There were a few surprised yells when the rig and trailer vanished. However, by and large, most of the bandits were still too busy attacking the nearby professional hunters, who had finally started to put up a decent fight.

  If anything, the distraction its vanishing caused gave the hunters who didn’t get distracted gave them a few brief moments of respite.

  Behind Nate, the grappling hooks shook themselves free and vanished over the edge. It was a sign that they had managed to find a ledge or cave of some sort somewhere down there. By unhooking the grappling hooks, they were mostly removing the bandit’s ability to easily come after them.

  There was one last thing Nate needed to do before he could leave on the dirtbike he had in his storage. He needed to retrieve the RV that Rudy and his unknown accomplice had taken earlier.

  He ran into the trees, bypassing all the fighting going on, and continued parallel to the road. His charged crossbow came in handy occasionally as he was forced to shoot the backs of any bandits who came too close. During the last few months, his position in the party with Angie and Lindsay had increasingly become that of a scout due in no large part to him having a ranged weapon. However, his stealth abilities were lacking, and even if they hadn’t been, he would have struggled to keep silent at the pace he was running.

  It only took him a minute to reach the area where the large truck had burst from the trees and smashed into the scout vehicle. It was there that he found a lightly disguised turnoff area, with a camp set a couple of hundred feet back from the road. The Overlander was parked there along with several other trucks.

  Rudy was in the middle of grabbing his armor and weapons from a shed near the side when Nate burst into the encampment.

  He didn’t see anyone else around, so he decided to take the moment to store the RV along with all the bandit vehicles. There were a few different buildings spreading across the area, along with what looked like an old farmhouse set even farther back. If he had to guess just from what he was seeing, the bandits had taken over an old overgrown farm. Surprisingly, they had even put in the effort to fix up the house, barn, and other existing buildings, before creating more as needed.

  Nate had limited experience with bandits on this version of Earth. However, on his Original Earth, you never heard of bandits putting that sort of effort into fixing a place up. What that meant, if anything, he couldn’t say, but it was interesting regardless.

  With the Overlander retrieved and the rest of their vehicles taken, Nate was faced with an unexpected choice. Did he stick around and loot the bandit base and potentially get some revenge on Rudy, or should he just leave?

  He really wanted to get revenge, but at the same time, he wasn’t sure that putting himself at risk was worth it. He didn’t actually know what realm or how strong Rudy was. Considering how he had been able to dent the door of the RV though, something none of them would have been able to do, the other boy was a fair bit stronger than him.

  With the reminder of the other boy’s strength still fresh in his mind, Nate decided to leave. In another life, he may have tried to grab whatever loot the bandits had gathered in their buildings. Right then, he was more interested in just escaping the area safely.

  Thankfully, Nate wasn’t too worried about money at the moment. All he really wanted to do was get to Philadelphia in time for the auction.

  It would have been nice if he had been able to help with the fighting, but he was simply too weak. At the moment, he would be more of a hindrance than a benefit to the people back there.

  If he had some decent high-level cores, then the gun he used in the dungeons might have been effective. However, that would mean transferring it from his avatar, which was a one-way street. Or rather, it had been in the past. He wasn’t so sure how absolute that rule was as it would be fairly easy to give an item to the girls for them to bring in and then take it from them once they were inside. Unless the dungeon system simply stuck into his storage as soon as he touched it or something.

  It was something to think about and potentially try out in the future. For now, Nate merely needed to worry about getting away from these cultivators before things truly started to get crazy.

  With his crossbow at the ready, he slipped back into the trees and began to run. It was only a few moments later that he heard Rudy cry out in anger, having come back out of the building to find all the vehicles gone.

  He kept running through the trees, gradually angling toward the road. Behind him, he could hear Rudy yelling and generally being a pest farther back. Ignoring the noise, he moved as fast as possible to the road, where he quickly retrieved his dirtbike from his storage.

  As the engine roared to life, he cast one final glance at the fighting going on behind him. Rudy’s angry shouts had grown increasingly faint, gradually mixing with the sounds of the guards and bandits fighting. But Nate knew that the annoying boy wouldn’t rest until he had found them, and gotten some form of revenge. He was a typical hot-blooded idiot in that regard.

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  Rudy was similar to Jace in many ways. He may not have been raised by rich parents, but Nate wasn’t sure and didn’t care. The way the two acted was the same though, regardless.

  The charged crossbow remained slung over Nate’s back as he navigated the treacherous terrain. The dirtbike bounced and skidded over the terrible condition of the leaf-covered road. He kept a sharp eye out for any signs of pursuit, knowing that the bandits would likely send people after him when the fighting ended.

  As the dirtbike rumbled beneath him, his thoughts turned to the auction in Philadelphia.

  They were still several days away from the city at the earliest, only now they no longer had their guards to keep them safe. Unfortunately, just blasting the rest of the way at max speed on the dirtbike wasn’t exactly a viable option, either.

  In the short term, it might work, but the bike was far noisier than regular vehicles and with the condition of the roads… if he were to crash, well, he would likely survive, cultivators were durable like that, but the bike wouldn’t.

  Nate continued pushing forward, weaving through the trees as the dirtbike tore up the leaf-covered road. He knew he had to put some distance between himself and the bandits. If the professional hunters completely fell, then that wouldn’t last long.

  He needed to regroup with the Richlow Group. They were all supposed to meet at the previous bridge, but before he got there, he also needed to have Angie, Lindsay, and Aura join him once more.

  As he rode, his mind raced through potential threats. Without the guards, they were vulnerable, and there was no telling what lay ahead between here and Philadelphia. More bandits, rogue cultivators, beasts—they had already faced more than their fair share of trouble. If they were going to make it to the auction safely, they needed a new plan.

  After nearly twenty minutes of riding, Nate slowed down and pulled to the side of the road. He was getting close to the bridge, and it was time to bring the full team back together.

  The front tire locked up as it lost traction on the leaves, but by that point, he had slowed down enough that he could safely have his feet on the ground. A small clearing to the side with a large rock outcropping was where he stopped the bike.

  Aura had been checking on his progress from their position inside the dungeon, and all three appeared as soon as the dirtbike stopped.

  Nate stored the bike and checked on the crossbow he had strapped across his back, just to ensure that everything was still in order.

  “Aura did her best to keep us updated on everything that was happening, but she couldn’t see everything,” Angie said, looking around the area worriedly, her sling loaded with a heavy metal bearing and ready to be used. “Did you hear anything about Shane and the other hunters?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not sure. There was still fighting going on when I left the area, and Richlow Group’s truck and trailer suddenly vanishing like that did cause some disruption that hopefully they took advantage of.” Nate shrugged. “That’s about all I can say though.”

  Lindsay leaned against one of the rocks as Mika slithered from Nate’s neck and hopped over to her arms.

  “Ahh, having her wrapped around my neck was actually sort of nice,” Nate commented with a grin. “She’s a great scarf, just be careful of the few odd hairs trying to tickle your nose.” He had needed to hold back more than a couple of sneezes for exactly that reason.

  Busy petting Mika, Lindsay ignored what he was saying.

  “What about Jean and the others?” Angie wondered, causing Lindsay to look up.

  “I’m not sure. We all saw them go over the edge with their ropes and grappling hooks. That was the last I heard from them. We are pretty near the bridge though, so hopefully we should see them when we get there or a while afterward.” He replied.

  Lindsay placed Mika on her shoulder and pushed away from the rock. "Then we’d better not stick around. Depending on how all the fighting went behind you, we might have a group of bandits coming after us.” She tilted her head. “Or we might have, however, many of the professional hunters that were acting as guards coming to find us.”

  Nate groaned. “This would be so much easier if all of this had happened after the auction. At least then we could lie and say that the storage bracelet we bought ended up being some grand artifact that was previously unknown.”

  “Why don’t we do that anyway?” Lindsay asked suddenly, stretching. “I heard people talking about the dungeons while we were in Richmond. So, the knowledge about them is becoming more widespread.”

  Nate and Angie were listening attentively to her, wondering where she was going with this.

  “My point is, we have a dungeon back home, one that is conquered. The first one to be conquered, if you want to be exact.” Lindsay pointed to the bracelet of basic health recovery he wore on his wrist. “Who’s to say that right there isn’t a special storage bracelet that you got for clearing it with Aura and your parents?”

  Angelica slowly nodded, coming around to the idea. “It could work. The storage items do come from the different races that cross the portals anyway. Usually, various elven and dwarven races, though occasionally some of the others will carry one as well.”

  He sighed and stared up at the sky. “Fine, but let’s still not reveal it too often, if possible. A storage bracelet -even a fake one- that can store a semi and trailer, would generate a lot of interest. Argh, if we were just going to do this, I almost wish we would have just decided earlier. I could have simply carried everything across the bridge back then and avoided all this trouble.”

  “Right,” Lindsay snorted. “Because that would have prevented Rudy from stealing the RV. Moron. Come on, let’s get back to the bridge and see if the Richlow Group made it there in one piece.”

  With that, the four of them set off, leaving the clearing to the side of the road behind. There was still a long way to go before they reached Philadelphia, and this little detour had taken up most of the day already.

  Not to mention that trouble was almost certainly going to be waiting for them at some point if Shane and the other hunters didn’t finish the bandits all off. If they were lucky though, and they played their cards right, they might just make it to the auction in one piece.

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