Chapter 39 - The Ever Sparkling one

"I'm special." Akio said after entering the cave. He inspected the area and found out what might have happened here.

"They killed these beasts, went inside the sub cave and fell dow the hole..." He spoke to himself.

Hehe

"... In short, I don't even need to complete this trial." He said, "I must be special!"

Akio was overwhelmed with the thoughts of being "special" and he chuckled to himself.

He closed his eyes and looked up while spreading his arms, "To the one who made me special, thx!♡"

It took him some time to get here because he was enjoying his time in the city.

Flashback

Sparkle Sparkle

"Damn, these dumplings are good!" Akio said as his skin colored eyes sparkled with excitement.

"You like it kiddo?" The owner asked while cleaning the dishes.

"Uhum!" He replied and gave a thumbs up.

The owner responded with his own thumbs up as well.

Present

Akio went to the sub cave in which everyone was dragged, "This is the place?"

He was about to jump down the hole before he stopped and looked behind him for a few seconds, "..." and went in the hole.

...

The next second, he was inside the forest where everyone were.

Most trees here were average sized and others were medium sized.

Akio put his finger on his chin, "First off I need to kill them and and look for some treasures so that we won't have to worry about money anymore..." He said to himself and chuckled with closed eyes, "Yeah! Let's do that."

Shwi Shwi Shwi Sweesh

He sprinted to one of the bigger trees around him to get a clear vision around the mostly dense and humid forest.

Cha Cha Cha... Woosh

After reaching the very top of the tree he saw some mountains in the distance.

Krr Grr Grr Thud!

"?" He heard many trees falling down not too far away from him. Some people were even shouting.

Heh

Akio jumped from the 50 meter tree and went in the direction with a thrilled smile.

Boom

His impact with the ground causing it to have a small dent in the ground.

"Are you special?!"

...

Boom! Crash! Dam Dam Dam

"ARGH!!" A person was sent flying for several meters towards the dense trees, destroying them completely.

Dam Thud!

He stopped abruptly and looked ahead of him with one eye closed in tiredness.

Huff, huff

"Wh-Why are you doing this?!" He said to another person who stood before him, "Do you think you can get away with this?! IF MY FAMILY FOUNDS OUT ABOUT MY DEATH THEY WILL KILL YOU!!!"

The person in front crouched and placed his right hand on him. His black warrior's robe was not radiating sun light, mostly because of the dense forest. They were torn from the ends, a sigh they have been through extreme fights. He had somewhat of a muscular build.

Tsk Tsk

He clicked his tongue and said, "O, my brother. You want to have something I want, isn't that a sign enough for you to understand?" His wide eyes looked at the almost dying person with threatening gaze.

"Ha... Ha...Hahaha." The person on ground spoke with helplessness and insane laughter, "You were originally going to betray us, why didn't we think of that...?"

...?

"You want to know? It's simple, you're stupid, or should I say, naive?" He replied, "Tsk Tsk, a person shouldn't trust others at first sight...Won't you agree, 'The Nahins'?"

The two other people a few meters behind him nodded hysterically with bloodlust.

"If our boss says so, then that must mean it!" One of them said with a crazy smile.

"Yeah, our boss is indeed great!" The other agreed.

Huff, Pant

'Why did I even follow this guy...? He's dead serious on getting us killed in every fight with the beasts, despite him being much stronger than us!' The person who was down thought, 'He acted weak back there, but his power is the real deal!" He was quickly brought back to reality by a sharp pain in his skull.

Crunch!

"Khak!!" The monstrous strength of the mysterious man was crushing his skull and it was enough to nearly faint him on the spot.

"Now, I'll ask again. How much did you hear back there?" The mysterious man asked, "You can't lie, I'll know." He looked over the person on the ground who's hands were covered in his own blood. The blood covered his vision as well and the blood acted as a glue that stuck his clothes to him.

He opened his mouth to say something, but only mumbled a few incomprehensible words.

Heh

"You wanna say your dying wish?" He jeered and moved closer to hear him.

"...You're suck a...freak."

?

"Heh...Is that your last words then?" Despite the mysterious man asking that, he didn't let the man speak and started piercing his chest slowly.

Gasp!

The person couldn't even make out any sounds from the pain he was going through. He just gasped desperately for air.

"Wow! What's going on here?" A voice asked them from behind.

?!!

The mysterious man felt an unprecedented level of threat lingering around him. For the person on ground, this was an even more worse. The terror and fear roamed in the area in all of the 20 people who were present there.

"... Who might you be?" The mysterious man asked the voice after slightly turning back.

'W-When did he get there?' One of the people in the back asked.

For the others, it seemed as if Akio was carrying a overwhelmingly dark aura that was encompassing him and changing the atmosphere to almost a war zone.

But when they blinked a few times, all of it felt an illusion and the overwhelming aura didn't exist anymore.

"It's Akio!" Akio answered and asked with a smile, "What's yours?"

The mysterious man stayed quiet for a second, 'This guy is strong.' He thought.

Heh

"We don't have one. I'm the leader of the Nahins." He replied.

"Ohhh~ Then, were you doing your mission here?" He asked pointing to the direction where the injured person was fainted.

He was gone.

?!

"He's not here?" The leader of the Nahins exclaimed at Akio, "Was that intentional?!" He grabbed his coller and leaned towards him. His eyebrows wriggled and contorted in anger.

Akio just gave a confused smile, "What might you be talking about?" He said, "Was he someone important?"

"You bet!" The mysterious man shouted as his anger grew alot more intense. This just seemed to make Akio chuckle a little.

"That's funny~! Really. Alright. Want me to join you?" He said, "But, in exchange. Tell me everything you know about this "Tomb". That's why you came here didn't you?"

!

'He knows?' The mysterious man thought to himself. His rage calmed down at Akio's words, '...He's too dangerous to be kept alive. But, I also can't kill him, we have the same strength..."

In fact, The leader of the Nahins wasn't a fool to act Irrationally in front of a strong person, let alone someone like Akio who he couldn't even see approaching clearly. And if someone like that were to team up with him, that's an advantage for him in itself.

"Is that a deal?" The mysterious man asked.

"Yep, 100% a deal. For real!" Akio replied leisurely.

They both came closer to shake hands in unison.

"...Hope we get along"

"Hope we get along!"

The mysterious man and Akio said, hiding their true intentions behind their smile.

Both of them knew the other was a threat to them, they could not simply trust the other. This temporary "Alliance" might bite them later.

'Just you wait.'

'I will exterminate you when this is over!'

The two thought in their mind.

...

In a mountain far away from them, the exploration team had found something abnormal...

"What do you think this might me...?" A person with round face asked.

What stood before them was an abnormal mountain. At first glance this might seem like normal at first, but it wasn't so simple.

"I feel like my mind is getting tired... " Someone with a short beard said stressfully, "It's like, I might faint if I just went on a bit ahead."

"The other mountains we checked were all normal except this one."

The round shaped guy agreed, "For now let's just mark this place on the map and get going." He continued the lines of the map where he had left off.

"Where did you even get that map?" The long beared person asked him with curiosity.

He replied without looking, "Apparently the white haired kid took it out from his storage ring."

"Damn, he must be rich if that's the case..." The other remarked at his words and he nodded.

"Anyways... What is that guy doing there?" He asked the person with round face while pointing at a tree. There was a person "sleeping" under it.

"Yunru, was it? he doesn't seem like he's much strong." The round faced guy spoke, "Should we wake him up or just go our way?"

"You think he'll not be pissed off? He's the guy who cursed everyone a while ago." The other said, "I'll wake him up complete your work fast."

Ding Yunru on the other hand was only pretending to be asleep, why was the case? There was something Lup Xiaobo told him before they left.

"Pretend to be asleep and listen to their conversation in secret."

Ding yunru just asked, "What, What? Whatcha saying, Why would I do that? I'll just beat some 'sense' into them!"

Lup Xiaobo placed his hand on his face and sighed in disappointment, "This little fool."

"What was that?!" Ding yunru asked.

And that is how this "Trap" or "plan" came to be.

Ding yunru sighed, 'This is so boring!!' He thought, 'Isn't there anything interesting happening right now! Where is it?"

Rustle rustle

Just then the people here heard something in the bushes and Ding Yunru woke up abruptly with a bright smile, the others also concentrated their eyes at the place.

"Hey..." He heard a familiar voice of Pan Cheng coming from there, "Any new information?" He asked them.

"Heck it's just you." The person with round face was a little surprised.

The other one answered his question, "Yeah, we've found this mountain that's weird."

"Weird?" He asked in confusion.

"We feel an intensely frightening pressure in our soul."

Pan Cheng moved to the mountain and as soon as he reached the foot of it, he immediately felt ill.

"That's what we meant." They said.

"I'll report it." Pan Cheng said and sprinted from the area, but not before taking the map made by them.

...

In a place isolated from the world in a quiet place, there was a small hut in the mountain.

Swish

Then two figures landed just outside the hut.

"What do you want?" They heard a slightly deep voice of someone speaking to them from inside.

The two masters bowed down and spoke, "We've come to ask for your help Dragon smith."