Chapter 49: Tracking
2014-11-28
Author: Floating Tower (诸生浮屠)
Shadows under the corner of the city wall. Soren’s somewhat blurry figure hid within them as he calmly put away his crossbow and wiped the bl**d off his curved blade with a piece of old cloth.
He had killed six people.
It seemed these were all veterans mingling in the old district’s gang, with each head yielding him over a hundred points of killing experience, especially the innkeeper who surprisingly gave him more than three hundred points of killing experience. Unfortunately, due to the tight timing, he had no chance to search the corpses or look for loot; he simply eliminated the enemies and quickly retreated. It looked like those items would ultimately benefit the guards of Amber City, who would inevitably plunder something while investigating the bodies.
Killing was a small matter.
But setting fire was serious!
Amber City was not concerned about the d*ath of a few shady individuals, but it strictly investigated anyone who dared to set fire within the city. A raging fire once spread would have severe consequences, causing casualties and property losses far greater than a few gang members dying. Soren estimated that by tomorrow, someone would be investigating this matter. If the guards took it seriously, it was quite possible they would hire special people to intervene, making it not impossible for Soren’s identity to be revealed. He had to leave now!
Soren glanced at the chaotic scene in the distance, walked along the shadow of the city wall until there was no light nearby and he could not see any signs of guards, then stopped leaning against the city wall. He pulled out a rope from his dimensional bag, tied an iron hook to it, then spun it a few times in his hand before throwing the iron hook up into the indention of the city wall. He tightened the rope to test it, then pushed off and climbed up along the city wall.
With 20 points of extraordinary agility, he was extremely nimble and climbed over twenty meters high of the city wall in less than a minute.
He cautiously looked around.
After finding no one, he secured the iron hook in place, then slid down the rope from the city wall.
Soren gave the rope a hard swing, and the iron hook naturally loosened, falling back into his hand. The wild outdoors was shrouded in darkness, but Soren’s unique night vision as a half-elf allowed him to see clearly. He returned the items to his dimensional bag, then bent down and slipped into the distant woods.
This time, it was certainly not over just by taking down those guys!
Soren planned to walk along the road from White Horse City towards Leaffall City first. On one hand, it was to hunt monsters to accumulate killing experience, to level up his profession when necessary, or to find opportunities for part-time advancements. On the other hand, it was also to examine the condition of the road, to familiarize himself with the distribution of nearby monsters, so that when he brought Vivian through this road in the future, he could be more assured. At the very least, after Soren had walked through it once, he would definitely not get lost in terms of terrain and direction. The city was surrounded by villages.
Due to proximity to the city, these villages did not have fences, and the guards of White Horse City would patrol regularly. If beasts or monsters came nearby, there would naturally be someone to clear them out. Soren walked several kilometers in the night and then entered a small village. Nowadays, villages would have many straw stacks nearby, primarily to facilitate kindling and bedding. The lower-class peasants could not afford cotton quilts, so they would only lay down the soft straw on their beds, and in winter, they would even use it as a blanket.
Earthen kang beds were scarce in the south, more common in the northern regions.
Soren directly lay down on a stack of straw; it was initially a bit itchy, but he quickly adapted.
Having spent years adventuring in the wild, he had gotten used to many things.
One night passed like this.
Soren was awakened the next day by the sound of barking dogs; he did not know whose farm dog had discovered him, but it was barking frantically from beneath the straw pile.
He drew his curved blade for a moment, originally intending to slaughter it for a bite to eat, but when he saw the nearby earthen and thatched house, he put away his weapon. For these lowly farmers, a dog was an important asset. Dogs in this era were quite fierce; sometimes when they encountered monsters, they would dare to leap forward and take a bite.
Soren had seen farm dogs engage with werewolves. To protect their masters, although they met a tragic end, their courage was admirable.
Perhaps it reminded him of Hess, that loyal and brave old dog.
Soren took out a piece of jerky from his bag, tossed it in his hand, and then threw it to the dog below. The food falling from the sky lowered the farm dog’s guard; it looked at Soren suspiciously, but ultimately couldn’t resist and picked up the jerky. Soren brushed off the straw from himself, flipped over, and fell off the straw pile, then looked around before heading toward the wild fields in the distance.
The sky was dimly lit.
Farmers were already busy in the fields. As humans, they did not have as many talents as other races, so they had to master the skill of farming. Children in the village would follow their parents to the fields around the age of five or six, gradually learning from them how to farm, when to sow, when to harvest, how to care for the fields, and what measures to take when pests appeared.
They were the most ordinary group of people in this world!
………………
The roads between the fields were quite muddy.
Soren quickly found the road leading to Leaffall City, then proceeded toward the White Horse Plain.
This path took a long time, requiring a whole week to traverse, first passing near the Black Fog Marsh, then crossing the edge of the White Horse Plain, finally reaching the vicinity of Leaffall City. The first day was still relatively peaceful because this area still belonged to human activity, with militia stationed nearby and even some small-scale regular troops.
Soren did not stop along the way; whenever he got tired, he would rest for a while and then continue on his journey.
It was not until the second day that he gradually moved out of the range of human activity and began to encounter more events.
The villages here were quite dispersed.
Only in areas convenient for irrigation would there be human-established villages, but it would be more appropriate to call them villages, surrounded by walls with watchtowers and arrow towers. The villages would train militias, working during the harvest season, and conducting simple training during the slack time. These villages would always have some young people who were restless and eager for adventure, some of whom would leave and never return, while others would return to their hometowns after giving up on adventure; they were the main force in training the militia.
Some of these people would have exaggerated profession levels, but most were around second tier adventurers, many carrying injuries.
If nothing unexpected happened, they would live their lives marrying and having children, drinking in the twilight of old age while boasting about their past adventures to their children and grandchildren.
This was their life.
Returning to normalcy after once being extraordinary, they would occasionally reminisce about lost comrades.
“Goblins?”
Soren parted the grass to look at the footprints on the ground, then placed his hand on the curved blade and continued forward along the footprints. Tracking in the wild was a skill that every adventurer must master, with the top practitioners being Rangers and Druids, followed by wanderers like Soren. They needed to learn how to judge a target through footprints and traces, which was a skill derived from the basic skill of ‘wilderness survival.’ Right now, Soren’s judgment relied mainly on past experiences.
“It looks like there are quite a few.”
As the land ahead became harder, the footprints faded more and more. Soren glanced at the surrounding environment and thought to himself: “There must be around thirty to forty goblins!”…
“Has a larger tribe passed through nearby?”
If there was no goblin gathering place, this kind of creature in the wild would typically form small-scale tribes; they resembled hyenas on the African plains. Small tribes of goblins would be stronger individually because survival in the wilderness is survival of the fittest, while larger tribes would have many members, especially those goblins occupying caves, whose numbers might exceed three hundred. With larger numbers, it was possible for goblins to have naturally born sorcerers among them.
“I’ll take them on first to sharpen my skills, and see if my past experience from team battles is still intact.”
Wilderness adventures were certainly not foolish enough to engage in one-on-one duels; group and chaotic battles were very common, and you must learn how to face multiple enemies simultaneously. If you could not evade or block their attacks, you needed to learn how to minimize the damage you received. In a chaotic battle, even 20 points of extraordinary agility could not evade all attacks.
At such times, you definitely needed some armor.
Soren donned a piece of ordinary leather armor, then wrapped some strips of cloth around his arms, and tightened his leggings.
Goblins could use weapons and traps.
Those primitive traps would not pose a threat to Soren, but their homemade short bows could be somewhat dangerous.
Goblins fought using clubs, daggers, short swords, and short bows!
Soren’s figure gradually faded under the shadows of the trees; if one did not observe closely, it would be difficult to notice him. He drew his curved blade and gradually delved deeper into the dense forest along the mottled shadows of the trees.
This battle was more dangerous than in the past!
Because he needed to face a goblin tribe of over thirty members.
………………
