"That monster?! It looked weak to me… Was it that strong? Did I miss something back there or what?!" That dude seemed to struggle to understand the reason behind William's actions, even questioning his observation skills and senses.
But William wasn't thinking about any of that. He was busy thinking about something else.
An entire team of ten spirit masters kept tracking them down and none ever noticed this! William might have missed them as they would be stronger than him, and he needed them to be close by to sense them properly if they were silver spirit masters or weaker.
But what about Ibra? That dude was quite vigilant, and he didn't even notice them despite being at gold grade! And there was another piece of puzzlement that William couldn't understand.
The team moved while activating their concealment array. How could these folks see and properly follow them? William could get how they followed him after running away from that monster. After all, when he fought it, he lost a few materials in the initial clash, totally exposing him.
And when he tried to replenish his lost materials, he ended up losing more. Then he totally forgot about this, getting lost in the hectic runs and fights that came later.
So, he could understand if they tracked him from then, but not from back when he and others left the array.
"Don't belittle that bastard… It can take down an entire army… Of strong spirit masters below dark gold grade!" William kept his doubts inside for now, and just warned this dude from the Nightmare monster.
"This… I never saw or heard about something like it before. It had many clones that used different abilities and techniques! Even different spirit elements as well!"
"Just make sure to kill enough and retreat fast," William got finally better to sit down, prepared to train and replenish his spirit power.
But first, he took a long look at the dude standing by his side.
He wasn't that tall, but his face looked a bit mature with that shallow moustache and beard appearing on his face.
He had silver eyes, with few golden dots inside his iris, forming a shape of a little star in each eye. William never saw something like this before. And when he looked at his uniform, he got puzzled by the emblem of a big axe and a glaive that appeared on the side of his chest.
"Don't think too much, we came from a faraway place to train in the forest," that dude seemed to notice William's inspecting gaze, "I'm Sith, the one leading my small team here."
"I'm William," William greeted Sith back, before adding, "you came here to train? Only the ten of you?"
"No, we got lots of others, led by a few dark gold masters," Sith waved his hand before adding, "start training and I'll protect you."
"Thanks," William couldn't tell if this dude was harmless or harboured ill intentions towards him. But from the surface, if he wanted to harm him, then he got his chance before when William couldn't even speak properly, not to mention move a muscle to defend himself, "just make sure others won't get too far away. That monster isn't that far from here. And we need to leave soon."
"Give us ten minutes then," Sith paused, as he raised his head and moved his eyes around the all sparkling and dancing sea of fire up front, "we need to gather materials for our quest. If not, we will end up failing pretty damn badly."
"Ok," William didn't get what was this team doing, or what was the real purpose of the force they belonged to by sending these spirit masters here. But he felt there was something related to a test or something like that, and they needed to collect materials to succeed.
Of course, seeing such a huge gathering of monsters here, including different types and grades of monsters at the same spot was quite enticing for anyone looking for materials.
So, William decided to let them do their business, while he started training and replenishing his spirit power using his technique.
He didn't even think about using his cores to replenish his spirit power. He knew danger was still lurking around, and every single core would help in saving his life in the upcoming battle.
From time to time, he opened his eyes, checked the situation around. The grenades released thick tongues of fire turning the entire region into a blazing sea of dancing red and orange flames. But that wasn't enough to stop and kill all the monsters here.
Any monster with a fire or water element would find a way to survive this easily. As for the ones with earth element, they could also sustain the fire for a short time using mud and rocks.
The worst were the ones with wind, darkness, and any other element. The worst for sure were those with wind element. After all, wind would add more fuel to fire.
William kept training for close to half an hour. During which, many monsters got killed from fire. And those who survived got killed by the nine members scattered around the landmine zone, or by Sith who stood like a reliable guard by William's side.
"Thanks," William had to stop his training after half an hour passed. He didn't like others to guard him while he did nothing, especially when he had no relation with them.
It was like owing someone a big deal, and he hated to not repay his debts to the fullest.
"Are you sure you can move? Things aren't this bad actually and you can stay a bit longer and heal," Sith gave William a weird look up and down, as if he was sizing this kid up, "you didn't take more than half an hour."
"Just enough to replenish one third of my power," William shrugged after standing up, got out his sword and knives, "let's retreat. We got delayed long enough."
"This… We can't! We need to gather up all the materials from this place or else…"