196 Guild master and Rulf 1

In the Hazegroove Mercenary Squad's residence building,

"Hahaha," A loud laugh could be heard from one of the rooms in the building.

"Almost all the things were done to complete my mission. Let's see who will stop me from tearing down the fire sword sect," A middle-aged man with a muscular build slowly came out of the room and said with excitement on his face.

"Although the breakthrough to the Elite General Realm looked somewhat forced, It will be okay as long as I take some time to stabilize the newly gained strength," the middle-aged man thought about his breakthrough to the Elite General Realm.

The middle-aged man was none other than Edmond Hazegroove who consumed the monster peach and broke through to the Elite General Realm.

His breakthrough didn't stop there but continued all the way to level 5 of the Elite General realm.

'But, I should find the right time to initiate the mission,' he thought in his head about initiating some mission.

"What happened Edmond? Why are you laughing out loud at this time?" As Edmond was pondering about some mission, he heard Udo Keenaxe's words which sounded a bit irritated.

For the past few days, Udo was working on some mission that Edmond assigned to him, and he completed today's scheduled work ahead of time as he wanted to rest peacefully for one night.

However, just as he was about to rest, he heard Edmond's loud laugh and came down to check on him.

"Udo, you came at the right time," Edmond didn't mind the words of Udo and continued, "Do you know what happened today?"

Edmond didn't say anything about the breakthrough or anything but asked Udo.

"What would have happened today? Seeing that laugh of yours I could guess that you might breakthrough a minor realm or two," Udo replied jokingly looking at Edmond's happy face.

Udo's irritation went away when he looked the happy face on his friend, which he didn't see for a long time.

So, he jokingly answered to Edmond's question.

"Yes, I broke through a major realm," Edmond said with a smile on his face.

"Only a single major realm...What?" Udo stopped his sentence in the middle and shouted 'What' at Edmond's face.

"Yes, I broke through to level 5 of the Elite General Realm," Edmond shared his happiness with his childhood friend.

"Are you serious? How did you break through to the Elite General Realm so soon?" Udo asked with his jaw dropped.

"Hahaha," Instead of replying answer to Udo's question, Edmond replied with a laugh.

It's not like he didn't want to tell Udo about Monster peach that Ajax gave him, but he felt that the suspiciousness about Ajax would increase in Udo's heart.

So he refrained from answering his questions.

Edmond knew about Udo's character. If he felt suspicious about someone, he would waste his time until the doubt in his heart goes away.

"Ok then, we will proceed to the next step in the mission," Seeing that Edmond didn't answer him, Udo didn't ask him any questions; instead he asked about the mission.

As soon as he heard about the mission, Edmond turned serious and shook his head.

"It's still not the right time for it," he said to Udo before returning to his room.

"Ok," Udo replied and walked towards his room.

'Although he didn't want to say about his breakthrough, I guess, it must be related to Ajax, 'along the way, he thought.

Like how Edmond knew about Udo's character, similarly, Udo also knew about Edmond.

So he was able to guess the reason behind why Edmond was not answering about his breakthrough.

"But, why did he do to Edmond that he was able to break through to the Elite General realm within 12 hours," 

Despite the fact that he was able to guess the reason, he didn't know how a commander realm cultivator could increase the cultivation of a General realm cultivator.

'I should increase my focus on that kid,' Udo shook his head and returned to his room to rest.

....

In the Mercenary Guild's Guild master room,

All the walls of the room were painted entirely in red.

Except for a sturdy chair and table set and other small things, the room had almost nothing.

In the chair sat an old man who had an average build that didn't suit his age.

Before him, a middle-aged man stood respectfully.

"Guildmaster, some kids from the Hazegroove squad picked up that never-returning cave mission," a middle-aged man notified to the man who sat in a chair.

"Huh?" The old man in the chair who was called Guildmaster looked a little surprised and asked, "How many hours have passed since they took the mission?"

"Around 12 hours."

The middle-aged man felt something when looked at the surprised guild master but still answered respectfully.

"Hm," the old man nodded his head.

"But guild master, why did you ask me to watch that specific mission?" the middle-aged man asked with a question mark on his face.

"Oh Rulf, Do you really want to know about it?" the old man asked the middle-aged man in front of him.

The middle-aged man called Rulf nodded his head.

"Do you remember the last time someone took the same mission I kept on the mission board?" The guild master started his explanation with a question.

"Yes, I remember. Because at the time, it was one of a few 'A' danger rating mission which was least pick by any individual mercenary or mercenary squad," Rulf, answered as he remembered everything regarding the never-returning cave mission.

After he nodded, he said, "Wasn't that mission picked up by Edmond, who was now the captain of the top 3 mercenary squads."

"Yes, Do you know how he got the strength that he has now?" the old man smiled as he looked at Rulf, who followed him from his childhood mysteriously.

"Huh?" Rulf raised his brow and asked, "Don't tell me, it had something to do with that cave?"

"Hahaha, what do you think?" the old man still not answered his question as he continued his mysterious smile which gave Rulf a shock.

"So, it was really the cave that gave him the strength," Rulf, who was following the guild master from his childhood understood him very much as he confirmed his guess seeing the smile on the guild master.