72 Chapter 72. Garrick's strange family

"Haha! Back home," Garrick laughed as the two of them once again made it back to the village.

"Now, we just need to wait two days and then we can set off," Leo commented with a sigh as he turned towards the direction of the inn and prepared to walk off.

"Wait Leo, why don't you come over to my house for lunch? We can train at the field after we're done," Garrick suddenly suggested, stopping Leo in his tracks.

"Hmm... Sure, I'm excited to see how you use the ax," Leo agreed as he followed Garrick to a house at the end of the village.

Its simple walls made of grey stone with simple green vines scattered across it, reaching into the small windows as innocent bursts of laughter rang out followed by an annoyed scolding.

"Hehe... Well that's embarrassing," Garrick shyly laughed as he looked at Leo with a sorry expression.

"Haha, your kids must be loud and naughty," Leo laughed back, not taking the embarrassment seriously at all.

"Indeed they are. My wife often says that it's not fair that I leave her home alone with the kids," Garrick commented as he loudly knocked on the door before entering.

"DADDY!!" A series of screams sounded as a loud rustling of footsteps sounded on the stairs as two little boys of the same age both ran down. Both children seemed extremely excited and happy as they rushed into Garrick's arms, causing him to stumble backwards a bit.

"Woah! Don't attack me like that. I brought a guest," Garrick replied as he regained his balance and lovingly stroked the hair of the two boys.

"Hello mister," one of the kids smiled at Leo while the other seemed shy and hid behind his father.

Seeing this, a smile involuntarily appeared on Leo as went on his knees and looked at the both of them.

"Nice to met you guys. I hear you guys screaming and having fun from outside," Leo spoke with a smile.

Immediately, both of them grew embarrassed as they scratched the back of their head.

"Your back already?" the voice of a woman called out from the kitchen as a series of light footsteps sounded and a beautiful black-haired woman about the same age as Garrick walked out.

"Oh, you've brought a guest?" she asked in surprise.

"Yep," Garrick nodded as he began to introduce everyone, "Everyone, this is Leon Ariea but you can call him, Uncle Leo."

"Hello, I am Theodora, Garrick's wife," the woman introduced herself as she bowed.

"I am Arsu and I'm going to be the strongest person in the village," the lively child introduced himself as he struck a mighty hero pose.

"Haha, I'm sure you will," Leo smiled as he was inevitably affected by Arsu's lively personality.

Leo then looked at the little shy boy, he bent down and asked with a warm smile, "And who might you be?"

"I'm Azizos," the boy shyly replied as he revealed himself and took a step forward.

"Nice to meet you all," Leo smiled at the kids before turning and bowing towards Theodora.

"Garrick, I recall you saying that you have three kids," Leo suddenly commented as he realized that there were only two of them.

"Oh yes! The eldest one likes to hang out with kids around his age. His name is Dagan and he's about ten years old while these two rascals are six years of age," Garrick replied as he tussled with the boys' hair.

"I've invited him here for lunch and we are planning to train outside at the field," Garrick informed Theodora.

A sudden but subtle change occurred in her as her eyes suddenly contained a cold glare towards Leo.

"I see," she replied before sighing, "My husband will be in your care in the future so I have to treat you as best as I can while you are here."

'Scary,' thought Leo as he could strongly sense the hate that Theodora had for him, probably due to Garrick agreeing because of him.

"Anyways, if you are here to have lunch then I can serve it now, especially since you guys are planning to go to the field to train," Theodora suggested.

"Then let's eat now," Garrick smiled and Theodora immediately walked towards the kitchen the sweet flavorful aroma of food flooded their noses.

Lunch was quickly eaten and Garrick and Leo made their way to the field immediately after while being accompanied by their kids who quickly grew close to Leo due to his easy going personality.

"Uncle Leo, are you strong?" Arsu asked excitedly as he hung onto Leo's arm while Azizos hung on the other arm.

"Haha, maybe. I'm not strong enough yet," Leo replied honestly as he rasied his arms, leaving the kids dangling,

Suddenly gaining an idea, he turned to Garrick who was waving his ax around in an enchanting manner topless, revealing his well built buff body as he continuously struck a hard rock and asked, "hey Garrick, haven't you taught your kids how to cultivate yet?"

Hearing Leo, Garrick immediately stopped and turned towards them and answered, "Yes I have. But, I don't have much time to teach them personally so they are still at early vein opening realm."

He then went back and resumed his training. Hearing Garrick's reply, Leo then turned to both of the kids and asked them with a kind smile, "What are your dreams?"

Arsu did not even hesitate and instantly replied, "I want to be the strongest in the village and protect my family."

Leo nodded approvingly and he then turned to Azizos and asked, "What about you, Azizos?"

"Umm... I don't know. I want to be with my brother whenever I can," Azizos replied as he could not think of anything in particular.

"Well then, how would you guys like to train today?" Leo suddenly asked as he placed the two kids down.

"Yes please," the both of them replied as excitement shone in their eyes.

"Come with me," Leo replied as he took them to the treeline the was right behind the rock that Garrick was practicing on.

Leo then made them sit into a meditative state as he instructed them on where to direct their energy to strengthen the energy vessels in their body.

At first, it took a while but once they quickly got the hang of it, they improved at a fearsome states as Leo found that the energy seemed to strengthen their body and muscles quickly and this left him shocked as he looked the the kids with extreme interest.

"Uncle Leo, I feel full of energy right now," Arsu suddenly exclaimed happily as he opened his eyes.

"Interesting, Arsu come here and punch this tree as hard as you can," Leo suddenly spoke as he walked to a large tree that had a one meter thick trunk.

"Ok," Arsu replied as he walked and struck the tree with his full-fledged punch.

Boom!

A small boom sounded as the small fist met the tree with extreme force and the trunk immediately exploded into the distance as the tree slowly fell to the floor.

"I did it!" Arsu screamed with joy and excitement as he began jumping and rushing around the tree in circles in a sort of triumphant dance.

Meanwhile, Leo stared at the tree with surprise as he did not expect this. Arsu showed strength that would be hard to display for even noble children who practiced for two hours.

"What's going on here!?" Garrick suddenly appeared from behind them.

"Daddy look!" Arsu happily shouted as he pointed towards the tree, "I struck it down!"

Shock appeared on Garrick's face as he looked at Arsu and then turned to Leo and asked curiously, "What did you do?"

"Nothing much. I just helped them with some cultivation," Leo replied with a helpless expression as he gave Arsu a big thumbs up.

That day ended with the two boys suddenly growing extremely attached to Leo as they practiced for the whole day and even through to the next day.

The two kids made extremely good progress as they both made it to early manipulation realm with Leo's help. It had completely shocked him with their level of talent. Leo wanted to test their affinities but his eyes were not strong enough to decipher that yet, causing him to consider whether to add them to the pods in the impartation hall. The next day he also met Dagan, the eldest son and was also extremely intrigued by him.

Nothing about this family seemed normal, from Garrick's ax to the twins' strength. It had caused his interest in the family to only grow. Dagan was a very quiet kid and seemed to be a very introverted kid who did not like to talk much but he seemed to care a lot about his family as he secretly observed them training after finding out what Leo was doing with his brothers. But he was inevitably caught and ended up being trained, causing Leo to receive another shock. Although he could not saying with evidence, he could confidently state that Dagan had the most talent out of the three.

During the evening of the second day of waiting at the village when a villager came to the field.

"Is Leon Areia here?" he shouted.

"Yes, I'm here," Leo spoke as he walked towards the man.

"I was send from the inn. Wenella is back and she seems to be in a bad mood," the villager replied.

"Haha, I see," Leo commented before sending the messenger off, "Thanks for the message. Please tell her that I'll come over soon."

"Garrick!" Leo shouted to Garrick.

"What?!"

"It looks like we're going to be setting off tomorrow," Leo told him with a smile.

Wenella sat down at a table in the inn, furiously gobbling up her food with an extremely angry expression.

"So... No luck?" Leo's voice rang out right in front of her.

She slowly raised her head and looked at Leo with an annoyed 'did you just ask that' expression.

"I'll take that as a no," Leo spoke as he took a seat, "Don't worry. I still promised to heal her."

Wenella did not even bother to look at Leo when he said this and she just continued eating.

"Oh well... I can't do anything about your mood so I'll just head to sleep. Get ready for tomorrow, we're going to leave early."

Leo suddenly stopped as he realized something, "When we get to the battlefield, please make sure you take care of Garrick and help him get into the top fifty rankings. I promise to get the top spot if you do."