NOVEL WEB Chapter 8: New Foodie.
Chapter 8: New Foodie.
Ben has been having fun ever since he met Levi, and he can eat a lot of delicious food. But he likes the taste of honey the most. The black-horned bear is like a tank, bulldozing anything in its path. The mercenaries try to attack, but their swords can’t even penetrate his thick skin.
While the mercenaries attack Ben. Levi, who is hiding, is ready to cast another spell. Since he has reached the middle stage of apprentice rank, he can cast more spells. Even if he runs out of mana for magic. His body is strong enough to hold them back before escaping. And the mercenary group is a mix of normal humans and apprentice-rank warriors.
With horn bear strength that is equal to adept rank, it’s easy to defeat them. One of the mercenaries can’t evade getting pierced by Ben's horn. Blood flowed from the wound, and that man stopped moving. Throwing the copse away, the horned bear continues attacking.
"Damn it, find Levi; if you can capture him, the horned bear will stop attacking!" The mercenary leader doesn’t know, why Levi is chasing them or if it was Austin's order. But it doesn’t make sense to chase after him rather than protect the caravan.
Another fireball comes out of the dark woods. But this time they manage to evade it and can see where the fireball is coming from. Three mercenaries leave the horned bear and go in Levi's direction. Because they are in panic, they have made a mistake. How can Levi cast a fireball if he is just a monster tamer?
Levi raised his hand, and a mana-like tendril created several small magic circles. When it finishes, the small magic circles expand and launch several fireballs toward the incoming mercenaries.
"Ahhhh!"
"What!"
"Mage!"
The three of them get engulfed by flame, and their skin begins to turn red and blister. While their hair and clothes are being burned by the flame. They tried rolling around on the ground to put out the fire, but it was futile. At the same time, Levi has disappeared and gone into hiding again. Because he has used all his mana to cast spells. Now he can only use his body to protect himself if he gets attacked.
Hearing the scream, they see their comrade being burned alive. Most of the mercenaries are prepared to flee. But the problem is that the horned bear is targeting their leader. They try to stop Ben but get injured or die instead.
"Does that adept rank mage here?" Because the mercenary leader is not looking. He thought that the one casting the fireball was the elderly man named Gideon. He really wanted to run away. However, the horned bear will not let him.
The mercenary leader deflected the horn bear claw and tried to stab the monster's large body. What happened instead was that he almost lost his sword because of the clash. Ben is getting annoyed because the man in front of him keeps evading and deflecting his attack. Ben, although stronger, still doesn’t have enough experience fighting with a human warrior.
After a while, the number of mercenaries dwindles because of injury and death. The mercenary leader is panting for air.
"You asked for it!" Without any choice, he gathers all his remaining mana into his sword and prepares for the final attack. "Ahhhh." However, what happens next is that a red-colored sword pierces the mercenary leader's heart from the back.
The mercenary leader's eyes opened wide, and his body began to shrivel before collapsing to the ground. Behind him is a scarred woman with black hair. Because of the light coming from the fire pit, she looks scary.
"Leader!"
The other mercenaries are in shock and stand still. Ben doesn’t know what to do. Is she a friend or an enemy?
Suddenly a growl comes out of the woods that only Ben can understand. "Kill the mercenaries and don’t attack the scarred face woman yet!" After receiving the order, the horned bear ignored the woman and began attacking the other mercenaries.
The scarred-faced woman is ready to fight. But seeing that the horned bear focuses on the mercenaries, she goes to the nearby rock and sits. After a while, a brunet haired man wearing fur clothes appears. Ben goes beside Levi to protect him. The ground is scattered with corpses. But several mercenaries manage to escape.
"Who are you?" Levi looked at the sacred woman without any reaction. He has seen much worse in his life.
"I am a traveler."
"What do you want?"
"Nothing; you are the same as me."
Why did you say that?" Levi asked because, from the outside, he is normal.
"Woman intuition."
After that, both of them were silent. Levi, after a while, spoke. "Thank you for helping kill the mercenary’s leader. Do you want anything?"
"No."
After that, there is an awkward silence. It looks like the scarred-faced woman doesn’t want to leave. Feeling hopeless, he decided to convert the corpses to death point; he didn’t want to waste time and still needed to follow the caravan. The corpses turn into invisible particles of light that only he can see and disappear.
The scarred-faced woman doesn’t say anything. When the corpses disappear.
"Okay, nice meeting you, goodbye." Levi felt that the scarred-faced woman had a problem with her head and decided to leave. However, he heard footsteps behind him. Looking back, she is right behind him. "Why are you following me?"
"Don’t know."
Both of them look at each other. "My name is Levi; what is yours?" In the end, Levi gives up. For chasing her away by force. Without further information, it’s better to be friends than enemies. He saw her red sword and shriveled the mercenary leader's body like mummies.
Clara, or people called me Blood Witch." Clara wanted to see Levi's scared face. She is quite infamous in this kingdom. But she is disappointed. He doesn’t show any reaction.
Since Clara is following him, Levi has asked her a lot of questions about this world. Most of the information that she gives me is common knowledge, similar to what Austin and Kevin told him. The other is an illegal activity that people with money and power do in secret. Some of them are so twisted that he thought humans are similar to demons. Even in one of his past lives, when he became a psychopath. He only kills people who have done harm to innocent people. As a result, he dies after being shot by the police.
-
Austin Caravan has already set up camp for the night. Since the mercenaries have fled. The guards need to take over the duty of keeping watch. A few of them are already dozing off because they are tired from today's event.
Inside the woods, multiple figures are coming closer to the camp.
Nolan, the guard leader, and Gideon, the elderly adept rank mage, are meditating inside one of the tents. Mana enters their bodies and restores the mana that has been used today. They both have already reached their potential and can’t advance any further in rank. However, their power is still considered strong in this world. Since Master rank and above rarely do this type of work, especially the illegal one. Unless they are protecting someone important or have been paid a large sum of money.
"They have come." Nolan opens his eyes and takes a sword sheath beside him.
"It looks like what Sir Austin said is true, someone is trying to harm us." Gideon moves his elderly body slowly. A mage has a weak body compared to a warrior. And Adept rank has a normal lifespan unless they breakthrough to Master rank.
Coming out of the tent, Nolan takes a deep breath and shouts. "Enemy attack!"
The sleeping guards quickly woke up and grabbed their weapons. The porters and slaves stay where they are or hide. The guards and attackers have already started clashing their swords. But the attackers have already begun to overwhelm the guards. Only when two adept ranks enter the fight do both sides have a standoff.
"Give Sir Austin to us, and we will leave this place." Black clothes and a masked man spoke. While pointing his sword at the bald, chubby man.
"Do you think you can win?" Nolan comes in front of Austin to protect him from any sudden attack.
"I know you are strong, but you can’t protect everyone with your number." After saying that, more black-clad men came out of the woods.
"Why?" Austin asked. Because he is just a slave trader affiliated with a Gryphon merchant. He doesn’t know any deep secrets other than those of slaves.
"That is something you don’t need to worry about, as long you come with us. We will not harm your man."
Austin hesitates, however, when looking at Kevin's or Ember's faces, he is determined. If his sacrifice can save young Miss, he is willing.
"No, we shall fight!" Kevin shouted.
Listening to that Austin is touched, but this is not the time to be sentimental. "No, I surrender!"
"What are you talking about, we have two adept ranks."
While they are arguing. Three pairs of eyes are watching the show while eating the kebab that Levi made in the rush. Fortunately, they found a deer on the way here.
"Are you not going to help?" Clara spoke while eating and holding two kebab sticks in both hands.
"Not right now."
"They are your comrades."
"No, my employer and the reward they give me are not enough to make me sacrifice my life." Levi doesn’t know how much the currency in this world works. Since he has been living in the forest. Austin says he will pay him 50 silver coins, including the map. 1 silver coin equals 10 bronze coins. Levi doesn’t know that even skilled laborers get paid 12 silver coins per month or 4 bronze coins per day.