“A kid?”

The revelation caught the attention of the nearby groups.

Tch! A burly man with a great axe strapped to his back walked up to the archer and looked into the forest where the kid had run into. His gaze pierced through the dense foliage to see a child who seemed to be about ten years old bound through the forest with practised mobility.

“A reclusive forest tribe?” The man muttered to himself. “A hunting party that brought a kid for experience? This deep into the Great Forest?”

He didn’t know.

“Follow the kid.” The man said finally after collecting his thoughts. “Observe for a while and report back at nightfall.”

The only response was two men who swished past the man into the forest in the direction the kid had ran.

***

Back at Sam’s home.

Aziel stood barefoot on the grass with eyes closed and a sword in hand. He stood perfectly still but the space around him seemed to tremble and vibrate before settling back into calm. Aziel unsheathed his sword soundlessly and begun to practice. There was no sound apart from that of feet gliding across grass but that too soon dissipated. From an outsider’s perspective, the man seemed to become one with the world as his body seemed to flicker in an out of existence.

Sometimes he would appear corporeal, other times his presence would fade, unable to be discerned by the naked eye. All sound seemed to be swallowed by the space around the swordsman as he danced with his sword. Face expressionless, the man’s visage was in perfect harmony with his blade. Sharp and cold. Without emotion.

Suddenly his eyes flickered as he released a final slash. His figure materialized once more and the air trembled ever so slightly that one would be hard pressed to notice if they weren’t paying absolute attention.

Shwick! The blade whistled as it rested in its sheath.

Aziel exhaled and looked into the forest. His gaze pierced through the forest verdure to land on a young boy running with all his might. The expression on his face was frantic and agitated as he kept glancing to his back every so often.

“I wonder what kind of trouble the lad has gotten himself into.” Chuckling, Aziel moved his gaze past the boy and caught sight of two figures following after him not far behind. They were a considerable distance away.

“He can’t see them but he’s sensed their presence? Instinct or paranoia?”

Aziel chuckled once more while shaking his head. It was good either way. If it was instincts, then the boy was quite talented. If it was paranoia, then at least the boy hadn’t been slacking off and knew not to lower his guard. He paid no attention to the two cloaked figures chasing him. From his observation, they were simply following him to determine his origins. Since they wanted to come, he’d let them come.

He ignored them completely thereafter and made his way into the cottage house.

“You’ve become rusty, Azzy,” Neva said with a teasing smile when Aziel entered the house. She was sitting on a mat meditating as different coloured mana streams swirled around her.

Slowly, the air around her calmed down as the mana dissipated. Neva’s eyes opened as she rested her gaze on the man who had just entered.

“Don’t call me that,” Aziel’s brow creased slightly before smoothing out again. “You’re one to talk. If I remember correctly, you’re the one who couldn’t keep up last night.” He retorted with a faint smile.

Neva was speechless.

“Hmph!” she harrumphed, not bothering to continue the argument.

After hiding the slight blush that heated her cheeks, Neva looked in the forest as well. She had also noticed Sam running home.

***

Hah! Hah! Hah!

Sam was panting as he leaped and ducked over and under thickets of vegetation. He scaled short trees whenever possible to avoid dangerous forest regions and pushed his legs to their utmost to get back home. Every so often he would glance to his back furtively but couldn’t make out anyone following him. However, the prickling sensation at the back of his neck never faded. He sensed two distinct sensations locking onto him. Since they came from the same direction, he figured it was someone from the group of people he had seen earlier.

Those people were terrifying!

That whole group of fifty something people gave him more pressure than when he was surrounded by the pack of dire wolves two years ago. Their combined aura was suffocating! Even the weakest could take on at least three by themselves!

Too strong! He thought to himself.

He had nearly collapsed from the blood rushing to his brain when the archer shot the second arrow at him. The amount of force behind that shot could definitely overshadow a full power snap of a dire wolf’s jaw! Sam hadn’t even thought twice before fleeing for his life.

At first, he was worried that all of them would come chasing after him, but after running for about seven kilometres he had at least confirmed that a small group of less than ten was chasing him. If he was lucky, it may only even be the two that had locked onto him. If that was the case, his mom wouldn’t even have to step in, his dad could finish them off by himself.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

His father could escape from a pack of dire wolves unharmed! In fact, if it wasn’t him holding his dad back that year, then Sam believed his father could even fight the pack head-on and win!

It was with this confidence that Sam whizzed through the forest with lightning speed, weaving in and out of dangerous beast territory. He hoped that the pursuers would accidentally antagonize one of the terrifying territorial beasts inside.

Sadly, he was too naïve.

While he was bolting at full tilt, his pursuers were following along at what was a leisurely pace to them. While they were slightly surprised that a boy without a hint of mana in his body could run that fast, it wasn’t to the point of shocking them. While fast for a mortal, it wasn’t anything worth mentioning in their eyes. What was worth mentioning though, was the ease and practise with which the boy traversed the forest.

The boy seemed to run around erratically but he was clearly moving in a certain direction. At first, they thought the boy was being cautious by trying to throw them off his trail. But when they almost encountered a group of Fire Apes, they realized that the kid was trying to lead them into danger zones!

“Tch! Cunning little bastard,” one of the pursuers cursed.

“He’s very familiar with this part of the forest,” the second pursuer pointed out.

“Reclusive forest tribe?”

The second man shrugged.

With that they continued to follow the boy.

***

It was already late afternoon when the trees cleared to reveal a fenced compound with a cottage house at its centre.

Sam hurdled out of the forest and leapt over the meter and a half tall fencing. On the veranda, he saw his parents sitting cross-legged on Daoist type mats with an illusory chess board in front of them. Sam had seen this scene numerous times but had never actually seen them move a piece. They just sat there looking at the board.

Not in the mood to grumble about their boring bad habits, Sam immediately hurried towards his parents but was stunned to find that he could not proceed further when he got to within three meters of the couple.

“Papa! Mama!” he cried with sweat dripping down his forehead. “There’s people in the forest! A lot of them! Maybe even a hundred!”

Silence.

“They are all strong!” Sam continued. “Stronger than a family of Fire Apes!” Anxiety and panic were evident in his voice.

Silence.

“But don’t worry,” Sam added when he realized that he had misspoken.

He surmised that his parents were shocked stiff when they didn’t respond. He had just basically told them that what was essentially a small army of powerful experts all as strong, if not stronger, than Fire Apes was coming to kill them!

Those were beasts even stronger than the dire wolves he still struggled to kill even now!

“I ran quickly and took some detours into Beast King territories. I must’ve lost most of them because only two followed me all the way here. I think you and mama should be able to handle them!”

Silence.

“Pa-…”

“Yes, yes. They can kill monkeys in one strike.” Aziel finally spoke with a voice tinged with frustration. He tore his attention from the board in front of him before briefly looking into the forest and shaking his head.

“…”

Sam was having trouble understanding his father’s reaction. He took one shaky step after another towards them, as he looked to the woman sitting opposite the crazy man. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his mother look up to the sky and exhale deeply.

At least mama’s taking this seriously, He thought.

Turning his attention to his mother, he was about to speak when he realized, to his dismay, that the woman had also gone senile!

After exhaling the woman looked into the forest for a few moments before turning her attention back to the game board. In fact, ‘looked’ was an overestimation in Sam’s understanding. The woman had merely glanced in its general direction before turning her attention back to the game in front of her.

Her back was hunched and her face loomed over the board with a contemplative crease between her brows. She was frowning like as if the result of the game would decide the fate of the world.

***

Just outside the family’s compound.

Two people wearing black cloaks and masks covering the lower half of their faces perched in a tree looking at the small cottage house surrounded by a garden of myriad plants and herbs.

Their breaths couldn’t help but hitch when they laid eyes on the scene in front of them.

“A-are those Tier 1 herbs?” One figured couldn’t stop his voice from shaking.

His companion swallowed hard but said nothing. He also couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Tier 1 herbs… He thought. No, I can see some of the peak tier among them. But we aren’t that deep into the Great Forest. There’s no way the mana here can sustain the growth of those herbs.

Wait!

Upon reaching here, the man’s eyes widened as he seemed to recall something. Just when the kid jumped over the fence…

The man seemed to recall seeing the space ripple slightly as the boy jumped over the fence. It was so slight that it may have been the wind but he was sure of it. There were definitely ripples!

He narrowed his eyes.

A formation barrier!

Coming to this conclusion, the man sucked in a cold breath. This would be troublesome.

High tier herbs and a formation to protect them.

He looked at his companion beside him who looked back. They seemed to have come to the same general conclusion.

These people weren’t small fries. While limited in their world view, they weren’t so cut off from society that they would fail to identify gold placed before their eyes. While they may not be able to identify all the herbs in the compound, they could identify a few. The mere fact that those few could grow meant that the concentration of mana inside the barrier was beyond unimaginable to be able to sustain so many high tier herbs. This wasn’t even mentioning the quality of barrier required to absorb and isolate the environmental mana to the extent that no other major plants and trees could grow around it.

“To set up this haven…” one of the cloaked men murmured.

“There must be a mana crystal vein under that area.” The second man finished the sentence. “The people inside are either bigshots or lackeys of bigshots.”

It was at this moment that the first man felt two pairs of eyes on them.

Startled, he pulled his gaze from the greed inducing herbs to look at the cottage at the centre for the first time. There he saw the young boy they were chasing kneeling in front of a man and a woman playing chess. The two individuals were looking straight at him!

Their gazes were vacant and expressionless. There wasn’t any malice in their eyes. There was no aura radiated. No overpowering presence.

But for some reason, cold sweat trickled down his spine the longer he met their gaze.

He felt nothing. He felt… like he was nothing.

Yes. That was what he felt from that gaze. Disregard.

And yet this disregard, made him feel that his existence would be wiped out if he dared breathe too loudly!

Shortly after, the couple ignored him.

“Phew…” the man exhaled.

He looked at his companion and could see the terror in his eyes. He had clearly had the same experience as him. Without another word, the two departed at their quickest speed.