"That's the warehouse." The guard pointed at the shabby place.
The energy that I sensed was coming from this place. From the exterior it seemed desolate and most probably the most useful place while hiding when doing vile jobs.
The gate of the warehouse was opened, and the voices were coming from inside. The sound of struggle between individuals—that's what I can conceive.
"What's the plan?" Asked Bentend.
"Now that I have done my job, can I go now?"
Bentend wanted to let him go, but I refused it. I swung my sword, and the man's head was cut off and flung in the air before falling down.
"Fair choice." He said.
There was no way I would let him go; he could have informed somebody else. Making things difficult, other guards' arrival would have caused the unnecessary trouble.
"Regarding the plan. Do you have any?" He asked again.
"I keep them distracted, and you take out the abductee. Did you bring what I told you?"
Betend took out two masks. Playing as a mysterious hunter would be fun, I thought. Since I don't have that fool around, I could freely do as I like.
I wore the mask over my face and strolled towards the gate; behind me came Bentend. As I stood at the gate, I saw two adults holding the boy by the arms and the other one punching him. Bruises all over the boy's face. His condition of the face was severe.
I recognized him; he was Goun Anthani, the weakest solo leveler I was looking for.
One of the men saw and shouted, "Ah, we have another guest." His gaze shifted to my sword; his hunger to have a taste of the sword was visible.
These people didn't have the same energy that I sensed. They had by far the weakest energy; I couldn't tell which type of sentry they were. Nevertheless, it wouldn't matter.
The crooked man stalked up close; his smile, like that of a dog, seemed to be irritating. I looked from his shoulder and saw abductees. They had hope in me just like they had in that weak fool.
"Guess we don't have to waste too much time on searching for the twentieth. They came to us themselves." Said the man, his hand was freezing.
A magical-type sentry, I looked into his eyes; they were quivering. It wasn't hard to guess what the problem was; his body temperature was rising, which was a problem, albeit his endurance was pretty remarkable.
"It would be better if you started eating with your feet." I said.
His eyebrows twisted as he looked at me with a confused expression; that's when he realized his left arm, on which he was accumulating the frost magic, had fallen on the ground.
He screamed, terrified and in agony. Other sentries joined in, except for this weak magic sentry. There was one more, but he didn't seem to possess anything useful that could be used against an adversary.
The other sentries possessed bodily enhancement. Two of them were capable of breaking walls with a single punch, and one had power capable of destroying a whole wall made of metal. Regardless, they were pathetically weak.
The problem wasn't their strength; rather, it was the confidence in themselves, lacking the ability to make the right judgment, and their mindless movement. At least, the rookies of the seeker of flames seemed far better than these people.
The foes were down; only the magic sentry that hadn't attacked remained, and he seemed calm. Too suspiciously calm.
"Seems you miss one." He said, pointing for me to look back.
As I whirled, I saw one fool that I had spared poised a knife near to the curved bone (Adam's apple) of one of the kids.
"One move and he's gone."
Good threat, but what worth did it have for me? Killing the abductee wouldn't stop me from killing him; one death doesn't mean all of them are dead.
I looked him in the eye and stared at him; I didn't move like he said. The magic sentry shouted when he noticed a figure behind the man.
"Look behind you!" He said but too late.
Goun bashed the metal pipe at the man's cranium; for a moment, his head spun, and blood trickled down from his temple to his chin. Half of the metal pipe broke off and fell away from the man.
The man's head turned to look at Goun before he collapsed to the ground. The boy's breath was shallow, his eyes swollen. He had little strange, but the fierce determination in his eyes was burning just like how my master was when I first met him.
"Causing disturbance in my territory. How rude of you."
A powerful bow was heading my way; I twirled on my feet and shielded my face with my arms. Like a whole mountain was thrown at me, my legs dragged backwards by the force, but I stood still. My forearm was throbbing from pain.
This shirtless man was the intiverse, from what I could feel, the energy he was emitting was at least at the building level.
Wait a second, how do I know this? I wasn't sure. This was my first time. Could it be?
I glanced at the boy; perchance, it's because of him that the knowledge pill was working so fine.
"Looking away from your foe is the worst mistake a dimwit like you makes." The intiverse charged, and he was a few inches above the ground.
This time I used my blade to block his fist; the blade vibrated. I was startled for a bit; his fist was indeed capable of exerting force powerful enough to destroy a whole building.
Would that be enough to stop me? No, to be more accurate, he was nowhere near half my power. The only issue was that weak fool still in the warehouse.
I, at first, evaded his attacks. The magic sentry didn't seem to care about our battle, as if he had nothing to do with us.
The man didn't seem to notice him at all. His fist hit only air, which had made the intiverse irate.
"That's it."
A new form of energy started to ooze out of him; it was vague and purple, with black smoke-like fingers swathed around his body. His skin hardened, and the hair grew longer.
His level was elevating.
"Hey, get back; he's using his exclusive form." Bentend told me, behind him was Goun. They had worried expressions on their faces as if they had no more hope for my victory.
"That's more like it." My palm stretched towards them; I was ready to absorb their emotions, using the emotions' energy to increase my sword's sharpness.
It didn't go as I expected; instead of me absorbing their emotions, my energy was being transported to Goun. I was weakening, or maybe equally getting stronger. From his clueless face I could tell he was unaware of what was happening.
This was baffling.