Chapter 318: Bad luck or Good Fortune. (1/2)

Just like others, there was only a small number of people who were chosen among the members of the Mercenary Guild.

There were currently two men from the Mercenary Guild inside the Neutral Lands. One of them was even the son of an important figure in the upper echelon of the Guild!

”Cort! Hurry your lazy ass up here!” shouted a robust man with short dark brown hair which fluttered freely in the air. He was currently on top of a giant boulder, taking a look around their surroundings.

A few meters away from him walked a man with an average build and light brown hair that dropped almost to his shoulders. An annoyed expression was plastered on his face as he spat on the ground before jumping on the boulder as well.

”What is it, Aakal? Can't you keep your voice down? It's not the Guild anymore! We can be attacked anytime!” barked Cort. He had known Aakal for a long time, and yet he couldn't get used to his annoying behavior.

”Alright alright, calm down, will you?” Aakal waved his hand nonchalantly and pointed in a certain direction, ”Look there, see that?”

Cort didn't want to keep following Aakal's orders, but considering his sudden enthusiasm, he decided to comply one more time.

Following the direction in which he was pointed at, Cort noticed a tiger-like Beast with a long tail that seemed to be strangely tied to a massive rock. But looking closely, he noticed that the rock wasn't tied to its tail but the whole tail at the end had morphed into that rock!

”What is that Beast? How come I have never seen it before?” Cort muttered in confusion. He wasn't afraid of the Beast as there was still a considerable distance between them.

By his side, Aakal grinned, ”Ha! Now you see? This must be a rare Beast! There is no way that I wouldn't recognize a normal Beast just by looking at it.”

”But that's not the point here. Look at it! It's crouching in that direction and then there is a redberry bush right in front of it. Don't you see what's going on?”

Cort continued to blankly stare at Aakal for a few seconds before his eyes suddenly lit up. Mouth agape, he immediately asked, ”Can you sense how many are there?”

Unfortunately, Aakal shook his head. He was close to breaking through Rank-8, but he doubted that even then he would be able to have his senses enhanced so much.

”I obviously can't! Are you making fun of me?” Aakal clicked his tongue, ”But even if I can't, there shouldn't be more than one or two. From my guess, the Beast may be around the peak of Rank-7. It should be smart enough not to attack people it can't defeat.”

Listening to his deductions, Cort nodded his head in agreement. He had to admit that no matter how annoying, this guy was quite sharp at times.

Just as he was having that thought, he suddenly noticed something was amiss, ”H-hey! Where are you going!?”

”Let's check it out! And keep it down, will you!?” replied Aakal while slowly sneaking behind the tiger.

As they both controlled their Mana, the tiger didn't notice anything and kept waiting for its prey to get closer.

At a certain point, Aakal and Cort stopped and hid behind trees. From their location, they could finally see who was being targeted by the Beast.

Aakal slowly tilted his head to the side to get a clear view when he noticed two absolutely beautiful girls, clearly oblivious to the danger that awaited them if they advanced further.

His eyes especially stayed glued to the figure of the lady with blonde hair. She looked innocent, yet her firm eyes portrayed unmoving confidence.

Beside him, Cort had also noticed that those two girls were the Beast's target. To him, it looked like the girls hadn't noticed anything amiss. Looking at this situation, a smile slowly crept up his face.

”Even if these little girls can survive the Beast's sudden attack somehow, we can easily take care of them later!” he excitedly whispered to which Aakal had no visible response.

Cort found it suspicious that his usually noisy friend had gotten so quiet all of a sudden. He turned his head only to come across a face who was dumbly staring ahead with parted lips and little to no regard for his surroundings. Aakal's eyes held an intensity of fondness that he had never seen from him before!

A sense of premonition quickly rose from Cort's heart; he could already see where this was going...

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Other than these prominent talents currently inside the Neutral Lands, there were more than fifty participants. Some of them were alone while others had teamed up.