"How much for a ride till the bluemist mountains?"
"20 silver"
Clarence paused for a moment and said,
"Does it include protection and food?"
The guy turned up to see the young man in front of him, standing at 6'2, with a lean and fit body which seemed to be a result of a daily workout. He was already above average in terms of physique among the common populace.
Nevertheless, the places they would travel through aren't somewhere a person with no cultivation can protect himself with sufficient guarantee. Even an edible piece of food might be hard pressed to find.
Following up with a momentary pause, Clarence said,
"If it does, I don't need them. I can protect myself and look for food myself."
"Alright, it'll be 10 silver then, your name?"
"Eizeth"
"The ride will depart in half an hour. We won't wait for you if you come late."
Writing the name of the young man, the guy gestured for the former to move out of the line for the others to register themselves. The Scavengers persuade no one to take their services.
Clarence walked towards a tree in the distance and leaned back onto its trunk. He then started observing the people residing in the main carriage.
The most noticeable among them were a group of three people who were resting together at a considerable distance from the rest of the crowd.
The three people comprised one lanky brown haired guy and a woman of medium sized build with similar colored hair having some kind of heated conversation. The last one who was sleeping had a healthy build, with long black hair strewn randomly across the carriage.
Clarence closed his eyes after a few more minutes of observing people around him.
*****
Watching the scenery pass by before his eyes, Clarence leaned back on the carriage before silently keeping his hands near his dagger.
Earlier, after he woke up and went near the carriage, all those who didn't want protection were given the last carriage to ride on.
In case there is an attack on the carriage, half of the Scavenger group will surround the people who were riding in the middle, the ones who paid for protection and defend them against the assaulters, while the other half will retaliate. The ones in the last carriage are to protect themselves in case of such an attack.
The journey to this point was, fortunately, uneventful. With the sky darkening, Scavengers decided to camp in the rare open area they came across for the night.
The next morning, they continued the journey. As they were approaching the waterfall, the carriage slowed down for a few minutes before coming to a halt.
Confused, Clarence got down from the carriage and overheard two men conversing among them,
"Why did they stop?"
"Apparently, the Bluemist mountains are actually not very far away from this place.
The leader and his sister discussed whether to continue and finish the journey, or camp here at night because traveling at night regardless of the distance could be dangerous, especially when we are so near to the mountains. Eventually, they decided on the latter. "
Getting the info he needed, he set up a tent and removed the daggers from his sheath after entering the tent. He took out a green stone from his spatial bracelet. Holding the stone in one hand and the dagger in the other, he started sharpening his dagger in a manner his mother taught him.
After sharpening his daggers, he cleaned them with a cloth. Satisfied with the shiny look of his daggers, he put them back into their sheath and went to sleep.
*CLING*
*SIZZLE*
Instantly waking up as soon as the first sounds were produced. Clarence quickly got out of the tent and looked outside. He noticed half of the scavenger group surrounding the tents in the middle, out of which people were slowly coming out.
The Scavengers were defending against different species of beasts while around him were the people who didn't want the protection were fighting. Clutching his curved daggers, he set out to the weakest beast.
Arriving in front of a big fanged boar, Clarence could tell it was a rankless beast. He quickly dodged to the side in order to not face its charge head-on, while dodging, he slashed out his daggers at the left eye of the boar.
As the boar thrashed around wildly, Clarence quickly closed up from behind its blind point and stabbed heavily on its skull. With the dagger cutting through skin, breaking the skull and stabbing the brain itself, the movements of the boar soon ceased indicating its death.
The whole fight from dodging the first attack to stabbing the head of the boar took less than 5 seconds, surprising the few people who were paying attention. Without stopping, Clarence soon moved towards the rankless beasts, which were creating distraction causing chaos.
He made quick work of all the rankless beasts to help others to focus on their fight. Finding himself nothing to do, Clarence came up near a guy having trouble fighting a rank 2 long tailed orangutan.
"Keep attracting its aggro, I'll try to limit its movement."
"Alright, pay attention to its tail, regardless of where the body is heading or doing. It's unaffected by the momentum and can actually move about on its own."
Nodding his head to show that he understood, Clarence quietly moved behind the beast. In order to not let the beast react after sensing him, he dashed out at a high speed with specific leg movements to push his speed to maximum. For a moment there, his peak speed equaled a common rank 2 person.
Clarence slashed both his daggers at the root of the beast's tail, one from above and the other from below, before the beast could sense him and retaliate in defense. Sensing the pain from its tail, the orangutan screeched before turning to run away.
The guy who was working in tandem with Clarence quickly switched his sword with a longbow. Loading the arrow, he stretched the string and cast a fire spell at the tip. Taking aim at the running orangutan, he released the arrow.
The arrow reached the orangutan in no time and quickly drilled into its insides from the back, having a fire spell cast at its tip, the insides of the beast were burnt in no time, with the last moments of beasts being nothing but excruciating for it.
With the guy and Clarence now being free, they moved about the outer perimeters to continuously free the people.
After about a half an hour, the people grouped up before a roll call was carried out. By the end of the roll, it was clear that no one was missing.
The lanky guy, whom Clarence noticed before, came forward and said,
"Although we have defended against the beasts, I ask all of you to sleep lightly in your camps or, better yet, stay awake.
Because even I cannot guarantee that there won't be another attack on us despite cleaning all the traces of battle and sprinkling stench removing water on the battlefield as we are too near the mountains."
Having said his part, the lanky guy turned around and went to his tent after dispersing the group.
Clarence went back to his tent and took out some food from his spatial bracelet to refill his energy. After eating, he took out his daggers from the sheath and cleaned them with a cloth.
Done with all the work, he went back to sleep after a light stretching. Fortunately, nothing happened for the rest of the night and the carriages set out for the mountains in the morning.
Seeing a dense canopy of trees in front of him on a slanted landmass. Clarence knew they had reached the destination. Getting down from the carriage, he went to the first carriage to express his thanks to the lanky guy who he assumed to be the leader of the Scavengers after the speech last night and ran into the jungle.
Clarence walked about slowly for a while. If you were around him at the moment, you would notice that he wasn't making even a slightest fraction of sound.
He kept walking slowly before spotting a 15 meter long snake coiled around a tree. The snake turned its head to him and hissed before rapidly slithering in his direction.
Clarence turned around and ran without hesitation, he thought while running,
'Shit, what cursed luck do I have to encounter a rank 1 snake this close to the perimeters of the mountain? I quickly need to get rid of the snake.'
You have to know, in the battle with rank 2 orangutan, he only managed to cut its tail, because all the beast's attention was on the other guy, so he could run at the top speed to gather momentum before hitting at the base of the tail.
His dagger made of mithril also played a huge part in this. Even the last attack which finished the beast was executed by the other guy. You could say he made the best out of the little prowess he had when in that situation.
He planted one of the two daggers on the ground and turned around to face the snake. The snake hissed before it lunged at Clarence, who deftly dodged, causing the former to be lacerated by the dagger in the ground.
Although the cut wasn't deep enough to injure the snake severely because of its last moment reflexes after sensing the sharp edge of the dagger, the moment of stillness because of the pain transmitted to its brain was all Clarence needed.
Without stabilizing his body, he twisted it in the way that it used the momentum of the previous dodge to lunge at the snake. He stabbed his dagger at the skull of the snake to kill it before it reacted to the situation.