“Ch-Chief—! I think they're chasing us from behind!” shouted one of the bandits fleeing for their lives through the forest, crying out in terror as they noticed birds startled into flight behind them.
Tsk! What a bunch of useless trash!
The Chief cursed his useless subordinates in his heart, while simultaneously being forced to weigh his options.
These subordinates of his would definitely never outrun C-Class adventurers. Should he ditch them and flee alone? No... Even if he fled on his own, his speed in the forest wouldn't compare to the more experienced adventurers. He would be caught sooner or later anyway.
... There was nothing left to do but gamble!
The Chief came to a sudden halt.
“Chief, why did you stop running?” the bandits asked, looking at him in confusion.
“Run my ass! We're going to get caught sooner or later anyway! We might as well fight back!”
“Huh—? Fight back? Just us?” The bandits pointed to themselves, their dumbfounded expressions as if to say, boss, have you gone crazy?
The Chief's teeth ground in frustration.
“A pack of fools! Follow me! They haven't locked onto our exact position yet, so let's find a place to hide first!”
“Oh, oh, alright!” Completely bewildered, the bandits followed the Chief and melted into the thick jungle.
...
“Stop—!” At Alec's raised hand, the pursuing adventurers halted.
“Something's wrong. Did they split up? No... they hid!”
“These guys are hiding! But they definitely didn't go far. Everyone, split up and search—!”
The adventurers quickly scattered into the jungle, and Shulim was no exception.
She looked around. No matter which direction one turned, the environment in this jungle looked almost identical, making it extremely easy to lose one's way.
However, this was no difficult task for Shulim and the experienced adventurers.
The only problem was how to find the hidden enemies.
“Should I climb a tree to check?” Just as this thought arose, Shulim immediately dismissed it.
The forest was too dense. Even if she climbed to the very top, she wouldn't be able to see anything beneath the canopy.
“Wait, I think there's a spell that...”
Shulim suddenly remembered a certain spell that Semilis had taught her.
As one of the oldest existences in the world, Semilis possessed a vast repertoire of ancient and modern spells. When she passed them down to Shulim, many of them were exceedingly rare in the present day, or had even been long forgotten.
For instance, spells she had used before like Grip of the Earth, Ice Weapon Creation, and the rarely used Shadow Sneak were considered exceptionally rare magic in the modern world.
As for spells that had truly been lost to time, there was Water Breathing, and—
“【ᛓᚠᛟᚾᚲתᛖᛜᛣᚲᚺᛜᚻᚠᛏᛖᛡᛣᛏᚠᚳᛜᚻᛓᛄᛖᛜᚻᚠᛏᛡᛏᚠᛄᛃᚱᛜᚣᛓᚠᚢᛗᛡᚾᚠᚷᚺᛜᚾᛃᛈ】”
“—Wind Messenger Bird!”
A massive amount of wind elements gathered in front of Shulim, coalescing into a sphere of brilliant light. Then, from within that radiance, a small, glowing green bird flew out.
The little bird fluttered circles around Shulim, its movements incredibly nimble and lively.
Though she had used it many times before, casting this spell never failed to fill Shulim with a sense of wonder.
This was because she could share the Wind Messenger Bird's field of vision, allowing her to perceive two different visual feeds simultaneously.
“Go—”
As Shulim gave the command, the Wind Messenger Bird instantly soared into the sky, weaving through the tree branches. In her secondary field of vision, Shulim saw the scene suddenly broaden into an immense expanse, with endless stretches of trees unfolding in every direction.
Then, the perspective plummeted rapidly. After piercing through a thick layer of leaves, the gloomy forest of towering trunks came into view, closely mirroring what Shulim saw through her own eyes.
Guiding the Wind Messenger Bird, Shulim had it dart swiftly through the forest, searching for any traces of the bandits.
In just a remarkably short span of time, she had already swept an area of five hundred meters. If the ordinary adventurers—who usually had to painstakingly crawl through various treacherous terrains, risking their lives to scout out dangers—were to find out about this, they would probably turn green with absolute envy...
“Hmm—, this is...”
Shulim halted the Wind Messenger Bird's flight, locking its vision onto several suspicious traces.
“Yes, these are indeed traces left behind by humans. Which means they must be nearby.”
Centered on that location, Shulim directed the Wind Messenger Bird to scout the surroundings while she simultaneously dashed in that direction.
It did not take long.
“Found them—!”
Within the Wind Messenger Bird's field of vision, the figures of several bandits finally appeared.
Shulim raised her wand.
“No... there's still some distance. Sending a signal now might mislead the other adventurers. I should get closer first.”
Shulim lowered her wand and continued moving toward the bandits...
“Chief, they're searching all over the place for us! What do we do?! We're going to get caught sooner or later, aren't we?!”
The bandits were in a state of utter panic. They knew that even if they hid for now, being found was only a matter of time.
“Stop yelling! Can't you see I'm trying to think here??”
The Chief barked angrily. Although he claimed to be thinking of a way out, he was actually sweating bullets in anxiety, having failed to come up with any solution.
“This should be close enough...”
Shulim assessed her distance from the bandits. Seeing that they had not moved yet, she raised her wand above her head.
Whoosh—!
Boom—!
A fireball exploded high in the sky above the forest canopy.
The adventurers scattered across the area raised their heads simultaneously, looking through the gaps in the leaves toward the direction where the fiery light flared up.
“They found them, let's go—!”
...
Watching the fire ignite so close to them, the bandits were utterly dumbfounded.
“What's going on? We've been spotted?! But where are they?!”
The bandits looked left and right, yet saw absolutely no one.
“You bunch of idiots! The signal was fired from over there! How could the person be right here!”
The Chief spat, his face darkening immediately.
“This person must have spotted us but didn't want to alert us, so they moved away to launch the signal...”
“Ah?! Chief, what should we do now? Keep running?”
The bandits stared blankly at the Chief.
“Run, run, run! Is running all you know how to do?! That person is right behind us, how can we run?! If we're going to run, we have to kill them first!”
“Kill them...”
The bandits exchanged hesitant glances, utterly lacking the courage to fight at a time like this.
The Chief was thoroughly amused by his subordinates' pitiful display. However, it was only natural; bandits were inherently cowards who feared death, so it was pointless to rely on them at a moment like this.
“Are you morons?! Didn't I just say they hid from us to fire the signal?! That means they are weaker than us, which is why they avoided us! Don't you even understand that!”
“Oh, so that's how it is! As expected of the Chief, you're so smart!”
One by one, the bandits came to a realization.
“...”
At this point, the Chief had lost any desire to speak.
“What are you still standing around for?! Get moving! Are you waiting for those adventurers to come and greet you?!”
“Yes, sir!”
Realizing their opponent was weaker, the bandits were no longer as terrified. Coupled with the fact that failing to eliminate the scout would mean their location would keep getting exposed, murderous intent suddenly swelled within them.
However, as they marched on, none of the bandits noticed that a certain figure was gradually falling behind. The distance between them grew wider and wider, until finally, that figure came to a complete halt...
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