"What? Old man, I train alone!" William was about to distance himself away when Sloth whispered in low tone:
"I heard there is something unusual happening at a place you created, that deep pit you left not too far from here."
"That place? What happened there?!" William's interest was instantly piqued the moment he heard about this. It was the place of the Blue Hills, or what it once was.
He fought brutally against dark masters and monsters there, ending up crushing the trap laid out for him by the Nightmare monster, ending in meeting its clone in the end.
That place changed drastically and was now a deadly and desolate deep hole. William never thought about that place again, and hearing Sloth mentioning it was quite weird.
"I heard there was some sort of a weird storm roaming there," Sloth paused, then tried to explain what he heard in more detail.
"Are you saying that a colossal storm cloud is moving there, and anyone passing through it won't return or hear from him again?" William was speechless for a moment, before his thoughts shifted and focused over a single suspect in mind.
"It's not just masters, mostly monsters are drawn to that place in large numbers. Masters of the city feared the monsters wanted to turn that place into their new turf, build up their forces before coming at them here. So they sent many masters to investigate, and many didn't return back."
"When did it happen?" William was taking this matter far more seriously than what Sloth thought. He wasn't thinking of the danger that thing might pose, but was thinking of the great opportunity presented itself to him and others.
"This is quite recent, just before we'd arrive here," Sloth paused, "this isn't important. The leading council decided to lock down that place, preventing anyone from going inside. I tried to speak with them to send an army there, or even tell you about this, but they took this matter far lighter than what they should…"
"They are doing good by sealing it," against what Sloth thought, William agreed with the weird decision of the council.
"This… How? We can't let monsters gather up and build their nests there! We need to hit them before they grow out of control. Not to mention such a big move must have some nasty dark masters behind… How can you be this cool and even smile?"
"Hahahaha, chill out old man," William laughed, couldn't control himself in front of Sloth's desire to fight, "it's not like masters lived without having monsters by their side, threatening their lives."
"But… This place will lose its value the moment this happens!" Sloth finally exposed the main reason behind his outrageous worry and concern about this matter, "if you don't do anything to stop this, I will go personally with others…"
"Don't, or else you'll all die there!" William's sudden comment and serious warning made Sloth pause in his words, then he gave the youngster in front of him a weird look.
"You do know what's festering out there, right?" at last Sloth guessed it. And William couldn't help but stay silent for a long minute.
"Just trust me on this," William paused, "wait for two weeks at most, then I'll go with you and check that place, got it?"
"Ok," Sloth wanted to say more, but he knew why William refrained from explaining anything. It was as if William didn't want others to hear what he knew about that place, and that was indeed the case, "don't forget to invite me by then."
"As if I have a choice to keep you away in the first place," William rolled his eyes, and Sloth just laughed while walking out.
"I almost forgot about that dude… So it managed to remain alive after all this, hahahaha!" William laughed while muttering to himself, knowing he got a great chance to increase his spirit power.
It was the Scarlet Bear, the one he once met before when he was moving from the Scorching Lands to here. It appeared back at the Blue Hills, in the middle of the great fight back then. Yet William thought it was gone, got killed by the disaster that befell that place.
Hearing that monster was alive made William's mood a lot better. He was sure now he could cross the dark gold threshold even before heading to the Scorching Lands city. As for the fox statue there, he hoped it'd be enough to let him cross the first stage of that grade.
"If I ended up at the mid stage of the dark gold grade, then my fighting power could be enough to kill any high stage master… As for those at the pinnacle, I can preserve my life against them, run without dying…"
He knew he was able to cross stages during any battle. Putting this in mind made him train in a great mood.
As he locked up himself again and trained, his two team members waited for the members scattered all over the world to come back and join this chance. Even the ones from the Scorching Lands base came here as well and joined the fun.
"It's going to be epic," seeing all this made Lara laugh.
"This is epic? You should have seen the brutal wars we experienced with him then," Berry rolled her eyes, while looking around, as if she was asking for others to say their pieces about this.
And one by one they all nodded, agreeing on what she said.
"I witnessed a war with you, did you forget?" Lara crossed her arms, as if she didn't like being referred to as a newbie in the team by Berry and others.
"You weren't here when we fought against hordes of monsters and dark masters," Sara laughed, "we were just weak, at silver grade at most, with many at bronze grade. We fought back then against much stronger foes, gold and even dark gold grades as well! And we won!"
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