Charles always felt something was amiss about the kidnapping incident, so he asked that question directly to the Holem's Crown.
In the meantime, Holem's Crown got startled a bit and soon responded in the old man's voice.
"I acted due to the contract, lad. If I hadn't cast a 'Miracle' skill on you, the abyssal contract would have activated on its own and harmed my Inner World. That will be the worst situation for me. When signing the Abyssal contract, Eddie Nightwind added a condition. That is when Eddie or his descendant's life is in danger; I must use a 'Miracle' skill on them and save them. Otherwise, the contract would go invalid, and I might face a severe backlash. Ah, as for the kidnapping incident, I do feel something off at that time, but I didn't put much thought into it."
'Yes, James's action at that time was also odd. Why did he kidnap us if he wants to kill us? That leaves a big clue. Hmm, Red Prince must have planned to force me to face a life and death situation to lure this artifact out from the shadows.'
Charles's lips curled upward as he heard organized his thoughts and then said with a smile.
"From the Holem's Crown's words, I can guess that the Red Prince knew about the contract details, but he might not have known about where the series artifact was hiding at that time. Only when the Holem's Crown cast 'Miracle' skill on me did Red Prince might found its location using some skills. But what he didn't expect was the sudden change in my character and strength. Still, Red Prince created multiple coincidences and tried to let us meet the Holem's Crown directly during our search mission. As for why he did that, I have no idea about it. Maybe he knew about the Holem's Crown's real plan?" He paused for a second and then continued.
"But the Holem's Crown sensing something was amiss about the whole situation and chose to stay silent."
Upon hearing his explanation, Emilia went silent for a whole minute and finally opened her mouth.
"Whether it is true or false, it doesn't matter. What matters now is what to do with our current situation?"
A frown appeared on Charles's forehead as he thought of their current problem.
'What is our next move? Are we going right into the trap? Or, are we going back?'
Before he could speak, Emilia rubbed her fleshy nose and said in a deep tone,
"Retreating is not an option, Charles. Moreover, there won't be any Rank-4 members coming to this forest, and the possibility of us getting cornered is very slim. Moreover, we have a series-A artifact to back us up in difficult situations." She stopped for a moment and then asked,
"Mr. Holem's Crown, although it is very inappropriate to ask this, can you tell us more about your other skills? If we know more about your battle capabilities, we might have a big advantage."
Actually, Charles had the same thought, but he knew that revealing the Holem's Crown's abilities to others was not correct.
'But if I didn't ask the Holem's Crown to reveal some of its battle abilities, we might end up in a bitter situation. Hmm, it seems like I don't have any choice this time now.' He pondered for a moment and soon agreed by nodding his head.
At that time, he asked the Holem's Crown to reveal its two or three abilities to Emilia and waited.
Meanwhile, the Holem's Crown didn't say any other word for a whole minute and finally spoke.
"I was a Tri-Elemental Ancient Mage in the beginning, so I still have three spell stars in my Inner World. Although those three spell stars were damaged when the damned Divine and the Holem family members forced my soul into this crown, I can still borrow some power from those spell stars and cast low-level spells."
"What are the spells' names?" This time, Andrew folded his arms and asked.
"One is a Travel star, and it can help me travel from one place to another by creating a portal."
"Spatial spell?" Charles raised his brows and soon through of the hidden quest he triggered earlier in the Dreamworld.
'That Traveler Tree's Twin Leaf also has the similar ability... Did he know something about that tree?' Charles pondered for a moment and chose to ask it later.
While he was in muse, the Holem's Crown let out a chuckle and answered in the old man's voice,
"It's a different one, but this spell can manipulate space elements but has some restrictions. Unlike before, I can't exactly pinpoint the destination. So the possibility of reaching the right destination using this spell is almost zero." The Holem's Crown paused for a moment and then continued.
"Second one is Mind Star, but this one is damaged heavily, and I can hardly use its ability. With my current restored power, I can make others' bodies immobile for a short time, but I don't have the power to stop their thoughts like your mind-related skills. If I use this skill on a mage, he can easily cast his spell models without moving a muscle and attack me.
Then, there is the Chaos Star. It's the only attack spell I have in my Inner World and is related to pure destruction. But there is a huge cool-down problem, though. Due to the connection rift with the previous Chaos plane, the 'Chaos imprint' has long vanished. So, I can use this spell only once in a month."
"Wow, the Holem Family members really did f*cked you very hard, aren't they?" Even Charles felt pity for the Holem's Crown.
Without minding Charles's pitying eyes, the Holem's Crown simply let out a sigh and went silent.
In the meantime, Emilia widened her eyes a little and spoke in an exciting voice.
"Excellent. With this, we can have some advantages. Now, if I'm not wrong, there should be one or two Rank-4 members involved in the Red Prince's schemes. If not, he wouldn't have hidden his track from my brother's divination. But even if they are involved, they wouldn't dare to set their foot in the Unexplored Forest due to the fear of angering Castellon Rowley.
At the very least, those Rank-4 members must have sent their incarnations in disguise to strengthen Luke and Daniel, and their strength won't be above Rank-3. As for the Chaos Wanderer, we will see what it is when the right time comes. Simply pondering about it won't change a thing at all." She deliberated for a moment and soon added as she noticed the hesitation look on Charles's face,
"If you feel it is a reckless plan, then how about this? We can search for an Explorer team and might ask their help to deal with the problem. Yes, with our official badge, it won't be a problem for us to issue a mission at all."
Charles's eyes lit up as he heard those words and immediately nodded. The trio then discussed for a while under the tree shadow and soon went in a different direction.
...
In the meantime, Richard took the lead and brought other thieves in a different direction.
Other thieves also didn't refute his words and simply followed his footsteps. During the previous battle, Richard and other gang leaders felt a great difference in their strength and lost their courage to enter deep into the Unexplored Forest.
Although they were tempted by the treasure hidden in the ruin, they knew that their own lives were more precious than some scrap metals. They continued their walk for an hour in the wet forest and soon noticed something was odd about the surroundings.
"Why are we still roaming inside the Mangrove Forest?" Nicole rubbed her smooth template and asked in confusion.
At that time, Richard suddenly saw a blurry stone wall-like structure through the dense tree woods and squinted his eyes.
"Look, sister! It's an old ruin!" Before he could utter a word to warn others, a black-haired kid exclaimed in shock as he pointed his finger at the old stone wall and ran towards it in excitement. To thieves, old abandoned houses or ancient temples were the real treasure houses. These five rowdy gangs had explored different ruins in other forests in the past ten years and found many valuable things. So, when seeing a ruin, the reckless kid suddenly abandoned his cautious nature and ran towards it.
"In one month, he completely changed into a real thief. Don't go too far, Philip!" Nicole shouted in worry as she remembered they were still in a most dangerous place and soon sighed helplessly.
"Why did I bring this reckless kid to this dangerous mission?" She lamented in distress.
"Be careful of your surroundings, guys," Without minding Nicole's distress words, Richard warned others before covering his face with a black scarf and moved ahead towards the direction where Philip went before. Other thugs also followed after him and soon saw an old stone wall that stood around 3 meters tall.
Mangrove trees and shrubs covered the wall in all directions, and a swamp river encircled the stone wall and wholly isolated the land from the Unexplored Forest.
"Philip?" After staring at the beautiful scenario for a second, Nicole suddenly noticed that her newly joined member was nowhere to be seen near the river bank and got startled.
"Philip?" She and other thugs shouted in worry.
But even after a long shout, no response came from anywhere, causing others to glance at each other in wariness.
After entering the Unexplored Forest, they had already met different kinds of dangers in the past few days, so all of them went on a battle mode.
A total of 17 Mystics stood on the river bank with solemn expressions on their faces. Gripping different kinds of weapons in their hands, they glanced around cautiously and soon froze as they heard a melody voice from the other side of the stone wall.
A second later, the Mystics group suddenly noticed something strange.
The surroundings went too quiet all of a sudden and sent eerie feelings to their hearts!
Noticing the eerie atmosphere, Richard opened his mouth and said something to Nicole but soon widened his blue eyes.
He couldn't hear his voice at all!
His lips trembled in fear as he glanced at his comrades and soon noticed that other thieves also faced the same problem. Some even got panicked a little and showed agitated expressions on their faces.
'What the hell is happening?' Richard's face covered in cold sweats as he glanced around for a moment and then signaled others to follow after him.
At that time, he felt that something was calling him from the opposite side and moved his legs towards the river subconsciously.
His heart thumped harder as he stared at the old yet sturdy stone wall for two continuous seconds, and soon he felt that the fear in his heart suddenly vanished. Not only him, but other thieves also felt sudden warmth feeling upon looking at the stone wall and got relieved.
They subconsciously thought that this place was safer than the outside!
'We need to check what is hidden on the other side.' Similar thoughts appeared in everyone's mind.
Inhaling deeply, Richard first went near the muddy swamp river and soon moved towards the large wooden tree trunk, connected to the other side.
He then nimbly climbed onto the wooden trunk and moved towards the other side like a circus magician. But to his surprise, he suddenly noticed that he could balance his body at all!
'Is that due to my sudden deafness?' He wondered.
He tried to warn others, but his words ended up entering into the void. He danced on the wooden trunk for a second and soon fell into the muddy river water!
Upon noticing the situation, others also stopped crossing the river using the wooden trunk and waited for Richard to reach the other side by swimming.
Not even a single person stepped forward to help Richard and simply waited like it was the normal thing to do!
In the meantime, Richard drank a mouthful of mud water and started moving his hands to swim. The water moved around his limbs in swirls, creating joy and a sense of relief.
As he moved further towards the other side, the exciting feeling in his mind became stronger, causing him to push forward. Even though he perceived the strangeness, his greed destroyed his cautious thought.
'My intuition is telling me that something precious is hiding in the other side.' Richard opened his blue eyes wider with a single thought in his mind and moved his hands in a hurry. After five minutes of long swimming, he finally reached the other side, then turned around and signaled them to come.
Although his emotions interfered with his thoughts to go deep into the ruin, he somehow controlled his urge to walk further and waited for his gang members to come. At least, he felt that was safer than roaming alone in the new place.
Ten minutes later, the Mystics group finally arrived in front of the stone wall and started searching for a way to enter the other side. Actually, most of them guessed that it must be the same city ruin that their employer was searching for and got delighted to find it earlier than them.
As they went near the stone wall, they became entirely charmed by the unknown ruin and subconsciously started searching for a way in.
After searching for another ten minutes, they soon found a half-broken area and climbed up hurriedly to move to the other side.
A shocking gasp escaped Richard's lips as he landed on the other side.
In the massive ruined city, he saw hundreds of broken buildings, a half-broken tent-roofed temple at the center, pillars, passages, stairways, and statues appeared all over the places.
Squinting his eyes, Richard zeroed his focus on the tent-roofed temple and felt odd about it.
Palm trees and rainforest pressed against each side, pulling at the stone in an attempt to reclaim it, and the massive moat surrounding the temple shimmered orange and pink.
Disease-carrying mosquitoes buzzed around Richard, but in his long-sleeved jacket, he paid no mind.
Moreover, at that moment, he felt a change occurred in his thinking...
No, he suddenly woke up from the half-hypnotism!
'Something is wrong about this situation! Wait...Sh*t, we are in danger-' That thought abruptly froze as he felt an uncontrollable excitement entered the depths of his heart once again.
