Zorat was in the dark as to what both ladies had gone and discussed, but while Ava came back looking happier, he was getting entirely different readings from Ariana, who was now sending furtive glances his way.

Her gaze held in equal parts fear, curiosity, want, and guilt, all in the same space.....

Her energy towards him was completely transformed from the usual, familiar likeness she used to have to something very complicated. But it was a welcome development for Zorat.

As long as her feelings do not turn outright negative, it’s very beneficial that he be on her mind, if possible, for what he was about to pull off this night.

Their journey through the forest carried on, with them coming upon more ferocious beasts the further in they advanced, and the heroes’ levels were also increasing at a rapid pace, and before settling in to camp somewhere relatively safe in the forest for the night.....

With Urasmus’s recommendation, of course.....

All heroes were already in the mid-stage of the master realm, being able to collectively take down beasts at even the grandmaster realm peak with minimal injuries.

As usual, after hunting for sufficient game in the forest, they all settled in around the campfire for a warm dinner, and after a little bit of chatter, they all proceeded to begin setting up their tents for the night, and Zorat did the same.

Lily, who had not stopped acting out of character, had actually come to seek assistance with her tent, but Zorat was too busy for that.... So she went elsewhere.

It took an extra two hours before everyone got settled in for the night, and Zorat waited an extra two hours just to be sure, as he refined his light chain ability for the meantime.

When he was certain everyone was deep asleep, Zorat cast his void domain spell and vanished from his position, quite relieved that Ava had not snuck in this time. She was essentially the reason he had waited to confirm....

If she had shown up, he would have beaten her bouncy ass back to her own tent. He had more important things to do.

Zorat moved through the campgrounds, this time set underneath the large leaf canopies of massive trees.

He didn’t need to go far because Ariana had set her tent next to his this time as well. First time might have been a coincidence.... But twice in a row?

Probably intentional....probably not. Zorat thought.

Luckily, as he entered, Ariana was fast asleep, so he immediately went to work replicating his spatial transference runic patterns around the inside of her tent, and in less than five minutes, Zorat was already done.

He also added a neat feature that would delay activation for a while, and also make her landing a little rough, so she is woken up.

So, Zorat leisurely left her tent after doing all that he came to do.

He could have knocked her out and carried her over to the cave, but along with the possibility of her waking up, it was still a lot of unnecessary work to lug a full-grown lady such a long distance.

He learnt that when he did the same with Azaria. It wasn’t an issue of weight but more of convenience.

And this time in particular, he had to make sure he was not recognized as the cause of Ariana’s desire being triggered, and only the source of fulfillment, else his authority would not take effect.

There is also a high likelihood of the young lady waking up along the way.

He also couldn’t knock her out as hard as he did Azaria, it might straight up kill her since she’s not strong enough yet.

Zorat returned to his tent just as he had come, and on his way, he could already feel the teleportation take effect. Ariana has been teleported straight to the water serpent layer....

Now it’s left for the serpent to do a good job, and Zorat will later ’accidentally’ come to Ariana’s rescue.

*****

Inside a large cave, illuminated by bioluminescent rocks, a massive serpent lay coiled on the ground with sharp vigilance and concentration in her eyes as she observed the center space of the chamber as if awaiting something... Or someone.

Ysera had been on edge ever since the strong human left.

She had a very serious mission, and that was to attack a red-haired human girl that is schedeuled to arrive in her layer any moment now.

She hasn’t been idle since the strong human left, either.

She has gone to seek advice from the very knowledgeable old beasts who know a lot about human cultures on the concept called ’acting’.

She has learnt that, to give a good acting performance, it needs to be as real and as true as possible, so she is going to be applying those teachings today....

so that when the strong human comes, he will commend her, and praise her a lot for acting so well.

Yseri now understood what the strong human really wanted....

Attack this human as much as possible, and bring her to the brink of death..... But make sure she doesn’t die.

"Sssss.....smart Ysera." she commended herself.

Right on cue, Ysera saw the marking the strong human had left glow brightly before dissipating, and in its place, a red-haired young human girl in her nightwear appeared, holding her head in a daze and looking around grogily.

"Sssss....finally.....Ysera now bite off arm."

Where Ariana was just gathering herself after being forced awake by her impact on the rocky cave floor....

She was looking around at the strange space, thinking she had just been in her tent a moment ago, listening in on Caleb’s tent to see if he would do ’that’ with Ava again....

But she must have fallen asleep. She thought.

Now she was wondering where she was....

And why was there a massive serpent staring at her curiously?

She thought she must be in a dream or something.....

But why was the serpent opening its mouth so wide and charging at her? 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"FUUUUUUUUCK!!!"

Ariana screamed her heart out as she flew out of the way, just a millisecond before the serpent’s massive maws latched onto her shoulders.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!"