"Father, do you know how powerful is Mr. Jinn?" Waul asked out of curiosity as they exited Clacton's gate and continued to walk towards their destination. The cold wind was howling and biting the skin of everyone while the fog had been obscuring the sight of these people.

"No idea," Roclus replied. "However, I'm sure that he is a fabled Spell Caster — people like us could not afford to offend existence like him. We are just puny ants in his eyes."

​​

"Spell Caster," Waul repeated and gulped his saliva, hearing his father's words. In the entire Clacton there wasn't even a single 9-star elementary mage. Roclus, who was the strongest person, was just at the 8-star elementary mage. So the concept of being a Spell Caster was too legendary and farfetched and like a fairytale to these people.

As the group continued to walk, the density of trees started to increase and the shadows of trees seemed as if they were the ghost spirits. The cold wind blew and trees danced; the rustling sound at this moment appeared like the laughter of a devil. Even though Kadyn was covered in a thick blanket he still felt cold due to chilly weather.

"I hate doing this in such cold weather," Elder Tandu grumbled as he rubbed his hands together, to warm himself up. His body was covered in a furry coat, but he still couldn't help but curse when the chilly wind blasted on his face, turning his ears and nose red.

"Just endure it. Aren't we also doing the same?" Roclus said irritatingly. He was also feeling uncomfortable in the forest in the middle of the night. Is it necessary to cry your pains in front of others? He thought.

"I was saying," Elder Tandu said.

No one spoke anything for about half an hour and they continued to walk just like that. The tree leaves crunched under their feet and the damp grass made a sloshy sound as they walked over it.

"Sir, can we rest for some time, our hands are already numb due to the cold? I don't think I would be able to carry him much before losing the grip," Refu said with a pitiful expression as he stared at the Elder Tandu, Roclus and Old Dem.

"Brother Refu is speaking the truth; I'd also not be able to walk much longer before dropping this guy," Hari added when he saw that his brother had already spoken about their problem.

Everyone in the group exchanged glances before Roclus said. "Alright, we will rest for about fifteen minutes before resuming our journey."

"By the way, Old Dem, how long we need to walk? I have never gone to the Bamboo Cove. After all that is a forbidden area," Refu asked after placing Kadyn on the ground. Kadyn felt a cold and damp soil and weed underneath him; he wanted to curse these bastards for dumping him just like a rice bag, but he controlled the urge to do so. He would trample them one by one after capturing their Sir Jinn, hmph!

"If my calculation is correct," the old man said with his trembling voice. "We need to walk about ten kilometres more."

"..." Refu.

"..." Hari.

The duo wanted to cry but no tears came out of their eyes; two brothers exchanged glances and a helpless look appeared on their faces.

"Alright," Elder Tandu stood up after just ten minutes and said. "Fifteen minutes are already over."

"What?" Refu and Hari looked at the man with bulging eyes. Are you kidding me? It's not even been five minutes! Are you trying to show off just because of Roclus' previous comment? Nonetheless, when they saw the stern expression on Elder Tandu's face they swallowed any dissatisfaction they were feeling at the moment. After all, not long ago this man had killed Old Keo without even batting an eye in front of hundreds of villagers. Would he hesitate to kill them in this silent and dark forest?

The group continued to walk on the debris and cobbles, dead leaves and wood of the forest. Just like that, half an hour passed. The two poor boys who were carrying Kadyn were on the verge of crying — both of them were mages; if they were any ordinary people they would have already collapsed. Although they haven't awakened their five stars yet.

Nonetheless what made them even more depressed was the speed of Old Dem. Though he appeared frail and week, with a hunched spine, and withering skin, he was pretty strong, because there was no sign of fatigue on his face until now and he was walking faster than anyone in their group — the forest looked eerie as the huge banyan trees started to appear one by one. Their long tentacles were falling from above like the tails of poisonous snakes. The deeper they went the larger number of tentacles became.

"It seems we're pretty lucky; we haven't encountered any magical beast till now," Waul commented, walking pleasantly and gracefully with his hands behind his back, examining his surroundings now and then.

"Indee… careful everyone!" just as Roclus was about to reply to his son, he shouted towards his companions and punched towards Waul's head. The boy saw his act and turned deathly pale in terror, all the gracefulness he was maintaining all this while completely shattered. As the punch covered in gauntlets neared his head, he closed his eyes and stood there with his wobbly legs.

"Boom!"

The hand collided with something, but it wasn't his head; he felt something warm and sticky over his face. Therefore, he slowly opened his eyes and realised that his father was nowhere to be seen — when he turned around he spotted the man, he was punching here and there like a moron, but when he calmed a little and focused in the darkness of night, he realised that he was attacking tentacles of the banyan tree.

"What are those tentacles?!" he shouted when he realised that something was amiss.

"Those aren't tentacles of these banyan trees, but magical beasts who disguised themselves in the banyan trees' tentacles," Old Dem replied and swung his wooden stick and killed one of the beasts. "These are Tentacle Snakes. They mostly live on banyan trees and act like tentacles that's why they got such a name."

"Are they dan-dangerous?" he asked and his legs started to shake.

"Not until they bit you," the old man replied and once more swung his staff, and a wind blade discharged from it, cutting another snake in half.

Refu and Hari had since long dumped Kadyn at the corner of a tree and were fighting with wooden sticks in their hands. Kadyn opened his eyes and looked at the scene in front of him. "Roclus is an 8-star earth elementary mage and he knows a 7-star spell that could harden his body as hard as a rock. Hmmm, no bad, not bad at all." Then his gaze fell on Old Dem and shook his head. "6-star elementary wind mage, but he knows just a single 5-star spell — wind blade."

On the other hand, Tandu was holding a blue coloured sword in his hand at the moment, slicing all the incoming snakes with the weapon. "6-star water elementary mage. Though he also has just a 5-star water spell pattern, similar to the Old Dem — If all of them knew spell patterns equal to their magic ranks, they would be able to solve this problem after some struggle. However, right now…" he looked at the hundreds of snakes attacking their pitiful group and shook his head.

After that his gaze fell on Waul who had collapsed on the ground in terror. What a waste. He was already a 5-star mage, but due to fear he couldn't even think straight and lost the will to fight.

"No!" a shout came from the left side of Kadyn — Refu held Hari in his arms and roared in agony and pain. "I will slaughter these bastards! I will not let a single of them live! Die die die!" he swung the wooden stick frantically, he had lost his mind completely when he saw his brother's lifeless open eyes and foam coming from his mouth. His tears fell continuously as he fought but no matter how hard he tried, he could not defeat those snakes. His hands ached and it slowly started to become difficult to breathe. His body was losing strength with every attack.

While Kadyn was observing the fight about three snakes reached him and tried to bite him. He snorted coldly and swung his hand, cutting all three of them in hundreds of pieces. Such low-level magical beasts weren't anything in front of him.

"We can't fight with them; we need to escape from here," Roclus shouted when he started to lose his strength slowly.

"You moron should have done it from the start. At least you have saved that Hari," Kadyn murmured and pulled the blanket over himself once more, waiting for someone to carry him.