System's POV
chapter-490-2

The robed figure, who realized that someone was tailing her from behind, didn't hesitate to unleash a spell to hit the target's location.

The opponent was masking their presence, but it was easy for her to detect them due to the abilities she possessed.

'They managed to dodge that?' the robed figure thought, seeing that her preemptive strike didn't land on her target. 'It seems that this stalker is more skilled than I thought.

Thinking that it was pointless to continue her mission, the robed figure chose to retreat as fast as she could.

However, a faint whistling sound reached her ears, prompting her to summon a small magical shield to protect herself.

But before she could raise her shield, the arrow hit her robe and pinned her to the tree beside her.

Understanding that her opponent was extremely skilled, she decided to unleash a barrage of spells to give her some time to break free from being pinned from the tree.

Thirteen, who was only dozens of meters away from his target, found numerous magical bullets flying in his direction.

Instead of panicking, the young man used the trees as cover to block the incoming magical projectiles.

The sound of minor explosions spread in the surroundings as the trees Thirteen had used as shields collapsed on the ground.

Since nothing was blocking his vision, he was able to take a good look at his opponent.

The robed figure was wearing a mask, which prevented him from seeing their face.

'I need to get closer,' Thirteen thought as he aimed his bow at his target, and unleashed two arrows in rapid succession.

The robed figure had just freed themselves from the tree and had no intention of letting themselves be pinned down a second time.

With this in mind, she used a spell that burst in front of her, repelling the arrow flying in her direction.

Just as she had regained her composure, another arrow came flying in her direction, forcing her to use her burst spell for the second time in order to repel it.

The robed figure was now really pissed with the one attacking her, so she decided to cast a powerful spell that would obliterate everything in front of her.

However, just as she was preparing to cast the spell, her target stepped out from behind a tree with a smirk plastered on his face.

"Erica, is that you?" Thirteen asked.

Although the robed figure was wearing a mask, her fighting style was definitely the Sorceress he had taught during the time that they were together.

"Z-Zion?!" Erica, who recognized the annoying stalker, gasped in shock. "What are you doing here?!"

"Why else?" Thirteen stored his bow and walked towards the young lady, who had already removed her mask and was running in his direction. "I'm here because I was sent here by The One."

Erica, who had already come close to Zion, immediately hugged the boy and squeezed him tight.

"You brat, are you trying to kill me?!" Erica asked as she used a headlock on the boy who was shooting arrows at her earlier.

"I'm not," Thirteen replied in a calm manner, despite being ill-treated by the young lady. "I'm just pinning you to the tree earlier because I wanted to know your identity."

Erica was a Sorceress, so she didn't have enough strength to hurt the teenage boy with her headlock.

This was why Thirteen wasn't really affected by her futile attempt to hurt him and answered casually.

"You're lucky I was going easy on you earlier," Erica said. "If I had been serious, you would have been toast by now."

The two bickered for a while before Erica finally released the teenage boy and started asking him questions.

Thirteen answered them all and told the Sorceress about their current situation, which made her frown.

Erica also told Zion what she had been doing since she arrived in Solterra, and frankly, the teenage boy was impressed because he didn't expect that Erica had what it took to do what she was currently doing right now.

Simply put, Erica and a few Wanderers, who had been summoned in the same location, were currently trying to save the younger Wanderers who had been captured by the Lizardmen Tribes and the Ratmen Clans.

They were like a bandit group that came and went as they pleased, acting as a third party in the war.

Currently, Erica and her comrades had managed to save over fifty Wanderers and were sheltering them in a cave not far from the Fangiss Swamp.

Because of the recent escalation in the war between the Lizardmen and the Ratmen, the older Wanderers had to scout different locations to see whether they should evacuate or not.

Erica decided to scout the region where the fighting was more intense because she was confident that she could escape if needed.

Thirteen had given her the Fire Lord's Ring, which had a Divine-Ranked Martial Skill imbued on it.

This allowed Erica to use the Martial Skill called Advent of the Flame Empress, which greatly increased the effectiveness and firepower of all her fire-based spells.

"Come with me, Zion," Erica stated. "With you leading us, we can definitely pull through this together."

Erica was expecting the teenage boy to agree to her request.

But to her surprise, the teenage boy shook his head.

"I can't," Thirteen replied. "Do you see this mark on my forehead? This is a symbol of the Varesti Tribe. It had a tracking spell placed on it. All the Wanderers with me have the same symbol, so the Shaman would know our location at all times."

"No way… how can you let this happen to you?" Erica, who had considered the teenage boy as someone stronger than her, couldn't accept what happened to him.

Of course, the symbol on Thirteen's forehead actually had no effect on him whatsoever.

But that didn't mean that the other Wanderers wouldn't be affected by it.

For Erica's own safety, he deemed it best that his group and her group didn't interact for now.

However, this didn't mean that he didn't find this current situation very appealing to him.

"I have a plan," Thirteen said. "And I believe that if we work together, we will be able to rescue the other Wanderers faster."

"What is it?" Erica didn't bat an eye and took the teenage boy's words seriously.

Thirteen explained the plan he had in mind, as well as a surefire way to keep the lines of communication for Erica and him.

"Go now," Thirteen said. "Contact me once you return to your group."

"Understood." Erica nodded before shifting her gaze to the snake armlet that was currently in her arm.

Tiona's clone would allow her and Zion to communicate and share the information that both of them possessed.

"Also, I met a friendly monster along the way," Thirteen said as Blacky appeared beside him. "His name is Blacky, and he will be staying with you for the time being to keep you safe."

Erica almost jumped out in fright when she saw the two-meter-tall Nightmare Black Hound, who was a Rank 6 Sovereign.

"I-Is this an Avatar?" Erica stuttered. "I thought you can't have Avatars?!"

"Didn't you listen to what I told you just now?" Thirteen arched an eyebrow. "Blacky isn't an Avatar. He is a real monster I met not long ago. I fed him a few scraps of meat, and because of that, he took a liking to me."

Blacky rolled his eyes at Zion, knowing very well that this wasn't the true story of how they first met.

However, since he and the teenage boy now got along very well, he decided to not bring up the past and simply followed the order given to him to protect Erica from harm.

"For now, tell your comrades that Blacky is your Avatar," Thirteen said. "It will be easier for them to accept this explanation."

"R-Right!" Erica, who was still very intimidated by the Rank 6 Sovereign, couldn't help but look at it warily. "He won't eat me, right?"

"He won't," Thirteen stated. "Just trust me, okay?"

After a little more convincing, Erica reluctantly climbed up on Blacky's back and used him as a mount to return to the cave where her comrades were staying.

Only when the Sorceress was gone did Thirteen sigh and rub his face with his hands.

'Since there are Apostles involved, this means that this mission is more dangerous than I initially expected,' Thirteen thought. 'But with Erica here, I now have an outside force I can control remotely.'

The teenager glanced in the direction where Erica had disappeared one last time before turning away and going back to the camp where the other Wanderers were waiting for him.

For the time being, he didn't plan to tell any of them about his discovery because it would destroy the unity they had now.

If they knew that the Sorceress of the Hero Party was somewhere out there, saving Wanderers like them, their resolve would waver and might make them less likely to obey Thirteen's orders.

In order to prevent that from happening, he would keep Erica's existence a secret for now until the right opportunity presented itself.