Aaron patted the Shadow Panther Cub's head which is curled asleep right next to the small wooden box before opening it and immediately afterwards a bright white light shone from inside the box and almost blinded his eyes but he activated Identify to increase his Vision.
Sun Ore : Piece of stone which contains fragments of the extremely unique Sun Meteors
Right when he was holding one of the few Luminous-Stones in his hand and studying it closely with his eyes, the kid received another notification.
System : Evolving Ring met the requirements to Level-UP
The boy smiled widely from excitement once he received the next notification and immediately choose "Yes" to upgrade the Ring which cost him a lot of money in a stage where he didn't even have enough Gold Coins to satisfy his own needs yet remained absolutely useless afterwards!
The people sitting with him at the table immediately noticed how the glow from the Luminous-Stone started to fade quickly before the light started to flicker on and off before disappearing and the stone in the kid's hand broke into smaller pieces before trickling through his fingers in the form of sand.
Aeona was fully capable of sensing the Halo getting absorbed from the Luminous-Stone into the boy's body and gawked from shock because even for a 1-Star Herald-Knight like herself it'd take her about 3~4 days before she's able to absorb Guardian-Halo from it completely.
But some boy without any trace of Guardian-Halo on his body was able to achieve it all within less than five seconds!
'How did he do it?' The female Guardian-Knight squatted and grabbed some of the sand from the floor and sniffed at it which made the people in the balcony look at one another while having a sense of Deja vu because earlier today they saw Lucy do the same while having the same expression of shock and confusion on her face.
Aaron on the other hand was looking at the details on the Evolving Ring window while feeling the urge to jump on the table and kick plates and cups aside then just dance from joy.
Evolving Ring (Unisex-Legendary) Required Level 0 Required Class Any Effects
* Max HP +25
* Max MP +25
Current Level 1 Type [1] Notes
* Effects of the Evolving Ring depends on its Level and Type.
* Each Type of the Evolving Ring includes 99 Levels.
* Evolution between Types marks a transition of Power-Grade for the Evolving Ring.
* There's 10 Types followed by 9 Levels before the Evolving Ring reaches its maximum potential.
Despite there being so small increase to both of the HP and MP bars, he understands that there's still 98 more levels before the Ring Evolves into the next Type!
"Young master Ron." While Aaron was about to reach into the wooden box and take the rest of the Sun Ores to see if he can upgrade the Evolving Ring to the next Level or hopefully do it more than once, Betty arrived in the balcony with old geezer Todd behind her.
"What are you doing here Betty?" Pio asked while feeling slightly worried since his woman interrupted the kid right when he seemed like he was having a really good time.
The woman suddenly realized that during their moment of worry and panic she might've crossed some line, her lovely man kept warning her to never put herself in these situation with the boy because despite him being nice and easygoing most of the time he would sometimes hold a grudge especially in these situations then make things difficult on Pio and Lucas afterwards.
*Cough*
"If you'll allow this old man to speak his mind young master Ron." Todd noticed Betty's difficulty and took it upon himself to carry the blame in her place in this situation.
Aaron kept the wooden box in his Inventory Space and leaned on the back of his chair before smiling while saying : "I guess you two finally ran out of patience huh!" Afterwards he gestured to the empty chairs and added : "Come sit and join us, the two of you look like you needed a break anyway." Then he retrieved a few plates of food which he never revealed before.
Banana Pie Effect Recovers 400 HP and 500 MP Maximum Number 100 each per Inventory slot Tradability Tradeable Refunded For 1 Silver Description This scrumptious pie is sure to lighten your spirits! Notes
* Speed +10
* Jump +10
"Before you guys taste this Banana Pie I'd like to warn you to be careful while jumping or you might smash your heads against my ceiling!" The kid smirked before adding : "Also don't eat too much of this Lamb Kebabs or you might start fighting it out get rid of the extra strength coursing through your bodies."
Lamb Kebabs Effect Recovers 2,000 HP Maximum Number 100 each per Inventory slot Tradability Tradeable Refunded For 1 Silver Description A pair of kebab-skewers with a distinctive mouth-watering taste and chewy texture. Notes After eating this kebabs you're certain to gain the Sparkling-Eyes feature for a few seconds!
*Sniff* *Sniff*
"Meow!" "Meow!"
The delicious and aromatic smell of the Kebabs awakened the Shadow Panther Cub and it looked at Aaron while demanding a share for itself.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
He smiled before giving it a small piece of Kebab with an Egg Pancake while saying : "You can't eat only meat growing up little Paws, make sure to drink milk and eating veggies too to grow up healthy!"
Egg Pancake Effect Recovers 1,000 HP and 1,000 MP Maximum Number 100 each per Inventory slot Tradability Tradeable Refunded For 1 Silver Description An egg pancake filled with meat, veggies, and delicious sauce. Notes After eating this egg pancake you're certain to be in the mood to kiss someone! Yum! Yum!
Aaron looked at the description and watched Betty kissing Pio passionately after having a taste!
'Damn! This System really can make people do anything! Look at Chadrion's eye being so sparkly... Shit! He still looks as ugly as fuck though.' The kid thought while retrieving enough plates of the next type of food.
California Roll Effect Recovers 2,000 MP Maximum Number 100 each per Inventory slot Tradability Tradeable Refunded For 1 Silver Description Delicious sushi roll with a lot of fillings Notes After eating this sushi roll you're certain to gain the Laser-Focused Buff! Gleam!
Of course he offered his guests a huge variety of different types of food and drinks but these were the special types which nobody has seen before.
Paws especially liked the Fried Shrimps, the Hot Dogs, the Fried Chickens, the Hamburgers, the regular Meat, and of course the Lamb Kebabs!
This tiny thing kept showing love to the boy which made him smile because he really understood what she's saying with these "Meows" of hers.
The Shadow Panther Cub was actually calling him "Father!" which amused him a lot because this poor thing's intelligence was comparable to a baby at best.
Soon it was time for him to take a break and get some rest since he's been resisting for a while now to entertain his guests.
Before he left the kid opened the Mystique-Door for the 3 Bandit-Leaders to head back to their Villages while Nina and her Sisters also took their Centipedes to a different Village each to complete their tasks before coming back to enjoy their time.
Unfortunately none of them were able to ascend to the stage of power which Sera reached despite actually eating much stronger foods and drinking stronger drinks.
Lucy complained about not having the right opportunity to actually advance and envied her sister Sera who had the chance when the Poisonous Stone-Centipede's mother was applying immense pressure on Sera and endangering her life.
But Heena rolled her eyes and mentioned how each and every one of them is less than a step away from reaching similar Soul-standards like their sister now and all they need is patience before everything falls into place.
Sophia was shocked when Aaron gave her 100 Gold Coins for her service and a type of special Glove to protect her fingers from injuries while working and asked that she comes visit often and have some of Betty and Todd's nourishing meals.
He also asked her to make him some more clothes and see if any of his soldiers are in need of any, from that moment she became the tailor of his house and was urged to recruit some people to work for her and help her speed up the work.
Betty and Todd left with wide smiles on their faces because not only did they eat some amazingly tasty food earlier but also were tasked to recruit enough helping hands back in the kitchen since they're going to be responsible for feeding hundreds of soldiers everyday.
Aaron also promised to fill the storage rooms with enough ingredients to supply their needs every two days which was their main concern.
'Now that everything is going in motion, I need to take care of organizing my small Army and give them tasks before focusing on Leveling-UP as much as possible for the next 10 days or so before searching for that Darkness-Emissary.' Aaron thought before hugging Paws to sleep under the watch of Sherry, Rhinne, and Aeona.
Meanwhile Pio and Lucas stood at the door and watched the happy soldiers move freely everywhere in their young master Ron's house while thinking to themselves : 'Who would've believed that less than 10 days ago this place was no different from a dumb and this boy had nothing in his pockets and nobody taking care of him except for some young and helpless girl!'
*****
Inside Chief Peter's study.
The man and his youngest son were sitting in silence listening to Roger and Manji as they reported the events which happened in the boy's house today.
Peter finally opened his mouth to say : "I understand. You two have worked hard today, you can go back and rest now."
The woman shrugged and gave Sen a side-glance with a faint sneer on the corner of her mouth before taking her man and leaving the house, clearly dissatisfied since these two rarely included the big and muscular guy in their schemes and usually dismiss Roger after getting what they want.
She felt insulted and slightly angry for Roger whenever she witnessed him receiving this treatment from his closest family but he never cared about it and quite enjoyed the freedom he gets to do whatever he wants with his time when he's not tasked to take the Elite team and go hunt in the Dark-Forest.
Meanwhile Peter sighed once he saw his youngest son having trouble keeping his calm after Manji and his big brother left the study.
"Just how was he able to shake us away and force us so out of control in two days?" Sen muttered while being in a loss.
"He's not like Roger who's blessed with physical strength and a shallow trace of Vital-Aura.
"He's also not blessed with any trace of Guardian-Halo like the seeds which the Knights Temple eagerly searches for and likes to recruit.
"Obviously he's not in possession of Soul-Power since that's something only the blessed females can have.
"But he was able to dismantle some sort of Soul-Technique on his own then consume Guardian-Halo from a Luminous-Stone in a matter of seconds!
"He was only strong before which was never a threat to our house since all he had was two men under his service plus Scadur's daughter which betrayed our trust hours later after we sent it to his camp.
"Once the big fish came knocking at our gates after I drew them in with bait he just went Ape-Shit and knocked them down one by one without care for repercussions then pulled the rug from under our feet after revealing my scheme.
"Afterwards he went out and got himself an Army of well-trained soldiers after spoiling Gerand Specter's fun games of lighting fires and causing chaos in the General's backyard.
"I bet that whoreson was about to go mad after fate brought him in the kid's path which is probably the only good news in this whole situation!
"However, now we can no longer act as the middlemen between him and our neighbors in the Mice trade.
"We need him now more than before since he has an Army under his service and the Beast-Wave is shifting more and more Eastwards than we expected.
"The 3 Whispering Sisters and their pets are his close allies and owes him more than they'll ever care for us.
"Our own neighbors are unlikely to come to our aid unless he gives the nod.
"The second good news for us is our walls are getting upgraded and quickly coming in shape thanks to him.
"But fuck it all to hell. What fucking situation is this? He's aware of our plan and already knows that our goal isn't the Longevity-Fruits yet we still have nothing of interest to lure him into helping us! We can't even be sure if he's going to stalk us from the shadows once we make our move and snatch our fruits of labor in the last moment." The scholarly-looking man finally lost his cool and started spouting vulgarities while glaring at his father.
Peter sighed after seeing the emotional state his son has reached and thought : 'Sen is usually calm, cool, and collected no matter what happens around him but ever since this kid appeared in the picture the worst trait of my son has been revealed so easily!' The man stood up and patted his son on the shoulder to calm him while saying : "Get a hold of your emotions son. At least he doesn't know that we have one more spy on his camp, once the boy starts showing interest in ruining our family plans to rise back in power." Peter gestured to his neck and made a cutting gesture of slitting the throat.