31 Arriving To The City

"It is so strange that I am fully rested and do not feel the need to sleep.This must have something to do with that screen." Pondered Leo as he watched he rest of the group sleep except for the Sacred Flames executive who chose to keep watch first.

To Leo, this was an extremely good fortune. He was not sure what to expect from that executive of the Moon household. Since each executive would be taking turns to watch the entrance of the cave, he might use that opportunity to attack Leo!

Due to this possible scenario, Leo chose to just keep his eyes closed, but never went to sleep. Every three hours the executive who would be keeping watch woke up another one and would immediately head to sleep.

To Leo's surprise, once it was the Moon expert's turn to keep watch, nothing happened during his shift. He casually kept watch over the entrance to the cave while he was sharpening the tip of his spear.

The next morning, the group finally headed out again, this time they would not stop until they reached the city successfully. During this time, Jack wanted to hold a conversation with Leo and discuss a few things.

"Hey Leo, how did you sleep last night?" Jack asked him in a relaxed manner. After all, Leo was their new squad leader and proven his strength to him earlier on.

"That was apparently not the first time I have slept in a cave. My earliest memory of mine was sleeping in a cave and I even slept in an underground passage within the village we just came from." Replied Leo in an unusual manner. Thinking back just a few days ago, it seemed as if his world was moving so quickly!

"Haha! Good, good! So, have you given any thoughts about officially joining our alliance within the city?" Jack asked with excitement all over his face. Although Leo was the leader of their squad, it did not mean that he would join their alliance.

"Join our alliance?" suddenly the Crimson expert ahead of them halted his movements and turned around facing Jack and Leo with anger in his eyes. "You are about to face trial and you are thinking of actually joining our alliance?"

"To join our alliance, you need to reach a certain level of strength as an individual. You might have replaced Martin as this squad's leader, but you would still be treated like simple commoner of our city. That is unless you would like to take a test from an unbiased party?" cutting in with disgust on his face, the Moon expert spit on the ground next to him.

"Easy boys, do you really want to do this now? Both Jack and Natalia showed enough strength to become core members of our households. If they referred to Leo as their squad leader, wouldn't that mean that he at least reached the same level of power?" landing in front of Jack and Leo, the witch started to reprimand the two executives.

"I understand that Martin and Nathan's deaths deserve a proper trial, but are you going to really close me out of the alliance? I am sure that my strength could help contribute a lot to your alliance." Responded Leo with an evil glare in his eyes as he released his skill, causing the two executives to feel some pressure.

"Well then kid, if you think you have what it takes, come at me. If you hold back in the slightest, you will absolutely pay the price!" releasing his own killing intent, the executive easily broke through Leo's skill he obtained from using one of his cards.

"Fine by me!" Leo shouted in response as he withdrew both his sword and dagger.

Hearing that a test was about to begin, the remainder of the group all fled back to give the Crimson expert and Leo some more room. Luckily for Leo, this forest area could give him some additional support if he used his surroundings properly. However, Leo was still incredibly inexperienced facing strong opponents.

Up until this point, Leo simply used the strength and skills he gained from spending his attribute points to take care of weaker opponents, or to at least end up in a stalemate against warriors like the woman in Jacob's squad.

His main goal now, was to join the alliance so that he would be able to receive some more hands on training in order to boost his understanding of the art of battle. Leo knew that he would always be able to level up more and receive new skills and weapons and whatever else he needed, but this was not how a warrior could build their foundation.

The last thing Leo wanted, was to end up having countless skills and strength, but down the line still being defeated by someone who was weaker, that had more experience and training!

Unfortunately for Leo, the Crimson expert did not want to hold himself back too much. Earlier he was offended by hearing his goal to possibly join the alliance. Dashing forward, the expert refused to draw his weapon, and instead approached Leo with only his bare hands!

Though Leo felt a little better seeing his opponent approaching him with no weapons of his own, he still felt a sense of fear. This expert in front of him wanted to ridicule him by not even drawing a weapon, and that made Leo extremely pissed off!

Stabbing out towards the expert with his sword and dagger, Leo felt that he was able to hit his opponent with ease and his weapons went through the opponent's abdomen. Just as Leo was about to pull his weapons closer to him in victory, the figure of his opponent vanished!

"Is that really the best you've got brat?" mocking Leo, his opponent was now behind him and let out a fierce kick which landed on Leo's left side. Unable to block this blow, Leo was sent flying backwards and was hit through two trees before collapsing on the ground.

Withdrawing his dagger and trying to use his sword to stand back up, Leo was now shaking in pain from just that single blow. "This is not how this will end!" he thought to himself as a screen popped up again.

Beep Beep Beep!

-Your Bronze Skin just leveled up by 1-

Seeing this message from the screen, gave even more hope to Leo as he withdrew the red potion Jack gave back to him, Leo took a single sip and completely recovered. Now facing his opponent, he felt revitalized and even stronger now that his body had been tampered.

"According to the test rules, you are only allowed to use a sip of that potion one time. We used to not allow this, but for commoners to invest so much money into a potion shows the alliance how much their personal wealth would be. Now come again and hope that you do not sustain any permanent injuries!" the Crimson expert shouted out towards Leo in provocation.

With his body now in its peak state once again, Leo dashed towards his opponent with only his sword. This surprised the group who were spectating this test.

"Why would he not use both of his weapons at a time like this?" the witch said in a shocking expression.

"You might not have seen it, but there was poison on that dagger. Although that would give him an edge if he landed even a tiny scratch, he must be thinking about how we would react. It is a very smart move on his part, and for him to have two potions and a valuable weapon such as that coupled with his decent level of strength for his age. I absolutely support him in joining the alliance, if he is given a failing grade, I will simply poach him and recruit him into our household!" the Mist household executive proclaimed in excitement!

Usually the alliance would recruit any commoner who held enough strength or who held enough personal wealth. If a commoner had enough strength, they would one day be able to accumulate wealth not just for themselves, but also for the alliance.

Plus, if a commoner had enough personal wealth, they would be able to afford new and hard to find training methods and equipment. Either way, the alliance would benefit over time having any expert who fit either of these categories. Leo showed that he had both, but he still appeared as only ten years old. This meant that any household in the city would welcome him into their ranks with open arms!

"He passed." The Moon executive said in a calm manner. This was not something that any of the others within the group argued with because what was now happening shocked them all!

Back on the test grounds, Leo pushed the Crimson executive hard enough to where he withdrew his weapon to defend himself. What scared the Crimson executive the most, was that he used a similar kick to try to send Leo flying back again. Once he released that kick and landed the blow, Leo's body shook, but was not sent away!

Of course, this opponent of his was not using nearly close to his full power, but for a younger kid to show this much potential and to even show some unusual and visible growth, gave this expert the chills.

"Enough!" retreating backwards, the Crimson expert called out to Leo as he placed himself in a strange defensive stance. "You pass the test so stay your hand before I am forced to hurt you!"

Now being approached by the rest of the group, Leo and the Crimson household expert did not show any signs that they could not continue onwards to the city, so without wasting anymore time, the group set off once again.

"Whoa! Is that what I think it is?" seeing a massive wall in front of him that spanned further than his eyes could even see, the group finally managed to make it back to the city several hours later!

"Hehe, yep! That is our city, I hope it does not scare you too much!" chuckling, Jack patted Leo on the shoulder in a playful manner. Natalia landed close to them and put her arm around Leo as well to bring him back down.

"It is magnificent!" praised Leo as the group headed towards the entrance to the city.

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Note from the author:

Volume 1 will be ending within 6 chapters from now. Once Volume 1 ends, I will be taking a two day break. However, before Volume 2 begins, I will be leaving a short teaser as well as the official title of Volume 2.

I do not want to give any details away for Volume 2 yet, but do note that Volume 1 was just a warm introduction to this story, and Volume 2 will be when the "real" adventure begins. So if you have enjoyed Volume 1, you had better strap yourselves in!

As always, thank you so much for all of the support and making this novel as popular as it has become. Could not have done it without each and everyone one of you! -dff123