The sounds of rhythmic horse hooves could be heard as a group of travellers traversed the vast green plains.

The group was moving at a moderate pace, as if waiting for someone to catch up with them.

In the lead of the group.

"Young master, you should not have trusted that guy; he said he'd catch up with us, but it's been more than 30 minutes and he hasn't appeared." Said one of the older men with whom Alexis was previously conversing.

"The guy doesn't seem bad, and he even handed me his loaded spatial ring as an assurance, so how could I refuse his request? Just so you know, the ring is full of crystals. " Replied Alexis helplessly.

"Brother, you know we're in a bad situation, so how could you allow someone like him to join our group? It's neither good for us nor good for him. " Said Liliana in a dissatisfied tone.

Alexis sighed and replied with a serious tone, "Actually, I allowed him to join not only because we need help, but also because when I shook hands with him, I felt an immense mana force from him, almost comparable to a rank 1."

"Are you kidding me? Even practitioners with rank 3 bloodlines aren't that exaggerated," Liliana retorted sceptically.

Just as Alexis was about to respond, the sound of a sprinting horse came from the distance, and the three of them turned, only to see Fionn catching up to them.

"Sorry for the delay, I got stuck with some business." Said Fionn a bit embarrassed.

"It's a shame you came back; otherwise, all these crystals would be mine." Alexis joked, while tossing the spatial ring to Fionn.

Fionn laughed as he caught the spatial ring.

"How could you guys be so chummy when you barely know each other?" Said Liliana, exasperated.

Hearing Liliana's comment Alexis laughed, but said nothing.

"Speed up, we are already behind of schedule." Shouted Alexis as the group accelerated.

It takes about 5 days to travel from Black Stag Kingdom to Plesas City at a moderate pace, but if one rushes, it takes about 4 days.

The journey was fairly uneventful for two days; they travelled during the day and rested at night. Fionn enjoyed the journey because of the scenery of beautiful grassland, small hills, and the smell of cool herbal scent in the air.

Only Fionn seemed to enjoy the journey because one could sense the group's tension rising with each passing day.

On the third day, while they were travelling, Liliana approached Fionn on her horse, looking bored and stressed. "Don't you feel anxious, how could you be so relaxed and enjoy the journey?" she asked, perplexed.

"Why should I be anxious?" Asked Fionn looking at her with a smile.

Don't you know that the area through which we are currently travelling is the most dangerous part of this journey? We could be attacked by bandits at any time. Asked Liliana a bit dumbfounded.

Oh! It really doesn't matter because I can handle them as long as they aren't higher than rank 1. Replied Fionn confidently.

"Keep bragging, even our kingdom's top geniuses can't do it, and you, a nobody from who knows where, claiming to be able to defeat a rank 1 being a rank 0." Mocked Liliana with a disdainful tone.

Fionn smiled and asked by changing the subject" You don't like travelling in the carriage, do you?"

"Yes, I feel suffocated inside; it's much better out in the open." Replied Liliana.

For a while, they chatted about random topics, but then suddenly, "Hey, where is your focus? What are you looking at? "Liliana inquired, noticing Fionn staring off into the distance.

"Eeek, what do you think you're doing?" exclaimed Liliana, noticing Fionn's hands reaching for her face.

WOOSH! THUCK!

Suddenly, her voice became stuck as she noticed the tip of an arrow merely inches in front of her.

"The arrow is imbued with wind element mana." Fionn said calmly as he broke the arrow in his grip.

"Go inform your brother that we are under attack." Fionn continued, still staring into the distance.

Liliana stiffened as she heard the words and thought, "Don't tell me it's them."