Savage Ascension: Starting with God-Tier Plunder Ability-Chapter 82: The Minimum Area

The reason for climbing mountains and forests early in the morning was simple. It was to see their skills. And Rowan’s nonexistent expectations sank even deeper. Not knowing concealment and cover at all was no different from a common trait.

Their movements didn’t consider the field of vision needed in the forest, and it was even a situation where they couldn’t ambush together.

’It’s disastrous.’

The minimum conditions for Rowan to run wild were at baby step level, so it was enough to make him crazy and jump around. But you had to consider that his standards were at a fairly high level.

"Stand still right there."

Rowan spoke to Bedri and instructed the others to follow.

"When you think the enemy is above, look at Bedri. How is it?"

"How is what? What do you mean?"

Rowan frowned.

"Isn’t everything visible? If the whole body is visible, obviously it’d be even more visible, right?"

Only then did the two people nod. It was a society with extremely limited information. They couldn’t know things like the importance of field of vision and angles. He gave all kinds of explanations while going back and forth.

About field of vision.

They needed to master that part to be able to do one person’s worth of work. Even if they couldn’t kill the opponent, if they didn’t die themselves, just with that they could do one person’s worth. Rowan could do the rest. Just with containment alone, he’d consider the greenhorn mercenaries to have done a sufficient share.

"I have a question."

Now they even regarded Rowan like a teacher. They even asked before asking questions.

"What is it."

He permitted Large Shield Espin’s question.

"If we move, we’ll be seen anyway, so isn’t it unavoidable?"

Rowan raised both hands and said.

"Now. Look. Go down the mountain and try coming up here normally. The other two people, while looking to the side, watch Espin with the corner of your eyes. You can’t turn your eyes either, your body and head must keep facing sideways."

It was a strange thing, but they followed it exactly. Without even asking if he really had to go down, Espin quickly went down. The feeling of receiving teaching was novel and good. Especially, Rowan had a fairly kind side. Usually people didn’t teach directly.

Without even saying to learn by watching over shoulders, they’d just do their own work and clock out. Compared to that, Rowan showed clear goals. He showed that if they followed him, they could learn this.

After Large Shield Espin came up, he said.

"You could see enough even with the corner of your eyes, right?"

"Yes."

"The enemy doesn’t know we’re coming. That’s why we should only show the minimum area. If you move, obviously you’ll be seen. How can you completely hide your figure and go? But if you hide enough, you might not get caught. Because they only look at you when you’re caught."

This time Rowan went down. While those who turned their heads watched, he moved to low places while half-concealing himself and hid his figure, moved to tree shadows to darken his color.

"How is it?"

"Even knowing the direction you were coming from, I lost sight of you many times."

Favorable reviews followed. Rowan taught them how to do half-concealment.

"You can just hide your lower body in a slightly recessed place like this. Tree shadows are a good method too."

"What about bushes?"

"If you can go forward without greatly touching the bushes, it’s okay to put them in front or beside you."

Rowan told them that entering bushes was a great danger for movement. He didn’t know what would happen to the Tracking Mercenary Group in the future, but at least they shouldn’t die to mediocre beasts while tracking the red-furred bear.

After field of vision and movement in forests and mountains, next was the difference between concealment and cover in combat. Of course, they couldn’t do it right away. They needed to master field of vision and movement in forests and mountains. On the first day they didn’t even see bandits.

Rowan set up a rotation of training and rest, and after eating lunch together, he left them to train and went out to find bandits.

’There are forests and mountains here I don’t know either.’

Because of the hills, it was acceptable to call it mountains rather than forests, and because the height was low for mountains, some people called it forests. Literally, Tri-fork Hill was a place where word choice was severely mixed.

They didn’t call it uniformly and clearly. They spoke according to stream of consciousness. The bushes and trees covering the hills weren’t a very good environment for humans.

’The soldiers will never be able to catch them.’

Heavy infantry wearing breastplates would never catch enemies in this terrain. But to wear light armor, the masters of this place were bandits and thieves. Of course, no one had the guts to do business near the kingdom camp.

’Large Shield Espin will have a hard time. Should I make his equipment lighter?’

Because his bulk was large, if he abandoned the shield he’d be no different from a good target. But the stamina consumed while going up and down hills was inevitably great enough to worry about that.

Rowan gradually acquired information about the hilly terrain of this place.

Because he went outside under the pretext of searching the vicinity, the kingdom camp thought the Tracking Mercenary Group was doing quite a bit of work, but the reality was different.

On the 2nd day, the concept and mastery of concealment and cover in combat was achieved.

On the 3rd day, they learned ambushes on forest hills.

From the 4th day, they bivouacked outside and practically lived on the forest hills. It was possible because Rowan, Crow Kaiya, and Brown Wolf Dono were there.

The effect of one week of short-term education was that they plausibly came to know how to save their own lives. Even if their heads were empty, they moved their bodies so there were results. Most of all, the three people who heard Rowan’s detailed reasons could shut their mouths and carry out operations.

Rowan roamed outside in early evening. It was to find fearless bandits. Of course, there were no results. Everyone knew well that their own life was important.

"Tomorrow we’ll go fairly far."

"Is it finally starting?"

Rowan nodded. They looked pretty decent. Rowan was confident because for a week he’d made them practice limited situations. The others didn’t think that far. They wanted to make money and needed something to talk about fairly in the tavern.

They wanted to buy something for their families and say they had a job.

This first commission had to unconditionally capture bandits and thieves. That was the goal of the three people excluding Rowan. Rowan? He unconditionally wanted to use the three people to make them seem like a plausible mercenary group.

Their goals were different from each other.

In the tent with the furnace lit, Rowan drew pictures in the dirt with a branch.

"The operation is to discover and handle the opponent first as we’ve prepared so far. We’ve practiced a simple task for several days. I absolutely can’t tolerate other actions. If something else happens, we must pull out."

All three people nodded. Rowan had to mention this part one more time.

"Lives are important. Anyway, those bandit bastards have their livelihood on the line so they’ll show up again. If you die, that’s the end. Isn’t it?"

When Rowan demanded an answer and raised his head, the greenhorn mercenaries nodded.

"Yes."

"That’s right."

"Of course."

Everyone agreed on the point that they had to live. This survival policy made Rowan seem like a prudent leader.

’Even if you die, die while tracking the red bear.’

"Bandits will position themselves on high hills or deliberately cut trees and position themselves next to them. If I discover bandits in advance, I’m thinking of cutting them off one by one or three at a time to capture them. That’ll change depending on how many there are."

Rowan’s insight was important. After that, he planned to act based on the numbers.

"Don’t think about keeping bandits alive. Think that those who’ll live will live anyway, and those who’ll die will die."

He even helped with basic mental preparation. The next day, when soldiers were preparing breakfast, the Tracking Mercenary Group finished all preparations to go outside and headed out. They had quite a bit of luggage, and they didn’t bring the old donkey.

"They must be going far."

"Yes. Now that we’ve gotten somewhat familiar with the surroundings, we’re thinking of going fairly far."

"Be careful, greenhorns."

A soldier joked. The order to talk with many soldiers here and there to get information naturally made it spread what kind of mercenary group the Tracking Mercenary Group was. Rowan shrugged. Now the word greenhorn just felt like a tail following him.

Of course, Rowan didn’t go through a greenhorn period so he could easily pass it over, but all three others made unpleasant expressions. If they were fairly close soldiers, they would have cursed generously.

They immediately entered where the forest was. They didn’t take the road, which was Rowan’s idea.

’I need to raise their stamina more.’

In rough terrain, they were people who couldn’t even follow half of him.

"Huff. Huff."

"Control your breathing."

Also, Rowan used it as a stage to show off his strength. To make his influence in the mercenary group more solid, this endurance battle in rough terrain had the most immediate effect.

"I-I’m dying."

Espin, who held a fairly large square shield, gave up most of his equipment including his belt, and only took his shield, single-edged sword, and food, but still sweated profusely.

They moved hard for 2 hours. Rowan led the way, and 100 steps ahead of Rowan was Brown Wolf Dono. Also, Crow Kaiya was sleeping in Rowan’s leather backpack like he’d fainted after taking medicine, even while dangling.

They moved like that for a day, two days. Go 2 hours, rest 2 hours and move forward.

The Tracking Mercenary Group was heading toward the southern Golden Plains, which had the least difficulty. Because they went up and down hills rather than taking roads, their traveling speed was very slow. While going, when they saw birds they shot them with bows and ate them in the evening.

On the 3rd day, Rowan stopped. He thought they’d come far enough.

"We’ll make a hideout here."

Because there was water nearby, they had to put effort into the hideout. Because they could be discovered. The best thing was to dig out the bottom of a tree. They spent almost half a day on this. A space was created where all three people could enter and sleep.

’The ground is a bit soft. It was good to make a spot under the tree.’

It was because the roots supported it. If not for that, they would have had to separately bake dirt or make a hideout outside. It was a good start.

"Hehe!"

At the place with water, they soaked their whole bodies and washed off sweat. In the evening, light didn’t escape, only smoke went to the sky. It would be visible from far away, but they’d mistake it for another robber group. Thinking robbers wouldn’t rob robbers, they were brazen about lighting fires.

But Rowan had to welcome an uninvited guest.

"Caw! Caw!"

Crow Kaiya cried twice, flew up and hid its figure. Dono growled. Rowan hurriedly came out holding his round shield in front. The others also all popped out of the cave.

’No attack? They don’t know exactly where we are.’

They came to the vicinity following the smoke. The smoke that could be confirmed from far away would have been blocked by trees while coming to this hill.

When he heard someone climbing a tree, Rowan looked back and said.

"Don’t scatter, move in a big detour in that direction. The night sky is fairly bright. Don’t step into places where moonlight comes down."

Rowan ordered them to detour, and he himself headed toward where he heard the sound of someone climbing a tree.