Chapter 29: Rick and Brandon

Blake and Eric walked up the stairs to the second floor and once they reached the end of it, they walked through a small hallway which had a door at the end of it. The key for this door was a very valuable item in the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group since only a few people had it and its copies.

Blake was the leader and he had the original key. Some important members of the mercenary group were also given keys to enter the second floor. Other than these chosen few, entrance to the upper floor was prohibited.

The way the building was structured made it so that the second floor and its specifics were not visible from below. Since the second floor of the headquarters was an area reserved for only a select few, it made sense for it to be inaccessible for ordinary people.

As Blake turned the key in its hole and pushed open the door to the main area of the second floor, Eric analyzed what he saw before him. The lobby and general area itself was way more luxurious than anything on the first floor.

There were all sorts of expensive looking carpets covering the floor, large, comfortable couches and seats for any potential guests to sit on and a giant, shimmering golden chandelier hanging from the roof of the grandiose room.

Its size was way smaller compared to the lobby of the lower floor, but this one was built way more lavishly and therefore felt like a completely different place compared to the floor below it.

There were five doors leading to different rooms from this lobby: two on each side and the one remaining largest door right in front of them.

"The room right in front of us is my, the Leader's Office; the two to the left are the Vice Leader's Office and the Meeting Room and finally on the right there is the treasury and armory." Blake explained his son as they started walking forwards towards his room.

When they were about halfway through the hallway, the door to the room closer to Blake's office on the left side opened as a middle aged man stepped out and greeted Blake relatively informally, followed by a young man in his teenage years.

"Good morning, Leader," said the middle aged man in an informal tone as he looked at Eric's father.

The youth behind him bowed and greeted Blake formally, however.

Eric observed these two men as the system showed their profiles.

The older man had graying hair to the sides of his head while the rest of his hair was black, with no signs of balding. His physique was quite normal and he looked like he was in his late forties to early fifties. His eyes were light brown and looked unsuspicious, but his stare had a sharp feeling to it.

'He's strong.' Eric thought, realizing this man was way stronger than him.

The youth who stood behind him, who Eric presumed was the man' son looked pretty much like a younger version of the man who was about 15 or 16 years old. He had similar black hair and light brown eyes and also shared a pretty similar facial structure with the aforementioned man. The only major difference was that he didn't emit the same aura of strength as his father, he instead gave off a somewhat eerie feeling.

Eric checked their profiles immediately afterwards.

[Name: Rick Johnson

Age: 47

Date of Birth: August 21

Cultivation Level

Soul: Not a cultivator

Body: Not a cultivator

Mind: Intermediate Mentalist Realm 10th Layer]

[Name: Brandon Johnson

Age: 15

Date of Birth: October 4

Cultivation Level

Soul: Spirit Apprentice Realm 8th Layer

Body: Flesh Refining Realm 6th Layer

Mind: Not a cultivator]

Sure enough, the middle aged man, named Rick, was strong. He was still severely weaker than Blake, but being at the peak of the Intermediate Mentalist Realm was an extremely impressive feat nonetheless.

His son Brandon wasn't anything special, though; his talent was pretty good but compared to Eric he was still lacking. However, he was still slightly stronger than Eric due to their age gap.

"Eric, this is Rick Johnson, the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group's Vice Leader." Blake introduced the man to his son, who had seemingly spaced out while he was actually reading their profiles.

Eric snapped back to reality hearing his dad's voice and greeted Rick, who did the same. Even the second in command of the organization was respectful towards Eric, who was just 11 years old and had an extremely low cultivation base.

From this interaction, he further realized just how high his father was regarded and once again he felt proud and grateful for his familial background. Taking into consideration how important of a person his father was, Eric made sure to be polite and formal while exchanging greetings with Rick and Brandon afterwards.

Rick was humble and polite when speaking to Eric, but Brandon didn't take after his father in this regard.

He just looked at Eric with a slightly disdainful expression and replied to his formal greeting with a half assed "Yeah, whatever kid."

Just as Brandon said this, the calm look on Rick's face turned to one of concern as he glared at his son.

"He is the Leader's son! Is that how you should speak to him? Quickly, apologize!" he reprimanded the youth as Blake and Eric both looked at him with disdain.

Blake's eyes had a hint of anger to them as he glared at Brandon, which is what made Rick change his attitude this quickly. Blake was extremely strong and if he got pissed off because of Brandon, Rick wouldn't be able to save his son's life no matter how hard he tried.

"He's just a brat with a low cultivation level. It doesn't make sense for me to respect him; I still don't understand why you were so polite with him." Brandon replied with a snarky expression.

Both Blake and Eric were starting to get ticked off by Brandon's actions.

'Ah, a typical stuck up bastard who doesn't know his place. Why the fuck did I have to run into one of these little shits?' Eric cursed in his head while maintaining a calm expression on his face.

He particularly despised people with such a personality and wasn't in the mood to deal with someone like that. As he tried to calm himself, a thought suddenly appeared in his mind.

A wicked smile appeared on his face as he looked Brandon straight in the eyes and spoke up.