Is it good luck or bad luck? Asa thought as he sipped his broth.

  The meat was good meat. Air-dried from the finest beef and hammered into a tightly packed meat loaf, a single cow's meat could fit in just one small pocket. When eaten, it was boiled up in water and reduced to delicious beef. This is the usual dry food for noble warriors on expeditions.

  The soup is good. Even the river water in the lizard swamp, under the effect of the purification talisman, was as clear and sweet as a pure mountain spring, and when used to cook a pot of beef soup with salt, even the great chefs of the city could not find anything wrong with it. It made people feel that this purification talisman was really worth a silver coin.

  Eating such good meat and drinking such good soup would lift the spirits of even the most moribund person. Asa was well aware of his physical condition, and with another good night's rest, he could put down a cow with his empty hands.

  The campfire was made of many large logs, stacked nicely, with a mixture of solid, fine textured dry and wet wood that would be guaranteed to burn until the next day. The heat of the bonfire would overpower human body heat, which the bipedal flying dragons would not be able to detect, eliminating the need to take shelter in cold tree holes and holes in the ground, while other beasts and poisonous insects would not dare to come near. Sufficiently sleeping peacefully next to such a campfire, one's physical strength would definitely be fully restored.

  Even if he could put down five cows with his bare hands, Asa still wasn't sure he could fight the hunters head on.

  No amount of strength would be enough to shake off the hunters at speed. The campfire was warm, safe, and bright enough for any creature in the swamp to see clearly.

  "You're really good. It's the first time I've seen someone dare to lizard through a swamp with only one weapon." The woman who claimed to be an apothecary showed her admiration.

  Asa didn't feel worthy of admiration in the slightest. It was amazing that he had completely missed the fact that the leeches were still bleeding from their shed skin, and that just a few drops of blood had nearly attracted predatory fish from the entire waters of the swamp. So he had to shore up and go push a dead log that had been bowed over by a brute into the river, and stand on top of it to float downstream to escape the countless mouths below that were looking forward to his descent. But when a couple of large crocodiles joined in the fun, he was obliged to lumber ashore. The time was dusk, and he was about to find a place to hide when he saw the light of a fire, and then he met this one of his kind that he hadn't expected to meet at all.

  The woman was probably about Asa's age, and although she was dressed as an explorer, carrying a large parcel with a dirty blanket wrapped all over her body, her white, delicate skin showed that she was not a commoner. Carrying around that kind of efficient dry food, and the price of a water purification charm was enough for a family of commoners to live comfortably for a month, this woman was probably a noble.

  "Originally, I thought it was remarkable that I was able to explore the swamps alone to gather medicine. The terrain and climate is unique, and many plants only grow here, so even though my father has always disapproved of it, I snuck in on my own." The woman spoke as she pleased like a mindless child. It was probably because it had been a long time since she had seen a kindred spirit, and in such a sinister environment, so the woman was not the least bit wary of him.

  The sword at her waist was an Ankha fine sword, thin and long, hard and resilient, light and dexterous, with a focus on stabbing. Asa recognized it, the one that was always prominently displayed in his father's store for customers to tsk at the sword and the price tag underneath.

  The sword her waist was angled well and precisely enough to enable her to draw it with quick speed. The hilt of the sword was wrapped very tightly with fine twine, a wrapping used only by experienced soldiers to keep the hilt from slipping even after it was soaked in blood. Although the color of the twine was still the same as if it hadn't been drenched in blood, judging from the grip marks on it from countless tight swings, this sword would never just be for making slurping noises.

  But even with her, it wouldn't be enough to deal with the Hunters. What mattered in life and death combat was not skillful kung fu, but spirit and fighting spirit. Even if you have been trained since childhood, if you have never heard the cracking sound of an axe splitting into a person's bones, if you have never heard the wail of a person who has been cut in half, but is not dead for a while, if you have never felt the sharp pain of an enemy's weapon running through your own muscles, tearing your tendons and cracking your flesh, that is only a half-tone after all. When faced with the threat of death, feeling the kind of pain that could immediately drown out sanity, all would fear, cower, and then lose the ability to fight.

  If only there had been another wizard or priest, even if it was just a basic blessing, a few simple fireballs

  Asa found himself as if he had gotten a little carried away by the sudden arrival of the comfort of the broth and bonfire. It had been almost unbelievable luck to be able to encounter a human in the middle of hundreds of miles of densely forested swamps and comfortably replenish his strength over broth and around a campfire.

  Chewing down a piece of adventurer's cookie given by the woman and sending it down with broth, feeling the warmth emanating from this lucky campfire, Asa sighed with satisfaction and helplessness.

  The chaser should have been peering into a tree hole at this point, watching the fire here. Even he had to hide when the bipedal flying dragons still hooted in the night sky for food. But as soon as the dawn appeared in the east and the bipedal flying dragons returned to their nests, he would spare no effort to follow the instructions of this luck at an astonishing speed towards this place.

  Whether it was good or bad luck, now that it had happened, it was necessary, and only, in measure, to keep things going in the direction in which it was hoped they would go.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  "How far is this from the Dono River?" Asa asked.

  The section of the Dono River just beginning to pass through Lizard Swamp was so turbulent that not even a fish could swim back to it, and it was there that Asa had been forced ashore into Lizard Swamp. But the river was gentle once it skirted the Lizard Swamp, and just a day's float downstream would bring him to Bracada, a town in the western part of the empire.

  "Not really, but it's not far, maybe a day or two walk up."

  You can reach it in half a day under a full run, right? No, it was much closer than expected, but without the exact distance there was no exact certainty. He was certain that the hunter could catch up with him in half a day. The chances of a direct escape were too slim.

  It was better to tell the woman the truth and ask her to join him in dealing with the hunter. Although the chances of winning were slim, it was better to wait for the enemy than to do it the other way around. Asa mentally pondered how to word it.

  "At the risk of sounding presumptuous, could you accompany me for a moment? I'm planning on going deeper into the swamp tomorrow to find the herbs I'm looking for, it's the first time I've ever been this deep into a swamp." The woman snapped, "Sure, I'll pay you." She brushed a hand through a few strands of black hair that had drifted down to her lips, which were pursed in a slightly constricted curve against her thin lips. Her heels rubbed gently against each other. They were rather large feet for a woman, about the same size as Asa's, and were wearing the same pair of leather shoes commonly used by adventurers as Asa's.

  Asa suddenly realized a way to escape. It was a very efficient and opportune method. There was no need to set up any more traps, or to set up any illusions, no need to expend physical strength, no need to waste precious time, just take advantage of the present, this little while by the campfire, could make the pursuers waste a considerable amount of time and physical strength.

  The discovery made his heart beat violently and violently.

  "Okay?" The woman blinked, her eyes were small, her lashes were long, and the corners of her eyes hung down a bit, probably even when she was angry there was a sort of hazy smile running inside.

  The campfire was bright, the eyes were dark, and the firelight looked soft and warm reflected from within, but Asa didn't dare to look directly at them. He averted his gaze and took a deep breath, measuring to make his tone natural. "I'm sorry, I can't, I have something very important and urgent."

  "Oh yeah?" The woman had no idea how to hide the disappointment in her tone and expression.

  "About half a day's walk west from here, there are several herbs growing that are unique to this swamp and probably have unique healing properties." Asa felt his face contort, his voice go out of tune, and the meaning of his words slurred. It was the first time he had ever told an extremely malicious lie to a very friendly person. And to a woman at that.

  "Probably? What do you mean?"

  "Um hey I saw a brute, no two brutes that's a brute fighting each other, and one of them was wounded in the back leg, hey no, well like the front foot no well anyway anyway it was bitten, badly. It was on the ground dying. Then it went and ate several kinds of grasses and put them on the place where it had hurt itself, and then after a while it was all right." In his haste, Asa copied a story of a dog fight he had heard from an old adventurer when he was a young boy, the meaning didn't quite make sense, and the words got more and more fluent.

  "Oh? Really? Tell me what kind of grass?" The woman's eyes widened, and her gaze made Asa feel as if he were seeing the incoming crossbow bolt from the night five days ago again, and almost made a ducking motion to bend low and flip forward. The woman nimbly rummaged through her backpack for a pen and paper.

  "It's the yellowish flowers," Asa babbled, mixing and stirring up the characteristics of several weeds and herbs. The woman took careful note.

  "If you're going to go deeper into the swamp again, make sure you grind up two herbs, watermint and pyrethrum, and apply them to your clothes and skin. Even if you have insect repellent oil be sure to apply it as there are several poisonous insects in there that are only afraid of the smell of these two herbs." Asa said to the woman in a very solemn voice.

  "Just these two grasses? It's everywhere, isn't it?" The woman casually found them from around the campfire.

  Of course, these two herbs did have the effect of repelling insects, and they had been applied on Asa's body ever since he entered the swamp, only that these two herbs were by no means as effective as the Adventurer's Guild's special insect repellent oil. In these three days, the first thing Asa did when he woke up at dawn in the tree cave was to pick out the centipedes and other poisonous insects in his armpits and pants, and sometimes in his hair, with a small amount of movement.

  Of course, the depths of the swamp were not full of poisonous insects that feared only these two herbs.

  It seems that no matter what the skill is, it's always a matter of exercising it. Even the most difficult, the most contrary to human nature would become accustomed to, then skillful, and even immersed in it once one practiced it more often. Having had the chance to rehearse before, Asa's utterances when he told the vicious part of this extremely malicious lie were already fluent and his voice was smooth, he just never dared to look into those glowing eyes. He covered his vision with the motion of a twig picking at the campfire.

  "Thank you really. If I find these herbs again and figure out the medicinal properties, it'll be enough to embarrass those old guys at the apothecary." The woman was a bit excited, probably still feeling that the two were already considered friends, not just following her heart, but also talking to him in a very cordial manner. "I've known for a long time that heaven and earth are so big that there would definitely be medicines that haven't been discovered yet. But those old guys always know how to chew on the books of those who came before them."

  There was nothing to feel guilty about. Even if she hadn't been told, her own very manly decision to go off and die alone hadn't turned out well for her. The Chaser would never let go of any sign of any other human once they found it in the swamp.

  Even if the two of them fought together, it was still more than likely just a way to get killed, and maybe she'd get in the way or not even help at all. This method would just make her death worthwhile, and would allow herself to get more chances to escape. Asa had every reason in his head to make his sinister trap righteous.

  "Once my results are recognized, not to mention the apothecary's office, even the magic academy will take me seriously, and maybe the bishop himself will even ask me about these herbs." Because of her excitement, two red clouds rose on the woman's round face. Pointing to a nearby tree, she said, "Look, it's this kind of tree, this is one of my discoveries. There was never any record of it in the books, but I know that it's common inside the swamp by asking around to many retired adventurers. And I also found out that its sap is highly irritating and poisonous, if a human or an animal's eye gets splashed"

  Your life was actually exchanged for the deaths of countless other other lives, so never give up every ounce of hope of staying alive.

  The main trunk of the tree had many small roots entwined around it, very straight and thin, much like the pen used by the old adventurer at the back of the village. From this Asa suddenly remembered a deep-sounding remark he had once made, a remark that certainly raised the intrigue of what had just happened to him to a philosophical depth. Asa felt that he could already be at peace with himself. But a sudden wave of disgust swarmed over him, making him feel ten thousand percent fatigued.