After splitting up with each other, Jake and Peter headed in the opposite directions to the others so they could hunt. "I suppose the reason you decided to split up with the others has another reason to it." Peter said.

    Jake then smiled. "Yes. With the both of us, we could hunt more powerful beasts and also I noticed something."

    "What''s that?"

    "In a forest filled with basic tier beasts, why isn''t there even a single intermediate beast?"

    "Probably there''s no intermediate beast. Maybe it''s just a forest for basic tier beasts." Peter shrugged.

    "Exactly my point. That''s why I want us to investigate and if possible, we might stumble upon intermediate beasts."

    "Isn''t that too much? I mean an intermediate beast. Are you sure we could handle it ourselves?" Peter asked with uncertainty in his voice.

    "I''m confident we could handle ourselves. Or are you telling me you are scared or what? I think I should have chosen Sophia instead, maybe she is braver than you." Jake smiled.

    "Are you trying to rile me up? Because I think it just worked. I don''t know why, I hate being compared with Sophia. She''s my rival." Peter said.

    "So can we pick up pace now." Jake said.

    To which Peter took off sprinting forward and Jake also followed. After a bit of sprinting and also putting down landmarks so they could find their way back, they were now in front of beasts.

    By the time Jake was done extracting the crystals, Peter was also done killing the beasts and he was now extracting the crystals. When he was done, he came over to Jake. "Well, that was a lot harder than I thought, especially with my axes still being at the basic tier level." Peter said.

    ''It almost slipped my mind that Peter was still using a basic tier weapon.'' Jake thought.

    "Anyway, with this, I can finally get an intermediate weapon." Peter smiled. "So should we keep hunting or do you want us to head back and meet up with the rest?"

    "I suggest we head back now. This is more than enough so let''s head back. Besides I have already proved my theory of there being intermediate beasts here." Jake replied. "So let''s go before we encounter more trouble."

    "Agreed." Peter said already about to lead the way.

    "Too late for that, trouble has come looking for you." A voice was heard talking behind them and in front of them, the trees fell blocking their path back and then two men were in front of them and two more behind them.

    Jake and Peter were now on guard. They couldn''t see the face of the men blocking their path because they were putting on black masks that only allowed for their eyes, nose and mouth to be seen while the rest of their facial features were obscured.

    Jake didn''t want to take any chances, he quickly equipped his new boots and held his sword tightly while looking from back to forth at the four men. "Who are you guys? And what do you want with us?" Stay updated through empire

    "You don''t need to know about us. But just know that you aren''t leaving here alive." One of the men spoke.

    The men now had their weapons drawn. They all had different weapons ranging from sword, axes, spear and a chain type of weapon. ''I think these guys are really serious about their threat. Can I take them on?'' Jake thought worriedly.

    "You are going to die here Jake Lucas." One of the men dashed towards Jake with full speed then Jake heard a ding in his head but he didn''t have time to check it out.