Why were people so bloodthirsty? They had just met for the first time, and the first thing she spoke about was threatening to kill him? What was wrong with them?

  He doubted that he could escape, given her speed, their speed, as her partner had also arrived. They formed a right angle, with Zalanir acting as the intersection point. His only hope of escape was to move back, but there was an empty lot between him and the nearest tree. The likelihood of him being able to cross it before his body became a cactus was low. But what gave him away? He had always maintained a good distance, did nothing suspicious, and thanks to the snow, there was no trace. Footprints were gone seconds after they manifested.

  “Uhm, cause there is no reason for you to do it? We have just met?” Zalanir decided to act innocent. This could be his way out of this situation.

  In his mind, the woman would just be frustrated, pressed on, and interrogated him, but in reality, the first thorn found purchase in his chest. The first step in shaping a cactus had begun. The kunai didn’t penetrate deep into his flesh thanks to his hauberk, but the shock factor was enough to drive him back and down to the floor. He had no time to enjoy the fluffy snow in his hands and butt, though he had to admit that they were incredibly soft and pleasant to touch.

  “Another chance. Explain!” The woman kept her piercing gaze.

  “I am new to this place, so when I saw both of you, I pushed my luck to see if I could somehow get a lead to a way to the nearest settlement.” Zalanir raised both of his hands up in a surrender gesture.

  That was the truth, so he would be safe for no—

  Another kunai licked his belly, though this time the force was a bit stronger. The snow below the attacked spot turned pink and melted away.

  “What the hell? I am telling the truth. What do you want? I found that you might be a safer option to follow compared to the other bunches going around in red and black, but looked like my hunch is incorrect. Come. Even if I die, I will make sure you pay for it!” Zalanir flared up. It was an outburst of frustration, but halfway through he thought that adding a bit of defiance in there would make it even better. Kids had done it all the time when they snapped under the pressure from parents, and he saw it worked most of the time that the parents would halt their scold and everything kinda went back to normal.

  Lucky for him — or one could attribute this to his superb acting — the tide was on his side, and the woman stopped treating him like a target dummy.

  “Where are they?” This time, it was the man who spoke.

  Rotating his view 90-degree to the left, Zalanir’s biggest impression of this man was how broad his shoulders were. The man’s upper body was almost a rectangle. Body builder psycho! Zalanir did hit the gym two to three times per week, but that was mostly to build his reflexes and target added strength and explosiveness to certain motions, such as his hip rotation, throwing act, or leg hops. Thus, his body was fit, but not beefy or stocky like the majority of serious trainers. However, the man in front of him was the walking manifestation of excessive training. Ugly. Really ugly.

  “Who?” Zalanir asked.

  “These cultists in red and black. Where did you see them?”

  At least this man seemed to be more level-headed. Zalanir described the two groups he saw and the cave — but told them that he was resting nearby instead of being inside when the group led by the tanned woman came. No one would be able to verify this information anyway.

  “Those are the two leaders of the cult: the tanned woman named Eiselen, whereas the warrior holding the big flail is Hatillup. If both of them are spotted in this area, then we are on the right track. We should go back.” The man turned to his partner, but Zalanir had a feeling that half of what he said was aimed at him.

  “You! Come with us. You will lead the way to that cave you spoke about later.” The woman extended her hand with the palm facing upward and curled the fingers inward three times in quick succession.

  “Why? I don’t know you. What if you have bad intentions?” Zalanir stayed tough, but he sighed internally. There was no way he could run away now, even with Wind Rush, the newest skill in his arsenal that he had picked after reaching level 35.

  His skill offering back then was just uninspiring, with Earthen Ward — allowing him to create an earth shield with spikes on its face — and Sound Wave, an attack that was just a sound bolt on a wider scale. Both of these skills were better than what he had right now, but not by a good margin, and thus couldn’t justify him to spend a skill point. He would rather pick a skill that offered him more options in the future. Based on his consideration back at the time, he ended up picking Wind Rush over Muddy Ground because he liked to stay proactive.

  [Wind Rush] — Common: Imbues your legs with the power of the wind, increasing your speed (minor scaling with Mystique) for a duration (minor scaling with Level).

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  Essence: 7

  Mana cost: Low

  He had to admit that he was disappointed with the skill-picking time back then inside the cave, because not only did he only get two lower than average options for the new skill offering at level 35, the fact that he needed to even go back to the skill selections at level 15 to pick a skill was more than enough to explain his sentiment.

  He felt like he was on a backward train in terms of getting something new every few levels. Especially if he was to compare the choice with the hard-to-understand Soul Collection, because that skill had both a distinct affix in Universal Unique, and a fricking 60 essence cost as well. He was confident in the common sense that the higher the essence cost, the rarer the skill was, and thus either the higher the damage or the higher the utility usages. Choosing a common movement skill that cost 7 essence seemed like he had made no progress. Though putting the disappointment aside, at the very least, he could always use Wind Rush to get somewhere faster.

  “So you want your head to part ways with your body now? I could do that as well.” The woman licked one of her kunai.

  Zalanir put his hands up in defeat. No fun allowed. Just business. Noted.

  The two of them led Zalanir to the south, passing through a dirty river filled with tree branches, animal carcasses, and soil. Following behind, Zalanir noticed that the woman was always leading in front, and occasionally using her kunai to construct some kind of shapes on the ground before moving. He had no idea where she hid all of these, cause she just pulled them out to do her puzzle from out of nowhere. Under her blue leather light armor, perhaps?

  Not wanting to have anything to do with her, Zalanir approached the gym dude instead. He would take talking to someone as reasonable as him anytime over that bloodthirsty woman.

  “Hey, just a question. Are you the ‘enforcers’ that have been having a beef with these guys in red and black? You called them cultists, right?”

  “You must not be from this area, then? Yes, we are the enforcers of Yebin, tasked with keeping the city and its vicinity safe. We tracked a cult of crazy summoners here, and based on your description, I am 99.9% sure that you have met them. Unless there are two groups with the same outfit, but I doubt it.”

  “I came from Bodylovo. Never been out of there, so I don’t know much about anything outside. Where is this city of Yebin? What’s it like?”

  “Bodylovo? That settlement isn’t that far away, but the paths to get there are rough, so not much trade happened, I think. No wonder you don’t know about us. Yebin is about ten days to the south. Get out of this forest and find an outpost, then you are, for the most part, in Yebin. There are three outposts facing this direction, so it’s hard to miss them. As for the city, well, it’s the biggest city overseeing the north, so you will find plenty there.” The man did some pointing and drawing in the air when talking.

  That sounded good. He had nowhere to go at the moment, so he might pay Yebin a visit. It was a city, so he should be able to find a job there and start to learn more about this world. It wasn’t a matter right now, as he found being here was great, but he would also keep an eye out for a way to return to Earth. Having more options for himself was never a bad thing.

  “Say, does being an enforcer pay well?” Zalanir asked.

  “Good. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here, would I? Most of the time, you stay inside the city, doing some patrols, keeping the order, dealing with pesky thugs or thieves, which is not much to say, because Yebin is pretty safe itself. But if you want to earn more, then coming out like what we are doing, tracking shady activities, hunting dangerous monsters in the area, is also an option. But these actions are always in high demand, as no one wants to stay rotten in the city forever, so they don’t always fall into your hands. However, becoming an enforcer isn’t easy, especially for an outsider like you who has no track record in the city. But I would still encourage you to apply. If you can help us track down these cultists, maybe the captain can give you some good words. That would smooth things out big time.” The man tapped Zalanir’s shoulder.

  Oh, why did it sound so similar?

  References for an easier job application? Checked.

  Administration jobs with lots of free time? Checked.

  Administration jobs with good pay? Checked.

  A filter for outsiders, or, if he could say, grassroots? Checked.

  Yeah, this was exactly the kind of job that he detested so much back on Earth, so there was no way he would consider applying. There had to be lots of other jobs there that paid well while being cool to do.

  “How strong are these cultists? You mentioned they were summoners. What exactly do they summon?”

  “A mid C-grade leads this cult. They call him the prophet. As far as the level is concerned, he is on par with our captain. However, there is no way he would be able to match against our captain, or their force against ours, in general. But they can call upon powerful, high-grade monsters, and those are a pain to deal with. The cultists themselves called the summoned monster protectors, but at the end, they were still monsters that assisted and protected them. These cultists are just a bunch of sneaky bastards that can’t even do combat on their own,” the man scoffed.

  Zalanir didn’t really agree with the sentiment, as summons were still their power. He doubted they could just walk up and decide to summon something strong to protect themselves. Training and progression were still likely there. But he could see why the enforcer said that. He was obviously a training maniac — it was funny that Zalanir described others as such when he was also one — who valued direct combat. Based on these buffed arms and wide shoulders, maybe he got a great weapon or was a melee puncher like a boxer. It would be hilarious to see the man using a dagger to slash and poke, or using kunai like his partner. These images just didn’t fit with each other.

  But the fact that both of the leaders of the two forces here were mid C-grade meant that Zalanir might have just involved himself in something far more dangerous than what he had initially thought of. And he didn’t like that.