As the old saying goes: A walk after dinner makes one live longer. Unfortunately, not everyone can do this, regardless of whether it's right or not. Steelberg had gone back into the hole to continue his sleep after dinner, while Cessacioun remained lying on the ground. Only Moxinke was walking around. Practicing swordsmanship had given him an excellent body.
Suddenly, Cessacioun muttered, "Moxinke, you said... How did you catch the back-feathered lizards again?"
"Stole it from the mouths of two human-faced eagles, what's wrong?"
"Damn it!" Cessacioun jumped up in a panic and shouted, "Sunier! Sunier!!"
Before his voice had died away, Sunier had rushed out from the woods and snapped, "Shut up! Don't make any sound!"
Moxinke and Cessacioun were stunned. They both had thought that Sunier was just an inexperienced huntress, otherwise she would never have let Cessacioun be the guide. But now, both her imposing manner and grim eyes indicated that she was by no means a novice.
At this point, a sharp cry came from high in the sky, seemingly diving nearer and nearer. Han Jin looked up through the gaps between the leaves and saw ten odd black dots circling in the sky.
"The human-faced eagles are coming back for revenge!" Sunier whispered, "Get into the hole, quick!"
The name 'human-faced eagles' warmed Han Jin's blood. He recalled that Cessacioun had told him that the human-faced eagles were fifth-grade holy animals, which meant they had better magic crystals, which in turn made for better food. If it was not for the second half of Sunier's words, his desire for power would probably have driven him to shout out, "Brethren, to arms! Kill those..."
Fortunately, the untimely daydreaming had ended in a flash. The next moment, Han Jin had crawled into the tree hole with the rest of his companions. Though he was not quite aware of how aggressive fifth-grade holy animals were, he was sure of one thing just by the nervous expressions on his companions' faces: they were definitely dangerous. He would eventually get his magic crystals, and in turn his energy, but at the moment, the most important thing was to protect himself.
This part of the woods was located at the edge of the Tarasha mountains, thus there were no enormous and ancient trees to provide them with cover. The hole they hid in was very small, which meant the five of them had to squeeze in closely. Steelberg was the unluckiest one, having his face a mere three inches away from Moxinke's butt.
Han Jin, on the other hand, was far luckier, with his body pressed tightly against Sunier's. They could even feel the warmth from each other's skin and the breath from their noses. What a hot and sexy body! Han Jin thought to himself. Of course, he would never dare express that out loud. Despite the closeness, Sunier didn't seem to mind at all, judging by her calm eyes, while Han Jin couldn't really say the same.
As the saying goes, lust comes after ample food and clothing. Han Jin was now quite full after eating half of the back-feathered lizard, and he was quite warm in this small and crowded space. As an ordinary man who was no saint, he was bound to have some kind of inappropriate thoughts. Though Sunier's face was by no way beautiful, the seductive curves of her body was enough to capture any man's heart. Besides, her breath was as soft as a lily's, and a faint fragrance of flowers surrounded her body. Those traits all made up for her face. Moreover, looks weren't really that important in a dark hole; one could simply turn away if he didn't want to look. If she smelled bad however… Well, everyone had to breathe, right?
"Have the human-faced eagles found us?" Cessacioun said in an extremely low voice.
"I suppose not." Sunier replied in the same low voice, "The human-faced eagles don't have particularly good eyesight."
"Sunier, how many of them did you see?"
"Almost fifty or sixty."
"Are you sure?!" Cessacioun gasped with astonishment. Because of the dense foliage, he couldn't see the exact number human-faced eagles while lying on the ground earlier.
"It's strange. We are still only at the outskirt of the Forest of Holy Animals. Why are there so many human-faced eagles?" Moxinke said with a frown.
"Did you do something bad, Moxinke?" Han Jin whispered.
"Me? No!"
"You mean you just stole a back-feathered lizard from one, and now a swarm of them came for us for revenge just because of that?" Han Jin paused, "Let me guess. Did you do something inappropriate to them?"
"Fuck off!" Moxinke nearly howled.
The tense atmosphere in the hole disappeared instantly. Cessacioun tried his best to hold back his laughter and said, "In that case, Moxinke, that's not really their fault. You definitely went too far."
Moxinke starred dagger at Cessations, then deliberately shifted his body. Since Cessacioun was pressed right next to him, he almost got stifled.
A glimmer of a smile flashed across Sunier's eyes, but she whispered, "Hush, you two! The human-faced eagles are still above us."
Moxinke finally stopped after that. They all waited in silence. After who knows how long, the screeches of the human-faced eagles finally disappeared into the distance. Sunier silently climbed out of the hole, then let out a long sigh of relief before waving her hand to indicate to the others that the eagles were gone..
"What a painful lesson... Moxinke, if you want to do something like this again, make sure there's no live witnesses. Understood?" Cessacioun, who finally regained his freedom, said to Moxinke.
"You bastard! I'll make sure there's no living witnesses right now!" With that, Moxinke stretched out his hand, and was about to grab Cessacioun's arms when suddenly, Sunier raised her finger to her mouth and said, "Hush! Listen!"
The others immediately held their breaths and carefully listened, but they couldn't hear anything.
"I don't hear anything." Moxinke shook his head.
"There are people fighting over that hill." Sunier pondered for a moment and cracked a wry smile. "We can't tell holy animals apart from each other, and they can't distinguish human faces. I suppose some unfortunate soul is suffering in our place right now"
Moxinke and Cessacioun glanced at each other. It must be admitted that though they had different professions and experiences, they were both energetic young men that stood strictly by their virtues. Time had not engrained it's mark of cynethisim in their hearts yet. Now, seeing that someone else had to suffer the catastrophic consequences of what they did, both felt more or less uncomfortable.
"What should we do now?" Moxinke turned to Han Jin. Though he lied to the others about Han Jin's identity, the lie was not completely unfounded. After spending the past few days with Han Jin, he was even more convinced of his abilities. Thus, whenever they were in trouble, they would always turn to Han Jin first.
"How strong is a fifth-grade holy animal?" Han Jin asked.
Moxinke pointed at Cessacioun.
"What?" Han Jin didn't understand.
"I'm a warlock, a fifth-grade professional," Cessacioun sad with smile. "In theory, a single human-faced eagle could match me in a fight... "
Seeing that Han Jin was not acquainted with holy animals, Cessacioun started to patiently explain the ranking system to him. Holy animals could be divided into ten grades. Those above the ten grades were called top-grade holy animals, while the strongest holy animals that were too powerful to be ranked were called superior-grade holy animals. The same went for human beings. The most powerful magicians were called the grand magus, while the sword saints ranked at the top among the swordsman. Both possessed the strength to confront a supreme holy animal.
The atmosphere seemed a bit strange. Cessacioun was not usually bad with words, but this time, his explanation was quite verbose, sometimes even repeating himself. However, Han Jin didn't seem to mind at all and listened to what could be called nonsensical junk with great interest. Even when Cessacioun repeated information he had already talked about, Han Jin never interrupted him.
None of these four men and women that had met at the edge of the Tarasha Mountains were by any means stupid. Sunier was playing with some leaves in her hand on top of the tree, while Moxinke was wiping his greatsword. They were all tired of watching the "play" being put on by Cessacioun and Han Jin.
Even though they looked like they couldn't agree on what to do, everyone had reached silently a consensus. Since neither Han Jin nor Cessacioun thought it was a good idea to help those people, they had started discussing the professional system on the continent at this critical moment just to stall. Meanwhile, Moxinke and Sunier did not bring up the topic again, which meant they agreed with Han Jin and Cessacioun's decision. The group was still young, and none of them wanted to leave the impression that they were selfish.
When the sound of fighting over the hill died away, Cessacioun also stopped his lengthy speech. But something suddenly came to Han Jin's mind. He asked, "If the human-faced eagles are so powerful, where did you get the courage to steal from them, Moxinke?"
"I only snatched the back-feathered lizards from them; didn't mean to fight with them," Moxinke replied casually: "Besides, I ambushed them. When I attacked, one of them was still in the hole of the back-feathered lizards. Only half of its butt was outside the hole, haha…. And I..." At that, Moxinke realized he had probably used the wrong words and immediately shut up.
"Ahhh..." Han Jin and Cessacioun said in 'understanding'.
"You perverts! Why are your mind so perverted?" Moxinke said in a both amused and annoyed tone.
"You should have wiped your sword cleaner," Han Jin sat next to Moxinke and laughed.
"Shut up! Time to be serious!" Moxinke cast a glance at Sunier and lowered his voice, "Who do you think she is, an ordinary huntress?"
"Why are you suddenly interested in her?"
"She took out her space ring in front of us… I thought she was just an ignorant little fool who didn't know how dangerous the world was, but..." Moxinke said with a thoughtful expression in his eyes, "What do you think, Raphael? You are smarter than me."
"To put it simply, she doesn't think we will pose any threat to her." Han Jin smiled.
"Ha! Coming from a treasure hunter??" Moxinke sneered coldly.
"To tell you the truth, Moxinke, I am also a swordsman, and in fact… I am a sword saint!" Han Jin said gravely.
"You? A sword saint? Stop dreaming!" Moxinke threw his giant sword on the ground and said, "I'll believe if you can run one kilometer with my sword!"
Han Jin laughed and picked up the sword. With his current energy, it would be no problem for him to run with it for ten kilometers. But he would never actually do it, because he wasn't an idiot. He waved his hand and said, "You don't believe me?"
"No, and I won't, unless you run one kilometer with my sword," Moxinke insisted.
"Alright, so you wouldn't believe me when I said I was a sword saint, but you believe her when she claimed to be a treasure hunter?" Han Jin smiled.
Moxinke was stunned by this question, then said, "We saved her from the black ravens yesterday, didn't we?"
"No, I don't think so." Han Jin said slowly, "My guess is… her profession just isn't suited for fighting those ravens. When we rushed out, the ravens had already begun their attack, but was she hurt? No! They hadn't even touch a single hair on her head!"
"Then why would she come with us..."
"No need to think too much. We are fine as long as she bears no malice to us."
"But can you be sure that she bears no malice?"
"What do we have?" Han Jin was nearly exasperated at Moxinke's way of thinking. "Does she wants your shabby sword, or the magic crystals of black ravens? Or does she just wants to take one of us as her husband because she's too ugly to be married to anyone else?"
"That's possible!" Moxinke clapped his thigh. "She must want a husband from ..."
"Could you please shut up! Even if she wants a husband, it's none of your business since Cessacioun and I are here. You are quite 'safe' !"
"Ho ho..." Moxinke grinned. "Men like women's pretty faces, but for women, it's different."
Han Jin was speechless.
But Moxinke didn't want to spare him. He held out a clenched fist and asked, "Do you have this?"
Then he puffed up his muscular chest. "Do you have this?"
And then he clapped his thigh. "Do you have this?"
Han Jin stared at the sword he was holding. He would very much enjoy smacking Moxinke's head with it. That wasn't the first time that thought had popped up either.