["This dumb bastard was trying to run, so I locked him in place."]
At this moment, the scarecrow's voice suddenly rang out in Ethan's mind, ["Then this woman seemed like she was planning something against me, so I froze her too while I was at it. How are you planning to deal with them?"]
'Kill the man. As for the woman…', Ethan rubbed his chin and said, 'Let's see whether she still has any value. If not, deal with her too.'
Of course, Ethan was communicating with the scarecrow in his mind, so the others naturally couldn't hear it.
But seeing Ethan stay silent for a long time scared Idris even more.
After all, the pressure Ethan gave off as someone above others, along with that strong killing intent, wasn't something an ordinary person could handle. At this moment, Idris was so frightened he almost passed out on the spot.
"What's your name?", After finishing his conversation with the scarecrow, Ethan finally looked at Idris again and said, "You said earlier that you can release some kind of scent bait, right? What is that thing, and what does it do?"
Ethan had just finished cutting down all the predatory vines, but he was still over a thousand EXP away from maxing out the skill.
Right now, what he lacked was someone to lure monsters.
If this person really had that kind of skill, then maybe he still had some use.
"M-my name is Idris," Hearing Ethan question him, Idris guessed he might not die after all. A trace of relief appeared in his eyes as he said, "The scent bait you mentioned is something applied to a small animal, then the small animal attracts large prey and leads them into a trap."
"Interesting skill," Ethan sneered, "So the reason I ran into that many predatory vines earlier was also because of this scent bait, huh?"
"It probably… maybe… more or less… had some effect."
Idris absolutely didn't want to admit it, and didn't dare to either.
Luckily, Ethan didn't plan to argue with him. Instead, he glanced at the man and woman frozen in place by the scarecrow and said, "Go use that skill on that man once, and I'll let you go."
"Ah?"
Idris hadn't expected Ethan to make such a request.
He didn't want to harm his teammate, but he clearly understood... If he refused the man in front of him, then he'd probably be labeled useless, and once that happened, he wouldn't be far from death either.
Since Idris knew he couldn't refuse, then he could only maximize the benefits.
"H-hero, then can you let Sister Nana go? She really didn't know anything about this!"
"You think you still have room to bargain with me?", Ethan looked at Idris like it was funny.
Still, he gave the scarecrow a look and had it release the two people.
After all, people who couldn't move had no value. But he also wasn't planning to agree to Idris's request. He simply continued, "If that man is lucky enough not to die before I finish practicing my sword style, then naturally I'll let the others go."
"But if he dies before I finish training the sword style, then sorry…"
"You'll have to decide whether you'll replace him yourself, or let that woman replace him and become bait for me."
"I won't! I don't want to be bait!"
Hearing Ethan's demand, Nolan shook his head repeatedly and said, "Let Nana go! Or let Nini go! Those two have special bloodlines, especially that little girl. She's already awakened as a healer. There's a special magnetic field inside her body. As long as you use her as bait, I guarantee she can draw anything out for you, Hero!"
"And I'm just trash. I'm just ordinary, completely worthless trash."
"Even if you put the bait skill on me, it'll just waste one use of Idris's skill. It doesn't matter if I die, but if it delays your business, Hero, then that would be bad!"
"Heh! Heh!"
Ethan looked coldly at this idiot. In the end, he only said two words, "Earlier, when I said that guy in your team called Kas was human trash, sorry, I take it back."
"Because now I realize that compared to a real piece of trash like you, that man really wasn't qualified to be called trash."
"Uh…"
Hearing this, Nolan's expression changed immediately.
Ethan stopped wasting words and pointed his sword at Idris, "Use the bait skill on him. Now."
"Y-yes, Hero!"
Originally, Idris still didn't want to hurt his teammate.
But after hearing Nolan say those things, Idris realized this man had never treated them as teammates. From beginning to end, all he cared about was himself. He would even sell out Nini just to protect himself.
A person like this didn't deserve to be a teammate.
He didn't even deserve to be called human.
"Scent Bait!"
Idris used the dagger in his hand to cut open his wrist. Then as he activated the skill, a faint blood mist quickly poured out from the wound and gathered in his palm.
Once the blood mist condensed into a ball, he could place it into certain containers.
Because every time he used the skill, he had to cut himself open first before it would work.
That was why he hated using this skill out in the wilderness. Instead, while at camp, he would prepare the skill in advance and store it in jars. One reason was convenience, and another was to avoid wound infections or attracting predators because of the smell of blood.
But it was also because he had prepared the skill beforehand and condensed a whole jar of it that Nolan had the chance to snatch the scent bait from him and use it on the boss.
Which had nearly gotten everyone killed.
"Idris, you dare?", Nolan kept backing away, terror filling his eyes as he shouted, "You know my father is an elder of the sect, right? If you dare do this to me, that's harming a fellow disciple. Once we get back, I'll definitely have my father sentence you to death!"
"Relax. He won't have the chance to go back," Ethan spoke calmly from the side.
Those words instantly felt like a bucket of cold water dumped over Nolan's head, making him calm down immediately. Then he turned and ran.
And just as Nolan turned around to escape, Idris's Scent Bait skill finally finished condensing.
Then, Idris directly raised the scent bait and smacked it toward Nolan like he was hitting a tennis ball.
The faint red ball, which looked both like a jelly ball and a bubble ball, was slapped straight into Nolan's back.
But Nolan seemed completely unaware of anything strange and kept sprinting forward like crazy.
"This skill really is amazing."
Looking at Nolan, who noticed nothing at all, Ethan showed a faintly amused expression and said, "No wonder when you used this skill on me before, I didn't notice anything. Looks like I'll need to grow a pair of eyes on my back in the future. Otherwise someone might set me up and I wouldn't even know it."