Unbeknownst to Laden, he had been locked on to by a hidden enemy.

He moved through the forest floor peacefully and quietly, hoping to not attract any unnecessary attention, but little did he know.

Since he wasn’t in his merged state, he couldn’t move so fast, and in addition to his injuries, he had to take more time, but nonetheless, he finally arrived where he had left Caleb.

But when he got there, instead of seeing Caleb waiting for him or doing anything at all, he noticed that Caleb wasn’t even around at all.

Even from the surrounding vibes, it felt like no one had been here for a while, making Laden wonder what was going on.

"I really need him to be here," Laden said anxiously.

Though he had been braving through it for a while, he knew if he didn’t do anything about his wounds. It would get serious soon.

"I can’t imagine what sorts of microorganisms will be everywhere in this world," he said in fear.

He would have at least wrapped up the wound and taken care of it. He had a bit more medical materials, but he didn’t have anything like that; he had used what he had earlier.

"Should I go looking for him? What if something had happened to him?" Laden asked.

"I don’t think there’s a need for that. What I think we should do now is try to use that fruit we just found," Prime said excitedly.

The worry about his wounds and Caleb’s location had made Laden mostly forget about the Golden Fruit they found, but now that Prime had spoken of it, he finally remembered.

"Ohhhh yes," Laden said before quickly finding somewhere to sit.

He dipped his hands into the bag to bring out the fruit so they could analyze it better.

"It really is special, still radiating that same intense spirit energy," Laden muttered.

"I wonder if I should just consume it now," Laden said while uncontrollably bringing the fruit towards his mouth.

Somewhere not too far away on a dark tree top, a muscular boy sat there in shock, saliva dripping from the side of his mouth while he looked at the Holden fruit.

He wanted nothing more than to jump down the tree and go snatch the fruit off of Laden’s hand.

"Damn, where did that damn peasant get something so precious?" the boy thought.

He could also feel the intense spirit energy radiating from it, making it like an irresistible charm.

"I must get it," he said with a firm gaze.

"What can he do to refute, and he is even injured?" the boy said while summoning a quite large flood dragon beside him. The dragon released a gentle roar before merging with the boy.

Two small curved horns appeared on his head while tiny scales covered his arms, and also dragon claws came out of his hands.

"It’s show time," he said while jumping down the tree.

In Laden’s location, just as his teeth were about to bite down on the fruit, Laden suddenly heard Prime’s loud voice in his head.

"Stop, you weak-willed idiot! Are you planning to get us killed?" Prime shouted.

"You just want to consume something so important without making any preparations beforehand,"

"In a place like this, where you are surrounded by danger, attempting something like that is almost equivalent to suicide.

"So you better get your head straight and calm down."

The long strings of words made Laden feel a bit remorseful as he hadn’t seen Prime get so worked up over anything like that in the past.

It told Laden about how important it all actually was for Prime. He checked his surroundings and realized that nighttime was quickly approaching and everywhere was getting darker.

"Not is actually not the right time, and this isn’t even the place for this at all," Laden realized.

"Thanks, Prime," he said in his mind.

"Don’t mention it; there’s a reason why you have someone as smart as me as your collaborator," Prime said.

Then Laden was just about to say something when a thought suddenly crossed his mind.

"Should I head over to the Spirit World tonight?"

He had intentionally shoved the events of that morning down in his mind to prevent himself from getting overwhelmed in fear.

But now, Laden felt the need to actually head over to the Spirit World and actually talk to that man again to clear some things up.

"Tonight might actually be a good night, but first we need to find Caleb. I need someone to be on the lookout," Laden said.

Completely ignoring the sun that was almost setting in the distance, Laden dragged his still injured body to his feet and turned to look in a random direction.

"Let’s head in this direction," Laden muttered.

His footsteps were heavy as he moved through the forest floor in search of Caleb.

But Laden didn’t know that he had unknowingly begun heading towards danger.

The danger itself had been previously approaching extremely swiftly, but for some unknown reason he was stopped and currently locked in one position, and now Laden was approaching that specific location.

The further Laden walked away from their settlement spot, the more Laden felt his surroundings were growing darker. He didn’t know if it was due to the setting sun or if it was some sort of warning, but Laden felt it was darker.

"Where the hell could he have gone," Laden thought.

Despite only knowing each other for a day, Laden felt like he had gotten a full grasp of Caleb’s personality. It might just be him being naive or something else, but that was his genuine thought.

Finally, after about a few more minutes of slowly walking through the forest, Laden arrived at the same spot and immediately felt something.

Step. Step. Step. The sound of footsteps resounded in one particular corner, accompanied by the sounds of rustling bushes.

This made Laden freeze for a bit before he slowly turned to his left.

"Who is there?" Laden asked vigilantly despite not wanting a response, and for a while all he heard was silence.

Until.

"Laden," a thick, raspy voice suddenly called out, sending a chill down his spine.