Chapter 174: A Bird?

I’d been searching for the cart for about half an hour, and all I had to show for it was a whole lot of nothing.

The search area was much larger than I’d expected. The system was helping, sure, but it wasn’t exactly pointing a glowing arrow at the cart. It had given me a rough area, and that was it.

Shit.

My legs ached from walking nonstop, and my throat had gone dry. I wanted nothing more than to sit down for five minutes and catch my breath. The problem was that I knew bandits were somewhere in these woods. If I picked the wrong place to rest and they stumbled across me, I’d be handing them my head on a silver platter, so I kept moving despite the burning in my legs.

"Ah, man..." I muttered, planting both hands on my knees as I bent forward. "Phew... simple my ass."

The forest had grown denser the farther I traveled. Towering pines shut out much of the evening light, leaving long shadows stretching between the trunks. Ferns and thorny bushes blanketed the ground, while thick roots twisted across the narrow dirt road that cut through the trees. The road itself was deeply scarred by wagon wheels that had passed through over the years, but there were too many overlapping tracks to tell which belonged to the stolen cart. Every trail eventually disappeared into another, making the search far more frustrating than I’d imagined.

Then I heard voices drifting through the trees.

They were faint, carried by the wind, but unmistakably human.

Without thinking, I crouched and slipped behind the thick trunk of a pine tree. At the same moment, the system map shimmered into existence on its own. The large yellow search circle vanished, replaced by a single blinking dot.

"Found the cart..." I whispered with a grin as I peeked around the trunk. "Nice."

"Careful with that," someone called in the distance. "Did you feed the horses?"

"I did. Shut up."

"You shut up."

Keeping my steps as light as I could, I moved toward the voices. A dry twig snapped beneath my boot, making me freeze in place. I held my breath and listened.

Nothing.

Either they hadn’t heard it, or I was still far enough away that the sound hadn’t reached them. Letting out a slow breath, I continued forward, placing each foot carefully.

The ground gradually began to slope upward. When I reached the edge, I lowered myself onto my stomach and crawled the last few feet before peering over.

Below me was a small clearing carved naturally into the forest, almost like a bowl hidden beneath the trees. The slope where I lay overlooked it by about three meters, giving me a perfect view without exposing myself. Thick bushes and hanging branches hid most of my body, while the dense forest wrapped around the clearing on every side. The only easy way in or out was the dirt road that curved through the middle before disappearing back into the woods.

There it was.

The stolen cart.

One of its wheels had come completely off, leaning against the side while several people struggled to force it back onto the axle. Two large draft horses remained harnessed to the front, stamping their hooves nervously and flicking their ears every few seconds. They clearly didn’t like being surrounded by shouting people.

Six bandits occupied the clearing.

Two were women.

One of them stood beside the horses with a hunting bow slung across her back and a quiver full of arrows resting against her hip. She had short brown hair tied into a rough ponytail and kept glancing toward the treeline, clearly acting as their lookout.

The other woman crouched beside the broken wheel, sleeves rolled up as she pushed against the heavy timber. A pair of curved daggers hung from her belt, and the leather armor she wore looked light enough for quick movement rather than protection.

The four men were a rough-looking bunch. One carried a massive greatsword across his shoulder and looked strong enough to swing it with one hand. Another wore chainmail beneath a patched leather vest, holding a round shield in one hand and a shortsword in the other while barking orders at everyone else. The third leaned lazily against the cart with a long spear resting across his shoulder, more interested in complaining than helping. The last one knelt beside the axle with a hammer, trying to force the wheel back into place while cursing every few seconds whenever it slipped free.

"There it is..." I whispered, studying every one of them carefully. "Now, how do I get down there without being seen?"

It seemed the wheel was really stubborn. No matter how they pushed or pulled, it refused to slide back into place. Good. Finally, some luck was turning my way. There was still one problem, though. What exactly was I supposed to do? Even if I sneaked onto the cart after they repaired it, I didn’t know the first thing about driving one. I’d probably make it ten metres before crashing into a tree.

"This thing has nothing." One of the bandits rummaged through another sack and tossed it aside. "Leather. More leather. That’s it."

"Yeah, we’ll sell it all and then... Garmonna’s Lair, woo!" the man carrying the greatsword laughed. "Wish I could spend a night with the boss herself."

"The boss?" another bandit asked with a snort. "You mean Garmonna?"

He grinned. "Who else?"

"Good luck with that. You’ve got a better chance of convincing a bear to cook you dinner."

A few of the others laughed.

Keeping low, I circled farther left until I had a clear view of the rear of the cart. Aside from a few tied-up sacks and what looked like stale bread wrapped in cloth, there wasn’t much stored back there. Everything looked perfectly ordinary.

Which was probably the point.

The hidden compartment had to be somewhere inside the cart itself. The quest giver had hidden fifty gold there well enough that even these idiots hadn’t found it yet.

"I give up." The man wrestling with the wheel stepped back, rubbing his lower back. "I’m taking a break."

"You..." One of the women let out an irritated groan. "Fine. Two minutes, then we’re moving. We can’t stay here. The gamekeeper’s patrol could pass through at any moment."

"Relax. One minute."

"I’d relax faster if you fixed the damn wheel. Be quick."

"Well, I can’t exactly force one minute to move quicker, can I?" he replied, dropping onto a nearby boulder.

"Useless sack of shit..."

I stretched out my hand toward the cart, silently checking Shadow Leap’s range. Easily reachable. Hell, I could teleport straight into the driver’s seat, grab the reins, and bolt before they realized what happened... right up until I crashed into the first tree because I’d never driven a cart in my life.

No. Bad idea.

Teleporting behind the cart would be much safer. I only needed the gold. But once I got there, I’d have mere seconds to find the hidden compartment before somebody spotted me. That part worried me a lot. I had to be careful.

"You sure this place is safe?" one of the men farther back asked.

The woman who’d been barking orders rolled her eyes. "Were you listening to a single word I said? The gamekeeper’s men patrol this forest. No, we are not safe. That’s why I’m telling you idiots to hurry."

"I still don’t get it." Another scratched his head. "Why can’t we just hunt? Do we seriously need a permit?"

She laughed. "He’s been poaching for years and still doesn’t know the law. You’re unbelievable."

I bent down and picked up a small stone, tossing it into my palm a couple of times before weighing it.

Then I threw it.

It sailed well past the cart and disappeared into the trees ahead, smacking through a cluster of branches with a loud rustle.

Every head snapped toward the sound.

"What was that?"

"A bird?"

"I didn’t see any bird."

"Let’s check." One of them drew his sword. "Mij, stay with the cart."

The man sitting on the boulder sighed and stood up. "Yeah, yeah."

The other five began walking toward the trees.

The moment they were far enough away, I activated Shadow Leap. Darkness swallowed me for an instant before I reappeared beside the cart, hidden on the opposite side from Mij. With the cart between us, he couldn’t see me unless he walked around it.

Perfect.

Then one of the bandits suddenly shouted.

"Shit! Someone’s coming!"

"Ah, fuck," I whispered. "Not good."

Without thinking, I dropped flat and rolled beneath the cart.

The underside barely had enough room for me. My chest scraped against rough wood while the smell of mud, horse sweat, and fresh manure nearly made me gag. Fucking hell... this was disgusting. Maybe I’d just grab the gold and forget the cart altogether. At this point I’d earned hazard pay.

"Who was it?" someone called.

The man answered a second later.

"Oh... never mind. Just a deer. Sorry."

A chorus of irritated groans answered him.

"For the love of the gods," the woman snapped, "fix the fucking wheel so we can leave already."

"Ambly’s tits, alright," Mij muttered with a sigh. "No need to bite my head off."