The group stopped at the foot of a mountain cliff where Hiina threw three kunai that somehow got stuck in the air above an empty area. He learned her name from Rafnick the Gymer — a nickname that Zalanir found fitting for the man. If he were to be on Earth, Rafnick could hands down be one of the best bodybuilders there.

  All of a sudden, at the spot where the kunai were kept in the air, some sort of waves disrupted the air, making it a disturbance in this otherwise serene scene. Then, Hiina went through that spot and puff! vanished without a sight.

  Zalanir was frozen on the spot, but then his mind quickly registered something he had seen in movies and also in books.

  “Always a good feeling seeing someone react like that to the formation,” Behind Zalanir, Rafnick laughed out loud.

  “Where did she go?” Zalanir had an inkling of what had happened, but he didn’t want to spoil the fun for Rafnick. Also, it was better to get concrete confirmation rather than just a guess.

  “Your turn!” The man extended his hand forward a little bit.

  Zalanir hesitated for a second before stepping into it. 3D glasses, VR headsets, even movie transition scenes had no way to compare with what he had just experienced. A camp just popped out of nowhere, like a screw and a wall plug being made using the same specs. Benches, bags, weapon rackets, even cooking utensils — all of them stayed on the ground as if they were already there in the first place.

  Zalanir turned behind; the scene was still the same. Even Rafnick was still there. The only thing that separated them was the slightly blurred area with the waves undulating lightly in the air. Either they had entered a different space (which Zalanir highly doubted) or this camp was camouflaged under a spell or effect of some sort, such as a spell formation.

  As soon as Rafnick walked through and appeared inside the camp, Zalanir opened his mouth.

  “What is this? A concealment spell?”

  “Formation, not spell. Formation.”

  Bingo! He had read about this in some of the fantasy novels back to the time when he had just started out in Vietnam. The Eastern culture had such a liking for this type of power that it popped up everywhere. The most common type was a formation made by placing some flags on the ground, or by assembling and placing items in a particular order in order to trigger it. Concealment was certainly on the more popular side.

  So, this world also has this. Formation had always been one of his favorite powers because of how flexible it was. All the organizations had this kind of overpowered grand protective battle formation that was unbreakable, and then individuals also had the scaring-the-thieves-away formation laid outside of their house for ease of sleeping at night. Wasn’t there a movie of a cultivator making a mobile sword formation that he used to dominate the enemies?

  “How do you make it? Where did you learn to make this one? Any things to look out for when making this? Common mistakes? How long will this one stay? How do you power one of these? Battery?” Zalanir bombarded the Gymer with questions. At least he could get one answer, right?

  “Woh, woh. Slow down. Don’t ask me. I am not a formation expert. Ask Hiina. She helped put this one up.”

  “Oh.” Zalanir was deflated. If it was that scary woman, he doubted he could get anything out of her.

  Getting this out of his mind for now, he followed Rafnick to the center of the camp, where there was four people gathering in one place, including Hiina. Zalanir’s attention was on a man with a long, kinky black afro. A bit messy, but together with the short, thick beard, that hairstyle gave him an edgy, rugged kind of look. Turned out, that man was the captain whom both the enforcers and cultists had mentioned.

  “This has been the third hunter who hasn’t shown up to our agreed time and place. Like I said, these bastards aren’t trustworthy at all.”

  “You know that they would prefer their hunt, so let’s wait a bit more. Winter is short, after all.”

  “It’s been four days already. Four! I don’t—”

  Their discussion died down after Zalanir and Rafnick arrived. Most of their eyes were on him, and Zalanir was happy to return with a smile at them. A good first impression was never bad.

  “Tell us everything you know, from the beginning,” Hiina pointed a kunai at him.

  Letting out a sigh, Zalanir related what he had told Hiina and Rafnick again to these new enforcers. Why did everyone do this? She had heard the story already, so why didn’t she tell them?

  “You two go there and scout the cave. Don’t engage the cultists. Prioritize finding out what is special about that cave. If their base is inside, return here immediately,” the captain gave out the order. “As for that area where he saw the Hatillup’s group hanging around, two of you go there and lie in wait. As always, our target is the prophet, so try to get a lead on his whereabouts. Anything unclear? Good. Move out.”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Now Zalanir knew why he had been getting caught back then. Hiina was a huntress with amazing scout and tracking abilities. She just led them back to the initial area on exactly the same route. If there was a road, he wouldn’t be surprised at all. But cutting through the forest with that level of accuracy? Zalanir could only blame luck. Why did he choose to track these two out of everyone back then?

  No wonder Rafnick always followed behind her. So his Sound Sense wasn’t even that good in scouting for information, as he was easily detected by an expert like Hiina. And here he thought that he had an overpowered skill in his arsenal. This discovery put him in a foul mood internally all the way up to the foot of the snow hill.

  “The entrance is up there. You see that naked tree? The cave is on its left, in an area with lots of vines.” Zalanir pointed his finger.

  Hiina waited and then sneaked up there first before she entered the cave, while Zalanir and Rafnick stayed guard outside. Not much to do. There were no strange sounds in the vicinity.

  The sky remained dull and bleak ever since the snow came into the place. This hill was bare and wasn’t covered by dense canopies, but the light was like a late afternoon. Zalanir wondered how long this winter would last.

  “Come on in. We are safe,” Hiina called them in.

  “Good ears, huh? I didn’t hear anything,” Rafnick questioned.

  Zalanir wasn’t sure if the man had really heard nothing, or if he was poking around, because Hiina’s voice just now wasn’t that low. He just smiled back, nodded back at the man who was still outside, put aside the vines, and got in.

  Everything was the same as when he had left yesterday. The brook on the left still flowed to the far wall and dropped down via a downward slide. In this position, he could see that the slide was quite steep, almost like the hill of a tower. Whether it was a coincidence or not, Hiina was standing at the exact location Eiselen — the tanned woman — was at when Zalanir got the first sight of the cultist boss woman.

  “This cave leads rather deep inside, so we need to be careful. Follow me!”

  As Zalanir was wondering how they would handle the darkness, Hiina took out a talisman which a second later emitted a bright light. She toned it down by more than half just by holding the talisman in her hand, something that Zalanir had no idea how. He had seen the tubby man use it at the anthill — had been long, so he had forgotten his name — but the sound it created was rather constant from the start to when the talisman ran out of its usage. Being able to change the displayed power would maybe extend the lifespan of one talisman, he supposed? When he got some money to spare, he would buy one or two of these for sure.

  Taking the one Hiina was using at the moment, Zalanir would love to have at least one. That way, he didn’t need to take the Ball of Light skill. Using something temporary on rare occasions but with the benefit of replacing something permanent as a skill point would be a trade he made ten times out of ten. It was just too convenient.

  Funnily enough, even though he had spent months here, this was the first time he could see what it was really like. It had a brown color mixed with black smudges rather than a pure black wall in his imagination. The wall also had a lot of cracks and protruding stones on its scabrous surface as well. For some reason, he didn’t feel that way when following it with his fingers. The ceiling of the cave was about six to nine meters, depending on its pristine shape and curvature.

  Hiina didn’t keep the talisman on her hand, but instead moved it around using her kunai. She stuck the talisman to the side of the kunai — Zalanir had no idea how, because he saw her just slammed the talisman on without applying any additional sticky gels or something — then guided it forward by throwing the kunai into the wall. It made a small bapp noise that would attract the bats for sure, but since she knew nothing about them yet, that was actually a good way to scout ahead. She pulled the kunai back when she was about one arm span away from the talisman and then repeated it again to illuminate the path.

  Zalanir paid close attention to the way she recalled the kunai, because he didn’t think it was a skill. There was a shot of force connecting her to the kunai, and it became more apparent whenever the kunai was flying in the air. It was as if an invisible hand helped grab the kunai and bring it back to her.

  It was similar to when he grabbed an affinity for his Adaptability Bolt, as well as when he felt it accompanying the bats’ squeaks. If there was no experience in the latter situation, he would treat it as part of a skill, but then what was the explanation for the second case? He just passively listened to the sound created by the bats then; no skill used. He was about to turn to the man beside him to probe when Hiina shouted.

  “Rafnick, throw your talisman into the air.” She held firmly to her kunai in both hands.

  Without wasting a second, the Gymer took out another talisman, made it bright, and threw it upward. The thin piece of paper somehow went all the way and even stopped midair for a whole five minutes before dropping down. But that was enough for them to see lots of gray bats descending and screeching. Zalanir could only curse those two in his mind for that stupid action. The bats were up there, but as they hadn’t attacked yet, why would Hiina make a fuss about it? The three of them were still safe. And this wasn’t even the empty place that Zalanir spent most of his time at yet. She would provoke even ten or fifty times these numbers if she did the same there.

  These two had no experience dealing with all the bats, so before the light talisman dropped down, they had contracted a fair share of damage. Rafnick was better because, just as Zalanir concluded, he was using his hands as weapons and thus, only got injured by the sound attack. All the bats that got close to him either were squeezed or blown into pieces. Those bats were rather small, so each swing, combined with Rafnick’s long reach, killed about four of them at once. Zalanir also had a good time. He blocked most of the attacks while purposely letting some through to put on a struggling image. Couldn’t let these two have any hints.

  But Hiina’s situation was bad. She killed a bat with each of her kunai throws, but in return she also took lots of damage. Her movement was just too sluggish in here, which Zalanir knew to be the effect of the bats’ supersonic sound attacks. Zalanir treated them just like normal projectiles, but Hiina was on the receiving end of these attacks. She couldn’t tank as well as Rafnick, couldn’t evade or block as well as Zalanir, so all she could do was to trade blow for blow, which in the end turned her blue armor into a cutting board. She managed to protect her face perfectly, though, so Zalanir had to give her a mental clap for that.

  “Let’s move back and rest for a bit. I need a moment for myself,” she suggested and turned around without even waiting for Rafnick or Zalanir’s responses. Looked like their first attempt to explore the cave ended in failure.