Hmm...
Souta slowly opened his eyes only to see a familiar ceiling. Suddenly, he recalled something. He stood up and checked the system interface.
Sigh~
He breathes a sigh of relief. He was afraid that Lucifer would discover him but it seems that wasn't the case.
He recalled the system's warning. Lucifer only senses the abnormalities but it wasn't pinpointed at him. As long as he didn't harbor any ill intention then it would be good. But that's too risky... Who knows when Lucifer would sense him again.
Just need to be careful.
Souta pushed himself into a sitting position before he glanced at the door. He could sense that everyone was here. They weren't inside his room afraid of disturbing his rest.
But something's bothering him.
The images that flooded his mind after his evolution.
So, he's an orphan... An old man adopted him and that old man's name... He couldn't recall the old man's name. He couldn't even remember what he was doing before he become an orphan.
It's too vague. The words that he could remember were vague.
It's about the door. And 'She'. Who are they talking about?
It seems that it was related to the Great War twenty thousand years ago. The contents of the conversation. He couldn't really remember it as the only thing that he could remember was that someone grabbed his head painfully.
I'm getting close to the truth. I guess once I reach the fifth stage the images will be clearer.
Souta took a deep breath to calm himself. He stood up and glanced around.
'If I'm not wrong... Athena said that she would call me but I fainted after evolution so... Well, she's a god so she could sense my situation.'
The whole Headquarters of Athen's Champion was inside a god's perception. The gods can monitor every living being in their field of senses.
'She will call me sooner or later.'
He exited the room and saw Yenxa standing beside the door with an expressionless face.
"My Lord." Yenxa quickly greeted him.
"You should rest." Souta smiled as he ruffled Yenxa's hair.
"Oh, you're awake, boss."
Everyone quickly turned their heads. They saw Souta dragging a chair into a corner before sitting on it.
Souta looked at them before he asked, "How long have I passed out?"
"Three hours," Alice answered him.
Souta nodded. Three hours were shorter than last time.
"Are you okay now, Souta?" Isabella carefully asked him.
"Yep, this always happened every time I evolve." Souta pauses and explained. "My mind couldn't handle all the information that flooded in from evolution."
"Hu~ I thought something bad happens to you, boss. What would I do in this world if you disappear like that?" Eztein wiped the sweat on his forehead.
"Do you think that Souta would die from something like that? You're too naive." Eilish said to Eztein.
"Ah? You... Nevermind." Eztein was about to rebut but he recalled that Eilish was stronger than him. So, he shut his mouth. Wait till I become SS-rank.
Alice looked at the two and shook her head. She turned her attention back to Souta and asked, "So, what are we going to do now? Are we going to take a difficult mission so that we could promote our squadron easily?"
In the past, they always took an easy mission even after Isabella and Franklin joined the squadron. The only difficult mission that they took was the mission in the Dukedom of Halbun.
Souta couldn't help but nod at her words. If he wanted to promote the squadron quickly then they have to take difficult missions. Also, he would receive a lot of bonuses for completing difficult missions.
Just like what happened in the Dukedom of Halbun. Although the rewards were nothing compared to the quest in Witch Clan, he still got a few cards. It was understandable as the Witch Clan quest was a chain quest. A chain quest was hard to come by.
"We will talk about it later. I think we should continue our current pace."
Souta said.
He still didn't know what Athena was going to do with him. She knows that he had a [Cosmic Body] and Zodiacs will probably target him if they learned this information. It's too dangerous to come out of the Champion's Den.
He wasn't afraid of other creatures but gods. It was a different matter. He currently didn't have a way to escape from someone at Zodiac's level.
Although he was eager to take high difficult quest, he still need to hold himself back.
It was too soon to confront someone at their Zodiac's level.
Well, if he avoided them Zodiacs would meet their doom in the future. A lot of gods fall in the war and gods at the peak were included in it.
But the first one to fall will occur soon in the battle on this continent.
Souta stood up and glanced at Eilish, "I forgot. You're not a member of our squadron. You can go to your Grain Leader and inquire about it. That is if you want to join our squadron."
"Of course, I will join your group. You're the only person that I know in this world." Eilish flashed a seductive smile.
"Good." Souta then turned to Franklin. "You're injured. You've exhausted your parasite's ability. You should've used your time to complete easy mission instead of going to colosseum."
It's not that there's no reward in going to colosseum. The rewards were great and extraordinary, especially if there was an event. The rewards would be doubled and various legions would be competing for the top rankings.
But Souta prefers to earn achievements through completing missions to promote their squadron faster.
"You should have known when to stop. The parasite's ability isn't something that you could randomly show to others." Souta sighed. "Well, it doesn't matter anymore."
"I understand... I just tested the experts of this place." Franklin replied with a smile. "I will train for a while before I take some missions. I just got some manual for solidifying realm."
"Okay." Souta nodded. He stretched his body and glanced at Eilish, "Do you want to accompany me to the training ground? I want to test my skills."
"You should go now. I will come later after I finished my task." Eilish shook her head.
"I understand." Souta rubbed his chin. "Who should I ask?"
Carmel? But it's too rude to ask Carmel for a sparring plus Carmel was a powerful Four Shackles Realm expert. Even though he was a fourth stage now, he still wouldn't stand a chance.
An SSS-rank expert like him must have joined a party to subjugate a fifth stage monster before.
"I'll just ask other people," Souta muttered.
He went out of the room and the others followed him. They wanted to see Souta's strength after he evolved. They were all curious about it.
Soon, Souta arrived at the training ground. He looked around and saw a familiar face.
"Manduk!"
A tall man with a pair of fox ears turned around. A grin formed on his face when he saw Souta.
"Oh, you're here. Is everything fine with your body?"
"Yep, fainting after evolution always happens to me. It's a natural occurrence for me." Souta opened his arms widely with a helpless look.
"Oh, I see." Manduk nodded with a look of understanding. He glanced at Souta and said, "You're here. It means that you wanted to test your strength, right?"
"Yeah." Souta nodded. It was pretty obvious since he rarely practices here. If he was going to train then he would enter Saya's inner consciousness.
"Do you want me to become your sparring partner?" Manduk looked around and asked.
"Oh, if it's okay with you then I have no problem with it," Souta said.
Manduk was a suitable sparring partner for Souta since he was a One Shackle Realm. So, Souta would gladly accept his offer.
"That settles it."
Manduk grinned and he turned around.
"Everyone! Can I borrow this for a while?! I and this man before me will have a mock battle! I'm sure that you've seen him before since he undergo his evolution in this place a few hours ago! This will be an entertaining battle for you!"
Every warrior in the training ground turned their head. They murmured to each other before they exited the stage. It seems that they wanted to see Souta's strength after he evolve.
Soon, a lot of people heard about the mock battle. So, hundreds of people arrived at the training ground to watch the battle.
They were excited and started to bet on who was going to win.
There were even warriors who were kind enough to set up a barrier around them.
Manduk turned at the warriors around and said, "Thank you, warriors!"
Then, he faced Souta.
"Are you ready?"
"Yeah," Souta nodded and his expression turned serious. Slowly, dense best feram leaked out of his body.
"Good." Manduk also turned serious.
The opponent that he was going to fight was different from the monster that he tested in the examination before. No matter how strong a third stage they weren't going to reach a Shackled Realm expert.
But the situation was different now, that third stage monster had reached fourth stage. Souta had the right to fight him now and defeat him.
