The Author's POV

In the dense vegetation, Melissa noticed something ahead of her.

"Watch out."

As Melissa pushed Kevin behind her, she stomped on a plant in front of him. A strange pink gaseous substance was released into the air immediately after she did that.

A quick wave of her hand cleared it from Melissa's view.

"What was that?"

Kevin was startled by her sudden actions and asked what was going on. In fact, he was more surprised by the fact that she knew that the plant she stepped on could do that than anything else.

Melissa glanced at Kevin while patting her hands together.

"What do you think I've been doing while you were gone?"

"Eh…"

Having just recalled her boiling something over a pot and relaxing in her tent, Kevin wasn't sure what to say.

She clearly looked like she was having the time of her life with him.

Nevertheless, he chose to go with the answer he thought was correct.

"Checking the attributes of the plants?"

"Correct."

Melissa bent down and carefully picked up the small flower from the ground.

"I call this flower, pendulum mimosa, a flower with the capabilities to render one immobile and paralyze their muscles."

"Hm?"

Kevin looked at the flower in surprise.

"Exactly how strong are the properties of this flower?"

"Not that much."

Melissa replied as she tossed the flower away.

"It isn't exactly very potent, however, that's mostly because the concentration of the flower extract isn't very high. If I wanted to, I could create a paralysis effect that would be able to incapacitate even you."

"Me?"

Kevin's face turned strange as he stared at the flower. Several questions were running through his mind at the moment.

Especially after learning that the flower could paralyze him, an <A> rank hero.

'Can a little flower like that really paralyze me?'

He found it rather hard to believe if he had to be honest.

"Don't believe me?"

Taking note of Kevin's skeptical look, Melissa took out a small test tube from her dimensional space.

The liquid inside had a blood-red color.

"Well you're in luck Kevin, I've already tested this in the past and I have got a sample with me. How about you give it a go?"

"I'm good."

After stepping away from Melissa, Kevin jumped up into the air and landed on top of a branch. He a look of deep apprehension as he looked at Melissa.

"Let's say that I believe you. Just how much of the extract would you need to actually paralyze me?"

"Not much if your mana is sealed."

Putting the rest tube away, Melissa followed Kevin's example and jumped up on the tree branch.

Perfectly landing on it, she continued.

"As you know, the more one ranks up, the stronger their bodies become."

"Yes."

Kevin nodded his head.

His understanding of this concept was natural. Everyone who had attended the Lock knew it.

Each rank increase results in a stronger, more durable body. Of course, the human body was quite fragile compared to those of other races. Nevertheless, the fragility of human bodies didn't matter much to most humans since they could coat them with mana to mitigate it.

Their method was similar to that of the elves as they too had fragile bodies.

"How does that have anything to do with the poison?"

"It has a lot to do."

Melissa replied as she snappily looked at Kevin.

"The stronger one's body the more concentrated the extract needs to be. If someone like you takes the extract, it would take a lot of time for it to take effect simply because of how much mana your body has."

Pausing for a moment, Melissa took out another test tube from her dimensional space.

This time the liquid inside of it was of a strange blue color.

After testing, I learned that if you mix the extract with another extract of a plant I found, the Illuna Mallior, you can seal their mana and simultaneously paralyze their bodies for a long period of time.

Bringing the test tube in front of her, Melissa's eyes twinkled with excitement.

"The interesting thing about these two extracts is that they complement each other perfectly. As in, if the two extracts are mixed together, the strength of the mixture will increase enormously."

"What?"

Paying close attention to what Melissa was saying, Kevin found himself entranced by her words as he stopped moving altogether.

"What do you mean by what you've just said."

Putting the test tube away, Melissa briefly looked at Kevin.

"I meant what I meant. If the two mixtures are combined together, the properties of both will increase and someone will find their mana locked for a very long time. The same could be said for their muscles, but that can quickly be resolved if someone has a good body art, or connection to their muscles."

"I see…"

Kevin faintly nodded his head in understanding. Raising his head, he asked another question.

"What about the mana sealing method, is there a way to get rid of that?"

"No idea."

Melissa replied with a shrug of her shoulders, causing Kevin to stumble on the spot.

Taking note of this, Melissa looked at him with a strange look.

"What's wrong? Did I say something weird?"

"No, not really."

Kevin shook his head as he avoided looking into her eyes. Unfortunately for him, it only served to irritate Melissa more as she pressed her hand against his shoulder and turned him around.

"Out with it. Tell me exactly what's the problem."

"Haaa…"

Realizing that he had no way out, Kevin could only sigh out loud as his shoulders slumped.

"I was just surprised by the fact that you didn't know the cure for something like that when you're usually the type to know everything."

"Huh?"

Melissa's face turned strange as her eyes squinted and her mouth turned into a scowl.

"What do you take me for? Some sort of god? Why in the world do you think that I would know everything."

"I dunno."

Kevin shrugged his shoulders as he looked toward the distance.

"I just thought that you knew."

Melissa glared in Kevin's direction as her arms crossed.

"I'll let you know that I've been experimenting with all sorts of different plants. There was simply not enough time for me to properly test all of the plants on this planet yet. Especially when it only took you a day for you to find me."

Melissa suddenly paused there as her brows jumped up.

"Wait a second…"

Raising her head up to look at Kevin, Melissa calmly asked.

"Where are headed at the moment? Didn't you say something about finding Amanda?"

"Yeah, I did."

Kevin was quick to reply. But he was also quick to regret.

After saying these words, he covered his mouth with both hands as he looked at Melissa, who was looking at him with a strange yet disgusted expression.

I didn't pay much attention to this detail a while back, but now that I think about it, it's quite strange that you found me suddenly?... And now you tell me that you're looking for Amanda as though you know exactly where she is?"

Her eyes turned into slits.

"Kevin, don't tell me…"

***

"Stay behind me."

Angelica carefully surveyed her surroundings after pushing Ryan behind her.

While scanning the surroundings, she had her mind fully alert.

After appearing in this strange world for a couple of days, she was at a loss as to what to do next.

One silver lining about the situation was that she wasn't transported alone but with Ryan who was helping her heal her injuries from that weird human who had assaulted her not too long ago.

'He's strong.'

Recalling the short moments prior to when the two of them fought, Angelica found herself dreading their next encounter.

In spite of the fact that he didn't exactly beat her at the time, because he caught her off guard and she already had a weakened state due to a sudden situation, Angelica knew she had only a 50/50 chance of beating him.

In any case, she was currently stuck in some unknown place with Ryan and they were currently looking for a way out of the place.

"I see something."

It was right at that moment that Angelica was able to hear Ryan's voice.

Turning around, she softly asked.

"What did you find "

"Ehm…"

Ryan frowned as he zoomed in on the drone feed, revealing a small clearing inside a forest. From there, he could see several silhouettes running away from something.

When Ryan pinched his fingers on the screen, he was able to get a better view of the situation, and he recognized three familiar faces from there.

They were, Leopold, Hein, and Ava.

"It's the others!"

Immediately after recognizing them, Ryan jumped up in the air as he rushed toward Angelica.

"Angelica, Look! Look!"

"Wait a moment."

"Huek!"

Ryan choked on the shirt after Angelica grabbed him by the collar. Indifferent to Ryan's behavior, Angelica snatched the device in his hand and carefully examined it.

After that, she quickly dragged him behind her.

"Hey wait!"

In spite of Ryan's complaints, Angelica paid no attention to him as their bodies jumped in the air and shot toward the distance.

"Let's go. They look to be in trouble."