The double horned wolf didn't expect max to deal with it's lackeys so fast.
Seeing that it had no way to escape death it ruthlessly decided to take max down with it.
It ignored it fatigue and weakness and activated it's last skill accelerate,meeting max head on with an incredible speed whiles opening it's jaws wide intending to bite his head off.
Max could have taken the shotgun to blow it to bits but he wanted to observe the black dragon mercenaries himself and make sure they could be trusted before exposing them to fire arms and he wanted to train himself.
Max activated the only martial technique he was good at apart from the sword the fire fist technique and held the wolf it's jaws before directing it and slamming into the ground.Before the wolf could get up a fiery looking fist punched it head continuously.Max only stopped when he felt the energy from the wolf coursing through his veins confirming it's death.
Due to training in the chaos fiend body technique he had a decent body strength even though he excelled in speed.
Max looked up and saw that the other horned wolves wanted to escape he took his crossbow and continued to take them down until the rest were out of his range.
He looked at the mercenaries and confirmed that most were seriously injured but none died.
The black dragon mercenaries were looking at him in awe.
They had been panicking earlier when the Tier 2 early stage double horned wolf released it's aura and even Reiner and mark were nervous but seeing how max killed it they felt a sense of relief and hope.
"Alright pack up the scouts found a cave we could set up camp in. Half of you gather all the stronger corpses and carry them and leave rest here.
The rest of you help the wounded,everyone move now before more fierce beast smell the blood and come or worse a demonic beast comes" max gave a lot of rapid commands.
At this moment when most of their members were injured another fight would be bad for them.
They had killed more than a hundred and forty wolves including more than thirty Tier 1 horned wolves. Five strong mercenaries carried the Tier 2 wolf as they quickly left the site of the battle.
The scouts had found a cave which had been abandoned for a while and choose it for their base.After three hours they found the cave and entered, it was cool spacious and even had a small pool inside. They quickly got to work by cleaning the place up as they would be staying here for a while. The injured ones were stitched up and some also started fires and began to cook the horned wolves including the Tier 2 wolf they also set up tents.
Max asked them to gather around a fire they had built. They sat below him whiles he sat on a protruding rock.
"You asked me for martial techniques when I asked you what you needed when we first met. Today whiles fighting I observed that the ones you used were truly trash human grade martial technique" max paused for a bit while looking at them
"To tell you the truth I am truly disappointed in your results today, I expected more from you. For the time we'll be spending I expect you all to give your all in improving yourselves.
I'll make make sure you have Earth ranked martial techniques to train with along with the meat of higher Tier fierce beast. Don't disappointed me again I need elites not trash.
Also from now onwards every week we'll have a competition and I'll give the best resources I have to the first ten"
Listening to max speak they bowed their heads whiles clenching their fists. They knew that compared to other mercenaries they were truly weak and this further wounded their pride.
Max began sharing early and mid stage earth rank martial techniques to them according to what suited them. He had hundreds of them along with some celestial techniques since daoist Qin had a habit of collecting techniques.
There were even heaven ranked techniques but he didn't give them that.
For talented ones like Reiner,Lisa,Mark and Lucas they got higher rank techniques especially Reiner max gave him an extreme earth rank technique.
For their foundational techniques max was not stingy and gave them high earth grade body forging techniques. He gave the first 4 levels for free and told them to exchange for the rest with contribution points.
Max also made them aware that he had higher rank martial techniques and they could get them if they contributed enough.
When the black dragons heard this their eyes turned red and they began to pant like perverts.
One had to know that a person with a human grade martial technique obtained results after a month of cultivation another person with just an early earth rank technique could achieve the same results in just two days of cultivation.
Besides having higher grade techniques make breaking through faster and easier.Some human grade techniques have problems in them.
"Alright you are dismissed,eat the meat along with the Tier 2 wolf meat and cultivate well that's what we'll be doing here cultivation eating and fighting.
With the meat providing you with enough energy I expect all of you to be at least Tier 1 warriors by the end of the week".
About thirty of them were still unranked but most were just lacking enough energy and better techniques.
After they stood up they each helped themselves to the meal of rice and cooked meat soup that had been prepared. They eat until they they accumulated enough energy before going to cultivate with their new techniques.
They set up traps at the entrance of the cave and sprinkled beast repellent at the entrance. Max had spent a lot of gold coins to buy it from an alchemy shop at the city.
Max then checked his status to see his. progress.
Maxwell
STRENGTH 220
AGILITY. 250
STAMINA 210
MIND POWER. 230
TECHNIQUES)
EAGLE SWORD TECHNIQUE: Level. 2(4/100)
A high Earth grade sword technique based on the movements on an eagle.It is fast,deadly and hard to guard against.Mastering this sword technique also increases the speed of the practitioner.
FIEND CELESIAL BODY HARDENING TECHNIQUE: Level 1 ( 87/100)
A extreme grade body hardening technique that emphasizes on strengthening the body making it resistant against spells and injuries.
FIRE FIST TECHNIQUE: Level 1 (79/100)
A powerful Earth high grade fist technique that utilizes fire elements for destruction. It requires places with high temperatures to train.
SHARP SHOOTER: Level 2(58/100)
A gradeless technique created by the host which increases his precision whenever he uses long range weapons.
Storage space: cubic space 120 meters
Level 1 teleportation access: due to the increase in energy the host now has access to some functions of the treasure and can now teleport to his former world and also bring along a number of people.
Current number of people allowed: 18
Max could see that he was making progress little by little and even his sword technique had broken through to level 2.
He also ate some beast meat and began to cultivate.
Even if he could extract energy with the pendant he didn't want to waste the beast meat which also contained large amounts of energy.
One thing he also observed was that the energy extracted by the pendant didn't affect the meat in anyway and the meat still contained vast amount of blood qi and nutrients.
Sometimes he wondered if what the pendant extracted was a different form of energy.
Anyways since he couldn't get the answer now he'll think about it later.
Meanwhile back in Mildred city, business was still ongoing at the store. There were merchants,commoners and mercenaries moving in and out of the store.The workers at the store had now increased to about thirty, they carried goods out of the store to the customers.
Max had bought some shops near his store and filled them with goods before leaving so now his store was a really large establishment.
Pedro was inside his office making a deal with a couple of merchants when he heard some disturbances outside.
'What could be going on down there ?,before leaving sir max hired a mercenary group with a Tier 2 mid stage captain to serve as guards for. Common thugs won't dare to cause trouble here so who would have the guts to provoke us? I better go down there to check on what's going on'.
Pedro excused himself and went down there to see what's going on. He saw soldiers wearing armor with an emblem of two crossed spears on their shoulders storming into the store and seizing supplies in the store.
He immediately recognized them as soldiers of house Tiberius. Remembering how max had once informed him of an attack he had received from the count he connected the dots and realized that the count was taking advantage of the absence of max to rob and loot.
"Go find the city guard and bring them here" realizing how dangerous the situation was Pedro sent a worker to find the city guards.
The mercenary group responsible for protecting the store was around but they didn't want to offend a noble most importantly a count for nothing.
"Hey stop!! what are you doing ? this is daylight robbery. It's against the rules of the city stop this instant." Pedro shouted as he made his way in front of the soldiers to stop them from what their looting.
"What looting? we heard that you are having suspicions good that might be fake in your store so we're just seizing them for an inspection. Don't worry we'll return them three days from now" a Tier 1 advanced guard captain advanced on Pedro and spoke whiles releasing all his aura pressuring him.
Pedro obviously wouldn't believe this so he still stood in front of them and refused to let them pass.
The advanced Tier 1 guard caught Pedro by the throat and lifted him off the ground, Pedro was suffocating and struggled to break free.
"Know your place merchant you are nothing!
If you are waiting for the city guards it's useless nobody is going to come they have better things to do" the guard grinned as he said into Pedro's ears.
Pedro widened his eyes in realization, no wonder!! after so much commotion the city guards had not shown up. He had sent a servant after them but still no guard showed up. They had obviously been bought over by the count.
'Shit it's over!, it's all over!! Pedro thought to himself in despair.Max was not around and he could count on no one in this situation.
"I would suggest you let him down right this instant unless you want to get in trouble"
A voice came from behind the guard. He turned around to see a different troop of soldiers releasing an imposing aura being led by a peak Tier 1 knight in heavy armor.
It was this soldier who had spoken just now he looked like the leader of the troop that just arrived. These soldiers also had an emblem on their armor, it was a red rose with thorns on it.
'The troops of the rose family' the guard was shocked and immediately raised his guard against them.
The Rose family was a noble family that was even stronger than the Tiberius family in terms of military strength.
The captain from the Tiberius family wanted to act though but he was intimidated by the aura of the the rose family troops so he let down Pedro who immediately started gasping for air.
"This has nothing to do with the Rose family so why are you here ?." when he thought about how his own master was a count he gathered courage and asked.
"It's not up to you to decide if it involves us or not,this store is under the protection of the Rose family so scram" the guard captain did not give them even a bit of face at all and was overbearing.
He knew that a lot of forces were eyeing the store like a pack of hungry wolves so he gathered all his energy and shouted
"this store is under the protection of the Rose family, so you all better think twice before trying to make a move on it".