Lance Charge on the Arkship, but No Mount

"Food and water aren't a problem. I can give you enough for a month, but if you want a vehicle, that money isn't enough. Add another one."

"I can give you another half. Otherwise, forget it."

"Deal. Pay up."

Tonk watched in astonishment as the woman before him pinched a gold bar in half with two fingers. She handed one half to him, and any improper thoughts in his heart were completely extinguished.

"Your things are prepared in the backyard. Go get them yourself."

The Vaivern woman turned and left without the slightest hesitation.

Only two minutes after she left, Tonk coldly watched the looters hurriedly rise to their feet. He felt a trace of regret for those brainless idiots. After all, they would never be coming here to drink again.

The old Originium engine puffed out two clouds of black smoke like an elderly man, coughed a few times, and finally started. A bundle full of food and water was tied to the rear seat, and the young woman prepared to set out on her journey once more.

The freshly inflated Tire rolled over the gravelly ground. She had only traveled two kilometers when a sharp whistle suddenly sounded from the nearby mountain. Several figures riding motorcycles appeared soon afterward. The young traveler frowned. Of course, she knew someone had been following her. But the old machine simply could not pick up speed, and they had caught up to her after all.

Bad news always came one after another. The Originium engine began malfunctioning again, emitting a harsh racket from within. Before long, it could no longer be started, and her mount had no choice but to slowly come to a stop beside a rock.

The looters' motorcycles surrounded her, while the heavy crossbows in their hands aimed at her. She said nothing. Only the looters' excited clamor remained.

"Twng!" The sound of the crossbow release was exceptionally loud. These looters had no interest in negotiating. Or rather, they preferred scavenging loot from a corpse.

In an instant, she shot out her hand like lightning and caught the bolt, stopping it just before her eyes. With a slight exertion of two fingers, she snapped the hollow alloy bolt in half.

Looks like I'll have to teach these bastards a proper lesson today. Saria was unusually irritated.

"Clench your teeth."

Her fist tightened fiercely. Just as she was about to act, a black shadow suddenly streaked past them at high speed, startling them into looking around in confusion.

"Ahhh!!!"

The shrill scream startled all the looters. They turned around and discovered that one of their companions at the rear of the group had lost his head, while his motorcycle had vanished without a trace.

While they were still lost in confusion, a violent engine roar suddenly sounded nearby. When they turned their heads, they saw that familiar black shadow flash past again, impaling two looters on a lance. This time, they finally saw the attacker clearly. He was a black knight, riding their companion's motorcycle and using the spear in his hand to pierce two looters at tremendous speed.

The lance in his hand twisted slightly, flinging the two corpses to the ground. Claude rode the crudely assembled, shoddily built motorcycle and felt a rare sense of riding a mount. Though he still had to use one hand to control the machine, its speed was still far beyond anything he could currently achieve on his own.

With its tremendous momentum and the sturdy, sharp spear in his hand, he easily tore their bodies into pieces. After several charges, the looters quickly collapsed. Their crossbow bolts could not even come close to matching Claude's speed. And now, they could not even escape, because Claude possessed the same speed as they did.

He caught up to the fleeing looters and killed them one by one with the spear in his hand or the throwing spears at his waist. Enemies who had fallen into rout rarely had the courage to fight back. They only thought about running faster than their companions. Those capable of counterattacking while fleeing were all battle-hardened troops.

The lance tore a massive gash through the last enemy's flank. The corpse fell to the ground, and bloody internal organs continuously spilled from the huge wound at its waist.

The motorcycle carved an arc through the sand. Claude steadied it with his right foot, started it again, and rode toward the traveler he had seen earlier.

"Are you all right, ma'am?"

"Of course. Thank you very much for helping me." A resolute, cold voice reached Claude's ears.

"Then please be careful, ma'am. I'll be on my way." As he spoke, Claude tried to start the motorcycle beneath him and leave, but the poorly assembled machine had also reached its limit. No matter how hard Claude tried, he could not start it again.

He twisted the power throttle hard once more, but an unsettling screech came from it. Then black smoke rose from the engine. Claude awkwardly looked at the motorcycle that had suddenly broken down. Just as he was about to do something, an almost identical screech sounded beside him. He looked up to see black smoke rising from the traveler's motorcycle engine as well. The two looked at each other, and the situation became extremely awkward.

"Really unreliable."

"Indeed."

The two fell into awkward silence again, and neither took the initiative to speak.

This awkward situation continued until Centaurea drove their off-road vehicle over. Claude turned and walked to the vehicle, rummaging out some repair tools from the rear compartment before heading over to the traveler.

"Ma'am, if you don't mind, let me take a look."

The other woman said nothing, but stepped away from the motorcycle. Claude naturally knew no advanced repair techniques, but he had picked up quite a bit through constant exposure over such a long time. He could still handle some basic issues. Otherwise, their off-road vehicle would have broken down on the wilderness long ago.

Unfortunately, this was clearly not a basic problem. After opening the engine's lower cover and seeing the severely worn components inside, Claude had to admit that there was nothing he could do. Without replacement parts, even the most skilled craftsman could not make something out of nothing.

"Ma'am, this vehicle can't be repaired anymore. Where are you headed? If it's on our way, we can give you a ride."

"I'm going to Rustwater Town."

"Perfect. We're going there to resupply as well. If you don't mind, you can ride with us."

"All right. Sorry for the trouble."

Claude looked at the blood soaking through his gauntlet. It had seeped into the leather inside, giving off an unpleasant stench. Claude was naturally used to this, but if he had the chance, he still wanted to clean his armor properly. It was covered in blood now.

The traveler who had joined them midway sat silently in the back seat and had not taken the initiative to speak to them. She seemed like a very aloof person. Claude pulled maintenance tools from the small pouch at the back of his waist and used an iron pick to scrape the caked blood from the gaps in his spear. This had to be done immediately after a battle. Otherwise, it became difficult to clean and would corrode the weapon, shortening its lifespan.

Just as Claude was about to wipe it down once more with a cloth, a valiant voice suddenly spoke.

"Sir, are you a knight from Kazimierz? You seem quite skilled with a lance."

"I did come from Kazimierz, but I'm not a campaign knight of Kazimierz. I'm merely an ordinary traveler." Claude turned back to look at the tall woman. She was clearly a Vaivern. Vaiverns were widespread throughout the world, and could be found in nearly every country. Though they were not particularly numerous, they were renowned for their astonishing physical strength.

"Miss, what should I call you?"

"It would be better if you didn't know my name. It might bring you trouble."

"I understand." Claude understood at once. It seemed likely that this woman was being hunted, which was why she said that. On this chaotic land, such things were everywhere. Countless people were trapped in them.

"Miss, it's already a miracle that your motorcycle could start at all. Judging by the wear inside, it's been in use for at least several decades. Such a poor-quality means of transport will get you into serious trouble here."

"I was using it as a disposable item to begin with. I only hoped it could get me to Rustwater Town. Once I get there, I'll be able to find a better-quality vehicle."

"My time is extremely limited. I absolutely cannot delay here any longer."

"Is that so? Miss, I have a suggestion. You should hide your tail. A tail like that is far too conspicuous here and makes it easy for others to find you."

"I'll give it serious consideration."

A New Beginning: Thoughts on Going Premium

In the blink of an eye, a month had passed, and this complete newcomer's first book was going premium tomorrow. To be honest, I felt a little nervous about it. I had been preparing for exams during this period, so I had very little time to write each day. Basically, I could only update at night.

Before writing this book, I mostly stayed at home. My parents couldn't stand seeing that anymore and told me to find something to do, so I decided to give this a try. But I never expected to receive so much support from everyone, and it gave me the confidence to keep writing. This is my first time writing a book, and my writing is still very immature. There are many things I still don't understand. So if I make mistakes while writing, I will generally revise them. Everyone can refresh the chapter.

Before this, I wasn't even very good at typing. It took me several hours to type just over two thousand words. I've gradually improved during this time, and now I can type around four thousand words in two hours. I'll get faster and faster afterward, and the number of updates should increase too.

The truth is, saying all this means I still don't have much confidence in myself. I always feel like the book will immediately flop the moment it goes premium (;′⌒`) But since this is the author's first book, I still want to finish it properly. I've also played Arkship for quite a long time and have dozens of six-star characters, so I know a little about it. Therefore, I'll ensure that the quality of the work does not decline in the coming updates. If possible, please support it.

I heard other authors say they have to post a huge burst of updates when going premium, but I have an exam on the sixth, so I probably won't be able to do that on release day. But I will definitely make it up on the seventh. Please believe me.

Still incredibly nervous─Cε(┬n┬)3. All right, that's basically it.

A New Beginning: Hunter and Prey

The scorching sun roasted the earth, and the temperature reached its peak in the afternoon. Even the air twisted in the blazing heat. The windows of the off-road vehicle were opened as far as possible, yet it was still like an oven. Even the wind blowing in carried suffocating heat.

Claude had unusually taken off his armor. Even with his current physical condition, wearing heavy armor in this heat would give him heatstroke. He now wore only a white shirt on his upper body, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The climate changes in this place gave Claude a harsh lesson. The temperature had been only a dozen degrees not long ago, yet in the blink of an eye, it had risen above fifty degrees, while their vehicle had traveled just over a hundred kilometers.

Because the vehicle's energy reserves were running low, they could not bear to turn on the air conditioning and could only endure the heat wave. His companion was already dressed rather lightly, so she was not too affected. But the passenger behind them still insisted on wearing a thick cloak, sitting as motionless as a mountain.

Claude opened the map and checked the surrounding landmarks, discovering that they were still more than three hundred kilometers from their destination. But the heat had become unbearable, and there was nowhere to find shelter on this wilderness for the time being. They could only keep driving. Claude reached out for his canteen and took a long drink of cool water. He was not particularly thirsty, but he needed the slight chill from the water in the thermos to refresh himself.

"We're nearly out of water too. We need to reach the next settlement quickly." Centaurea drank the last mouthful from her canteen, wiped the corner of her mouth, and reminded Claude.

"Let's rest for a while. We'll continue tomorrow morning. Otherwise, no amount of water will be enough if we travel in this weather."

Claude looked at the small patch of forest appearing in the distance and breathed a sigh of relief. He could not help marveling at the astonishing vitality of those plants, but no matter what, they finally had somewhere to rest temporarily.

They parked beside the forest, took out the sunshade net prepared in advance from the trunk, and draped it over the vehicle. Then they grabbed their camping supplies and entered the woods.

After walking a dozen steps in, Claude realized that the place was a hidden paradise. A cool, damp breeze met them head-on. Though he could not hear running water, he could clearly sense that water was nearby. The tall trees all around blocked out the light so thoroughly that barely any sunlight filtered through.

At the center of the woods lay a huge bluestone. Going around it, they found a spring beside it. Clear water flowed from it in thin streams, collecting in a stone hollow the size of a washbasin before continuously spilling from a gap at its side and seeping into the ground. A small pool had formed nearby, keeping the water level eternally high.

Once they entered, the scorching temperature outside was immediately shut away. All three of them unconsciously relaxed. Claude placed the sleeping bag in his hands on the ground and prepared to light a campfire. There were many dry branches on the ground here, so fuel was plentiful.

"If you want to wash up, scoop the water out with a basin. Don't pollute the spring. Other travelers may need it later."

After reminding them, Claude went to gather firewood.

The ground was covered in a thick layer of fallen leaves, enough to swallow his boots when he stepped on them. The blazing scene outside, roasted by the sun and nearly seeming to burn, formed a stark contrast with the cool shade beneath the trees.

Many dead branches had decayed so thoroughly that even their bark was gone, leaving only dry wood. A single spark would ignite them immediately. They were very convenient and suitable fuel. Claude tied a large bundle of dead branches together with a rope. He had to be careful, because the branches were so dry that they would snap with the slightest force. Though the bundle looked large, it would burn quickly due to its dryness and would not last through the night. He would have to make another two trips.

"Caw! Caw!!"

A dry, hoarse cry came from overhead. Claude looked up and saw a familiar old friend. It was the same kind of black feathered beast he had encountered before. It looked somewhat like a crow, but was much larger. Unlike a crow, it was not skin and bones. Even plucked, it would still have three or four pounds of meat.

Of course, even so, no one wanted to eat it. Its ecological niche was the same as a crow's, and feeding on carrion year-round made its meat extremely unpalatable. It also contained a certain amount of toxins and had to be thoroughly processed before it could be eaten.

Generally, seeing one of these creatures meant there were corpses nearby. And judging by the dozen or so black shadows perched in the trees, there were either quite a few corpses or one very large one.

Claude temporarily set down his firewood and went to investigate. This phenomenon suggested there might be dangerous enemies nearby.

As mentioned before, this woodland was not very large, only a few hundred square meters, so Claude reached his destination after taking only a few dozen steps.

Just as expected, the place was covered in corpses. They had not been dead long, so they had not yet begun to rot.

What was surprising was that the corpses were not all human. There were also many infected creatures: Originium Slugs, infected hounds, and a strange creature covered in tentacles.

Most of those infected creatures bore wounds from sharp weapons, and their numbers were several times greater than the human corpses. The human bodies were in a miserable state as well. Most had already had their organs eaten, and the fleshier parts of their bodies had been gnawed clean. Looking at their crude equipment and the enormous sacks they carried, it was certain that they were ordinary scavengers.

Claude frowned at the still-fresh corpses that had not been completely eaten. He knew those infected creatures would definitely return. They had no reason to abandon so much food. And this place was far too close to their camp. Sleeping here at night would be highly risky. These unfortunate people appeared to have been surrounded while resting at night, leaving them with nowhere to escape.

After carrying the firewood back, he told his companions about the situation. Neither of them objected, so they moved their camp together to the other side of the woods.

The dry wood caught fire easily. They used three logs interwoven into a frame to suspend an iron pot. Inside were dried meat and dried vegetables, durable food they had purchased when leaving Kazimierz. With a little salt and other seasonings added, it was ready to drink.

They softened hard bread by toasting it beside the fire, then paired it with soup made from dried meat and vegetables stewing in the iron pot. That was their dinner for the day. It was not lavish, but in the wilderness, it was a rare delicacy.

The woman they had met on the road had originally wanted to eat the hard bread she brought herself. But under the unanimous objection of Claude and Centaurea, she still ate with them. In Claude's eyes, there was no reason to let a traveling companion watch them eat.

"All right, ladies. Get some sleep first. Come take over for me later."

After eating their fill, Claude took the first watch as usual. The Vaivern woman seemed to have some objections, but Claude's stubbornness was no less than hers.

In the end, Claude was the one who sat down beside the campfire first.

Claude was not idle. The dagger in his hand was sharpening a pointed wooden stake. Since this forest was unsafe, he decided to make some traps and warning devices, just in case.

Back when he had still been an ordinary sky knight, he had met an Iron Guard from the Third Legion.

The Iron Guard were the Empire's most elite ground force. They wore the heaviest and finest armor. Because sky knights had to consider the griffins' carrying capacity, their armor was slightly inferior to that of the Iron Guard.

When these powerful Iron Guards formed ranks, even the First Legion would find them troublesome. Their heavily enchanted armor covered their entire bodies, leaving only observation slits for their eyes, while complex runes were inscribed within the armor itself. Once they formed up, they became harder to shake than mountains. Combined with the various heavy weapons they commonly carried, they always crushed every opponent like a torrent of steel on the battlefield.

The Iron Guard officer named Chelger commanded more than a thousand Iron Guards. That was no minor position even within the Third Legion. At the time, Claude was merely a squad leader, and the two had only formed a friendship by chance on the battlefield.

Before becoming an Iron Guard, Chelger had been a forest ranger in the Empire's southern Black Mist Forest. But his duty as a ranger was not to guard against poachers. The only thing they needed to guard against was the infiltration teams sent by the southern elves.

These infiltration teams moved with exceptional speed. Their sole purpose was to cause destruction within the Empire. Whether massacring villages, burning farmland, or destroying factories, they would stop at nothing. Large legions often struggled to respond to them in time.

To deal with these pervasive small teams, the Empire established the special ranger forces in the south. Since elven infiltration teams usually had only a small number of elite soldiers, often just over ten, and their sparse population prevented them from taking risks, ranger units of fifty men could usually wipe them out once they caught them.

Moreover, with the Empire's full support, they were well equipped and amply supplied, capable of sustaining long battles. Through years of fighting elves in the jungle, they became the Empire's foremost experts in jungle warfare. Hunting beasts, finding water and food, making all kinds of traps, building shelters... they knew it all.

When the Empire attacked the southern elves, these rangers immediately became the legions' finest guides. They were disbanded and distributed among the various legions, greatly reducing the Empire's casualties during the conquest of the Black Mist Forest.

The loss of the Black Mist Forest, that natural barrier, dealt a severe blow to the Elf Kingdom. It lost its richest plains and was compressed into one corner of the continent.

Chelger, Claude's close friend, had taught him every skill he possessed without reservation. Thus, the jungle was not Claude's weakness. It was his home ground.

After setting traps and warning devices at several key locations, Claude erased all traces of himself like any clever hunter would. If anyone approached them with ill intent tonight, they could only pray for their own luck.

"The target most likely went here. There's nowhere else nearby to rest. This is the best chance we've had in months."

Under cover of night, several well-equipped mercenaries gathered together and discussed something. To avoid exposing their position, they did not light a fire. Relying on the night-vision devices built into their helmets, they moved quietly through the darkness.

"Intelligence says the target only had one motorcycle, but we haven't found any corresponding tracks. Someone else may have helped the target."

"Then deal with them too. The employer requires that no information be leaked."

"Why don't we just set the place on fire? Wouldn't that burn the target to death?"

"You idiot! Burning her to death would be easy, but what about the thing our employer wants? Are you going to give birth to one for him?"

"All right, stop talking nonsense. Start the operation. Team One, go west. We'll take the east. Don't let them escape. Otherwise, after chasing them for more than a month, none of you will get anything."

These people were indeed well trained. They wore black combat uniforms beneath light protective armor. They made not a sound in the darkness as they entered the forest.

Within minutes, they had formed an encirclement around the area lit by the campfire. Each person used the communicator in their helmet to quietly exchange information with the others.

The encirclement tightened. Just as the situation seemed perfect, a scream suddenly came through the channel, startling everyone into dropping flat onto the ground.

The scream stopped halfway through, as if the man had covered his own mouth to keep from making any sound. The captain stared intently at the figure beside the campfire. Seeing that the other party had not been alerted, he finally called out to the unlucky man through the channel.