After a 30 minutes rest followed by a quick and fulfilling meal, Aaron took the team for another attempt at the nest of Fuzzy Phosphorus Mice.
Roger reported to him that his brother Sen has already sent groups to 10 of the surrounding Villages to sell today's Mice meat in their markets since their own supply is already taken care of for tomorrow.
They expect their return in 2 or 3 days maximum, but there also might be some problems since some of these Villages are within the territory of some local gangs and they often have their own disputes which happened many times before.
Usually each and every one of these local gangs would mind their own business since Chief Peter does have an agreement with the bosses of each gang, the gangs keep their scuffles and squabbles under wraps while Peter's house keep delivering each and every single one of them a sum of money every month.
Whenever the territory's ownership shifts to a certain gang, the amount Peter's Pine-Breeze Village has to pay the winning gang higher amount of money to maintain their safe, smooth, and undisturbed trade with the surrounding Villages... especially the ones within the limits of the gang's territories!
Now with the sudden appearance of all this Mice meat in all these markets, someone or at least all of the gangs would be like sharks smelling blood.
But Sen clearly expressed his "Intentions" in still going forward with the whole matter is because he has absolute trust in young master Ron's power and that none of these gangs would be able to touch a singe hair on his body, if these gangs dare do anything "funny" then he's willing to deploy all the able men within the Village to go teach them all a lesson.
'He's a cunning one that Sen... he actually dares insinuate that I can escape in a situation where all the gangs truly "Gang-UP" on me!
'Then afterwards he offers me to go teach the gangs a lesson in my stead, which might seem like a favor.
'But he might actually join them after gathering all the men.
'He's clearly provoking me to take action when the gangs hear about how much I'm making from the Mice meat alone.
'Only a fool wouldn't take a bite at a 5 years old kid even if he was awesome like me, these gang leaders are definitely coming.
'This Sen must've done it because he stands to gain once the gang leaders hear about my situation, if I go against the gangs then Sen gets to know more about my secrets actually that might be his true goal.
'If I accept his favor of letting him speaking in my place with the gang leaders, I'd be admitting that I can escape but I can't handle an army worth of enemies.
'For moral reasons or for the lack of strength it doesn't matter... it means that Sen would be able to find a weakness in him and probably take advantage of it in the future!
'Should I let him build the assumption that I'm holding these weakness or thank him if he's really planning to attack me with an army of bandits?
'Is he really my nemesis? Now I'm getting antsy because this whole "Half-Blood" thing seem so important all of a sudden.' Aaron thought before going back to his room after completing the art-like work of killing Mice.
The kid sat there in the balcony of his room staring at the moon's reflection on the surface of the pool, his Defensive-Skills were almost about to reach the final stage of Proficiency Points before Leveling-UP but Recovery was right on the verge of reaching the maximum Point with 99 on the bar.
"With my current power I can blast the whole lot of gangs at the cost of a new Staff... I can't believe that 280 Gold Coins seemed like a whole lot of money when Sera left but now I'm not feeling the pinch of losing that much!
"In a matter of seconds I'll channel the Flame Orb Skill and lose that much money for a single attack that would also last a few seconds at best.
"Is this what it feels to be rich and don't care about the cost if it means getting rid of one of your troubles without having to waste your time solving it yourself," Aaron muttered to himself before adding : "I shouldn't satisfy that Sen with a quick answer... I can let him expose some more of his "Intentions" by simply waiting."
The kid continued to think and plan his next course of actions in the future while activating every Skill possible for him without breaking or destroying anything.
Once Recovery finally Leveled-UP he went alone towards the Basement and activated Mystique-Door.
All the grown-ups are in bed getting busy and the moans were the only sign of long lost satisfaction descending on Pine-Breeze Village!
Aaron accumulated Experience Points much faster since he's alone but he did notice a certain change on the Mice's behavior.
Earlier today it did seem like these rodents had become a bit more aggressive but Roger and the rest attributed it to them already killing more than a 100 of the nest.
However, if these Mice were being aggressive before... this time they're being ferocious.
Aaron noticed that some of them were actually attacking other Mice whenever they got in their way of catching him.
"Is it because that Dark Energy has left a mark on me?" The kid checked his Experience bar and smiled after seeing 1918 Points, "I might Level-UP again actually if I activate the Mystique-Door two more times on my own and kill 100 more Mice on my own, but I still need to focus on keeping things balanced by increasing the Level of my Skills."
Recovery Uses MP to recover HP over a period of 30 Seconds.
Usable only once every Minute. Recovery Level 2 Mana Points Cost 120 Health Points Recovered 60 Cooldown 1 Minute Proficiency Points 0/200
'The MP cost is kind of crazy but at least now I can completely satisfy the aftereffects of takin that Ultimate-Growth Pill, with my MP bar standing at 3450 once I eat a Candied-Apple and drink an Extreme Blue Potion... I do enjoy MP Regeneration-Speed of [Above-Average] +16.4% which is kind of enough to delay the time between each MP Recovery Consumable be that a Potion or food and drinks.' Aaron put the Mice carcasses in his Inventory Space for Roger and Manji tomorrow.
Mana Armor The host condensed Mana and coats his Armor to increase M/Def by a percentage. Mana Armor Level 6 Mana Points Cost 50 M/Def Increase 20% Duration 130 Seconds Proficiency Points 0/200
'With Mana armor and Magic Guard activated my M/Def stands at all time high of [Rare] +33.2%, I feel like standing my ground and testing how much it'd truly damage me if one of these Mice attacked me. Maybe I should try it after Magic guard also Levels-UP thanks to the accumulated Proficiency Points.' The kid thought before Teleporting to the basement.
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"The Skill that's going to most likely Level-UP next is probably either Nimble-Feet or Magic-Guard, Trible-Stars and Teleport are a bit behind while the latter seems like it's a bit harder to accumulate its Proficiency Points compared to the others." He said before adding : "Meanwhile this Mystique-Door Skill is the hardest one among them all, so far I've activated the Skill a few times and sacrificed a lot of my sweet Mana to operate it already yet I've only gained 1 Proficiency Point.
"The most annoying is the amount of Proficiency Points I've managed to accumulate for 2 of my strongest Offensive-Skills is in the twenty-somethings.
"I need to do better than that, but I've already tightened my schedule to the limit and sleep 12 times a day.
"Forcing myself to sleep 30 minutes every two hours is already making me feel like the president or something.
"24 hours in a day isn't enough anymore, there's just a lot for me to do when I'm awake there's the morning exercise, there's also the work I'm doing to evaporate the poison from the lake.
"Helping Mr Smith which I feel like I'm owing him a lot after leaning on him for so long without truly anything meaningful for the giant to repay him.
"Keeping an eye on the work at my house and making sure Vogen' Tylus, Cassandra, and their people wouldn't make any obvious mistake while building my home.
"There's also trials and the sparring matches between me and Sherry.
"Accumulating Experience Points and training my Skills to higher Levels.
"Now that annoying fellow Sen went and added more to my busy schedule by stirring shit with the gangs.
"Maybe I should pay each and every gang a visit and shit all-over their heads," Aaron muttered before activating Mystique-Door while adding : "My butt is loaded you sons of bitches! I'll force it with a spoon down your throats if any of you dare waste my precious time. Humph, let's see you small fry try and take any of my money... I'll burn you all to ash."
Aaron's Exp bar stood at 3678/5000 after this second massacre but his Inventory Space is almost full of Fuzzy Phosphorus Mice right now and the basement needs some cleaning since the floor is almost completely covered in blood.
The kid almost lost his footing and slip on the blood earlier after Teleporting and barely escaped a claw scratching at his back!
After having some sleep and another meal, Aaron continued until both Skills actually Leveled-UP
Magic Guard Damage dealt affects host's MP instead of HP. If host's MP reaches 0, host's HP takes the full amount of damage. Magic Guard Level 3 Mana Points Cost 40 Damage Displaced 36% Guard's Duration 222 Seconds Proficiency Points 0/200
Now his M/Def changed from [Rare] to [Rare+3] quality while the percentage it receives remained the same at 33.2%.
Nimble-Feet Uses MP to provide a short burst of Speed.
Usable only once every 2 Minutes. Nimble-Feet Level 1 Mana Points Cost 30 Duration 20 Seconds Speed Boost +23 Cooldown 2 Minutes Proficiency Points 0/200
Meanwhile his Movement, Reaction, and Attack-Speed qualitatively improved from [Above-Average+16] plus varying percentages to [Rare+4] plus varying percentages!
'I can feel my body becoming much lighter and my reflexes being clearly more agile, maybe I should try that cheat tomorrow and see if things actually work.' Aaron thought before Teleporting back to his bed and closed his eyes to sleep after waking Sherry up.
Next time he woke up things looked a lot different for him when the option of gaining Exp Points practically sealed itself shut unless he finds another source from somewhere other than the bloodied basement.
Yes ha can stack it with more Mice carcasses and hunt the rodents from somewhere around the entrance but if things went south he might have to punish them with a few Energy Bolts but that would add to the mess which he doesn't want explain why is these Mice not left with an intact carcass.
"Now it's about time I try something crazy, I would never try it no matter how fast I could go but now things are different with Teleport in the mix." Aaron muttered before Teleporting from the balcony to one of the walls.
From there he looked between the streets towards the Village's western-walls and waited for a short while until his body is able to undergo Teleport once again without leaving him nauseous or weakened.
A Minute or so later, Aaron was already at the outline of the Dark-Forest from the perspective of those standing at guard in the Village's watchtowers.
'I wonder how different it'd feel once I activate Teleport at higher Levels.' The kid was focused on scanning the area with Lucid Nightmare 50 meters at a time.
It became kind of like second-nature for him to keep spamming Recovery every Minute, meanwhile Nimble-feet became his burst of Physical activity whenever it got a chance he'd activate the Skill and run, jump, and climb every 2 Minutes.
'But I can only do so for 10 Minutes thanks to the benefit of the domain Lucid Nightmare given me with its scan, I still need to return before the time runs out which limits me to only 5 Minutes to explore.
'I'm Stunning any fucker that comes my way then I'm getting the hell away, I can always come back and find them after confirming my own safety.
'I do need the Exp indeed, but there's no meaning when I take unnecessary risk... The mark from the Darkness Seal is still on me after all.
'Unless... How stupid of me.
'A wise person once said : "When orthodox doesn't work against your opponent switch to southpaw, when it doesn't help you can always cheat."
'Time get creative!' Aaron thought before making sure to memorize the terrain until he found a location where the only path is heavily studded with trees and quite a severe difference in elevation.
On the highest point of the road he could see thanks to the moonlight, he could see a huge area of the Dark-Forest.
Ahead of him the trees were blocking his view and preventing the kid from seeing deeper into the Dark-Forest and behind him was the scene where he could vaguely see their Pine-Breeze Village through the sparser trees of the outline.
Both areas where quite high and between them was some massive canyon where extremely tall trees already grew, Aaron actually standing on one of two shores where a river more than 2 KM wide used to flow!
"It's amazing that it actually ran dry!" After saying so the kid found a spot before setting a destination for Mystique-Door and choose to only link this diagram with the one within the massive cave where the Mice burrowed their nest.
Because if he linked this diagram with the one at his basement it might actually remove the invisible barrier and flood his house with ferocious Mice!
Aaron checked the information he's reading on the diagram and nodded his head after confirming that it lacks any information about a link with his basement, "Time to go poke the bear, only a bear would look too cute compared to the ones I've seen so far."