Strength 99999 but the Holy Sister

Aisha said to Becky and Alman, "Becky, Alman, go watch from the back. Remember, you are adventurers now. Don't cause trouble."

"Don't worry, Fa... Fasha... leave it to me!"

Becky always felt awkward calling Elsa directly, even if it was a pseudonym.

She scratched her head, stopped her horse, turned around and went to the back of the caravan. Alman followed her. Although he was a little unhappy about being ordered around by humans, it was still easier to be ordered around than to travel nervously with Elsa.

At this time, Silbaz came riding over.

"Miss Fasha," he said to Aisha, glancing at Becky and Alman as they left. "We'll arrive at the border of Seyavis Territory tonight. We'll camp in the forest, which is difficult to navigate. Could you please guard the rear of the caravan?"

"Of course, that's what we should do."

Generally speaking, it's best not to split up the personnel between the two adventuring groups, as this will prevent misalignment in command and coordination. Therefore, Silbaz took the initiative to take on the guard and guidance duties at the front of the caravan, which required experience and manpower, leaving the rear of the caravan to Aisha.

"Also, we've left the Territory of Danmas now, and it's almost dark. The road ahead might be difficult to travel, so you'd better be cautious. Rainy nights are a favorite destination for those troublesome bandits and monsters. Some insidious and cunning guys will use magic to launch surprise attacks, which is much more clever than blatant looters. Please be careful.

The pitch-black night and the roar of the rain are their best cover, especially in the forest. It's hard for us to see them approaching or hear their footsteps. The muddy and bumpy ground will also slow down our response. If a battle breaks out, there will be no mercy or fairness.

As he spoke, his eyes became serious.

"Those desperadoes are cruel and murderous, and they are all villains who don't care about human life. If you become their captive, it might be more convenient to end your own life - especially for a young and beautiful lady like you. Those slave traders are their favorites."

Silbaz spoke in his usual rough and direct manner.

But this was his kind reminder.

"Thank you for your kindness. We will keep a close eye on it." Tricia lowered the bow and arrow from her waist to her side. "No one has ever escaped from my sight."

Many adventurers would brag like this. Silvers glanced at Tricia and just smiled.

"That's best."

……

------------

296. Am I the weakest?

The distance on the map is less than a foot, but in reality it takes quite a long time to walk.

If the main road was still there, they wouldn't have to go through Seyavis, but looking at the map now, it would be a better option to go from Dammas to the North through Seyavis.

The Territory of Dammas is the territory of Earl Hibern, and to the east is the Territory of Seavis, separated by a mountain forest and wasteland. Entering the Territory of Seavis and heading north through the Grand Canyon, you will reach the vast wilderness that leads directly to the north.

This is roughly the route the caravan took. More detailed information would have to be provided by Ebusen and Silbaz - manually drawn maps are not accurate in themselves, and they will not record every inch of land in detail.

Night soon fell. The rainy night obscured the stars and moon, and the caravan, relying on the illumination of their magic devices, continued through the pitch-black forest. The forest was clearly frequented by people, and the path beneath their feet was wide enough for a carriage to navigate. While not as smooth as a highway and often muddy in the rain, it was at least not the bumpy loess wasteland that would have made it difficult for a carriage to move forward.

Aisha, Xia Li and others followed behind the caravan.

"Forty years ago, this was probably one of the transportation routes connecting other cities with Dammar. To conceal their presence, they chose to build it in the forest. But apparently, after the war, it was abandoned along with the construction of the main road."

Tricia has a wide range of knowledge and tells stories that few people know.

Forty years is neither long nor short. In the scale of human history, which is often measured in centuries, forty years is not worth mentioning.

But for this world which is poor in all aspects, forty years is almost enough to cut off an era - the history and poetry of this world always tend to record and pass on those heroic or tragic stories, while turning a blind eye to others. As a generation grows old, many things are slowly forgotten, and the ones that remain are mostly those with vivid colors.

"Speaking of which, will we stop in the Lord's City of Seyavis?"

Charlie asked.

"Probably not," Aisha said. "The main city is too far away, and we'd have to take a detour to get there. Any delay would disrupt Ebusen's plans. If there's nothing else going on, there's probably no need to go there specifically. Silbaz would probably just stop in a small town or village outside the forest to restock supplies or gather information."

Merchants often have their own schedules and are very strict with time arrangements. This batch of flint is obviously a hot commodity prepared for the north as winter is about to come.

"Oh, I heard that Seavis is a big city. I originally thought I could go there to take a look," Charlie said regretfully, and smiled at Elsa again, "But as long as I'm with you, Elsa, I don't think it matters where we go..."

“There will be a chance.”

The rest of her life is still long, and it would be a waste if she cannot spend more time in this world in her second life. When the church's mission is over, Elsa really wants to take Charlie and the others on a journey with no end in this world.

At this moment, Elsa suddenly moved her nose.

"Charlie, Tricia, do you smell anything?"

"smell?"

Whenever Elsa said this, she must have sensed something that was not "normal".

Charlie's small nose twitched, and Tricia silently expanded her magical perception.

"There seems to be a little... like the smell of something bloody, but it doesn't smell fresh at all, and it smells a bit fishy. It should be the blood of a monster, but it's mixed with something else..."

Charlie said.

"You're probably talking about some kind of alchemical solvent," Tricia said as she came to Elsa, reached out and touched her, and then continued, "My magic can sense the impurities in the air, but I can't smell those things myself - I'm afraid it's not a smell that ordinary people can smell."

The rest of the caravan seemed unaware, or at least didn't notice anything very obviously wrong.

Human perception of smell is limited, just like the color range that human eyes can see is only a part of the spectrum, and the sounds that humans can hear do not include infrasound and ultrasound - not to mention it is raining heavily now.

But Charlie is a vampire with a keen sense of smell, especially the smell of blood. Tricia uses completely inhuman means to perform magical perception. They can both use their own methods to capture smells that are imperceptible to human sense of smell.

Aisha looked at Becky and Alman and asked, "What about you?"

Becky nodded quickly: "I can feel it too, but it's not very clear..."

Yarman also echoed: "Me too..."

Grace also subconsciously sniffed, but unfortunately, she was probably the only one among them who could not sense that smell. She couldn't help but feel a little unbalanced in her heart - as the witch of ash, was she the weakest among these people?

Grace didn't know that Charlie and the others were vampires. Seeing them all gathered around Elsa, she felt strangely uncomfortable.

"Humph."

She lowered her eyes and looked away into the dark forest.

Elsa glanced at Grace, feeling a little strange: Why is this guy always picking on her?

Without thinking too much, Elsa felt that something was approaching the caravan at the same time - deep in the lush forest, hidden by tall and dense trees and the rain curtain, they could not be seen at all unless they stood on a high place, but the faint vibrations coming from the ground revealed their existence.

It was a dense, heavy sound of footsteps, as if it was the sound of some kind of monster moving around.

This kind of vibration is imperceptible to ordinary people, but for Elsa, if she wants to sense it, she can sense it. And similar to the Doppler effect during sound propagation, Elsa can also roughly judge the direction and speed of the other party based on the change in vibration frequency.

"Xia Li, come to my side. Everyone else, please pay attention to the sides."

Elsa said, secretly protecting Xia Li on the inner side close to the caravan. Although Xia Li's strength was roughly on par with a gold medal adventurer, in Elsa's opinion, she was the one who needed protection the most.

"Something is about to happen, isn't it? Should we tell that Silverbaz?" Charlie asked.

"No need," Elsa thought for a moment and shook her head. "That would make us look suspicious. Alman, Becky, there should be monsters approaching ahead. A battle is probably inevitable. You'll act accordingly. If those monsters are troublesome and the caravan has trouble dealing with them, after the battle you can go around behind them and take out the tough ones. Remember, don't be too conspicuous, understand?"

……

----------

297. Alman gnashing his teeth

Elsa never thought that she would be lucky enough to avoid the bandits and monsters along the way, because they would come to her on their own.

Some things are unavoidable, which is why caravans need escorts.

Just think about it and you will know that Silbaz and his companions are not adventurers who just eat for money, and Ebusen is not a sucker. The caravan is bound to encounter battles along the way. Even if they don’t encounter bandits, it is normal to encounter some monsters in the wilderness.

After all, monsters could exist anywhere. As a valuable source of renewable magic crystals, no force anywhere except in the heart of a country like the imperial capital would directly eradicate the monsters. To a certain extent, each territory was actually consciously "raising" wild monsters to produce precious items such as magic crystals and monster materials.

Of course, this "breeding" is different from the captive breeding of livestock. Monsters are not easy to tame, and the cost of manpower and material resources required to keep them captive is high, making it more costly than beneficial. Therefore, in the human kingdom, at least half of the monsters are "free-range," grazing in various places suitable for their habitation, such as various large and small mountains and forests.

Generally speaking, the range of activities of wild monsters is separated from where people live and reside.

The town of Weilin is a special case. It is a town that has gradually evolved from the Demon King War period, so it is directly adjacent to the Western Forest. Apart from areas like the Western Forest, most forests are confined to a relatively limited range, such as the forest outside the town of Mallaig, or the Rydes Mountains razed to the ground by Aisha. These places are like "hunting grounds". The monsters living here produce a large amount of magic crystals every year, which is an amazing resource for local managers.

As long as they are properly controlled, they will not really bring too much danger to the people in the territory - since they are "raised", the lord will not really let those monsters run rampant in his territory.

However, the forest in front of us is not a hunting ground.

But it is an unattended wilderness.

After all, it is the border between two territories. Unless there are some amazing mineral deposits in this place - or the two lords are extremely unharmonious, otherwise this place will usually be tacitly "left alone" by both sides.

The only thing that is certain is that there are no powerful monsters here that are so vicious that they require the army to conquer them. After all, the empire will not ignore monsters of this level, but some "little guys" are inevitable.

No one knows whether they have entered the territory of some monster when they step into the forest. This kind of danger does exist - that is why adventurers do not like rainy nights, because there may be dangers lurking in the rainy nights, and they are completely unaware of it.

But for Elsa, the rainy night actually provided some means of cheating.

"After you're done, remember to dispose of the bodies so no one notices anything obviously wrong. Can you do that?"

Aisha looked at Becky and Alman in a commanding tone.

She was sure that the monsters had discovered the caravan - because the dense footsteps were coming towards the caravan, and a battle was bound to follow.

If the enemies were just small fry, it would be fine. Elsa could just put on a show, as Silver-medal adventurers weren't just for show. But if they were unlucky and encountered some formidable monsters, Silver-medal adventurers might not be afraid, but others could be injured or even killed in the battle.

Elsa would not sit idly by and watch that happen, so she prepared in advance and asked Becky and Alman to "reduce the difficulty of the battle", which became a feasible option - as the "captain", Elsa had to stay in the caravan to "command", so in order to hide her identity, she let Becky and Alman secretly deal with some troublesome guys in the battle, and let the caravan handle the rest. This was the most appropriate way.

In this situation, the caravan members are most likely too busy to deal with it. As long as Elsa is here, they won't notice the whereabouts of Alman and Becky so quickly, let alone know what happened in the depths of the jungle.

What's more, Becky and Alman are vampires, and the night is their home turf. Moreover, the blood mist magic of vampires is highly toxic and has a strong corrosive effect on the flesh and blood of living creatures. They are just suitable for doing this kind of thing.

After receiving Aisha's order, Becky patted her chest confidently. It seemed that because she had kept her mind closed for too long, she was eager to fight. "Don't worry, Fa... Fasha... I will definitely complete the task!"

Becky was quite open-minded when it came to Elsa. After all, she was already a prisoner and couldn't beat her. What else could she do? Wasn't she just going to obey?

Since she has decided to obey, she should do her best. This way, Elsa will be happy and she will naturally live more comfortably. This is the truth, is there anything wrong with it?

So Becky is always very positive and serious.

On the other hand, Alman looked resentful every day. At this time, Alman was listening to Elsa's orders, and suddenly an idea came to his mind.

——Could this be a good opportunity to escape?

His eyes couldn't help but become bright.

The heavy rain obscured his vision, and it was the night when vampires were at their most powerful. He could also legitimately avoid Elsa's sight - if he didn't escape now, when would he?

But this thought only appeared for a moment before it was extinguished.

"Hey, don't try to escape. I'll be watching you."

The person who spoke was Becky. Her words scared Alman. He looked up hurriedly and met Becky's wine-red eyes. Becky looked serious and didn't seem to be joking.

"what?"

Alman was extremely surprised.

No, wait...

Are you still one of my people?

Are you a real dog?

What's the point?

In just a short moment, Alman had cursed Becky a thousand times in his heart, but on the surface he still had to appear to be friendly.

"I...why would I want to escape? How could you doubt me like that? I've never been that kind of vampire...please don't say that to me again. Even I have my limits...We're both vampires. You should understand me, right?"

Alman smiled dryly, cold sweat already appearing on his back.

Becky blinked, as if she believed him.

"Oh... I see. Sorry, I misunderstood you..."

Becky's serious apology made Alman feel even more guilty - and he gritted his teeth and was so angry that his teeth itched, but he could only endure it and dared not show it at all.

Okay, at worst I won’t escape tonight. Alman thought it over and felt that now was not the time to take risks. There was only one chance, and if he failed to escape, he would be in real trouble.

Be patient, be patient.

Alman suppressed the impulse in his heart and chose to reawaken his rationality.

……

------------

298. Just a few tricks

Alman and Becky received the order and rode their horses to keep a little distance from the caravan - if the situation was not right, they would immediately sneak into the forest and deal with some of the "troublesome guys" without anyone noticing.