"N-no. There are so many disciples in the academy. How can I remember a single one?" The Elder stuttered a bit but quickly regained his composure.
Max smiled, but his smile was cold as he said, "Elder is right. However, I know you. You are the same Elder that assigned me to a mission."
Elder's expression became grim the instant he heard this. Tylor and the girl who apparently was Tylor's girlfriend looked at Max strangely. However, noticing Elder's expression changing, they seemed to understand something and remained quiet.
"You remember me. So what?" The Elder asked as his eyes flashed with a hint of killing intent. No matter how talented, he was only a two-star disciple. If he, an Elder, put his mind to it, he should be able to get rid of him before he reached the three-star realm.
Max noticed this and frowned. He didn't want to have any conflict with him just yet. He was only reminding him that he knew what he did, but this Elder seemed prepared to go to the extreme.
Suddenly, Max thought of something and leaned toward him and whispered, "I know Elder has no enmity with me, and I'm also ready to forget that you tried to push me to death's embrace, but I have a condition."
Although Max wasn't afraid of him, given the fast rate of his progress but he was worried that his women might be targeted. Therefore, he said this not to make the Elder too determined to kill him.
"Oh?" The Elder seemed surprised by his words and asked, "What's your condition?" He also didn't want to go to the extreme if he could help it since the academy must have noticed that Max was an outstanding disciple, and he might be found out if he were to plot against him.
"How about Elder give me some Mana stones to cultivate?" He asked with a smile.
The Elder's brows creased for a moment before he nodded, "Okay. How much do you need?"
"What about 20,000?" Max asked. Although he wanted to ask for more, he had guessed that a low leveled Elder wouldn't have such wealth.
"20,000?" The Elder looked at him coldly. Even if he counted all his savings, he wouldn't have that many stones.
"I can give ten thousand at most." He said.
"Mmm?" Max frowned and then pretended to think for a moment before saying, "15,000."
The Elder glared at him as if he wanted to eat him alive. But he suppressed his emotions and said through gritted teeth, "12,000."
Seeing his constipated expression, Max didn't try to haggle too much and nodded, "12,000 it is then."
After that, Max stepped back, took out a mission parchment along with a letter written by the Elder of the sun feather city stating the increased difficulty and that he had successfully completed it, and gave them to him.
The Elder glanced at them and then gave him a spatial bag with an unwilling expression.
Max gleefully took it. He knew it had the Mana stones this Elder agreed to give him since he had already obtained the mission completion reward in the sun feather city.
After he was done storing them in the inventory, Max gave the spatial bag back to him and smiled, "Thanks for your generosity, Elder."
Hearing this, the Elder, who was already angry and depressed about losing his savings, almost coughed out blood.
Max then added in a low voice that only the Elder could hear, "I hope you won't do anything stupid in the future since that wouldn't result in anything good for you."
After saying this, Max turned around and left. Tylor and his girlfriend also followed after him.
The Elder watched him leave with a cold expression on his face.
...
After exiting the mission hall, Tylor's girlfriend glanced at Max and said in a worried tone, "Sir, I think you shouldn't have acted that way with the Elder even if he offended you somehow. Especially that last sentence. I could feel that his killing intent toward you became stronger after you said that to him, although he didn't show it."
"Oh?" Max looked at her in confusion. He had lowered his voice and noticed that even the Elders in some distance didn't hear him. How could she have heard it?
Tylor spoke at this moment, "Brother Max. She is a sensory type mage and can hear even the whispers if she is at a certain distance from the target."
"That's impressive." Max nodded and then said, "Thank you for your goodwill. However, you don't have to worry about it. He shouldn't dare to do anything."
"But what if he did?" The girl asked. She was genuinely worried for him since he was her savior.
"If he did..." Max didn't say the complete sentence, but suddenly, his body exuded a strong surge of killing intent which immediately caused the duo's movements to stiffen.
However, it was only for a split second, after which Max controlled himself and smiled, "As I said. You don't have to worry about it."
After that, he bid them farewell and headed toward the resource hall. He was going to exchange the beast cores in his inventory for Mana stones and buy some more foundation strengthening liquid because all that he purchased in sun feather city had been used by him already.
...
Max quickly arrived at the resource hall since it was close to the mission hall. Just as he entered, he saw Jasmine leaning against the counter in boredom. He smiled and walked toward her.
"Mm?" Jasmine looked up when she noticed someone approaching her and was about to direct whoever it was to other counters since she wasn't in the mood to do anything.
"You are back?" However, when she saw Max, her eyes sparkled, and she almost shouted.
It had been only around a week since he went out, and before going, he told her that it would take him around two weeks. After that, she found out that he was assigned to a mission in sun feather city and lost any hope of him returning at all.
So, she was surprised to see him return so soon, and that too without any visible injury.
Other people present looked at Jasmine weirdly but didn't say anything since they knew she was always in a bad mood and would lash out at them if they commented anything. However, that didn't stop them from looking at her and then Max with strange looks.
Max didn't mind their gazes. He walked up to her, leaned toward her, and said, "Yes. Did you miss me?"
Jasmine saw the look in his eyes and immediately understood what he was thinking.
