Conquest

Chapter 12 Shaar the Road Robber

Translator: Tchu, Scar

The four adventurers immediately stopped walking when they arrived at Shaar’s previous camp.

The golden haired swordsman at the head of the group slightly changed his expression and he lifted one hand and declared cautiously:”Stop! Somebody had been here.”

His voice had a hint of arrogance. He rolled his blue eyes, observed the surrounding ground and said:”There are traces of fighting here, look!”

He pointed towards the ground in the distance where the butchered corpse of the giant wolf lied. The skin was peeled off, the bones disassembled, the meat smashed and a puddle of blood was on the floor.

Seeing this, he quickly investigated the remains of the campfire while kneeling down. Reaching at the high-piled firewood ashes, he stretched his hand to touch the ashes. After making a conclusion in his mind, he stood up and made a proud expression in front of his companions:”The firewood is cold. That guy must have left already.”

Meanwhile, Shaar listened quietly to their conversation on his tree. There were some doubts in his heart: Eeh…there was something wrong from what that guy just said.

How did cold firewood indicate that the people who used it were already gone? If it was in the ordinary jungle, it might be possible, but ……But this was Primal Wildfire!!

If people camped in an ordinary jungle, they would let the bonfire burn for a whole night to drive away wild animals with the flame.

Nevertheless, the experienced adventurers in Primal Wildfire would absolutely not do such a suicidal thing……The reason being, magical beasts did not fear fire!!

If you dared to make a bonfire in Primal Wildfire at night, it was like announcing to all the magical beasts in the vicinity: Come! A sumptuous dinner was waiting for you here!

Therefore last night Shaar put out the fire before sleeping.

Just now when this golden haired swordsman touched the ashes, how could it possibly still be warm?

To judge for how long people had passed or left a place, a person who lived in the wild throughout the years like Shaar, had many other methods. For example, to look at the surrounding ground vegetation for traces of being trampled, to inspect the dew on the root of grass or even to check if somebody left around some excrement….

Judging by merely touching the bonfire ashes………Perhaps only those idiot bards on tour would do such a thing……

“Hahahaha!”The strong gigantic man immediately gave out a vigorous laugh: “Gary, you are truly the most careful amongst us.”

The swordsman called Gary stood there proudly and intentionally made an arrogant face: “Ahem, naturally you must know some skills if you want to survive in the wild. This was nothing.”

During that time, that man who stood at the side wearing a fur-lined robe and a cape ran to the nearby ground. He bent and grabbed a handful black dry powder:”What’s this?”

While he looked to his companions, the golden haired swordsman and the strong gigantic man instantly gathered around him. The three whispered for a while, but it seemed that neither of them could identify this mysterious powder. Seeing people that everyone was looking at him, Gary the golden haired swordsman remained silence for a second and then said with confidence:”It is probably some drug that the camp guy used. Ah, yes! I think it must be powders to repel mosquitoes. I’ve seen it before.”

While saying that, he looked at the fellow who wore the black robe: “Master magician, you are the most knowledgeable person here, was I correct?”

Master magician?

Was that fellow wearing the fur-lined robe really a magician?

That short thin master hesitated for a moment, took the powder in his hand to get a close look and smelled it carefully. Nonetheless, he still seemed uncertain…

Hiding in the tree, Shaar frowned his eyebrows. It was nothing special, he thought to himself. This was only the poop from a species called “arrow pigs”.

The arrow pig was a low level magical beast. If it was alone, it was not that dangerous, however they always lived in colonies. It meant that when they ran into an enemy, they would rally together and attack in force. Generally speaking, even the more powerful magical beasts were not willing to provoke these fellows carelessly.

The poop of those arrow pigs was very special. Last night Shaar Thunder sprinkled some around the camp in order to let other magical beasts think that arrow pigs build their colony here after smelling the poop. This would hinder them to approach this place easily at night and kept Shaar safe while sleeping.

This procedure was very common amongst people in Primal Wildfire. Anyone who had the slightest experience could tell by one glimpse.

Something even stranger continued to happen.

Below the tree, those four well-equipped adventurers gathered together to have close look at the powder and still could not reach to a conclusion after a while. The swordsman said that it was the drug to drive away bugs, but the gigantic man claimed that it was coal ash.

As for that “master magician”, after deep in his thoughts, he unexpectedly dipped some powder with his finger and then put it into his mouth to taste it……

(Huuurrrgggeehh!!)

Looking at this scene, Shaar nearly started vomiting and almost felt down from the tree.

That “master magician” tasted it carefully for a while, turned his head and said in a low voice with an authoritative expression: “Ahem, there is no need to argue anymore. It was clearly a food seasoning that got discarded while camping. Yes, it has a somewhat salty flavor.”

Shaar: “………………”

Looking at the “master magician’s” appearance while using his mouth to carefully taste the excrement, Shaar’s whole body got Goosebumps. His hands and feet started to lose strength, his throat had a feeling of nausea and he almost had to vomit at the scene.

Hearing the “master magician’s” judgment, that gigantic man slammed his waraxe to the ground. He then declared with a deep and gruff voice while smiling:”I don’t know which fool did this, but he unexpectedly threw away some seasoning. Just as it happens, our seasonings are all used up and luckily we don’t need to eat these white and tasteless barbecues today anymore!”

He conveniently picked up a stone and threw it toward the bush.

His throw immediately frightened a flock of birds in the bush and they instantly started to take off. This gigantic man laughed: “Alright, a flock of birds. Quickly Martha, shoot us some lunch!”

The golden haired swordsman next to him started smiling while clapping his hands and said: “Yes Martha, you are the new “Dark moon Goddess” recognized by us. Show us your mysterious archery now!”

Martha, the female archer, showed a reserve smile with a hint of arrogance and quickly prepared her bow while taking out a hawk feather arrow – her posture was actually very beautiful. More importantly, as soon as she pulled the bowstring, she bent her black spring steel bow into a full moonscape! Hiding on his tree, Shaar’s heart instantly started to pound while observing her!

Amazing! When using a black spring steel bow, even a strong man might not be able to pull it to such an extent! This female archer had extremely strong arm strength!!

Not only that, Martha demonstrated a proudly smile, raised her chin and declared in a heroic tone: “Look carefully, I will shoot the third bird in the middle in the right eye!

Her elegant performance easily made others believe in her!

Whilst Shaar was admiring this archer, he heard the bowstring making an acoustic oscillation sound and a sharp arrow shot to the sky and made an elegant arc……

Wosh!!!

The shot must have been quite accurate…… but somehow it felt a little strange in Shaar’s view.

A realization flashed across his mind and he immediately understood what went wrong!

The shot itself was quite accurate, but it was missing on power. The arrow that was shot seemed too weak!

Such little strength might be enough to kill a house sparrow or a pheasant, but this flock of birds consisted of Mountain Goose which built its nest in Primal Wildfire. It was highly aggressive and even common eagles feared them.

As predicted, the arrow shot by that “goddess” flew towards the Mountain Goose in the middle. Almost hitting its mark, the bird made a contemptuous cry, turned its body mid-air and faced that weak arrow with its peck. With one movement, it fended off that arrow with its peck.

Before flying off, it deliberately screamed a few times towards Martha.

The goddess archer’s face suddenly turned purple and tried hard to maintain her composure. To cover her shame, she desperately tried to make an excuse: “You stupid animal! I tried not to harm your life with a warning shoot and you dared to mock me for this……” Her backhand pulled out another arrow and shot again.

Phew!

This Mountain Goose turned around and evade with ease……

The goddess archer could not take it anymore! Getting ashamed, she became angry and took out the eight remaining arrows from the quiver. In succession she shot all of them one after each other!

Hiding on the tree, Shaar was exactly twenty steps away from the circling flock of birds. While this goddess archer initially gave him a good impression, he did not expect that a misfire would fly towards his tree during that female archer’s rapid-fire. Not having the time to respond, Shaar’s nose suddenly got scratched from by that past flying arrow!!

While still appreciating the archer, who would have thought he would receive such a “surprise attack”? Shaar was not prepared for this attack at all and this “archer” almost killed him without knowing.

When that arrow scratched the tip of his nose, Shaar immediately broke out in cold sweat! That Bloodthirsty Great Wolf could not even kill him when he was weaponless and now his poor life was almost done for by that woman’s bad aim?

Shaar got enraged!

Shit, they actually dared to call this archer the Dark Moon Goddess?!

Fuck! She missed by 8 meters when shooting a bird – if she was the Dark Moon Goddess, then I am the god of war Achilles!!

…………

Emptying her quiver, Martha became tired and was out of breath. She put down her bow while panting and her whole face reddened. No one could tell if it was from the fatigue or from the shame, maybe a bit of both.

Her companions nearby stood there dumbfounded for a while before that golden haired swordsman Gary managed to get back his composure. He cleared his throat and walked next to Martha and patted her shoulder. With a loving face he comforted her in a gentle voice: “Martha, it’s all right, you ……uh… You were tired from all the walking and your strength is still weak. Occasionally missing something is nothing worth mentioning.”

Martha lowered her head and respond in a pitiful voice: “I don’t understand how it could happen. I am usually very accurate when shooting sparrow in our house……”

The golden haired swordsman stared maliciously at the gigantic man: “Nigal, this was your great idea!”

The gigantic man Nigal smiled embarrassedly and from the look of it, this golden haired swordsman was the leader of this group. Nigal did not dare to refute and turned his head towards that magician to change the topic: “Master magician Bidaldo, please have a look at the vicinity, we should be almost at our destination right? Didn’t that profiteer on Black Alley say that Ferocious Lions had their dens nearby?”

The magician smiled and did not respond while taking out a parchment with a map from his pocket. He then carefully took out his compass, observed it for a little while and looked at the terrain. Finishing his analysis, he pointed his finger to the east and confidently said: “Yes, it’s that way.”

Still observing this farce on his tree, Shaar silently sighed: “Idiot, it’s the opposite direction! It should be to the west instead ……If you really dared to go toward the east then you can meet those lovely goblins tonight.”

At that moment, he loosened his hand that covered the pitiful creature’s mouth and stretched his arms a bit. While lightly patting the face of that pitiful creature, he declared in a low voice: “Hey, for the time being we can’t leave here. There is work.”

“Huh? What kind of work?”The pitiful creature’s face blushed while asking in a low voice.

“Down there …… there are four fat sheep.” Shaar squeezed his jaw and announced: “It seems like it was destined by god that I would have to make a guess performance as a robber today.”

Finishing this sentence, he put the pitiful creature on a thick branch: “Sit here carefully and do not fall down.”

With one jump, he leapt from the tree.

Those four people with high skills were still discussing something when suddenly seeing a person falling from the sky in front of them and got startled!

“Who is there?!”

The golden haired swordsman Gary immediately drew his longsword, with its ruby mounted on the hilt and its sharp blade. From a closer look, Shaar saw that the blade was unexpectedly made of silver.

“Haha!!” Giving a loud intentional laugh, Shaar tossed his long black hair which smelled of the wild and used his hand to swing his rust stained axe. After taking a deep breath, he stuck out his chest, stared at them and shouted with a clear voice:

“This mountain ……uh, this mountain was not discovered by me! This tree ……uh, this fucking tree was also not planted by me! Nevertheless, if you want to cross here then you have to pay the safe passage fee!” While saying this sentence, his face intentionally made a ruthless expression: “If I hear a word from your mouth, hehe – then I will kill chop off your heads!”

Tightening his face, Shaar’s heart was relaxed – This should be right. He heard those lines from the bards in the tavern and it took him a long time to remember it. Yes, he should have remembered it correctly.

Those four expects stared dumbfounded at the robber who suddenly felt from the sky:

A ragged beggars equipped with a rotten rusty axe was pretending to be a robber…… Uh? His body was wrapped in a bandage?

The most ridiculous thing was, that bandage cloth had a pretty butterfly knot tied at the front……