Chapter 11: An encounter
Punk, perched on the carriage's edge, nearly held his breath as he inquired, "How many years has your family gone without washing this donkey?"
"At least we have one. Isn't it a bit hypocritical, sire mage, when you don't even have anything for your own travel?" Kane sat cross-legged in the donkey cart, nonchalantly chewing on a piece of meat jerky, with his knight's lance within easy reach, hanging from a nearby rail.
Now, Punk and Kane was on their way to Konola City and already traveled far from Mok Village.
Punk commented before without thinking much as he was practicing some prophecy spell, so he wasn't interested in quarreling with this guy. After all, Punk wanted to avoid the undead and any other kind of danger as much as possible.
They started their journey in the early morning. Now, the smaller sun "Mira" had already traveled most of the horizon, while the larger sun "Casa" was still a little below the horizon.
It takes about five days to cross the wasteland situated between Moke village and Konola City. The Baron had packed all the necessary supplies in a burlap bag and placed it on an old wooden cart that had already grown moss, and then under Punk's somewhat speechless eyes and Kane's somewhat helpless eyes, bought out a small but very energetic donkey to pull the Cart.
Seeing Punk's reaction Baron became a little embarrassed, but he still smiled and said:
"The red-eared donkey is a specialty of Camos Kingdom. It is very hardworking and obedient."
In the Pheren plane, because horses were heavily utilized in the war, it was the most expensive among all domestic animals. So it wasn't too surprising that a declined nobility such as Baron Besadas didn't have a spare horse.
Punk studied the donkey for a moment. It had a tuft of red hair at the tips of its ears, giving it a somewhat adorable appearance. The little donkey dragged its hoofs on the soil, displaying its eagerness. However, Punk couldn't help but feel that a damaged cart and a cute little donkey didn't seem like a combination that could successfully navigate a tough wasteland.
But now, Punk, who was sitting in this Cart, started to believe that it was not the little donkey who couldn't pass the wasteland, but he himself! Due to an extremely unpleasant odor emanating from it, Punk couldn't help but think it wasn't a cart but a moving dung pile. He felt a strong urge to pummel it with a secondary catapult. Punk had an urge to hit it with a secondary catapult.
But without the donkey, He had to walk like a nomad for days to reach Konola City. So Punk tried to distract himself while enduring the pungent smell as much as possible.
But he was surprised after seeing Kane's nerve. Although Kane was facing the little donkey's back while sitting in the Cart, he indifferently chewed on the dried meat, like the smell didn't even exist.
"I heard mages like you...Gulu...Gulu... don't like to talk much, now it seems like that's true." Kane swallowed the meat in his mouth and poured a big mouthful of ale.
Punk didn't even look at him. He moved on the side of the Cart as far as possible and then pulled out a parchment map from the pocket of his robe. It was the map that Baron gave them for direction.
The aged parchment had yellowed and curled severely, displaying the rugged terrain of the Kingdom of Camos. This kingdom is relatively small, and the remote wasteland lay to the west, near a mountain range known as Belen Mountain.
More than 30 villages, including Mok village, were located between the Belen Mountain and the wasteland.
At the end of the wasteland, there was a small river called the Bebero River, City of Konola was built around that river.
In the end, Punk concludes that a desolate border wasteland is the ideal location for nefarious individuals to establish their bases and carry out their sinister schemes. As someone who prefers to keep a low profile, this town doesn't seem very suitable for him at the moment. He acknowledges that he lacks the power to associate with these forces, be they good or evil. Whether they intend to save or destroy the world, such matters remain beyond his reach.
Kane showed no concern about these things even after hearing Punk's conclusion. His attention was still on the elimination of the meat jerky and ale. From Kane's action of aggressively tearing the jerky, it seemed like he had some sort of enmity with the jerky.
Punk has already figured out what kind of person Kane is. Kane is the type of guy who takes care of his own business and doesn't concern himself with others. He might be best described as someone who follows the "sweeps the snow from his own doorstep and doesn't worry about the frost on his neighbor's roof" philosophy. While knights typically align with the neutral lawful faction in the usual social structure, Punk believes that Kane's words and actions make him a better fit for the chaotic neutral faction, as they lack the honor one might expect.
"HuH"
Suddenly, Kane stood up and jumped out of the donkey cart; the little donkey was startled by this sudden action and made a snorting sound. Kane then started to stretch and run while keeping up with the donkey carriage.
At this time, Punk was casting an apprentice-level prophecy spell "eye of wonder" on the old map. This spell's effect was to detect whether there could be anything dangerous on the way forward, but the information from it was rather vague.
But after analyzing the information from the spell, Punk's pupils contracted, and he quickly replenished the mana for his "Secondary Mage Armor." Such attribute spells generally could last up to 20 minutes. (Note: you can't stack the same attribute spell more than three times. Otherwise, the spell energy may become conflicted) but Punk always recharged it every ten minutes to keep the spell's effectiveness to its maximum. But this time, he recharged it again in less than ten minutes because his prediction showed that there was something big on the road ahead, and the distance from it was unknown.
"Knight Kane, my prophecy spell, has found a big guy. We may have to change course." Punk shouted to reminded Kane and again closed his eyes to carefully analyze the Divination's fuzzy information to obtain more accurate information.
Are you talking about a big guy, more than 3 meters tall with red skin and has a sharp horn on his head?" Kane asked in somewhat of a weird tone.
"The apprentice-level prophecy spell is not that accurate..." Punk opened his eyes and said, but he was a little stunned when he raised his head. Because of the extraordinary vision brought by Level 2 Ranger Class, Punk could clearly see that about 700-800 meters away, an Ogre roaring happily after noticing them.
"Yes...I can see that."
"Damn! What kind of prophecy was that?" Kane was obviously very dissatisfied with Punk's half-baked predictions.
But Punk didn't argue with him. He recalled the information about ogres. Ogre was a man-eating and cruel monster with thick skin that had some resistance against magic. It had the strength to crush rocks easily and also had very high vitality, which was enough to regenerate broken limbs. Its only weakness was its low intelligence!
Generally, and adult ogres could have the strength of a level 3 warriors class professional at best, but their natural strength and hard skin made them almost unbeatable amongst apprentice level.
And now, this Ogre, who was searching for food, has found some "delicious snack" in the distance. So it was walking towards Punk and Kane aggressively with a large wooden stick that was almost one person tall.
"I say we should fight! because If we run away, we have to leave the donkey behind, and that will make me very upset."
Kane said while shaking his lance and tapping the lance side with his palmar fingers, which made a "dang dang" sound. In his words, he especially emphasized the words "leaving the donkey behind."
If they didn't have the donkey cart, which was good for traveling on this grassy land, then the time to get to Konola City will be doubled. Punk also knew this fact very well, so he didn't plan to leave the donkey behind to avoid this fight.
Punk cast a sidelong glance at Kane and couldn't help but think, "Can't this fellow cut to the chase already?"
Punk didn't say any superfluous word. He just put the map back into his pocket, and then picked up his staff from the cart, and calmly jumped out from the donkey cart.
"Since you are so eager to fight, then draw away the monster from your little lover."
Punk then blessed himself with a "secondary swiftness" and rushed to the right side of the marching Ogre.
"You!"
Kane gave Punk's back a middle finger and then ran to the left with big steps.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone