Darkness filled his vision as Raymond fell into the crevice. He closed his eyes since he had no use for them right now.
Instead, he perked up his hearing in order to listen to what was happening above the ground.
He needed to wait till Mobi escaped and follow him back home. He might even find Mobi's secret stash where he keeps his money, after all, every thief had a place where they hid their stolen items.
It was a surefire way to make a fortune if he managed to find Mobi's hideout. Judging from what he heard from Sasha, Mobi had at least stolen things worth hundreds of thousands of gold coins.
But that would only work if Mobi ran back home instead of fighting Sasha. If he started fighting against Sasha and ended up endangering Jasmine's life in the process, then Raymond would have to make his move.
As such, he kept track of things happening on the surface with the aid of his super hearing.
Fortunately for Raymond, Mobi didn't seem to be too keen on fighting Sasha. Both of them were in the same realm so if they fought seriously their battle would last for a long time.
Long enough for authorities to arrive, which would turn the situation unfavourable for Mobi.
That's why he did the only sensible thing any sane person would do. He created a distraction with his attacks and quickly escaped through the ground.
"Fight back, you fucking coward!"
Raymond heard Sasha's shrill cry followed by a slight tremor in the ground.
'This way!'
Raymond thought as he felt small tremors coming from his right side. He could feel the periodic vibration coming from his right due to Mobi using his technique to travel through the ground.
These vibrations were so small that no one would notice it even if they were inside the ground. That's why it was hard to track Mobi once he merged into the ground.
But Raymond was different. He could clearly feel the vibrations formed due to Mobi's movements.
'Hmph, you are not the only one who can swim inside the ground.'
Raymond harrumphed in his mind and started rocking his shoulders back and forth trying to dig his way through the ground in Mobi's direction.
'Heh, this is easier than I thought!'
With continuous forward strokes of his hands, Raymond crawled through his way to reach Mobi in a lightning fast manner.
He decided to keep a few metres of distance from Mobi to see where he would go to avoid getting caught by the authorities and bounty hunters.
And Mobi didn't let him down as he rushed through the ground quickly and exited the outer walls of the Capital city, without alerting the guards.
Raymond followed after him as he effortlessly made it past the outer walls.
*******
"Sigh~ that was rough."
Mobi groaned as he emerged from the ground in one of the forest clearings. He was on the east side of the Capital city which acted as a defensive point for the Capital with its sky reaching mountains.
Mobi quickly dusted himself off and headed towards one of the mountain bases which acted as his secret hideout.
Every time he was chased by some bounty hunters or the Imperial guards, he would come here to lay low for a while before heading back with a change in his appearance.
This time he had disguised himself as a beggar and was thinking of scouting one of the nobles' houses before sinking his claws into their wealth.
But, unfortunately, he was found by Sasha before he could plan his next heist.
'Nevermind, I will just go back after a few months.'
He arrived near the base of one of the smaller mountains. There was a strange tree growing here with a white bark and red pointy leaves that looked out of place due to the lush green trees surrounding it.
Mobi placed his hands on the tree trunk and channelled his mana.
-Rumble!
With a deep, muffled rumble a small portion of the mountain base caved in revealing something akin to a cave entrance.
"But that redhead is a real problem though, hmmm, what to do?"
Mobi was lost in his thoughts as he didn't notice a judder passing through the ground below him into the mountain cave.
He went inside the dark cave thinking about getting rid of Sasha once and for all. Since both of them were in the same realm, it would take a while for him to kill her.
Not only that she was also a famous mercenary, if rumours spread about him killing her then the whole of the mercenary guild would come after him.
'Tch, I need to lure her out of the city and bury her in one of these mountains.'
After taking a few steps into the narrow and dark entrance the cave opened up widely revealing a spacious room inside the mountain.
Several oil lamps hung on the walls which brightened up the room. There were many knickknacks sprawled around randomly on the floor.
A small pile of gold coins was occupying one of the corners and a large comfortable bed was placed in the other corner.
Mobi quickly looked around the place to see if something was out of place, only then did he heave a sigh of relief and slumped on a nearby chair.
Looking at his reflection in the standing mirror that was leaning on the wall, he stroked his long beard.
"Man, I have to shave this beard again. I spent so much time growing it."
He whined as he coated his hand with mana to cut off the beard.
"I wish I knew illusion magic, it would have been so easy to disguise myself."
"Yeah, and I wish I had wings on my back for flying."
"The fuck? Who is that?"
Mobi reeled back in shock when he heard a voice whispering in his ears.
He quickly turned around and found that no one was inside the cave except him. But as soon as he expanded his senses he felt a presence behind his back.
"I know you are hiding there, come out now!"
He turned around again and yelled furiously. Someone had found his hideout. He needed to quickly get rid of the intruder and leave this place with his stuff.
"Haha, looks like I have been found."
Raymond walked out from behind the mirror destroying it in the process.
"You! How? When did you get here?"
Mobi was scared out of his wits. This was the weird guy he had escaped from. For some reason, he felt his guts screaming at him to flee from this guy. And now he knew why.
"Oh, I have always been here."
Again Raymond replied cheekily and started looking around the room.
"Hmmm, nice place you got here."
-Earth Golem-
In response to his comment, Mobi gestured with his hands causing the ground to shift and cracks started appearing on the surface.
All the chunks of rocks and debris started fusing together trying to take the shape of a man.
-Crash!
Raymond blasted his way through the half formed golem and arrived before Mobi within a blink of an eye.
-Slap!
Mobi felt a hand on his cheek before smacking his head hard onto the floor.
"Tch, I am talking here, can't you see?"
Raymond spat in anger. He was just looking around the place, there was no need to attack him like that.
"You freak! How…how are you so strong?"
Mobi asked with fear visible in his eyes. He just got defeated by some brat in the Martial Minor realm, he couldn't believe what was happening if not for the buzzing in his head he would have thought that this was a dream.
But Raymond completely ignored him and started looking around. His eyes lit up when he saw a small pile of gold coins.
"Hmm…how many gold coins are there?"
Raymond asked Mobi who was still on the ground trying to recover.
"W-why should I tell you?"
"Fine, don't tell me I will just count it myself."
"What?"
Mobi who was readying himself to defend against another slap found himself at a loss for words.
"One, two, three…hundred…three hundred and one…"
"Arghh! you fucker, there is a hundred thousand alright? Stop annoying me with your voice…"
Mobi cried out in frustration, this brat had been counting for five minutes straight without stopping.
He couldn't even get up from his place due to immense pain in his head. That slap seemed so casual but it was packed with power. As the time passed he was feeling more and more pain in his head.
"Crap! I missed a number, let's start again. One, two…"
"Arghhhh! I will kill you!"
Mobi forced himself to stand up and rushed towards Raymond. He threw a kick to Raymond's head but only for it to completely miss as Raymond ducked and avoided it.
"Damn! What is your problem? I missed my count again. You know what? I will count it somewhere else."
With that, he got up and started looking for something to fill the gold coins with.
As if remembering something Raymond looked towards where Mobi was standing and asked hopefully.
"Hey! Do you have that spatial ring thingy, it's really neat."
"Huh? No, I don't."
Mobi replied without thinking while rubbing his head to numb the pain.
"Come now, no need to lie. I am sure you must have snatched some of them."
Raymond arrived before Mobi and grabbed his shoulders.
Mobi quickly understood that if he refused he would be killed on the spot. His shoulder bones were creaking due to the pressure applied by this guy.
"Aack—I have a ring alright? Stop breaking my shoulders!"
"Oops! Sorry."
Raymond quickly let go of his shoulders and opened his palm as if asking for a ring.
Mobi reluctantly took out a spatial ring from his pocket and handed it to Raymond.
"Haha, this is nice."
Raymond said happily as he checked the ring carefully. He tried to inject his mana into the ring to see the space inside.
-Crack!
But as soon as he injected his mana the ring broke apart and fell from his hand.
"Eh? What happened?"
-Thud!
Raymond looked ahead when he heard the sound and saw that Mobi had fallen on his face onto the ground.
Froth leaking out of his mouth and squirming on the ground Mobi felt like a mountain was pressing down on his back.
'Urghh! What was up with that? As soon as he released his mana, it felt like my soul was about to get crushed.'
"What happened to you? Are you alright?"
Raymond asked with concern. If this guy accidentally died then he wouldn't be able to know if there were more hideouts with gold coins like this one.
So he helped Mobi to stand up and after making sure he was still breathing properly Raymond said in a serious tone:
"Look here, I don't want to kill you, just give me all of your wealth and I will let you go, how about it?"
Mobi meekly nodded his head and didn't dare to say anything more, he just wanted to get away from this guy as soon as possible.
"Good, now give me something real. That ring must have been fake, it broke so easily."
'Damn, you! There is nothing wrong with that ring.'
Mobi cursed in his mind. He, who was just standing by the side while Raymond released his mana outside, felt his whole life flashing in front of his eyes.
So it wasn't surprising for the ring which was directly being injected with Raymond's mana to break down.