusting Zeph’s predictions, and I needed to pay attention to our surroundings from now on.

“Let’s get going then, before they come back,” I said, going out in the sun.

We then called Freya and walked away from the road. We didn’t even need to take the waterskins and food, since Zeph had more than enough to last the whole voyage inside his ring. He stocked up for emergencies, it seems… such a good ring.

My bag still has water and food anyway.

After that, we traveled perpendicular to the river to get enough distance to be out of sight as soon as possible.

“Hey, aren’t you happy?” I said after a while to the panting Freya, “We go into offroad hiking right after you've got used to the road! You won’t get bored with us, that’s for sure! Hahahaha.”

She glared at me.

Damn, she’s learning so well! She just has to put some words in now. Pestering her every day seemed to work well, seeing how much improvement there was in less than three weeks.

The trek also seems to have made her forget the fear, which was good.

It's more entertaining to mess with her when she gives some reaction.

Zeph wasn’t having too much trouble, since we were going slow enough.

It was mid-afternoon when we were ambushed, so we couldn’t get far enough to be out of sight before we set camp.

I asked Zeph if he had something that could make us invisible. It could be possible, seeing the range of strange things he had.

“No, I never thought I’d need something like that,” he answered my question.

… Meaning, he would have had one if he had ever had the thought. The world is so absurdly unfair.

They went to sleep soon after it became dark.

Instead, after admiring the starry sky for a while, I picked up my sword.

Unfortunately, I had to discard my training plan. It didn’t seem like I could get results soon with my mana, and I needed to get my control back to where it was before the next fight. Other than the danger, it irked me like crazy to make such mistakes during a fight.

That knife throw especially got on my nerves.

Due to the shorter reach I had without Skills, I often used throwing knives if I couldn’t get an opportunity to close in on an opponent, and I prided myself on having good aim. What I threw earlier was just a regular knife, but it still got on my nerves that it went so wide at that distance.

First sword training, then knife throwing, and after that a run. I had looked around the camp before the sun went down, so I knew there wasn’t anything dangerous on the ground, and the moon in the sky was giving me enough light. I just have to make sure I don’t get out of the perimeter Zeph set for the alarm.

After that, I went to sleep. I was still Level 9.

The following morning we agreed to move before the sun was up, so we ate and left just as the sky started brightening. We kept walking until midday and then after lunch turned towards the north towards the mountains.

Since we weren’t on a road, Zeph often had to stop and check our position with a map and a compass. I didn’t think there was a need since we had the mountains to guide us, but he insisted, and I didn’t care if he did anyway.

He also looked around with a scope to check for pursuers. Not one of those we snatched from the guys who attacked us — he had one that looked much better.

I can see why he risked telling me of his ring. He just has so many things inside.

I also played around with one and convinced Freya to play with the other. Now that I stopped my constant training torture, I could finally enjoy myself, so it wasn’t too bad for me.

It was on one of those times, when Zeph was looking at his map, that I noticed something with my scope.

I tried to zoom in, but I couldn’t see clearly.

“Hey Zeph,” I said, giving up, “Could you check something with your scope? I think I saw something different from rocks, but I can’t tell with mine.”

He looked up and said, “Are you sure it’s not another animal?”

I rolled my eyes.

“I would have told you if that was the case.” I could recognize if I saw an animal.

I just didn’t know the names.

“Let me look then,” he said with a resigned expression.

I didn’t ask that many times, I thought, a bit sullen.

He took up his scope and looked in the direction I pointed in.

“It’s a person I think,” he said after a few seconds, “Lying on the ground.”

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