Elijah told Elder Jeb and the others that he would be going to rescue the villagers on his own. Of course, there were many people that spoke up in disagreement. However, with none of the villagers having proper mental defenses, it didn’t take much effort to change their minds.

Once they were all in agreement, Elijah immediately left the village. Although Elijah wasn’t an expert in kidnappings or hostage situations, his exploration of various fictions led him to believe that every second counted in situations like these. The enemy already had a plan in action and Elijah was playing catch up. If he was slow, he would never break free from the enemy’s plans. If he was slow, his chances at safely rescuing the villagers would diminish.

Moving at full speed, on Dirt Road number one, for most of his journey, Elijah quickly arrived at the edge of Tranquil Oak Tree area within thirty minutes. The moment Elijah arrived; his eyes were drawn to the large fox lying by the tree. It had brown fur, its eyes closed, and it showed no outward reaction to Elijah’s presence.

Elijah wasn’t surprised by the lack of reaction. After all, he was visible but not very close to the fox, and he was using the passive effects of his Supreme Concealment skill while he traveled through the forest. As a matter of fact, Elijah decided to keep the passive effects of his Supreme Concealment skill active at all times.

Unlike some of Elijah’s other skills, Supreme Concealment didn’t have a passive effect that interfered with his or anyone’s daily activities. Two obvious examples of skills with problematic passive effect are Supreme Combat and Ruler’s Presence. So far, the worst experience Elijah had with his Supreme Concealment skill active was he spooked a few villagers. Of course, the constant use of this skill would push it toward the next stage.

Skill: Supreme Concealment

Tier: 0

Stage: Early

Effect: Grants +10 Defense. Conceals you from curses, hexes, nightmares, and other mystical influences. Hides your status information and can make your presence less noticeable. Consuming energy can allow the user to enter and maintain stealth.

Cost: 5 stamina and 10 mental energy every two seconds

“Hello, I’m the Chief of the people you captured.” Elijah called out to the fox as he slowly approached it. On his way over, Elijah thought about what stance he should take and decided to take a passive one until he had a better grasp of the situation.

The fox abruptly opened its yellow eyes and began to carefully observe Elijah. Elijah continued to approach, but the fox didn’t have any other reactions until Elijah got close. It abruptly stood up, turned around, and sent Elijah one mental message before it ran away.

“Follow.”

BB said the fox was able to talk, but she didn’t mention anything about mental communication. Elijah was a bit caught off guard by the sudden voice in his head, but he quickly adjusted and followed the fox. As Elijah followed the fox, he wondered if it could read minds and thought about the other mental abilities it might have. Eventually, Elijah pushed those thoughts to the side and focused on gathering information from the fox.

Running after the fox Elijah thought about how he should start a conversation with it. However, Elijah’s focus was redirected when he noticed the fox was gradually speeding up. Confident in his running speed, initially Elijah wasn’t worried about keeping up with the fox. However, his thinking quickly changed after thirty seconds passed.

“Is this thing trying to shake me off or what?” Elijah thought to himself.

After another thirty seconds passed, Elijah was close to reaching his top running speed without using skills. If the fox continued to increase its speed Elijah would be forced to use Mirage steps to keep up. Of course, Elijah wouldn’t do something so foolish.

During his journey to the Tranquil Oak Tree, Elijah already used a decent amount of energy. If he continued to use the Mirage Step skill, no, if he continued to run at full speed he would lose most or all his energy before he found the captured villagers. After he considered the overall situation, Elijah reduced his running speed to a slow jog. He was still moving very fast, but a slow jog would allow Elijah to recover his lost energy.

“Alright, your move Mr. Fox, or is it Mrs. Fox.”

Unsurprisingly, the fox didn’t stop running after Elijah slowed down. It continued to increase its speed and soon it was out of sight. However, Elijah didn’t panic. The fox disturbed the foliage as it ran, so it was easy for Elijah to follow it.

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After five minutes of jogging, Elijah finally saw the fox again. It was sitting in its haunches and staring in Elijah’s direction with a slightly annoyed look in its yellow eyes. As Elijah got closer to it, he did his best to make himself look tired. It wasn’t hard.

Before Elijah started running with the fox, he was already sweaty from his previous run. As for his breathing, it was less rough after five minutes of jogging, but it wasn’t completely back to normal. Elijah made his breathing a bit more exaggerated as he came to a stop before it.

“I told you to follow. Keep up. I won’t wait for you.”

In Elijah’s mind, each of the fox’s words sounded like a growl, and he was unable to determine its gender. However, he was able to determine that the fox was communicating to him with a commanding tone. Normally, this tone would have made Elijah have a negative reaction, but now he was happy that the fox took the initiative to communicate with him. With a gleam in his eye, Elijah quickly spoke up when he saw the fox turning to leave.

“My stamina is limited. Unlike you I’m not at the first tier, so I can’t run for too long.”

“Is that true?”

Supreme Speech

“Of course! Why would I lie? I want to see my people more than anything right now. If I could move faster than I definitely would.”

Elijah wasn’t sure, but it looked like the fox believed what he said. The fox nodded before it continued running through the forest. Naturally, Elijah followed it and he did so with a faint smile on his face.

The fox was now running at a far more reasonable pace. It was faster than the jogging speed Elijah was previously using, but the energy expenditure was still manageable. By the time he arrived at wherever they were going he would still have the energy to fight or flee.

“So, do you have a name?” Elijah asked the fox.

“I can’t talk to you,” It replied.

“Oh, why not? Wait, let me guess. Your leader told you not to.”

“Yes.”

“So, you just do whatever your leader tells you. Can’t you think for yourself? You should be able to decide who you do and don’t want to talk to.”

No response. The fox continued running without turning its head. Elijah wasn’t discouraged and began to unleash a ferocious assault.

“How long do we have to run? Do you know why my people were taken? What’s the name of your leader? How old are you? How old is your leader? How many foxes are there? How many of you are in the first tier? Why can’t you turn into a human? Is it because your human form is ugly?”

The fox snapped its head to the side and glared at Elijah for a few seconds before it resumed looking forward. Elijah smiled when he saw the fox react to one of his questions, but he didn’t continue to ask it any more questions. Elijah recognized that the beast wasn’t going to talk and asking it more questions would only piss it off. Since Elijah couldn’t use his words, he planned to obtain information through a different method.

Supreme Eyes

Using his Supreme Eyes talent, Elijah began to observe the fox as he ran behind it. Elijah’s goal was to get a better understanding of the fox in front of him and use that understanding to deal with the other foxes he would meet in the near future. If he had to fight, he would be able to quickly analyze and react to the other foxes’ abilities.

Looking at the fox, the first thing Elijah took in was its brown fur. It looked beautiful and soft, but Elijah could see areas where it was a little dirty and damaged. As the fur was blown by the wind, Elijah could see it absorb the astral energy in the air.

Following the flow of energy, Elijah saw it go through the fur and past the skin. After that, Elijah’s vision was blocked by another unique form of astral energy. The astral energy had the ferociousness of beast, but within that ferociousness there were some mesmerizing and illusionary properties.

Visually the astral energy was a deep gray, violently moving through the fox’s body with a few flashing glimmers hiding within it. Also, the astral energy was a lot more condensed than Elijah was used to. However, Elijah somewhat expected this because the fox was the highest-level creature he ever encountered while playing Fallen Heaven.

Mystic Fox Lvl 60

Honestly, Elijah was a little surprised by the fox’s level and the density of its energy. If the fox was this strong, then how strong would the woman it followed be? Nonetheless Elijah’s confidence in himself was not affected and he believed he would be able to deal with whatever the foxes threw at him.

The journey lasted several hours, more than four to be exact. By then Elijah was outside of his territory and there was a ten percent decrease in his strength. Other than a few periods of rest, Elijah spent those entire four hours studying the fox as he ran after it. Naturally, the fox noticed something was off with Elijah persistent stare, but it didn’t know what it was. Therefore, other than giving Elijah a few looks, it continued running without saying anything.

During the four-hour trip, Elijah didn’t gain as much information as he wanted to. It took Elijah an entire hour before he was able to say he was confident in predicting the fox’s movements without fail. The biggest problem was the mesmerizing properties of the fox’s astral energy. It would either make Elijah see false movements or completely blind him to the fox’s next movements.

After Elijah was able to reliably predict the fox’s movements, his next step was to grasp the fox’s stats. Sadly, after three hours of study, Elijah was only able to get a basic grasp of the fox’s physical stats. Of course, this was because of the mesmerizing properties of the fox’s astral energy. Although Elijah didn’t know the specific number, he saw that all the fox’s physical stats were greater than his and dexterity was its best stat.

Suddenly, as Elijah was starting to grasp the fox’s attack and defense, the fox took off into the forest. Elijah was surprised by the sudden change and several thoughts went through his head. After a few moments of hesitation, Elijah decided to speed up and follow the fox.

Elijah soon found himself at the top of a hill. Below was a valley mostly hidden by tall trees and the fox he was following. As the fox walked toward the trees several foxes came out to greet it. There were fifty to be exact, and all of them were in the first tier.

“Oh boy.”