Zoemi and four wolf puppies were waiting for Mizoe, Rokiana, and Roiso''s arrival at the edge of the forest a fair distance away from the next vige.


    "...!"


    When the sounds of two horses'' hooves became audible, the puppies'' ears perked up and they all turned towards it.


    "You need to be more attentive, you noticed them far too slow – if they were monsters or enemies they would alreadyplete the encirclement."


    The ck-haired boy dered while cleaning monster blood from under his fingernails with the end of the heavy dagger without raising his head.


    The puppies flinched and their tails stopped wagging and lowered at the scolding.


    "I will not always be with you to keep watch, so you need to start paying more attention, you know? Stone armor and earth wall are good spells, you have a lot of mana too, but you musn''t think that it alone can guarantee a victory. This guy had more mana than all of youbined and still let himself be ambushed. See what it got him?"


    Zoemi added, tapping his hill against the corpse of a five-limbed bear that he and the puppies hunted.


    The ck-haired boy was sitting on top of it while the young wolves were helping themselves to the bear''s flesh getting their jaws and paws stained with crimson blood.


    The five-limbed bears were a far inferior, early stage of the seven-limbed bears but still were dangerous predators.


    The one that Zoemi and the puppies killed was not really on the level of the boss monster, because in the first ce the boss monsters didn''t have the chance to appear in thend of mana, but it was still the strongest beast in that particr part of the forest.


    While Zoemi talked, the horses carrying his father, the blue-haired teenager, and the hooded girl appeared on the road and the boy finally raised his head.


    He smiled and waved at them while putting down the heavy dagger that didn''t get much use during the earlierbat.


    "Whoa... you look like you lost."


    Roiso gasped, looking at Zoemi from head to toe after the group stopped by the boy, the puppies, and the monster bear corpse.


    The girl''sment was on point, Zoemi''s clothes were torn to shreds and he was doused in blood.


    "What can I say? Keeping up with thew of Virgo,w of Sagittarius,w of Taurus,w of Aries,w of Capricorn,w of Leo, andw of Cancer active is putting a strain on me. They might all be still considered low-level, but I am what, like, seven and a half? Eight years old?"


    The boy shrugged his shoulders and checked the wounds on his chest and stomach that have already healed up and looked like mere scratches by that point.


    "That does sound like a lot."


    Rokiana nodded her head, looking between Zoemi and Mizoe trying to get a point of reference.


    The thing was, Zoemi was the first martial artist that she ever met so she couldn''t tell whether having seven star powers active at the same time was impressive or not.


    It sure sounded impressive, and the effects spoke for themselves, but still – the ck-haired boy didn''t sound or looked as if it was worth any attention.


    "Do you think that the viges will buy it off us?"


    Zoemi furrowed his brows, patting the thick fur of the in monster.


    He dragged the corpse towards the edge of the forest so that it could be discovered sooner rather thanter, but still, left for too long, a body of a monster was supposed to lure a more powerful monster into the area.


    "We can try to sell it. Youngdy, if you please."


    Mizoe nodded and nced over at the blue-haired girl.


    "I already told you many times to call me by my first name...!"<novelnext></novelnext>


    Rokiana pouted, frowning at the light-blue-haired man but waving her hand and a puddle of water appeared under the monster''s corpse, raising it an inch above the ground.


    *click*


    Which was enough for Mizoe to snap his finger and turn the puddle into ice.


    A few minutester, after getting the rope from their bags and providing Zoemi with fresh clothes and water to wash off the monster''s blood, the four people and four wolves rode into the vige while towing therge bear behind them.


    As always, Zoemi was riding together with his Mizoe and using every spare moment to cultivate.


    That''s why he had his eyes closed, although, with the continuous use of thew of Sagittarius and his naturally good hearing, he was well aware of his surroundings even during meditation.


    The ck-haired boy could hear how shocked the vigers were at their sight and the dead five-limbed bear they brought with them had everything to do with it.


    It seemed that there was some gathering at the center of the vige.


    Funnily enough, the vigers appeared to be gearing up to hunt the monster that was making it hard to go into the forest, which was a big problem for the hunters and lumberjacks, not to even mention how dangerous it was for the local children that would go foraging or simply ying anywhere near that area.


    "Greetings, good people, my son and his tamed monsters hunted down this sizeable creature. We would like to sell it, either money or travel ratios are fine."


    "?!?!?!"


    Mizoe didn''t try to hide who killed the beast and straight up revealed it in a casual voice, and Zoemi almost snickered when he heard themotion amongst themoners caused by the light-blue-haired man''s words.


    "My lord, your son has done a great service to our vige then. I would like to thank him and all of you on the behalf of thismunity."


    Despite being shocked, the vigers didn''t forget the proper manners – all, at least one of them didn''t.


    "...?"


    Zoemi felt something different about the man who stepped up and thanked his father, and it had nothing to do with the sounds he was making.


    The ck-haired boy opened his eyes to be faced with a tall light-brown-haired man with grayish-blue eyes.


    What the boy recognized immediately was that the man was built and held himself up like a warrior. Not a hunter or a soldier, but rather a martial artist.


    He was not in a battle-ready stance but had this cautious aura around him that suggested that he was always vignt and ready to respond to danger in the blink of an eye.


    "I am not a person deserving the title of a lord, the one who deserves that respect is the youngdy right here, the daughter of the Perserios family who travels with us."


    While Zoemi was assessing themoner, Mizoe shook his head and presented Rokiana to the vigers, which caused them all to immediately lower their heads in front of her.


    "We are on our way to our territory and were nning on paying our respects to the Tencelion family, rasie your heads, it''s not an official visit or anything."


    The blue-haired girl exined and waved her hand dismissively.


    "...mister, you are the husband of the third daughter of the Tencelion family, aren''t you? Why are you acting so estranged?"


    "!!!"


    Zoemi breathed out and said while observing the light-brown-haired man, and got a confirmation to his words in form of the man going wide-eyed and staring at him in disbelief.