It was late at night, and it was finally time to start the operation. Miles spoke, "Raven, wait in the room. I'll be right back." Raven didn't understand because, eventually, both of them would leave the room together. He thought it would be more logical for them to go wherever Miles was heading together, but he chose not to question it. After waiting for a while, Miles reentered the room, holding two diamond-shaped crystals.

Although Raven had no idea what they were, Miles handed him one of the crystals and explained, "I know you don't know what these are, so let me explain briefly. These are teleportation crystals. They're prepared by the family's mages, and when you break them in your hand, they teleport you to a predetermined location."

Raven, who was always thinking of battle strategies, came up with an idea. "If I always carried these with me, couldn't I use one to escape during a battle and teleport to another corner of the world?" Miles laughed and replied, "Yes, clever. But these crystals harden based on the surrounding mana, making them unbreakable regardless of physical strength. In a battlefield filled with mana, using them becomes impossible. Even for my father, breaking one would be out of the question."

Having only been introduced to magic in the last few months, Raven was constantly surprised by these revelations. Thankfully, his sole focus at the moment was the operation itself. Following Miles' instructions, they looked at each other and simultaneously crushed the crystals in their palms, reducing them to powder.

When Raven looked around, nothing had changed. "So, what now—" Suddenly, his surroundings began to shift, and his vision blurred. The ground seemed to slip out from under his feet, and his eyes felt like they were about to pop out of their sockets. It was like a fever dream. After a few seconds of this nausea-inducing experience, Raven collapsed to his knees, feeling as if he'd just emerged from a battle.

Miles helped him up by his shoulder and seated him properly. Miles was laughing hysterically at Raven's reaction, but Raven could barely hear him, still disoriented from the experience. He could hear Miles but couldn’t distinguish reality after those few seconds. It was as if a seventh sense had overridden his six senses, rendering them useless.

Shaking his head and slapping himself, Raven began to pull himself together. He clenched his fists and looked around. They were in what seemed like a forest, but it was an unusually vast area. Behind them was a treeline—a proper forest. Standing next to him, Miles was still laughing. As Raven regained his senses, he began to understand what had happened and why Miles was laughing.

"What’s so funny, man?" Raven asked. Miles managed to suppress his laughter for a moment to answer. "I’ve seen teleportation affect people differently, but yours was the most extreme. You looked so ridiculous that even you would’ve laughed if you saw yourself."

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As Miles resumed laughing, Raven stayed seated and examined their surroundings. Behind them was the forest, but ahead was the entrance to a cave. The area they were in was a square clearing. Two of its sides were enclosed by sheer cliffs; the third side had the cave entrance, and the fourth side was bordered by the forest where they had come from.

At the cave entrance, barely visible in the distance, stood two guards—members of the cult. Raven stood up, brushed himself off, and Miles finally stopped laughing. They both began to sneak toward the entrance, hiding behind the rocks scattered around the clearing.

Eventually, they reached the closest rock they could use as cover, but the guards were still too far for Raven to approach and knock them out. Whispering, Raven asked, "How much mana would it take for you to create and hurl a small pebble?"

Miles replied mockingly, "Would it exhaust you so much that you wouldn’t even be able to enter after knocking them out?"

Raven rolled his eyes, and Miles flicked a small pebble toward the opposite wall. Then they ducked quickly. Both guards, holding spears, turned to look in the direction of the sound. A moment later, they began walking toward the noise.

Since the area was so open, Raven would have to run as fast as possible behind them as they walked to the spot where the pebble had landed. When the guards reached the area, they exchanged glances, thinking the pebble had been blown there by the wind. Just as they were about to turn around in unison, one of the guards was suddenly struck by a punch in the darkness, fast enough to be invisible. The punch wasn’t strong enough to knock him out, so he simply fell to the ground, dazed.

The other guard took a defensive stance and walked toward a small rise near where the pebble had landed. Taking a step forward, he peeked behind the rock, only to find it empty. He signaled to his companion that it was clear, but by then, the fallen guard had disappeared. Panicking, the remaining guard looked around as a shadow rose slowly behind him. Raven strangled the man with a vine in his hands.

Although the guard was physically stronger than Raven, he refused to let go of his spear and began losing consciousness due to oxygen deprivation. After about 20 seconds of grappling, the guard passed out. Raven dragged both bodies back behind the rock where Miles was hiding. "I did all the work. I hope you can encase these two idiots in ice," Raven said.

Miles froze the two with Everfrost magic and then commented, "I should also encase one idiot in a haste spell."

Raven didn’t react but was visibly irritated by the jab. After a moment, he spoke. "Leave them here and get to the entrance. Handle any emergency that arises, because we’ll have no way to communicate."

Miles nodded in agreement. They both moved to the entrance, where Miles pulled out his staff and pointed it at Raven. A visible blue aura enveloped Raven, whose breathing quickened as he began bouncing on his feet.

"Alright, man. I’ve cast a 1.5x speed spell on you for 40 minutes. I’ve also saved enough mana to maintain Everfrost for the same duration. If we exceed 40 minutes, the entire plan is off, and we’ll fail our mission."

Raven nodded and vanished from sight, moving at a speed that made him impossible to see. He disappeared into the darkness of the cave.