"What!?"

Lawrend and Logan woke up at the same time. They both exited their shelters and looked around them warily.

"Where are they?" Lawrend asked Nuon.

"They should have surrounded us already," Nuon replied to Lawrend.

Suddenly, the canopies of the trees above them shook as several silhouettes jumped across the branches.

"This is bad," Lawrend said to them with a frown.

At this rate, they would be left with no chance to escape. They have no other choice but to run.

"Run separately!" Lawrend suddenly shouted.

He then picked a direction and ran towards it. Logan and Nuon were too surprised to react before they followed his order and ran.

Whoosh Whoosh

Suddenly, a small dart flew from the branches and headed for Lawrend's neck. He didn't even see it coming before it hit him.

"Ah!"

Lawrend touched his neck in surprise. Then his vision darkened. He fainted as it was a tranquilizer dart.

…

"Ughh… Where am I?" Lawrend asked as he rubbed his neck and sat up.

He could still feel the sting of the tranquilizer dart on his neck. He looked around him in confusion. He was in a jail cell. There were metal bars separating him from the hallway outside.

"Huh, I guess they were prepared," Lawrend said to himself.

It all happened so quickly that they didn't even get the chance to defend themselves. The demihuman tribe in Yttervia Forest is not something to look down on.

"Now what? How do I escape?" Lawrend asked himself with a wry smile on his face.

He opened his hand and tried to use his lightning magic.

Bzzt Bzzzt

Small sparks appeared on his hand. It seems like he could still use his magic. He stood up and pointed his palm at one of the metal bars.

"+Shock Arc+!" Lawrend shouted.

BOOM!

A thick thunderbolt escaped his hand and hit it, but nothing happened.

"As I thought, it just conducted my lightning magic away," Lawrend said to himself.

It was metal. What else could it do other than conduct electricity?

"I guess I will just wait and see," Lawrend said to himself.

He sat down and practiced his magic in the meantime.

"...Wait."

Lawrend's eyes opened widely. He just suddenly remembered something. He doesn't know if it would work, but he had to try.

Tap tap tap

The faint sounds of footsteps sounded as it slowly approached Lawrend's cell.

'My Shock Arc must have attracted their attention,' Lawrend thought to himself.

A demihuman with cat ears appeared in front of Lawrend's cell. He had a bow strapped on his back, and he wore a loincloth.

"You! Did you just use your magic?" The catman asked him sternly.

"..."

Lawrend didn't reply. He just stared at The catman in curiosity. This was his first time seeing one in person. Heck, this was even his first time knowing that they exist. In the 'sacred texts' that he had read in his past life, they don't exist.

"Tsk. You're not answering? Do you want me to put you to sleep again?" The catman said to Lawrend threateningly and pulled out a blow dart from his back.

He pointed it towards Lawrend.

"Where are my teammates?" Lawrend asked the catman.

"Are you not scared of this?" The catman said to him with squinted eyes.

"Why would I?" Lawrend retorted mockingly.

"You!"

The catman stared at Lawrend with gritted teeth.

"You're gonna put me to sleep, so what?" Lawrend said to the catman, unamused.

"If you sleep, we will violate your body!" The catman threatened.

"...What?" Lawrend looked at The catman in shock.

"Yes! So answer me!"

The catman nodded his head strongly.

"How is that scary? Do you think I'm a kid?" Lawrend asked the catman in confusion.

He couldn't really wrap his head around why being put to sleep was scary.

"Ah, a human won't understand. When we're asleep, we get approached by bugs, especially in this prison cell. It's the scariest thing especially when it crawls into your ears," The catman said to Lawrend.

"But I'm not a demihuman though…" Lawrend said to him awkwardly.

"..."

"..."

Lawrend and the catman stared at each other with twitching cheeks.

"Forget what I said, I will just answer your question," The catman said to Lawrend.

"Okay."

Lawrend nodded his head.

"Your teammates are also imprisoned in similar prison cells. The three of you have to wait for the decision of the Elders. Most likely, you will all be given a death penalty for trespassing," The catman explained to him.

"Isn't that too much?" Lawrend asked the catman in shock.

"Hmph. Are you forgetting that you are trespassing into our Yttervia Forest to kidnap one of our tribe members?" The catman asked Lawrend with anger on his face.

"We aren't," Lawrend shook his head.

"Like we believe you," The catman said to Lawrend skeptically.

"We are here to get a bottle of sap from the Sacred Spirit Tree," Lawrend said to him.

"Sacred Spirit Tree!?" The catman widened his eyes in horror when he heard Lawrend's words.

"Huh?"

Lawrend blinked his eyes in confusion.

"You're dead!" The catman shouted to Lawrend before he left fuming in anger.

'Is the Sacred Spirit Tree special to them!?' Lawrend exclaimed inside his mind in realization.

The academy any information about it. If it were really the case, then he made a grave mistake. He has to escape here now.

"No time to think! I have to try it!" Lawrend said to himself.

He grabbed the upper part of a metal bar with two of his hands one foot apart.

"+Shock Arc+!" Lawrend shouted.

Hummmmm

A low humming noise sounded as the metal bar in the center between his two hands started glowing red hot.

"AHHH!" Lawrend shouted as he pulled it back, making the metal bar snap.

"Hahh… Hahh… Okay. One more."

Lawrend panted heavily.

He then repeated it to the lower part of the metal bar.

Clang

The piece of the metal bar fell to the floor with a clang. He flitted through the wide gap and escaped his cell.