Splash!
Roar!
The sound of water splashing and a beast roaring loudly could be heard.
At this moment, Sol was waist-deep inside a semi-large pound playing with Little Nheer who had woken up. He decided to skip training today to relax, and his idea of relaxing was to go for a swim. He also wanted to clean the blood off Little Nheer as well.
Although, the relaxing session quickly turned chaotic as Little Nheer started splashing around in the water with his huge figure. One thing led to another and Little Nheer was now being picked up and thrown into the lake by Sol.
Despite Little Nheer's resistance to being thrown as he swung his paws at Sol, he seemed to enjoy it as he would release a loud playful roar before rushing at Sol once more.
However, at the edge of the lake were the three youths. Their clothes were ruffled while their faces sported black and blue bruises, but Sol had healed most of their injuries after his beatings.
In the eyes of these three, they didn't see a scene of a little boy happily playing with a friendly beast. What they instead saw was a boy on the verge of being mauled by a ferocious beast many times his size.
The beast's intimidating roars of anger as it attacked the boy sent chills down their spines.
But what was more shocking was that the little boy would easily evade the beast's attacks and picked it up before throwing it several meters away.
"Just who is this brat?"
The loudmouth youth from before whispered when he witnessed this frightening scene.
The other two remain silent as they had no answer.
Roar!
Little Nheer released a roar before charging at Sol once again.
"Haha! Come!"
Sol yell excitedly as he braced for Little Nheer's attack.
With a pounce, Little Nheer leaped towards Sol.
After easily sidestepping his paw, Sol went under Little Nheer; catching him.
"Hup!"
Sol raise Little Nheer above his head and was about to throw him once more, but a mischievous gleam appeared in the beast's eyes before his body suddenly began expanding to three times its original size.
"Ah!"
Caught off-guard by the sudden added weight, Sol cried out as Little Nheer fell onto him with a loud splash.
Roar!
Little Nheer released a roar that seemed to be his way of laughing at Sol. However, not long after, his body began raising up.
"Ah, you damn thing!"
Sol yelled half angrily.
He then gripped Little Nheer and the veins on his arms bulged as he threw him as far as he could, even adding a spin.
Little Nheer was sent flying high into the air.
The three youths seeing that were completely dumbfounded, and they couldn't help but widen their eyes in shock.
Sol blocked the sun overhead so he could get a clear looked into. There he saw Little Nheer crashing into the lake a few hundred meters away. Smiling he then made a show of dusting off his hands as he turned and left the lake.
As Sol approached the three youths, the girl in the group immediately blushed and turned her head away.
As it turns out, Sol was completely naked.
Even though Sol was several years younger than her, she couldn't deny he was more attractive than the youths she saw from prestigious Clans from afar. She was tempted to take glances at him previously, but this situation was too much for her. Her eyes couldn't help but become familiar with the ground.
However, upon seeing Sol's appearance, the loudmouth youth blurted.
"Brat, don't you have any shame?! Put that thing away, we don't need to see it!"
Sol stopped squeezing his hair dry when he heard that. Then holding his hips, he glared at the youth.
"What? Don't you have one as well? Or maybe you're just jealous?"
Sol rocked his hips as he said that.
The boy's face became slightly red when he heard that.
"You-! Umph!"
However, before he could say anything, the other boy in the middle elbowed him to stay quiet. Then turning to Sol, this youth said.
"Little Brother, at least wear some clothes for Junior sister Seon's sake."
Sol glanced towards the girl named Seon to see that her face was as red as an apple. Still being a kid at heart, so situations like these weren't embarrassing for Sol… yet. Nonetheless, he understood it might not be same for others. However, there was a problem.
With a frown Sol said.
"Then give me some clothes, you ruined the only good ones I had."
Sol pointed to the scraps of rags that were off to the side.
The same youth, who seemed to be the leader of the group, turned and give a look toward the boy he just elbowed.
Seeing his Senior Brother's look, the loudmouth youth grumbled before he went to give Sol his clothes.
Sol had initially thought he was just going take off the ones he had on, but instead, the youth flipped over his palm and additional clothes magically appeared.
Eyes lighting up, Sol immediately looked towards the small bag on the youth's waist.
'Is that a storage item I read about?'
"Here…"
Before Sol's thoughts could go any further, the boy hand over the clothes that appeared.
"Wait, these are too big."
Sol said after he held them up.
"Junior Brother Song-Oh is the smallest of us both. So, my clothes would only be bigger."
Sol hearing this decided to just fold the sleeves. He muttered a reluctant thanks before he formed a few hand signs to create a simple rune below his feet. This rune produced a gale of wind that blew off the droplets of water on him. Afterward, he went to wear the clothes, but midway into this action the loudmouth youth suddenly yelled.
"Ah! I knew it! You are from the Barbarian Tribes!"
Sol's head buzzed, and he couldn't help but glare at the youth. He swore that he was doing it on purpose, there's no way someone naturally talked so loudly.
Sol quickly wore his clothes, not correcting the youth's assumption
"But you also reveal that you had Tier 3 Innate Dharma. Are you cultivating your Fleshly Body and Aether at the same time?"
The girl spoke and Sol picked up on the skepticism in her voice.
"What's so wrong about that?"
Sol said with a frown.
The girl seeing his frown waved her hands and said.
"Ah, don't misunderstand, it's just that not many people would be willing to waste time cultivating both."
"Huh? Are you trying to say I'm wasting my time?"
Sol's frown deepened as he stared at this girl.
"I… I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that."
The girl began to get more nervous when she saw Sol's increasingly annoyed expression.
Seeing how Sol was treating his companion, the boy called Song-Oh glared at Sol and said.
"What's your problem? Its obvious Sister Seon was trying to say that it's rare for someone to cultivate one's Fleshly Body and Aether at the same time. But you've been acting like a brat since way back."
Sol swept a glance at him and said.
"You want to know what my problem is? It's that you attacked mine, and Little Zeel's friend unprovoked."
"Sorry, we didn't know that beast belong to someone. We were just exploring the Demonic Forest to hunt for Spirit Beast materials to bring back to our Sect. But since we apologized, and you even beat us up, can't you just let this matter go? We'll even further compensate you if you came to our Sect."
The boy, who was the leader tried to explain their situation. Sol, however, angrily laughed and said.
"Ha! You say that as if it's nothing, you people don't even have the right to enter this forest in the first place!"
The boy frowned at Sol's words and retorted.
"I know the Barbarian Tribes are closer to the Demonic Forest than us, but we also have the right to enter it as much as you all do!"
Sol's face immediately scrunched up, realizing this boy misunderstood him. But he wasn't going to correct him. It was true that he had been passive-aggressive towards these three. After all, they were outsiders.