World Evolution: Starting With The Wind Monarch

A few minutes earlier...

In the depths of the Dark Forest, while Evan was heading toward the location of the Steel Bear, two people the same age as Evan were searching for magical beasts to raise their levels.

The duo were the same young people Evan had met a few days ago before entering the Dark Forest.

”This place is really good compared to other places for leveling up,” Anna said as they walked deeper into the Dark Forest.

”Even after so many years, the Dark Forest is still one of the places in the empire that hasn’t been fully explored to its depths. So although it’s a good place for leveling up, it’s still very dangerous,” William added in a serious voice as he kept looking around.

A few minutes later, while they were still searching for suitable magical beasts, Anna and William came across three men who were taking some young children somewhere.

Both of them found it strange, but in order to avoid any kind of trouble, they kept their distance from the three men and decided to change their path.

The three men, on the other hand, were startled when they saw William and Anna and quickly began looking around, searching their surroundings to see if there was anyone else besides them.

Only when they saw that there was no one else did they sigh in relief and look at Anna and William with gleaming eyes.

Seeing their reaction, Anna and William immediately felt that something was amiss.

Just as they were wondering what was going on, one of the young girls whose hand was being held by a chubby man mustered up her courage and shouted.

”Please save us! These people are slave traders!”

”Shut up, you bitch!”

The chubby man’s expression changed slightly, and he slapped the girl across the face, making her fall to the ground.

William and Anna’s were also stunned when they saw this, and their faces turned grave.

Selling or using children as slaves was a very serious crime and was punishable by death.

Since children couldn’t use mana before they turned fifteen years old, many people had started taking advantage of this in the past.

They kidnapped young children and brainwashed them.

After being brainwashed, these children became nothing more than puppets of the people who had brainwashed them.

Once these children reached the age of fifteen and could Evolve, these people would increase their levels and turn these innocent children into sharp weapons to do their dirty work.

When this fact first came to light in the past, it caused a lot of commotion throughout the planet.

Later, many laws were created to protect children, and one of them was that no one could use children as slaves. If someone was caught using a child as a slave, they would be killed immediately.

”Do you know what the consequences of selling children as slaves are?” William asked in a cold voice, his fists clenched tightly.

Hearing William, the three men looked at each other and burst into laughter.

”No, we didn’t receive any education when we were young. Will you please tell us what will happen if we sell the children as slaves?” The chubby man who had slapped the young girl asked with an amused look.

Seeing their expressions, William and Anna knew that these people were already aware of the consequences of selling children as slaves but were still doing it.

They both wanted to save the children, but they also knew that they weren’t strong enough to face all three of them at the same time, especially the muscular man who was standing in the middle.

They could feel that the chubby man and the other man were around Level 23 to 25.

But they couldn’t sense the level of the muscular man at all, indicating that he might be a Rank One Evolver.

Knowing that the situation was not good, William gave Anna a look.

Anna immediately understood what William wanted to do and nodded back.

Suddenly, a white ball appeared in William’s hand, and he threw it toward the muscular man in the middle.

The white ball streaked across the air and instantly appeared right in front of the muscular man as if it had teleported.

The expressions of all three men changed, but the white ball was too fast, and it struck the man before he could react.

Although the white ball struck him, the muscular man was still able to act at the very last moment, and many ice bullets appeared around him, shooting toward William and Anna.

As soon as the man was hit by the white ball, his vision was engulfed by a bright white light, and he instantly became blind.

The white ball was an Uncommon-grade treasure called White Blindness. It could make anyone below Level 40 blind for fifteen seconds.

The instant it hit the man, both William and Anna turned around and ran.

However, the ice bullets that the man had shot just before becoming blind were far faster than them.

Although most of the Ice Bullets missed them, some of them still hit them.

William was hit on his left arm, while Anna was hit around her waist.

Both of them felt a cold, piercing pain the instant the Ice Bullets hit them, but they gritted their teeth and didn’t stop.

Knowing that the muscular man would regain his vision in fifteen seconds, both of them ran toward the exit of the Dark Forest.

White Blindness was not an area-of-effect treasure and could only affect a single person at a time, so the other two men could still see them running.

Although they saw William and Anna running, both of them were also in a dilemma because if they went after them, the children might run away while the muscular man was still blind.

”Quickly, go after them! Don’t let them escape! I will take care of these children!” The muscular man shouted while gritting his teeth.

If William and Anna escaped and brought news about them to Rivo City, things would become very difficult for them.

Hearing the muscular man’s words, the other two men didn’t hesitate anymore and ran after William and Anna.

Since Anna had suffered an injury to her waist, she was having a hard time running at her full speed.

”If I could use my skill, I could have healed both of us, but there are still a few hours before its cooldown ends...” Anna said while gritting her teeth before finally looking at William.

”You go first and inform the guards about what happened here. I will catch up to you later.”

William didn’t even look at Anna and replied flatly.

”If I leave you behind, Father will beat the crap out of me when we return home.”

Anna made an annoyed face and spoke in an irritated voice.

”It’s not time for jokes! If we both get captured, who will save us? Think about those children. One of us needs to get out of here.”

William also knew that Anna was right, but he still shook his head.

”I can’t leave my little sister behind.”

Hearing this, Anna also became silent because she knew that no matter what she said, William wouldn’t leave her behind.

And just as they had expected, because they couldn’t run properly, after five minutes, the two men were able to catch up with them.

Because both William and Anna had been injured by the Ice Bullets earlier, they weren’t able to use their full power.

William was able to use only his right arm because his left arm was partially frozen by the coldness of the Ice Bullet, while Anna was having trouble even moving because of her waist injury, let alone fighting.

As time passed, wounds started to accumulate on both of their bodies.

The man fighting against Anna had spiky hair and a thin build.

Seeing that Anna was already injured and couldn’t put up much of a fight, he smiled sinisterly.

”Don’t think we will kill you and this boy. The boy will be sold as a slave, and you... hehehe.”

Anna didn’t need to know what the man was talking about.

Looking at his disgusting expression, she had already decided that if she got captured, she would kill herself rather than fall into the hands of these vile men.

It was also at this moment that Evan, who had heard the sound of the fighting, arrived at the fighting location and heard what the spiky-haired man said.

His face couldn’t help but turn gloomy upon hearing his words, especially when the man spoke about selling people as slaves, as it brought back some of Evan’s childhood memories that he didn’t want to remember.

”So they are similar to those bastards...” He muttered under his breath as cold killing intent flashed in his eyes.

Because of the man’s earlier words, Anna became distracted for a moment and couldn’t react in time when the man attacked her.

The man’s attack was about to hit her when, suddenly—

Woosh!

The sound of something tearing through the air echoed across the surroundings, and the next moment—

”Arghhh!”

The man screamed in pain as blood burst from his shoulder, and a bullet-sized hole appeared there.