Karen's Disappearance

Although this adventure yielded many bulky spoils, Karen and his group moved quite swiftly, thanks to Karen acting as a cheat code with his massive spatial storage equipment.

Karen's spatial ring was a gift from the King. Given the immense wealth of the High Elf, could a spatial ring bestowed by a monarch be anything ordinary? In any case, Karen's ring had no trouble fitting his entire laboratory inside.

The harvest from these expeditions consisted merely of antiques and books made of leaves, all of which were easily packed up to be brought home.

Compared to the gloom they felt upon arrival, the journey back was relaxed and pleasant for everyone. At least they had gained something, even if it fell quite short of their initial expectations.

On the road home, with a master-level Spellbreaker scouting and keeping watch ahead, Karen and his group traveled as leisurely as if they were out sightseeing, chatting and picking herbs they discovered along the way.

Suddenly, a beam of light struck Karen. A screen of light instantly flashed over his body, only to shatter just as quickly, and then Karen vanished in an instant.

Everything happened in a heartbeat. Aside from Sathis, who saw clearly what had transpired, the others only caught sight of a black ray hitting Karen before he disappeared.

"What happened? What hit Karen? Why did he vanish all of a sudden?" Antonidas asked anxiously.

"I didn't see clearly."

"I didn't see it either. Did any of you see what happened?"

"No."

"No."

"Alright, I saw it.

It was a black object that struck Karen at an extreme speed—so fast that its trajectory formed a streak of light.

Karen possesses a piece of equipment, a guardian necklace, which has a triggered function: when attacked, it generates a shield enveloping his entire body capable of withstanding a hero-level strike.

The fact that Karen's shield generated just now and shattered immediately indicates that the attack's damage exceeded a hero-level strike.

After the shield shatters, it has an auxiliary function that randomly teleports the host within a radius of one kilometer.

Karen has certainly been teleported, but he must still be within this one-kilometer radius.

Let's split up and search for him immediately," Sathis analyzed calmly.

"Very well. Nandi, Thomas, you two lead separate teams to search ahead.

Sathis and I will each lead a guard team to search toward the rear.

If you find him, signal the sky with magic, and we will rush over as quickly as possible." Having clarified the situation, Antonidas began assigning tasks.

"Understood."

"It has been so long, and Karen still hasn't sent any signal.

Either there are enemies nearby making it inconvenient, or he has encountered trouble or simply lost consciousness.

Do not overlook underground caves, trees, or bushes; search thoroughly.

If you find any clues, notify us immediately. Also, the final landing point of a teleportation will certainly have magical fluctuations, so it should be easy to find," Sathis added.

Antonidas and the others scattered, combing through every inch of grass and searching every treetop.

Sathis found another spot with magical fluctuations and pushed aside grass as tall as a man, but it was just an herb, not Karen.

Under normal circumstances, he would have carefully harvested this herb.

Now, however, he didn't even have the heart to spare it a second glance.

"It's not him either. It's been so long, and we still haven't found him.

Could something have happened?" Suddenly, a special magical firework flashed in the distant sky.

"Great, he's finally been found." Sathis rushed at full speed toward the location of the magical signal.

Upon arriving at the source of the signal, he found it was Antonidas who had fired it.

"Captain Sathis, you're here. I found Karen's hair here.

There is also residual magic from a teleportation spell here.

But I've checked the vicinity and can't find a trace of Karen, though he definitely stopped here," Antonidas said upon seeing Sathis, handing him the hair he had picked up and explaining the situation.

Sathis took the hair and examined it carefully for a moment before saying, "It is indeed Karen's hair."

He then walked around the area, observing it closely for a while.

"There are no traces of him having left."

After saying this, Sathis leaped nimbly onto a high treetop to observe the surrounding canopy.

A moment later, he jumped from one tree to another to continue his search. After a while, he shook his head; it seemed he had found nothing. Just as he was about to jump down, he suddenly froze.

He remained still for a moment before hurriedly jumping down and drawing his weapon to hack away at the weeds.

Although Antonidas didn't see what was wrong, he knew Sathis must have discovered something, so he used magic to clear the weeds and called for the others to help.

After half a day of work, the surrounding weeds were cleared away, revealing an open space. It was then that Antonidas finally noticed patterns on the ground.

"Do you see it?" Sathis asked Antonidas.

"Yes, these must be magical patterns. Could it be..."

"You guessed correctly. This is a magic circle, and it should be an ancient one."

"Did Karen teleport out through this magic circle?"

"Hmm, I suspect Karen teleported here first, stumbled upon this magic circle, and somehow activated this ancient formation, only to be teleported away immediately after."

"This magic circle is definitely from the ancient era, and having been neglected for so long, it is extremely fragile."

"It collapsed after just a single use."

"What do we do now?"

"I will contact Prince Kael'thas." As he spoke, Sathis produced a magical device.

Inserting a magic crystal, Sathis tapped a few times on the device.

A moment later, a small magical screen rose from the device, and the face of Kael'thas appeared upon it.

"Sathis, why do you seek me? Where is Karen?" "Prince Karen triggered a one-time-use ancient magic circle and was teleported away. We need you to come and take a look."

"What exactly happened? Never mind, activate the magical positioning; I will teleport directly to your location."

Sathis brought out another magical device and inserted a magic crystal.

Instantly, a massive beam of light shot from the device into the sky, the beam saturated with dense magical energy.

The magical energy within remained concentrated and did not dissipate, its intensity steadily climbing.

Once the concentration of magical energy reached its peak and ceased to rise, the figure of Kael'thas appeared not far from the beam.

Relying on the magical coordinates provided by the device Sathis had placed, he had performed an ultra-long-distance teleportation spell to arrive in the vicinity of the coordinates.

Kael'thas scanned his surroundings, spotted Antonidas and the others, and used Blink to appear directly before them.

At this moment, the expression of Kael'thas was not as gentle and refined as usual; his face was grave, and several magic orbs hovered above his head. The pressure of his Hero-tier aura left Antonidas and the others struggling to breathe. Even the Master-tier Sathis was breaking out in a cold sweat.