Carlos and Ning got onto a carriage that could handle about 6 different people, but only the two of them were on it.

Carlos had paid off the driver for the whole carriage so they could get some privacy.

Ning placed his sword to the side and sat on one side of the carriage with one leg on top of another. The carriage rattled, but he had been in way too many of these things to really care about some rattling carriage.

Carlos closed the blinds on the carriage’s windows and sneaked a glance outside from time to time by opening it a little.

“Damn, man. You’re worrying way too much,” Ning said. “Just chill, okay?”

“I can’t just ‘chill’, okay?” Carlos said. “My life is on the **ing line here. So many people are after me.”

“Can’t you like hear the people if they get too close or something?” Ning asked. “That’s what the Essence sense realm is about right?”

Carlos turned towards Ning. “I can’t sense them if they hide it very well,” he said. “Or if they choose to come through a place that is heavy with Essence.”

“Like if someone comes from the river?” Ning asked. “Is that why you couldn’t sense that Gerrin dude and the others approach?”

Carlos nodded.

“I see,” Ning said. “The more information I learn, the better. Anyway, tell me about this gang of yours. I am very curious about your gang and your boss.”

“My boss is a secret I can never tell you about. As for my gang, we call ourselves the Paradise Hunters,” Carlos explained. “We are a big gang, one of the biggest in the Crowler Empire.”

“Crowler Empire… is that where we are on right now?” Ning asked.

Carlos gave a weird look when he heard that question. “How do you not know that?” he asked.

Ning shrugged. “I lost all my memories, so I don’t know where I am right now. A few fishermen dragged me out of the ocean with this sword in hand. So I’m trying to learn more about the world and see if it jogs my memories.”

“Woah!” Carlos said with a surprised look. “I did not expect such a backstory from you.”

“Forget about me, continue with yours,” Ning said.

“Okay,” Carlos continued. “The Paradise Hunters consists of over 500 members, not including people that just work for the gang. Although, none of us really know who we work for. Our boss is just that secretive.”

“And you still work for such a boss?” Ning asked.

Carlos nodded. “A month or so ago, the boss came across a small piece of information,” he said. “Some place… uhh… close to the Frailheart city, there was a large deposit of pure Essence crystals and he made his underlings find out if that was true or not.”

“I was one of them who was made to search the site and bring back a sample piece to report to the boss,” he said. “But, it seems other people somehow got the wind of it, and not just the other gangs are after the location, even some members of our own gang are after it.”

Ning gave a curious look as he heard it all. “Have you ever seen the boss? He sounds secretive,” he said.

“Not directly,” Carlos said. “We don’t get to see their faces, but we do hear him. The boss is currently in Grayfire city, waiting for me to return with the crystal. I suspect I will finally be allowed to see how he looks exactly.”

“I see,” Ning said. “And you think you can put a good word in for me?”

“Of course,” Carlos said. “Are you interested?”

“No, not really,” Ning said. “Especially since it sounds like you’re a group of criminals.”

“We are not… dammit,” Carlos couldn’t deny. “I try not to do anything really bad.”

“Whatever,” Ning said.

Carlos sighed and turned around to look outside once again. Ning sighed as well and was about to close his eyes to rest for a moment when he noticed something.

“Hey, what’s wrong with your neck?” he asked.

“My… what?” Carlos turned towards Ning.

“Your neck,” Ning said as he gestured to his own neck. “It looks like you were cut. Your skin is coming to off. Let me check.”

He got up and got close, but Carlos quickly stopped him. “No need, just stay. I’m not hurt,” he said.

“Huh? But your skin is flapping,” Ning said.

“No, it’s…” Carlos felt the flap and smushed it onto his neck. However, the flap continued popping out. “Shit, the adhesive is gone.”𝑜𝒱𝗅xt.𝒸𝑜𝑚

“What’s going on with your skin?” Ning asked.

“It’s not my skin,” Carlos said. “It’s fake skin, which isn’t working anymore.”

Carlos slid his fingers into the flap and pulled out the skin, very much surprising Ning. It was not just his neck where the fake skin was, but his face and his hair too.

When he pulled it off, it came off entirely, revealing a rather handsome-looking face with dark blonde hair underneath. The man looked no older than in his early 20s, rather than the middle-aged he looked earlier.

His acne-scarred cheeks were also gone, revealing a smooth face underneath. “Shit, this is bad,” he said.

“I don’t know. I think you look quite good this way,” Ning said.

“Huh? No, I meant bad because everyone will recognize me now. At least previously I had a mask to hide behind while on the road,” Carlos said.

“And was that helping?” Ning asked. “Didn’t the place you were staying at get attacked? Hell, you yourself were attacked.”

“That… I suppose you’re right,” Carlos said.

“Think of it this way,” Ning said. “Either you are going to get attacked, or you are not going to get attacked. Either way, you being so hyper-scared isn’t going to change the situation.”

“Just chill and we’ll see if we do get attacked,” Ning said. “If we do, we’ll fight back. If we don’t, we continue chilling until we reach the next city.”