36 Popularity Skyrocketing

"Ummm...."

"What is it?"

"Dean... what did you do while I was sleeping?"

"Oh, I went here and there"

Leonard had long awoke from his slumber and collected the precious herbs of the Earth Endowing Tortoise.

It was indeed a surprise for them as their was this odd tint of blue on the Earth Endowing Tortoise's Core.

At the end of the day, both were happy with the profit they created and Leonard still kept his life without any serious repercussions.

Lately, Leonard had been noticing some strange occurrences around him.

Footsteps would resound throughout the night and Dean would always warn him to keep his calm.

To make matters worse, creepy people would send letters that were tied to an arrow!

Who does that?

Expecting Dean to laugh it off in an aloof manner before scrapping the paper he instead accepted the challenge.

He of course won the battle but the main point was that he gave mercy to his opponent by keeping them alive

Was the sun rising from the west?

Leonard thought this was probably because Dean was in a good mood but he couldn't of been in a good mood for two weeks!

More and more peculiarities happened as time passed but Dean tended to tell Leonard to run far away until he came back.

After his battle he would come back with a red face and only until today had Leonard saw the truth.

The time to escape from the Hundred Thousand Beast Forest was soon to come and therefore the taverns became much more popular.

Rooms would be filled to the brim and others would barter to sleep in a comfy area. Some people would sleep in tents close to the bar or create their own shack.

More beasts were being hunted and more profit was to be made.

Leonard had been strolling around for more herbal ingredients with Dean. Hunger had taken over their minds causing them to buy nearby kebabs and a bottled milk tea.

There was a crowd to the East of the place and catching Leonard's interest, they slowly inched closer.

Dean was also interested in the commotion and received glares from the people around him.

Taking a closer inspection, Leonard strangely saw a poster that had the face of Dean.

It was strange to call that person an exact replica as the black surroundings created a sinister aura and instead of black eyes were a strange tint of green.

Beneath Dean's profile picture was a nickname

Insane Beast

Leonard's first reaction was to spit out the tea in his mouth and luck was by his side as the tea avoided the people around him.

Dean pushed Leonard away to see what he was laughing about and saw the poster.

Smacking the head of Leonard, Dean dragged him by the collar away from the Board but this created a commotion.

People turned around to see who was making a ruckus but seeing that it was Dean, they compared him to the poster.

Surprised they were ready to launch an attack but someone voiced their opinions.

"He's probably a fake"

Another nodded in agreement

"Damn imposters everywhere."

"They're the reason for why we can never make a profit."

Running to a shack out of humiliation, Leonard still laughed with the utmost of joy.

Dean had enough of this and could only frown at the childish of Leonard.

"Insane Beast...pffh. Hahaha. Mad Demon..."

"Are they going to call you the Scary Devil....hahha."

Leonard enjoyed the ridiculous name Dean had been called. He never thought that Dean would be embarrassed in this life but it finally came.

Dean saw that this farce was never going to end if he did something so he brought out a question

"When are you creating those new pills?"

The joyful mood was replaced with Leonard's solemn attitude who responded

"I already created a prototype and with a few more tweaks at the academy it would be completed."

The hidden confidence was something unusual to hear from Leonard but with this month of training his attitude slowly molded into a much more social human.

It was just a few hours left before all students would leave the Hundred Thousand Beast Forest.

A siren resounded in the distance that signalled towards everyone.

You would see thousands of teenagers rushing out of the tree tops with extreme precision and skill while others hiked on the ground with giant corpses on their back.

The people at the bottom were those that had recently gotten a Beast's corpse and wanted to have a better deal.

If they sold the Beasts to a nearby cavern they would be ripped off as the price would be cheaper than the market sale price but there would be good reasons.

They needed to make sure the carcass wasn't rotten from being out in the sun and this would call for some different measures.

Cooking it at that moment, reserving it inside a Space Ring, etc.

As expected there were tens of merchants waiting outside.

Teacher's and elders waited patiently while their disciples and students finished their business.

They regarded this time as an exciting moment as they would hear in the distance a commotion when students had multiple carcasses.

This was a discreet way of showing off how strong your school was that allowed the old scoundrels to piss each other off.

Dena and Leonard kept to themselves as Leonard would be using the corpses as nourishment or pills which had much better potential for profit.

...

Two people were next to an elder of Redwood Academy.

They hadn't participated in the competition however their aura was fierce like those that had been living in the wilderness.

One person notified her partner after grasping her hand around his arm

"He's made a name for himself..."

The other person replied in a disgruntled tone

"And so?"

"We need help, Christian keeps on advancing on -"

Reprimanding the person, the other impatiently added his comment

"I know! I'm trying my best to negotiate with my elders."

Having a calmer tone, the girl prompted the truth

"But it's not effective"

"..."

"Just try once. If he isn't to par...it'll just be a repeat of the past"