"Marvin, what do you think about him?" As soon as Sam left Philip asked the third guy in the team. He has brawler gloves equipped to his hands.
"I think he is pretty amazing. He is suitable to be a warrior who focuses on grappling techniques." The man named Marvin said. "Killing a Blazing earth bull while being at the initiation stage is pretty good, even it is by guerrilla tactics its nit bad at all." He continued after a slight pause.
"No, He killed it with a single strike." Haley said from the side.
"What? Impossible. The strength difference is so huge." Marvin said with shock.
"There is no damage to any other body part on the corpse except for its head. Not only that look around. There are no signs of the bull using fire type attacks. That means only one thing. He killed it even before it could use its fire attacks." Haley explained. Hearing that all of them observed their surroundings and they realized what she said is right.
"We should follow him. If he is from the village, we should try to recruit him earlier. So that our faction can have another expert in the school." Philip said and all of them started move towards village. Even Paul followed unwillingly.
.........
While the situation is like this in the woods. The situation in the Village Head mansion can't be said to be the same. Oliver is fuming while looking inside the leather pouch in his hand. The pouch is filled with transparent glass like stones. They are none other than the spirit stones whose spiritual energy is exhausted completely. The leather pouch is precisely what Sam gave to Oliver's lackey. Oliver just threw the bag in anger and started walking outside the mansion. The two lackeys also followed him. They were truly afraid this spoilt son of the village head has never been this angry. After he looked at the pouch, he didn't even speak anything but directly started making his way towards Sam's house.
When he reached Sam's house, he saw the house was locked and immediately they broke in to the house and started thrashing the place and all the cloths that were ready for sale are destroyed. After completely thrashing everything they made their way outside they saw a lot of people surrounding the house as they were whispering.
"See that. Sam must have offended this spoilt son of village head. This Oliver went berserk again."
"Shhh, are you insane. He will give you trouble if he hears it."
"What if he heard it? I am just stating the facts."
"Where is Sam?" Oliver roared at the people. Everyone became silent for a second. At this moment Michael made his way over by pushing the crowd aside. As he looked at the mess, he became angry.
"Oliver, what do you mean by this? Even though you are village head's son you are not above the law." Michael said loudly.
"I will do whatever I want. What if I wreck a commoner's place? Even if I kill him, he should accept it with a smile." Oliver roared. The crowd went into uproar. More than half the village residents are here. By this village guards also arrived. When they heard Oliver's words, they were all dumbfounded. Just as the guards want to make a move to take Oliver away, the crowd all started to make way. When the path was cleared, they all saw Sam making his walking towards his house with a gigantic bull on his shoulder. When Sam saw Oliver and his lackeys and then the state of his house, he is immediately angry. At this time Oliver also saw Sam, but his expression is different. Seeing the gigantic bull, he understood one thing. 'Sam started cultivating. And he is high level too.' He understood this because he clearly recognised the bull corpse. That is precisely the bull he used to kill Sam. He couldn't help but gulp after seeing how Sam looked. Before he could come out of his daze. Sam already made his move. Sam dropped the corpse and released his aura. He swiftly moved one of the two lackeys behind Oliver. He caught the back of the neck of the guy and slammed his face directly to the ground.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh" that person gave a miserable shriek. But Sam didn't stop at all. He stood up and stomped the guy on his back and grabbed his arm up. Sam made his other arm like a blade and shopped at that guys arm.
*crack* a cracking sound came and the bone pierced outwards of the skin. But it's still not over. Sam again chopped and another cracking sound came "Ahhhhh Ahhhhhhhh, please I apologize, leave me alone, leave me alone. Please let me go." The guy whose arm was broken started begging.
"Too late." Sam coldly replied and a scene which shocked the whole crowd happened. Sam grabbed the bone which pierced out side of the skin and directly pulled. A bone appeared on his hand. The guy under his foot fainted from pain. Before anyone can digest what happened. Sam leapt towards another lackey and pinned that guy down.
That lackey came out of his daze and he immediately started begging. "Please Sam. Please let me go. I will never trouble you again. We were forced to do this by Oliver. Please. By this time guards also came out of their shock. But they don't dare to move. They all are initiation stage warriors. But they were afraid of Sam. Seeing his speed and strength, they felt like they will send themselves to death if they were to fight. So, they started persuading.
"Sam, leave him alone. This is a crime." One guard said.
"Shut the fuck up. Where the fuck are you when they thrashed my house. If you talk one more word. You will be next." Sam said in cold voice and immediately after he finished, he stabbed the bone in his hand diagonally from below the rib of the lackey under him.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...…" the lackey screamed in agony. He tried struggle out of the grip up but Sam stayed on him like a mountain. Then Sam directly kicked on the part of the bone which is outside with his knee. The total bone disappeared. Even blood stopped flowing out as the bone blocked it. The lackey fainted. This scene caused chills down the spines of all the spectators. Everyone felt their hair standing up on their necks. This time there is only one thought on their minds. 'Too cruel.' All of them thought this Sam is a vey nice person since he is very humble. But now they felt like they saw him for the first time. The devilishly handsome face felt so unfamiliar to them. Sam then got up and slowly started walking towards Oliver, with a cold look on his face. His aura is too intense that Oliver's legs started shaking as he stepped backwards.
"W- what do you want to do?" Oliver looked at Sam and asked with trembling voice. He is afraid now. He never would have thought that a 'trash' would make him this afraid. He regretted this his actions now.
"I already told you Mr. Oliver. I am going to pay you back for everything." Sam said in a low voice as suddenly threw a punch at Oliver. Oliver flew like a kite whose string got cut. But he didn't hit hit the ground. A middle-aged man who wore luxurious robes caught him. No body knew when this guy came. But when everyone saw the him they hurriedly bowed and said. "We pay our respects to village head." He is the village head of the lava rock village and father of Oliver. He indifferently gestured them to rise and he regarded his surroundings and finally looked at the young man in front of him who is the only person didn't bow.
"Young man, don't you know how to pay respects to your superiors." Another middle-aged man said to Sam from the side. He is an official in the village who is responsible to collect the tax from villagers. He is peak Acolyte mage. Sam didn't pay any attention to him. He only looked straight towards the Village head coldly without saying a word. The official got angry. Just when he was about to say something. Village head stopped him and asked the nearby guards. "What happened?"
A guard came forward and respectfully said everything about the situation without hiding any truth. Since, so many people saw what happened it is impossible to lie. The village head's expression grew unsightly the more heard the situation. Then he looked at his son with disappointment on his face. Then looked at Sam and the Bull corpse and said. "You broke through."
Sam didn't reply instead he released aura.
"Ninth stage initiation." The village head muttered in a low voice and then continued. "As far I remember you can't cultivate. How did you do it?"
Sam still didn't reply. Village head asked again. He pointed at the two lackeys unconscious on the ground asked. "Even though youngsters have disputes, should you be this cruel."
"Where were you when they wrecked my shop? Where were you when they beat me up in the village. Where were you when they tried to plot and kill me? don't talk if you don't know." Sam said.
"How dare you talk to me, the village head like that?" the village head roared in anger. He released his aura and started applying pressure on Sam. Sam started sweating profusely and his legs started shaking. But he still looked at village head directly and replied.
"What you still remember, you are the village head? Then I paid 10 percent of my tax every month and I have beaten up by these two guys and threatened by your son. Now they thrashed my house and he said he is going to kill me?" Village head immediately lost his temper and was about to make his move. Just then a voice came from the distance.
"Woah 10 percent tax? Village head I thought according to kingdom's rule there is only 5 percent tax system. And you a Novice mage is still going to attack a junior at initiation stage because he asked for the tax he paid." Everyone turned towards the voice and saw four people in the expensive battle attire. When village head saw them, he immediately paled. And stood there stupefied. Unlike him all the villagers are in uproar. They all didn't know they were being cheated of their hard-earned money. So, when they learnt of it, they were really angry.
"Young master Evergreen. What are you doing here?" Village head asked.
"What I still need your permission to come here?" Philip replied. His friendly manner and polite tone all gone.
"No, no that's not what I meant. Even I had known I would have prepared a banquet for you." Village head replied. Not minding Philip's tone at all.
"I don't care about your hospitality. Just leave right now." Philip impatiently waved his hand.
"I will leave." Village head immediately replied and went away. But he is followed by a huge crowd along with him.
Philip made his way toward Sam and stood before him. His teammates followed him and stood behind him.
"So, your name is Sam." Philip said with a smile.
Sam indifferently nodded and turned towards Paul. "We are even." Then he turned around carrying the bull corpse and walked into his compound.
Philip didn't mind and started followed him while Paul heaved a huge sigh of relief. He was really afraid earlier. After Sam's ruthlessness he felt lucky and abandoned all thoughts of revenge. Quickly he also followed along with others. Sam went to his backyard where the well was and dropped the corpse. Suddenly Michael's voice came.
"Sam, since when can you cultivate?" Michael asked as ran towards him. Philip and his teammates all looked at Michael.
"Hello uncle Michael, it's just that my progress was so slow that they thought I can't cultivate. But now my effort paid in and I broke through."
"Great, is this your hunt? Boy you got guts. Your first hunt is the bull tried to kill you." Michael asked as he looked at the corpse. Philip and his teammates look puzzled. But when they saw the marks of wounds on Sam's torso they immediately understood.
"Yes uncle." Sam chuckled. "Uncle you see my friends are here can we talk later." Sam said with an awkward expression.
"Okay we will talk tomorrow." Michael said and left.
"Why are you guys here?" Sam's expression immediately changed to indifferent manner. His smile was completely gone. Everyone was dumbfounded when they saw this change.