It was four hours ter when Astor got his chance to make a move. It was after all of the grabbers went to sleep except for that guy Paul who was nearing the end of his shift and appeared to be very sleepy. He seemed to be busy kindling the fire while thinking about something perverted… He was secretly peeking at the only female in his group, Nicole, every once in a while.

  Thankfully, the forest had become very dark, damp, and noisy due to the unstopping rain, making it a perfect environment for a covert operation! Especially now that the forest floor all around the clearing had been flooded.

  Making sure that heavy rain had picked up again, and letting its pattering sound hide any noise he might make, Astor knew it was time to move!

  Firmly tying a makeshift mask made out of his torn shirt over his mouth, he started to slowly remove the mud and leaves camoufge that he previously blocked the tree hole with, and then poked his head out to make sure there were no traps.

  After a thorough inspection, and mentally mapping his path, he began to make his way down the tree using the thickest branches as a cover to block Paul’s line of sight.

  His broken rib hurt like hell, but he just ignored it, this degree of pain was not something that would stop him. The rib was already firmly fixed in pce by a tightly wrapped cloth, so unless he made some really bizarre movement, he should be ok.

  It took him 3 minutes to safely reach the ground where he didn’t touch the muddy dirt but kept his bare feet on the tree’s protruding roots as he hid behind its rge trunk and took the opportunity to catch his breath. Damn it… He really needed to train his body more!

  Adjusting his state, he slowly peeked behind the trunk to make sure that Paul was still not looking. That idiot was still busy peeking at Nicole.

  Pathetic!

  Astor smirked and slowly began moving while keeping his feet on the roots from one tree to another, making sure not to leave a trace on the dirt or make a noise until he reached the tree to which the two kids were tied to.

  They noticed him almost immediately as he extended his head from behind the trunk startling the shit out of them. Thankfully, their mouths seemed to have been gagged with some cloth so they couldn’t scream or make noise.

  Gesturing to them that he was here to help, they immediately calmed down realizing that he was not a beast as they first thought. They began to signal him for help with their eyes.

  Astor nodded in response, putting his finger on his mouth, gesturing them to stay quiet as he took a sharp rock that he had collected earlier and began cutting the ropes binding the boy.

  The boy wanted to tell Astor that he could just untie the rope and there was no need to cut it, but sadly the gag on his mouth stopped him from making that useless comment.

  It took Astor, who kept bending at a certain angle and using the boy's body as a cover to avoid Paul's eyes, ten whole minutes to cut through the rope before he hurried to the girl’s side leaving the boy to untie himself slowly while keeping his eyes on the kidnappers.

  This time Astor directly untied the girl’s rope, then, ignoring her grateful look, he gestured for the two with his finger in a certain direction before stepping away behind the tree.

  By the time the two kids freed themselves completely and looked around to thank him, he was nowhere to be found. It seemed as if he had evaporated into the darkness!

  That’s what they saw, but in fact, he just walked away toward the tree he had been hiding in, keeping to the trees to not leave any food prints. It was painful and hard, but as someone who survived for years as a mercenary hunting in other worlds, he was a professional in hiding his tracks.

  “Wh…” The girl, Amber, wanted to say something after she finally removed the gag, but her brother stopped her gesturing her to stay silent, pointing at the kidnappers.

  She quickly nodded as she began searching around for Astor.

  She couldn't find him.

  They waited until Paul bent down to pick something, then took each other's hands and both hurried away toward the flooded grounds. They knew that if they walked through the high grounds, their footprints left in the mud would be easily trackable.

  Watching them leave after looking around searching for him one st time, Astor slowly retreated, keeping to the tree roots as he entered the flooded grounds, then finding a suitable spot, he slowly bent down and submerged himself.

  Whether those two would live or not, was not his business. For him, all people other than those he considered his own, were disposable. This was the mentality of an Emperor!

  Still, he hoped they would survive… They reminded him of how pathetic he was in his first life!

  So, after that, he waited… That stupid guy, Paul, should notice the missing kids at any moment now and sound an arm.

  He waited…

  He waited some more…

  The water was cold…

  “FUCK!” he cursed and waited, peeking out every once in a while…

  Why didn’t that fuck head notice anything already? Was he doing this on purpose or something?

  Damn it! If he knew that this idiot would not notice a thing, he would have returned to his hiding spot and not waited here!

  Should he make some noise?

  No… They might locate him.

  Damn it!

  After an agonizing 15 Minutes in the cold water, Astor who was about to make some move finally heard someone begin talking.

  “Nickole, wake up, it is your shift…” Paul said, waking up his partner.

  “Fuck!” Nickole cursed. She seemed to have woken up abruptly. “Did anything happen?” she asked as she stretched up.

  “No, everything is fine…” Paul said, “It is time for your shift!”

  “I know… Did the kids wake up?”

  “No, Timmy doubled their dose, so as you can see…..” he paused.

  “What? ….WHERE ARE THE KIDS?” Nickole asked immediately as she looked toward the tree they were tied to.

  “Ahh….”

  “Ahh, WHAT?”

  “FUCK!”

  “OH… DAMN IT! ROLAND! THE KIDS…” Nicole didn’t need to continue as Rond seemed to have woken up and was on his feet in seconds. As someone with an awakened physic, he was 10 times more powerful and agile than a normal person.

  Making sure the kidnappers were alerted, Astor quickly made sure to take a deep breath and then submerge himself underwater completely, breathing through a reed. He could barely hear anything of what was happening on the ground, but he already knew what would happen.

  Rond would first check the ropes, if they were both untied or had sharp cuts it would mean that someone helped them, but finding that one of them was cut by a rock, would make him assume that one of them must have used it to break free then help the other.

  Afterward, he would definitely follow the kids’ footprints toward the flooded forest ground and arrange a search party. The kids wouldn't be able to go far by navigating the forest floor in this weather after all.

  13 minutes ter, Astor resurfaced. Although it was still rainy, he could no longer hear the sound of the grabbers.

  Keeping wary and perking his ears, he slowly moved until he reached the high ground again and peeked from behind one of the trees.

  As expected, Paul, who at the moment had a very swollen face and a bck eye after seemingly getting beaten, was left alone here to guard the bags as the others went to search for the kids. Was this guy new or something?

  Astor didn’t care as he slowly swam around the clearing making sure that there were no traps before making his way behind Paul who was sitting beside the campfire and cursing.

  Making sure again that there was no one else Astor crawled out of the water with his dagger in hand and slowly approached his unaware target.

  SLASH

  It was one smooth movement and Paul’s headless corpse fell to the ground with a thud. Military-grade weapons were very sharp, made to easily pierce through demon beasts’ skin. Cutting a human with it, was like slicing butter.

  Astor, who kept the head in his hand, didn’t show any remorse at all. For him, killing another human being was like beheading a chicken.

  Ignored the blood that seeped from it as he opened his mouth wide and uttered a strange sylble from his throat. Moments ter, some kind of gray fog began to materialize and seep out of Paul’s shocked dead eyes. Astor swallowed it all.

  Those were Paul’s dreams!

  This was one of the powers of a spark holder. Collecting the spark’s element from the environment, converting it into energy directly and vice versa.

  For Astor, who held the Enigma Spark, the target of his power was naturally Dreams which was a kind of ethereal energy that was very hard and tricky to gather. Dreams ranged from stupid thoughts and hallucinations to concrete purposes and life goals. The more concrete, grand, and achievable dreams were, the stronger the power he could gather from them.

  If it were him from his past life, he would easily be able to gather tons of energy by just passing by a person in an alley, but for the current him who had not built his meridian circuits yet, the harvest was only possible by either gaining the target’s full cooperation or by by killing them and directly devouring the energy as the soul colpsed.

  If any other awakened were to see him right now he would call him a demon and attack him directly. That’s why Astor didn’t dare to use this ability earlier in the base.

  Collecting elements from others, and especially the dead was one of the few forbidden things in the world of the awakened, and only demons, desperate idiots, or those who practiced forbidden and demonic techniques attempted. All were enemies of all humankind!

  For humans, usually, the risks of such techniques far outweighed the benefits, as the energy from another living being would never be pure enough, carrying with it many other impurities and thoughts of the original owner. Such impurities had many adverse effects ranging from simple curses to the practitioner losing all his powers or him going crazy and becoming a monster.

  That was only if the practitioner had no spark though.

  Those with Sparks that Reflected living elements like Blood, Souls, and Dreams had a completely different set of rules, and for them, purifying such chaotic energy was as easy and natural as separating gold from water.

  Slowly, Astor devoured everything Paul had, feeling his Spark light up as he watched Paul's dreams and memories fsh in front of him as they transformed into energy. Although he could grasp very few random thoughts from these fshes due to his low level. He managed to fully grasp that Paul was a simple hooligan in a nearby vilge who joined the gang of kidnappers here with his childhood friend Nicole to make some money.

  There was nothing important at all!

  Thankfully, Astor was not really after the information but the energy that slowly began to fill his meridians! It didn’t st long, just a few minutes and the extraction was over making Astor sigh in annoyance and click his tongue.

  Due to his extraction method and how feeble and unrealistic Paul’s dreams were, the energy he got was too little. Barely enough to help him heal his wound to some extent and cast a few illusion spells in case of emergency… That’s it.

  Damn it… He cursed as he threw the head away, kicking Paul’s body as he wiped his hand.

  Couldn't this guy have some realistic dreams? Damn it… Loser!

  Cursing again, Astor hurried toward the grabbers' bags under one tree. Hopefully, he would find something useful there.

  After making sure they were not tied to any rope traps, he directly began slicing them one by one from the bottom using his dagger. Seasoned adventurers had the habit of rigging their bags in case they were not opened by them.

  Inside, other than the traps that didn’t trigger, he found many useless things, so he only took what he needed.

  A metal cord, tape, two energy bars, one unmarked pill, 3 packs of poison, all the money that amounted to 3,420, some fake IDs, and finally the train VIP tickets that were wrapped in a pstic bag. The grabbers would not bring those things with them as they searched in the water, so as expected they left them here.

  Also, he matched a group of clothing for himself from everyone and put them in the pstic bag. Those would come in handy ter after leaving the forest.

  Throwing everything else in the fire, Astor quickly retrieved the waterproof military pouch from his hiding pce, then he packed everything in a pstic bag for extra security before stuffing them inside of it.

  Searching the campsite one st time, Astor found nothing of interest, so after checking the military compass for directions, he left the clearing waddling into the flooded forest making sure to take a convoluted path to hide his tracks just in case.

  As he walked, he began to make the energy he got slowly seep into his broken ribs healing him.

  Hopefully, he will be able to reach the city without too much trouble!