Chapter 540: Chase

Wishing you all a joyful Christmas!

“Let’s go,” said the human woman, whose name I now know is Aya, as I emerged from the trees after changing my clothes.

Now, I am wearing nondescript adventurer’s clothes, different from the tattered suit earlier. They are well-worn and have old-looking swords.

I had also dyed my hair blond with a quick dye and used the alchemical drops that changed the color of my eyes.

I need to make it as hard as possible for my enemies to track me.

The two women looked at me, and shock appeared in their eyes at the changes. I looked like an adventurer, which was the part I was trying to play.

Since the dungeon incident in Navr, I have gone everywhere prepared. I have clothes, a tent, spare weapons, local currency, and other things.

I walked to join them, and we moved quickly. We were not exchanging words.

Our first destination is their camp. It is where they have kept their beasts.

The priority is speed, not hiding our tracks. I would have tried that if these two had been high-level enough, but they are not.

So, it’s speed.

We have a seven-to-eight-hour lead on the enemies, which is significant considering we plan to travel nonstop until we reach Vudiz City, which will take a day and a half.

We should arrive at near dawn of the day after tomorrow.

There are two small cities and several towns in between, but staying in them would be risky.

Different tribes control them. It is easier for some to make them look the other way if something happens within them. Manipulation wouldn’t be possible in Vudiz, a city as big as Owlspring that is not controlled by a single tribe.

It is also the city with an office of the archmage city.

These two are moving fast. Aside from the speed skill, they have cast haste on themselves.

I am following them without using a skill.

I can’t use my skills. I get terrible pain when I use them like I did when I used skills to fight against the monsters.

I am tired. So much so that I would fall asleep if I laid down on the ground.

Sleeping is the best thing I could do right now. I needed it after seeing how I had pushed myself to survive. I had never pushed myself like that, not even in training.

It’s why I survived, but now I am enduring the consequences.

Minutes passed as we moved through thick hills. They are everywhere, as far as my eyes can see.

It is also beautiful but dangerous. In the first half-hour, we avoided two monsters. They were weak, but fighting them would have wasted too much time.

“We are here,” declared Uloth. As we reach another hill, like the many we have crossed.

She moved toward its base and pushed some vines. She revealed a cave.

As I entered, following them, I found it was bigger inside, with two blackish rhino beasts sitting.

They opened their eyes but didn’t do anything.

“Pack what is essential. Leave the rest behind,” I said to the mage. Who was trying to hang a big leather bag on the rhino.

“This is worth quite a bit of money,” she said. “I will pay for it,” I replied simply. Time is precious. I had paid them far more than they were worth.

She dropped the bag and picked up other things.

“It is a good thing. We have brought the double-seat saddle. It had become useful now,” said the mage, securing a double seat saddle on one of the rhino beasts.

The other girl secured the single seat on the other rhino.

I looked at them as they secured the saddles. The orc girl is tall with pale green hair and brown eyes. She is wearing an adventurer-style blue mage robe.

On the other hand, the human woman is medium-height and thin, with long purple hair.

She has a pretty round face in a girl-next-door kind of way, with big, blue expressive eyes.

She is a little thin but wearing bulky armor. She seemed to be suffering something related to her bones.

Soon, they fastened the harnesses before they brought them out.

“You can ride them, right?” asked the mage as he handed me a leash. I took the ropes without saying anything and sat down.

A moment later, we begin to move.

These beasts are slow. We are going to change them after reaching a settlement.

We moved the monsters as fast as they could run. I also used that time to activate rest and recovery charms. They work better when I sleep, but currently, I can’t.

Still, as the minutes passed, I began to feel their effects.

The headache is lessening, and so is the tiredness. It made me happy.

However, I wished it would happen faster.

…

Torug Yregh

The skills roared around us as we moved fast toward the mark.

We have only one and a half days to deal with the mark. If we fail, only death is waiting for us.

“Thirty miles south,” I repeated what my mage told me.

Had the scroll taken him to where it should have, he would have been there waiting to be captured, but the bastard’s aura interfered, sending him thirty miles south.

Now, we must reach where he had appeared before tracking him from there.

It would have been much more manageable if our backers had given us a super-long teleportation scroll, but the Archimage tower monitors such spells.

Also, I don’t think our employers have many of those scrolls. I heard only the archmages could cast such spells.

I shook my head and focused on the mark.

That man is intelligent. I am sure he will try to run as soon as he can.

“What is the progress of the enemies?” I asked.

They are moving in the same direction as we are, through a different route, but they are slower than us.

We have made preparations for this backup plan. We are riding on monsters trained to move fast in this geography.

Our enemies’ monsters are good, but their focus is on distance travel, while ours is on speed.

Still, we are monitoring them to see if they can track him.

“There is no change; they are as slow as before,” replied Krano, chuckling.

I smiled, too.

We need to reach the mark before they do. If that happens, everything will move smoothly.

Silver could fight one or two of us, but here is a group of fifty. Even ten silvers wouldn’t be enough to deal with a group as powerful as ours.

“It would have saved us a lot of trouble. If one of the tracking skills had struck him,” said Fodulir with a sigh.

That is the thing. I am most frustrated about it.

It would have made things much easier if we could track him, but now we must do things the hard way. First, we will have to track the landing point of the spell and then hunt our mark.

Thankfully, we have made preparations.

“I had contacted our sources. They will inform us immediately if they spot the young man,” he informed.

I had kept people in settlements and cities around the original landing spot in case the first plan didn’t work and problems occurred in the second.

This preparation proved to be a wise move.

We have now sent them the information about the mark. The moment they spot him, they will inform us.

If we are lucky, they might inform us before we reach the landing point, saving us time.

“Good,” I replied.

An hour passed, and we moved through our established path. We were getting closer and closer to the mark.

He might be moving now, but we will reach him soon. When we do, nothing, and no one, will save him from us.

If push comes to shove, I might even use that thing because not completing the contract is a certain death.

…

Zaris

“There is now a gap of nearly three hours between us,” replied Eli, our ranger.

Our slower speed and different routes had created a gap between us and the enemies.

“Everyone, it’s time to move fast!” I ordered, and the skills rumbled around us, and we began to move fast.

Our beasts are good, and we are used to such terrain.

There is a reason they chose me to lead Lord Silver’s guard, even though there are more loyal people in the city.

It is because I have experience in every geography. I have been a part of the imperial foreign corps and served many kingdoms in different environments.

Every soldier here has the same experience and skills related to it.

We have taken the gamble of moving slowly because we don’t want the enemies to chase us when we finally begin moving toward the Lord Silver.

They might not be aware of our ability to track him and them.

If we had moved faster, they might have followed us and might now try and follow us.

That is why we have taken the gamble of moving slowly. As of now, we are three hours apart.

The monsters we ride are slower than the enemies, but they have greater stamina for long travels, which will play a big part in this race.

Immediately, we increased our speed and slowly changed our direction.

We are no longer moving toward the landing point. We are moving further south, which is where Lord Silver is moving.

I know his destination. It is Vudiz.

The man is wise. He knows the enemy’s reach in their kingdom and wouldn’t take chances in outlier settlements and smaller cities where controlling tribes could be persuaded.

Something like that would be difficult to achieve in a big city like Vudiz.

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