It was the morning after the day of my departure.

After so many adventures and experiences in Martial Citadel, the time with the City had come to an end.

I was now embarking on a new journey.

I had long entered the depths of the Northern Wilderness and thanks to my Guider the journey so far had been very safe and peaceful.

The number of items I had chosen to take with me had turned out to be the right amount.

I was traveling at a steady and quick pace without getting over-encumbered or tired.

I was excited to get to the Ranker event, but even before I had experienced what a Ranker event was like I also started to make preparations for what I would do afterward.

In reality, the Ranker event, although an important one, was only a pit stop.

The event would only last for one day, my true objective and where I would probably spend a good amount of time would be Will City.

I had yet to see my country’s Capital and I was excited to do so.

Perhaps the number of Experts there will be more obscure, unlike Martial Citadel, but I knew if any of the rumors I heard about it were true, I would be in for a very big surprise.

The Ranker event location was only a days away trip, so after half a day I was already near my destination.

I decided to take things slower and opted to camp out for a while and read a couple of the martial manuals I had brought with me.

Thereafter I hunted myself a small meal and prepared it with some of the meat and ingredients I had carried with me for a late afternoon lunch.

But suddenly I heard the Guider do something I had never seen it do before, it flashed and vibrated in a very eerie manner.

I looked at its screen and it showed me on the map a group of human-looking icons heading straight in my direction.

It seemed the Guider had sensed that danger was approaching and had given me a warning.

Heeding the Guiders warning I quickly packed up my camp and quickly climbed up the tallest tree in the vicinity and used the first technique I ever learned from Kemoro making my Inner Energy within me nearly vanish and lowering my life signature as small as I could make it.

Suddenly the surroundings became a lot louder to my senses, as I became keenly aware of every noise it produced in the absence of the sounds I made, which included the crawling of the insects.

The Guider, in its awesomeness, was able to tell me that the group of individuals would arrive at my location in half an hour; so I waited patiently on top of the tree only momentarily breaking my stillness to rip in half an Inner Seal to augment my senses.

It was pretty surprising to me that I had to work harder to suppress my Inner Energy after doing so, but after some thought it only made sense that was the case.

Soon I could hear a commotion as the sound of people running reached my ears and I keenly focused all my senses towards that direction.

Eventually, I saw the culprits of the commotion as a group of four people burst through the clearing in what seemed to be a frantic and panicked state.

Out of the four the only female of the group suddenly collapsed to the other three individuals terror.

“Lassin please stand up, we have to keep going or else we're done for. I don’t want to leave you behind. Please Lassina don’t give up.”

The girl named Lassina looked so exhausted and drained she couldn’t even bother to respond.

It was apparent she had reached her limit.

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Upon closer inspection it looked like all four individuals were experts or at the very least were not harmless civilians since they carried weapons on them ranging from spears, blades, and even guns although they were only small ones; and all of them seemed to be currently suffering from one type of injury or another including the girl.

One of the other individuals finally chimed in after catching her breath.

“Royen it's no use she's done for, it breaks my heart to say it but we have to leave her behind, it might even give us a better chance to survive, those bastards won't give up until they kill us.”

The one who was called Royen and seemed to be the leader of the group seemed troubled, as it was apparent he didn’t want to leave Lassina behind.

But before they had a chance to make their decision the bushes behind them rumbled and another group of individuals popped out.

The group that was exhausted looked aghast and was only able to put some distance between themselves and the newcomers in their terror.

It seemed like they were the ones who had chased them and were causing them trouble.

I could observe that there were six of them in total, one more than the previous group and they seemed to be in a healthier condition than the latter.

They didn’t seem much stronger than the ones before them as to my eyes they seemed like a bunch of basic half-trained adventurers that were also armed.

But after closer analysis one in the group did look different.

All of the individuals in the group carried a combination of bush blades, spears, crossbows, and guns.

And from their attire, it looked like they were experienced at camping out in the wilderness.

One of the pursuing men suddenly started to laugh.

“Hahahaha those stamina pills sold to us by the herbalists were worth it look at them they looked worn out deer, they're done for.”

The one in the group who stood out to me, walked forward hand in spear and bush blade in an imposing manner as if victory had been assured to them.

“I gotta give it to you for a bunch of half-assed adventurers from Will City you guys did make us work for this one, having to chase you for a full day wasn't easy, but just for that i'll make sure to fully reap all my rewards hahaha.”

Before laughing the man lustfully looked at Lassina who collapsed on the ground.

Everyone there knew what the man implied.

One of the men in the group that was exhausted held on to Royens shoulder and asked hastily.

“Royen what do we do?!”

Royen sighed and took out his blade and a side knife he carried with him, surprisingly he didn’t touch the gun he had in his hip.

“We have no choice but to stand and fight, prepare yourselves!”

The other companion behind couldn’t believe what he had heard.

“But how we already tried that they're stronger than us they’ll kill us like they killed Marnu and Sinal, we're out of ammo and healing and support items we have no chance!”

“What choice do we have!” Royen angrily responded.

The man who was the obvious leader of the pursuers only snickered.

“Foolish until the end, you better hope there is something akin to another chance after you die where you can better apply the lesson I will teach you today since it seems you still haven’t learned even when faced with death. Here in Potestera, the weak are prey to the strong, if you are nothing but a mediocre wannabe it's only fitting that you die for trying to be what you’re not!”