Ethan woke up by feeling a kiss on the corner of his lips and found Vivian staring at him with a playful smile as she bent to the bed from the corner, already dressed.

‘’Breakfast will start in a few minutes. I’ll go take a shower beforehand,’’ she said and winked before turning to leave.

Ethan sat up while watching the sway of her hips as she walked out, and realized that even with his absurd regeneration, his muscles were all feeling sore. What a monster… No complaints, though. I’d rather have cramps all over for another night like this one.

He slowly got up and stored the furniture inside the tent to his ring before getting out and dispersing the mana in the core of the structure. Looking around, he didn’t see Beet anywhere, but he wasn't surprised since getting lost and making an appearance again was kind of his thing. As the tent slowly folded itself, he saw that Liam got out of his small tent, walking toward him with a smile.

‘’Good morning! Had a good night?’’

Ethan faintly smiled as well. ‘’You can say that.’’

Liam put his hand on Ethan’s shoulder and leaned toward his ear. ‘’Half of the men in the group been trying to get on her good side for more than a month, and it took you what? Four hours?’’ He giggled and leaned more as he whispered, ‘’So? How was it?’’

Ethan removed the hand and went to store the tent. ‘’Yeah. We’re not having that talk.’’

Liam chased after him. ‘’C’mon! What happened to the code between boys?’’

He stored the tent and turned around, ignoring Liam like he doesn’t exist. ‘’Died in shame after seeing the code between gentlemen.’’

The duo made their way to the center of the camping area while Ethan explained to Liam what a gentleman was, but seeing that a small clarification wasn’t going to be enough, he dropped the subject for now and told him to get him some breakfast as well before going for the showers himself.

There wasn’t a shower area as he expected, instead, it was the merchants once again who rented their portable showers. Although paying for everything was a bit annoying, he wasn’t bothered too much, since a single use of the shower was only two coppers.

After a quick bath, he returned from where he came from and noticed that many eyes were on him. A focus on [Mana Sense] revealed that people were already figured out that the newest addition to their group was the kid who jumped onto the stage at the last Double Moon. Fortunately, there was no talk of the Voidwalker. Back in the free cities, that rumor was a hotcake among the powerful families, but none of the ordinary folks were even aware of it so far.

People were thinking of him as the guy who lost his girlfriend in the tournament and tried to assault the jury in a blind rage, only backing off after the involvement of a high tier. He was glad that he could still lay low somehow, but the repeated mentions of Candice were getting on his nerves.

Just as he did to many other difficult issues, he’d pushed that memory to the depths of his mind as well. He still felt like he owed Candice, and killing her killer didn’t change anything at all. Helping out her family as she yearned for, also didn’t sit well with him. Same with unleashing his anger on the ones who were responsible for the tournament. Because she was already aware of the possibility of her death before she decided to join the event. That was why it was another impossible question where he had no choice but to stop thinking about it.

But of course, he was planning to face it eventually.

When he arrived at the side of his companions, the sun was still hiding behind the mountains. Yet, the gloomy weather of the Dead Plains didn’t seem to have any effect on this cheerful small group. Leaving behind the thoughts of Candice’s tragic fate, Ethan joined them readily.

‘’Where is Beet?’’ Hayley demanded with a frown.

Ethan shrugged. ‘’Who knows?’’

‘’Shouldn’t it be you? How can you be so relaxed when he is nowhere around?’’

Ethan cocked an eyebrow as he extended his hand to grab a piece of bread. ‘’Why shouldn’t I? No one in this caravan can be a threat to him.’’

At least, that was what he hoped. Since even the guard captain was a tier-5, he doubted that there were any tier-6s among the others who hid their cultivation.

This time, it was Fraeya who frowned. ‘’He wouldn’t kill anyone, right?’’

‘’He knows how I feel about killing sapients,’’ Ethan replied as he shook his head, and added after she gave a sigh of relief, ‘’He would only kill if he thinks they deserved it.’’

That was a bit of an exaggeration, and he felt it was worth it after seeing Fraeya’s flinch. Ethan had warned Beet about not killing sapients for the sake of their essence long before and told him to escape to his side if he was in danger. If that wasn’t an option, only then Beet was allowed to go wild and kill the fuckers without holding back. That was the well-deserved death in his mind.

‘’Do you mean that mantis is stronger than the tier-5 guards?’’ Carl asked in disbelief.

‘’I can’t say for sure, but if things go south, Beet should be able to escape at least.’’ Ethan popped an olive into his mouth and bit a small piece from the bread. ‘’Though, I don’t think it’d come to that. No one would intentionally mess with him without a reason, right?’’

‘’As long as people know that Beet is your beast companion, it should be okay,’’ Liam said. ‘’There are many other beasts in the group.’’

‘’You should ask Malik to spread the news,’’ Carl said, motioning with his head, ‘’He is already coming over.’’

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Ethan turned to look and see that Malik and two other guards were walking toward them.

Malik greeted them with a nod, looking even more rigid than yesterday. ‘’Another theft happened this morning.’’

‘’Ugh, what is it this time?’’ Vivan asked with a frown.

‘’A rug made of tier-7 beast skin. The furniture on top of it was even more expensive, but none of them were touched.’’

Carl shook his head. ‘’He’s clearly messing with us. It’s like saying, I can do whatever I like and you can’t do anything about it.’’

‘’Well, he can do whatever he wants, apparently,’’ Malik said, obviously irritated. ‘’This time there were many people around the crime scene and none of them heard or saw anything. It doesn’t matter if the rug was cheap or not. People are getting anxious and thinking if it’s going to happen to them next time.’’

‘’This can be just foreplay for all we know. That thief could clear out everything the merchants have before the end of this trip and vanish,’’ Liam commented.

‘’That’s why we need some extreme measures,’’ Malik said. ‘’Before we reached the border of Mirasatra, I plan to forcefully search everybody for the missing goods. Honestly, I don’t think we could catch him with this, but I have to do something or no one would hire us in the future.’’

‘’But why are you telling us this?’’ Fraeya asked with a light frown.

‘’Because I barely have 30 guards with me, if the others try to resist, it might turn into a shitshow quickly. I trust you guys. When I make my move, if you could lend me help to calm the masses, I’d really appreciate it.’’

Everyone looked at each other with troubled faces. It was Ethan who spoke first, ‘’Sorry, Malik. You are not taking a look in my spatial storage, and I can’t help you to do it against others.’’

‘’I didn’t plan to anyway. The robberies started long before you came, so you’re already in the clear.’’

‘’It doesn’t matter. You said, no one would trust you to hire you in the future. Do you think violating the privacy of your customers would be any help? You even plan to force them against their will, if it comes to that. These people hired you to protect their rights, not to herd them like a bunch of sheep.’’

Malik’s face darkened as he looked at others in expectation.

‘’I’m sorry, Malik. Ethan is right,’’ Liam said. ‘’I’m glad that you’re trusting us, but if you want our help, you need to come up with a different plan.’’

‘’Very well. Thank you for your time. We’ll be moving in 15 minutes,’’ Malik said rather bitingly and turned to leave.

With that, Ethan also lost his hope for Malik’s help in warning others not to mess with Beet, but fortunately, he caught the little terror with his [Mana Sense] right after, flying towards them.

Beet made a dive and gently landed on the corner of the table.

‘’Hey, bud,’’ Ethan said. ‘’Where have you been?’’

Beet looked at his own shadow.

‘’Oh, training?’’ he asked and added after Beet’s nod, ‘’Try not to go too far these few days. You can train here as well.’’

Originally, it was he who told Beet to not show his skills in crowded places, but after Beet got his new skills, his confidence in him increased many folds. Ethan had learned in Niamaris that people didn’t see the death-related skills as evil, and there was no bullshit hunt for the necromancers and the like. However, there was a hunt for rare skills. That was why he’d wanted fewer people to know his and Beet’s skills.

He was also aware that this was only delaying the inevitable and he had no way to hide Beet all the time. So, after Beet gained new abilities, he decided to give him more freedom and replace his own paranoia with reasonable caution.

They made their breakfast while casually chatting about the past feats of that thief and thinking about different ways to capture him, like luring him into a trap. Once their meals were finished, they packed up and made their way toward the wagon. It was a wooden construct that was enough to carry 10 people other than its driver and guard. There were two camel-like creatures in front of it, as tall as the wagon itself.

Carl jumped next to the driver while the others entered inside. Ethan found that three more people were already seated inside, an old couple and a little boy who was likely their grandson.

The middle of the construct was empty and it had seats on both sides next to the windows. Three single seats on the right side and six double seats on the left. Ethan and Vivian took a double seat like Fraeya and Hayley while Liam sat on a single one, and their journey started.

Ethan’s ship was a lot more comfortable without a doubt, but he was enjoying the new experience very much. Closing his eyes, he opened his mini-map and increased its radius to the max. They were still a bit far from the capital of Mirasatra, but he hoped to cover all of the kingdom after a week of a trip.

From the mini-map, he saw that Niamaris was also outside of his reach now, but he was already able to cover about 70% of the kingdom. Around the famous capital of the kingdom, Miri, there were three big cities and dozens of small villages. Among them, he already discovered eight earthlings at different locations, and couldn’t help but get a little excited. Vince, Wu, Adrian… I hope I can find you bastards here. I can also check the Union with the gates from Miri, but If you aren’t in either of them, I really don’t know when we will be seeing each other again.

Along the way, the party chatted with each other to pass time, but the best way to ignore the boring Dead Plains was of course cultivating. By shutting their minds to the outside, they were able to refine mana with their manuals and ignore the passing time at the same time. Though, since Ethan needed a ridiculous time to collect essence with his trash talent, he found this pretty much useless, and instead, he focused on the mana exercises he learned.

As he played and experimented with different ideas, time passed quickly and he barely recognized that it was afternoon already. Until a slight tremor on the ground disturbed his concentration. When the ground started to shake more, he frowned a little and [Blink]ed on top of the wagon.

The long caravan was traveling at high speed, but the animals started to get restless and some even made loud noises while ignoring their drivers. Everyone understood something was wrong, and Malik gave the order to stop the convoy.

Carl jumped next to Ethan and joined him by gazing at the empty Dead Plains with a serious face. The others also got out from the wagons, not sure what was going on.

Soon, a dust cloud showed itself on the horizon, and it was advancing toward them rapidly. Ethan narrowed his eyes and saw that among the cloud, there were giant worm-like creatures, swimming through the land.

‘’Shit,’’ Carl cursed with a grimace. ‘’Sandworms. If that earth tremor is any indicator for their numbers, I say we’re fucked.’’

‘’We cannot let them get close to the caravan!’’ Malik yelled with all his might.

Liam and Fraeya looked at each other before starting a sprint toward the herd. As they ran, Fraeya covered herself with the ice armor and called her double-bladed staff, while Liam called his white leather gloves and followed her from behind with a manic smile. As they got close to the tier-5 sandworm at the front, small spinning fire rings started to appear around Liam and shot forward toward the creature with a curve. At the same time, Fraeya made a jump, an ice column appearing beneath her feet.

Just as she and the rotating fire rings were about to meet the sandworm, a [Fabric Tear] materialized between them and a speedy bone spear came out with a whistle, piercing through the beast's brain and killing it at once.

‘’Like hell I let you steal my kills!’’ Ethan yelled from behind and [Blink]ed above the horde before making a dive with bone spears in his hands and a grin on his face. I’m already so close to level 43. This exp is mine!