*Humph*
Lucy hugged Paws tightly and left the balcony.
"Where do you think you're going?" Heena and after her sister and blocked her way once she saw her aiming to head upstairs.
Lucy rolled her eyes and stubbornly answered while brushing shoulders with her best friend, "To watch him get beat up by his followers! I can still do that right?" She asked while turning to look back at Heena then gestured with her chin for her to follow.
Heena looked back at Nina and shrugged before joining Lucy in patting Paws body which lazily stretched her body to the extreme while showing her belly!
"This little thing is so bossy like its owner, look at it being so cute and adorable which makes it hard for us to resist complying with its wishes!" Heena said while smiling.
"Her owner is also bossy, cute, and adorable but he's also prickly, fierce, and lethal." Lucy murmured before adding : "My heart almost stopped when he threatened me, maybe I should really apologize. What do you think?"
Heena frowned while looking at her sister and felt worried after noticing some odd signs which she felt certain trouble from them but she choose to ignore them because who would believe her if she voiced them, "I think you should wait and keep your distance for now, give it time to figure out what you really feel like you should do and give him time to deal with his problems."
Lucy's eyes brightened and she kept nodding repeatedly while humming before saying : "You're right! He's always busy all the time and barely gets any sleep at all, I bet I'd go completely insane if I had to sleep 30 Minutes every 2 hours."
Once the two of them reached the top floor they discovered the new additional set of wide swirling stairs leading from the boy's balcony to the roof which Tylus and his men are still working on completing while the kid himself is sparring with his first bodyguard.
The Erebus-Wood was cold to the touch but it had this calming effect on the mind and both of the Whispering Sisters immediately realized this effect once they sat on the newly created chairs which Tylus just created after breaking a few items of his tools set.
But this carpenter was smiling joyfully because right now he's too pleased in having the honor of having to work and creatively use this special wood as much as he likes!
Of course Paws was more excited than this muscular nail-haired fellow because this environment is extremely compatible with her race of Shadow Panthers.
Even Nephrite and her Royal-Guard were enjoying their stay in the comfortable nest which Tylus had his men build for them.
'Nina! Come up quickly!' Heena communicated with their team leader Telepathically.
'Is Lucy going to cause us problems?' Nina asked while heading up.
'No!' Heena giggled and didn't explain.
'You better not be messing around with me you two!' Nina warned while taking her time going up instead of being in a hurry to prevent a disaster like she thought this situation would be.
'There's a surprise waiting for you.' Lucy answered instead of her sister while exchanging smile with Heena.
"This!" The team leader of the Whispering Sisters was looking around her in surprise because despite knowing that the kid had taken all of the Wood from the Erebus-Ivy Tree in the cave she never would've expected this extremely rare to be so useful for her and her sisters.
"Now we can Advance our Soul-Power from the Awareness Grade to the Exploration-Grade like Sister Sera! Wouldn't it great if we can join her and compete in the Continental-Competition together?" Lucy said them patted the chair next to her and gestured for her team leader to take a seat.
Nina would be lying if she said that she wasn't tempted by this idea but unless all of them actually advance their Soul-Power to the Exploration-Grade like Sera, all of this would stay as just that... A beautiful image of an idea which they can't achieve just yet.
The team leader took her seat and joined her sisters in watching the kid exchange blows with a grown up man during their sparring match.
Of course he lost the exchange but he quickly got up on his feet and blocked the wooden Blade which was aimed at his side with the wooden Staff in his hand before parrying another then delivering a quick counter to Pio's stomach with the tip of his Staff before retreating a step and leaning back to avoid the swing which was aimed to catch him by surprise from an awkward angle.
'We all owe him a lot and it'd be terrible if we left him right before the Beast-Wave, even if we all advance to the Exploration-Grade we still won't leave until the danger is over.' Nina finally made up her mind and walked towards the rails then looked down while thinking : 'But who would've known that he'd manage to attract all the candidates in this Village to his side.' She thought while smiling after seeing Flora climb up the stairs to the third-level before courageously standing on the Springboard and jump into the water.
Nina also looked at Ria, Sophia, Betty then looked towards the active Portal outside the walls of the house where people from the 3 other Villages were starting to come out while carrying the speciality products of their Villages on their shoulders or push wheelbarrows loaded with different items or fresh ingredients before hurrying towards the market!
The image of Cassandra also appeared within Nina's mind and she looked back at the kid who's facing another opponent other than Pio who's already exhausted and gasping for air after trying his best yet failing to succeed in beating his young master Ron in the sparring match.
Of course everybody understood that this boy has an advantage over them because they all can see him drinking something over and over which they all concluded that it's what's making him able to stand for too long without showing signs of exhaustion or being affected by their blows!
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
But Aaron was the only one aware of the truth of things, his Strength, Vitality, and Agility attributes plus the Physical Defense and some other Stats are just high thanks to the help of Pain Reliver, Agility Pill, Warrior Elixir, Extreme Red, Blue, and Green Potions.
The Potion which he kept drinking was actually for something else.
Sunset Dew Effect Recovers 5,000 MP Maximum Number 100 each per Inventory slot Tradability Tradeable Refunded For 1 Silver Description Dew collected late in the afternoon Notes A bottle of dew that somehow managed to avoid drying out by evening.
'Since it's the first time the Sublunary Portal is activated maybe I should leave it open for a bit longer so that a lot of people from the others Villages get to experience it, but these bottles of Sunset Dew are a bit costly and the expenditure of Mana is a bit too much! Hopefully I'm not going to make a big loss with the entrance fees being too low.' Aaron thought before gesturing for his sparring partner from the 12 Staff-users to stop attacking him after he retreated.
"I'm done sparring for today and my clothes are still dirty after undergoing grandpa Sid's trial, let's have a meeting after I get some sleep." He said before finally deciding that he activated the Portals long enough then headed downstairs towards the bathroom.
Paws wiggled herself free from Lucy's embrace and followed the boy but Nephrite was faster.
Oddly enough both of them had some of the Erebus-Wood, the Shadow Panther had a small piece between her fangs and the Queen had a piece the size of the boy's body between her mandibles!
Tylus and his men didn't even dare complain about Nephrite and her Royal Guards taking some of the precious wood.
"Why are you two holding Erebus-Wood in your mouth?" Aaron frowned once he saw Nephrite standing outside the door with a piece of wood in her mouth then Paws come inside a bit later with a smaller piece of the same type of wood inside hers.
*Meow*
*Click*
'A gift to you master.'
The kid tilted his head to the side and looked at the wood his two pets say it's a gift for him then frowned because what the freaking fuck is he supposed to do with some wood? Not to mention that these two brats are giving him his own stuff and shamelessly saying it's a gift!
Aaron took off his clothes and jumped into the bathtub before snatching Paws by the scruff of her neck and dangling her in front of his face while asking : "Are you giving me that because you're hungry? Just ask for a treat if you want a treat!"
But the Shadow Panther cub kept shaking its tiny head while pitifully staring at him with beady eyes full of tears.
Once the kid looked towards the Queen and she lowered her head while answering : 'Master. This is really a gift from me and the little one to you, we're not looking for a treat but we welcome it if you'll allow it to happen.'
"What do you expect me to do with it?" The kid rolled his eyes while asking then let go of Paws and she fell into the warm water before paddling her way towards her chest then turned on her back and enjoyed resting there.
'Eat it.' Nephrite answered almost immediately while staring at her master as if it's the most reasonable thing to do.
Paws also nodded its head while staring at him with conviction.
Aaron's forehead was a shade darker when he asked, "And what do you think I'd gain from eating this wood?"
'The string of Darkness on your body would covered by the Black and Cold Energy inside this wood.'
"Wait! What string of Darkness?"
The Queen and the Panther tilted their head to the side and looked at their master in confusion.
'Can't you see it master?' Nephrite asked before pointing with one of her legs towards his midsection, 'It's right there, I've followed it earlier and it led me all the way in this direction to a place where there's a mountain with a massive hole full of darkness but there's also a lot of dangerous foes living in that area... I barely managed to avoid some of them with my speed but the fast ones weren't interested in chasing me for too long.'
The kid's eyes suddenly brightened because the location his intelligent pet just described is a place which he heard about from both Chief Chadrion and Aeona.
"No wonder why I felt like there's some sort of calling urging me to head West when I was at Black-Fog Village earlier today!
"Is that where that where the Darkness Emissary fucker is hiding?
"So did they choose a dangerous location to lure me in and capture me or to eliminate me.
"Maybe they're biding their time and waiting because for some reason they can't make their report of my location to the higher echelons immediately after Paws spotted me.
"But that explains how such a small and malnourished little thing like itself was able to make its way all the way to Black Fog Village.
"Does that mean there's all kinds of minions and my troubles aren't over just yet?" Aaron into deep thoughts for a long while before making up his mind on what to do next since there's nothing urgent for him to do around here anymore.
The kid left the bathroom after drying Paws fur then wore his Brown Bandana, the Spider Silk Top, and some comfortable sleeping pajamas before jumping on bed to get some sleep and Nephrite rested right next to bed to guard her master while he's most vulnerable.
The 12 soldiers stood guard at the doors leading up or down from the top floor and softly discussed the events of the sparring match.
None of them expected their young master Ron to be this strong despite hearing some rumors about his achievements from the Villagers and the group leaders.
All of them expected him to be Physically weak despite having such amazing Techniques like the ability to disappear from one place to another or open mysterious gates which enables people to transport from one place to another with a single step!
Some of them heard about the boy being able to conjure fire and wind to attack others but the never actually saw it happen with their own eyes despite there being a lot of witnesses to it happening from the 4 Villages.
The only thing they actually saw was the kid's amazing marksmanship abilities when he demonstrated them during his daring competition with group leader Rhinne.
But above all these men and women were more excited about passing their young master Ron's hidden test earlier and succeeding in becoming his Guards.
Aaron woke up and like clockwork he hit the bathroom and went up towards the roof while gesturing for the 12 soldiers to follow him.
"You two," Aaron looked at the courageous woman and her partner before smirking wickedly while saying : "I saw what you were doing yesterday night."
The woman blushed deeply and was struggling against her panic because she can't look away or it'd make her seem like she's admitting it really happened, meanwhile the man was actually struggling not to laugh in this situation but he couldn't help but reveal a smile at the corner of his mouth.
*Ehm*
Finally the man cleared his throat and hugged the waist of his partner then pulled her towards his chest while saying : "I'm Aran and this is my friend Aria." In the beginning Aria attempted to resist his bold gesture but couldn't free herself from his strong arms.