The old man waved his arms around, speaking in a carefree way. He acted as if they weren't standing in the heart of an earth-shattering legendary battle, but in a peaceful garden, drinking tea and eating desserts or something.
'All the strong folks are crazy!' This was what many if not all the team members here thought about at the same time, and without any tacit understanding or prior agreement.
"It's fine for you to tell me stories. I want to hear more about this dude… Tell me everything you know about him. Don't leave a single detail no matter how small it is. I love to hear stories, with all the boring and useless content."
"..."
Meeting such a scary and formidable spirit master under such special circumstances left a deep and immense pressure over all of the team members. Yet his peculiar side was something none here ever expected.
A mighty figure got interested in hearing stories? And in the middle of such an intense and deadly fight? What the heck was going on?!!!
"I'm going to tell the venerable master about everything I know…" The first to speak up was none other than Berry. She felt like anything related to William was related also to her in a way or another.
So, she started to speak, saying that dark gold spirit master stories about William. She mentioned how he changed her life by a few words, a new way to assess spirit power, and two training manuals.
She spoke about her illness, how it was seen as hopeless and incurable. But to William, it was nothing. She then jumped over how he managed to jump from being a porter into a proper bronze spirit master in the academy in just a few days.
Then she started to speak about the Long clan disaster, how William helped in saving them all using his weird methods.
"Interesting kid indeed…" and when she finished, the old man's eyes shone brightly as his interest didn't get any speck of satisfaction. In fact, it got more riled up, "anymore stories about this kid? Anyone else?"
He moved his eyes among everyone, and then Sara started to speak up.
She mentioned the weird encounter she had with William, how he explained the weird term of dormant spirit element for her. Then Ibra spoke about how he got beaten up by William, despite the huge gap in power between the two.
Slowly everyone started to narrate stories about William. Those from the Long clan spoke about that crazy battle they all witnessed, and others spoke about rumours they heard about him in the academy recently.
Even the ones who were in his class spoke about how he crushed Guanin despite it being his first day. John spoke about how William taught him three new techniques, seemingly old and known to anyone, but his techniques were different in everything.
Those who didn't get any relation with William, didn't hear about his name before joining the team, started to speak about his deeds in this short-term journey.
At first, it was the pressure and fear of such a scary and eccentric spirit master that drove everyone to speak. But slowly, they all got to forget about this, and got absorbed in their feelings towards William.
Without anyone knowing it, without even feeling it, William became someone that truly mattered to all of them. Those who got to deal with him before had the deepest impression than those who just met him for the first time after joining the team.
"Weird way to assess spirit power? Curing a problem in one's spirit that even I don't know?! Dormant spirit power?! A way to lure the strong scarlet bears and let them kill each other?!! What the heck is all that?!!!"
The old man seemed to be shocked from what he heard. He kept muttering such things, words briefing how unique William did things.
"Hahahaha! I found a gem! A true gem in such a forsaken place, hahahaha!" and all of sudden, his expression and attitude changed from being shocked into laughing out of pure joy, "come on, show me this unique way of testing spirit power, the training manuals he gave to all of you… Tell me everything in great detail and I'll make sure that you'll get handsomely rewarded."
"Oh… About that…" Berry felt instant hesitation and fear. Her lips trembled, while stealing glances with Sara, Ibra, and other vice leaders here.
She knew, just like everyone else, that if she didn't give what this scary spirit master wanted, then things would turn quite ugly for her, for everyone here.
But with the firm shake of others' heads, Berry sucked in a deep breath, preparing herself for the worst.
"I'm sorry, venerable master, but if he didn't give us permission to do so, we won't reveal anything."
"This…" for a moment there, all the happy expression over the old man's face vanished, got replaced with an ice-cold expression, "are you telling me you are ready to sacrifice your lives for someone who isn't even here?"
"We will keep what he taught us until he comes over and gives the permission to tell you about any of these," Sara stepped forward, supporting Berry and standing by her side.
And slowly, Ibra, John, Lang, Peter, and others started to join the two girls as well. In a single minute, everyone stood next to each other, showing their resolve and determination in accepting the wrath that was about to come from that scary spirit master.
"Admirable! Indeed, quite lovely! Hahahaha!" and just when they expected their lives to end abruptly and shortly in the next few seconds, what welcomed them was a much louder laugh.
"Don't give me that look, I'm not a tyrant or someone obsessed with forcing others to speak," he said amidst his laughs, "it's quite admirable. From what I got from your words, not all of you met this kid called William before joining this team, yet you are ready to keep all the secrets of his no matter what. By the way, why did he gather you up, take you out of your academy, deep into such dangerous places? I can see white and bronze grade among you, making up most of your number actually, which is something quite weird."
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