A few miles away, at the border of an overgrown green forest of shrubs and trees, a pillar of light silently descended from the void and dissipated shortly after. Then, a figure of a person, covered in blood, suddenly appeared in the wake of the disappeared light.
With a painful expression, they weakly clutched their stomach, which seemed to have sunken from the blunt force of a heavy object. Even the back of their head was bleeding profusely, and their vision was so blurry that they could barely see anything in front of them.
The identity of the figure was none other than Paul, who had been whisked away by the teleportation formation under the ancient altar. He was currently crawling on the ground, trying to find the nearest town to heal his wounds. If he did not get treatment as soon as possible, he would succumb to his injuries and die.
Normally, he carried around healing pills, but he did not have any on him at this moment, as he had unwittingly handed everything to Jason beforehand due to his trust in him. Otherwise, he would not be in such a sorry state after Jason had betrayed their group.
Thinking back, he recalled that Jason usually never asked for such things, but on this day, there was an exception. Because of their situation at the time, he did not think much about it when Jason said it was to protect their items since he got his hands on some storage orb.
"Just where did he get such a priceless treasure?" Paul wondered.
Now that he carefully thought about it, Jason had been acting strangely lately, and he seemed to have even gotten stronger compared to before. Not to mention the terrifying and evil aura around him.
"Paul!! I can smell your scent!! You can't hide from me!!"
Jason's angry voice suddenly resounded in Paul's ears, interrupting him from all his contemplative thoughts.
"Crazy bastard… How did he find me? Did he just say he could smell me? Is he some f*cking dog…?"
Paul begrudgingly cursed, but in doing so, he suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood. He seemed to have exacerbated his internal wounds caused by Jason's attack.
"F*ck… I want to kill that bastard with my own hands… He is no longer the Jason I knew… Right, he wanted this golden stone book, right? Then, I will just destroy it… I bet that will piss him off. It is a pity to have to destroy such a treasure, but I don't care since I'll be dying anyway…"
Paul forced himself to lay on his back as he took out the golden stone book from his chest pocket. He then exerted strength in his hand to break it into pieces.
"Since it was made out of stones, it should break easily, right?" He thought, full of grudge.
At the same time, he had a mischievous smile on his face as he imagined Jason's horrified expression when he discover the destroyed golden stone book later.
However, no matter how much strength he exerted, he couldn't destroy the golden stone book. Frustrated, he smashed it on the ground, against another rock, but the golden stone book still didn't sustain any damage.
"F*cking hell… I can't kill him, and I can't destroy the treasure book… What can I do, then? Can I only helplessly wait for him to come kill me and take it for himself… No way I'm dying that pathetically. I won't let him have it that easy. I want to make him suffer, even if just a little…"
It was at this moment that a rustling sound came from the bushes next to him, instantly alerting him.
"Shit! He has already caught up to me! Damn it!"
Paul's expression turned ugly, and he was ready to fight it out one last time. Even if he failed in the end, at least he tried to fight back instead of pathetically accepting his fate.
"Eh?"
An immature voice, full of surprise, resounded, and Paul's ears twitched when he heard this unexpected voice. He forced himself with a painful expression to crank his neck. Afterward, he struggled to look in the direction the voice came from.
In his point of view, a scrawny and languished-looking boy covered in rags from top to bottom, as though he was a villager, stood there. He had hollowed eyes that seemed devoid of vitality and the liveliness that a boy of his age should have.
Paul noticed that the scrawny boy was gawking at him with a silly and seemingly scared expression on his face. His mouth and eyes were wide opened, apparently in shock.
It was as if the scrawny boy had seen a ghost, his skinny legs were trembling on the spot. His contorted expression made him look unsightly due to his dry and withered face.
Paul briefly looked at this ugly boy before him and then suddenly thought of a brilliant idea. As he thought of this brilliant idea, Paul adjusted his twisted expression and rugged breathing and pretended to be fine despite the pain coming from his sunken chest that caused his ribs to puncture his lungs.
A few moments later, he calmly called out: "Hey, boy. Come over here. I have something I need your help with. If you help me, I will give you some money. How about it?"
Upon hearing his voice, the scrawny boy immediately snapped out of his dazed state and then took an unconscious step forward. Paul forced a gentle and welcoming smile to show his sincerity and at the same time prove that he was not a bad guy.
However, the next moment, under his watchful eyes, the boy suddenly turned around and ran away back into the bush without hesitation.
"…"
Paul was stunned and incredulous by the sudden turn of events, and his smile froze for a moment, then disappeared right after. However, he quickly came back to his senses and shouted at the back of the scurrying boy.
"Wait! Don't run!"
Paul exuded an aura from his hand and channeled it into the earth below him. The next moment, the sound of someone screaming in fear resounded in the direction the scrawny boy had disappeared.
"L-Let me go! I don't have any money on me! No, please don't kill me! I won't tell anyone what I saw. No, please don't eat me. I won't taste good! Please, I don't have much flesh on my body!"
The scrawny boy squirmed like a worm and begged hysterically, giving absurd reasons why his life should be spared, as he was grabbed by a hand made out of earth and dragged through the air.
The hand that grabbed the hysterical, scrawny boy was Paul's talent— the knack for controlling the earth elements as he saw fit.