Chapter 34. Three men and a girl

When Jack woke up, it was still dark. He turned and saw Bowler sleeping not far from him.

"He went to sleep at once after he came into the room," he heard Peniel's voice beside him, but he couldn't see her as she was still hiding inside her isolated dimension. "He didn't do anything that looked suspicious."

Jack nodded; maybe he could trust this guy.

He rose and brought out his Apprentice Cooking Stove and started cooking two portions of Egg Fried Rice. The smell of the cooking seemed to wake Bowler up. He rose and came near.

"You can cook?" He asked.

"I learned it from a cooking recipe," Jack said. "You haven't tried any of your artisan jobs yet?"

"I can do some alchemy," Bowler brought out a box with a set of bottles. Jack used his God-eye monocle to identify the tool.

*

Apprentice Alchemist Apparatus (common Alchemist tool)

Allows creation of potion in the wilderness

*

"I can make a potion called Basic Healing Potion, it can instantly heal 200 HP," he said. "Alas, I used up my last potion in the fight yesterday. If not, I would have given you a bottle as thanks. If we manage to find more ingredients to make the potion, I will give you some bottles."

"What are the ingredients?" Jack asked.

"Two green leaves," Bowler replied.

"All right, if I find any, I'll give them to you and you can make me that potion. Here, have breakfast." Jack passed him a plate of Egg Fried Rice that was just done cooking.

The sun had started to rise when they finished their meals.

The sunrise cast long shadows over the business district. It created eerie scenery along the street devoid of activity. The once crowded district had now become a deserted ghost land.

Two men walked along this street, their medieval garb looked out of place beneath this modern backdrop. A man in antiquated armor led the way with a calm demeanor. The other one, in a traditional robe, looked uneasy. He kept looking around, afraid that something would jump out from every shadow.

Jack looked back at Bowler and said, "I told you already, no need to worry about being ambushed. I will know if any monsters come near us."

"How can you be so sure?" Bowler was not convinced. "The group I was in had four people originally. One time, when we really thought we were safe, we ended up getting jumped by a monster. One of us got wasted precisely because of that incident."

"That won't happen to us. I have a very good sense of my surroundings."

"Overconfidence has been the downfall of many great men."

Jack was helpless. He was not going to tell Bowler about the radar ability of his monocle. His trust of this new acquaintance was still not strong enough to let him in on his secrets.

"If you don't hurry up, I'll leave you," Jack said as he picked up the pace.

"Wait! I'm coming, I'm coming."

*

That morning they had three skirmishes as they walked toward the light beacon. Same as yesterday, Jack did most of the fighting while Bowler sneaked in a few attacks from a distance. Jack didn't purposefully run into all the monsters in range, looking for a fight, like he had the day before. He took a straight line towards their destination, only attacking monsters if they were really in the way. From the fallen monsters, they received some medicine and a few coins. They divided the loot equally, even though Bowler said Jack should get more.

Around noon, when the sun was high in the sky, Jack's radar picked up some other blue dots. There were four of them this time.

'Some other people?' Jack thought. It made sense that they'd meet more people now since everyone would be heading towards the same destination. He observed his radar and found that the four dots were stationary instead of moving. Maybe they were resting from the heat. He pondered if he and Bowler should go over and meet this group.

"Why are we stopping?" Bowler asked when he saw Jack suddenly pausing. "Is there a monster?"

He looked around, his nervousness coming back to haunt him.

"No monsters. There is no need to be agitated," Jack told him.

"Let's head this way," Jack said as he moved towards the four blue dots.

"Eh? But the light beam is that way!"

Jack didn't bother to give an explanation as he continued onward. Bowler only hesitated for a moment before hastily following behind.

As they were getting near the four dots, they could hear the sound of some people. Not the unintelligible sound of the Goblins or the groans of the Zombies, but words in known language. They could even distinguish the voices to be from at least two males and one female. The tone of the voices didn't sound like they were being pleasant to each other.

"There are people there," Bowler stated the obvious. "They sound like they are having a fight."

"Let's get closer," Jack said.

As they moved closer, they could see the group. There were three males and one female. The three males looked like middle-aged men. One of them had his arms folded over his chest in an arrogant way. The other two were cornering the sole female, who waved her dagger at them menacingly. She looked about ready to give the men a makeover to their faces. She appeared to be a young girl, around twenty years of age. Jack and Bowler could hear their voices more clearly now.

"Come any closer and see what will happen!" The girl warned.

One of the men laughed it off, "Ha ha, this chick here is real fierce. I bet she can be even fiercer on her back."

His companion joined in the mocking, "I'm sure you are right. Look at her angry face, or is that an eager face I see?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Who would be eager with your ugly looks? She must have been charmed by our big brother Bigarm here. When will it ever be your turn?"

"Our big brother is generous. Once he is done, he is sure to share with us. Ain't you, bro?" They looked at the man with the arrogant look.

Their big bro smirked. "Just cut to the chase already. What's the point of all the teasing? Just hold her down and we can get on with business."

"Brother is right. Sorry, for the delay, little lady. Just cooperate if you don't want to get hurt."

The two men pulled out their own daggers and began to close in on the girl. The girl didn't wait passively. She initiated the first strike by thrusting her dagger towards one of the men coming forward. The man being attacked was obviously not expecting this and tried awkwardly to duck away. The girl retracted her thrust and performed a very fast attack that hit the dodging man's head. She scored a critical as damage numbers appeared on the man's head.

'That girl was pretty skilled. That must have been the fast strike skill from the Ranger class, like the one Mouse had used on me,' Jack thought as he saw the move.

Unfortunately, the girl was not fighting one on one. As she hit the first man, his partner used the same fast strike on her. She suffered some damage, yet she refused to back down. She fiercely cut at the other man's head. Every strike she delivered was aimed at her opponent's weak spots. She was really angry and had no intention of showing mercy.

The man she had struck first looked at her with rage. He couldn't accept being hurt by a girl. He lunged at her with his big body. The girl was expecting this and avoided the attack by skillfully rolling on the ground. She ended up at the guy's back and sliced him again causing more damage. She then turned and slashed towards the other man. The man did a back roll and evaded the slash.

'How come the man and woman could perform such rolls? Could it be one of the ranger's skills?' Jack thought. 'If only the girl had done the roll, I could consider that the girl was very athletic. But when another person immediately did the same skillful roll, it couldn't be a coincidence, right?'

Jack suddenly heard the girl scream. He returned his attention to the fight and found that the girl was lying on the ground. The arrogant guy, Bigarm, was holding a large sword. It seemed the guy had ambushed her while her attention was on his two friends.

"That prick! I can't take this anymore!" Bowler cried as he ran forward casting Energy Bolts.