While the lines on his wrinkled face formed long strips within his skin, the skinny man spoke rubbing his two hands together. Unlike him, the woman sitting right next to him had no interest in what was happening; sitting with her legs crossed, she was busy with her nails.
"I will deal with it just as I dealt with the previous ones; I won't give up until you agree to teach me what you know!"
"You are that sure, huh; why should I teach my technique, on which I spent my life, to another person's Power Animal like you?"
The thin man inside his white robe, whose collars had taken a dark brown color from dirt, was like a branch that sprouted on the rock he sat on and then dried up. Following his words, the woman lifted her head and looked at Alis; she set about watching the situation of the young boy stuck among the rats surrounding him.
"Why do you insist so much?"
"What happened, did you nurture sympathy for the brat or something? Would you like to try what he did?"
"We both know that won't be possible, but look at him; isn't he just like your younger self?"
Slightly twitching her nose that pushed the limits of regularity, the woman threw her dark brown hair back and started dealing with herself again. After what he heard just a moment ago, the skinny man plunged into the battle going on in front of him; he was watching the course of events by tilting his head left and right.
Alis's clothes were torn, and what remained was almost stuck to his skin as it was soaked with blood. Swinging his two swords ceaselessly, the young boy was cutting down the rats that wanted to swallow and destroy him like a wave. The rodents, the smallest the size of a hand and the largest as long as an adult human's arm, were flocking incessantly, but Alis had no intention of giving up either.
"I must admit I envied your weapons, little bunny; try to finish those around you quickly. A final test awaits you!"
Receiving the signal, the young boy accelerated; he seemed to be using his capacity by stopping fighting while holding back. Indeed, when half a day passed, the earth and sky were covered with dead rats; walking by stomping furiously on them, Alis appeared in front of the skinny man.
"I am ready!"
"Replenish your power first; I don't want you to lose immediately!"
While Alis extended his hand towards where the dead rats were, his body was facing the skinny man; he didn't break his stance while the essences breaking off from the spurting blood entered his body through his hand.
"I remembered the first day he came; to replenish his power, he had to eat what he killed raw. Even though you look at me so angrily, after a year of work, you started to become somewhat of a man!"
"Wow, there is no torture you haven't inflicted since the day I came; so all of it was for me to become a man?"
While speaking laughing, Alis suddenly became serious and frowned.
"I was already the Power Animal of the toughest man you could ever see; if you have nothing else to say, let's start the final test!"
"Comadreja!"
When the skinny man spoke, the woman beside him opened her eyes wide enough to pop out and turned her head slowly towards him; there was an expression in her gaze saying, "Have you lost your mind?"
"You will be his final test; let's see if his hands work as well as his mouth!"
Without saying another word, she practically glided down from the rock she sat on, and by swinging the small sickles appearing in her hands, she destroyed the rat carcasses covering their surroundings by pasting them to the walls of the cave.
"Then let's begin, little bunny; let's see how much you can run away?"
The wind that started blowing suddenly began to rapidly drop the temperature of the air inside the cave; elsewhere, the same wind was bringing joy and happiness.
"How beautiful the weather is; can we walk around a bit?"
"Why not; sir, what do you say?"
After the words of Lareina leaning on his arm, Jashua turned to Nafız, but the red-haired young girl didn't seem to be in the mood.
"Do whatever you are doing, just don't involve me. The time ran out before I could get the information I wanted anyway; screw such a system. It's as if it's a government office closing the library when evening comes!"
While Nafız was grumbling, Jashua took Lareina and started to move away; evidently, the Young Count was figuring out how to live with her.
"If I rely only on the Arena, I will have to wait two days to enter again; what else was there that gave library points!"
Taking out the crystal she received from Library Guardian Anticuado, Nafız transferred her energy into it and set about examining the information. When she started running a few breaths later, her afterimage was still examining the crystal.
After a short run, she found herself in front of the red tower; she dove inside without wasting time, her haste was evident from her every state.
There was no one at the door; looking around, she saw many tables and only one person standing at them. Although there were more than ten tables, there was only one occupied, and Nafız appeared in front of it like lightning.
"Wild Creature Collection Tower is closed!"
The man rising slowly from where he sat spoke while his excess fat hanging from his sides jiggled. Stunned by the answer she received before she could open her mouth, Nafız jumped into the conversation looking at the man and then at the table.
"When did it close?"
"Just now, when I stood up!"
"Are you joking?"
The Blood God tensed up and shouted towards the short man's face, placing her two hands on the table. Compared to her, the person looking like the embodiment of obesity was quite comfortable; he even started walking without saying a single word.
"Where are you going?"
Receiving no answer, Nafız increased the tone of her voice one more notch, and only then did the answer to her question come.
"Bloody Moon Nora, there is no bread for you here. You can go and continue playing in the Blood Arena because you won't be welcomed anywhere else but there!"
Swaying his clumsy body left and right, the official moved away, leaving behind an empty tower and a girl pale from anger inside it.
"Scums have held every corner! What else could happen to you if you don't control your thing; the viper-faced Third is practically running wild!"
Grumbling, Nafız left the tower and took the road to the Garbage House; the surroundings were calm. Not a speck of the Volcano's horror visible from afar reflected inside the Holy Blood Sect; there was the carefree tranquility of a day left from spring.
"Who would say that this place was once where the toughest warriors of the Hell Realm came out; that reckless denial just before the collapse has already covered the air! These cannot be the true disciples of this sect; how did you fall so low!"
While walking slowly, thoughts passed through her mind like clouds flowing in front of the sky. There was very little left to reach the Garbage House distinguished from afar, but what she saw made her return to the moment again.
"Who are you?"
A group of girls and boys stood in front of the Garbage House. When the crowd of five heard Nafız's question, one of them stepped forward and answered.
"We are waiting for Count Jashua; he ordered us to come here in the evening!"
Nafız scanned those opposite her one by one, from head to toe. She didn't sense any hostile intention, but it was clear she found seeing them here strange.
"Who are you? From where do you know Jashua?"
The spokesperson of the group told the whole story without skipping a single detail; his tone of voice was soft and respectful.
"So you are the types Lareina mentioned. Wait, don't tell me; he told you to come in the evening, but you ran here as soon as you left the arena, didn't you?"
They listened and didn't speak, but their body language was confirming Nafız's thesis; the joy of the red-haired girl, who laughed out loud, came back.
"Wait then, you will enter when His Excellency the Young Count arrives!"
Entering the structure that lacked a door, roof, and a wall on one side, Nafız went to her usual place, the right corner of the part facing the valley, and sat down while the sun was starting to set over the Holy Blood Academy.