The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Karl opened his eyes.
At this moment, there was no trace of confusion in his eyes, as if he had been lucid for a while.
Karl stood up, stretched, and loosened his muscles.
However, after a while, Lady was still fast asleep and showed no sign of waking up.
Seeing this, he kicked Lady without any hesitation.
"Get up, Lady!"
Whether she knew Carl was nearby or not, Lady didn't seem to care at all when Carl kicked her.
He even turned around and continued to drift off to sleep.
If Karl had been holding back his strength earlier, then seeing that Lady was still not awake, he stopped holding back.
"Get up, Lady!"
Carl shouted again, and at the same time, kicked Lady in the back with about 70-80% of his strength.
The sound of something cutting through the air reached Lady's ears first, catching it clearly.
Before he even opened his eyes, he rolled forward to dodge Karl's powerful kick.
This roll also chased away Lady's sleepiness completely.
Now, he had no choice but to wake up.
Like Carl, Lady, though only now fully awake, showed no signs of confusion.
Lady stood up and gently brushed off the bits of grass that had just gotten on her.
"Karl, can't you just call for help properly?!"
Lady's voice was filled with resentment.
If he hadn't dodged quickly, he probably would have been lying on his way back if Karl had kicked him.
"You were perfectly fine, you dodged it!"
Karl withdrew his strength, unconcerned.
Don't let Lady's seemingly unreliable appearance fool you; she's not weak at all. She was kicked down in just one move.
If Lady were truly that useless, Ilya wouldn't have asked her to complete the mission with him.
"Hurry up and pack your things, let's go home as soon as possible!"
"Don't forget, Ilya is still waiting!"
Lady, who had wanted to argue, immediately fell silent.
I took a nap and almost forgot there was a tigress waiting for me!
Lady slapped her forehead, stopped talking nonsense, and immediately started packing.
The two grown men, being explorers, carried nothing superfluous except for the essentials for their adventure.
In no time, Carl and Lady had packed their bags.
The two then prepared to leave.
Lady and Karl belong to an adventurer's group called the Bahoo Adventurer's Group, and their headquarters are located in Hope City, the city closest to the Misty Forest.
Although Hope City is the closest city to the Misty Forest, it would probably take the two of them four or five days to get back.
Normally, this amount of time would be no problem for Lady and Carl.
But now I'm so eager to go back that I have to find another way.
This brings us to the topic of "explorers".
The "explorer" business thus emerged, offering two options for customers to choose from.
One option is to rent mounts, where adventurers can rent a mount called the Swift Horse.
The Swift Horse is a hybrid of an ordinary mare and a magical beast called the Wind Speed Horse.
As its name suggests, the Swift Horse gallops at the speed of the wind.
Although this type of horse doesn't have any particularly outstanding abilities, its strength lies in its speed, making it very suitable as a means of transportation for humans.
Initially, the "explorers" did indeed use swift horses as their mode of transportation.
But people soon discovered that this horse was incredibly fast.
Especially when startled, the Wind Horse moves with lightning speed.
If the explorer is not skilled enough, they may easily become unable to adapt, and could even suffocate and die.
After many explorers lost their lives as a result, the "explorers" took notice of the situation and began to invest manpower in research to develop horses suitable for explorers to ride.
By chance, they discovered a horse that was a cross between a speed horse and an ordinary mare.
While this type of horse isn't as fast as the Wind Horse, it's still quite fast compared to others.
Moreover, at the fastest speed, explorers will no longer experience suffocation, thus greatly reducing the danger.
In the following years, the swift horse quickly became popular and soon became the mode of transportation for explorers.
The "explorer" made a fortune selling swift horses.
After accumulating initial capital, "Explorers" expanded into the mount rental business, specifically renting out swift horses.
Furthermore, with "explorers" stationed in many cities, they can use swift horses by paying a certain amount of money, and they don't have to take care of them all the time, which is quite cost-effective no matter how you look at it.
Of course, there were also greedy explorers who, under the guise of renting, would then renege on their promises and refuse to return the items.
The "explorers" naturally anticipated this problem from the very beginning.
Therefore, every swift horse owned by an "explorer" is marked with a magical symbol.
If the item is not returned after a long period of time, the "Explorer" will naturally send someone to retrieve it.
However, once the goods are recovered, it's not just a matter of doubling the fees for the breaching party; obviously, there will be other penalties as well.
The "explorers" made it clear that only fools would risk breaking the law.
Therefore, the "Explorer" rental business is still doing well.
Of course, if the explorers find the swift horse too slow, they have another way to return: using a teleportation array.
The "explorer" spent a fortune to hire a space magician to build a space magic array, which allows him to travel to other places with just a blink of an eye.
This method is perfect except for being expensive.
Carl and Lady were naturally eager to get back, but even in their haste, it wasn't time to use the teleportation array.
Putting everything else aside, the bill for using the teleportation array has already been presented to Ilya. It would be better for the two of them not to go back!
Therefore, Carl and Lady came to rent the Swift Horse this time.
Using a swift horse to return to Hope City will take about a day and a half, which is much faster than going back on your own.
The two arrived together at the "Explorers'" temporary outpost.
The temporary outpost for the "explorers" on the outskirts of the Misty Forest was very rudimentary, consisting of only a few low bungalows and a horse farm enclosed by a fence behind them.
If it weren't for the wooden sign next to it that read "Explorers," anyone would have thought it was the small home of some horse farm owner.
Indeed, the temporary outpost was no different from a horse ranch.
It can neither accept nor complete missions; it is solely for renting and returning Swift Horses.
For this reason, in order to better take care of these swift horses, the person in charge of the temporary station chose an old man who knew how to raise horses.
His main task was to take care of the swift horses in the backyard.
In addition, there was a helper and a veterinarian at the temporary post.
Aside from occasionally receiving adventurers who came to rent horses, the staff member was responsible for feeding the herd of swift horses on a daily basis.
The veterinarian is there to prevent the horse from getting sick so that it can be treated in time.
When Lady and Carl came in, only Dick, the shop assistant, was idly wiping the table at the counter.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com