Chapter 40 - 17: [Suspicious Lucky Day]

Chapter 40: Chapter 17: [Suspicious Lucky Day]

"An older guard at the city gates introduced us," Randall answered with plain honesty.

"The Alliance Guards have those kinds of connections?!" Eliot was stunned. "I underestimated them... I thought they rarely even stepped outside the gates of Luojie City. To think they could rub shoulders with such fierce adventurers..."

"Isn’t that completely normal? They recognize almost every adventurer in the city," Randall explained. "More importantly, can you help me carry some of this stuff? I might have accidentally brought a bit too much."

"...I told you, you’re being overly cautious and overthinking this! Why couldn’t you just pack the standard five-piece kit plus a few extra weapons and gear like a normal mission?" Eliot exploded. "Why did you bring a frying pan and a teapot?"

"If we get cornered by bandits and our retreat is cut off, or if we have to fight them in the Barren Land to complete the mission, we can use this equipment to survive in the wild for a while. We can build a fire, boil the tainted water from the Demon Realm, and purify it with magic to drink, or we can hunt a few Split Claw Birds. Frying ingredients at high temperatures can remove about seventy percent of the demonic matter—Ruby taught me that," Randall said. "This kettle can boil enough water for seven people, and the frying pan can cook meat."

"...This is just a medium-sized mission. We can finish it in two days," Eliot said. "We all have the five-piece kits: weapons, magic potions, camping gear, rations, and mission-specific items. We have plenty of weapons and gear, standard Magic Potion Bags for emergency healing and combat support, bedrolls, Beast-Repelling Smoke Medicine, Beast-Repelling Torches, iron canteens full of clean water, small iron cups for boiling water, hardtack rations, and specialized bandit-hunting tools for each of our classes. The five-piece kit is more than enough!"

"A small iron cup can only boil a tiny amount of water at a time. It’s too inefficient. If we get trapped by bandits, we won’t have time to boil water little by little..." Randall hesitated.

"Do you have an anxiety disorder? Or paranoia?" Eliot asked.

The two stared at each other in silence for a moment.

"Neither," Randall mused. "I think. It’s just my first time taking on a bandit subjugation mission. I’ve never even seen a bandit before."

"God, could you stop overthinking so fucking much? Do you spend every day worrying that the sun is going to fall out of the sky?" Eliot frowned, slapping his forehead in exasperation.

"I have to ensure the team’s safety! Being cautious and overthinking is exactly how I’ve survived this long! Half the rookie adventurers from my batch are already dead!" Randall argued righteously. "Speaking of which, don’t you feel like something is off today?"

"Here you go again! What could possibly be off? Did you step out of your house on the wrong foot this morning?" Eliot asked.

"No." Randall looked around. "I was just wondering, why haven’t we seen any Demonized Creatures on the road today?"

Eliot paused, suddenly frowning as he looked around, too.

The barren wasteland stretched out endlessly, with only three or four tumbleweeds wobbling past.

"Aren’t those right there?" Eliot narrowed his eyes, pointing at the tumbleweeds in the distance. "Rot Root Balls wearing tumbleweeds as camouflage."

Beneath the distant tumbleweeds, tiny root-like claws peeked out. They wiggled their short little legs, wobbling and sneaking away inch by inch.

"No, no, no. I mean, why aren’t they attacking us today?" Randall asked. "If anything, they look terrified. They’re wearing tumbleweeds as camouflage to sneak away."

Eliot blinked in surprise.

"Logically speaking, a small group of three or four Rot Root Balls means their complete root system should be large enough to form a basic tribe-level threat." Randall pointed at the monsters sneaking away in the distance. "Shouldn’t a threat of that level be attacking us?"

"That is... a bit strange." Eliot pondered. "To think you noticed something was wrong so quickly—impressive, Riska."

"It’s because I bought a full twenty-five Beast-Repelling Torches for three hundred and seventy-five gold coins. I was eagerly waiting for the Rot Root Balls to attack so I could use a few of them. That way, the money wouldn’t have gone to waste, and my backpack would be a little lighter. I’ve been looking around for Demonized Creatures this whole time, hoping they’d hurry up and attack us," Randall confessed, his reasoning bordering on tragic. "But I don’t know what’s wrong with the Demonized Creatures today. Not only are they not attacking, but they’re running in the opposite direction. If I don’t use them, I’m going to have to carry all these supplies for over forty kilometers."

"You shouldn’t have brought so many Beast-Repelling Torches in the first place, you know? This is a fucking medium-sized surface mission. Normally, ten is the baseline, twelve is perfect, and fifteen is plenty! Twenty-five just means you’re a hoarder!" Eliot looked utterly exasperated. "But that is a good question... Why aren’t the Demonized Creatures attacking today?"

He frowned, lost in thought.

"It’s not just the Demonized Creatures, there aren’t any Undead Creatures either," Randall added. "It’s really strange. According to the map, this area around the Beast Bone Hills on the Kana Plain used to be a frontier outpost of the ancient Ederic Empire. There should be plenty of ancient Skeleton Warriors buried in the dirt, waiting to ambush the living. Why haven’t we run into a single one?"

"Indeed... Our luck today is almost frighteningly good." Eliot thoughtfully toyed with the Skull Gold Coin in his hand. "To not run into a single environmental enemy? How is that possible?"

He suddenly turned his head, glancing at the two heavily armored figures at the back of the group.

The two armored figures were carrying heavy iron chests. The Black Armor Knight was quietly bickering with the Copper Armor Knight.