Author: M_W Cancer

The Chief was completely astonished after he heard Leo's words. In his opinion, this young man in front of him should be someone with great capability and prestige just by basing on his hands, him owning a Defensive Magical Artifact capable of taking him out of Shark Cemetery, and lastly...

"Leo!"

A loyal Beast Companion.

Only capable people can have those 3 things, hence obviously implying Leo to be someone capable.

Contrary to the Chief's thoughts, though, Leo actually only knew about Support Magic spells. Is he perhaps a Support Mage or something similar to that, like those Mages who only focus on single Element Magic spells?

"Levi, where have you been?" Leo quickly turned to look at Levi the moment he heard his familiar voice.

Levi flies up above Leo as he went full circle around him and finally landed on his shoulder, "I went to catch some fishes with Ahmed!"

"Ahmed?" Leo curiously asked.

"That guy over there!" Levi pointed, using his fin-like paws or something at a person currently walking towards them while carrying two buckets filled to the brim with fresh fishes.

"Oh, Ahmed!"

"Such many harvests you have there, Ahmed!"

"Every girl in our village will definitely start to notice you, Ahmed!"

The villages quickly surrounded Ahmed while voicing their astonishment and admiration for Ahmed's great ability in fishing.

Leo had only known about this when he was walking towards the training ground with Brad. The Eclipse Village actually base the capability of their villagers, specifically a thousand or so total villagers living in Eclipse village, on their capability to hunt food.

In such a dangerous place like Twilight Forest, a man being able to hunt food, in their opinion, is the best and worthy kind of man.

"Actually..." Ahmed put the two buckets down as he tried to catch his breath, "There are actually still more fishes back in my boat..."

"What?"

"Seriously?"

"That's really fantastic!"

Everyone even became more astonished and in total admiration of Ahmed.

"Also..." Ahmed tried to catch his breath once again as he was just too tired after catching that many fishes with the help of Levi, "It's actually that little one's effort over there that's why I caught this many fishes. So, fairly saying, that young man who owns that little Magical Beast is the one who owns all of these fishes..."

After finishing his speech, Ahmed suddenly fell down to the sand face first as he decided to take a rest to recover all of his lost energy.

"Oy, what do we have here? Ahmed brought so many fishes. Is he perhaps going to court the most beautiful girl of our village?" A young man followed by four other young men said as he slowly walked out of the crowd.

The young man was fairly handsome with black hair and blue eyes. His aura looks somewhat similar to Alfred, though only in the part where he thinks only with his little brother than his brain and the courting death nature. The Mana surrounding him also implies that he is already a 1 Star Mage.

"Surely not, right?" One of the henchmen commented with a sneer.

"Although they were considered to be childhood sweethearts before, he is still not worthy of having her, unless of course if it's your senior brother Piero." Another henchman commented.

"Exactly!"

"Piero is really the best in the younger generation!"

Ahmed was actually a handsome young man, with the features that Leo could say was enough to captivate beautiful girls at first sight. So, people who are slightly inferior in looks would naturally feel jealous about it. Adding to the fact, too, that Ahmed is a timid young man, hence other people would definitely try to bully him.

Hearing his henchmen's words, Piero sneered inwardly as he then walked over Ahmed's really exhausted body with his dirty wooden sandals.

Piero's henchmen also followed after as they one by one stepped over Ahmed's body.

"Hey show off, how about you fight me!" Brad suddenly yelled out from behind Leo and the Chief.

"What was that? A really pitiful No Star Mage actually wants to fight a 1 Star Mage such as me?" Piero laughed, "You might as well just continue fishing and dragging each other's cultivation down, while I and my junior brothers on the other hand would go and hunt for real Magical Beast!"

Piero then shrugged his shoulder as he continued walking. In his opinion, even if Brad and Ahmed worked together, they would still not be enough to fight against him, not to mention he also has four henchmen with him. So, Brad and Ahmed stand absolutely no chance against him.

Leo was immediately able to understand why Piero did such actions, and yet no one bothered to stop him. Base on his experience, only places with an extreme hierarchy system and competition have such a thing. Like for example, the Chinese territories have this really great organization called Sects where they have competition every month for their younger generation, adult generation, elderly generation, and even ancestors generation. Every winner in any of those competitions receives not only Magical resources and their ability being recognized but also different status, hence ranking them higher in their hierarchy system. Other Humans have actually also started adopting such means, though their own ways were less extreme, unlike the Chinese which any person can become cripple, or even worst, they lose their lives in any careless moments.

Actually, his Master Olivia had also used such means to his training before. She threw him in her Labyrinth, full of evil and dangerous people. In that place, not only were the hierarchy and competition extreme, but even living was really extremely hard. Without any status, he would become someone even worse than a mere slave. People over there only care about the other people's physical strength, since that place forbids any form of Magic aside from Master Olivia.

"Please excuse such rudeness that those people have just shown you right now." The Chief quickly apologized.

"Hahaha, I don't mind. Also, I'm nothing special, so please don't treat me like a special person." Leo replied. He had noticed that the Chief talks to him so respectfully, which is getting annoying now.

Although nothing was wrong with being respectful, he just doesn't like such a way of treatment, especially since his a No Star Mage and the Chief is a 9 Star Mage. For short, he wants real respect, not some kind of pretentious respect.

The Chief simply nodded his head. But inside his mind, he doesn't believe a word that Leo had just said. No ordinary people could buy a Defensive Magical Artifact, especially a powerful one.

"What you have just seen right now is actually a competition amongst the younger generation of our village." The Chief said as he suddenly turned to look at the dense forest behind him, "Living inside this Danger zone, if we don't want to die, then we need to keep on adapting and become much more stronger every day. So, the past Chiefs promoted a Hierarchy similar to those of Sects. Only in such a way can we survive in the Twilight Forest. Therefore, everyone doesn't care about the infighting between the younger generation. In fact, the adult's competition is even much worse than this, as they would even cripple each other just to prove to everyone that they're much stronger."

"Oh, so you limit killing?" Leo curiously asked. If his guess was correct, then the system they used isn't the same as the Sects, but more like an organization, such as Mischievous Lion organization, Sword and Magic organization, and Black organization's hierarchy system.

"No, in fact, anyone can have a Blood Duel over there!" The Chief pointed at a stage in the middle of the village, "However, people in this village are also aware of the fact that every man counts. So, if we lost someone, then it also means we lose manpower. Because of that, everyone decided that they won't kill their fellow villagers but instead just cripple them to make them lay in bed for a few months."

"For us, losing a month's worth of cultivation is enough punishment already. The only thing deserving for the punishment of death are those people who break and don't follow the rules we have established, such as selling out our own kind." The Chief explained.

Leo massages his chin as he immediately became interested at the moment he had heard such a concept. Usually, concepts like what the Chief had said are things that only exist in imaginations. As long as fighting exists, then killing would also follow after. The both are things that cannot be separated from each other.

"Also, the coming of age competition for those young people reaching 18 years old is coming next week, so the competition is a lot intense than usual." The Chief further explained.

Leo nodded his head in understanding as he thought in his mind, "To weaken the opponent's will." That was the exact thing Piero was doing against Ahmed and Brad, to weaken their fighting spirit to fight.

And there is only one reason why a person is doing such a thing, they are cautious and afraid.

When people are feeling cautious, it simply means they are feeling a bit of fear, hence in a competition such as this they will always try to weaken their opponent's will in order to have some sort of advantage.

He had discovered such a thing when he was watching a preparation for Cage Boxing in the Underground World when his Master Olivia wanted to show him how cunning people will fight. At first, two people will act so arrogant, like savages ready to shred their opponents to pieces. When they finally get inside their opponent's mind, the next thing would then follow after during the fight.

Leo smiled mischievously as he thought of a really great plan in his mind. This plan will definitely allow Brad and Ahmed to embarrassed Piero in the coming of age competition for the younger generation living in Eclipse village.