Zavier bolted awake with a disgruntled expression but his eyes revealed the sharpness hidden behind his casual behavior.
"Who could it be?"
Zavier thought out loud before getting up from the comfort of his sleeping bag.
Zavier's eyes darted towards James but the old man was still fretting over the box instead of just resting. He wondered why the old man even hired them if he was going to do the job himself.
Since the old man was unsurprisingly useless and refused to say a thing, he had to figure this out for himself.
He didn't want to be surprised by the enemy so he had to move out of the tent to locate the source of danger that the perception system had sensed.
Thanks to the perception system, his senses had been honed to the extreme. The tiniest changes to the wind stream, the most minuscule sound waves and the tiniest of movements around him could be sensed from so far away that it was unbelievable for any ordinary person. Just based on this perception ability, he could have become a royal scout or a better tracker than anybody in the field but he had to keep his abilities under wrap until he was able to figure out exactly who his personal enemies were.
Zavier sensed movement from the west that was nothing but shrubbery and trees. He could tell that if someone had wanted to hone in on them stealthily, this was the direction to move in from because it had better places for hiding and affinity towards camouflage.
The sound of a broken twig and the slight changes in the wind stream told him that someone was heading towards them while trying to conceal himself. But judging from how that person had broken a twig while moving, he didn't seem very professional at his job. Or he was so strong that he didn't care whether he was sensed by them or not.
Zavier moved out and came across Valerie who was already out of her tent and looking out into the distance towards the approaching hostile agency.
Her eyes had an edge to them and her expression showed how apprehensive she was at the moment.
Zavier could tell that it wasn't just a coincidence that he had found her outside at this time. She had already known about the hostile agency heading their way even before the system had woken him up through that threat warning.
Valerie was not an A rank magician for nothing. Her range of perception and her threat detection skills were obviously better than even Zavier who had the perception system that boasted the greatest detection abilities in the world.
Obviously, that was only because Zavier was just beginning to understand the perception system and was currently at the lowest rank otherwise, he would have left Valerie far behind in the dust.
Zavier cautiously headed towards her with a vigilant eye in the direction of the threat. Valerie caught sight of Zavier and showed a surprised look.
The look of surprise soon vanished and Valerie regained her composure. She had never imagined that someone other than her in this group had the ability to notice the threat headed their way.
It had to be known that perception abilities were very hard to come by and not just anyone could get their hands on them. She was an A rank magician but even she had to strive very hard to learn such a skill and yet Zavier casually showed his hand and out came a threat detection ability that was close to the accuracy of her own skills. The only thing that Zavier lacked seemed to be the range given that he had detected the enemy after herself.
Valerie didn't ask him to stay out of it, after all they had come together to complete the mission so she called him close to herself by curling her fingers inward while pointing her hand towards him.
When Zavier had come over, she put a finger on her lips to tell him to keep his mouth shut while keeping all her attention towards the target.
Zavier nodded to indicate that he had understood what she was trying to say. Valerie looked at him with the corner of her eyes and was satisfied.
Valerie used her finger to point forward and started walking in the direction of the approaching figure.
Zavier followed after her but stayed behind her. He knew that Valerie was supposed to protect them and would never let him get ahead of herself even if he had been better equipped to do so.
Both of them vigilantly moved in the direction of the threat while taking care to avoid making the slightest bit of noise, so as to not alert the incoming figure.
Zavier operated his Time Space Eye and kept an eye on their surroundings to avoid any kind of ambush that they might have been heading into.
Fortunately, there was no need for such extensive vigilance because he soon found a singular individual hiding behind a tree right in front of them. He was using no camouflage skills or stealth skills as evident from how poorly he was hiding. The person really was an amateur as he was acting like some common burglar.
Zavier knew that in a world full of magic, this kind of person was an absolute trash. The fact that this person had come to retrieve the box meant that the box must not be too important to the enemies.
Before he could get the chance to point the target out to Valerie, he saw something that left him in utter shock and veneration.
He blinked and Valerie who had been right in front of him all this time, vanished and reappeared in front of the target hidden behind the tree. It had happened so fast that it had been impossible for him to even react.
His facial expressions appeared as if in lag to the wonder that had taken place. All his movements felt sluggish compared to the lightning-fast response of his aunt. His sight allowed him to look at the scenes that followed after Valerie had blinked over to other side.
What he saw was a haggard man lying face down onto the ground unconscious and utterly defenceless. He wondered if Valerie had a means of teleportation or some magic skill that increased her speed to the extent where it is hard to spot her during her movement.
Thanks to that Zavier had only seen the aftermath even with the help of his Time Space Eye. Had he seen the scene of his aunt raining down on to the victim, he would have probably dropped his jaw on the ground.
In fact, as soon as Valerie had flashed behind the figure, she had grabbed a hold of the back of his head and had plunged it into the ground with enough force to break his skull.
Fortunately, the person was not dead but had only lost consciousness and would possibly suffer from a concussion afterwards that would let them have an opportunity to question him.
For that reason, Zavier had been worried about Valerie directly killing him off. Thankfully, she had not really lived up to his expectations and her personality.
Her power and lightning-fast agility had left him so amazed that stars were sparkling in his eyes. Zavier wondered how he had gotten the better of her in the class the last time. How could she not have seen him coming from a mile away when he had cast that low level illusion on her?
Could it be that she had let it go on purpose?
Zavier was confused as to how he had pulled it off. Was that illusion really a success or she had pretended to be under its influence?
Zavier remembered that the system message that he had seen at the time indicated that the illusion was successful. Therefore, it could only mean that he had surprised her with his new powers and that she had underestimated him because of the weakness of the previous Zavier Adam.
Whatever the circumstances that lead to her losing the bet, Zavier was only happy that everything had worked out at the time. Moreover, he had earned the right to ask her to do one thing for him which was quite a boon now that he had seen how capable she was.
Zavier came back to his senses and rushed towards her and the downed man.
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