Chapter 9: Challenge

Strolling around the Trading Hub, Damian encountered kids trying to exchange different resources some of the resources are even unfamiliar to Damian, but despite spending his whole morning he still hasn't found a Dark attribute resource, when he is about to lose hope he heard a shout.

" Trading a Dark attribute resource for a fire attribute resource " Damian immediately followed where the shout came from and to his surprise, the person trading a Dark attribute resource is someone he knows.

" Trading a Dark attribute resource for a fire attribute resource " The kid offering the Dark attribute resource for trade is Dante someone familiar with Damian.

Damian stood in front of Dante and he immediately caught Dante's attention.

Damian stared into Dante's eyes as if he was trying to say something, Damian slightly tilted his head to the right and Dante immediately knew what Damian is trying to say.

Dante started to tidy up his little stall, he blended amongst the small crowd of kids and disappeared so is Damian.

Moments later the two of them are now standing face to face in a quiet woods outside the trading hub.

" So do you have a fire attribute resource, " Dante asked straightforwardly.

" I hope you will be satisfied with this " Damian took out his scorch flower.

" Scorch flower! Hahahahahaha " Dante excitedly took the scorch flower from Damian's hand and he started to inspect it.

" Good, good, " Dante said with a smile on his face. " Here " Dante threw a black colored crystal at Damian, he caught it with ease and he starts to inspect it as well.

" Dark core! " Damian said in surprise.

" Impressive right?" Dante said with a proud expression on his face.

" Where did you get this, only tier 4 and above battle beast can produce a beast core " Damian asked.

Beast cores are the materialisation of a battle beast's attribute essence, it represents the strength of a battle beast's attribute and usually tier 4 battle beasts and above are the only battle beasts capable of producing one.

" I encountered a wounded tier 3 dark attribute battle beast, with the help of my battle beast we managed to kill and to my surprise, the dark attribute battle beast has a dark attribute beast core " Dante explained.

Damian simply nodded, accepting Dante's explanation.

It is possible for Battle Beasts below tier 4 to produce a beast core if they have great talent and abundant resources.

' what a lucky guy ' Damian said in his head, he scourges most of the dark woods and failed to find a dark attribute battle beast while this guy casually encounters a battle beast with a beast core.

Damian and Dante were about to go on their way after their successful transaction when they heard voices not far away from them.

" We almost died because of you! " The voice of the leader of the group of kids that Damian helped earlier echoed throughout the silent woods.

" Hey it is not my fault that you guys are weak," said the boy wearing a blood red clothes, this guy is also familiar with Damian.

" Hey!, stop shouting you morons, I'm trying to rest here " a cold and melodious voice sounded behind the kid wearing blood-red clothes.

" How could we not shout because of you guys we almost died, give us back the resources we use to exchange for the information, " the leader said.

" Are you insane? Why would I do that? " The blood clothed kid said.

" Because you fooled us " the leader answered.

" Did you find the bloodhound pup? " The blood clothed kid asked.

" Yes we did, but we were surrounded by a pack of bloodhounds not long after " the leader answered.

" See I didn't fool you, you found the bloodhound pup, didn't you guys exchange for information about the location of a middle-class battle beast, and I gave you the information, " the blood-clothed kid said with a smile on his face.

" You!... Bas " Before the leader finished his words two figures appeared on top of a tree branch behind them.

" Huh? It's you guys" Damian said. " What are you doing here with them? " Damian asked as he look towards the direction of the blood-coloured clothed kid.

The blood-colored clothed kid and the girl behind him stared at Damian and Dante's figure hatefully.

The blood-clothed kid and the girl with and cold and melodious voice are Layla and Gerald.

" So it's you guys," Gerald said without any emotions, Layla just simply stared at them.

" Oh? Hey! Guys long time no see, how are you doing? " Dante asked in a friendly and innocent manner as if he saw two old friends after a long time.

" Tsk!" Layla's face turned cold hearing Dante, she felt that he is mocking them.

' how could this guy be an assassin, he's so friendly ' Damian thought.

" They are the ones who provided us with the information about the Bloodhound pup, " the leader of the four kids said.

" I see, " Damian said.

" Can you help us make them pay? " The leader asked, he knows that Damian is strong and if he helped them they have a high chance of winning.

" Why would I do that? " Damian asked nonchalantly.

" Be be because you helped us before and it seems that you're a nice guy " the leader said the three kids behind him looked at Damian.

" Hahahahahahaha " Dante's laugh reverberated.

" Morons " Layla said as she shook her head.

" What? Why are you laughing " the leader asked.

" Do you really think that this guy is nice? Hahahahaha, we are being raised as assassins you idiot though we might belong to the same organization we are not friends " Dante said as he wiped his eyes, he started to tear up from laughing so hard.

" But why did you help us earlier, " one of the girls asked.

" You guys are bothering my training, if I let you die inside that woods a lot of battle beasts will gather in the area and may even fight for your bodies as food, and it will greatly hinder my trading and will cause chaos in my base " Damian explained.

" So you didn't help us because of kindness but because we were a bother? " The girl asked but Damian didn't answer.

" Shit! " The leader said.

" Now that this issue is solved you a bunch of trash can leave " Gerald said with a creepy smile on his face.

The leader and the other kids reluctantly left the area.

Damian and Dante are about to leave as well when suddenly and wind blade brushed past near their faces.

They turned around angrily and they saw that beside Gerald is a young white-furred wolf.

" Gale Wolf " Damian immediately recognized the battle beast, he used his spirit inspection and found out that the Gale Wolf is already a high-level tier 1 and has learned three skills already.

" What is the meaning of this? " Dante asked in a serious manner.

" What do you think we are challenging you to a fight," Gerald said with a smile on his face, he is confident in the strength of his Gale Wolf.

Behind Gerald, Layla took a few steps forward and now she is standing side by side with Gerald, she made a short chant and a summoning circle appeared mid-air and a butterfly with blue-colored wings appeared, as the butterfly flaps its wings it produces cold air.

In a nearby bush, four kids are hiding as they watch the fight that is about to unfold, these kids are the ones who left earlier but they didn't truly leave.

" Ice Wing Butterfly! " Dante said.

"Middle-class battle beasts and both of you are now middle-level novice beast masters, you two have grown stronger " Damian said, he used his spirit inspection and he was shocked when he found out that the technique also works on humans as well but he didn't show the shock on his face.

" Wow, both of you are now middle-level novices with a middle-class battle beast," Dante said.

" Though you guys have grown stronger you are still not our match," Damian said, he was confident in Dante's strength because he just used spirit inspection on him and he found out that this guy is now a high-level novice same as him and Kane.

" We'll see if we are really not your match," Gerald said.

" Summon your battle beasts," Layla said.

" No need " Damian answered. Then he dashed towards Gerald with a dagger in his hand, he stabbed out towards Gerald.

While Dante took out his weapon as well he didn't move since he is adept at long-range fights.

He used his blow darts to attack Layla. Seeing the attack Layla skillfully dodge and she unsheathed her sword.

" Hmph! " She dashed towards Dante with the Ice Wing Butterfly flying beside her.

Gerald blocked Damian's attack with his sword, he quickly retreated to create a distance between himself and Damian and he commanded his Gale Wolf to use Wind Blades to attack Damian.

Damian used small movements to dodge the wind blades.

His swift and precise movements greatly surprised Gerald. " this bastard is so agile, my Gale Wolf is a wind attribute and wind attribute attacks should be extremely fast, how can this guy evade my Gale Wolf's wind blades? " Gerald thought to himself.