“STOP!”

The monster stopped and looked at Miles with questioning eyes. The intruder was talking the language, only the humanoids could speak. Since he could, he must have been acquainted with its boss.

Miles couldn’t use energy now, even the smallest fluctuation in the energy would alert two beasts, giving away his location. So, although he had at least a few ways to stop the monster across him, even if he couldn’t beat it, he dared not to use energy.

“Boss sent me. I am here to secure the fruits, as the assailant is too strong.” Miles couldn’t speak the language fluently, but thanks to the interpretation in his mind, he could at least pronounce the words. The monster looked at Miles with a tilt of its head and nodded its head.

“You enter the sea and open a path for me. I don’t want other monsters to slow me down.” Miles ordered. The seal monster looked at the tree and remembered its boss’s orders. It couldn’t move from the tree under any circumstances. Miles realized the hesitation and questions forming in the seal-like monster's eyes, and started to panic. He removed the cloth covering the back of his arm and showed the tattoo he carved on his arm with energy. Although it wasn’t as vivid as the humanoid monster’s, it was still vaguely the same. Seal monster looked at it in fear and nodded profusely.

Miles heaved a sigh of relief and moved to the tree. The hole underneath the ship reached out endlessly. Because of the dark sea, Miles couldn’t see where the body of the tree led to, but that wasn’t important. The most important thing was the fruits on the tree.

There were a total of 6 fruits on the tree. They were all transparent like glass and looked beautiful. Although their forms were different, they looked like variations of apples.

Miles wasn’t sure if they had ripened or not, but he couldn’t waste his time. The tremor was getting stronger by the second, and the cries of the crocodile were getting lesser and lesser. The fight would end soon. Miles grabbed the fruits and placed them in a portable vacuum bag before closing them tightly. He jumped onto the sea from the hole and looked around.

He saw the seal was fighting with other monsters, while there were some following its lead. Miles followed it and swam away from the ship. Because the fruits were vacuumed, no odor could be felt although Miles was carrying six of them with him. He easily swam in the sea without any problem.

When he was at least five hundred meters away from the ship, he surfaced once again and looked at the shore. He was close to it already.

Miles swam easily, without anything holding him back. He was still feeling restless, but now all were gone. He walked to the beach and climbed back to the hill before nocking an arrow at his bow. He had to alert Zall and Xavic, who were keeping the monsters back.

The arrow got bigger and bigger before Miles fired it. It reached a monster the duo was fighting in no time at all and pierced through its neck. Although there was a great distance, Miles’s eyes could see thanks to Blood Orb changing them, and energy covering them.

The arrow killed the monster, so Xavic cut off its head before running away with Zall. The humanoid monster was still watching them with the corner of its eyes. When it saw the arrow, it finally located the last person watching it. It initially felt eyes on it, but couldn’t spot them. Later two of them came out and the last one was still hiding, but now that it showed itself, the humanoid monster was relieved.

“I will let you go since you haven’t caused much.” It thought and kept fighting with the monster in front of him. Their battle was about to end too. There were now many scars on the crocodile's body. They were all caused by the trident in the humanoid monster’s hand.

The crocodile, after being grabbed by the tail, realized it was not an opponent of the humanoid monster, but it couldn’t run away. It tried to attack with all of its power to no avail. After every clash, it got injured more. At this point, it was too pitiful to even fight back.

The humanoid monster leaped into the sky and dashed with its trident in front of it. The tip of the trident shone with blue light and formed a giant phantom covering the trident. When it reached the crocodile, it pierced through its back and penetrated all the way to the ground. The crocodile thrashed about on the ground, but the phantom trident had fastened it to the dirt. The humanoid monster walked to the head of the crocodile, and with its open palm aimed for its brain. After hitting more than twenty times, its skull cracked open, and a small core fished out. The humanoid monster swallowed it whole as it walked towards the ship.

Zall and Xavic already reached Miles's side with his arrows protecting them. Miles used too much energy with the bow already, so he wasn’t in shape for fighting any longer. Luckily Xavic could stun them while Zall was able to tank the damage as they ran.

“Let’s run. Humanoid is returning to the ship.” Miles said and started to run with everything he had with Zall and Xavic in tow. Monsters stopped chasing them after some time and also returned to the ship.

“You got it right?” Xavic smirked as he caught up with Miles. Miles shows them the vacuum bag with a smile.

“Six of them!” Zall smiled brightly too.

“We can have two each,” Miles answered. They worked together, and each played a critical role, so it was only fair for them to share the fruits evenly.

The other two didn’t argue and agreed. When they were only a few kilometers away a roar came from the ship.

“Shit.” Miles cursed and ran faster.

“It is too late now, you stupid beast,” Xavic shouted back but the next second, he froze on his feet. A shooting star came from the ship's direction and sped towards them. Then it landed fifty meters ahead of them and stuck on the ground. It was the phantom trident, and the humanoid monster was on top of it.

It looked at Miles and others with its eyes bloody and was looking at Miles with his eyes emitting bloodthirst.