Kate Green

"It seemed they might have other accomplices." Mel Carlo rose to his feet.

He came to that conclusion because the valuables found on the five men were not much. To avoid drawing attention, Mel had only secretly stored a knife in the System space.

The fact that they knew how to coordinate their attacks and positions showed that this was not their first time attacking people.

"Only 300 Orens. If they often killed people around here, they should have had more than that."

"If we turn back, it will be too far. If we want to cross this forest during the day, we'll need to leave the town at night," Kate voiced her thoughts.

It was dangerous to keep staying here. Those bandits might have accomplices, or perhaps an even stronger leader.

Claire had been frightened, but she quickly suppressed her emotions and tried not to look at the mangled pieces of corpses on the ground.

She carefully stood up and said, "Why don't we just go through? Crossing this forest has to be safer than staying here."

"That's what I think too." Freli dusted himself off. He had been keeping watch, but the others had approached far too stealthily. The only fortunate thing was that they had not killed him outright.

If anything went wrong again, they might have their heads chopped off in their sleep.

Judging by the current distance, the only option was to cross the forest. There was a small town on the other side of the mountain.

"Then we'll go through! Slow down, and watch out for tripwires. Even Earth Dragons can't take a bad fall!" Kate reminded them again.

After the bloody scene just now, no one dared let their guard down again. Humans were no less terrifying than monsters.

They got back into the carriage and slowly headed deeper into the forest. Small mountain ranges like this naturally had roads for travelers, but monsters and bandits also liked hiding in such dense woods.

Inside the carriage, Mel Carlo spoke again. "Since they already built a road, why not cut down all the surrounding trees? At least then we wouldn't have to worry about being ambushed by strange things."

Kate laughed as though she had heard something amusing. "Haha, a noble once had the same idea."

"And then?" Mel Carlo became interested. Since someone had done such a thing, why had no one else followed suit? "Did someone kill him?"

"No. After all the surrounding trees were cut down, it rained, and the mountain collapsed. It buried that idiot and his territory."

Mel Carlo frowned slightly. He really had been thinking too simply. Cutting down the trees would indeed open up the view, but it would also cause soil erosion. Once there was prolonged heavy rain, it could easily lead to mudslides.

The roads in his previous life could be maintained because cement existed. Cement could reinforce the mountain slopes and protect the roads.

But even with retaining walls on both sides of a road, it did not mean landslides could be prevented one hundred percent.

No wonder Miss Kate had laughed.

"Hello. Let's get acquainted again. My name is Mel Carlo."

Moonlight shone into the carriage as the little boy extended his right hand.

"Kate Green."

Their hands clasped, marking their renewed introduction.

"Your throw just now was very accurate."

"Thank you for the compliment. It's the thief skill, [Flying Blade]."

Miss Kate stretched her ankle slightly, then turned to look at Mel Carlo again. "You've learned many things, but don't you know that the more you learn, the harder it is to master any of them? You should focus all your effort on one path."

Mel Carlo thought about it, but could not quickly reach an answer. If this were a game, level 100 would be the cap, and each level only granted five skill points, so the number of skills one could invest in was limited.

A single skill required thirty points to max out. With 495 points, he could max out at most sixteen skills. But if leveling up granted points in Four Dimensions or Five Dimensions, he could allocate attribute points to [Intelligence], because every point of Intelligence granted an extra skill point. Even so, with one attribute point per level, he could gain at most ninety-nine additional skill points.

Everything needed to be verified through practice. Before that, it was nothing more than speculation.

At the moment, he had not even found the proper way to level up.

Could it be because he was too young?

Still, those doubts would be resolved once he reached Oak City.

The carriage moved very slowly because they feared an ambush. If the Earth Dragons ran at high speed and there were hidden tripwires in the forest that they could not see, the carriage could be destroyed and everyone killed.

But slowing down like this only made Mel Carlo more uneasy. He had no scouting skills, nor did he know how to acquire such skills. He did not know what exactly he had to do to count as scouting.

The moonlight gradually dimmed as dense leaves blocked it, reducing visibility on the road.

Freli lit a torch, but even with its faint glow, they still could not see very far.

"Claire, are you scared?" Mel turned his gaze toward the girl in the carriage.

A child her age had seen someone die right in front of her, and be chopped into pieces at that. It would probably leave a shadow on her heart.

"Mhm." Claire answered softly. This was the normal reaction someone her age should have had.

Nearly being killed was already terrifying enough. Seeing someone get sliced apart could easily turn that tension into fear.

"Yeah." Mel scratched his head. He seemed to have forgotten what fear was, because he had already been afraid too many times when he was young.

After growing up, he had instead forgotten fear. Simply staying alive had already taken everything he had. Rather than fear so many things, he might as well think about what he should eat for breakfast the next day.

When he was little, he truly had been afraid of getting beaten. But back then, he did not even know what death was, so he had not feared death.

An unfortunate childhood could leave one emotionally lacking, but it could also forge mental resilience. In his previous life, he had no choice but to live like scum, yet in every way, he had wanted to be a good person.

Thinking about such things while leaning against the carriage, he unknowingly fell asleep again. A young body was always sleepy.

When he opened his eyes again, he was already in an inn. The woman beside him was Kate, because the muscles in her arms were hard.

Awakened by Mel's movement, Kate slowly sat up and gave a long yawn. "Ah, Mel, you're awake."

"What happened yesterday? Did I fall asleep?"

"Mhm. We crossed the mountain safely, but you fell asleep, so we didn't wake you."

"I mean, why am I staying in the same room as you?"

"Heh, little brat, did you want to stay in the same room as Claire?" As she spoke, Kate tied her hair into a ponytail. It was simple and quick, and she did not look like a noble at all.

Mel said nothing further. In any case, he was not losing out, and he did not want to share a room with a sly old man like Freli.

"Have some breakfast. We'll be leaving again soon," Kate reminded him from beside him.

Mel did not think much of it and simply went downstairs. The inn provided food, after all. He only needed to spend a few Orens.