Behind Titus, Bronn stormed into the room. Both looked around warily with weapons in their hands.

After they couldn’t find a threat, they lowered their axes.

“Fuck,” Bronn sighed, relaxing his body. “That scream sounded as if you’d been skewered on a lance.” He sat down on one of the chairs in the room. Titus grunted.

“Nightmare?” he asked, looking at the sweating and panicked Faust who was only now starting to calm down.

He nodded briefly, eyes still wide open.

‘Breathe in… and out…’ Faust tried to calm himself, struggling to do so.

From his heart, he felt a cold sensation spread through his body as his heart rate returned to normal. He took another deep breath and looked at Titus and Bronn.

“I’m sorry. I had a weird dream…” Faust scratched his head.

‘What the hell was that monster? What did even happen? Was I in a cave? How could such a large beast exist?’ he gulped and looked at Titus.

“Do you… know any legends about sea monsters?”

The old man was taken aback.

“What? Sea monsters?” he pondered briefly.

“There are a few. I remember a story about a Kraken… why?”

Faust gulped and told them about his dream and the color of the light.

Titus rubbed his temples as Faust finished explaining things to him.

“Sorry. But such an animal existing… is impossible. That goes even beyond all the legends we tell…” Titus shook his head and Bronn scoffed.

“Like humans with magical abilities?”

Titus looked at him, wanting to say something, but chose to remain silent.

Faust was embroiled in his own thoughts.

‘How is that connected to my current me? Why now? Why didn’t I have this dream weeks ago?’

Yet as so often before… he couldn’t answer the questions that plagued him.

Titus and Bronn soon left the room and the next day soon arrived.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A day later

Elena and Ryat, her companion, who didn’t receive Cao Ming’s special training, were riding down the major road between Antioch and Rhodusium to reach the Dukedom’s capital. Within a day or two they would be arriving at Alexander’s court to bring him Cao Ming’s message.

“Ryat. We will rest at the town ahead of us. The next two days we will ride through the nights.” She says coldly and he nods.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

‘I need to talk to Alexander to cooperate with him… I need to start working towards the Venerable’s downfall or I will never be free… but why would he leave me alone… I’m sure he doesn’t trust me.’ She wondered and felt something was off. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she had no other choice.

They chose Ludium, a town with two thousand residents, famed for its wine, as their place to rest for the night. The lands around the road were large vineyards, hills, and small forests.

The Grunting Boar was a famous inn in the town which they chose to stay in. They brought their horses to the stables and handed them to the stable lad before entering the seating area. There was a large wooden bar, about a dozen tables filled to the brim with laughing and drinking men and women.

When Elena entered the room, many eyes landed on her. She wore clothes that were on the tighter side and a large black cloak. Her hood covered her features and when she entered she threw it back and revealed her beautiful, slender face and long, red hair. She ruffled it and caught nearly half the men staring at her.

She sighed.

‘Do they have nothing better on their minds? I guess I should get used to it. Now I don’t need to be as subtle as I have previously been.’ She sighed and sat at the last free table with Ryat.

He grumbled loudly.

“If any of them dare to touch you I’ll rip their balls off.”

She snickered.

“And you think you’re faster than me?” she grinned at him.

She was incredibly confident in her newfound strength. In the past months, she had reached levels she never thought possible.

He shrugged and took a long sip from his beer.

She scanned the room and noticed a group of people that caught her attention when she first entered the room. A group of seven people dressed in uniform cloaks.

‘The scars on their faces… these men are not ordinary. I wouldn’t have stood a chance against them if it was the old me…’ she marveled and asked herself what these people were doing here.

There were three youngsters in their group, one of them even a woman. A beauty at that.

‘If I had to guess… the warriors are there to protect her… but who is she to receive such a strong entourage?’ she asked as she came to the logical conclusion.

A woman needed protection if she traveled long distances.

‘There are at least 3 guards among them…’ she marveled when a large man from another table approached her with swaying steps. He was obviously dead drunk.

“Hey… darling… you look… gorgeous, care for a little… hick … dance?” he could barely speak as he tumbled towards her.

‘Oh, here he comes.’ Elena frowned in disgust.

“No thank you. I don’t like dancing.” She replied, attempting to shoo him. Ryat shot him a death glare, but the man was too drunk to notice or care. He just grinned and reached out for Elena, but before she could stop him a hand landed on the man's hand with inhumane speed, stopping him.

‘WOAH! That kind of speed…’ She was shocked and looked at the man whom the hand belonged to. A young man, maybe 18 years old, blonde, and handsome, grabbed the man's arm and stopped him.

He smiled kindly.

“Sir, she refused. You should go sit down. You’ve had enough for today.” He tried to turn the other man away from her, but the drunk’s face turned red and he immediately swung his fist at the young man and as Elena was about to stop the punch to save the man who had helped her, the youngster swiftly dove underneath the punch, hit the man in the stomach and in one fluid motion moved behind him, locking the man in a triangle choke.

‘What the hell! His movements! He is a cultivator as well!’ her eyes shot wide open. She could feel mana emanating from his body. But it felt weird and very different to what she was used to.

The young man choked the man unconscious before putting him in a corner. He smiled at Elena.

“I hope you’re alright.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Faust was confused about the woman’s reaction. She appeared shocked, not by the man’s attack, but by his actions.

The beauty composed herself and smiled at him.

“Thank you for saving me…” she looked at him questioningly.

Faust slapped his forehead.

“How rude of me. My name is Faust. A guard traveling to Antioch.” He grinned at her and performed a polite bow.

‘He is so young… I need to be alone with him somewhere so I can question him about his cultivation! Maybe this is my ticket to freedom!’ she began to foster hope in her heart and introduced herself to the young man, who invited her to the table. It appeared he was friends with the large group sitting next to her.

Ryat watched them from a distance, sipping his beer. He had noticed the young man’s actions speed and chose to stay out of the matter.

‘Elena knows what she’s doing… right?’