*Tabdak!* *Tabdak!* *Tabdak!* *Tabdak!* *Tabdak!*…!

Under the awe-inspiring lights of the starts, four black horse monsters, all of them striking fear with their glowing scarlet eyes, were galloping side by side in a row at a speed of 80 km/h on a silver E-class zenanium road. Their harness attached to a 4 m x 9 m red and white D-class zenanium carriage of eight wheels.

Even though it seemed impressive as a mean of transport, in this world, it was a poor one.

Within the carriage, there were fifteen individuals including the driver, who was an old white-haired goblin, and two mercenary escorts, both of them middle-aged war elves.

The escorts were at the early Intermediate Awaken stage, and everybody else was at the early Basic Awaken stage or at the Body Evolution stage or just did not have cultivation at all.

There were four humans, two monster humans, three gargoyles and three gorgons amongst the passengers.

The gorgons all had the same kind of snake on their heads: The white snake. And like their white snakes' eyes, theirs were entirely black too. They shared similar characteristics because the three of them were members of the same family, the Darrel family.

They were: Cara Darrel, a 30-year-old-looking female, she was a caring mother who was patiently awaiting her husband to come back home from the war; the next one was Kawan Darrel, an 18-year-old-loking young male, he was the kind of person who always could be seen wearing a strong but gentle smile on his face, even in the darkest days, of course, he wasn't just an optimistic fool, he was like that because he wanted to make his mother and his little sister feel that everything will be alright just as his father did at all times when he was with them; and Caroline Darrel, she looked like an 8-year-old girl and in actually was an 8-year-old girl, she was the only passenger who had no cultivation, and the word that described her the most was 'shy': she loved to live within her own world and genuinely hated to talk with everyone but herself and her family.

Kawan Darrel looked over at his two blood relatives and saw the fatigue in their eyes, thus he comforted them, smiling as ever: "Don't worry, we'll stop to rest very soon."

Cara Darrel smiled softly and said turning her concerned gaze toward her daughter: "Luckily, yes. Caroline is still too young and too weak, she must be the most tired after traveling for three days straight from Stormy Cloud City."

Feeling the vibration of the carriage under the loud horse monsters galloping sounds, and wearing a simple black one-piece dress, Caroline Darrel just kept on staring at the immense night sky through the window, silent, expressionless, and with large and deep bags under her eyes.

Kawan Darrel comforted again: "At least the trip was worth it. Aunt Ellen's wedding was incredible."

"It's true, it was." Cara Darrel said recalling pleased.

Even Caroline Darrel slightly nodded at the words of her brother.

A while later, the horse monsters slowed down and got off the road.

The carriage stopped on a small field of grassland surrounded by a forest of harmless eucalyptus plant monsters.

The driver got off the carriage and began to take care of the horse monsters, and at the same time, everybody else started to set up their tents.

Once the tent of the gorgons was ready, Caroline Darrel let her body fall on a blanket, and in no time, she fell asleep, all of her cute and little white snakes fell asleep with her.

Cara Darrel and Kawan Darrel couldn't help but chuckle at this sight, and soon, they too lay down to sleep.

After the old goblin finished feeding the horse monsters, which were in the Fourth Level Basic Awaken stage and had the Steady Gallop Racial Skill, he asked quite concerned to the mercenary escorts: "Robert, Daniel, you two won't fall asleep, right?"

Robert, the taller war elf, answered seriously: "Of course. We've taken turns to sleep in the carriage through the trip, that's why we'll be alright."

Daniel added putting his hand on the small shoulder of the old goblin: "You don't have to worry about it, in spite of our appearances, we actually are very competent mercenaries! Rest assured, no matter what, we absolutely won't fall asleep!"

Seeing the confident looks of these two war elves, the old goblin nodded and said: "Alright then, I'll go to sleep without worries." As he finished speaking, he got into the carriage and went to sleep in his little bed.

The mercenaries sat by the side of the improvised encampment and started to talk about random stuff while doing their job.

And just like that, two hours passed by uneventfully.

At that moment, within the tent of the Darrel family, a pair of eyes slowly opened.

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(I need to do a wee…) Pouting, Caroline Darrel groaned within her head. She got up and looked over at her mother and brother. (I should be careful to not wake them up. They have been worried about me, but they must be really tired as well.)

She stepped quietly out of the tent and walked toward the forest.

Robert and Daniel noticed her movements. They exchanged looks and found a severe expression on each other's face. Eyes glowing with fighting spirit, they raised their right fists and began a wild competition of rock-paper-scissors. After eighty-nine swift bouts, Daniel broke the constant flow of draws with scissors.

"Je." Daniel uttered a single 'je' with half a smile and dashed toward Caroline Darrel.

Robert lifted his eyes up and murmured dispirited: "*Sigh*… What a boring job…"

When Caroline Darrel discovered someone following her, she stopped in her tracks and turned to face her pursuer.

He also stopped and said: "I’m just doing my job. We’ll get in trouble if something happens to you.”

She lowered her head, and said weakly: "Please… don't… follow me…" She then bolted toward the forest as quick as she could without looking back.

Daniel remained there motionless and speechless, not knowing what to do for quite a while. Finally, he shrugged and returned to Robert's side.

"Hahaha… The girl feels safer alone than with you!" Robert laughed at the depressed Daniel.

In response to such blatant ridicule, Daniel grabbed a stone from the ground and threw it at Robert while whispering angrily: "If you can't shut up, stuff this stone in your mouth, you damn noisy bastard. Try to be a bit more considerate with the sleeping folks around us…"

Blushing, Caroline Darrel kept on running.

And after almost 1.5 kilometers, panting, she stopped. (… I think I've exaggerated a little with the running…)

Before long, she finished what she wanted to do, and started to walk slowly toward the camp.

On the way, she felt the fragrant and fresh smell of the eucalyptus plant monsters, and after walking for a short while, she began to feel extremely sleepy. Although she tried with all her willpower to not close her eyes, in the end, she still drifted into sleep. Her body then hit the grassy ground, and the fall, rather than waking her up, gave her a soft bed to sleep on comfortably.

Some minutes ago.

A few kilometers away from the campsite, seven dangerous-looking cultivators wearing deep green hooded robes were observing cautiously the war elf mercenaries. They were middle-aged individuals, and they were around the mid Intermediate Awaken stage.

The leader was a 40-year-old-looking elemental elf, and due to his Awakened Skill being the Earth Element, his hair and eyes were yellow. He was holding a portable telescope, which he was using to stare at Robert and Daniel.

"This is perfect. Let's get this over with." The leader said and nodded at a bald human.

After receiving the authorization, the bald human opened his mouth wide and used his Special Awakened Skill. Afterward, from his mouth came out a colorless and odorless gas, which was transported by the wind toward the encampment.

Robert and Daniel were sitting silently, and they were quite angry with each other, especially Robert who had a red pulsing bump on his forehead.

Out of the corner of his eye, Robert saw that Daniel was becoming drowsy. Instantly, the light of a great idea flashed through his eyes. He quickly and subtly grabbed a stone, of course, bigger than the one Daniel had used to hit him. He then threw it at him.

*POW!*

The blow sent Daniel flying almost eight meters away.

"You seemed so sleepy, I had no choice." Robert said shaking his head, not even bothering to hide his wide smile.

"Hehehe… hehe… hehehehe… Don't worry about it. It was my fault, I was supposed to be wary of my surroundings." Daniel beamed, blood oozing out of his nose, as he returned staggering toward where he had sat.

After some seconds, although Robert was trying really, really hard to not lose his awareness, he still ended up closing his eyes for more than an entire second. Obviously, immediately afterward, a rock heavily smashed his face.

In this way, they forgot the purpose of being in this place, and just kept watch over each other with bloodshot eyes. The moment someone was about to fall asleep, the other one would mercilessly throw a rock at that someone.

This didn't last for too long though. The point came when the two of them were about to fall asleep at the same time, so finally, they dozed off.

Evidently, the gas the bald human had released was actually a powerful sleeping gas!

Once the gas finished its work, the seven beings that had been watching them crept toward the camp.

The leader glared at the bloody faces of Robert and Daniel, and said snorting coldly: "How was it possible for such pair of morons to reach the early Intermediate Awaken stage?"

Without delay, two of the seven put Robert and Daniel in sacks, while the bald human took out a dagger. Almost immediately, he used that dagger to create a little crack on one of the tents, and then he activated his Special Awakened Skill to make the sleep of the gargoyles inside deeper. After doing this, he went to another tent to do the same.

The others just concentrated their efforts on putting the sleeping beings in sacks.

In no time, there were fourteen sacks with someone in each of them.

"Our boss will be very satisfied with this quantity of 'food'. Fellow bastards, time to return." The leader commanded.

They then swiftly disappeared into the distance.

A few hours later.

One of Caroline Darrel's little snakes woke up leisurely. Seeing that everybody else was sleeping, that snake decided to bite softly the nose of its owner. This action caused Caroline Darrel's eyes to abruptly open. She exclaimed inwardly: (Where am I?!)

She stood up anxiously and cautiously looked around.

(Oh, I was…) After seeing the eucalyptus plant monsters, she quickly remembered how she had gotten here.

(I've to get back to the camp.) She thought as she began to dash.

Upon arriving at the clearing, she was surprised: (Where did those mercenary escorts go? Are they slacking off on their job?)

After not finding the war elves at their post, a bad feeling crept into her.

She reached her tent, and, at that moment, her body froze.

(It's empty…) An absentminded mutter echoed within her head.

She quickly searched through the entire encampment and after a while, she found no one, just empty tents. She frowned deeply: (Is this some kind of joke? Or perhaps… am I still dreaming?)

After a few minutes of not finding any signs of this being a dream, she inspected the tents once again, and by doing this, she discovered a suspicious cut on each one of them.

*Sigh*...

She sighed rubbing her own forehead and wondered: (What is going on…?)

The more she thought about it the more horrific her assumptions became.

In the end, she just stood there motionless, looking at the empty tent her family had used.

*Drip* *drip* *drip*…

Eventually, tears began to fall from her eyes. She was feeling so desolated and so sad even her little snakes started to cry.

The thought of forever losing her most beloved ones assaulted her, and cruelly drilled a heart-shattering pain into her fragile soul.