Whilst silence filled the air, creating a slight scene of silence, Rio opened the door to show he was allowed to enter, it's best to see what he knows. His standing is also very high, so he could threaten me in more ways than violence could.
After Rio closed the door behind him and signaled, he could take a seat on the only chair in the room and I proceeded to sit on my bed, Rio looked at him signifying him to proceed with what he was saying.
"The last time I saw you, you were a 2nd rank mage, and one that just broke through, however, you managed to rank up to the 3rd rank already, that impressive how long was it? Around a month?" Xander questioned looking at me curiously
Rio replied in silence indicating for him to get to the point, we weren't friends for him to be questioning Rio about his cultivation speed
"Ok, ok. I thought about something after our little skirmish, and realized that you're quite the oddity, at first, I thought it was a fluke that you managed to dodge my attack, but the more I thought about it the more it bothered me." He explained
"Is that the reason you came here? Because I dodged your kick?" Rio said practically lifelessly
"Of course not, you also easily suppressed one of my people with only your physical prowess, and he was a 1st rank mage, though you were of a higher rank, the difference shouldn't be that high, it shows you have both a high cultivation and a high martial body. It uncommon for people to cultivate both to such an extent if you aren't from a good cultivation family, and you're from an ordinary count family, it strange how you managed to climb so high, with such little support" he said while slightly slanting his head showing a curious expression
'Ah, did I show that much in the fight, well that still shows he's making a guess in the dark?'
"I have also seen you have an elder brother, ah yes, little Sylvie, that's what I call him, In short, I want you to be one of my subordinates, however, it's not like what I said before, in exchange, I will invest in you and give you all sort of things that could help promote both your physical body and your cultivation," Xander said earnestly
Regardless of how tyrannical Xander may be, he was still an insightful prodigy natured by the High Elder, so getting someone that could last against him even at a lower rank than him is very promising and if he could rope me in, it would be an addition promising weapon that could be used by him.
'Lil Sylvie? Well, regardless Rio can't outrightly decline him, that would be putting a target on his back by someone that can't be messed with, even normal Elders are respectful towards him, not to talk about me, if Rio declines outrightly, there's nothing stopping him from suppressing him, hindering him, or outright killing him. Even though there are rules in place, Rio was not an idiot to think they can restrain a person of higher rank; rules are meant to be followed by the weak'
"Since your proposition sounds interesting, give me some time to think about it."
Xander slightly frowned, but then returned to his normal face, "Okay no problem, remember, to be able to become stronger and reputable, you need to have sufficient backing to make sure people above don't push you back down and accidentally crush you". He said while saying 'accidentally' sarcastically as he stood up and left.
But before he left, 'system'
[Ding!]
Name: Xander Murik
Class: 1st rank Mage Master
Subclass: 2nd Rank Hachidan Martial Artist
Strength: 70.6
Agility: 65.8
Endurance: 70.0
Mana: 503.8
'As expected, he's stronger than me, as expected as a prodigy nurtured by someone second to Academy Leader. As the saying says, being lowkey will always attract pests. It seems staying lowkey won't last for long, he thinks he can come and make threats in the form of a deal and expect me not to notice, very well, I'll play along.'
Right now, Rio needed around 95 mana stats to rank up to 4th rank mage, that's about 95,000 EXP, Rio could probably get an additional five pure mana from a week of cultivation, but that is way too slow, from his temperament, I probably have around a week before he starts pestering me.
There's only one solution right now, avoiding him, let's go on a mission, we can use that to avoid him for a certain time and increase my strength.
With that in mind, Rio cultivated using the mana core for a couple of days before finding a decent mission; Investigate an area where there's been an abnormal amount of beasts in the area south of the academy, after giving Rio his token and confirming Rio has accepted the mission, Rio got ready and set out.
Accepting this mission can make Rio some spirit stones whilst farming EXP from the increased number of beasts.
After around a day of traveling, Rio found a small village with a population of not more than 300 people, as Rio was passing by, he saw the village was in a very tense mood with malnourished people ranging from kids to the elderly.
After a couple of minutes of wandering around, it seems due to the increased wave of beasts, food has been unobtainable due to merchants not coming through this side of the area and the frequent attacks on the village.
From the villagers, it seems the reason they have been able to last so long was due to someone called Zhumarhu but people here call him Zhuma, who seemed to be a warrior who has some people under him and they have been using them to resist the beast attacks.
'Hmm, to resist beast attacks I wonder how strong this Zhuma is, anyway, let's try to find a place to stay and I should head out tomorrow.'
It was still around early evening, so there were still people around, after asking about finding a good inn, it was 1 copper coin per night, so Rio paid 1 month's worth of rent, and got unpacked in my room. After a long day of traveling, the bed was the only thing that could soothe Rio's tiredness.
The night went by, and the morning came, after feeling refreshed, Rio set out for the first hunt, since he became a 3rd Rank mage, nothing should really be a threat, and if there were, Rio at least had the confidence to get away.
'After coming into the forest behind the village, I found some beasts, however, they were low-level beasts that couldn't even catch my eyes, however, they still charged towards me, so I quickly finished off the beasts in the vicinity before heading further into the forest, it seems the further into the forest the higher the beasts I came across. It seems that's the only reason the people here survived for so long.
Though I haven't seen the so-called Zhuma, someone raised here shouldn't be powerful to fight off a strong beast. At the very least a weak intermediate-level beast, and that itself would probably be a stretch.' After analyzing the situation
Rio came in contact and started wiping out the intermediate beasts he saw as he went further into the forest, there should be a source of the increase in beasts, however, Rio doesn't plan on dealing with it anytime soon, who knows how strong it is to make all these beasts gather here?
'At my ability, I should be able to kill off a group of High-level beasts with some effort, so I'll stop there, there's no need to put myself in danger unnecessarily'.
After massacring all the beasts, Rio could find, without knowing the day had passed and it became night, so I decided to go back to the inn.