Plans Change

Two huge humanoid creatures walked at the very front, and they were none other than trolls.

Their messy hair scattered like a hedgehog's, with a few fleshy whiskers drooping from their faces.

They were completely naked, with withered muscles and skin barely clinging to their bodies, and dirt and dust coated their gray-red physiques.

A huge iron wedge pierced through their bodies from back to front, protruding out the other side.

The other end connected to an iron chain, dragging a huge moving coffin identical to the ones at Gatefront.

However, the strangest thing was that the trolls' stomachs had been hollowed out, leaving no internal organs inside and exposing empty cavities to the air, making it a mystery how they had managed to survive.

Right behind them, a large group of people escorted the coffin.

There were wandering nobles grouped together, Godrick soldiers holding torches high, and Kaiden mercenaries riding warhorses and galloping back and forth on patrol.

They blocked Lucian's inevitable path, and calculating the distance, by the time Lucian rushed to the bridge, they would likely have already stepped onto it.

This bridge was not wide, and the two trolls could almost completely block the road, leaving no room to run and dodge. Trying to sprint past from the edge meant becoming a live target.

The opposing side outnumbered him greatly, and their troop configuration was complete.

There were highly mobile cavalry, mages capable of magic, shield-bearing soldiers for close combat, and many more personnel than the configuration in the game.

It was nothing like Gatefront, which was filled entirely with clumsy infantry. Once engaged, breaking away would likely prove rather difficult.

Lucian dismissed the idea of a frontal breakthrough; the risk was simply too high.

After all, this was different from the game, where running right past their faces in broad daylight caused no issues.

Yet now, expecting to run past as simply as one did in the game was probably unrealistic.

Waiting by the side of the bridge for them to pass and then crossing would not work either, as the procession moved far too slowly.

The two trolls dragged their feet reluctantly at the front, while the wandering nobles shuffled along with a limp due to their decaying bodies, falling raggedly to the rear of the procession.

The entire formation stretched out over a long distance, supplemented by Kaiden mercenaries patrolling back and forth along the front and rear.

If he waited only for the trolls and the coffin to pass before darting across the bridge, he risked being caught in a pincer attack from front and back, landing in an equally precarious plight.

And to cross safely, he had to wait for the entire group to clear the bridge. If he truly did that, he would be waiting for a long time.

Thus, Lucian decided to take a detour.

By hugging the right bank of Lake Agheel and bypassing the people on this road, he could still reach the main route.

Granted, Flying Dragon Agheel resided in the lake, but the shoreline remained quite safe, devoid of any dangerous monsters.

Lucian scouted the route with his birdseye lens, locating a small slope that led down to the lakeside.

After repeatedly confirming that nothing else lurked there aside from a giant crab and a few land octopuses, Lucian set off with peace of mind.

Following the shoreline of Lake Agheel, Lucian made a wide detour onto the main highway leading to the Weeping Peninsula.

Along the way, he happened to find a grace hidden among the bushes.

Lucian sat down at the grace, pulled out his water pouch and jerky, and rested briefly.

He had already endured the bloodshed at Gatefront, sold equipment to Kale, and rescued Boc.

The hour was no longer early, the afternoon having already arrived.

Lucian had not eaten yet, and his stomach voiced its protest with grumbling growls.

While chewing the tough jerky, Lucian used the rest to sort through his thoughts.

I wasted a little time on the detour, and Sellen's location is behind me now.

Learning magic isn't urgent anyway, so I won't go to Sellen for now.

I'll head straight to the Weeping Peninsula instead.

In his memories, reaching the Weeping Peninsula required crossing a bridge called the Bridge of Sacrifice.

A few soldiers garrisoned it, though their numbers were small.

However, what concerned Lucian were the defense weapons mounted on the bridge.

A long time had passed, and the game allowed players to simply sprint across, leaving Lucian unable to recall whether the bridge featured ballistas, catapults, or something else entirely.

Lucian decided to scout the bridge first and assess the situation; if the weapons posed little threat, he would charge straight through in one breath.

If they were weapons of immense threat... he would just have to cross that bridge when he came to it.

To be frank, should any high-powered weaponry genuinely exist, Lucian had no real counter.

He recalled that the Bridge of Sacrifice seemed to be the sole path leading to the Weeping Peninsula.

Lucian rose to his feet, fed Torrent some Rowa Dried Fruit, and stroked its head.

He mounted Torrent and resumed his journey.

Barely a minute later, Lucian arrived at an incline.

This slope also formed part of the main highway, yet unlike the preceding terrain, towering cliffs flanked both sides.

No, rather, a road carved through the mountains might describe it best, as the passage felt extremely narrow.

And the end of the slope led straight to the Bridge of Sacrifice.

"This terrain is practically tailor-made for a cavalry charge."

Riding Torrent, Lucian charged rapidly toward the bridge.

The guards stationed in the distance spotted the charging Lucian simultaneously, sounding the alarm with raspy cries.

"Enemy attack! Loose arrows!"

"Whoosh—Boom!"

A ballista bolt landed directly in front of Lucian, and though he managed to make Torrent swerve just in time to avoid getting hit, the large boulder tied to the bolt's tip detonated upon impact.

The massive shockwave nearly caused Torrent to stumble and lose its footing.

Feeling the searing heat, cold sweat beaded on Lucian's forehead.

Crap, explosive greatbolts, and their aim is dead on! How am I supposed to play this?!

Before Lucian could finish grumbling, the next ballista bolt came flying in.

Without a second thought, Lucian wheeled around and bolted.

Explosions and the shouts of soldiers echoed at his back, but to no avail—Lucian had already fled.

"Damn it, the firing interval is only a few seconds, and with a stretch of road this long, I'd have to dodge at least a dozen bolts."

"Getting hit by even one would probably spell death. How is this playable?"

Lucian returned to the grace to ponder a countermeasure, taking the opportunity to shave off Torrent's scorched tail fur.

Unable to see his own backside, Torrent gazed anxiously at Lucian as if asking whether he had gone bald.

Observing Torrent's mostly bare rump, Lucian could only tell a white lie to soothe the animal's heart.

"Um, it's fine, you're not bald! It's just a bit scorched, slightly shorter after the shave, that's all. Really."

Torrent stared at Lucian with tear-filled eyes before finally licking Lucian's face with its tongue.

The little horse actually knew everything; the little horse simply chose not to speak T_T.

Seeing his deception exposed, Lucian chuckled awkwardly.

Having comforted Torrent, Lucian resumed racking his brain for a way to break the deadlock.

Charging head-on was not entirely out of the question, but the risk was far too great; one explosion would force him to use a tear, and things would turn sour if Torrent got hurt.

Recalling the details from just now, a neglected item suddenly flashed into his mind.

"Right, the spirit spring!"

Lucian hastily rose from the grace and hurried up the hillside with Torrent in tow.

After cutting down three grunts blocking the path, Lucian reached the Forlorn Hound Evergaol atop the hill.

Rather than coming to challenge the Bloodhound Knight, Lucian bypassed the evergaol entirely and strode to the edge of the cliff.

To the left, he could overlook the Bridge of Sacrifice below, while down on the lower right cliffside, a spirit spring surged straight toward the sky.

"Heh, it's actually still here."

Back when he played the game, Lucian had once wandered over here; the map depicted a small patch of woods inhabited by a pack of demi-humans.

Opposite the spirit spring, several massive pillars of an ancient ruin structure still stood tall.

By using the spirit spring to leap across the sea dividing the two lands and landing on the ruins, one could follow the cliffside trail on the opposite side to bypass the defenses and reach the area behind the Bridge of Sacrifice.

In the game, Lucian had only ever made that jump once before relying entirely on fast travel, which was why he had completely forgotten about this route.

Only when he recalled the spirit spring he passed while charging down the slope did he remember this 'shortcut'.

Lucian remembered the exact same wave of excitement and joy he felt when he discovered this new route back then.

Riding Torrent, Lucian picked his way across the precipice and descended all the way to the location of the spirit spring.

Gazing at the massive pillars of the ancient ruins across the gap, Lucian estimated that the pillars and the crossbeams behind them were extremely wide—four or five people walking abreast would fit comfortably. As long as he aimed correctly, making the jump across would prove effortless.

Lucian stroked Torrent's head.

"Torrent, can you make the jump?"

Torrent let out a disdainful snort, seemingly displeased that Lucian underestimated it.

Finding the proper footing, Torrent backed up two steps, broke into a sprint on its own, and launched into a leap, riding the spirit spring high up into the air.

"Whoo, airborne!"

"Ahhh! You two idiots, what are we going to do if we fall?!"

Lucian felt as though something had suddenly wrapped around his waist, and Melina's voice seemed to ring in his ear?

Perhaps it was merely an illusion.