Rohan stood up, stretched, and effortlessly climbed a tree to lie across one of its thick branches. The others briefly glanced up before looking away...except for Priscilla, who frowned slightly.

Noticing her gaze, Rohan forced himself not to roll his eyes and offered a polite smile. "You should get some sleep. I’ll keep watch. And you should put out that fire soon; we don’t want to attract night visitors."

Priscilla stood up and walked slowly toward the tree. She stopped beneath it and glanced back at the others. They immediately averted their eyes, Eric whistling casually as if they had no interest in the awkward tension building between her and Rohan.

Turning her attention back to Rohan, who was still smiling, she scaled the tall tree in a single, fluid motion and landed on a neighboring branch.

Rohan scoffed inwardly but faked a flinch. "What’s... what’s wrong?"

Under the bright moonlight, Priscilla remained silent.

Looking at her, Rohan couldn’t deny her beauty. When they first met a few days ago, he had immediately noticed her appearance. Back then, she had worn an alluring outfit made of green leather armor. This time, her gear closely hugged her flawless figure.

She also looked older than her age. In fact, all of them did, despite being only eighteen-year-old Hunters.

Rohan wasn’t the type to be easily distracted by such thoughts. Hiding a dark smile, he scrambled backward as if panicked, nearly slipping from the branch.

As Priscilla closed the distance, she swung her sword, thrusting the blade deep into the wood right between Rohan’s legs.

Rohan let out a shaky breath.

She leaned in closer, their breaths mingling in the tight space.

’I wonder how she doesn’t smell bad after days in the forest,’ Rohan thought. ’Teenagers these days are full of surprises.’

A terrified smile—flawlessly acted out—surfaced on his face, his lips trembling.

"I... I think you’re breaking character. You’re... you’re too close to my face."

Priscilla tilted her head, her eyes blazing with intensity.

*’Seriously? You think you can scare me that way?’* Rohan thought, maintaining his mask.

"I don’t trust you," Priscilla said bluntly. "And my instincts never lie to me."

Rohan let out a weak, nervous chuckle, making his shoulders tremble slightly to keep up the act. He raised his hands defensively, careful not to look at the sharp blade vibrating inches from his thigh.

"Your... your instincts?" Rohan stuttered, widening his eyes in fake terror. "I don’t understand what you mean."

He lowered his hands slowly, letting the panic melt into a look of genuine, weary confusion. He knew a smart hunter like Priscilla would see through a constant, blubbering act if he overplayed it.

"Priscilla, look at the reality here. We’re in the First Pavilion. If I had some hidden, powerhouse class or high-tier skills, do you honestly think I’d choose to spend four days dragging myself through swamp mud, eating raw monster meat, and barely scraping by?"

He gestured faintly to his torn, grime-coated Ironhide Vest. "If I were trying to hide some massive advantage, I wouldn’t have put myself in a position where I almost got crushed by a Rampaging Ursine or digested by a Mire Serpent. I’m just a guy with a Common class trying to get my ten percent so I can go home."

Priscilla didn’t flinch. Her gaze remained calculating under the silver moonlight. She leaned in a fraction closer, the faint scent of crushed pine and frost cutting through the heavy stench of the swamp.

"You talk about reality, but your reality is too neat, Rohan," Priscilla said, her voice dropping to a quiet, razor-sharp whisper. "Clumsy hunters don’t consistently land in the perfect blind spot of an Elite beast. Lucky accidents don’t flawlessly sever a spinal column at the weakest point of the scales. People don’t write ’I am a threat’ on their foreheads, but they do make small mistakes. Just when I was starting to see you as a dependable friend... prove my instincts wrong this time, Rohan."

She paused, then continued. "I might not be able to kill you if your abilities are stronger than mine, but I can certainly eliminate anyone hiding their true power. There has to be a bad reason for you to conceal it, so I won’t be taking things lightly with you from now on."

Down below, the crackle of the campfire seemed incredibly loud in the sudden silence. The others actively tried to look busy, pretending not to hear the low-voiced confrontation happening above their heads.

Rohan maintained his steady, defensive posture. He didn’t back down, matching her seriousness with a grounded argument.

"If you think I’m a threat, look at the incentives. We all have the exact same goal: get the points and leave. If I wanted to sabotage this team, I had three perfect opportunities today while you were unconscious and the others were stuck in the mud. Instead, I drew the middle head’s attention so Dominion wouldn’t get killed."

He reached out, his fingers hovering just an inch away from the flat of her blade to show he wasn’t making a hostile move.

"We go up the ridge tomorrow. If you don’t trust me, watch me. Keep your eyes on every strike I make. But don’t break our team synergy over a suspicion when we are literally one good hunt away from going back to Earth."

Priscilla stared at him for a few long, agonizing seconds, weighing his words against her gut feeling. The cold air radiating from her elemental affinity slowly began to recede, and the frost on the bark stopped spreading.

With a smooth, practiced flick of her wrist, she ripped her black sword out of the wood. She stepped back onto her own branch, creating some distance between them.

Rohan sighed.

"I’ll be watching," Priscilla said, her tone absolute and freezing. "Every single move. If your ’luck’ looks a little too precise tomorrow, Rohan, I won’t hesitate."

She turned and dropped from the branch, landing silently on the damp earth below before walking back to the fire.

Up in the shadows, Rohan’s expression shifted instantly into a cold, unreadable calm. He settled back against the tree trunk, his dark eyes fixed on the glowing embers below.

He glanced at Priscilla for a second, then closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was in a completely different location.

The swamp and the dark presence of the forest faded away entirely, replaced by a vast, boundless expanse that felt completely disconnected from the physical world.

Rohan stood upon a surface as smooth and reflective as polished glass, though it did not ripple beneath his boots. Below him, an ocean of deep, midnight blue stretched out infinitely, mirroring a sky filled with slow-moving, luminous nebulae and distant, pale stars.

Here, everything was reduced to pure, unburdened clarity. Faint, ethereal threads of silvery light pulsed gently beneath the reflective floor, webbing outward like the roots of an ancient tree. It was a realm of absolute order and quietude.

A few yards ahead, the gentle light gathered into a soft, swirling pool, casting a serene glow across the endless horizon. The sheer emptiness of the place did not feel lonely; instead, it felt deeply restorative, as if the very fabric of the environment was designed to realign a fractured mind.

Rohan took a slow, deep breath, watching the silvery threads of light pulse in perfect sync with his chest’s movement.

He walked toward the pool, and the water revealed a different reflection.

He no longer had brown hair or red eyes. He looked older, a young adult at best, with long, flowing black hair, porcelain skin, and deep, silver eyes.

He reached down, his long, pale fingers dipping into the cool, glowing water. The moment his skin broke the surface, the image rippled. A soft chime echoed through the silent expanse, accompanied by a translucent, platinum-colored screen that only he could see.

[Welcome back, Xuirong]