Decision made to go to town and rest, Allen needed to plan her path to that lofty goal, with the dead bird just a few meters away she let gravity help drift her as far as possible from the gory scene walking down and around the hill.
These rock hills were just the cheapest filler renditions made to satisfy a tiny minority of explorer Players with stepper and proximity spawn points for the few monsters "roaming" the countryside, so counting her steps from the blasted bird and paying some extra attention to her surroundings should give her ample warning before another one struck.
Hearing them long before she moved around the hill to where she could see the people and their animals she decided to be extra careful in her approach, so using her simple hack into NPC tech she watched the caravan treading slowly on a road meandering its path in the valley between the hills, with over twenty heavy weagons and near to a hundred people riding horses and other animals there were probably close to two hundred people there and she could still make out more than a few scorch marks and scars over the weagons, telling a story of great hardships and many battles.
Pulling herself together Allen let her eyes adjust back to simple vision when she realised what was bothering her, they were all holding medieval bows and crossbow while she was packing a laser gun and a starter outfit with a strange cloak made of high tech fibres, not the absolute best disguise for someone who wanted to stay low key, so she quickly stashed the foreign items and got herself to thinking mode.
Some memories tickled and she decided to take a longer look at the infinite list that was her inventory, thousands over thousands of items, she arranged them by game categories and noticed a heavily occupied weapons section, looking at the hundreds of cannons, chariots, muskets and swords, a frigate, brought some strange memories from more gluttonous days, she picked a rifle named BoomBoy and a cutlass with the odd name CuteyLass, for their names and probable powers coming from legacy wrapons and an armor called Armold completed her set.
After aquipping them she was ready to face the band of weary travelers, marching up to the bend she called down "Hoy caravan", she waved while walking into the hornet's nest she just kicked, at least twenty crossbows and muskets were aimed her way while others scanned the other hills, it did look like a prime spot for an ambush if anyone bothered to walk all the way out to nowhere.
An old crumbling road laid between steep hills, twisting and bending with a reckless drop to the bottom in some places, a well coordinated force could split up the guards and their precious cargo and charge downhill to plunder and bottlenecking them to buy more time.
As she surveyed the possible routs the tension seemed to rise in the ranks of the defenders before a burly man riding a giant wolf moved forward and called "hoy traveler", tipping his hat, "whence though cometh from?" He used the old roady jargone and she struggled to hold back her snort before he asked "Player or Local?", Which she never heard before and was hard pressed for an answer.
Taking a safe middle way she answered "just moving in", stopping at his signal she didn't miss how he kept her out of range for most obfuscation spells to be useful when using her as a focus, the man was experienced with the real stuff, more than levels and mechanics, he knew what needed to be done to protect his people.
The giant wolf stopped when it reached her level about fifteen meters to her right, taking away her height advantage and not giving her time to draw, "what should I do with a pirate when I catch one on land?" Breaking the silence with an ominous threat.
"What do you mean?" Allen looked down before figuring he implied her gear, "stole this stuff from the captain before running away when we anchored in a lagoon" was her best story on short notice.
Narrowing his eyes the man gave her another assessment, "pirates coming back to our shores ain't good news at all", nodding once, "not sure what else would bring a lone girl like you to this area you enjoy the benefits of my doubt", adding after another thought "better come up with more details for the town guard cause they'll just do their job and won't care for a sop story on a pretty face", turning the wolf he signalled her to follow before making the whole way down with a single jump.
By the time Allen got down to the road the last wagons made their way past the choke point and the big man pointed her to one of them, "ride along with Chess there" he said with a smile, "so close to town we wont stop before hitting the wall camp", then adding "don't go skipping on us when we get there either or I will personally put a bounty on your head".
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Climbing in beside Chess Allen noticed he was a skinny man, "I hope you can use that piece dangling around there missy?", He uttered with obvious contempt, "lost my last shotgun to an ambush not three days back", spitting to the side, "not sure what Ehrom is thinking putting you in this post, guess you're just expendable", aftet giving her a long look, "you can sleep on the wagon floor when you're off, but stay far away from my merchandise or Ehrom wont even bother saving you from my beating", finally adding "I didn't pay for a respawn so not sure how a new local got on with us, if you got a quest don't bother blabbing it to me, maybe one if the guards will want to waste their time on you".
Allen knew this Player was talking about game mechanics, but she had no idea what he meant, piecing his words together made it obvious Players could contract NPCs for various tasks and they didn't care what the NPC told them, it also made sense that if someone asked for a gunner to put on the wagon the game would provide that NPC with the appropriate equipment, and with pirates running around this beach area it was a fifty fifty chance to get either one of them or some old west themed NPC to fill in the role.
"Quiet little lady", Chess grated with his ruspy voice, "not that I mind", putting his hand behind her seat, "last local I had wouldn't stop blabbing about the scenery", his left hand resting on the reigns looping around the driver's apple, "damn good shot too", guiding the wagon around a tough bend like he was playing an instrument, "just didn't pay enough attention to the dangers around these parts".
Chess kept droning on for another hour before finally falling quiet as the caravan entered a small canyon, high walls on both sides with a dry bed an nowhere to hide, a group of riders falling back from the centre of the caravan, going around to climb the walls in a side stream, watching the caravan from the top.
Scanning the walls her eyes drifting back before Chess twisted her back in the seat with a sharp pull, "now look here missy", his drowl gone in a sharp commanding voice, "you got one job, eyes forward and you shoot anything that's trying to tangle with the horses", unlatching the reigns and taking them in a loose slack, "we got other people to watch our backs getting paid some good money for it" a slight twist to increase the pace and catch up to the wagon ahead of them, "see this marker?" Chess pointed and some scratches on the front rail, "thats your field" Allen's vision lit up with a soft blue tinge marking an area, "don't dismiss it like some newbie, it will mark your friends from foes and since you ain't been with us that long you sure as hell need it", taking a breath, "one job, if it's marked red, shoot it".
Allen nodded and pulled up her BoomBoy, leaning its barrel against the rail and looking to the front as the caravan picked up a much faster pace, nearing the rocks marking the exit from the canyon she tensed up, and as they passed she had to let go of the breath she held without noticing because after the bend there was just more canyon and she could see most of the caravan still riding along and barely a fifth had gone through even with the shorter distances and faster pace.
"This is where things can get interesting", his voice startled her, "these runners force our eyes above to split", pointing at some crevices joining in the main canyon on both sides, "Mot, Go up ahead and close in with Tirra", Chess suddenly shouted, pulling on the reigns to slow down and letting the wagon before him break up a little before picking up the pace again, "now this complicates your job, if you see someone hitting Mot's wheels or climbing up his wagon you need to shoot them too, still one job, it's colored red you shoot it".
With seven wagons still in the canyon Allen could feel the tension building as idle chats were hushed and the guards around them tensed, a green wagon started climbing the incline when the earth under it shifted, sliding it backwards and only a fast response by the second driver veering off saved them both from collision, one of the guards rushed forward and cast a spell erecting an earth wall a second before it was blasted by a bolt of lightning.
Hearing Chess growl "one job" focused her back on the field of fire, as Mot kept rolling through the Canyon it seemed like the rocks themselves morphed into attackers and she picked up her gun and pulled the trigger, surprised by it snickering and saying "Bang baby".
The rock monster was flung at its ally bleeding heavily from a lucky headshot, "reload" BangBoy said anfld the gun clicked, "fire", it said again and she pulled the trigger again, "bang", and again with no recoil another attacker was dead, "reload", "fire", "bang baby", over and over until finally it said "low mana baby", and fell silent, pulling the trigger got no response, so she had to reload manually, aim and fire, the recoil this time cracking her back against the seat as she struggles to split the barrel and reload manually.
Her ninth manual shot had seen them through to another Canyon where the lead wagons were waiting in a fortlike surround and as soon as they went through she heard the concentrated fire from dozens of rifles being shot at once, "done your job kiddo, welcome to the highway", Chess comgratulated her while driving the wagon to close a gap left specifically for them, "shouldn't be long now as I reckon", and true at his word the guns only fired three more salvos before falling silent, "looks like June lost her scout so if you want to play with an all girls crew now would be your chance", shaking her head was all the confirmation he would get and Chess respectrd that, when Mot pulled forward they kept the pace with the rest of the wagons climbing out of the Canyon and getting the full sunset on the ocean view between two hills, j"a few more hours of night trail to the town, that's gonna be a bitch to roll with rocklings on our heels", nodding and giving her a lasting look, "one job".