Chapter 45: Making a move when he should make one
After emerging from the cemetery of death, Han Shuo returned along his original path, but the sky had completely brightened halfway on his journey back. When he returned back to the original camping grounds, according to the way in his memory, he found that the necromancy students had long since moved on.
Just as Han Shuo was about to curse loudly, he suddenly took in the appearance of his surroundings. He discovered that the ashes in the area with the bonfire didn’t look like they were from last night, but much more like they had been there for a few days.
Han Shuo’s tent area had been filled with many resources, but now nothing remained. Only a few rocks were piled up in a triangular formation.
His interest piqued, Han Shuo quickly walked to the tent area. He took out his dagger and carefully flipped through the center of the stones, retrieving a piece of yellow paper after a while.
“Bryan, on the second day of your departure, we found traces of the two man-eating monsters nearby. We were worried that the man-eating monsters would seek revenge and decided not to wait for you. When you see this note, return to the academy along the original way. Perhaps we will meet halfway. Hope you are safe and sound, Fanny.”
Fanny had left the note. Han Shuo whapped his head after reading it and silently said, “Oh no!”. After reading the note, Han Shuo understood that much time must have unknowingly passed by while he was practicing magic, and not merely just a day.
It looks like the two man-eating monsters had appeared and caused Fanny and the others to panic. Add to that she was already deep in the southern territory of the Dark Forest and without Clark’s protection, they had no choice but to resign themselves to return along their original path.
Currently, Han Shuo’s slave status still had not been resolved, and the woman he wanted was still within the Babylon Academy of School and Magic, along with some tomes of necromancy magic that he wanted still wanted to learn. He would be unable to leave the Academy in the near future.
With the six magical sticks, Han Shuo could come and go from the cemetery of death at his leisure. He could absolutely use the transportation matrix to make the cemetery his personal territory after he returned to the Academy. The entire southern portion of the Dark Forest would be his training fields in the future. Whether it was magical yuan or magic spell training, half the amount would lead to double the effectiveness in a place like this.
Musing for a while, Han Shuo followed the instructions left on Fanny’s note and followed the original road, swiftly moving towards the outskirts of the Dark Forest.
Although he traveled without rest for a day, Han Shuo actually didn’t feel tired at all. Moving through the winding and bumpy paths of the Dark Forest, Han Shuo’s speed was as fast as lightning, like a magical creature hunting down its prey.
He neared an area of randomly scattered rocks and shrubs around dusk. This was an area where they had camped before. The sounds of metallic clashes traveled to him from afar.
Han Shuo was startled, thinking ‘Could it be that Fanny and everyone else are under attack by the man-eating monsters?’ When he thought of this, his speed picked up and he abruptly flew towards the area of rocks and shrubs.
Along the way, many forest trolls with glistening green skin, towering bodies, grimacing faces, and wielded knives or studded clubs repeatedly attacked Han Shuo. He easily evaded all of them.
Forest trolls were a race within the Dark Forest that were mortal enemies with the elves. The elves treated them as marauders of the forest and continuously attacked them.
Within the Dark Forest, the forest trolls were even more frightening robbers than the man-eating monsters. Not only did they adhere to a strict code of conduct, but they also divided themselves according to methods employed by mankind into warriors, hunters, and even priests that could use some simple magics.
It was said that the forest trolls were evolved from plants and trees. They held high intelligence, similar to humans, and enjoyed some unique advantages within the Dark Forest. They leveraged these advantages to wantonly plunder the resources of other races, including the cargo of some traveling merchants. They were infamous bandits and robbers like the man-eating monsters.
Han Shuo listened closely to the sounds of fighting and quickly darted in the direction they came from. Along the way, some of the forest troll hunters threw out long spears, and they flew towards Han Shuo’s spine with a whooshing sound. Han Shuo’s fives senses were exceedingly sensitive as he ran. As his ears twitched, he changed the direction of his body a few times and easily evaded the long spears that had been thrown.
Several forest troll warriors holding large, sharp axes yelled loudly as they rushed towards Han Shuo, but before they had reached him, Han Shuo had already agilely dashed past them and continued towards the center of the action.
After ten or so seconds of extremely fast sprinting, Han Shuo had finally made it to the thick of combat. He saw ten or so people wielding longswords, defending themselves against the forest troll attacks. Their dress clearly signified them as part of a mercenary band. They all looked like they had suffered some sort of injury.
There were about ten or so forest trolls surrounding them. Troll warriors handled the close combat up in the front, while about ten troll hunters continuously threw out long spears. The final five troll priests cast simple healing magics and fire of the soul to enhance body durability, healing the warriors’ and hunters’ injuries while increasing their vitality.
Judging from this scene, the fight had been going on for a while. The battle strength of the band of roughly ten humans was also extraordinary, but it was a pity that the forest trolls held the strength in numbers, and they had missile fighters in the form of the troll hunters, as well as the healing-type troll priests. The combination of these three matched up against a mercenary band of only warriors. Add to that the forest trolls’ advantage in strength, it was obvious that they held the absolute advantage.
A short, stocky fatty, with a face full of blubber, was behind the mercenaries. His yellow bean-like little eyes moved swiftly as he cursed loudly. He seemed to be searching for a way out.
So it wasn’t Fanny and them… looks like this is nothing to do with me. Han Shuo thought as he immediately put the events of this tableau out of his mind. He had no thoughts of joining the fray and helping, and was intent on simply bypassing these people and continue on his path to exit the Dark Forest.
However, even though Han Shuo had no intention of lending a helping hand, these forest trolls didn’t seem to want to let him go. A couple particularly strong and fierce troll warriors, who were out in the front, had already raised their large battleaxes and were rushing towards Han Shuo. A few sharp spears in flight also accompanied them.
“Sorry, I’m just passing by and will leave immediately. Continue robbing them. It’s nothing to do with me!”
Han Shuo didn’t want new complications to arise, so when he saw the troll warriors rush towards him, he yelled loudly and tried to leave and avoid them.
“Humans are the most devious and evil of all races. Kill him.” Standing beside the troll priests on the outside, the forest troll leader of this operation suddenly screamed harshly with the common language (language of humans) of the Continent.
The troll warriors had paused briefly upon hearing Han Shuo’s words, but lost their hesitation when hearing their leader’s words and came rushing over with axes upraised.
Damnit! They were looking for death! Han Shuo was also a bit hacked off. He had just evaded the throws of the long spears when the tall, bulky troll warriors rushed over with their battleaxes. They were obviously planning on also taking care of him along with the others.
Wrapping his hand around a long spear beside him, Han Shuo pulled upwards and grasped the spear in his hand. He didn’t wait for the forest troll warriors to get closer before he jumped upwards. The spear in his hand was so fast that it was like lightning piercing through the air. The spear first pierced through the chest of a troll warrior and also strung up the warrior that was close behind it.
The two troll warriors only had time to emit two ghastly screams before they died instantly when the spear impaled them. Han Shuo randomly grabbed one of the battleaxes that one of them had wielded and yelled loudly, “Can’t blame me if you come looking for your own deaths.”
After the matter with the man-eating monsters last time, Han Shuo was no longer timid nor did he waste time hesitating when it came to killing someone. He also somehow felt vaguely excited.
Han Shuo knew that mercy or pleas would be absolutely useless with these bandits and robbers. Only cold and cruel methods would be able to shock and awe them. The more timid and cowardly you were, the more they would act without reservation. Therefore, Han Shuo had acted extremely cruelly just now, directly using violent killings to face them.
Indeed, after Han Shuo had displayed his brutal methods, panicked expressions appeared on the glistening green skin of the other four forest trolls that had followed their brethren’s charge. They retreated quite a few steps backwards in cowardice. Even the leader of the forest trolls looked at him with some horror, and an apprehensive expression appeared on his face.
“Brave warrior, please rescue me!”
At this moment, the short fatty, that the mercenaries shoved to the back for protection, suddenly cried out with excitement. He looked at Han Shuo with a fervorous expression, as if Han Shuo was his savior.
“No interest!” Han Shuo replied decisively. He picked up the battleaxe with a cold snort and prepared to leave.
The short fatty immediately lost his calm and cried out wildly upon seeing that Han Shuo was about to leave. “Brave warrior, I am willing to pay you a rich reward if you save me. I promise that you’ll be satisfied!”
Han Shuo had already taken a few steps forward when he heard those words. He suddenly stopped and turned with a faint smile, looking at the fatty. He said, “Noble sir, how large of a reward are you willing to give?”
The fatty was momentarily stunned, then hesitated. He grit his teeth and stamped his foot, yelling loudly. “Fifty gold!”
“Sorry, please find someone else!” Han Shou thought that if it had been before, he probably would have been tempted by the fifty golds. Now that he’d entered the Dark Forest and discovered that his skills were absolutely enough for him to catch Windblade Wolves by himself, he no longer felt that fifty gold was enough for him to take the risk.
Fatty grew anxious seeing that Han Shuo was about to leave. He yelled out again. “Seventy at most!”
Han Shuo continued walking forward without even looking back.
“80. 100! 120, 150! 200! 200!!”
The moving figure abruptly stopped, Han Shuo suddenly looked back and rushed speedily back. He said, “Alright, 200 it is then. I’ll eat up the loss and count it as making a friend.”
“Oh my word. Two hundred golds! You’re robbing me just like they are. Two hundred gold is enough for more than ten slaves. Damnit, get me out of here!” Fatty hollered with a look of pain on his face.
