Caleb and Levi looked at each other a bit confused, Stone and Anderson family had friendly relations due to Levi and Caleb, disposing of Levi or even Caleb at that was not a wise move for the Anderson family.
"What is their goal?" Levi thought out loud while the black-clothed man kept his head down trembling in fear.
"He said about a ponytail Anderson woman with Tier 1 Elementary grade strength. She must have been at the awakening ceremony dude think hard about this Anderson woman." Caleb added.
"Hmm… I was so focused on James. That girl slipped my mind." Levi spoke with some suspicion.
"You were a team of 5 yet you attacked me together, and that too going all out. Why?" Levi asked that to confirm his suspicion.
"It was the woman's request to dispose of the slender kid first before going for the bulky one with the big war hammer."
Levi's vein popped out in anger, if he was not able to sense them and they took out Caleb first in the ambush he would not be able to accept it. Fortunately, the one who hired them wanted to kill Levi first.
The black-clothed man felt tremendous killing intent, he knew that he was going to die so he pressed the ground hard to distance himself from the kids. The man's speed was fast enough and he was already 2 meters away from them before Caleb reacted.
The man smirked,
'You might have the strength to fight us and caught us off guard but you aren't swift. Once I get out I will surely make your life hell, Hmp—'
Slash! Slash!
Splatter!!
But he turned into chunks of meat by 2 Dark Claws that followed him as soon as he escaped.
"Ohh shit!!" Caleb cursed out loud, he was the nearest to the dark claws and looked at the one person who unleashed them with an unbelievable look.
Levi only shrugged at that. He finally used the one thing he refrained from doing because affinity type skills especially those belonging to monsters, should not be executed lightly. In serious cases, they might cause damage to oneself, if forced.
"Should I assume you got Dark Elemental affinity type Talent? Cause that would mean having wings in this dangerous Shadow Wood forest." Caleb asked still somewhat in disbelief.
Usually executing moves like dark claw which are signature moves of monsters is much harder than human made skills. Because they need the body structure of that monster, that is why humans spend their time deriving new skills from the monsters.
But Levi felt no such discomfort as if understanding the essence of Dark Claw directly from the black liquid he called essence liquid. He felt that if he drank the essence liquid of different monsters he might be able to execute their bloodline inherited skills. But that would also increase his strength which he wanted to keep hidden.
"You may assume what you want," Levi said, before rapidly turning towards his left hitting the ground with full force jumping high enough while targeting a certain tree and dishing out a punch even a combined body made of 10 intermediate grade Tier 1 would find hard to defend without serious injuries.
"Hoh hoh, kid, not bad not bad. To be able to sense my existence, while being just a Tier 1 Intermediate grade."
An old man's voice came out who grabbed Levi's fist as if it was a toy. And flung him like a leaf. Levi landed smoothly on the ground and frowned, he knew that this old man had let him go.
"Be glad, you are friends with our young master. Raising a hand against a Tier 2, you are daydreaming. ", an old man came out from the dense gathering of trees and bushes.
"Uncle Sven, you were here all the time. Oww oww…" Caleb exclaimed before groaning in pain, the old man came to Caleb in an instant and had grabbed Caleb's ear,
"I expected you to run away yet you fight against someone a minor stage above you. That's foolish if not for Levi hiding his strength you two might as well be buried in this Shadow Wood forest."
"Hmph! Caleb Stone does not run away from any one that would be cowardly— oww oww it hurts uncle."
"No matter how much I advise you, you steer your boat against the stream. Sighh.." The hidden old man or Sven Stone sighed seeing Caleb's stupidity. He then looked at Levi who was staring at him.
"What happened kid? Don't like me spying on you two?" Sven smiled.
"I wouldn't dare sir Sven, I do not see powerhouses at Tier 2 Intermediate grade everyday. I have heard a lot about you from Caleb. If something unexpected had happened, your intervention would definitely be needed." Levi kept his head down and greeted with respect, he had seen this senior with Caleb sometimes lecturing / teaching him about combat tactics which surprisingly Caleb took interest in though it was theoretical knowledge.
"Hahaha, you are a good kid, there are few people as talented as you after seeing you end this group of ambushers like cutting cabbages, even I was not this bold when I was your age and at Tier-1." Sven laughed out before becoming serious.
"I owe you one for saving young master Caleb's life, if you are ever in danger I will move but once only.
"Alright let's end this I have to report this mess to our family's head." Sven said before asking both of them to pack up for the day.
Levi wanted to say something but hesitated, however, Caleb caught this reaction and knew what was going on, so he instantly replied to his uncle.
"Hehe uncle you see, Levi kept his strength secret so….." Caleb went silent with glimmering puppy eyes as if hinting at something.
Sven stared hard at Caleb wanting to smack his butt for making him lie in his report especially when he was reporting to Caleb's own father.
"Sighh… ever since I started following you two I have been sighing a lot. Fine! I won't however you must stop hanging out with Levi until this mess has been sorted. Deal?" Sven said tired of Caleb's antics.
"But unc—"
"DEAL ?"
"…Ok" Caleb grumbled while Levi laughed at this warm scene.
"Sir Sven could you give us a minute, it won't take long." Levi said
"Sure"
After Sven went a little away, Levi brought out the storage ring he had borrowed from Caleb during these 5 days. Which had a large amount of essence liquid and monster cores hunted during this few days and had the magic of Levi's deconstruction talent.
"Here! Take a look" Levi said passing the ring to Caleb.
"Hmm, are these monster cores? Why are they transparent? it seems like something is swirling in them and what are those black liquid bottles? I hope these are not some shady juices of those monsters we killed." Caleb stared at Levi suspiciously.
Levi had veins popping on his head, a little more and blood would have spurted out from them but he controlled his anger. He was used to this kind of Caleb.
He started explaining to Caleb about his experiences with the dark claw bear corpses and his talent. His future plans would require him to go alone without Caleb however, he did not want Caleb to fall behind, so he provided him with large amounts of his goods. And also asked to keep these things a secret.
Actually, with the monsters Levi hunted for 5 days, he could choose to advance to Tier 1 Advance Grade or even Tier 2 but he held himself back. He waited until the moment he was forced to reveal his strength so that he could use the remaining resources to strengthen himself again since his backup was exposed.
After today he knew that a certain someone was paying special attention to him. That someone was his cousin Enya Anderson, who was also James sister but was not much special in terms of talent, however she did have the arrogance of the daughter of Anderson Family's Head.
He knew that this was not the time to fight back so he chose to keep mum about this incident and made the corpses look like they were eaten by monsters, before escaping quietly with Caleb and Sven.
The parties went their separate ways while disguising themselves to avoid getting attention since Levi and Caleb were almost newbie Celebrities.
---
A group of 3 people skid through the Shadow Wood forest in search of something, they flew through the forests like they were trained to do it with professional style. They reached a spot seeing 5 corpses with bits of flesh and blood strewn about.
"Hmm!? Did the operation fail? No wonder these idiots weren't replying. From the looks of it, they seem to be eaten by monsters. Strange, Tier 1 Intermediate grade monsters don't usually wander around these areas."
"We haven't heard about the target's death report outside the forest yet, they must still be alive."
"Should we plan another ambush? this time a team consisting of at least 1 Tier 1 Advance Grade."
"Are you crazy? Every Tier 1 Advance Grade is like an elite soldier of the family. Even if we find a Freelancing Tier 1 Advance Grade the price we have to offer for this mission should be high enough to get his attention."
"Even if we could hire them we are not sure how this team died? If they were killed by our targets then they would pay extra attention to our ambushes. This is not a viable option. Whatever the case we must alert the young lady about this, she might throw a tantrum since her plan was unsuccessful.... sigh."
The three men sighed at the mention of their young lady, and chose to return.
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