Redonas plateau, near the blacksnake contamination zone and Karsten estate.
On the high grounds, which was used as a battlefield decades ago - two carriages approached each other from opposite directions of the track.
The carriage on the right donned a single driver, holding onto the reigns of the ground dragon softly. The driver's unblinking eyes were focused on the ground dragon, instead of the road - which a normal driver wouldn't do.
As both the carriages approached closer,
"Tia, kill them all, don't let them approach near." A voice left the carriage's window, Jolting the unfocused driver.
"Oh, I got it!" The driver replied energetically, her golden eyes instantly shone and moved towards the opposite carriage.
The opposite carriage didn't have any different features compared to theirs. The only difference present between them, were the rough warriors guarding the opposite carriage, on horseback.
Tia, or Zarestia pointed her slender finger towards the enemy carriage - with a bright smile on her face, as if watching something amusing.
Swoosh~ Boom!
Before the enemy could react, an ominous sound took over.
The whole carriage along with the warriors around it - were crushed in mid-air, there wasn't a single scream.
Their remains splattered on the ground alongside the smashed carriage. They weren't swept or crushed into the ground - instead like a clay doll, their body was kneaded to death.
Unusually, the ground had no mark of Zarestia's swift attack either.
"I'm finally getting a grasp on this at-mos-phe-ric pressure thingy." Zarestia placed her hands on waist, while sporting a satisfied smile.
Hearing a clicking sound from the stopped carriage, Zarestia turned back zealously: "You are coming out at last, that means...!"
Orsted stepped out of the carriage, his face adorned by a small frown. His enigmatic clothes were spotless and the black gauntlets on his arms glowed menacingly.
"Yeah...." Orsted grimaced as he watched his surroundings.
"What is it? What is it? You aren't gonna start blabbering about the probability of the wind clashing or dust landing on you again, are you...?" Zarestia began touching around Orsted's body.
Though she knew that it wasn't something she could confirm by touching him, to someone who's worried, it served as reassurance. With his cheek being touched, Orsted answered and said "I'm fine, stop caressing my scales, it's uncomfortable."
Sighing to himself, Orsted took a glance at the wreckage a few meters from their carriage - a sight which could haunt the heart of a youngster.
"You are learning well, I didn't know you could apply it practically already." Orsted caressed Zarestia's head.
Zarestia narrowed her eyes, with a face that said she enjoyed what Orsted was doing.
This was the least Orsted could do - for someone who did everything he ordered, while not asking anything in return.
"You have been acting strange since I showed you my 'Beast-form' or whatever you call it, three months ago. Is it really not because of me...?" Zarestia watched Orsted's slightly unfocused eyes.
Orsted could see the worry on her face, so he ruffled her hair a little more roughly.
"Don't worry about it, it wasn't your fault." Orsted said the truth.
His current situation wasn't Zarestia's fault, he had brought it upon himself.
Around three months ago, Zarestia showed Orsted her original form and changed the whole terrain of the Empty wasteland near Banan - bringing forward four natural disasters pertaining to the elements she controlled.
An incident that changed the map of the world permanently.
It was also the time when Orsted took inspiration from Todd Fang's personality and enhanced his intuition with [Rewrite].
Originally, Orsted wanted to enhance his intuition to Todd's level, but not experiencing any direct changes - he enhanced it a few more times - leading to his current state.
As if his intuition broke through some shackles - it was bestowed a name as a skill directly from the system.
[Paranormal intuition: Senses the probabilities of everything.]
It did exactly as the system's description portrayed it.
Allow Orsted to sense probabilities - however, even simple thoughts in his head were attached with these probabilities.
'Is this route dangerous?' - No
'Can I kill Regulus in a frontal battle?' - Impossible
'Would Zarestia sacrifice herself if danger befell me?' - Yes.
Some thoughts were attached with percentages too.
If Orsted hadn't promoted his information processing speed for [Tear stigma] - he would have been braindead when [Paranormal intuition] was acquired three months ago.
"....." Even the air possessed probability - trying to gauge the direction of airflow.
But of course, the probabilities sensed by [Paranormal intuition] were not set in stone. Like the air, with a single foreign obstruction - the result could change easily.
Orsted was the kind of person whose thoughts never stayed still - which led [Paranormal intuition] to become a burden on his mind. He couldn't focus with all the probabilities filling his mind.
The easiest option to deal with this skill was to add a feature similar to his [Dragon tribe's curse]. Allowing him to activate and deactivate it by his will.
But, what would be the point of such a skill if it couldn't be used to sense unknown danger at every moment?
Hence, Orsted chose another option - to upgrade his thought processing speed again.
By the end, Orsted had used up around 105 years of lifespan for just this.
And still, Orsted felt uncomfortable with his new [Paranormal intuition], which led him to travel within a carriage to get used to it. No matter how fast his mind was, it would be annoying to have unwanted probabilities keep flashing past his mind.
He had to create a kind of filter to only focus on the important probabilities.
Orsted's information processing speed was inhuman, however it still hadn't even approached half of Cecilus Segmunt's [thought acceleration] speed - which could make the world stand still in his eyes.
'I have gotten used to my intuition now. No point in wasting time in a carriage.'
The only reason Orsted's annoyance hadn't become regret, that could in turn make him degrade his intuition was because - [Paranormal intuition] could even predict the gacha possibilities of his system.
"Are we going to start travelling for real now? I have grown sick of controlling that wood box and that lizard!" Zarestia placed her expectant eyes on Orsted.
Zarestia had crashed the carriage multiple times along the way, an expected result. She even controlled the ground dragon by threatening it; if it didn't want to turn into food, it had to follow Zarestia's order.
"That's right. We can travel by ourselves now. And... don't start hunting anything before asking me." Orsted ordered Zarestia strictly.
While entering Lugunica, Orsted and Zarestia had gone through Pristella - the watergate city.
Zarestia had hunted down dozens of water dragons there, thinking of them as simple fishes.
'If only I wasn't distracted all the time, I could have stopped her. In the end, I had to even pay for the damage. Sigh...' Orsted didn't blame Zarestia, he knew her well, so he should have explained more about the city before entering.
In the end, he couldn't, due to his head being filled with unwanted intuitions.
The reason why Orsted ordered Zarestia to attack the carriage before them was due to his intuition too. There was a high chance they would attack them - or so his intuition pointed.
For small stuff like this, Orsted's intuition wasn't wrong even once. Therefore, they had to be dealt with - their reasons held no value to him.
Orsted subtly looked at Zarestia: '....She must have seemed like an easy target.'