The merchants prepared a simple camp to spend the night.

Using magic, they pushed some of the snow away and made platforms out of different materials.

They made schedules for the night watch, ensuring that everyone would get enough sleep, and made food for everyone, including their mounts. However, some of them weren't rich enough for all that.

At a simple campfire, Dante, Daniel, Jin, Emeralda, Omar, and Khaled sat together, either chatting about random topics or using their own detection methods to protect the camp.

Dante was using the detection spell he had created by mimicking Elizabeth's light spell. Though it was a bit hard to use, as he had to focus on the shadows of everything around him.

Daniel, using the Earth Aspect, was sensing the vibrations of the earth beneath the snow.

Emeralda wasn't using a spell, but her spirit was passively sensing the wind to know if something was coming toward the camp.

Omar and Khaled weren't doing anything, as they were just a merchant and a slave. It wasn't their duty to stay alert.

As for Jin…

'What the hell is this bastard doing?'

He was still drinking while looking at the campfire with an unfocused gaze. Despite everything, Omar didn't seem to mind Jin's actions.

'He's either strong enough to make up for his drunk state, or Omar simply doesn't care.'

Either way, it wasn't something that Dante had to concern himself about. He was now more focused on listening to Daniel.

"Do you know what he said when he saw that his best friend was among those who stabbed him?" Daniel smiled as he adjusted his eyeglasses: "He ignored the pain and said in despair, "Why did it have to be by you, my friend?" In his last moment, what hurt him the most wasn't the swords piercing his heart, but the betrayal!"

Emeralda frowned: "Isn't this just the kids' version of the story? I bet he said, "AHHHH!" when he was stabbed. Stop making everything look poetic!"

Daniel gritted his teeth: "You don't know anything about the great king Henry. The legends say that he could have used an ability on himself, but he felt that life isn't worth it anymore."

"Lies!"

"Lies? Stop disrespecting Lord Henry!"

As Daniel and Emeralda argued, Dante let out a breath and thought about this story.

'Henry, the former king of Uldor. He was betrayed by his friend, Raga, who decided to help Valor to become the new king. He's now Valor's right hand and he was acknowledged by the World Runes as the fastest Rank 3 Existence.'

Dante was interested in this story because he wanted to know more about Uldor. If the war ended and he found a way to hide his Crown, he wouldn't hesitate to go there.

"Sir Shadow, if you don't mind…" Omar suddenly called Dante, giving him the smile of an experienced businessman: "Do you have any plans after we reach our destination? I'd like to have you by my side in my next journeys as well."

'Oh, you finally decided to speak, huh?'

Omar had ignored his own carriage and all the other mercenaries and decided to stay with Dante and the others.

Dante wasn't stupid enough to not understand that Omar was aiming for him after listening to the mercenaries' stories.

Who wouldn't like to have a man that could fight alone in a horde of monsters? Such fighters existed, but were very hard to find and even harder to hire.

Dante opened his mouth, intending to refuse Omar's offer politely. But before he could mutter a word…

"...!"

Dante's body froze, all his muscles tensing in alert.

'Something is watching us.'

A giant shadow appeared all of a sudden, far away from the camp, and froze. It wasn't just passing by, it was observing them from a long distance at a nearby hill.

"Ah… Shadow?" Omar's brows furrowed, confused by the sudden change.

Upon hearing Omar, all the others noticed Dante's unusual state. But he ignored them and focused on the strange shadow.

Just then, it made a sharp, sudden movement. Dante immediately enhanced his own body, stood up, and turned his head toward the shadow.

"Is something wrong?"

"Did you see something?"

"Dante?"

More and more mercenaries and merchants noticed that something was wrong and stood up, wielding their weapons firmly.

And then Dante realized — the shadow didn't make any other movements.

Dante's pupils shrank instantly: 'That was a trap!'

The shadow made a sudden movement intentionally to see if someone had noticed it. And Dante, by his sudden response, had exposed himself.

Dante immediately pointed at the nearby hill and shouted: "Something is watching—!"

Before Dante could complete his sentence, his speech suddenly stopped. No, his vocal cords stopped moving.

Then, under everyone's shocked gaze, Dante started floating upward, gripping his own neck, as if trying to release himself from something invisible that was choking him.

"We're under attack!"

The first to react was Jin, the drunk man. He immediately pulled out a golden sword and leapt toward Dante, gripping Dante's foot and trying to pull him down.

Emeralda snapped out of her daze and focused on the hill, her eyes glowing in green light. Just then, she noticed a giant figure hiding behind a tree.

She wielded her bow and drew an arrow, aiming it toward the giant figure and charging it with green wind energy.

'Damn you!'

Simultaneously, a javelin of compressed black flames appeared in Dante's right hand. Then, as Emeralda released the arrow, Dante threw the javelin with an inhuman force, ignoring the invisible force that was choking him.

SLASH—BOOM!

The arrow, with a head as sharp as a blade, cut through the tree, but it missed the mysterious figure as it dodged in the last moment. Then the hellish javelin landed, unleashing a huge explosion that threw the trees out of their roots.

Dante thought for a moment that he won. But just as more mercenaries, including Daniel, grabbed his leg to pull him down, he realized that the force was still there.

Dante channeled his mana to conjure another spear. But suddenly, a wave of invisible force pushed him and all those who were holding him, throwing all of them into a nearby carriage.

"MY CARRIAGE!"

Two merchants shouted in unison. One of them was looking at his carriage getting crushed by a bunch of mercenaries. The other was staring in terror at her carriage flying toward the hill and disappearing into the horizon.

The invisible force finally left Dante. In an instant, he used Shadowstep and teleported to the nearby hill.

Unfortunately, he couldn't find or sense the mysterious figure anymore. It ran away, stealing an entire carriage with it.

BAM!

"FUCK!" Dante gritted his teeth and punched the closest tree and shattered it in his anger.

It appeared out of nowhere, recognized Dante as the strongest and outsmarted him, lifted him up magically to prevent him from moving, stole a carriage, and ran away.

Dante, the merchants, the passengers, the workers, and even the slaves — all of them were defeated by a creature that they couldn't even see.

Was it a beast? Human? Frost elf? Something else?

Unfortunately, no one could know.

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