The First Legendary Beast Master novel Chapter 495

Chapter 495 Change In The Air

The increase in traffic and resultant danger along the road caused the towns to send out their guards to patrol the main road that day. They were patrolling in groups of three, all heavily armed and armoured, but compared to what the average merchant caravan had with them, it wasn't much security.

For one, most of the merchants had strong Commanders on guard, and for two, this was a nation full of monster species. Even the average farmer was Ascended Rank.

The threat of bandit groups wasn't the only danger along the road. The merchants fought with the farmers, the farmers fought the merchants, the guards extorted the weak, and everyone was on edge from the moment that Thor pulled the wagon out of town after breakfast.

"Compared to yesterday, this is a mess." Ophelia muttered as they moved to avoid a fight between farmers who were both hauling the same root vegetables.

"I wonder what changed? Are they afraid that the price is going to go down, and that they're being ordered to bring crops to the city at a massive discount?" Karl pondered.

"That might be it. I think that some of it is just an excuse to air old grievances and take out their frustrations on people that they didn't like to begin with. They're not attacking everyone, it's targeted." Ophelia noted as she took a seat beside Karl on the front bench of the wagon.

Dana was watching the back with her Golems while the two clerics rested and played cards.

There wasn't much else to do when you were in a wagon all day.

With the traffic and the rough roads, they were unlikely to cover more than a hundred kilometres a day. It was faster than walking, but not by as much as they had hoped. However, heading off into the wilderness would blow their cover, so they just had to bear with it until they got to the open roads.

They could see the next village in sight when a group of locals in ill-fitting guard uniforms stepped out in front of them and motioned for Karl to pull off the road.

"There's a road tax to pay. Twenty percent of cargo if you want to pass." The leader of the group demanded.

Karl smiled back. "How about you turn over the contents of your money pouch there, and I let you live?"

The fake guards nervously gripped their weapons, and Karl nudged the reins. "Thor, Earthquake please."

The ground trembled, causing the farmer who was closest to their group to pull his wagon to a stop as the guards lost their balance and fell to the ground.

"Keep it moving, Thor. I don't think that they're dumb enough to try anything."

The farmer laughed as Thor simply trampled the fake guards and kept walking. "Well. That's one way to deal with them. How did you know they weren't real town guards?" The next wagon driver along the road asked.

"Mostly by the fact their uniforms didn't fit. Even a village should be able to come up with clothes that fit. But mostly, I just wasn't going to give them twenty percent of my cargo. This village is like thirty people, including the children. I can give them a discount, but it would take titan sized brass cojones to demand my freight."

The driver nodded and made a hand gesture meant to resemble the head of the Fox God, one of the Demon Gods of trickery and merchants. _{ƒreewebɳovel.com}