The old man was taken aback by what William said. He never thought such a kid would be familiar or all knowing about tracking marks left by high end spirit masters.
"Don't put it on me," William put an honest expression on his face, "my master always warned me from dealing with creepy old men. And she once promised that if anytime I met with anyone who used such cheap methods on me, then she'll go all out and teach that dude a lesson."
"..."
The old man's corner of eyes twitched, before he finally waved his arm as he used his spirit power, "it's gone! Are you satisfied now?"
"Hehehehe," William laughed while rubbing his nasal bridge in an irritating way.
"Dammit! You are a hellish monster, not a kid! Who raised you to be like this?"
"My master, do you want to say anything wrong about her? I'll relay all the words coming out from your mouth by the letter, I promise."
William raised his right arm in the air, as if he was taking an oath or something.
"Damn! Alright, here is what I want to know from you… What's that weird way to assess one's spirit power?"
"What way?" William could tell part of what his team told this dude here. "It seemed they just told him bits of everything, not many details," he thought to himself, thanking God his team had little brain cells remaining and working in their heads.
"The way you used to find out about the twin spirits and the Dormant spirit element. And what does any of that even mean?"
"Old man, what use will it be for you to know something without knowing how to properly assess and analyse it?" William rolled his eyes, and the old man had to clench both fists to not punch him in the face.
"That's my business, I want to see the technique myself."
"Then you'll release my team?"
"No, there is an additional thing," the old man paused, thinking about the weird battle he got against the Nightmare monster, "what the hell is that monster?"
"What monster?" This time, William got totally puzzled by what the old man said, not getting his point.
"That damn bastard! The one with lots of clones, spirit elements, and techniques!"
"The Nightmare monster?!" William asked in surprise, and when the old man kept silent, he knew the two already met, "how come you met with it? It was chasing after me and then ran away."
"Ran away? No way! That bastard was tracking you and it happened for me to meet it…"
The old man briefly narrated what happened in an annoyed tone. When he spoke about his long and hard battle against it, William knew it was just his luck that fate sent this old man in his way.
The old man suffered a lot under the hand of the weird merging move of that monster. Per his words, the monster was able to merge many clones together, forming a little bigger version of itself, with lots of techniques and elements that shouldn't belong to a certain being!
In his eyes, this monster wasn't any less dangerous than the dark spirit masters. Not to mention it caused such problems to a dark gold spirit master like himself, ending up running away from his clutches. And just thinking about the presence of such scary and heaven defying being nearby without even knowing about it made the old man quite enraged.
"... I want to know everything you know about it, everything!" he finally roared, as his rage couldn't be controlled anymore.
William thought for a moment there to not tell the old man anything. But when he recalled the hidden threat this monster posed to him, and that promise to find and devour him, he decided to deliver everything he knew about it.
It was better to use the hands of others to deal with such a headache for now.
"Don't take it on me, you are the one who sat its eyes on me," William thought to himself, evilly smirking inwardly, while telling everything he knew about this monster to the old man.
He didn't hide anything, even told him about this monster's weird habits, the things known that it liked, and even where it liked to rest from time to time.
"Moist caves underground, with extremely low temperature are considered the most favoured place for this monster to sleep," William paused, before finally adding his last piece, "to know it's the real body and not a clone, you'll find a core deep inside its back."
"Looks like you already killed one of these," the old man gave William a weird glance. William spoke for almost half an hour straight, telling lots of things that made him like a stalker for this monster.
"It's not me," William waved his arm, as if what the old man said was something crazy, "it's my master."
"Pretty good master, is she as pretty as her skills and knowledge?"
"If you got a death wish, then just tell me so I can give you a hand," William winked, and the old man coughed twice before saying:
"Forget it then. Now, show me your weird method to assess spirit power."
"Not before I got to meet my team first," William knew he gave enough to the old man. In fact, it felt like he was misusing this old man for his benefits.
But he didn't feel any shame nor guilt at all. The old man was the one who sought him and that monster out. And he just took advantage of the situation here.
"You are now asking for conditions?"
"I just offered a big piece of information to you," William shrugged, "the technique can be shown to you anytime, anywhere. But my team had to travel a long distance to arrive here. So…"
"Who tells you they aren't here?"
"I can feel it," William paused, "they are far away from me."
"Oh, Message Papers indeed," the old man said in realisation, and it was really part of William's confidence.
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