The Herb King



Aethelwolf returned to the hotel with Olivia and saw that Einar's group was already there. 

"Greetings, King Aethelwolf!" Einar and the Shadow Guards who came with him bowed respectfully at Aethelwolf. 

"You guys are finally here. How's your discussion with the Paramount Heaven Empire?" Aethelwolf asked as he sat down on the sofa. He then motioned for everyone to take their seats. 

Einar sat down and told Aethelwolf about everything he discussed with Lark Whitmond. 

Aethelwolf's lips curved upwards when he heard the report. "Good job! You've really done well this time, Einar!" 

Einar was happy after hearing Aethelwolf's acknowledgment. "I'm unworthy of your praise, King Aethelwolf." He muttered humbly. 

"I'll leave the safety of the young ones in your hands. I still have some things to do so I won't stay for long. I'll be back before the competition ends." He had to make some preparations in case the Underworlders would attack the civilized area. He also wanted to check the situation in the Northern Region. 

Einar nodded his head. "You can rest assured, King Aethelwolf. I won't let anything happen to them." 

Hearing this, Aethelwolf was relieved. He then turned his gaze to his adopted daughter and rubbed her head. "Olivia, you should be good and stay with your Grandpa Einar. Don't make things difficult for him, okay?" 

Olivia tilted her head and her eyes flashed with a crafty glint, but she still nodded her head obediently. "Okay." 

Aethelwolf kissed her forehead and left after bidding farewell. 

After he left, Olivia grabbed her cookie jar and walked toward Einar. "Grandpa Einar, I promised to save some cookies for you." She muttered reluctantly. 

When Einar saw the reluctance in her eyes, he couldn't help but laugh in amusement. "Grandpa Einar isn't hungry. You can eat the remaining cookies. Just tell me if you need more. I'll the servants to make some for you." He stroked the little girl's hair with a doting look on his face.

***

The next day.

Inside the training hall of the hotel, Alec and the others were sparring. The sounds of their weapons clashing echoed inside the hall. Their young faces were covered in sweat, but none of them showed signs of fatigue. 

"Alec, you are about the breakthrough and become a late stage Level 3 Esper, but you must hurry up! Janrose's level is just right behind yours!" Michael Singler muttered with a laugh as he shook off his spear, blocking Alec's sword. 

Clang!

Alec snorted at his words and burst with power! He then executed an exquisite movement technique that greatly increased his speed. When he moved behind Michael, he struck his sword down. 

"Not a chance!" Janrose suddenly appeared in between them and blocked the slash with her sword. 

Clang!

A stealthy figure also appeared behind Alec and released a kick toward his head. 

Alec narrowed his eyes into slits and decisively retreated. While retreating, he evaded the attacks aimed his way. 

Swoosh!

After escaping their encirclement, he sheathed his sword as he muttered. "Let's end the training for today. You guys should take some rest." 

Alec sat at the corner of the training hall and ate a pill. He then grabbed his newly healed arm with a complicated look on his face. He had received a high level healing pill from Aethelwolf and his severed arm actually regrew after he ate the pill! There was even a small amount of residual pill energy that almost made him increase a minor level! At this moment, he was only a small step away from becoming a late stage Level 3 Esper! 

Alec grabbed a huge number of Spirit Crystals and started consuming the energy they contained. There was no time to waste for him since the martial arts competition would begin tomorrow. He didn't want to disappoint Aethelwolf. In fact, it wasn't just him who was thinking this way. Janrose and the others were also training hard. With the huge amount of resources at their disposal, they didn't have to worry about the lack of Spirit Crystals.

The training hall was suddenly filled with a dense world essence. The entire place seemed to have become a cultivation holy land! 

The Shadow Guards who were standing guard outside also noticed the sudden change in the fluctuation of energy. They sensed that the world essence has thickened considerably.

"It looks like those little guys are working hard..."

***

In the Northern Region, there was a young man who had a pair of wings behind his back. His flight speed was so fast that even the avian magical beasts couldn't catch his shadow. This man was none other than Aethelwolf. He was investigating at the outskirts of the Northern Region, but he didn't find anything abnormal so he decided to expand the scale of his investigation. 

He headed into the deeper and more parts of the Northern Region. He met a huge number of ferocious magical beasts, but he didn't provoke them unnecessarily. He didn't come here for those beasts after all. 

Hm?

Suddenly, he caught sight of a settlement up ahead. He looked at his [Virtual Map] and saw a large number of green dots. 

Red dots represented enemies and blue dots represented allies, while green dots represented the neutral forces. 

When he saw this, Aethelwolf swept his perception towards the settlement and found out that they were actually a tribe of Barbarians! Furthermore, they were all quite strong and the leader possessed the physical strength of a Level 4 Esper! 

"This Barbarian tribe only has ten thousand people so it must be a small tribe. However, they actually have a few Level 4 Esper among them..." He muttered in surprise. The power of this tribe was already on par with the top households in the Leone Empire! 

Aethelwolf quickly descended from the skies. He didn't want to alert anyone without knowing the full situation. He knew that the Barbarians has a lot of ferocious warriors. They might see him as an enemy if he flew straight into their base. He wouldn't be able to gain information from them if that happened.