North Forest

Inside the palace...

"Your Majesty, that Arya Kamandhanu has departed to the North Forest just now. He has hired a carriage, and beside the driver, he was all alone inside the carriage." A man in a dark blue robe and a long sword hanging behind his back bent on one knee in front of the Emperor as he reported on the news of Kamandhanu.

"He didn't fly or using any other spirit beast as a mean for transportation?" The Emperor asked without so much expression.

"No. Perhaps the incident about how Elder Renteng was killed wasn't because of Arya Kamandhanu, but was killed by an expert who passed by and suddenly decided to help him in the fight at that moment. Or maybe Elder Renteng actually wasn't killed yet but escaped somewhere. That's why, because he was still in Nascent Soul, he might be gotten hurted and had to be in pain now after fighting so many elite warriors from the Gelang-gelang Sect. So, he decided to just use carriage with the fastest horse to avoid exerting too much force if he choose to fly. By using the carriage pulled by the horse, he will arrive in about six hours to the North Forest by then." The dark-blue robe man explained his thought.

He then added afterward. "As for hiring a spirit beast with the speed at least three hundred and sixty kilometers per hour, I think it was because he couldn't afford it. He is just a palace guard after all. Perhaps, he will think it was a waste of money, so he just hired a carriage with a good horse. Although he will arrive two to three hours later compared to when he use spirit beast that only need three hours at most to arrive, it's still not that bad to use horse."

The Emperor nodded. "Sent some peoples to spy on him. If they had a good chance to finish him, do it in a clean way. Now, dismissed!" He waved his hand.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

...

Five and half an hours later...

It was one hour before midnight arrived. The carriage stopped at the entrance of the forest.

"Are you sure you can do it?" Arya Kamandhanu asked.

"Of course." Marissa said confidently.

"Then, let's get out of here." Kamandhanu suggested.

"Let's go!"

Marissa, Arya Kamandhanu, and Prince Anusapati then got off the carriage without garnering attention.

...

More than five minutes later...

Somewhere in the darkness, amid the bushes and dense rows of pine trees, several masked-men were hiding suspiciously. They were watching Kamandhanu arrived at the entrance of the North Forest. But, as they waited for Kamandhanu to get off the carriage, they didn't see anyone out even after more then five minutes. So, they became suspicious as to what might be happening.

"You two, go there and check!" The leader of the masked-men asked his subordinates to check the carriage.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

The two masked-men saw the driver also had been already gone, so they decided to move to the passenger seats on the back. They nodded to each other, an indication for their agreement to open the curtain immediately and looked inside the carriage.

Sila!

The curtain was opened wide but no one inside. They were so shocked that not even a mosquito could be found inside. Where were they? How could they just gone like that? Were they actually ghost? Or were they kidnapped by the ghost in the forest? The mind of the two subordinates were churned with many possibilities that seemingly not logical at all.

"Boss! They are not here!" One of the subordinates raised his hand and waved in the air to tell to his boss and comrades that the prey had gone missing. Even the driver was nowhere in sight.

Knowing that their targets had been missing, the boss didn't get panic. He told everyone to calm down and search everywhere. "Everyone, get move and find the targets. Arya Kamandhanu and that driver wouldn't be able to get away from the Space Locker."

"Yes, Boss!" The twenty or so men whose cultivation were vary between Nascent Soul middle level, advanced level, and five of them were even on the peak level were shouting loudly to respond for the order.

"Thankfully, Master give us that thing that could lock the space and prevent the targets from getting away out of it's range area." The boss, whose cultivation was surprisingly already at the Void Apprentice initial level, muttered softly.

Right after that, he flew high up in the air to observe all the surrounding.

...

Somewhere inside the forest, Marissa and the group already flown away about more then two kilometers away from the entrance. The entire North Forest was expanding about one hundred thousand kilometers in length from the east to west. The North Forest was divided into three areas, which were outer area, middle area, and the core area or the deepest part of the forest, an area in which there were exist so many dangerous spirit beast that a few of them were even already at the peak level of Void Master, almost at the level of Monarch.

There were even some rumours that a Monarch level spirit beast really exist in the deepest part of the forest.

"That was fast!" Marissa commented.

As a Void Apprentice expert, Arya Kamandhanu could fly about one thousand meters per second, or three thousand and six hundred kilometers per hour. This kind of speed, if he was on earth, it would've been classified as a supersonic speed, just like 'Concorde', a fighter that could fly from London to New York with only at three and a half hour. However, compared to how the whole size of the planet, this speed wasn't anything much.

The reason that they got on a carriage to North Forest, not because Kamandhanu would be exhausted when he flew by himself as it had been explained by the subordinate of the Emperor previously. They hired a carriage, because of several reasons.

First, Kamandhanu was not going alone to North Forest, but followed by Marissa and Prince Anusapati. Even if Marissa casted her <Invisible Group> to hid their presence, it wouldn't work as Kamandhanu need to hold them when he brought them to fly. While Kamandhanu needed to depart 'openly' and witnessed by many peoples, the <Invisible Group> would instead hid his presence as well because he made contact with Marissa who was the caster of the item.

The second reason, he didn't like to be in the spotlight, so he shouldn't look too rich and extravagant for hiring a spirit beast which usually possessed a speed about three hundred and sixty kilometers per hour or above. This type of transportation would worth a lot of money.

Although the horse that brought them on the carriage was also a type of spirit beast, but it's only a common one whose speed only about ninety to one hundred meters per second. The strength of the horse was at most at the peak of Warrior Master.

The third reason and the most important one, Kamandhanu with his mysophobia would mind a lot if he had to touch the other person, such as Prince Anusapati while flying to the North Forest. As for Marissa, well, seemed like he never thought she was an 'eyesore'. After all, if he felt like it was troublesome, he just had to put her into his cosmos sack, the one which designed specially for spirit beast.

And, it couldn't be possible to also put Prince Anusapati into the cosmos sack, right? No pure human could be put into a cosmos sack!

...

Fifteen minutes later, Marissa suddenly shouted to halt their journey.

"What's wrong, Sister in-law?" According to the custom, Prince Anusapati had to call Marissa with 'Master', but because she didn't like to be called as such, Prince Anusapati decided to call her 'sister in-law'.

"Don't you guys see that? There was a thing like threats around us. This must be a trap." Marissa explained.

'Mm?' Arya Kamandhanu was surprised to hear Marissa's explanation. He too could see that there was something amiss, but it's only after the explanation of Marissa that he had an inkling as to what might it be. How come she is capable to detect it so soon? Was she really just a Nascent Soul expert? Previously, when they're battling Elder Renteng, Marissa was only showing her Nascent Soul prowess that seemed to be unstable. But now, she actually could pinpointed the problem even though they only just arrived here. Was she perhaps an expert in formation?

Prince Anusapati was also surprised. He was only a peak level Grand Master after all. He didn't even feel or detect anything amiss, much less to guess or to know what it is.

"What's it looked like? Is it like a shell with brown colour as a whole?" Arya Kamandhanu asked.

"Yes yes yes! That's right. If looked carefully, the threats forming a shape like a huge snail shell." Marissa exclaimed.

"That is 'Snail Threats', a treasure that could lock a space in a certain range of area and trapped the target inside. The range were vary between five kilometers in length until hundreds or even thousand kilometers in range. I guess the area that this Snail Threat in front of us could cover is about ten kilometers in length." Kamandhanu explained. It's rare for him to speak so much voluntarily.

"I see... Do you two guys know how to break out of this Snail Shell thing?" Marissa asked.

Prince Anusapati shook his head while Arya Kamandhanu was lost in thought. It's only after a while that he gave a respond. "I might could break it, but it will need a long time to do it. I'm afraid, the perpetrators would be able to catch us soon before I could break it."

"Ah? This is really troublesome." Marissa commented. As she said this, she instantly asked Mr. Angel, her reliable helper until now, to solve their current problem.

"Mr. Angel, what should we do?" She asked.

[That's easy]

[Host can just use one chance of her <teleportation>]

"Eh, it would work? That <teleportation> could ignore the threat and wouldn't alert the enemy?" Marissa was surprised.

According to the many novels and stories she had ever read, a trap that involve space mechanism or formation would usually be capable to hinder teleportation, or at the very least detected the commotion it created. But Mr. Angel said it's okay. "That's good then." She was elated.

"Heheheheh..." Marissa laughed smugly, making the two handsome guys looked puzzle. In this kind of situation, she still could laugh merrily? An expert is indeed an expert!

"What's your plan?" Arya Kamandhanu, who had witnessed so many mysterious things about this mischievous chicken, he wasn't that surprised anymore. He directly asked what she would do.

"Come, come, my two handsome men, hold my hands tight." Marissa grabbed both of their hands without any scruples, resulting an awkward and uncomfortable atmosphere for both of the men.

Prince Anusapati blushed and embarrassed, while Arya Kamandhanu was unknowingly feeling annoyed because Marissa didn't only grab his hand but also grab the hand of another's man in front of him. What the meaning of this? But, he could only obediently shut up because their situation was urgent. He will talk to her later. Hmph!

"Are you ready, my dear handsomes?" Marissa was feeling blessed, holding onto the hands of the two beautiful and handsome men at once whose faces were like fairies and angels descended from the ninth heaven.

Marissa looked at her storage that she was the only one who could saw it. She found out that she still possessed three chances of <teleportation> after using it one at that time to save Prince Anusapati from the assassination attempt.

Aside from that, she also possessed 4 chances of <transform> because now she was using one; 1 <puppet>; 1 <Super Mask>; 1 <Feather Orb>; 1 <Glorious and Mysterious Feather Robe>, this one is permanent; 1 <Coffeé Machine>; 1 <magical bead>, it should be two but she just used it one last night to help Kamandhanu in killing Elder Renteng.

The last one is 1 <Invisible Group> with duration 24 hours, whereas another one was used by her currently in which the usage time was almost reached six hours. There were about eighteen hours more before it's fully spent.

Marissa focused her mind on the <teleportation> chance and muttered inwardly.

'Use!'

Right after the button 'use' was selected by her, there was suddenly a brief gall of wind, and then the three of them disappeared completely from the 'Snail Threads'.

...

Two hours later...

"Boss, we couldn't found anyone on the vicinity of the 'Snail Threats'." One of the Boss's subordinates reported helplessly.

"Damn it!" The Boss was mad as he kicked the stone so hard near his foot, forming an arch shape in the air before it was exploded into thin powders and dispersed. "The Master will really get angry with us if we don't find that Kamandhanu fellow. We have to hurry and finish him. Search again!" He roared like an angry beast.

"Alright, Boss!" Everyone was scared silly by the roar and instantly dispersed to search seriously for their target.

...

Somewhere inside the forest, about two hours prior...

Swoosh!

A little tornado appeared out of nowhere and three peoples could be seen right after that tornado vanished.

"Eh, where is this?" Marissa looked around in bewildered. The two man beside him also observed their surroundings.

At this moment, there was suddenly a loud and thunderous roar from the nearby place. That roar was like a wrath from hell.

Ghroaaarrrrrhhh!!!

Roarrrrrrr...

"Darn it!" Marissa cursed when the source of the hellish roar appeared in front of them.

What should they do?

~~~~~

Quizz:

What could be the source of that roar?

A. A fierce lion

B. A hungry tiger

C. A wandering wolf

D. A lost rabbit

E. A big trumpet