"Come on dude... stop acting like a baby!"

"Heh."

*Snort*

Pio glared at Lucas when he saw him smirking.

"You should've warned me young master Ron." Pio said while massaging his bumpy scalp and wincing from pain when the tips of his fingers touched the few bulges on his head.

"Tsk. I said I'm sorry! Didn't I? And you should've reacted a bit faster, after all this isn't the first time an "accident" like this happened." Aaron refrained from looking back at the victim of his actions because he might really laugh if he did.

Lucas remained silent but he kept smiling at Pio just to annoy him, which worked.

Pio puckered his lips and followed his young master all the way to the village in silence.

"You can go rest for today," Aaron moved towards old man Sid's shop once he entered the village and completely ignored Sera who's sitting in the same spot next to the gate, "Lucas you come with me."

"Yes." Lucas immediately went after his young master and left Pio standing alone.

Pio sighed inwardly since he's really exhausted after a long day of swinging the Axe and the Hammer, then he smiled once he noticed open window of Betty's house which means she's home already.

He immediately went to check on her and how things went between his woman and old man Todd, somehow these thoughts already distracted Pio from the pain he's feeling after taking emotional and physical damage.

With a smile on his face, Pio knocked on the door and eagerly waited for Betty to answer.

Meanwhile Sera choose to watch everything happen from her table without saying anything when Aaron and his two followers arrived, she let him come and go as he pleases since he's comfortable this way.

Sera wouldn't interfere unless his life is in danger, the rest is his to make the decisions and suffer the consequences.

Aaron felt Sera's pair of eyes on his back and nodded inwardly when she didn't make things annoying for him, actually it earned her a point of recognition from him since Sera made the right choice.

He always liked to be free and restraining him would only earn her his retaliation.

A minute or two later he arrived at old man Sid's shop with Lucas and they found him sitting on his recliner sipping on a drink, obviously in a good mood.

"Little Ron you're back," Sid noticed his guest and called them over with a gesture, "Come join me, please." He pulled another chair next to his recliner and brought another cup from one of the cabinets and poured Aaron a drink.

"Thanks grandpa Sid," Aaron accepted his cup and took a sip, "Actually I'm here to honor our agreement, I wish to learn from you." He put the cup on the table and waited for Sid to answer.

"Good." Sid smiled and patted Aaron on his shoulder before continuing to say : "I don't know much about Alchemy but I'll teach you everything I know about herbs and how to mix them and create the best concoctions, hopefully someday you'll surpass my Herbalist status and become a full-fledged Alchemist." This time Sid had this fanatic and respectful look deep within his eyes.

Aaron smiled and said : "Look at you grandpa Sid. I haven't learned a single thing yet, don't you think it's a bit early for me to dream big?"

Sid comfortably leaned back in his recliner and looked at the sky, he watched the clouds move in silence for a few seconds before answering : "It's never wrong to dream, it's never too early to chase your dreams."

"That's deep! I'll remember these words, you too Lucas." Aaron said.

"Yes young master Ron." Lucas nodded and answered immediately, all this time he kept standing behind Aaron in silence.

Even old man Sid was surprised when he noticed how Lucas is treating the boy with genuine and heart-felt respect, there's also bone-deep fear in the eyes of this former gang-leader whenever he looks at Aaron.

"Heh. It's just the raving of an old man, you're going to become a laughingstock if you take everything I say seriously." Sid said.

Afterwards Sid and Aaron talked for a while and the topic of their conversation was Chief Peter's agreement with merchant Arturo, old man Sid thanked Aaron sincerely for his help and the boy shrugged it off because it wasn't a troublesome issue or anything like that.

Soon their topic changed into what Aaron should do if he wishes to learn the art of survival, hunting, tracking, and gathering from old man Sid.

Since old man Sid's expertise is originally as hunter not a herbalist or healer, he decided to teach Aaron survival skills first before gradually adding some information about gathering, tracking, and finally hunting to his daily lessons.

"Hunting in the Dark-Forest is extremely dangerous, even Roger and his Elite team could lose their life in a heart beat." Sid tried to explain to Aaron why he choose to keep hunting methods to the very last.

"Don't worry grandpa Sid I understand, I know my limits." Aaron could instantly figure out the reasons behind old man Sid's worries.

Sid sighed inwardly when Aaron didn't make things difficult for him, "Great! Now let's go to the backyard and begin your first lessons for today." He got up from his recliner and seemed really excited.

Aaron and Lucas followed Sid through the shop to the backyard.

"Help me with these wooden beams Lucas." Sid said while pulling a few coils of rope.

Aaron watched in silence while thinking to himself : 'What is this? A military test?'

"Bring me these empty sacks little Ron," Sid pointed to the side, "Help me fill them with sand Lucas." While attaching hooks to the wooden beams and using the coil of rope to create ladders on the obstacles, old man Sid kept ordering Aaron and Lucas to help.

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It was already dark when the stage was set and Sid nodded in satisfaction after inspecting the different areas of this trial.

"Little Ron. This is going to be your first test, I will not teach you any survival skills until you complete this test before sand runs out." Sid retrieved a sand timer while explaining his rules.

'This sandglass probably lasts for ten minutes or so, and this track is looking to be quite difficult for a grown up to complete in ten minutes unless they're really fit and in an excellent physical shape. Is grandpa Sid intentionally making it impossible for me to pass this test to test my patience? Or is he worried that I might get overconfident and put myself in danger if things are too easy?' Aaron thought while estimating how long it'd take him to actually complete this challenge.

Sacks full of sand the size of his head swinging from side to side where he needs to dodge, wooden poles that spin if he tried to step on them, rope ladders to climb, narrow passages between wooden walls where he needs to cross and bypass branch like obstacles, long areas of mud where he needs to practically crawl across, he also needs to run in a sharp twisting manner for distances in knee-high water.

Not to mention that visibility is bad when there's only a few torches in this wide backyard and the moon is barely a thin crescent in the sky!

Even Lucas wasn't so sure that he can complete this test before the sand runs out, he looked towards Sid with a deep frown on his forehead.

'Hopefully this wouldn't annoy young master Ron or I'm going to suffer if he's angry and decides to vent it on me.' Lucas thought while trying to fade in the background as much as possible to avoid any type of punishment for whatever reason.

Finally Aaron moved to the area where the trial begins at the narrow passages, he took off the outer layer of clothes and stood there in his underwear and a pair of boots.

"I'm ready whenever you're little Ron." Sid said.

"Let's begin." Aaron said before dashing towards the narrow passage.

Sid flipped the sandglass and took his seat.

'He's fast! Much faster than Roger and myself when we were around that age.' Lucas thought.

'For someone who's only five years old he's indeed very fast but he's also strong, only Roger was of comparable strength when he was that young. His reaction speed is also impressive but survival in the forest depends the most on stamina and making the correct decisions as quick as possible without panicking, thankfully little Ron is smart and calm which doesn't worry me.' Sid thought while watching Aaron duck beneath a sack of sand and weave between the rest as fast as he could before reaching the spinning poles.

Old man Sid had to reset the clock when Aaron managed to bypass the obstacles by climbing the robe ladders.

Finally Aaron crawled in the mud and struggled to run in the knee-high water until he completed the trial, he was so tired and exhausted that he didn't even care about how long it took him to reach the finish line.

'Amazing! He really managed to finish it in his first attempt, and it only took him two turns of the sandglass.' Lucas thought to himself while watching his young master lie on his back at the finish line and stare at the sky, Aaron was practically gasping for air.

'Little Ron is a little monster indeed, he does have a frightening potential but his most dreadful aspect is that kid's will power. I've never felt colder chills crawl on my back from a junior in my life.' Sid thought to himself while balling his fists to contain his own excitement.

*Sigh*

Aaron finally looked at the sandglass and released a long sigh when he noticed the blue mark on top and the empty sand on the upper bulb which means that it took him at least two turns to complete the trail.

He quickly discarded all thoughts aside and decided to clean himself first before going back home to rest.

After all it would've been too easy if he managed to complete this trial in his first attempt, and the whole trial would've been useless.

Aaron gestured for Lucas to stay when he noticed the man following him to the room and thought to himself : 'This dude really thinks that I'd allow him to hold the towel for me every time I take a bath, I better get myself a cute maid to do these kinds of things.'

A few minutes later Aaron was done taking a quick bath and said goodbye to grandpa Sid then dismissed Lucas before walking alone to his home, he wasn't thinking about how he performed in the trial at all since his thoughts were circling the matter of the Hidden Quest and its Unknown Reward.

Aaron needs to complete it as quickly as possible since there's the possibility of the Hidden Quest disappearing if the public heard the news about what happened to Betty's husband Bruce.

Immediately once he entered the house Aaron lit up a candle and closed the door before retrieving the wooden box from his Inventory Space, he emptied the Gold Coins on the mattress of his bed before following Lucas's instructions to open the hidden compartment in the wooden box.

*Click*

With a faint click, the piece of wood in the bottom moved an inch to the side which allowed Aaron to raise it up and reveal what's beneath it.

There he found a piece of red silk wrapped around a circular-shaped item.

System : Hidden Quest Completed. Completion Rate 95%. Completion Rank S. Store Unlocked. Additional Reward

Charisma +3.

Dominance over Lucas +5.

"Huh!" Once Aaron touched the item he saw a notification window announcing his quest completion, "Why is it only 95% this time? Did someone else know about what happened to Betty's wife?"

*Knock knock*

"Young master Ron it's me Pio."

Aaron frowned because this wasn't a good time to be interrupted but his bodyguard sounded really anxious.

He quickly put the Gold Coins back in the wooden box and stored it within his Inventory Space before giving the circular-shaped item that's still wrapped in red silk a final look then stored it too, Aaron walked towards the door and opened it to find Pio and Lucas standing behind him.

"What's all this ruckus about?" Aaron asked, clearly still annoyed by the rude interruption when he was about to check the mysterious item and the Store option that's now available for him to access from the system.

Pio noticed that his young master is in a bad mood but the matter is urgent and requires his young master Ron's intervention, "It's like this, Betty's late husband Bruce was killed by a group of Turtle-Arachne after Lucas schemed against him."

Aaron frowned while thinking : 'No wonder the Completion Rate of the Hidden Quest was low! That bastard was confessing to his crime behind my back.' He glared at Lucas before turning to look at Pio and said : "I already know about what happened to Betty's husband, since Lucas is following me now then I'll make sure that he atones for his crimes. Who else knows about this?"

"He wanted to tell Betty but I refused and immediately brought him here." Pio said.

"Alright here's what I need you to do. Talk to Betty first and try to see how she's going to receive these news about her husband," Afterwards Aaron seriously looked towards Pio and continued to say : "Remember to soften the blow as much as possible if she's in a good state, if she's not then keep everything to yourself for now and I'll personally deliver these bad news to her later when the time is right."

"Yes young master Ron." Pio immediately left after receiving his orders.

Aaron looked towards Lucas and give him a glare before saying : "You almost ruined things for me by running your mouth without asking for my permission first, next time you should know how to behave or you'll suffer my wrath."

Lucas fidgeted and felt the cold breathe of the death reaper on his neck, "Forgive me young master, it'll never happen again." After falling to his knees, Lucas began to plead Aaron.

"Enough! Just scram for now and let me rest."

*Bang*

Lucas kneeled there shocked for a while after receiving no punishment at all, he expected to be rolling in the floor screaming his guts out from pain but his young master Ron unexpectedly forgave him.