Fleeing the Bandit

 Despite the powerful voice, Ryker could tell that the owner of the voice was a woman, which meant she was likely strong enough to force these bandits to follow her. 

 Knowing he won't be able to escape if the boss gets close to him, Ryker used Engulfing Lightning Body and Drifting Wind Step. While the former is a body technique, it also enhances the speed of its user, increasing his speed while using a movement technique like Drifting Wind Step.

 The boss must have sensed his attempt to escape because she let out a powerful roar before flying after him. While he couldn't turn around because of the fear of her being able to catch him during a brief moment of stopping, he could sense the aura of a Genesis Lake expert chasing after him.

 He continued to fly away from the woman, slightly gritting his teeth at the blunder he made, namely, he had made the wrong turn and went further away from the Capital City. Because of this, he would likely be unable to reach the capital without somehow passing through the angry Genesis Lake expert.

The boss must have guessed it too from the laughter he heard along with taunting, "Surrender now and I might let you join my group, boy," 

 Ryker didn't even bother to answer as he kept flying away. The only problem he could encounter is if any bandits decide to join in the fun. Thankfully that didn't seem to be the case as no bandits appeared to help the woman.

 Still, constantly flying, despite his large amount of qi, would drain his qi before he could even escape the boss. He pondered over his options before remembering the life-saving talisman that he had brought just in case.

 However, he needs to wait for the right moment as there is a chance he will be teleported somewhere close to the bandit, which would mean instant death. So, he began to fly away, while trying to get closer to the Capital City.

-x-

 Ryker let out a tired sigh. He had spent almost 2 hours flying away from the bandit, avoiding all of her attempts to stop him, ranging from throwing daggers at him or using a movement technique to close the gap.

 Thankfully, his movement technique is far superior compared to the boss, which allows him to keep his life. Unfortunately, it still isn't enough to get him more than a meaningful distance away from the danger, as Genesis Lake experts possessed far superior speed compared to a Genesis Core expert.

 If not for wanting to create the best foundation possible, he would have become a True Genesis Core expert, maybe even becoming a Genesis Source expert some time ago.

 Alas, he couldn't change the past. The only thing he could do was try to run away for his life from the bandit. He began to speed up, his senses telling him the Capital City was merely 100 km away.

 Being so close to safety, he then began his plan. He first slows down, playing the role of a slowly tiring target. The bandit seems to believe his acting, her speed rising as she gets closer and closer.

 Ryker held the talisman in his hand closer to him, waiting for the right moment to appear. He still needs to flee from the woman or she might suspect him of trickery. The chase extended to another hour as the bandit was able to close the distance, enough for her to launch an attack.

 "Die!" she yelled, throwing a punch in his direction. Sensing the danger, Ryker poured his qi into the talisman, activating it mere moments before the attack hit where he was before.

 As for him, he was teleported, thankfully, a mere 1 km away from the capital. He let out a sigh of relief, though he does wonder if the bandit senses his escape.

-x-

 The boss, a long brown-haired woman frowned, as she could sense something happened right before her attack hit. Her divine sense poured over the area before her one-eyed, the other hidden behind an eye patch, widened before she let out a stream of expletives.

 She returned to her base, gloomy and angry. Her men rushed towards her though none dared to get close to her when she was in a bad mood.

-x-

 Ryker counted his lucky star the escape went on without a hitch. However, he had an important report to deliver to the Adventure Guild.

-x-

 "What!? There is a bandit group with a Genesis Lake expert leading them!" one of the vice-head yelled, surprised and fear can be heard in his voice.

 "This is troubling," another vice-head said, stroking his chin at the implication of such a thing. 

 "The fact there is a powerful bandit group close to the capital is troubling indeed. We should send a message to the Duke and tell him about the incident, as well as send some of our Genesis Lake experts to check the place," the next word from the head shocked the rest of the audience.

 "And I will personally go there too," the rest of the Adventure Guild branch higher up stared at the head with shock in their eyes. After all, it was rare for the most powerful person in the Adventure Guild branch to take action himself.

 "Recently, there has been a rise of bandit sightings and bandit activities. While the Duke didn't say it out loud, he believed another bandit uprising was upon us," the shocked gasp seemed to tell the severity of the situation.

 Ryker could understand the reaction, though. While he didn't spend a long time in Kilrun Duchy, he did have enough time to read the history of the Duchy itself. One of the more commonly talked about topics in history books is the bandit uprising.

 Bandit uprising refers to when a powerful bandit unites several large groups of bandits and causes destruction in their wake as they attack cities and towns, terrorizing the Duchy for the duration of the uprising.

 The bandit uprising is something like a disaster for the Duchy, though one that they had been perfecting to counter. Unfortunately, unlike a natural disaster, a bandit uprising is human-made and can think of strategies as well as planning, making creating a proper countermeasure aside from some of the most basic plans useless or inefficient.

 "The Duke thinks the next bandit uprising is coming soon?" he couldn't help but ask, as his family would be in peril if such a disaster occurred.

 "Unfortunately so. If it is not, then why would the Duke raise the quota of the allowed people to enter the hidden realm?"