Max found the voice familiar. He look toward the source of the voice and saw a blonde haired girl coming out the Mission hall. Her hair were disheveled and clothes tattered, just like the group of disciples' in front of him.
After seeing this girl, his anxiety vanished because he recognised her. It was Anna. However, Anna hadn't seen him clearly because he was surrounded by her teammates.
The leader whose neck, Max had grabbed previously looked back towards Anna and then Max who was looking at her with a relieved expression. She then recalled that he was asking about her a while ago.
'So this b.a.s.t.a.r.d. thought that Anna was killed on the Mission and that's why he behaved like that.' She realised, however this didn't lessen the anger she felt for Max. She glared at Anna and said coldly "What took you so long? Your b.a.s.t.a.r.d. boyfriend here was attacking me without reason. Shouldn't you reign him in a little?"
"Boyfriend?" Anna looked at her confusedly and then saw Max looking at her. She was taken aback. She seemed to not hear her sarcasm and ran toward him and jumped into his arms in her excitement.
"Little Max, you are here. No, how are you here? Did you get selected in the recruitment?" She asked excitedly.
Seeing her face filled with bliss and hugging this unknown blue-haired guy, without any intention of letting go. The group had surprised expressions. They collectively looked toward one member of their group. He was looking at Max with such intense hate that people would think that Max must have killed his mother to receive such gaze.
He gnashed his teeth and asked "Anna, who is this guy? Didn't you hear, he attacked our group leader?"
Hearing the man, Anna let go of Max and became worried. She looked towards the leader of the group who was also staring at this scene a bit surprised and said "Leader Mei, this is my little brother, Max. That must have been some misunderstanding on his part. I hope you forgive him on my account."
Mei sneered and was about to lash out at him when she noticed the Emblem Max had on his chest, she froze in her place. Subconsciously her gaze also fell on Neer who was standing behind Max and seeing the emblem he had, her breathing almost stopped.
Seeing that Mei didn't say anything, the man glared at Max and spoke coldly "If he is your brother, I'll forgive him. However make sure he doesn't come-"
"Karon, Shut up!" Mei coldly interrupted him.
"Huh?" He and others in their group, even Anna was stunned by this. Karon's expression turned unpleasant being rebuked like this. However, what Mei said next surprised them even more.
She forced a smile and said "Oh, he is your little brother. I was wondering why someone was so anxious to see you. He must have heard what happened to our group. It's fine, no need to ask for forgiveness. I understand why he acted like that."
"What?" Anna almost shouted. She was familiar with Mei's character. She was someone who would seek revenge even at small grievances, let alone when someone dared to attack her. However seeing that she forget about this so easily, everyone, including Karon looked at her weirdly. They then looked at Max to see what was the cause of this miraculous change.
They soon noticed Max's inner disciple and Neer's core disciple emblem, coupled with the burst of strength he showed by pinning her down, they understood her reason. However, Karon was still glaring at him.
"I shall not disturb you guys further. I'll go and rest." Mei excused herself and left in a hurry. Others also followed behind her. Karon also left reluctantly.
Karon caught up to her and asked in disgruntled tone "Mei, even if he was an inner disciple, he didn't seem too strong. Why do we have to let him off when we have four Two-star mages among us?"
Mei who had been suppressing her anger, snapped upon hearing his complain "You horny b.a.s.t.a.r.d., do you think I'm so weak that anyone could grab my neck and I'm unable to do anything? If you don't want Anna to stay close with that b.a.s.t.a.r.d go and fight him."
She then left in a huff. Leaving a stunned Karon. Others in the group also gave him disdainful looks and left.
***
Anna was flabbergasted by this turn of events. She looked at Max wanting to ask what this was about, when she also noticed the emblem on his chest and exclaimed in shock "Ahh! You are an inner sector disciple. So that's why..." She realised why Mei chose to reconcile.
However, her cheerful face fell slightly at this and she subconsciously touched her emblem 'He must have Been recruited as an inner sector disciple while I'm still an outer sector disciple.'
Max noticed her mood becoming sad. Therefore, he changed the topic to divert her attention "Let's go. You must be feeling hungry, I'll treat you to some food."
"Okay."
...
Max and Anna were sitting in the same inn where Max and Neer had eaten a while ago. Max had ordered the food for Anna while they talked.
When Anna heard that he was already a Two-star mage, she was very surprised. It's been only around two months when he was just a novice mage. This improvement was astonishing.
In the past when he was weak, he was always depressed that made her very upset for him and but she couldn't do anything more than accompany him whenever she had free time. Now that Max was already so strong and no longer depressed, it made her genuinely happy.
Max also found out that Anna was already a peak One-star mage and it was only a matter of time before she become a two-star mage. Therefore he offered to give her his mana stones to cultivate faster but Anna declined saying that he also needed them to cultivate. After Max insisted, she finally accepted twenty mana stones.
When he asked about the mission she went on, Anna told him that, to earn some mana stones she joined a group that had accepted a low-risk but high reward mission. The mission was to bring a low grade herb called green snake flower from the snake king valley. This valley was called this because a long time ago there was a King ranked snake beast.
The mission went well and they found many green snake flowers however, on their way back, they encountered a peak Two-star snake type beast. Three of their group members were killed. They barely manage to escape thanks to the combined efforts of the four two-star mages.
"If you need more mana stones to breakthrough to the Two-star realm, you can take mine." Max offered again. He didn't want her to endanger her life for some mana stones before she is strong enough to ensure her safety.
Hearing him offer his mana stones again she pouted cutely "I don't need more, I've thirty two including the twenty you gave me. They should be enough as I've to make only a small improvement to breakthrough."
She then remembered something and asked nervously "Max now that you are here and have become an inner sector disciple, can I live with you?"
"What?" Max was caught off guard by her question and almost spit out the herbal tea he was drinking.
