Savage Ascension: Starting with God-Tier Plunder Ability-Chapter 96: This Is Thrilling

They spent three days catching wandering robbers, and four days attacking three robber gangs. The Tracking Mercenary Group clashed with a total of forty-five robbers and successfully captured thirty of them.

As that week passed, Rowan felt restless.

He even worked up a sweat thinking about his younger brother Amantous before falling asleep. The robbers couldn't increase his strength. He'd spent a week at the chokepoint heading to the Southern Golden Plains because he had a clear short-term goal, and that's basically why he'd come.

'Espin goes without saying, and Doren's gained quite a bit of experience too.'

They'd gotten skilled enough to fight anywhere. With just three real battles, Espin had become proficient, and Doren was finally starting to carry himself well. Despite their young age, Rowan's teaching combined with real combat had created a rapid and solid accumulation of experience.

The Tracking Mercenary Group had gotten pretty good at navigating mountains and forest hills. They'd cleaned out the back exits of robber gangs that had been hiding deep in the wilderness.

They'd essentially acquired forest-specialized abilities.

Thirty robbers stood in a line on the road, each carrying a load. Rowan stood at the very back, while Large Shield Espin and Bearded Doren stood at the front.

Many of the robbers were suffering from hunger, given only the minimum food and provided only the minimum water. Reducing the robbers' stamina to walking level was Rowan's idea. Thirty was a scary number.

Their lips were bone dry, their eyes sunken. They couldn't even sleep properly because of hunger, and their cheeks were so hollow they looked like skulls.

"Rest!"

All the robbers got was three sips of water and one piece of jerky. After ten minutes of rest, they started moving again, and it repeated. Food and water weren't given at every rest stop.

Considering strength and weakness, it would've been right for Rowan to take the lead, but the reason he didn't was that when leading this many people, the rear position was most convenient for managing them.

'They might get other ideas.'

Rowan had to watch the robbers' movements sharply. He wasn't someone who let his guard down. Of course, transporting the robbers didn't go smoothly.

"Ugh!"

One robber, his legs giving out from fatigue, hunger, and dehydration, collapsed. Since their necks were connected, six people in front and behind tumbled backward and staggered forward in succession. Each time that happened, Rowan would scan the surroundings with Dono and get the robbers back on their feet.

Also, every time they stopped like that, four of the thirty robbers were tied securely to a cart and pulling it. They had to be under heavy surveillance from Espin and Doren at the front. Since they had to pull the heavily loaded cart, they were eating and drinking enough to maintain their stamina. One of their feet was tied to the cart with rope.

"Better stay still."

Doren threatened the robbers. The robbers tied up tight to the cart were amazed by the threat. Bearded Doren's clumsy intimidation—looking like a greenhorn mercenary at a glance and not having a particularly strong appearance—made them want to hand him a toy.

But they couldn't even make eye contact with Espin. Espin had been big since he was young. Just being big was enough to be the school boss and be active in the hall monitors—this world wasn't any different.

Having rolled around in back alleys, the curses delivered when someone occasionally crossed the line had short but intense intonations, stuff he'd heard often in the back alleys.

He felt like one of them, so to speak. And this was also part of Rowan's management method. Like bad cop, good cop—clumsy Doren handled the basics, and Espin was the one who swatted and killed mosquitoes in one shot.

The robbers got openings in their hearts because of Doren's management, and Espin poked those openings to draw blood and harden it. They skillfully pecked at the robbers while naturally creating a hierarchy.

When it came to managing people and playing politics, Rowan had to be superior to others—he'd experienced the bizarre, twisted modern knowledge of superficial understanding and the politics you could feel even working part-time jobs in the modern world.

"Move again."

Rowan raised his hand and signaled. They started moving again, and after several dozen minutes, the wolf Dono growled.

"Halt! Take cover!"

At Rowan's shout, Doren and Espin moved to the cart and used the robbers and cart as cover.

"Ugh."

A robber who got hit in the head by Espin's rough hand quickly covered one of Doren's flanks.

"..."

In the quiet situation, wind blew once and the bushes swayed. Pretty cool.

"Hahaha! This is pretty good! You noticed our ambush!"

Next to Rowan in the rear, a hefty guy burst out of the bushes gripping a double-axe with both hands and shouted loudly. His voice was so loud that ears jumped with each word.

"Bandit or robber?"

"What if I'm a son of a bitch? Kekeke!"

He swung his double-axe with a whoosh. It was a massive weapon, so the sound was naturally loud, and it looked destructive enough to make the distant robbers flinch.

"Kill the mercenaries!"

This was Rowan, who'd caused such havoc in this area for seven days. A dozen or so robbers emerged from the bushes one after another. They were planning to kill the mercenaries, free the robbers, and take the cart full of loot they'd gathered.

'Idiots.'

Rowan snorted. They seemed to have no idea why he was moving so openly. There were several reasons. Of course, the most important one was that the robber gangs positioned at the Southern Golden Plains chokepoint had no bows or arrows.

Because of some unknown merchant buying up all the arrows. That's partly why he'd moved so openly.

Another reason was that while dealing with the robbers, Rowan realized he was stronger than he thought. He'd actually demolished robbers in a 3-on-1 fight without a scratch. It was an engagement he'd created by chance, but inside it was a victory built on thorough skill.

That confidence had led him to make the plan of leading the robber gang down the main road.

"Graaaah!!!"

When Rowan charged at the robber boss, the robber boss also roared like a monster. The guy's voice was naturally so loud that Rowan felt his ears ringing. The wolf Dono's stride shortened from the shout alone.

'Why is his voice so loud? Does he have the makings to create a black door?'

The longsword came down and bounced up in one motion. It was like lightning. Elastisch Zerstorung (Elastic Destruction). Though he hadn't been taught it, Rowan had faced this secret technique.

The bending of the Longsword of Elasticity was grotesque itself, and the guy who'd become robber boss through his natural bulk and shouting couldn't possibly block it.

Slash!

Without even getting to swing his double-axe, both his wrists were cut off. Then his throat was slashed wide. That was the end. He spewed blood like a fountain once, then flipped over while blood trickled out.

"Huk!"

The four robbers who'd been charging to kill Rowan, trusting only in him, stopped running. Rowan charged at them.

"R-run! Gah!"

One robber was swinging his sword every which way at Rowan when the longsword stabbed into his shoulder and his body jerked and stiffened, then his head flew off. Seeing that, another robber screamed and ran away, only to have the wolf Dono bite straight into the back of his neck and fall.

"Hgak, ahhh! Guh."

When the robber in the rear died without resistance to the overwhelming display, the impact spread to other areas too.

"Th-this shit."

The robber who cursed while looking at Espin, who was just peeking his eyes over the shield, soon turned his back and ran away. Of course, some couldn't escape. One guy got hit in the thigh with an arrow before even approaching Doren.

Stumbling around and falling repeatedly, he rolled straight down the slope. With Rowan killing robbers in a single exchange, if you saw that scene and didn't run, you weren't human. Especially the Longsword of Elasticity—being both solid and elastic, it was basically a finishing move against robbers who didn't practice sword sparring often.

Just swinging or thrusting hit vital points every single time, making their eyes roll back. Same for robbers with sloppy defensive stances who'd never practiced blocking at all.

Four died by Rowan's hand alone, and the brown wolf Dono bit the backs of three fleeing robbers' necks, sinking his back molars into their vertebrae and killing them. The remaining eight robbers just ran away. One of them was dragged back, treated for the arrow in his thigh, and had to stand in the back row.

"A-amazing."

Watching Rowan, who'd taken a full shower in blood, Doren swallowed. Actually, during the seven days of catching robbers, there'd hardly been any proper fighting. Most had been weakened and faced one at a time, and even with bad luck it was only two at most.

Rowan's 3-on-1 experience had been when he was scouting alone with confidence and got unluckily caught, so they hadn't seen it directly.

"At that level, isn't he a knight?"

At Espin's words, Doren nodded.

"He really does seem like a knight."

The two revealed their personalities even when saying the word knight. Rowan pulled out clothes made from rough hemp from the loot to wipe off the blood. Even though he didn't say anything, when Doren and Espin tried to help, he stopped them.

"It's fine. I can do it myself."

"Ah, yes."

Unlike Doren, who made an awkwardly embarrassed face, Espin still helped Rowan. Doren, feeling needlessly self-conscious, awkwardly stuck his hand in to help too.

While wiping off the blood, Rowan held back a smile.

'This is thrilling.'

Strength and weakness. When they were starkly revealed, Rowan felt a thrilling pleasure. It was a different pleasure from clashing with the orc warrior. This was a place where such a bland life was guaranteed.

Here, even this primal stimulation gave great pleasure. It was a sensation like he might get addicted.

'Is it because I'm killing people who deserve to be killed?'

Or was it because ordinary citizens could become slaves and serfs at any moment?

If not that, was he subconsciously looking for something to replace the pleasures he'd tasted in the modern world?

Rowan couldn't understand his own heart. The dead robbers were naturally stripped naked. Rowan's vicious killing technique only targeted human vital points, so he could collect their clothes to that extent.

The only torn spots were marks from thrusting at armpits. Also, fur clothes or leather armor made from caught animals just needed scraps of leather patched over them to be worth money.

'Gathering robbers to kill them might be fun.'

Catching robbers was boring work for Rowan, but killing robbers wholesale gave him great interest. Especially the sight of them getting scared and running away from his strength was superb. But soon the excitement faded and he shook his head.

'When are you planning to get a throwing dagger in the eye and regret it, Rowan? Get it together.'

After that, they ran into robbers blocking the road two more times. The guys generally threatened and urged surrender. Sometimes they even told the mercenaries they could run away. They were all killed by Rowan.

If they threw daggers at close range, they could've wounded Rowan, but when Rowan charged, the robbers just ran away like sheep meeting a wolf.

They arrived at the Kingdom Camp after eleven days.

The expressions of the soldiers guarding the entrance were a sight to see.

"It's been a while."

"Ah... yes."

Even the soldier with middling experience who'd spoken casually to Rowan before was now using formal speech with him.

'My God! A three-man mercenary group came with thirty-one robbers tied up?'

They couldn't help but be amazed. And the Tracking Mercenary Group had to head straight to Senior Soldier Bulsheben. In the unsettled atmosphere, Rowan narrowed his eyes. It wasn't because of them.

'Something else happened.'

He had a hunch.