Chapter 22
A few hours later, outside the city walls.
Two adventurers were riding a horse along a path leading through a refugee camp. The man holding the reins, who was already quite close to reaching the end of his powers, and the unusual girl sitting in front of him, who was now extremely upset, as indicated by her drooping cat ears.
"Haaaah." A heavy sigh was heard from behind me. "Okay, Lona, stop moping. We would have provoked slavers or just bandits sooner or later anyway, but at least we know in advance that we will be hunted.
"I understand, it's just... I was hoping that I would have more time to get stronger before a serious skirmish with people.
"Hah, knowing this island. With your appearance, I can say that you were lucky to have so much time to prepare. - Indiana chuckled, before his smile faded slightly. - However, we will need to be doubly careful, most likely there will be an ambush at the exit from the forest, and I really hope that they will be simple bandits.
- Uh-huh. - I answered, still upset about my own mistake at the bank.
On horseback, we reached the forest much faster than last time, but even so, when we arrived it was already evening and going into the forest at night was definitely not an option, so having descended from the horse with the help of the Archaeologist, we began to set up camp.
[Perhaps someone might have questions, Lona, do you know how to ride a horse? Or where did you get a horse? And now I think I can add to this question about the fourth wall, but I'll start from the beginning.]
[I don't know how to ride a horse yet and I was only able to stay on the horse thanks to Indiana, who had a lot of experience not only in horse riding, but also in battles while on horseback.]
[As for the horse, after the bank, due to my mistake, we immediately went to the pharmacy to buy potions, and then at the entrance to the city we bought the horse for 1 gold. And you shouldn't look down on such a price, because one gold is actually quite a lot, it's not for nothing that for 20 gold you could get a good house in Noere.]
[And as for the 4th wall...]
- God, I'm really trying to act like a character in a fanfic who broke the 4th wall. - I couldn't resist and grimaced, from how many strange thoughts were creeping into my head.
- Will we take turns keeping watch? - I asked, while preparing my sleeping bag.
- Yes. - Indiana nodded. - You'll start, after all, the beginning of the night will be safer, and then you can wake me up.
- Okay. - I didn't argue with an obviously more experienced person.
An hour later, when it finally got dark and Indiana fell asleep, I sat in front of the fire and looked at the system. The events that had happened before had not been in vain, I had gained one level and realizing that tomorrow, in addition to the boars, we would most likely have to face a group of bandits, I seriously thought about what I should spend the 3 characteristic points I had on.
And no matter how much I thought, my thoughts eventually lead me back to combat skills. Still, this seems a little strange, wisdom and constitution give really cool bonuses when leveling up, survival is also extremely useful, stealth, if it works like in the game, will allow you to become almost invisible. And are combat skills really limited only by combat experience? No, of course, I don't argue that it is useful, but unlike everything else, I could have gained experience myself, so it was really hard to ignore my curiosity about this characteristic, and let's face it, there is a thirst for instant advantages.
In the end, I still couldn't resist and threw 3 points into this characteristic.
Throwing these points, I expected different things, starting from the fact that you will start stuffing my head with memories of battles and ending with getting some kind of increased dexterity or intuition, but in the end I got something completely different.
Something that I didn't even see a hint of in the game, although perhaps it was logical given the presence of magic, as well as the delivery of physically strong creatures. I looked at the new line that appeared in my statistics with some doubt.
Fighting Spirit: 30/30
Unlike the mana that responded with warmth inside, giving a feeling of STRENGTH, this new energy seemed something natural, as if it was something that had always been with me, and I only now paid attention to it.
And remembering one interesting moment from the game, I pulled out a bow with a single arrow from my inventory.
Starting to slowly pull the bowstring, I turned to the new energy for me and soon finally fired a shot in the direction of the tree
The arrow flew out with simply incredible force and speed, piercing the tree standing in front of me.
- So that's how Lona shot the bow like that. - I muttered in amazement, looking at the neat hole in the tree trunk.
- What? Why so expensive? - I hissed indignantly, looking at the fighting spirit scale, which was empty after just one shot.
- It's not fair, why could Lona spam such shots just out of stealth, killing almost all of her enemies, I can only make one shot. - I was really offended. After all, no matter how much I liked magic, I still wanted to become a formidable archer.
- Okay, I need to get back to my post. - I sighed.
Meanwhile, in the forest, one unlucky young boar, who just wanted to eat berries from a bush, suddenly fell dead from an arrow that pierced his brain through his eye socket.