003. Giving A Chance? To Me? No, You

An irritated gaze looked at something that shouldn't be there. Zhen had returned to his seat, and the wolf lay down where the nobleman used to sat. 

"Why does this beast keep following me?"

Zhen spoke to himself while the wolf yawned and fell asleep. 

"Coachman, how long before we reach the Utone kingdom?"

The coachman controlling the carriage was a bit nervous before he could answer. "Uhm... That's... About 4 days of travel. Sir."

"Hmn... Alright, just tell me when the horse needs a rest. I'm not in a hurry anyway, so take it easy, okay?"

"Y... Yes, sir."

The coachman whipped the horse and Zhen slowly started to get sleepy. 

"Wake me up if there's anything. I want to rest for a while."

"Y... Yes sir!"

Zhen stretched out on the bench and closed his eyes slowly. With no roof in the way, he could see the blue cloudy sky while enjoying the small bumps caused by the uneven road. 

Zhen smiled and fell asleep. To him, there was nothing more pleasant in this world than a quiet and peaceful life. Both in his home world and in this new world, he value those thing. It was just that this time, in this world, he had the choice to live at a leisurely pace. 

After almost three hours of traveling, the carriage suddenly stopped. The wolf woke up and growled. Zhen woke up to find that the carriage was no longer moving. He didn't hear the coachman's voice and he saw the wolf acting up.

Zhen sighed heavily as he prepared for what would be a very troublesome wake-up call. 

"Point shifter, intelligent 600 point." After saying that, he stepped out of the carriage with a lazy face and still half sleepy.

"So, amongs all of you, who wants to be my new coachman?" Zhen spoke confidently in front of the dozens of bandits surrounding him.

All the bandits burst into laughter. 

"Woah, it's the elves. It's rare for them to ride in the carriage of human nobles. You must be an important person. Hand over all your treasures!" Shouted one of the bandits which did not relieve Zhen's sleepiness at all. 

Feeling humiliated, all the bandits drew their swords at Zhen. "You arrogant bastard, we're not joking! Hand over your gold!"

Zhen raised his right hand and spread his palm. 

"Level 2 spell, 60% spell amplified. Homing wind projectile," said Zhen as wind gathered above his palm and formed 3 small spears as thick and long as his index finger. 

He pointed forward and one of the wind spears pierced the head of one of the bandits. The rest of them were in shocked and instantly alerted.

"What are you doing?! What's going on?"

Zhen ignored them and pointed his index finger quickly at another bandit's head. One by one, they fell. In less than 3 seconds, 20 bandits were on the ground. The remaining 5 bandits trembled in fear and ran away.

Zhen pointed at the 5 fleeing bandits and his wind spear followed the direction. 

*Slash! Whush!*

A quick slash split the three wind spears. It was a large man with many wound on his body. The man raised his sword arrogantly while looking at Zhen.

"Enough with your sorcery. I, Zaltar, will give you a chance. Become my subordinate and you may live."

Zhen just chuckled and sat on the steps of the carriage while the wolf continued to growl. 

"See, even this dog doesn't like you."

The wolf suddenly bit Zhen's ankle. 

"Ouch! Dumb Dog!" Zhen smack the wolf's head until it howled in pain.

"Point shifter, default."

All of Zhen's point statuses came back into balance. He looked at Zaltar, this time with a serious look.

"Zaltar, you're the one I'm giving a chance to, be my carriage coachman and I'll only cut off one of your hands."

The insult that Zaltar couldn't take just make this giant bandit enrage, without thinking twice, he dashed toward the elf. 

Zhen stood up and approached one of the dead bandits. When he bent down to pick up the lying sword, Zaltar's blade was already stuck in Zhen's neck.

*Jrash!*

Pieces of flesh flew off and blood gushed out. Zaltar shouted and held his severed right hand. 

"So, you know the direction to Utone kingdom? Let's go." Zhen turned around and turned his back on the furious Zaltar.

Zaltar used his left hand to raise his sword and instantly slashed at Zhen in anger. 

*Whush! 

Zaltar slashed through the air and the blade hit the ground. Not long after, his body swayed, losing his balance and falling to the ground. When he looked at his leg, he had lost his left leg with lot of blood flowing from it. 

Zaltar cried out in pain while Zhen just stood beside him. 

"Look, if you follow my order now, you won't lose your other organs," said Zhen, giving some kind of threat but in the most nonchalant tone possible.

"O... O... Organs?"

"Maybe I should take your right ear, and if you still resist, maybe your left eye, and if -"

"Please spare me!"

Zhen smiled then treated Zaltar and closed his wounds with level 2 healing magic. The cut had closed although it was not perfect and looked like a burn mark but it was closed nonetheless.

Zhen patted Zaltar's shoulder, "Okay, it should be fine now. Continue the journey, let's go!"

Zaltar could only submit and sat on the empty coachman's seat. He whipped the horses and the carriage was on its way. Zhen's journey continued and so did his nap.

After almost two hours, the carriage stopped and Zaltar woke Zhen up. 

"Mr. elf... The horses has stopped and are grazing instead."

Zhen yawned and rubbed his eyes that still wanted to sleep. "Oh, it's time to rest. By the way, where did we stopping?"

"Beside the lake, mister elf."

Zhen's eyes instantly wide open, he opened his inventory and took out a few items. 

"Zaltar, gather some dry wood." Zhen shouted out from the carriage while holding a simple fishing rod, two wooden buckets, two loaves of bread and a folding chair made of wood.

Zaltar went to look for firewood while Zhen prepared to fish by the lake.

His fishing rod was a sturdy piece of wood and his thread line was made of several solid pieces of thread twisted together like a fishing line that was twice as thick as the fishing line in his home world. 

He stuck a bit of bread on the hook and threw it as far as he could. After throwing the bait, he sat down on a folding chair with a slightly tilted backrest, perfect for relaxing. 

"Ah~ Now this is life, just in case, maybe I should do it." Zhen held his fishing rod tightly and flowed his mana into the fishing rod and the thread.

"This way, even a tuna won't damage it, though I doubt such a big fish exists in the lake." 

Zaltar returned while carrying some dry wood. "Where should I put this?"

"Just put it anywhere, as long as it's collected. Ah, don't forget to give the two horses something to drink." Zhen threw a wooden bucket and was caught by Zaltar.

After a few minutes, Zhen got a fish, and immediately put it in the wooden bucket beside him. He stuck the piece of bread on the hook once again and threw the hook as far as he could. 

A repetitive task that can be quite tedious indeed, but at the same time, very peaceful.