章 8: She doesn't mind

Swoosh!

While he was feeling puzzled, Elsa took a step forward and suddenly hugged him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Elsa…" Eric was stunned. He couldn't understand why she was suddenly acting like this.

'Shouldn't she be heartbroken now that I told her I like someone else? Why does she seem to be happy instead?' He thought, utterly bewildered.

He wanted to push her away and talk to her, when he felt her softness pressing onto his chest and as her fragrant scent entered his nostrils, he became somewhat dazed. He was, after all, a young man with surging sexual hormones. So, how could he not like this situation? Let alone pushing her away, he wanted to feel this intoxicated sensation longer.

Whoosh!

Unfortunately, this only lasted for a short time before Elsa suddenly broke the hug. Before he could feel any dissatisfaction, she placed her soft lips on his left cheek, giving him a quick peck before she turned around and rushed inside the house like a bolt of lightning.

As for Eric, he dazedly touched his cheek while looking at the house and murmured, "What… was that?"

"Tch! Tch! You are really clueless or should I say dumb if when it comes to such things, huh?" Liam commented from the side while shaking his head in disappointment when he saw the look on Eric's face.

"Huh?" Eric almost jumped when he heard his voice. He had completely forgotten that Liam was here, too. He then panicked because Elsa had hugged and kissed him in front of him.

As her brother, he would be uncomfortable to see this, right? He might even become angry at him because if Riya had done the same to some boy in front of him, he would've definitely beaten the shit out of him.

However, when he saw Liam's expression, he sighed in relief because he didn't seem angry. He then asked, "You know why Elsa acted so… strangely? I clearly told her I like someone else."

Liam looked at him silently before shaking his head. "That's what you think. In Elsa's opinion, you didn't reject her but just said that you 'also' like someone else which I'm sure she doesn't mind because she believes you'll not stay weak and poor all your life. So, when you rise to greatness, you'll have more than one wife and she would be one of them."

"So, she doesn't mind me having more girls, huh? It seems I should've said something then." Eric laughed bitterly. However, inside, he felt very warm. It was a great feeling to have someone believe in you and love you so much.

Liam narrowed his eyes and asked gravely, "What do you mean, told her something else? You really don't like my sister, huh?"

Eric became nervous upon seeing his expression and hurriedly said, "N-no, it's not that. I just don't think she will be happy with someone like me who can't even keep his family well-fed." He sighed disappointingly and became sad as he said this.

Smack!

Suddenly, a slap landed on his shoulder, bringing him out of his sadness.

"Cheer up, bro! Didn't you hear what I said? Elsa believes in you. Not only she, I also believe that someone hardworking and smart like you would definitely succeed one day. So, don't lose hope." Liam encouraged.

Eric felt warm upon hearing his words and nodded heavily. "Mhm! I won't."

"Alright! Now I have a good news for you. Wanna hear?" Liam smiled, his eyes glowing with excitement.

"Oh? Let me guess, you found some opportunity to earn some credits." Eric said thoughtfully, after noticing his excitement.

Just as he said this, Liam knitted his brows in anger and displeasure and said while gnashing his teeth, "You rascal! Do you always have to ruin it like this?"

Eric chuckled dryly in response. "My bad! I'll remember to not do it again, alright? Now tell me details." Inwardly he shook his head, 'Why do you have to be so easy to read?'

Liam nodded and spoke excitedly. "I've found a party of three adventurers. They plan to go to the forest at the edge of the Demon mountain range to hunt some tier-2 beasts."

After a pause, he continued, "They needed three people to carry their stuff, make tents and cook food. When I heard this, I immediately told them I would bring three capable people, and they agreed. Jake and I are going."

"Initially, I wanted to ask someone else to fill the last spot, but since you've returned alive, it's yours if you want to. However, it might be dangerous because we'll be going into the inner area of the forest."

Eric thought for a moment and asked, "How long will it take us to return and how much will they pay us?"

"It'll take 3-5 days maximum. As for payment, they agreed to pay 50 credits per person daily." Liam answered.

"50 credits?" Eric frowned slightly and asked. "Isn't it somewhat low, considering the fact that we'll be risking our lives by entering the forest's inner area? You know, we could encounter Tier-3 beasts if we are unlucky."

Liam nodded his head in response. "That would be true in normal cases. However, this party of three is very strong. After asking around, I found out that all of them are the disciple in the Skybreak martial academy."

"You should know the Skybreak martial academy is one of the overlords of our prefecture and to join it even as an outer sector disciple, you need to be a grade-5 novice warrior. So, they are at least grade-5 novice warriors or maybe adept ranked warriors."

"Even if they aren't at the adept rank, as the disciples of such a renowned academy, they should've many methods to kill a Tier-2 beast too. So, it wouldn't be too dangerous to follow them."

"Hm?" Eric finally understood why Liam agreed to accompany them, even with his cautious nature.

The humans had a power ranking. The higher one was in the ranking, the stronger one was.

The rankings, power levels or realms, as some people like to call them, were as followed:

Novice < Adept < Expert < Grandmaster < Overlord < Emperor < Saint.

All these realms were further divided into five grades, from grade-1 being weakest while grade-five being the strongest.

Beasts also had rankings. They were divided into seven tiers. Tier-1 being the weakest and equal in strength to a novice warrior and Tier-7 being the strongest and comparable to human Saints warriors.

It was rumored that there were stronger people and beasts too, but Eric didn't know if it was true.

After thinking for a while, he asked, "When do we leave?"