"Whoa, do people still live in such conditions? Aren’t they all frozen to death?"
"Heh heh, you wouldn’t believe it, not only do people live there, but the won in that village..."
Jimmy was deeply engrossed when he noticed the bearded man with a wicked smile seed to sense his gaze and turned his head to look over.
A bad feeling rose in his heart.
He quickly averted his gaze, lowered his head, pretending he hadn’t seen anything.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
"Kid, listening so intently..."
"Never tasted a woman?"
Having just entered the profession, without even staying in River Valley Town for a few days, he was dragged out.
His naïve deanor was evident to even a slightly experienced adventurer.
And Jimmy’s seemingly timid behavior only piqued the interest of the old man Berg and his companions across the campfire.
"Haha, why so shy? Like a young lady."
"With that small body, if Northland won sit on him a few tis, I fear his back would break."
"Kid, co over here, I’ll teach you a few tricks, guarantee you’ll go back..."
The sudden commotion and the gathered gazes of travelers around.
For an adventurer with a bit of experience, they would just smile and ignore it, joke a little, or even retaliate with so words, and the topic would pass.
But for Jimmy, who was encountering such a scene for the first ti, he was left at a loss.
His face flushed red, even though he hadn’t been drinking.
His right hand reached for the hilt of the One Handed Sword at his waist but recoiled as if shocked.
With both hands on the ground, he instinctively moved his body back.
Instinctively seeking help, his gaze naturally turned to his cousin beside him, hoping that being an adventurer too, he could help him out.
Only to find that his cousin seed unaware of anything happening beside him, just sat motionless by the fire, eyes staring blankly at the package in his hands.
It was as if his gaze could penetrate the coarse outer bag to see the gray-black statue inside.
"Hahaha, the kid’s really shy?"
"Don’t be afraid, we won’t eat you!"
"..."
Jimmy’s flustered and helpless actions incited another burst of laughter. Various indecent comnts, accompanied by spit, ca at him.
His blood surged, and at this mont he seed to fall into a brief daze.
The reddish-orange flas reflected on the face of the bearded man, revealing his yellow-brown rotten teeth, exuding foul odor.
His lips opened and closed, his Adam’s apple bobbing, as if saying sothing, but to Jimmy’s ears, it was incomprehensible noise.
His mind went blank.
Whizz—
Then ca a sharp, piercing sound, halting the commotion in an instant, silencing the entire scene.
"Schlak."
A piercing object penetrated flesh with a dull sound.
The arrow shaft vibrated at high speed, creating a shadow with the feathered end.
The bearded man still had that grotesque grin frozen on his face, but his whole body instantly paused in place.
A Wooden Arrow shot out from the darkness pierced through his temple and embedded straight into his head.
"Thud."
The muffled sound of a body hitting the ground.
"Enemy attack!!!!!!!"
...
Jimmy had already forgotten his first thought at that mont.
Perhaps it was the relief of finally getting out of the embarrassing situation, or the panic and fear of suddenly being ambushed by an enemy.
He just gripped the new One Handed Sword in his hand, like a headless fly, blindly following the crowd towards an unknown direction.
He took a few steps, then suddenly rembered sothing, and looked towards where his cousin was.
Only to find it empty.
"Ran ahead?" he thought to himself.
And in those few seconds of hesitation, the dark night was already filled with the sounds of roars and curses, with faint noises of tal clashing.
"What should I do?"
Chaotic thoughts filled his mind. Having never experienced battle, having never even killed a goblin, Jimmy felt lost, not knowing what to do.
Should he rush towards the sound of fighting to support the battle, or should he just run away and find sowhere to hide?
For so reason, at that mont, his eyes suddenly looked towards the other side of the camp, where the wagon was.
His cousin’s advice and the intentionally lowered voices of the adventurers previously surfaced in his mind.
"Professional", "Gray Sword"...
Perhaps...
And just as Jimmy took his first step in the direction of the wagon by instinct.
A rapid sound of horse hooves suddenly reached his ears.
Lurching, he turned abruptly.
In his sight was a tall silhouette obscured in the darkness, a ferocious-faced man fully ard, riding a horse, with a thrusting spear gleaming coldly in the firelight.
There was no dodging, nor any proactive attack.
Jimmy only had ti to raise the sword in his hand in front of him.
"Ding!"
The next second, accompanied by a trendous force from the sword hilt.
His center of gravity was thrown off, causing him to stagger back several steps, stumbling over sothing.
His feet faltered, and he fell backward onto the ground.
Perhaps it was a stone.
Jimmy only felt the back of his head suddenly knock against sothing hard.
Buzz—
Accompanied by intense pain, the darkness surged like a tide, swallowing his vision.
The whole person fainted.
Fortunately, although he completely lost control of his body, he seed to retain so awareness.
With eyes tightly closed unable to open, his perception in other aspects seed to beco more sensitive in an intangible way.
The snorts of the horse, exhaling a hot stench-filled air, the slight vibration of the ground as iron hooves landed beside his ears.
There was no finishing blow, the sound of horseshooves once again faded into the distance.
In the cold air, there was still an abundance of roars and curses.
"It must have been an attack by bandits."
He recalled the tall figure on horseback glimpsed briefly before.
In a state of loss of control, Jimmy actually regained calm at this mont.
"Can we win?"
"Should... be possible."
He speculated in his heart.
But as ti passed, the sounds of battle continued without a sign of stopping, instead growing increasingly intense.
Jimmy knew that ant both sides were evenly matched, unable to determine a victor for the mont.
Along with it, he couldn’t help but feel anxious inside.
Until a long, high-pitched wolf howl suddenly rose from afar.
Awoo—
"Is it the wild wolves from the wasteland slling the blood here?"
In his heart, Jimmy couldn’t help but feel more despairing.
These fierce beasts roaming the night and shadows wouldn’t care about good or bad people, only seeing all flesh-made creatures, including himself, as dinner to fill their bellies, tearing and swallowing them into their stomachs.
But unexpectedly, as the wolf howl sounded, in the noise originally filled with angry shouts and curses, there suddenly ca several painful and despairing howls, and faintly, there could be heard soone shouting words like "retreat".
The wind howled.
Then there was another series of high-frequency and dense, cold sounds of blades piercing flesh.
Pain spread through the back of his head, and the consciousness that had been fairly clear beca gradually drowsy.
An indescribable drowsiness engulfed his consciousness, and Jimmy completely passed out.
Not knowing how much ti had passed.
When he woke again, the sounds of iron and blood that filled the battle had already vanished.
In their place were the faint sounds of tidying up the battlefield.
Struggling to climb to his feet, he could vaguely see familiar figures in the distance on the wilderness, holding torches and rummaging through the bodies.
"Survived."
Realizing the battle was over, Jimmy breathed a sigh of relief.
The back of his head still hurt, and touching it, his hand was full of blood.
He tried to turn his body, seeking help.
Yet the corner of his eye suddenly caught sight of sothing, his whole body freezing in place.
It was only until now that he finally saw what had tripped him to the ground before.
It wasn’t the imagined pebbles or branches.
It was a corpse lying quietly on the ground.
The neck severed by a blade, with a strip of bloody skin, the head hung dangling on the chest.
"Cousin?"
Jimmy recognized the identity of the person.
But even he felt a bit strange that at this mont, facing the death of a relative, there wasn’t a trace of grief in his heart.
Instead, a surge of inexplicable impulse arose from his chest.
Dust and blood stained his face, showing an almost sickly urgency and anticipation.
Moving quickly forward, he carelessly pushed aside his cousin’s dangling head, his hands reaching into the chest, searching.
A look of surprise and joy suddenly appeared on his face.
With a hard pull.
A bloodied package was yanked from his cousin’s embrace by Jimmy.
Just like picking up that dice from the ground as a child, carefully, he tucked it into his arms.
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