"Around ten minutes..." Adam murmured to himself as he looked at a certain group of soldiers in the village

At that moment they were injecting their mana into long runic glyphs engraved rectangular pillars that stood at different locations in the magic circle made of runic glyphs under the command of a man wearing a green embroidered robe and holding a long staff.

The man had the height and built of a normal human being, he could be mistaken as one if not for his way bigger head and the third eye between his eyebrows, if one was careful enough, they would be able to notice that the man's hands too were a lot bigger than normal, and they had longer and thinner fingers, yet, they gave the impression that they would be able to generate a huge amount of force.

Adam recognised the man's race straight away, he was an encolian, a race well known for their well-made tools and their demanding magic in terms of control, there were also a lot of legends about them being the race that used forbidden spells and magic the most, but as was clear from the name, that type of magic was forbidden by the Alpha, so they couldn't just use it so willy-nilly at those times.

Not all the soldiers were working on injecting their mana in those different pillars though, some of them were guarding around the borders of the village while others were digging some graves to bury the dead villagers.

At that moment, the dead villagers were being put in one corner of the village, close to what seemed to be a cemetery.

As he looked at the operation that was almost ending, Adam thought for a bit before sighing and shaking his head.

"And it's still a new bow..." He murmured sadly as he removed his bow from his back. The bow was just a normal wooden bow without anything special about it, a bow Adam bought from a random village while journeying.

He took an arrow from his quiver and nocked it, after that, his expression became serious while he aimed at the magic circle, the encolians had a strong sensitivity to mana, and he was sure that soon after starting to prepare for his attack, he would get found out, so there was no room for error and he had to succeed in one try, not that that was a problem for him though.

With that thought, a light smile appeared on Adam's face and with that, a milky white light enveloped the bow and arrow, and in the next second, two different things happened at the same time.

The encolian, who was busy giving orders to the soldiers, turned around as fast as lightning and, without having the luxury of time to warn those around him of what was coming or to ask for help, he lifted his hands towards where Adam was, making a shining blue barrier appear between them.

The second thing was the appearance of a small tunnel enough for an arrow to pass through between where Adam was and the magic circle, the small tunnel was made of the same milky white light that enveloped his bow and arrow, and it manifested in the blink of an eye.

As soon as the tunnel appeared, Adam released his arrow, the arrow went through the milky white tunnel at an increasing speed, and as soon as it passed a part of the milky white tunnel, the latter would crumble and enter the arrow, making it shine even brighter and increase its speed.

The arrow reached the barrier that the encolian raised in the blink of an eye and passed through it without any resistance and headed straight to the magic circle, at the time the arrow reached its target, its brightness was blinding and it wasn't possible to look straight at it.

Soon, the arrow hit the centre of the circle, and a huge explosion that shook the ground and threw the soldiers who were around it away, happened, the lucky among them had serious injuries, while the unlucky were already dead by the time they hit the ground.

That huge explosion wasn't only because of the arrow, the majority of its strength was because of the reaction of the mana already in the magic circle with the exploding arrow.

Adam, on the other hand, was already gone, there was no reason for him to remain there, after all, the reception ritual's magic circle was already destroyed and it wouldn't be rebuilt any time soon, so his work was already done.

At the village, hardly a few seconds after the explosion, two figures appeared next to its centre, they were extremely different from one another, to the point that they only had a few things in common between them, like their height, as both of them were more than two meters and half, or how both of them were covered in dirt.

One of them was a man who appeared to be in his late thirties, he had a thin but strong and flexible body that held no hair at all, he also had a dark purple skin colour and every one of his facial features was absurdly big; his ears, eyes, and even his mouth, every one of them was attention-grabbing and ever moving.

The other, on the other hand, was a muscular man, he appeared as if he would be able to lift a tree and wave it easily.

His body had light brown fur covering it all over, his head was round and his ears were small half-circles on top of it, he also had long sharp teeth that gave the impression that they would be able to cut through anything.

They were respectively, an amaryn and a semigin, two of the most common and strongest races in Tellor.

"Fiden, what happened?" The muscular semigin asked in a loud voice while he looked around him carefully with a half crouching stance keeping his attention on their surroundings.

"We were attacked, I only felt it after it was already too late, damn it, the circle itself is useless now," A voice sounded from the smoke and dust, following it was the unique shape of the encolian, his green robe was shining with complex runic glyphs, manifesting an oval barrier around him.

"Can you find the attacker?" The semigin turned his head to the thin man next to him who only shook his head and answered:

"I felt something when we had just arrived, but it's already gone right now."

"Damn it, you! Go to the connector and get him to send this to the higher up, we will see what we will have to do after that," The semigin, who seemed to be their leader, ordered a closeby soldier before turning to the other soldiers around and shouting:

"Stay vigilant, the attacker might return at any moment, don't let your guard down."

***

Susan woke up surprised and panicked as she looked around in shock.

She was confused and her heart was beating fast as her head looked from one place to the other with a pale face and wide eyes.

Then the sight of the trees all around her and the leak of any familiar sights or buildings made her remember what she had been through the night before.

The fires, the screaming and the blood, the bodies of her mom and dad and little sister all dead in front of her, all those were real it wasn't just some hellish realistic nightmare.

Her eyes filled with tears and she felt shortness of breath, she curled up and started crying as she hugged her feet.

While she was still in that state, she suddenly heard the sound of a branch breaking from behind her. turning around in panic, she froze for a second before jumping from where she was and holding a little knife she had seen before, pointing it in the direction of the sound, and by so the man standing there.

"Hey, calm down, it's me, have you already forgotten me?" The man said in a joking tone she found a bit familiar.

"A... Adam?" Asked Susan with not just a bit of doubt and without putting down her knife.

"And who else could it be, then?" Adam said as he shook his head.

"But... But..." Susan didn't know what to say.

Maybe she had never seen a livitus herself, but her grandfather told her about them and how they looked.

The livitus were a part of the Pact of Ten, they were some of the strongest when it came to face to face fights, they were simply perfect warriors.

They were supposed to be half-giants, people that could reach three meters in height with bulging muscles covering each and every part of their bodies, they also had silky white hair that they liked letting flow freely and silver lines covering their bodies like twisting snakes.

The person in front of her, though, was the exact opposite of that, he appeared to be a normal human, not to mention someone from another race, she had even seen some humans who had bigger and better builts than him.

He had short black hair and there were absolutely no silver lines across his body. The only things that could be considered a bit different about him than the other humans she knew would be his long brown coat, the blue embroidered gloves on his hands, and the short sword on his waist.

"From your reaction, I take it that you know a bit about us, but don't worry, I'm a pure-blooded livitus, the best of the best, it's just that I'm a bit unique, that's all," Adam said in the same easygoing playful tone, before adding with an expression that was way more serious, "I would love to explain to you, but unfortunately, we can't have that type of conversation right now, we have to get moving, for some reason, those soldiers really want you, I wouldn't even be surprised if they decide to enter the forest after you."

"Im... Impossible! They fear the forest, they would never enter it," exclaimed Susan in disbelief.

"Well, believe what you want, I'll be leaving soon anyway, you can choose to stay here if you want," said Adam as he shrugged his shoulders and started collecting his things.

Susan felt overwhelmed, with a weird sensation filling her body, like a wave of heat that left behind it a tingling feeling on her skin as panic started setting in, she wasn't ready for something like this, she never would have imagined that she would find her in such a situation with chooses like these thrown at her.

Susan also knew that she actually had no real choice. Adam was, no matter how suspicious and untrustworthy he seemed, her only chance at leaving there alive, she couldn't possibly survive on her own in the forest.

And even if he had lied about his race, he was still travelling through the forest calmly, so he was probably able to protect himself at the very least.

After thinking things through, she took a deep breath, steadying her heart and took small deliberate steps toward him as she asked:

"Anything I can help you with?"

She knew Adam had no reason to take her with him, and that she was practically a dead weight, so she tried to make herself useful as much as she could.

"Hmm? Ah, no there's nothing," answered Adam as he folded the cover and clothes that Susan was using.

After he was done, he glanced at Susan casually and his eyes fell on her feet, the young woman wasn't wearing any shoes or the like, and she had run barefoot across the forest the night before, so, there was still a lot of wounds on her feet, the sun had also just risen and there were a lot of cold drops of dew on the short blades of grass, so, walking through the forest in the state was going to be a big problem for her.

He thought for a bit before removing his shoes and giving them to her:

"Here, you will need them more than me," he said as he handed them over.

"... What about you?" She asked hesitantly.

"Oh, it's alright, I'm used to walking barefoot, after all, you can't always reach a new village at the right time to replace your shoes," Said Adam as he weaved his hands dismissively.

He truly seemed as if he didn't mind, but she still hesitated, noticing that, he added:

"There really isn't that much of a difference between wearing shoes or not for me, only a small feeling of weirdness but nothing serious."

With that, Susan finally took the shoes with a small 'thank you' and wore them.

"Alrighty then, let's go!" Shouted Adam lively.

They walked for around half an hour before Adam suddenly stopped, turned to Susan and sighed.

"Let's stop for a bit, you can rest," he said.

Susan felt some guilt when he said that, even though they had been moving for around half an hour or so, Susan knew that they hadn't gotten far, and that she was the main reason for that.

Her feet were wounded and walking on them wasn't easy, not to mention that it was her first time travelling through the forest and she was still tired from the night before, so even though Adam was the person with no shoes, she was the one tailing slowly behind him, and that made them walk a lot slower.

While she was still drowning in her feelings of guilt, she suddenly remembered something and turned to Adam:

"You know, grandpa told me that most of the strong races, the livitus too, can use magic, including healing magic, isn't that right?"

Hearing her question, Adam showed no external reaction, he just kept on looking at her.

"He's a knowledgeable person, yeah, most of them can use healing magic," answered Adam as he nodded.

"So, can't you help me with my wounds? That would make us go faster than we are doing now, don't you think?" She asked with some expectation.

"Well, I can do that, but we might be chased and I don't want to waste my mana on something like this, who knows what we might face next," he shrugged his shoulders.

Susan didn't know what to say, she just felt that that was just an absurd excuse, yet, she had no right to say or do anything against that, she was nothing but dead weight, she could only lower her head and continue walking while trying to move as fast as she could.

Seeing that, Adam could only shake his head and start moving again too.