As he approached the thick parts of the forest, he pushed the branches that came in front of him. Normally, he should make no sound when hunting, but now he felt too tired to think about it. After a while, as he had not encountered any animal that could still be tracked, he began to move toward the clearing.

 As he was about to reach the clearing, he suddenly heard a sound and reflexively crouched behind a bush. It did not take him long to realize that he had made the right decision. A large group of people, whom he thought were adventurers, had surrounded a few people. One of the children was crying quietly in the corner, and a few women were trying to calm him down by their side. The two men in the middle looked as if one of them was severely injured, and the other had a sword pointed at him.

“ Are you really going to kill us for just not telling you the location of the source? What did you expect from these illiterate fools without proper magic? “

 He pressed the sword against his neck as one of the women screamed hysterically.

" Please forgive our ignorance. I will show you the location personally."

 All this time, the man who had been standing in the corner raised his hand and signaled the others to retreat. The adventurers stepped back one or two steps as the woman walked towards them.

"Lead the way."

 

 The woman led the adventurers deeper into the forest, while the man who had the sword pressed to his neck tried to follow them, but the others held him back. The oldest woman among the women stopped the chaos.

“Keeping the location of the place that has protected us for years was an important duty, but if I don't see more of my people suffering, it will have no importance. Elva is a smart woman. She will take care of herself. But if we don't hurry, his life will also be in danger.”

 She said, pointing to the man on the ground, and they all started to move away together, holding him. As they left, the young man came out from behind the bush he had been hiding behind. The source had caught his interest. He could not suppress his curiosity about what it could be and began to move toward the direction where the adventurers had gone.

 

 

  Due to their large numbers and the fact that they weren't trying to conceal their tracks, it was easy to follow them. The current problem was timing. If he ran, there was a chance of being noticed by someone with a keen sense of hearing among them. He stopped when he saw a piece of rock on the ground, which he had seen before. He was sure by looking at the shapes of the bushes and trees ahead. They were making circles. He was preparing to use his power to increase speed when he heard a sound from behind.

 

 “We were wondering who was following us, but I didn't expect it to be a small child,” he said in a surprised tone. “You're not bad at magic. Your head works too.”

He slowly raised his hand and turned around. There were about thirty people. Fighting in broad daylight against so many people would be recklessness. Maybe if there were half as many…

The man approached slowly and put his hand on his head. He squeezed his head slightly in a threatening manner.

“Why were you following us?”

He couldn't deny something that was so obvious. But he didn't have any hostile intentions either. Telling the truth was the best option.

“I was curious.”

“What were you curious about?”

“The source.”

 The man first smiled slightly, then burst out laughing. He put his arm around the young man's shoulder with the force, and the tension in the air dissipated.

“You're coming with us then.”

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  They had been on the road for longer than they had expected. At first, most of the people walking briskly in the front had fallen behind. The woman, however, had long since exhausted herself and was being forcibly walked by a few people. A few people who had noticed that their pace had not faltered for nine hours had suspicious and angry looks on their faces as if they would pierce his back. The sound of a loud voice echoed again in the forest, where only the sound of footsteps and breathing – sometimes the sound of owls – could be heard for a long time.

“Stop.”

 While everyone was huddling together and whispering among themselves, he suddenly spoke again unexpectedly.

“Bring the woman.”

 While everything was being watched attentively, the two people in charge of checking the woman forcibly lifted her and brought her to their side. When the man grabbed the woman's hair with his hand, a small scream escaped from the woman.

“You've been deceiving us well so far. Now what you're going to do is tell the truth. You don't have a third chance. Where is the source?”

 

  The young man, who regained his wits with the man's words, looked around him. According to the route in the front, they should now be on the opposite side of the rocky monument in the depths of the forest. But if you look at the trees around, they were closer to the starting point. It was not something that anyone could do to draw a nine- to ten-hour route without sharp turns, shortening the road or deceiving by turning to the left and right.  But even in that state, she had been perfectly led into a trap. He smiled. This woman was not as naive as they said. She was a wise woman who had kept everyone on their feet for nine hours in this place.

  While everyone around was trying to understand what was happening, the man drew his sword and held it out to the woman. The woman's head, which had fallen forward due to fatigue, was lifted with the tip of the sword. The thing she saw was a smiling face looking back at her.

“Die then.”

 

  The woman's attempt to behead her was blocked. The echoing of sword sounds had turned everyone's attention to the young woman. A voice echoed from the crowd.

“My sword is gone. How?”

The man smiled, revealing his anger.

“Oh, you will regret it, little boy.”

 

 As the sword sounds echoed, the crowd scattered. No one was interfering to avoid damaging the honor of the boss. When the man made another forward move, he had to take two steps back. He was awful at sword fighting. He threw his sword on the ground and lifted his shirt. He would fight with the knife he took out from his waist. When another confident move came from the opposite side, he dodged and directed all his aura to speed. For a moment, nobody could see him and he had taken down two people in an instant. Then he disappeared into the dark forest. But his aura still showed that he was around.

“ So you are an assassin type? Rare.”

Suddenly, there was another silhouette and two more people fell. And once again. Even though everyone was trying to find him, it was like hunting in the dark forest for him. Within a few minutes, half of the group was on the ground. That loud voice echoed again, this time with concern.

“I, Gilgar Trenas, command you to come out. Show yourself!”

This time, there were no signs of movement and two more people fell. A panic atmosphere spread around. Those who tried to escape were falling one by one. Until only a handful of people were left. Then he appeared.

As he slowly walked to their side, they were all swinging their swords with fear and suspicion. He easily dodged their moves and as he passed through the remaining three people, they also fell to the ground. Now, only the boss was left. As he started walking towards him, he stepped back. Though they were equal in strength. When he took the final step to close the distance, the man stepped forward with fear. Two seconds later, he was on the ground. None of them had enough fighting experience. They were weaker than he thought. The reason they came to a place like Galea was probably to collect magical items without anyone's spirit detecting them.

 

 When he heard the rustling sound, he looked at the woman. She was slowly getting up. He went to her side. She was not afraid. He grabbed her wrist and started dragging her without saying anything. He didn't ask anything.

 As they walked, he realized that the direction they were heading did not lead to the village. They were getting farther from the forest he knew. The woman's steps slowed down and finally stopped. In front of them was a cave, completely filled with glowing materials. He looked back at the woman.

"No problem?"

"You're not going to take everything, after all, are you?"

 

As the young man approached the cave, he had to squint his eyes because of the intense light. Inside was full of crystals that could emit the same type of magic. As he didn't have any tools like a pickaxe, he tried to break them with the knife he had in his pocket. As he made strengthened strikes, the woman spoke.

"Stop that, now! Come with me."

As she followed the woman deeper into the cave, she saw a tiny, bright stone behind the crystals. It had a different color from all the others. It shone in a reddish-orange color. After she put the stone in her pocket, she caught up with the woman. At the end of the cave, she handed her a crystal fragment that was lying on the ground. It was about the size of a pen and two fingers wide.

"The previous ones had already taken it."

"All right. By the way, how did you manage such a wide route?"

"I knew you were going to ask that."

 

The woman breathed a tired sigh. As they talked, they walked out of the cave.

"When you have enough knowledge and experience, you can see yourself as if you're looking down on it."

"But, How... ?"

"See you, then."

Suddenly, the cave mouth was surrounded by vines. The young man smiled.

"What, you could have handled it too."

With the sound of owl hoots in the background, he set off toward his home.

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