It’s still out there."
He pointed toward where they had first appeared.
"Where we teleported. It shouldn’t be too far from here. If we can retrieve it, we’ll have enough rations for a while."
Ranar bit her lip before nodding.
They didn’t really have another choice.
"I’m in the Fourth Class," she said. "I could try flying and..."
"No."
Ric cut her off immediately.
"If you fly, you’ll bee the easiest target imaginable. You’ll get shot down by a spell or a skill. It’s not like you have wings." He shook his head firmly. "And even if you did, I still wouldn’t remend it."
He glanced toward the endless sky.
"Flying is one of the things you never do in a dangerous place like this."
At least...
That was what Damon had taught him.
Ranar thought about it for a moment before quietly accepting his reasoning.
Slowly, the sun began to rise.
As its first rays spread across the mountains, every creature that had lurked within the darkness vanished as though they had never existed.
Only then did the children truly see where they were.
An endless mountain range stretched before them.
Bones littered the rocky ground as far as the eye could see.
Some mountains were pletely barren.
Others were covered in forests that looked ancient and untouched.
Yet something had changed.
The terror of the night was gone.
In its place...
The cries of beasts echoed across the mountains.
They trudged toward a jagged outcrop of rock with strange green crystals growing from its surface. Neither of them could identify what kind of crystal it was.
Even if they could, neither of them cared.
Ranar had grown tired of climbing over uneven rocks and loose stones. She casually waved her hand.
A burst of golden light flashed.
The boulders blocking their path exploded into countless fragments, clearing a straight road ahead of them.
Ric gritted his teeth.
"What are you doing? You’re wasting your energy. We need to save it."
Ranar shot him an annoyed look before pointing at the shattered rocks.
"And you’re wasting our time. We need to hurry and find that food sack before something else steals it."
"You’re going to attract something," he argued.
The moment the words left his mouth, one of the shattered rocks suddenly unfolded.
It wasn’t a rock at all.
A mole-like creature with the massive claws of a bear burst from beneath the rubble and lunged straight at them.
Ranar didn’t even bother turning around.
She simply flicked a finger.
A thin flash of golden light sliced through the air.
The creature’s body crashed to the ground behind them with a wet thud, blood spraying across the broken stones.
Only then did Ranar continue walking as though nothing had happened.
Ric was about to continue arguing before his eyes drifted toward the monster she had just killed.
Then he gulped.
While she looked cute...
This girl was an absolute menace.
She had killed a Second Class monster without even looking at it.
Then again...
She was a Fourth Class Advancement.
"Let’s go," she said coldly, not even sparing the corpse another glance.
Of course she was angry.
The horrors from the previous night had made her feel helpless.
Weak.
Powerless.
She hated that feeling more than anything.
Now that the sun had risen, the frustration inside her only continued to grow.
Yet it wasn’t only her anger that was increasing.
Her mana was rising as well.
True to her name, Ranar grew stronger beneath the rising sun.
She was vastly more powerful during the day.
It wasn’t a skill.
It wasn’t an enchantment.
It was simply one of the many mysteries surrounding Ranar herself.
Even Damon couldn’t determine why her strength increased beneath the light of the golden star.
Ranar.
The name itself meant the sun.
Eventually Damon had simply shrugged and concluded that the universe loved her.
That explanation had somehow bee the official one.
Ric hurried after her.
Following the route they had taken before, they eventually arrived back at the place where they had first appeared.
The gloomy forest still stood in the distance like an enormous black scar upon the mountainside.
For just a brief moment, Ranar could have sworn she heard faint whispers drifting from between the trees.
Neither of them looked in that direction.
They quietly walked around the forest instead.
When they finally reached the spot where they had teleported...
Both children froze.
The sack was gone.
Ranar ground her teeth before letting out a long sigh, folding her small arms across her chest.
"Great."
"It’s gone."
She was already about to suggest finding another solution when Ric suddenly crouched.
He placed one hand against the ground.
Then...
To Ranar’s plete confusion...
He licked the dirt.
"Someone was here," he whispered.
"Obviously," Ranar replied flatly.
"One person," he corrected, studying the disturbed earth.
"Yes, I know that. I can see the footprints." She looked at him strangely. "Did you really need to lick the dirt to figure that out?"
Ric’s face instantly turned bright red.
Truthfully...
He had done it subconsciously.
It had just looked cool in his head.
Ranar rolled her eyes so hard she nearly looked behind herself.
"Whatever."
"There’s only one set of footprints." She pointed toward a line of tracks that disappeared behind several large boulders. "And they end over there."
Her expression already carried disappointment.
Ric, however, wasn’t discouraged in the slightest.
He climbed over the rocks and immediately began searching every crack, pebble, and broken branch with narrowed eyes.
"Let’s go."
"They went this way."
Without another word, he climbed down the other side and headed left.
Ranar blinked in surprise before lightly jumping into the air, landing beside him.
"You can track people?" she asked, unable to hide the curiosity in her voice.
Ric nodded proudly.
"My master taught me lots of things."
Ranar quietly looked away.
She silently made a mental note.
When I get home... I’m making Father teach me tracking.
Ric continued following the trail, occasionally kneeling to inspect broken twigs, loose stones, or faint marks left in the dirt.
"Wait," Ranar said after a while.
"What if whoever took it is stronger than us?"
Ric slowly shook his head, his messy brown hair swaying from side to side.
"I doubt it."
"If they were stronger than us, they wouldn’t need to scavenge for abandoned food." He pointed toward the faint drag marks left beside the footprints. "And look at this."
"They dragged the sack instead of carrying it."
He stood up before confidently smacking one fist into his palm.
"That means they’re weaker than us."
Ranar studied the marks for a moment before slowly nodding.
That actually made sense.
If whoever had stolen the food was weaker than them...
Then she could simply overpower them.
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