From the moment Mike revealed that John was his accomplice, Evan had already expected John to target either William or Anna in an attempt to escape safely as they were the weakest among all the people present.
As such, the instant John moved toward them, Evan reacted almost immediately.
Although John was fast, Evan’s high agility and Wind Aura allowed him to reach Anna and William before him.
"You bastard..." John gritted his teeth in anger when he saw Evan suddenly appear in his path.
However, knowing his current situation, he did not stop and continued rushing forward at full speed.
Dark-brown energy covered his arm, rapidly transforming into solid rock armor around his fist.
John threw a powerful punch toward Evan.
Evan could sense that John was far stronger than Mike, so he didn’t hold back either.
He gathered all his strength and pushed his Wind Aura to its limit before throwing his own punch to meet John’s head-on.
BOOOOOOM!
Their fists collided in midair, and a powerful sonic boom erupted in a ring around them.
The force of the collision was so great that the ground within a five-meter radius sank under the tremendous pressure and William and Anna, who were standing not far away were pushed back.
Even with the additional ten percent damage provided by his Slayer Title, Evan wasn’t able to break through the rock armor covering John’s arm, only leaving a few cracks on it.
At the same time, the impact forced him to stagger backward nearly five steps.
John, on the other hand, was only pushed back slightly.
But that slight delay was more than enough.
Before John could recover, Charles arrived behind him and struck him with all his strength.
Bang!
John felt as if he had been struck by a hammer. His body was sent staggering forward, and he fell face-first onto the ground, blood flowing from his mouth from the impact.
Charles immediately pinned him down and placed a pair of special handcuffs around his wrists.
The moment the handcuffs were locked, John’s face turned pale.
They weren’t ordinary handcuffs.
They were specifically designed to suppress the flow of mana within an Evolver’s body. As long as John wore them, he wouldn’t be able to circulate his mana or use any mana-based skills.
"You bastard! I never expected you to do something like this. Have you forgotten what we were taught during our training? How could you collude with these scums?" Charles shouted angrily.
John didn’t reply to him and stared at the ground with a pale expression.
Now that he had been caught, he knew everything was over for him. The crime of selling children as slaves was punishable by death.
Once he was brought back, he would definitely be executed along with Mike, without any chance of escape.
Under such circumstances, what could he possibly say?
Charles stared at his subordinate’s pale face for a few seconds before shaking his head.
"Let’s bring these two to the guard office. Their punishment will be decided there."
He then turned toward Evan, Anna, and William.
"You three should come with us as well. You just need to go through some formalities. It won’t take long."
Evan frowned slightly when he heard Charles because he wanted to go deeper into the Dark Forest and find that Rank One bear.
However, seeing the serious expression on Charles’s face, he sighed inwardly and nodded.
The group then began making their way toward Rivo City.
As they walked, Evan looked at Anna and William.
"Are you two from Rivo City?"
"No..." Anna shook her head. "Our uncle lives in Rivo City. We came to visit him, and while we were here, we decided to go to the Dark Forest to increase our levels a little."
"I see."
Evan nodded, and they continued chatting about small matters as they walked.
After some time, Evan’s thoughts suddenly returned to what had happened while he was questioning Mike.
Mike had been affected by his Intimidation skill, but he had still managed to resist it at first.
However, toward the end, the look of horror on his face had been completely different.
It was almost as if he had seen something terrifying.
Although the change had been subtle, Evan had noticed it clearly.
’Was it really because of my Intimidation skill?’
Evan thought about it, feeling that something wasn’t quite right.
Just then, he suddenly thought of something and opened his Status Window.
As he looked at it, he couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.
[Intimidation has evolved to the next level!]
[Intimidation (Rank One Active Skill) Level 1 → Level 3]
The level of his skill had increased by two.
’Did it evolve because I tried to push it beyond its limit?’
It wasn’t unheard of for a person’s skill to evolve to a higher level after they tried to push it beyond its limits.
Evan had heard about this from his grandparents.
Sometimes, when an Evolver pushed a skill to its absolute limit and somehow managed to surpass its existing boundaries, the skill could undergo an evolution.
If the power displayed by a skill surpassed what its current level should normally be capable of, the skill could automatically increase its level to match the power demonstrated by its user.
Earlier, Evan had indeed pushed Intimidation to its absolute limit in order to make Mike reveal the truth.
’So that guy looked so terrified in the end because the level of my skill had increased...’
He nodded in understanding, and a smile finally appeared on his face.
’It’s already at Rank One Level Three. Just two more levels and it will reach the same level as my Wind Monarch skill.’
Evan closed his Status Window with a satisfied expression.
The group continued walking through the Dark Forest, and after some time, the massive walls of Rivo City finally appeared in the distance.
Evan looked toward the city and silently followed the others as they headed toward the gates.
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