"Krriiiiii!!"
While Vaan was resting peacefully with his head on Elara's lap, he suddenly heard a shout. He quickly woke up, his face turning towards the direction the voice came from and there, he saw a large fireball forming in the air.
It was the signal.
Signal he had told Flamey and the others to make if they found anything useful.
"Finally!"
Vaan was jolted awake.
Elara understood as well, although she couldn't see or hear what Flamey was doing, Vaan's reaction alone was enough for her to understand that something happened.
She stood up together with Vaan.
Vaan then walked towards Flamey with a big smile on his face, at the same time, he also called his other scouts who were still working hard trying to find something that could be of use.
"I can't believe it took us an entire week to find something, just where in the hell did they teleport us?"
Vaan cursed out loud.
If it wasn't for the eatable fruits they found inside the forest, surviving here for a weak would have been a difficult task.
Elara nodded.
She had not taken a bath for an entire week, although she did use cleansing spells to clean herself, it still felt strange.
Vaan wanted to do something for her, he even wanted to find a lake or a river they could take a bath in, however, all the water sources available had too many Beasts around them,
Even getting near it would expose them let alone going in and taking a bath.
Vaan sighed as he then held Elara's hand and walked forward.
At the very least, the two of them were still together. At the same time, Vaan was also pitying the rest of his 'team members' who had rushed out alone.
He couldn't imagine surviving in this place alone.
Especially at night, with the two of them together, one of them could keep an eye on the surroundings while the other could sleep.
This, however, couldn't be done when there's only one person.
Honestly, Vaan believed that all of them must have already been eliminated and even if a few of them did survive, they wouldn't be in their best shape.
Of course, Vaan didn't care.
He simply walked towards Flamey, the little girl was flying around with an excited look on her face.
The flames around her were creating a few things that Vaan understood in an instant and his eyes brightened up,
"Are you saying that you found a human!?"
"Krriiii!!!"
Flamey exclaimed as whatever she drew multiplied.
"A bunch of humans?"
"Krriii!!"
The little girl nodded.
By now, the rest of the Spirits had returned as well.
Vaan, Elara, and the Spirits followed Flamey and after walking around 3 km, Vaan found the people Flamey was talking about.
'The people from the Past Civilization…'
Vaan looked around, it was a party of 7 people, 3 women, and 4 men, all of them were wearing similar clothes with the same emblem on their chests, it was clear that they were part of a single power, however, since neither Vaan nor Elara could recognize that emblem, they concluded that it was only a local power.
Not that it mattered in this situation.
Even if they were from one of the weakest powers, the very fact that Vaan and Elara were able to find humans could be considered extremely lucky.
This was the most ideal case that they had imagined in their mind.
According to Orion, being able to find a human was a good thing, especially inside a forest. This was because most of the time, the humans come inside the forest with certain goals in their mind, in most cases, secretly following them turns out to be beneficial.
At the very least, it was a lot better than walking in a random direction without any goals in mind.
"Alright, we will be keeping this much distance to avoid being found out.
We don't know if they have some artifacts to keep an eye on their surroundings, so we should be careful."
Vaan spoke with a cautious look on his face as he continued to observe the party.
Elara frowned in confusion,
"We are still too far, we can't even see their faces from here. Shouldn't we head closer? This way, we won't even know what they are talking about and would fail to react if something happened.
It is also possible that we might lose them."
She pointed out the problems.
Vaan however, just shook his head.
"Don't forget our cheat, I will send my spirits to keep an eye on them, we will definitely not lose them.
They will also inform us if something major happens, we just need to follow them while maintaining a safe difference."
Vaan replied.
"You said you cannot properly converse with the Spirits…" Elara had her doubts.
Vaan shrugged, "It is difficult but I can still somewhat understand what they are trying to say, don't worry.
"
Since Vaan didn't seem very worried, Elara nodded as well, deciding to follow whatever he said. It was the safest option they had.
Vaan and Elara followed the Party, keeping a distance of around 300 meters between them, because of this, the number of herbs, fruits, or other materials that they were gathering did reduce since the party was also picking things they deemed useful for them, however, both Vaan and Elara hoped that they would get something out of this.
However, a week passed just like that, and nothing happened.
The party continued to roam around the forest, killing Beasts, making camps, cooking meat, and exploring again.
From what Flamey and the other Spirits could make out of their conversation, it seemed as if they came here in order to train.
The Strongest one here was a woman, who seemed like she was someone of a higher position within the power these people belonged to. The rest were part of the younger generation who had come here to improve themselves and 'experience' the real world.
Surprisingly, the so-called 'younger generation' were all Intermediate Level Beings, the woman with them hadn't moved even once, so Vaan couldn't gauge her strength, but from the air around her, she didn't seem inferior to his mother in any way.
Which was surprising in its own way because she was part of the power that couldn't even leave its mark in history, for a member of such power to be as strong as Astra…
'As expected, the Past Era is full of monsters.
'
Vaan thought to himself, at the same time, he couldn't help but click his tongue in annoyance,
This was the worst-case scenario for Vaan and Elara, since these people came here to train, they would only roam around and hunt beasts with no special goals in their mind, following them would only be a beast.
Honestly, Vaan wanted to leave and try his luck somewhere else, Elara however, shook her head.
They had already spent a week and she suggested following them for one more day before they left. According to Elara, her guts told her that something was about to happen, and even though he didn't like trusting his 'guts', he decided to do what his future wife told him to.
'After all, I still need to train for the future, I should start at a young age.'
Vaan chuckled, then suddenly,
"Skrriiii!!"
Breezy rushed towards them with a big smile on her face.
"Hmm? What is it? Did you find something?" Vaan questioned with a hopeful look on his face.
"Skrriii!" Breazy nodded as she pointed in a certain direction.
Seeing her act like that, Flamey frowned as she flew towards the direction the girl was talking about. Breazy on the other hand, copied Flamey's drawing and Vaan understood,
"There are humans there?" He questioned as he pointed in the direction Breazy pointed in.
"Skrri!" Breazy nodded.
"Why can't I see them? Are they far away?" Vaan frowned.
If they were far, then Breazy shouldn't be able to see them, after all, he only told her to keep an eye on the party they were following, she wouldn't have gone too far.
Breazy shook her head.
"They aren't far away?"
Breazy shook her head again.
"Are they hiding?" Vaan guessed randomly.
"Skrriiii!!" Breazy nodded, her eyes shining brightly, happy that Vaan was able to understand what she was trying to say.
Seeing her excitement, Vaan smiled as well.
Elara on the other hand, narrowed her eyes in confusion,
"Why would they be hiding…?"
Hearing her mention that, Vaan realized it as well.
"If they are hiding then…"
*BOOOOM*
Before Vaan could even come to a conclusion, a huge explosion was heard.
The blast was so strong that Vaan and Elara could feel strong slaps of heatwaves even though they were standing 300 meters away from it and had taken covers.
Mind you, this attack was successfully blocked, so most of its force was tanked, one could only imagine what would have happened if the woman hadn't reacted in time.
"Krriiii!"
Vaan then heard Flamey's voice, he turned towards her and saw an expression he had only seen once before,
The little spirit was horrified.
