Several hours after traveling the huge forest, Zeke and Lyle met nothing of note other than small creatures that ran away from them, more impossible sights like a waterfall that was so hot and boiling it might as well be spewing out flames, and still no sign of their party members that went missing.

So it wasn't a good feeling when Zeke and Lyle found themselves absolutely lost, losing their last checkpoint of the fire-breathing waterfall (Lyle's name for it). They were once again lost in the vast array of trees that could very well inhabit their old world in size and scope.

"So, I think we went from the firebreathing waterfall to the land of scorching death and destruction," Lyle mused, pointing his finger at what he believed to be the directions. "So we gotta pass through the land to head over to the shallows of chaos and mayhem…"

"Dude, are you okay?" Zeke asked, more concerned than lost. "You've been using some pretty depressing names."

"I don't think they're depressing. They're accurate," Lyle countered. "I don't know what you saw, but it felt accurate to say that we're in hell right now."

"That's… that might actually be a good point," Zeke surmised, now that he put together everything he saw so far.

It's not like they were losing their minds. Sure, out of boredom they were, but really they were just distracting themselves. No matter how much experience Zeke had, he really had no clue on where to go. If there were directions, that'd be one thing, but they were dumped into a random location with no other party member in sight, and nothing else but monsters in this vast dungeon inside the tower.

Which was another extreme concern for him. In the last tower was a large swamp filled with acidic streams and rivers, but this forest was perhaps a few times bigger than that. He can't seem to find the end no matter how often they pursued north.

He honestly can't expect just two otherworlders to find themselves out of here, as quite literally two of their own could barely cross over several kilometers and still find no end in sight.

"Shit, where is she?" Lyle put aside his joking manner, now revealing his true worry. "I'm just not getting a good vibe from this at all."

"Is that from your senses that came out of your monster forms?" Zeke asked. "I remember you telling me about that."

"Yeah, but they're not really reliable," Lyle said. He stood upright, crossing his arms as he churned in his thoughts. "It's not like I can sense earthquakes and stuff, but I just get these vibes and… right now, all I'm getting are nasty ones all around me. I just… I guess I just want to keep Janet on my side to make me feel better. Nothing like having a cutie around you that can kill your enemies, eh?"

Lyle grinned, but Zeke could already tell that Lyle was just pushing himself. If anything, he wants Janet around to make sure nothing bad happens to her. Zeke understood completely, feeling the same way.

"Agreed. Let's keep going," Zeke grinned back. "I can already imagine Mikella yelling at us for getting lost while they were just chilling with the others."

"Hah! That'd definitely be funny," Lyle chuckled.

Just as they were about to keep walking forward, Zeke and Lyle immediately paused. Lyle looked up into the sky, and Zeke closed his eyes to feel his senses clearer. The two knew immediately, and nodded to each other when they made their guesses.

Footsteps, and several at that. The forest was too huge, but he could practically feel their exact numbers and position. The longer they walked towards them, the more Zeke was sure who they were.

People. Or perhaps humanoid creatures on two legs. Rather than getting on guard, Zeke got Lyle to appear non-threatening as Zeke tried to loosen his grip and relax his tensed shoulders.

Then, a moment later, he found himself to be right. People came out of the woodwork, six in total. All grown men and slightly younger, all of them perhaps in their early or late twenties, according to Zeke's guess.

And just like he guessed, each of their levels varied between 10 and 20, with one being the highest at 21. Each one carried what looked like a weapon made from iron or even homemade, with large sticks that had sharp looking stones wrapped at the tip to act like spears. They had shoddy armor, some with leather, and some even had plated chest armor. It was all mish-mash and random, as though they just happened to find it lazying around somewhere else. Each of their classes were randomized archetypes, from warriors to rogues and archers alike. Strangely, not a single mage was here, and somehow unsurprisingly no healers either.

All of the men approached the two with their weapons held up, ready to use at any moment. But instead of just outright attacking them, one of them approached Zeke and Lyle with a grin and a hearty open-arm gesture.

"Well, well, lookie what we got here. We found some lost ones, boys."

The other 'boys' chuckled at their leader's response, which is already causing some flags to pop up in Zeke's head. Still, he looked over to Lyle.

He only shrugged at this. The two weren't really quite sure how to handle this.

"Well, we are kinda lost," Zeke admitted, figuring that he should be the first to act. "But we're actually here to help the people that are stuck here."

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"Ooh, some saints graced us with their presences. How wonderful," The man said, sneering at Zeke. "If you wanna help us, you can certainly do that. Just drop everything you own and walk away, nice and easy."

The other men started chuckling mischievously, like a crowd of bad acting grunts trying to look intimidating.

If Zeke was honest, he was ecstatic to finally find more otherworlders than he expected. Six whole people, and they were alive to boot.

But the way they were acting didn't make sense. Shouldn't they be glad to find more people that can help them? Especially when they didn't appear hostile? At least, Zeke tried to be as non-hostile as possible.

But apparently that brought about the opposite of what he wanted. Now they look ready to pounce on them if they don't do as they say. But why?

"Zeke, this is starting to look like a really bad trope here. What do we do?"

Lyle said, his voice quiet enough that none of the others can hear him except for Zeke. His senses were so sensitive that he can hear him as though he was talking normally.

He frowned as he answered. "If they attack, we gotta defend ourselves. But I don't wanna kill them. So let's try to subdue them."

The real problem was the level difference. Just one finger flick from Zeke is enough to blast their heads right off. He recalled what Mikella told him when Val beat her when she lost her senses. The difference between a Journeyman and an Apprentice is no joke.

But that made him wonder. Surely these idiots can tell with an Identify that they were too strong, wouldn't they?

Then again, would Zeke have known he could use Identify if Cloud and Val hadn't taught him to do so? No, the system should have told them that they can do so. Were they so confident that they didn't bother Identifying them?

"You can not do that too, that's fine," The lead man continued. "Me and my boys, though? We were a little starving for some action anyways. And there aren't anymore chicks to plow through, so we're a little bit revved up, y'know? So the least you can do is give us a little fun."

That caught Zeke by surprise, and anger soon filled his chest. There were more people… and this group didn't seem to be the type to hold back.

Lyle put a hand on Zeke's shoulder, revealing a cocky grin.

"Oh, you can leave that to me. As long as they're not killed, it's fine, right?"

"Totally," Zeke said without hesitation. "Go for it."

Upon his go-to, Lyle stepped up before any of the grunts went ahead to pitifully start their 'ambush'. With deft hands, he flicked his wrists and several sharp knives flew out from his storage pack, at least to Zeke's eyes.

Each of those knives, upon closer inspection, were coated in some yellowy film and dripping as they flew across the air, flying straight at the intended targets.

One was hit at the shoulder, causing a yelp. Another hit in the right thigh, causing a growl of pain. Then the next and the next fell through.

All if it occurred in just two seconds. Just two seconds, and a group of six grown men were taken down in one fell swoop.

Zeke's eyes widened. None of the hits were made in vital areas, and it was easy to tell that the yellowish coating was responsible for leaving the men completely down and out, falling on their asses, their backs, and some right on their heads. Their faces slackened to the point of drool pouring out of the corner of their mouths, groans easily flying across afterwards.

"Holy shit, that's some good aim," Zeke commented, his brows rising.

"That's what a Rare Projectile Mastery does for you. And Mikky said that using bows was superior," Lyle scoffed. "You try shooting potions with a bow, and see what happens."

Zeke chuckled as he stepped over to the downed men. They looked shocked, but their expressions of shock were the only things of note. Other than that, they can't seem to move any body part at all, not even their lips and jaws to talk. Their eyes were wide and panicking, their pupils flying across everywhere to see what was going on around them.

"You really hit them hard," Zeke said as he lifted a man's arm, completely flopping like a fish. "You sure you didn't permanently paralyze them?"

"Don't worry. I hit them with some potent paralytic, but not enough to last forever. This was the least potent I have for situations like this. Still, they were pretty weak… maybe they won't recover for the next few days."

"Eh, it's worth it," Zeke gestured with a wave. "Better than killing them, at least."

"So, uhh…" Lyle scratched the back of his head. "What now? We can't really ask them for information now."

Zeke widened his eyes at the realization, then cursed under his breath. "You mind telling me that before you go and do things?"

"Hey, you never asked for specifics. You only said 'subdue' them!" Lyle countered with an accusatory finger. "I did that. You never said we needed them to talk!"

Zeke let out an exhale, figuring that there was no point in arguing about it. But just as he was thinking about trying to heal one of them to make them talk about where they came from, and if there were more of them… he sensed someone trying to run.

A very small person that was outweighed by the heavier folks here. Like a child…

"There's a kid."

That was the only thing Zeke said before he flashed his tattoo buffs, flaring his flight rune for a brief moment and flew off into the distance. Lyle stood there with widened eyes at the realization, then cursed under his own breath at the mess around him.

…..

Zeke flew across the field, sparing his hungry flight rune and using his legs to run several miles per minute. There in the distance, he saw someone that exactly fit the description in his head.

A child, with brown skin and dark hair that ran with all his life. His slim body showed that he spent most of his short life running or doing activities, but the rough-hewn rags he wore as clothes were tattered and dirty. His feet, naked as they were, were completely covered in blisters and cuts, but he didn't care at all as he kept running like his life depended on it.

Before Zeke could let him do anything too crazy, he jumped right in front of the kid, softly stopping him in his tracks by dampening his fast run with an impromptu rubber shield of his Ethereal Construct.

It was barely workable, and if a competent fighter ran to it, it would be ripped entirely. But the kid wasn't even initialized, so he instead ran right into it and slammed as though he was covered in a film. He then fell onto his butt, shocked and bewildered by what just happened.

There, his eyes widened at the man in front of him, his face turning pale at the sight of the tall man with glowing tattoos and probably glowing eyes as well.

Zeke tried to put the most friendliest face he could manage and asked.

"Hey, are you okay?"

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