"Really? Despite the problems you may have due to my presence, are you willing to help me?"
The kid was really shocked by Shiba's offer.
He knew perfectly that with his power, he wouldn't be able to leave. His previous encounter with a beast was enough to prove it.
However, although Shiba was clearly stronger than him, he wasn't at the peak of Rank 1, which was the level of the strongest beings on the Forest of Illusion.
Thus, that offer meant that Shiba was willing to put his life at risk for someone he had just meet.
The kid had never met someone so selfless.
"Don't worry. When I was weak and powerless, I also received help from someone who didn't have any reason to help me. I feel that it is correct to do the same now that I can. If it weren't for that, I would have died without even reaching level 1 or seeing anything of the outside world."
Shiba knew that his help couldn't be compared to what someone like Master Liye could provide, but if his help were enough to fulfill the dream of that kid, he would already be happy.
He even considered that helping that kid was due to his own selfishness to feel closer to his master.
"Thank you very much! I will gladly accept your help."
The respect the kid had for Shiba grew once he heard that Shiba also had a past that had restricted him.
Anyway, he wasn't in a position to reject Shiba's offer. He would certainly die if he were left alone, so although he felt shameless for accepting, he needed to do it.
"Great. No need to be so polite. What is your name? By the way, you can call me Shiba."
Shiba almost forgot to introduce himself despite asking for the kid's name. Usually, Eini dealt with introductions to others, so Shiba wasn't too used to it.
"I am Gregor."
He seemed to want to say something more, but in the end, he stopped there.
"Nice to meet you, Gregor. Be sure to be near me, so I can react quickly if a beast appears. Don't worry, we will leave this forest soon."
Shiba didn't have any reason to justify his words, but he felt that Gregor would be more relaxed if he spoke like that. Moreover, he also wanted to believe that he would leave that forest soon.
"Let's go."
Shiba spoke again and started to walk.
Gregor was following him close enough for Shiba to help him if an emergency appeared.
However, he still seemed to want to say something that he didn't dare to say.
An hour later, Shiba stopped since he felt that the kid would need to rest.
They needed to leave the previous place quickly since the battle could have attracted other beasts, but Gregor had been quite tired even before, so although Shiba hadn't been walking fast, he felt that Gregor really needed to rest.
"Let's rest for a while. You should be exhausted. If you are tired, just say it, no need to keep it for yourself."
After an hour, he noticed that Gregor wanted to say something, so he felt that Gregor wanted to ask for some rest.
"No, it is not that. Well, I am tired, but that wasn't what I wanted to say."
Gregor couldn't hide his exhaustion, but that wasn't a bit problem for him. In exchange for seeing the outside world, he didn't mind walking without rest no matter how exhausted he was.
"It isn't? Sorry, I am not too good when it comes to reading others. Speak. You don't need to be afraid when speaking to me."
Shiba already had some grasp at guessing what Eini wanted, but it only worked with Eini. Each person was different, after all.
"It is not fear. I just feel that it would be too shameless from me to ask you this after you offered me your help."
The kid guessed that Shiba was a good guy and that he probably would accept his request, but asking for it while he knew that he would probably accept because he was a good guy was something that he felt to the extremely shameless to do.
"Ask. If I can't do it, I won't, but if I can help you, I don't mind."
Shiba had no idea what the kid wanted to ask, but since Gregor felt that it would be too shameless to ask, Shiba didn't think Gregor had any bad intention.
"I want to ask if you can teach me how to fight. I am at level 4, but I am conscious that I would have a hard time even fighting a level 3 beast. Still, you killed a level 7 beast while being just a level higher. You clearly have a lot of battle experience, so I wanted to become your disciple. Sorry, I know I am not in a position to ask something like this."
The people on the Forest of Illusions weren't too skilled at battle since most of them didn't battle on their whole lives.
Some were trained as guards to protect the city, but those were usually at Rank 1, at least.
They didn't put too much focus on training either. Besides those related to the chief that trained to become supreme among the rest, most of the others didn't even reach Rank 1 due to not having the interest to train. Gregor was the strongest among those of his age if he excluded those of the chief's family.
Still, his battle prowess was far too low. The only skill he knew was a useless one that helped to reach Level 1, but that was all. No way the chief would let the good skills spread outside his family to prevent that others wanted to seize the position.
Gregor never had any intention to become a rebel and fight to become the chief or something like that. He couldn't care less about that forest. He wanted to become strong enough to leave the forest, but it had been quite hard to escape since the rules of the town forbid leaving. If he returned, the best it could happen to him was being in prison for at least twenty years, but he could even be executed.
"This..."
Shiba felt really conflicted after hearing Gregor's request.
Personally, he didn't mind teaching others but accepting someone as a disciple wasn't the same. It was far more serious.
He didn't know if, with his power, he was allowed to have a disciple and even more without asking Master Liye about it first.
[Master Liye would never forbid his disciples from accepting disciples as long as that didn't mean betrayal. Disciple Shiba can accept ordinary disciples without problems.]
The system was quite quick in solving Shiba's issue.
Master Liye was quite serious about freedom of teaching, so he always encouraged his disciples to accept disciples themselves. Of course, only ordinary disciples. Not direct disciples or legacy disciples, which was a far more serious matter.
On the other hand, Master Liye had a huge despise for betrayal. He wouldn't forgive a disciple who betrayed him, but he would also put some blame on them if they accepted disciples that ended up betraying them.
Of course, the main blame would always be for the traitor, who would die without doubt, but the disciples would be forced to reflex seriously about their eyesight accepting disciples if their disciples turned traitors.
However, that wasn't an issue for Shiba. The scale Liye spoke about treason wasn't something mere mortals could understand. Those were matters that went outside the reach of the planet they lived in.
Shiba heard a bit from Eini about how complex the universe was outside small planets like the one they were, but the planets where experts sent their children were usually isolated from those matters.
Anyway, Gregor seemed quite a good kid, so Shiba didn't think that he could end up betraying him or Master Liye to the point that Master Liye could be angry.
"Well, I can accept you as a normal disciple, but I am quite bad at teaching, and not that strong either, are you sure? If you accept betrayal won't be tolerated. If my master learns about it, you will be doomed."
Although Gregor didn't seem a bad kid, Shiba felt that it was better to put some pressure on him to ensure that he wouldn't have funny ideas in the future.
"I won't betray you, master. Same for grandmaster. I don't know who he is, but I wouldn't dare to go against either of you."
Gregor was quite straightforward since he already considered Shiba his master, and thus, Shiba's master was obviously his grandmaster. He didn't know who that grandmaster was, but sure it was someone incredibly powerful.
"Then you are my first disciple. I will teach you some things before leaving the forest, but you will need to go on your own way after leaving."
Bringing Gregor with him was out of the question. No way the academy would accept him out of nowhere, and he couldn't add a travel partner without Eini's consent either.
Moreover, Shiba felt that it was natural for disciples to go on their own way to grow. One wouldn't grow always sheltered by the master, and Shiba wasn't that much stronger than Gregor either, so he didn't think he could teach him that much at the moment.