It took Ali a minute to locate the speaker and, to his surprise, the voice belonged to the snake creature that vanished earlier. He got his bearings back when the creature asked again.

“It wasn’t a conventional method,” answered the teenager simply.

“Clearly,” said the creature, “you are fine with me tagging along, right?”

Ali responded no because he knew nothing about the creature except that it came from the toad dragon corpse. If the creature would become a toad dragon in the future, he would be doomed as no mortal could possibly control an abomination without being a monster too. He wasn't so foolish to make any deals with a toad dragon.

“I know what you’re thinking but I’m no toad dragon. I can tell you now that I don’t want to become that….abomination.”

When Ali stated that he didn’t believe a thing, the creature said that they could wait for the air serpent to return. There were ways to confirm its identity in the summoner realm but that would require a denizen of the summoner realm to be present. Ali agreed that this was a good idea so he sat down where he stood. Wherever the creature went, his eyes followed as the teenager took nothing to chance.

“You don’t need to do that,” complained the creature as soon as it noticed the teenager following its every move. “I cannot go deeper into your summoner realm until you accept me.”

As a demonstration, the snake went deeper into the summoner realm before it was magically teleported to its original spot. Ali watched in awe as the creature was seemingly rejected by his summoner realm. At the end of the demonstration, he told the creature that he believed the snake of its limitation when it came to how far it could venture but, with nothing else to do, he only had monitoring the creature as a way to kill time.

“Sounds like you have a very boring life,” said the creature.

“I normally have Tian or Mika keeping me company,” replied Ali.

“Tian and Mika. As in two summonees?”

Ali wasn’t sure why the creature was so surprised but the snake told him that the chances of a summoner getting two summoning abilities were practically zero. As the teenager debated on how much he should share with the creature, he was suddenly engulfed in darkness. In the next moment, he felt someone shaking him gently.

“Ali! Ali, are you okay?”

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The teenager opened his eyes to see Aok knelt down beside him. The sight of the man brought a smile to his face. He then sat up, telling the man that he wasn’t injured as, with Tian’s help, he avoided any direct confrontation. At the mention of that, he checked quickly and noticed that his trap setup ability was sealed again.

I should find out what lifted the seal briefly. That might come in useful in the future.

“I thought I was sending you on a simple delivery,” said Aok. “I didn’t expect the cult members to be so bold as to kidnap someone during the day.”

Aok spoke about the others getting worried when a man interrupted him. From the man’s uniform, Ali knew that this man belonged to the group he made the delivery for. With the way others gave him a wide berth as he approached, he could assume the man was part of the leadership.

“And how exactly did this boy escape? Maybe he’s one of the cult members who is now laying low to avoid execution.”

At the mention of cult members, many of the nearby soldiers got into a combat stance while Aok shielded the teenager from them. Knowing that Aok couldn’t possibly defeat all of them, Ali stood up to face the man accusing him of being a cult member.

“I escaped because my summoner ability wasn’t sealed off. If it weren’t for my air serpent, I would have joined the other captives.”

The teenager wasn’t about to show fear. He hadn’t survived a terrifying ordeal involving cult members and a toad dragon to be falsely accused of something he wasn’t. He was ready to hear more accusations when the man simply laughed.

“Aok, how do you find gems like these? None of my soldiers are capable of standing up for themselves if they had to experience what happened here.”

Ali thought the man was joking but, when he saw the soldiers all staring at the ground, he realized there was truth in those words. He turned to Aok who simply placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Good work! Now, let’s go home! We're done with this place.”

Home…

After being stuck in the caverns filled with all sorts of dangers, Ali realized that he missed his home very much. Since he left the formation that was all he knew for so long, the teenager never once thought about a home. He had become a wanderer who was seeing more of the world so he had nothing to complain about. Following so many close encounters with death, the teenager learned the importance of a home that he could go back to, a place for him to recharge and live a simpler life without the same worries that he had while on the move.

A family. A home. Sounds like just what I need.

Ali followed Aok as the duo made their way out of the underground caverns. The teenager was surprised to see all the caverns directly under the slums, thinking that their existence must have been known for a long time.

“The caverns were sealed away for a reason,” said Aok. “The toad dragon was guarding something that must not be unleashed back into the world. From what we have seen, this something has now escaped following the creature's death.”

Thinking he misheard something, Ali asked Aok to repeat what was said. He then stared down into the dark abyss and wondered what was so dangerous that a toad dragon would be assigned to guard it.

“No one knows what it is but I fear that this something might have already infiltrated into the city.”