After that small encounter with the hobgoblin, Alex's journey has been smooth the whole time.
Alex's first day of traveling went by without a problem.
When the sun descended and the moon rose into the sky, Alex had already set up camp on a clear spot on the side of the road.
Here he has a comfortable tent, a small soft mattress, pillows, a lamp, a small generator and a portable movie player.
Standing outside while looking at all that, Alex smiled and said, "Now it's all set!"
Even though Alex wants to experience what traveling is like in this world, there's no reason why he should let himself suffer just because of that, right?
Isn't this the reason why he wants to stand at the top?
To live a comfortable life!
So why let himself suffer when he has the means to enjoy better comfortable.
Alex entered the tent and played a movie before coming out again to prepare food.
As for Ferri, he's lying down beside the fire that Alex started with a fireball and a few sticks from the woods nearby.
When he came to the fire, Alex glanced at Ferri and smiled.
"Seems like you're very tired after a day of running, huh."
"Wait for a bit, I'll be preparing our food now."
Alex placed a pot on the fire and started boiling some water.
Since the night is cold, a soupy dish is perfect at this hour.
So Alex is planning to cook the sour soup called sinigang.
Cooking food for himself is something that Alex enjoys doing.
That's why, while cooking, he can't help but start humming a song, showing just how much he enjoys cooking.
Soon, the food was finished and Alex called Ferri.
With a bowl of hot sinigang on his hands, Alex and Ferri watched the movie that Alex played.
After they finished eating, they were already sleepy.
Saying goodnight to Ferri, Alex went inside the tent and immediately drifted into dreamland.
Ferri laid down beside the fire and closed his eyes.
The night passed by unknowingly and soon the sun slowly climbed up to the sky.
At the same time, Alex woke up and stepped out of the tent.
The next moment, Alex was stunned.
"What the hell is this?"
It was because when he went outside, there's actually two unconscious men lying not far away from the fire last night that has now been extinguished.
Near those men, Ferri was lying down, as if he's guarding some prisoners.
After he recovered, Alex curiously approached those two unconscious men and observed them for a while.
From the scratch marks on their bodies, Alex is sure that it was caused by Ferri.
So it didn't take long for Alex to realize what happened.
"Those two probably went over here, trying to do something when they got noticed by Ferri and were knocked out."
Thinking of that, Alex chuckled.
Crouching down, Alex lightly slapped the cheeks of those men, waking them up.
Pak Pak Pak!
"Hey, hey, wake up."
"Ugh… what just…!?"
Finally, one of the two men opened his eyes.
When he saw Alex, he was startled and immediately moved back.
"W-who are you?!"
The man asked with shaking eyes.
Alex paused before a playful smile appeared on his face.
"Isn't it me who's supposed to be asking that question?"
The man was stunned, then slowly, the memories from last night started coming back to him.
After a while, the man's eyes widened and he hurriedly looked in the direction where Ferri was lying down.
When he did so, his eyes were met by a pair of sharp and scary eyes of Ferri who has now also woke up.
Immediately, fear set in into his eyes.
Plop!
Suddenly, the man knelt down and repeatedly apologized, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please forgive me!"
"We were only ordered by the chief to go here, please forgive me!"
He bowed his head down again and again, it even hit the ground causing blood to appear on his forehead.
Seeing that, Alex frowned.
"Stop."
He said.
Immediately, the man stopped moving and kept his head bowed down.
Then Alex said, "You just said that you were ordered by this 'chief' or something."
"Who the hell is this 'chief'?"
Without hesitation, the man opened his mouth and started to speak.
From what Alex learned from him, the person called chief in his mouth is actually a bandit leader.
Just half a kilometer away from here, there is a village called Bokunat Village, which is the village where the two men live.
2 days ago, bandits suddenly attacked their village.
The bandit leader, Ogura, brought 100 bandits into the village.
With that many bandits, even the guards and hunters of the village were overwhelmed and were killed.
So without much effort, the bandits managed to capture Bokunat Village by relying on numbers.
The people of the village, including these two, were helpless in the face of the bandit group.
So they can only surrender themselves to make sure that they wouldn't be killed.
After that, the bandits started celebrating.
Consuming the resources of the village without restrain.
The bandits also took the women of the village and did some indescribable things to them.
As he was telling all this, the man spoke with gritted teeth.
The anger was visible on his face as if he wanted to slit the throat of Ogura and the other bandit's throat with his own arms.
After the man finished narrating his story, Alex frowned and a thoughtful look covered his face.
"Hmm, so you're telling me that Ogura, the leader of the bandits, has ordered some scouts around and we were noticed by them, correct?"
The man hurriedly nodded again and again, saying, "Yes, yes! That's why Ogura ordered me and my brother to go to this place."
Alex looked into his eyes and saw that he wasn't lying.
After thinking about it, Alex said, "Hmm, alright, let's go and see what kind of strength this bandit has to dare and attack me."
