Chapter 14: Team up with Gabe

Due to Keon's aching arm and shoulder, he decided to rest for another 30 minutes. It would be bad if he met a strong enemy when he is not in his best condition.

After a whole 30 minutes, only then did Keon continued. With the help of Kreon's assistance, his exploration becomes easier. Sneaks attacks became the least of his worries and he even got access to the location of monsters he can fight

"9 o'clock" Kreon simply said and Keon walks in that direction. After some time, Keon saw a group of six humans ganging up against a person that he is familiar with

It was Gabe that he accidentally bumps into before. One look was enough to see that Gabe is not in a good condition, his face looks a bit pale now. Maybe because he used up a lot of mystic energy already

From the looks of things, although Gabe is already a Level 2 Mystic, his mystic form is still at the basic grade which isn't surprising. Gaining a mystic form appropriate to one's level takes time

However, although that was the case, Gabe was still putting up a good fight against six people

Gabe is on the edge of a pond and he was controlling some of the water in it. A water whip was floating around him that he uses to either block attacks or occasionally counterattack

Keon knew that he can't do anything about this kind of situation and he decided to just get away from here. Who knows, he might be implicated too if the others noticed him

Unfortunately, a sudden misfortune happened. When Keon took another step, he accidentally broke a small twig. It didn't make that loud of a sound but it was enough for the seven people to discover his position

"Another prey, go get him" one of the six people said and two of them changed their target

"Stupid" Keon heard a comment in his mind that just made him more annoyed

Since Keon was already discovered, he planned on escaping when he saw that the two people chasing him have guns in their hands

If Cairo simply runs away, he might get shot by those guns. Without a choice, Cairo uses the trees around again to hide but this area has sparser trees. Not a good place for a person to hide

"Use a card and attack from your left" Keon heard Kreon's instructions in his mind and he immediately formed a card in his left hand

After that, Keon threw it to his left and the card's color changed into a crimson red one. Three fireballs exited the card and Keon heard three gunshots and explosions

His attack might have failed and now, his location is known to the enemies

"Tell me if they are in three meters radius around me" Keon said and although he didn't gain an affirmation, he can feel that Kreon will help him again

"They are here" Kreon said before another card appeared in Keon's hand

Keon peeks a bit on his enemies that immediately readied their guns after seeing his head but he already puts his card in the tree behind him

From the hiding card in the tree, three vines suddenly appeared and they slapped one of the men that wanted to defeat Keon. The two were not guarding themselves against the trees and one of them loses consciousness from being slapped by the vines

While the other man was still shocked by the defeat of his teammate, Keon already threw his sword at him

In such a close distance, the man cannot dodge the sword and one of the facilitators of this test suddenly appeared in front of him. That orphan was saved from death or at least heavy injuries but he is now eliminated

"That's what you get for underestimating me!" Keon thought. He is a person that took pride in his intelligence! He caught his enemies off guard and defeated them easily

Of course, a huge part of it was thanks to Kreon. If Keon doesn't know where his enemies are, he won't be able to do what he just did

Keon was not able to do anything about the archer earlier as he doesn't know their location and he feared that he would get shot and eliminated. But since Kreon is helping him, what is there to fear?

As usual, Keon took the spoils of war. Since the six were grouping up, each of them has quite a lot of monster corpses inside their ring

They might have rob other orphans before and now, Keon is the one that benefitted from that

"Should I help that Gabe? This is a good chance for me to increase my reputation" Keon decided to contemplate. You don't know when a good reputation will come in handy! If Keon helps Gabe then that genius might even feel indebted to him which is killing two birds with one stone

In the end, Keon decided to help. Since he will become a Hunter, having friends in the wild is better than having no friends at all. Keon might face an extremely dangerous situation in the future that he would require the help of other people. He needs to gain allies early!

Keon head back to where the four were fighting Gabe. Since two of the six attackers decided to change their targets, Gabe had an easier time defending himself

One of the four was even on the ground and he is already unconscious. This Gabe really deserved the title of the genius. Even Keon only defeated the two gunners because Kreon was there to help him

However, although Gabe defeated one, his face is now paler than before. The water whip around him was also trembling around as if they will fall in the ground any moment from now which isn't a good sign

If Keon will defeat these four, he needs the help of Gabe!

Thinking of that, Keon made two more cards and they turned earthen brown in color

Small pieces of rocks came out from the cards and they targetted the remaining three people

The three sensed Keon's attack and they dodge the small rocks. However, before they can even glare at Keon, Gabe already made his move

A ring can be seen glowing intensely in Gabe's finger and with an aggressive wave of his hand, a wave of water was controlled by him that attacks the three people that were about to focus on Keon

Gabe has always had that cold expression on his face but his attacks were so aggressive!

The wave of water threw the body of the three and Keon was worried that it might still not be enough. As a result, Keon charges at the three people that heavily fell to the ground, and a bluish card appeared in his hand again

The card attacks the three with electricity and their body convulsed before another one of the facilitators saved the three

Keon nodded his head respectfully at that facilitator and when he looks back at Gabe, he saw the man kneeling in the ground while breathing heavily

Keon walks towards Gabe and showed a bit of 'concern'. "Are you alright?" Keon asked and the man just nodded his head at him. This Gabe was really too cold!

An awkward atmosphere appeared as neither of the two talks again. Fortunately, after almost a minute, Gabe decided to speak

"You can take all their ring's content" Gabe said before standing up with his shaking legs to enter the lake

Keon was delighted inside him but he still needs to show politeness. "No, no, we can share it" Keon replied yet Gabe just shook his head

"I won't take it, if you won't take it too then just leave it here"

Keon watched as Gabe looks as if he was enjoying the lake water that soothes his body. This Gabe is still in a weakened condition but Keon realizes something

A group of people in the same orphanage might possibly form teams. If it was Keon that fought 6 enemies at once, he might not last long and be defeated

Keon can't also form a team with the orphans from the same orphanage as him. Those people don't even cultivate properly and they might have been eliminated already. The only hope that Keon has is this Gabe

Gabe used up a lot of his mystic energy already but there are still a few hours before the test ends. He can recover a bit and fight again. It's not like the other orphans have unlimited mystic energies and they would need to rest too

If Keon gained the help of this Gabe, then he might be able to raise his points faster than before

"Hey, you're Gabe, right? You saw how those orphans form a team. Do you want to team up with me too?" Keon asks kindly with a friendly smile although he was ready to be rejected

This Gabe is just too cold, it won't be a surprise if he doesn't want to team up with Keon

However, contrary to what Keon expected, Gabe actually nodded his head

"This man, can't he just say something like okay or yes?"

Although Keon doesn't like a teammate this cold, it is still better than nothing

As usual, Keon rested by sitting on the ground and putting his back against a tree

This time, the rest went on for a full hour before Gabe exited the lake and starts walking without a word. With his water controlling ability, his body was already dry when he emerges

Keon stood up from his seat too and walks next to Gabe as he doesn't want to look like the man's subordinate

"Let's walk there, I feel like there is a monster in that direction" Keon said while pointing to his right

Without saying a word, Gabe changed his walking direction, and true enough, there was a group of ten goblins in that direction. Kreon was right once again

Wanting to gain as many points as possible in the remaining time, Keon immediately charges at the goblins with a sword in his hand

His sword slashes the goblins and he killed two of them at once before he saw more goblins falling in his peripheral vision. In the chest of the three goblins, water blades can be seen

Gabe is really powerful!

Not wanting to lose, Keon sped up his pace and continued slashing his sword in the goblins. In just a bit more than a minute, the goblins are already all dead

Gabe is still not saying anything when he puts five of the goblins in his spatial ring and left the remaining five for Keon

Keon just shakes his head at that and took the remaining five goblins before exploring the forest yet again. Keon was the one that chose their walking direction for the second time and after just a few minutes, they met another group of goblins

The deeper the two went into the forest, the more numerous the enemy has become. This time, the goblins are numbered at fifteen. Still, this number was not enough to make the two fear them but they need to make smart moves if they want to defeat these goblins with a lesser amount of effort

"Can you use your ability to make the goblins' body wet?" Keon asked and as usual, Gabe didn't give a verbal answer

Instead, Gabe just waved his hand and some droplets of water appeared in his palm that dispersed into the fifteen goblins charging in their direction

As the goblins' bodies are now wet, Keon uses his card ability again and electricity fried the bodies of these goblins. Of course, since the two didn't actually put too much power in their attacks to minimize energy consumption, the goblins are still not dead

However, the goblins almost cannot move anymore and Keon easily killed them using his sword when Kreon gave him another warning

"Jump!" Keon shouted with urgency in his tone and Gabe immediately did what he said. The two jumped away and pieces of sharp rocks rose from the ground they were in just a second ago

"Enemy at 4 o'clock, hiding behind a tree!" Keon said and Gabe shaped his fingers into a gun before a water bullet was fired from his fingertips

The bullet penetrated the tree and a scream of pain entered the ears of the two