IT DIDN’T TOOK LONG for Daisuke and Riku to reach the central plaza. They looked around to find Raijin, Brunnhilde, and Siegfried. To his surprise, Daisuke saw Geri and Freki playing with Sully.

“Daisuke, over there,” said Riku as she pointed at Mirana and Leon.

Daisuke and Riku ran towards them.

“Finally! Mirana and I thought you guys will take forever to show up,” said Leon.

“Where’s Jack?” asked Siegfried.

“About that,” Riku explained to them about the mana they felt earlier at the Fairy Dust bakery—the weird mana coming out from a male human, almost identical to an elf, but still somewhat different as if it has been imperfectly altered.

Leon’s research was correct after all. Elves can actually distinguish elven mana from other mana.

“A promising lead after two days. I think I could cry!” said Mirana, holding back a tear.

“Ha! I knew you elves could come in handy!” said Leon laughingly. “So all we need now is to find Jack, right?”

“Yes. He said we will know how to find him, whatever that means,” said Daisuke.

“We’re not sure about that. But we can all go to Fairy Dust bakery now,” Mirana suggested.

“Not a good idea,” said Riku.

“Why is that?”

“Jack is trying to tail the human. If Daisuke and I go back, that would be suspicious. The same goes for two high-ranking mages, especially with those uniforms.”

“How about us then?” asked Brunnhilde.

“Let’s not try to split up,” Daisuke said. “If Jack said we could find him, then we will find him. He’s not an elf to be underestimated.”

Not too far away, the three Seekers spotted Riku and everyone else.

“Hey, look!” said Musaoi. “Isn’t that, Riku? And Daisuke!”

“Oh my gods, You’re right! Let’s go and greet them!” said Lanatte.

“Wait. Who are they again?” asked Marcactas.

“Daisuke’s our batch mate back at the academy. He’s teamed up with Riku, a Rose mage and a friend of ours, and Jack, son of ex-council Durant,” Lanatte replied.

“Their squad leader is Rango, the newest member of the council after Sequovas and Durant got demoted,” Musaoi added.

The Seekers approached the group of Daisuke and greeted them.

“Guys!” Musaoi yelled.

Musaoi got their attention and the group noticed the two other Seekers.

“Musaoi? Oh, my gods!” Riku yelled. “Lanatte!”

Riku tightly hugged the two Seekers.

“It’s so great to see you again!” said Lanatte. “After we learned that you guys left the island, we really got sad! You didn't even say goodbye!”

“We thought we’ll never see you again!” Musaoi started to sob.

Daisuke went to Marcactas. “Girls.”

Marcactas sighed. “Yeah.”

“I’m Daisuke, by the way.”

“Ah, you must be that kid. I am Marcactas.”

The two shook hands.

After the teary reunion, Musaoi and Lanatte introduced Marcactas. Riku then introduced Raijin, Siegfried, Brunnhilde, Leon, and Mirana.

“Hey Daisuke, don’t you remember Lanatte and Musaoi?"

Daisuke tried to remember but he got nothing. “Sorry,” He said as he shook his head.

“Well, they, together with your worst nemeses, Capsian and Kofeera, and another one named Cobble, who you probably do not remember as well, are the five passers of the Seeker trials you failed for the third time.”

“We heard about what happened. We’re very sorry, Daisuke,” said Musaoi.

“Nah. It’s okay. Don’t be. Besides, I’m already outside. There’s so much the world has to offer. Being trapped on that island was the worst!” said Daisuke.

“Are you sure about that?” asked Marcactas. “Leaving the island without the Seeker status means you can no longer go back, you know.”

Daisuke did not answer. Leaving the island has been his long-time dream. Now that he is finally outside, he does feel nostalgic sometimes.

“If we could change topic…” said Leon.

“Oh, come on, Leon. Read the room,” said Mirana.

“Hahaha! No, it’s alright. What was it again?” said Lanatte.

“It’s about humans with plant power.”

Leon looped in the Seekers with the latest turn of events. The Seekers also shared information that they know with everyone. After learning about the potential perpetrator, the Seekers agreed to help them.

“Now that you mentioned it, I just noticed that Jack is not with you guys,” said Musaoi.

* * * * *

Thirty minutes have passed. Two more people entered the Fairy Dust bakery. Jack was sitting outside, eating some biscuits. He has heightened his senses and felt leaking mana that dispersed quickly that came from the shorter guy. Two plant power-users. They really must be it.

The three men went out and walked. Lucky for Jack, there are many people on the street, which made it easier for him to not be noticed. Still, it wasn’t very easy to tail them. He couldn’t walk too near or they will notice him. Walk too far and he might lose them.

The mana leak was getting weaker and weaker. And soon, he lost the three men. Jack stopped for a moment to look around. He continued to walk, saw direction signage, and read it: “Northern Shrine. Oh no…”

Jack continued to walk again at a faster pace until eventually, he reached the Northern Shrine. The shrine was a somewhat large structure that looked completely different compared with the structures in Arcanas. There were no floating orbs or crystals or pillars. A plain old tile-roofed two-story building with ponds and trees around it.

Jack looked around, trying to find the three men, but to no benefit. The tourists scattered, looking at the magnificent shrine. The doors were closed, however, and were guarded by two lance-wielding mages and several more that were patrolling the area.

Jack looked at the surrounding of the shrine and saw more mages on the ground. He gazed at the roof and saw even more mages. Up in the sky were dozens of griffin riders patrolling. He went around and saw even more mages and a creature he has never seen before. Then, he once again felt the leaking mana.

“Manticores,” said a man.

Jack flinched and saw one of the guys he was tailing. “I-I’m sorry. What?”

“Those creatures are called manticores. They got bat-like wings and they can shoot arrow-like needles from their tail.”

“That’s some crazy, scary creature.” Jack breathed normally. The guy looks like he doesn’t know that he’s being tailed.

“Want some?” the guy offered an orange.

“Uhh, thanks,” Jack took the orange. He then started to heighten his senses again. “If you don’t mind me asking, where did you get this orange?”

“From a merchant, said it’s freshly picked.”

Jack peeled the orange and took a piece. It is indeed really fresh as if it was freshly picked. “Nice. But I could swear there are no orange trees here in Arcanas.”

“Maybe they got the orange by trading?”

Jack heightened his senses. He can now feel the mana faintly leaking from the man.

“Man, this orange is really fresh. As if it was created until it is just perfect.”

The man stopped eating and looked at Jack uneasily.

Jack’s skin patterns started to dimly glow. “Let me tell you something, you second-rate plant power-user.”

The man dropped his orange and slowly walked back as Jack’s pattern began to glow brighter.

“If you’re going to lie, make sure you lie to an idiot who knows nothing about plants.”

Jack created one Jackfruit mace. People began to notice something and decided to distance themselves.

“And no matter much plant power you have, you’ll never be a true plant power-user like us!!”

Jack swung his mace and hit the guy in the face, considerably knocking back the guy.

The mages around the shrine were alerted and started barrier spells. The manticore ran towards Jack and attacked. It whipped its tail, sending forth arrow-like needles towards Jack, but Jack created a shield that protected him from the sharp arrow needles.

The guy stood up and took off his cloth, revealing an orange tree tattoo on his left chest.

“I don’t know who you are, but you pissed me off!”

The guy’s tattoo glowed with a bright orange color. An orange tree grew from his feet and continued to grow until he was inside a humanoid orange tree.

Another one of the three men with no signs of having plant power mana showed up.

“Oy! Pancho! What are you doing?! Julian’s still inside the shrine!”

“Shut up, Jacobo. This man is going down!” Pancho, the humanoid orange tree, charged at Jack, who was preoccupied with the manticore. Pancho tried to smash Jack with his arms made of huge orange tree branches, but hit the manticore's head instead, as Jack quickly evaded.

“That’s animal cruelty, you know!” Jack shouted. He then created a larger jackfruit mace and smashed the head of the humanoid tree, but the jackfruit only splattered.

Pancho raised his left arm forward and aimed at Jack. From the holes of the left hand, orange fruits shoot out towards Jack at high speed. Jack managed to dodge the orange fruit bullets but got grazed and stumbled down.

The Griffin riders tried to attack the walking orange tree but got shot by the orange fruit bullets.

As soon as Jack stood up, an explosion from the shrine occurred, blasting the façade of the shrine. The explosion was strong enough to disrupt the mages that created the barrier spell.

“What the…Oy! Pancho! What are you doing?” said Julian. His body was covered with tendril-like vines from bitter gourd plants.

“Julian!” yelled Jacobo. “Pancho’s rampaging!”

Julian clicked his tongue. “Let's leave him! We have to go now before more mages arrive. I have the Ruby fragment!”

Julian and Jacobo tried to escape, but powerful mana was unleashed that sent a shockwave all over the place. They looked back and saw Jack who is now shrouded by a translucent barrier in the form of a jackfruit’s skin. Tall jackfruit trees also grew everywhere, creating a wall that blocked every street, trapping the three men.

“You guys are not going anywhere.”