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"Big brother! Big brother! What's my level now?" Anna asked excited.
"What's mine?" Allan wondered.
"You're both Level 7 now, well done. Your knife skills are not bad either! Father has been teaching you well." I nodded. "Looks like you learned the Knife Strike Skill, interesting..."
"Wow, really?!" Anna asked. "Amazing! I'm so cool! Paprika, you're cool too!"
"I wonder what happens if we reach Level 10?" Allan wondered.
"We'll see~" I laughed.
We kept moving across the Garden, as we encountered more monsters on the way. Gardener Rats and Gardener Rabbits were the most common.
They looked like the normal Gray Rat and Horned Rabbits but had flowers on their heads. It was slightly unsettling.
They were also working together, as if they were some sort of team despite being different species. The flowers on their heads might be manipulating them to cooperate and protect the Elios Garden from outsiders.
Whichever power settled down in the grasslands and created these flowers, it is not just a normal one. Not even the Adventurer Guild has meet it yet.
They attacked us on small packs, so they were easy to dispose of with some minimal effort, no more than F+ Rank and E- Rank Monsters appeared.
The strongest of them, once we reached the end of this patch of flowers, was a pack of Gardener Wolves, who also held flowers on their heads, and were similar to Gray Wolves, but larger and more muscular, with crazed eyes.
It was a pack of around ten, with this the twins should be able to hit Level 10 easily... But they were also E+++ Rank, almost nearing D- Rank!
They wouldn't be easy for them to take down even with the assistance of their little familiars.
"GROOAAR!"
The Gardener Pack Leader roared, boosting the stats of its pack, the dozens of wolves crazily rushed forwards, leaping to attack us.
It would end with a wave of my hand if I wanted to, but we decided to play different now.
"Elizabeth."
"Okay! {Fortress of Light}!"
The Wolf gave a last scream of anger rather than pain, its neck was pierced and sliced open by Allan desperately...
BAAM!
The corpse quickly fell on the ground, the warm blood still on my brother's hands and face.
"Hahhh... Hahhh... I-I did it?!" Allan had a hard time believing he actually did it.
"Well done!" Anna congratulated her brother. "Me next! I'll kill one myself, big brother!"
"Okay, are you two ready for the next?" I asked with a smile. "The only way for you to grow stronger and gain skills is to push yourselves to your limits. You already possess Ki and have cultivated it alongside your Mana as I've told you, right? Your stats have also increased with the Dragon Blood Elixirs. Your foundation is good enough. Elizabeth!"
"Okay then!"
Elizabeth this time freed two wolves, the two beasts swiftly rushed towards my siblings, who bravely greeted them by healing and buffing each other with their Spirits and using the Familiar Pets to defend and attack from a long distance.
Whenever the wolves became dizzier and could not attack properly, they would aim at the legs, as I've told them, immobilizing them and stabbing their throats.
They sustained some damage, as Anna, on her reckless, was bitten on her arm and it almost broke. She cried a lot, but Elizabeth healed it in a second until it was as good as new.
"Sniff..." She cried a bit more before feeling better. "It hurt a lot, big bro..."
"It's okay, if you don't want to continue with this training, we can leave it for another day." I smiled. "Sorry for pushing you so hard..."
"N-No! It's fine!" She suddenly gave me an answer I didn't expect. "Big brother and his friends... Have been fighting even more terrible monsters! Even dad has fought demons! I-I can't be a weakling!"
"You're only almost five years old though..." Erika said. "Don't be reckless we can train doing easier things!"
"No! I wanna fight!" Anna said angrily. "I'm going to beat all the angry wolves!"
"Hahaha, alright." I smiled. "I won't reject my sister's resolve. Allan, make sure to tell Emerald to protect you two, that turtle is tough, use him as your shield without shame."
"Gubo!" Emerald agreed.
"O-Okay!" Allan nodded quickly.
Like that, the wolves were freed in pairs, giving them more experience and also more challenges. They still sustained some wounds which were healed almost instantly, and slowly, these children became much tougher than I could have ever predicted.
When the Pack Leader stepped in as the "final boss", their eyes had somewhat changed, glowing with fearless determination.
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