Chapter 53 – Trouble?
The rumbling of the old cart’s wheels and the brisk clicking of the hogtooth’s hoofs on gravel surrounded the cart as it advanced. These sounds harmonized with the birdcalls coming from the forest to create a potent lullaby that sent one to the land of dreams.
Alyssa and Tio naturally responded to this lullaby. Like squirrels holing up in a tree during winter, they subconsciously curled up together and let out peaceful breathing sounds. They looked to be sleeping soundly.
Zwei, on the other hand, sat leisurely at the back of the cart as he listened to the leaves rustling due to the spring breeze. The sunlight that filtered through the forest canopy also speckled light on his body. The sunlight was neither too hot nor too cold; it felt perfectly warm and comfortable.
Although meditating in this situation would certainly produce excellent results, they were currently traveling along the edge of a forest. To guard against mishaps, let alone meditating, Zwei couldn’t even enjoy a peaceful nap like the two lolis before him.
After a night in a small town, Old John had stated that they should arrive in Horador City after they passed through this forest.
“But is it really okay? There should be some monsters residing in this forest, right?” Zwei asked as he yawned out of boredom. When he scanned his surroundings, though, he didn’t find anything unusual.
“Milord, this is the safest road during springtime,” Old John said. He had originally been bored out of his mind for lack of a conversation partner. Upon hearing Zwei’s question, he immediately launched into a detailed explanation.
When spring had just arrived, the monsters that had starved through winter would come out to hunt. Hence, springtime was generally a very dangerous period for people to travel across forests.
Meanwhile, it was currently near the end of spring. Once the spring harvest passed, the prosperous summer season would begin immediately. During this time, almost all monsters would’ve already satisfied their appetites. As the saying went, those who were well-fed and well-clad were inclined to be lustful, whereas hunger and cold bred the temptation to steal. The satiated beasts naturally weren’t an exception. They would all go into heat and make preparations to welcome the next generation.
“However, it is also possible to hunt rare large prey. Hence, many confident hunters will enter the forest during this period. In this period, so long as we don’t provoke those monsters, the chances of something happening are almost zero,” Old John said confidently.
As an experienced tumbleweed, Old John was confident in his own experience…until their party came across an annihilated caravan.
The caravan in question sat in the middle of the road, and its cargo crates were all scattered over the road. In addition, a lot of blood was splattered around the carts, dyeing the soil and fallen leaves red. By the looks of it, a fierce battle must’ve taken place here.
Meanwhile, looking at the familiar tracks left on the softer soil, Zwei could immediately tell that wolves had attacked this caravan. Unfortunately, as he wasn’t a tamer, he couldn’t tell whether these wolves were saberwolves or dire wolves.
There wasn’t a single corpse left on the battlefield. Evidently, the attacking wolves had dragged both human and wolf corpses away to be used as rations after the battle ended.
After investigating the battlefield, Zwei turned to look at the dumbfounded Old John.
Every time this old man makes a vow, the direct opposite happens. Does he have the legendary E-rank Luck stat?
Meanwhile, after Old John snapped out of his daze, he tentatively approached one of the fallen crates and opened it. Immediately, numerous black particles the size of rice grains spilled out. He picked up a handful of the black particles and gave them a sniff. He then exclaimed in surprise, “M-Milord, this caravan was carrying spices!”
“Oh? Spices?”
Zwei raised his eyebrows when he heard Old John’s words. He then curiously opened several other crates, only to find that they were indeed filled with various spices.
While spices in this world were not worth their weight in gold, like during the Middle Ages on Earth, they weren’t cheap, either. At least, since Zwei transmigrated to this world until now, the number of spices that seasoned the food he ate never exceeded one.
Although Zwei had no interest in gold, he was definitely interested in letting his parched taste buds taste a few more flavors.
Hence, he closed the crates and brushed his hand across the largest crate, planning to store these spices in his Bronze Storage Box. Currently, he still had plenty of space inside his storage box, so taking a few of these crates wouldn’t inconvenience him.
However, for some reason, the storage box’s collection ability actually didn’t take effect; the crate remained underneath his hand.
“Strange…” Zwei frowned. Disregarding the nervous look Old John was giving him, he circled the crate and tried storing it once more. Unfortunately, he still met with failure.
Afterward, Zwei tried storing a slightly smaller crate. This time, though, the crate went into the storage box without any problem. He then tried storing several other crates of spices and succeeded with all of them as well.
The Bronze Storage Box doesn’t seem to be malfunctioning.
Hence, Zwei inspected the crate that came up to his chest. Very quickly, he had a hunch as to why he couldn’t store this crate of spices.
The next moment, he gave the lower portion of the crate a few taps. The crate, which was supposed to be packed full of spices, actually returned a hollow knocking sound.
Old John looked at the large crate in surprise. If it weren’t for Zwei’s discovery, Old John wouldn’t have thought that the crate actually hid a hollow compartment. After all, when he opened the crate’s lid previously, only a bunch of spices greeted him.
Although Zwei knew that there had to be some kind of mechanism to open the secret compartment, he was too lazy to search for it. Instead, he made use of Mage Hand to rip off one side of the crate!
Immediately afterward, a short and chubby figure rolled out of the crate, together with the many spices.
However, before Zwei and Old John could react to the situation, the chubby figure prostrated itself on the ground while shivering uncontrollably. The figure then spoke rapidly in nonstandard Xiumen (the human lingua franca), “Please spare me! Please spare my life!”
As Zwei looked at the pudgy figure trembling before him, he quickly realized why he had failed to store the crate—the Bronze Storage Box naturally couldn’t store something that housed a living gnome.
Uh, wait a minute…
“A gnome?!”