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Chapter 3-9. Ambush
Four days have passed since then.
We were able to travel this far without any major problem …
Except, we ran out of food yesterday.
I’m the one who did the hunting duty,  since I’ve been used to hunting all the time, I was able to catch the game very easily.
The most used skill when I was hunting is【Reamed Water Spear】
Frighteningly, the thread had become as sharp as a blade before I knew it.
It’s not like I did nothing until now, I was secretly training my skills.
Now you know.
But I did not expect that the thread was razor sharp … who would have expected it?
I was just trying to restrain my prey by wrapping it but …
It’s been sliced instead.
And 【Reamed Water Spear】 was surprisingly very useful in cooking.
It can even cut the bones off
It feels like the knife presentation in the convenience store, doesn’t it?
Well, Uchikage was more accustomed to camping out like this, so I left most of the work to him.
What I did was make some water to dismantle my prey.
I wonder how the heck my dismantling method works  …
What a mystery.*
(Fui : Just in case you forgot, he can dismantle any prey inside his water blob like a washing machine, but it’s for dismantling.)
Anyway, we arrived at a place called the Yagur Mountains.
I’ve heard from Asure that there are bandits around here, so I’m searching for enemies with the  【Haze Manipulation】 fully spread out, but … I didn’t detect any of them.
The road is uneven, there’s a cliff beside us, and we’re riding a horse-drawn carriage in a very dangerous place.
In a dangerous place just by passing it, and no bandits will come out.
No, is it more like where the bandits would come out?
Therefore, I decided to reduce the search range and deploy the haze only in the blind spot to be on the alert.
My MP is not infinite.
All we have to be careful about is the trap.
That’s what I said but, I don’t know what kind of traps there are, so I can’t tell that easily, but … I haven’t encountered any of them so far.
The worst thing could happen if the horse died from the trap.
But the bandits aren’t that stupid to kill a horse that’s could be a useful resource.
Unless they’re very hungry.
But … is there really a wooden fortress in a place full of rocks like this?
I don’t think there are many people who live in such a place, so I think it’s a bad place to do business even for bandits …
“How is it, Ouren-sama?”
“Hmm … I didn’t find any of them. I wonder if there’s any bandits in this place.”
“Well, that’s what Asure-dono said. I would just laugh it off if this were a rumor, though..”
“Same here”
Because the situation could be dangerous soon or later, I let Satella stay inside the carriage.
That said, I don’t feel any tension from her, because she was sleeping in there.
Well, as long as she doesn’t feel scared, there should be no problem.
I’ll properly protect this carriage.
◆
We have been progressing for a while since then, but there is no sign of bandits at all.
I have stopped the 【Haze Manipulation】 for now to preserve my MP.
That said, there are still a lot of things to be aware of.
Right now, I’m just observing the surroundings with Uchikage.
I wish I could do it like him, but I’m not quite good with observing things with only my sight.
“I feel like an idiot for being so uptight when they don’t come out like this..”
“Ou-ree-n, I’m so free.”
“I’m free too. In addition, the scenery doesn’t change.”
“So boooring.”
“… Ouren-sama? Could you please refrain from using impolite language?”
Oops, I forgot.
But now I’m not motivated to correct myself.
After all, we were sleeping together on the carriage floor.
Surprisingly, the inside of the carriage is large, so we can lie down without any problem.
It’s a very good carriage.
I even tried to repeatedly activate 【Haze Manipulation】from time to time, but there is nothing on the cliff, behind us, or in front of us.
Once I knew it didn’t detect anything, I would deactivate my skill again and repeat the process again.
Even Satella felt so bored because of how free we are.
What should I do?
What was I doing at the time like this …
I can’t remember anything because I have no memory of my past life.
Sometimes I roughly know what I’m doing but, I also don’t even remember a thing about it.
Isn’t it unfair? The voice of heaven. No- walking encyclopedia.
I wonder if the ‘Voice of Earth’ is better than this fella.
Hmm. So free.
Should I activate it again?
Thinking so, I activated it again and spread it to check the top of the cliff.
When I stretched the haze sideways and let it flow all at once, I caught some presence in my haze.
I got up suddenly and focused on the haze to investigate it in detail.
I detected several people.
Although the number is small, they look like bandits from their silhouette.
One is looking at our carriage from above and the rest are waiting behind us.
I think they are doing this to not be exposed as much as possible.
That’s quite neat … Unfortunately, I spotted them right away.
But what are they going to do from the top of this high cliff?
Let’s observe them for a while.
“Ouren? What’s wrong?”
“No, it’s just something. Uchikage, keep the speed like this”
“Got it”
I can’t let Satella worry.
Perhaps this small conversation alone made Uchikage understand my intentions.
Uchikage coached the horse naturally so as not to alert the bandits.
He knows it well.
I checked again with my 【Haze Manipulation】.
The bandits seem to be moving along with our movements.
There were some of them too ahead of the curve.
There must be something ahead of it.
I spread 【Haze Manipulation】 in the direction of the curve road.
There are several people there, all of them seem to be holding their hands together.
These guys are like bandits too by the way.
Because their silhouettes were similar with the guys behind us …
What are these guys doing?
Is it magic?
………… There must be something …….
Alright, let’s deploy more 【Haze Manipulation】there.
It consumes more MP for expanding my haze to the surrounding area.
This can only be done for a few seconds.
It’s because my MP will be exhausted as soon as I release my skill.
I only have 3 seconds to keep myself from being exhausted from MP depletion.
During these three seconds, I have to look at the surrounding terrain to see what they’re trying to do.
After muttering all of that in my head, I activated my skill at once.
When I spread it further, I grasped the entire range from the top to the bottom of the cliff within 100 meters in diameter. (109.36 yards)
There’s nothing but cliffs, but there’s a forest below the cliffs..
The bandits were not chasing us either from behind or in front of us.
One second.
Perhaps there is some trick from these magicians who are holding their hands together..
That’s what I don’t really understand the magicians and the bandits’ behavior.
Now I developed the 【Haze Manipulation】and found out the reason.
These bandits are moving right above us.
In other words, they inform the magicians where our location is.
They are probably solidified by a few people so that they can be seen clearly from a distance..
My concern is …
Two seconds.
Somewhere there must be a designated place where all of the magicians can launch their magic at once.
When the bandits above come to a certain place, they should activate some kind of signal.
Where is it?
Where is the landmark?
At that moment, I sensed a strange feeling at the bottom of the cliff.
There is wood debris lying around.
This appears to be a carriage.
I can also see the silhouette of a dead horse.
Does this mean that the carriage was dropped? By magic?
Three seconds.
I deactivate 【Haze Manipulation】.
I opened my eyes and looked at the debris of the carriage that I found.
But you have to get close to it to see it.
But I knew it was in that area.
And right above them are those magicians.
“Uchikage. Is there such a thing as magic that casted all at once with several people?”
“Is it chorus magic? If two people chant the same magic together, its power can be doubled. This magic was considered the most dangerous during the war.”
“Is it possible to move the soil?”
“It depends on the number of the magician, but I think it is possible.”
“How many people usually?”
“I thought about five people could float a large rock with enough magical energy to spare..”
“If there are ten people?”
“Hmm … They might be able to crush the soil and make a crater.”
“Okay. Run at full speed!”
I hit the horse’s butt with the whip that was placed next to the lizard.
The surprised horse neighed loudly, moved their head and started running at full speed.
The carriage, which was shaking quite a bit even when running normally, ran at full speed, causing the shaking to increase even more.
If I keep my mouth open I’m going to bite my tongue..
“Ooooouren-samaaaaaa !?”
“Hold on tight, Satella!”
“Kyaaaaa!”
Satera looks like she’s having so much fun!
Though the Uchikage is having a hard time controlling the horse!
But I don’t care!
“Go! Starhorse!”
“What is this star-something?”
“It’s the stupid name of the horse!”
I can only speak for myself, but she has a terrible naming sense..
However, I feel that the running speed of Starhorse has increased.
Did it like it?
But now is not the time for such idle chatter!
I’ll give you plenty of water later, Starhorse!
Until then, hang in there!
Starhorse was running surprisingly fast, and the carriage seemed to be going crazy.
But thanks to Starhorse, we soon reached the place where we saw the danger.
This is where the other party would try to make a move.
Then I heard a loud voice from above.
The other party seemed surprised by the sudden start of running, but they handled it calmly.
As soon as I heard a voice, the wall approached us.
It seems that their plan was still to move the wall of soil to drop the carriage.
Uchikage, realizing that the wall was closing in, slammed the rope down on the horse several times.
However, the wall would hit the carriage at this rate.
That’s where I come in!
I jump out of the carriage and stand next to Uchikage.
I pointed one hand into the moving wall of soil at the right moment and shouted one skill name.
“I’ll use this skill for the first time! I count on you!【Earth Spirit】!”
Dhuuug!!!
The approaching wall stopped with a sound so loud that the earth rumbled.
The wall stopped moving using the soil transformation thanks to 【Earth Spirit】.
I don’t know what kind of magic they used, but it seems my skills were superior.
It’s nice that the wall has stopped, but I still have something to do.
I’m not comfortable with the idea of being left to take the fall.
So I’ll pay them back.
I already know where they are, so I will at least deal with the magicians.
【Earth Spirit】 also has the ability to alter the land.
So I turned the place they were in into a swamp.
This is a skill to change the nature of the land.
So, I changed only that part of land and caught their feet.
As long as it’s deep enough that they don’t die, it won’t be a problem.
And with the swamp, they won’t be able to do the same things in the same place.
I couldn’t deploy 【Haze Manipulation】 because my MP was nearly depleted.
I don’t know if I succeeded properly, but I guess it’s okay for now.
“Ahahahaha! This is fun!”
“Ha-ha-ha! Good work! Star Horse! Let’s keep going into the woods and get some food!”
“Nhiiii-iiiin!”
“Wa-wa-wa-wa wait a segond !? Ah, I bit my tongue …”
I would later hear that the bandits disappeared after this day, …… but that’s another story.