"A-Are you sure about this?" the princess asked again, her worry evident.
I didn’t say anything as I moved slightly closer to the two of them, making sure that I would be able to react to any enemy attacks. From my position, I could hear branches snapping from the left and right. With the help of my perception, I could detect more than five monsters or enemies around us, all of them targeting us.
Then, waiting for the perfect moment, all five of them ran out of their hiding spots, coming from five different directions.
Luckily for me, Emma was accompanying me, or this would have been much harder.
"Kill them!" one of the bandits screamed.
However, in the next moment, all five of their heads went flying.
[You have killed five people. The Blood Sword is absorbing their blood. You have accumulated the blood of ten beings. The effects of your sword have been updated.]
[Effect: +3 STR]
This sword really could become overpowered as long as I killed enough beings. Gaining +3 Strength from killing only ten beings was absolutely ridiculous. However, the main problem with swords like this was that each new effect would require a much higher kill count than the last.
For the next two hours, we didn’t stop once as we moved through the forest with the sole goal of escaping it as fast as humanly possible. However, after some time, it became too hard for the princess to keep up with our pace. Her feet were hurting since she was wearing heels, and even though she tried her best not to complain, I could clearly see that she was struggling more and more with every step.
There were about twenty hours left, and I knew that we wouldn’t be able to walk without a single stop the entire time. Breaks were bound to happen, especially if I wanted the princess to reach the Capital alive.
’Is the Capital much further?’ I thought to myself.
That was what annoyed me the most. I wasn’t actually sure how far we were from it. For all I knew, we might need to increase our pace even more.
"If we cut through the Blackwood Forest, it only takes about nine hours to reach the Capital," the princess suddenly added when she saw me hesitating.
Nine hours was more than enough time. We could even sleep for a little while before continuing our journey. Since the sun had already gone down, I thought that this might be the perfect time to get some rest.
I hadn’t slept in over three days, and I was exhausted. The only reason I could still stand was because of my high Vitality stat. Otherwise, I would probably look like some dead zombie.
I knew that it wouldn’t be a peaceful night with monsters and bandits roaming through those woods. But since I had Emma, we could take turns protecting the princess throughout the night without any problems.
"Let’s set up a small encampment here," I said.
It took around fifteen minutes, but we gathered nearby branches and I managed to light a fire with the help of two dry rocks, repeatedly making them collide against one another. It wasn’t the most comfortable place to sleep, but it was better than continuing through the forest while exhausted.
"Where am I supposed to sleep?" the princess asked as she looked around.
"Uh... where does it look like? The ground."
"B-But it looks so dirty. You can’t make me sleep on the ground! I’ll tell my father about it! I swear! I’ll make sure he orders your death!"
I sighed at her annoying complaints, but I still decided to help her a little. Having her voice constantly reach my ears was seriously starting to piss me off.
"Whatever, here." I began removing my shirt and handed it to the princess. "You can use my shirt so you don’t get all wet from the dirty ground."
The princess’ face immediately turned bright red as she looked away from my body and covered her eyes while grabbing it.
"T-Thank you... This is better than nothing."
I also felt Emma’s glance in my direction. However, she didn’t look embarrassed in the slightest. She was simply observing my physique, without the same expression the princess had shown.
"Do you want to take guard first?" I asked Emma.
She quietly nodded.
Hearing her answer, I began sitting down next to the princess, who immediately panicked once more.
"W-What are you doing?!" She frowned. "How can you sit next to me while I’m about to sleep?"
I pointed at my chest. "Well, if that’s the case, can I have my shirt back? I don’t really want to lie down on that cold dirt without anything to cover my body."
The princess seemed to hesitate for a moment before accepting my request.
"F-Fine, you can lie down next to me. But don’t you dare touch me!"
I nodded. The princess was beautiful, but I wasn’t here to take advantage of her. All I wanted was to clear this floor and reach the next one.
"We sleep for five hours and start walking again," I warned her. "Also, tomorrow, we won’t be taking long breaks. If we do, we might run out of time."
She weakly nodded as she turned her body in the opposite direction. I didn’t pay any attention to it and just closed my eyes, falling asleep almost instantly.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when I suddenly felt someone shake my shoulder.
My eyes immediately opened, and my hand moved toward my Blood Sword.
Emma was standing in front of me, her expression much more serious than before.
"What happened?" I asked in a low voice.
She pointed toward the darkness beyond the fire. "Something has been watching us for a while."
The princess had also woken up, her face pale as she looked around the forest.
At first, I couldn’t hear anything other than the crackling of the fire and the sound of the wind moving through the trees. But after focusing my perception, I felt it.
A presence.
No... not just one.
There were dozens of them.
Then, from deep within the darkness of Blackwood Forest, a horn echoed through the trees.
The five bandits from earlier had only been the beginning.