Seeing the hooded figure beginning to approach us, I moved to stand in front of Ailya, despite the fact that I was trembling and that the girl I was protecting was actually stronger than me.

Stopping about 20 meters away from us, the hooded figure whose face I could now discern as one belonging to an old bearded man, looked at the two of us before asking in a deep and powerful voice that made a cold sweat go down my back as he asked:

“Where did the two of you come from?”

Swallowing the large clump of saliva that I didn’t know I had in my mouth, I opened my mouth to answer, but the words refused to come out from inside me, leaving me to appear like a fish gasping for air.

At my extreme reaction, Ailya tried to move to stand in front of me, but I put my own arm in front of her to stop her advance and made sure that she stayed behind me no matter what.

After looking at the show we were putting on without saying or doing anything, the old cloaked man narrowed his eyes before releasing a sigh and telling us in gentle tone:

“I’m sorry little misses, I didn’t mean to frighten the pair of you two sisters. You should know that close to here is the elven forest, and they aren’t exactly the welcoming type to strangers. You should take your sister and get away from here.”

After having said his warning, the man began to turn around before turning back once more and saying:

“Oh yeah, word in Dene is that a new labyrinth has appeared nearby, so make sure not to enter it by mistake. Alright you two?”

At this, I simply nodded my head in understanding quickly as I was too terrified to do anything else.

Seemingly satisfied with my response, the old man nodded his head before turning away once more. However, turning back again to face us much to my poor heart’s discontent. The man asked as a question that made me feel as though someone was choking me as he asked:

“Forgive me for bothering you yet again, but the two of you wouldn’t have seen a little half-elf with green hair and brown eyes. She’s should be about the size as the little one over there.”

At his question, I couldn’t help but panic as countless thoughts raced inside me trying to understand the implication of his question. How did he know about Ailya, what was his relationship with her? Was he trying to hunt her down to kill her like her mother?

Turning to look at the girl I was thinking about instinctively, I saw her shake her head which, along with the sentiment passed through the bond we shared, allowed me to tell that she didn’t know who the man In front of us, was.

Turning back to look at the man who simply stared at us calmly this whole time, even though I felt a pressure I had never experienced in my life before, I simply shook my head to answer his question and hoped that he wouldn’t press us on any further.

Closing his eyes for a few seconds, then man opened them again before saying “Is that so…”, and turned to look at the direction of the forest. Appearing to have his business with us completed, the man looked at me once more before saying:

“You seem to have some excellent senses young miss, try to use them to take good care of your sister. You should also consider becoming an adventurer, the world could always use a few more talented ones in these trying times…”

At this, I merely nodded my head slowly as I held onto Ailya tightly. Seeing this, the old man turned away to head back in the direction of the forest, as I kept on staring at his back the entire time he was walking, unable to move my shaking legs which were firmly rooted to the ground.

I continued to stare at the direction where the old man had headed to, long after he had already disappeared from my sight. Finally feeling confident that he wouldn’t be making an appearance again, my shaking legs finally gave out and I fell down to the ground.

Seeing me fall down, Ailya came and sat next to me as she worryingly asked:

“What’s wrong Alex? What did you see in that man to make you feel so terrified?”

Turning to face the worried girl, I opened my mouth as I tried to answer her question:

“I-I-I-I…”

Taking a deep breath since I still seemed to be greatly shaken by the experience and was unable to formulate a proper response. I calmed myself enough to be able to respond as I told her:

“I saw a glimpse of that man's power. Although I couldn’t tell exactly since something was preventing me from deciphering concrete information, I was still able to tell that that man was insanely powerful…”

Putting on a resolute expression on my face, I stared into Ailya’s eyes with my own that were unable to hide the fear in them as I told her:

“Ailya, I know I said it before. But we really HAVE to get stronger. Who knows how many people as strong as that man are walking out there. Even if he is the strongest man in the world, it still doesn’t make our situation any better. The difference in strength between us and him might as well be the difference between the heavens and the earth.”

Seeing my agitated expression, Ailya reached her hands out and grasped mine as she adopted a smile on her face and said:

“Of course we’ll grow stronger Alex. After all, didn’t you say that we would stand at the top of the world? So don’t worry about it too much. I’ll also make sure to get stronger, so that you can count on me in situations like this and there won’t have such a terrified expression on your face.”

Hearing the comforting words from the little girl who I myself had just comforted yesterday, I couldn’t help but release a nervous laugh as I felt some of the tension in my body leave me.

With my mind clearing somewhat, I began to seriously think of the implications the man’s strength posed. It appeared that the meta for the top level players in this world wouldn’t be at soul level 99 or 125. No, not all. For that man, despite me not being able to properly glean information from him, was at the very least over level 200. Considering I was only at level 3 and Ailya at 8, it was clear that our aspirations to stand at the top of the world, were still a long way away…