New Method of Travel

It took Ian slightly under three hours to return back to the camp. When he arrived he was greeted by many hunters eating. 

Ian walked up to them and asked why they were relaxing. One of the hunters explained that they had finished making their two trips and were taking a break before making another.

Ian was shocked. He couldn't believe that pretty much everyone had done two trips. He asked around if anyone had seen Kevin and Emmett. He didn't want to believe they had finished making their two trips.

One hunter turned to Ian and said, "Kevin and Emmett, those two left about an hour ago to make their second trip."

Hearing that left Ian speechless. He knew he had fallen behind but he didn't think he had fallen that far behind.

Ian didn't waste any more time talking to the hunters and ran to get more wolf bodies. Entering the wolf territory, Ian had a hard time finding any bodies. It seemed like they'd all been taken already. 

Ian traveled for 10 minutes before he finally found a wolf's body. The further he traveled into the territory the more bodies he would encounter. It took him a few minutes to fill up his wagon. Once it was full, Ian ran back towards the village. On his way there, he ran across Erik. Erik seemed to be on his way back to the wolf territory to gather more bodies. When Erik noticed Ian, he stopped by him to chat for a moment.

"Ian, how's it going?" Erik said with a big smile.

"I'm fine, Dad, I'm just about to make my second delivery," Ian said in a nervous voice.

Erik gave him a surprised look and said, "You're on your second trip? Good for you. I thought it would have taken you much longer but I guess I was wrong."

Ian gave Erik an annoyed look and said, "Jeez, thanks." Ian immediately changed his face and asked, "So, how many trips have you made?"

Erik, not even batting an eye, said, "I'm about to make my sixth trip."

Even though Ian wasn't drinking anything, he had to spit-take when he heard Erik's response. He then started to choke on his own saliva.

Erik did not expect such a reaction from Ian. He patted Ian on the back to help him. 

Once Ian was better he said, "How in the world did you manage to hull so many large loads?"

Erik gave Ian another smile and said, "That's the power of a crystal rank. Don't worry though, you'll make it there someday."

The two of them sat in silence for a moment before Erik asked, "Have you gathered the bodies from the cave?"

Ian paused in shock and said, "No, I haven't. I planned on getting them on my next trip."

"Okay. I'll let everyone else know to stay clear of that area so you can collect them. Once you're done with your third trip though, you can head home and rest," Erik said in a calm tone.

"Okay, thanks. I don't think my gauntlets will be able to last for too long. They'll probably last until the end of my third trip. Afterwards, I'll need to recharge before I can use them again," Ian said.

Erik patted Ian on the back once more before saying, "Alright, I'm going to collect my next load before heading back, so I'll see you when you get home." Erik walked over to his wagon, picked up some ropes, and ran off into the forest.

 Once Ian lost sight of him, he grabbed a hold of his wagon and ran off towards the village. Within three hours, Ian made it back to the village.

Back at the village plaza, the pile of bodies had drastically increased. They had nearly doubled in size. However, the number of workers had also tripled to keep up with the workload.

Ian didn't want to spend too much time in the village. The sun was beginning to set, leaving a small amount of time left to run back to the camp.

He quickly dropped off his load and began to run back to the campsite. However, after running for another hour, Ian's legs started to feel tired. 

He checked his gauntlets and saw the energy meter down to its last two crystals. If he had to guess he believed he only had enough energy to last him for another four hours.

With his legs feeling tired and his gauntlets running low on energy, Ian had to switch up his method of traveling. The skill he would use to travel fast required him to use his legs. With his legs tired and the wagon behind him, he wouldn't be able to use those skills.

After a bit of thinking, Ian came up with a solution to his problem. Ian untied the ropes from the wagon, jumped onto the wagon, and started swinging the rope around.

He looked at all of the trees around him and searched for the sturdiest one. When he spotted a large healthy tree, he threw the rope at it, wrapping it around one of its large branches.

Once the rope was secured, Ian got a foothold on the wagon and pulled himself with all of his might. The wagon started moving forward at the speed Ian would run. 

When Ian passed the tree he wrapped the rope on, he effortlessly untangled the rope and threw it at another tree so he could keep the momentum. 

He kept doing the same thing for the next hour. Not only did he use the rope to pull himself forward but he also used it to steer. When he needed to turn, he would throw the rope at a tree in the direction he needed to go and pull himself. The wagon would then make a wide turn before continuing down its path.

Along the way, Ian passed many hunters who were on their way to make a delivery. They all stared at him as he drove by them. The sight of him pulling himself in the wagon shocked them. A few of them even thought it looked fun. But Ian sped by them too fast for them to admire his method of traveling.

After traveling an hour using this method, the sun had fully set. This made it too dangerous for Ian to travel using his new method. But that wasn't going to stop him.

Ian stopped the wagon for a brief moment, pulled out his lantern, and placed it at the front of the wagon. It barely lit up the road, but he could see just enough to spot the next tree for him to use.

If he were to travel this way, he would need insane reaction time to make sure he didn't crash. Thankfully when it came to reacting at high speeds, Ian was a professional. He was an ambush hunter so he had to have fast reaction time.

Ian tossed the rope to the next strongest tree and pulled himself forward. He traveled a bit slower than before but still maintained a fast speed. 

It took him slightly over an hour to reach the campsite. On his way there, he had too many close calls. At one point, he drove over a bump and almost flipped the wagon. When he saw the campfires of the campsite in the distance, Ian stopped pulling himself forward and allowed the wagon to slow down.

At the campsite, Ian was met with fewer hunters. Only seven hunters were sitting around the fires. Among the seven hunters were Kevin and Emmett.

Ian walked up to them and asked, "What are you guys doing?"

Kevin turned to face Ian and said, "We're resting for the day. It's too dangerous to travel at night so Erik told us to rest at the campsite and collect our last load in the morning."

"I see." Ian sat down near them allowing his legs to rest.

"What took you so long anyway? We've been here for over an hour, and you're just getting here," Kevin smacked Ian's shoulder as he spoke.

Ian gave Kevin an annoyed face and said, "Hey, just because I have the power of a silver rank doesn't mean I'm as fast as a silver rank. Plus, I have the power of a low-tier silver rank. You two are mid-tier silver rank."

Emmett turned to face Ian and said, "Didn't expect you to fall that far behind. We could've slowed down for you, ya know."

"Nah, there's no need for you two to play fair. I'll eventually catch up, and when I do, I'll beat the stuffing out of you." Ian smacked his right fist into his left palm.

Kevin gave Ian a huge smile and said, "We'll be waiting for you."

The three of them sat down near the fire for another hour, eating and chatting before going to sleep. Since the remaining group of hunters didn't have their tents anymore, they all slept in random places. Some slept on the ground, some slept against a tree, and some slept in unthinkable locations.

Emmett chose to sleep in a tree. His whole body was sprawled across different branches. It looked uncomfortable but he seemed fine with it.

Kevin fell asleep on a large log. He laid face down on the log with one arm and leg on each side of it. It almost looked like he was hugging it.

Ian was the only one who had a normal sleeping location. He climbed on top of his wagon and fell asleep in it.

In the morning, Ian woke up first between the three of them. He jumped down from his wagon and walked over to the remains of the campfire.

He looked around the campsite and saw that most of the remaining hunters had already left. Besides them, there were two other hunters still around. But they were awake and packing their last few things.

Ian was still a bit groggy. But even so, he went and woke the others up. He walked up to Kevin and pushed him off of his log. When he landed on his back, Ian poured some water on his face, waking him up instantly.

Kevin, being startled by the rude awakening, said, "Ian, what the hell?!"

Ian didn't pay any mind to Kevin and walked over to Emmett. When he saw how Emmett was sleeping, Ian couldn't bear but let out a small chuckle. He grabbed onto one of the branches that supported Emmett and broke it off. As soon as he did that, Emmett came crashing to the ground, landing on his back.

Unlike Kevin, Emmett didn't react to the fall. He slowly and groggily opened his eyes only to be met by Ian staring down at him. 

"Morning. Did you sleep well?" Ian asked the barely awake Emmett.

"Morning. Did I fall from the tree again?" Emmett asked in a sleepy tone.

"Yes. Now get up, we have to go now," Ian said.

Emmett made a tired groaning sound and said, "But I want breakfast first. Can you make something for us before we leave?"

Ian gave Emmett an annoyed look and said, "No. You have jerky. Eat that instead."

"Fine…" Emmett stood up and began to stretch. Afterwards, he pulled out a piece of jerky from his pocket and began munching on it.

Ian also began to stretch. As he stretched, he said, "So are you guys going to collect more wolf bodies or…?"

Kevin, who was also stretching said, "Nah, we already have our next load, we just didn't have enough time to drop them off. Do you still have to get your next load?"

"Yeah," Ian sighed.

"Damn, that's tough. Well, you should go collect your last load and head back. You don't want to take too long. I heard some creatures are going to start entering the wolf's territory soon," Emmett said.

"I should probably get going then. I'll see you two later." Ian waved goodbye at them and walked away with his wagon.