One week later…

Colonel Reyle picks up a report and begins to read through it before frowning. “Siyu’s disappeared…” He says before setting the report down to ponder the situation. He wasn’t too worried about Siyu; he was more worried about what trouble he could cause. One of the reasons Siyu has been assigned to look after Frey is because his influence in the capital has unnaturally grown over the last few years and the King had decided to put him in a place where he could be watched. But now he’s gone… Colonel Reyle thinks to himself, curious as to whether Siyu was making a move.

But before he could think further a leather-bound book on his desk began to glow. Colonel Reyle glances at the book and picks it up before opening it with the bookmark. A series of words began to appear on the previously blank pages reporting to Colonel Reyle about the situation in the country of Tupil. Colonel Reyle frowns once again. “Frey has departed for a leave of absence…” He says before closing the book and pausing to consider the situation once more. “Should I contact the princess? Or should I just bring the kids back home and ground them for a month?” Colonel Reyle asks himself, before beginning to write down some orders. I guess I have to find them first… He thinks before considering the punishment he would hand out. I might have to get my belt out for this one…

…

…

“Our spies don’t know where he is. After being attacked by Brigadier-General Palmer, Prince Frey traveled back to Seer and entered the Southern Ash Forest where our spies lost his trail,” A soldier reports to Colonel Sol.

Colonel Sol sits back in his chair to consider his orders. Colonel Sol wasn’t sure how Prince Frey escaped from Palmer, when everyone in the Paz army has received the order to kill Prince Frey on sight. Although it wasn’t the Paz army’s intention to send out Palmer to kill Prince Frey, it’s still something he should have done since he was there. Why is communication so troublesome? Colonel Sol thinks to himself. If he had known that Brigadier-General Palmer was on this mission he could have ensured Prince Frey’s death. It wasn’t often that the Paz army was at liberty to send out a Grandmaster.

“Send more scouts to Seer and place them in the surrounding villages and cities around the Ash Forest. Have them wait it out; it seems Prince Frey is just taking some time to cultivate,” Colonel Sol orders. “And send two Masters who are ready to deploy into the Ash Forest as soon as possible.”

The soldier hesitates for a moment, causing Colonel Sol to look at him.

“Is something the matter soldier?” Colonel Sol questions.

The soldier freezes, realizing his actions, and saying with nervousness, “Should we also place scouts on our side of the border? Further South, the Ash Forest crosses into Paz.” After the soldier said this he stops, a nervous sweat appears on his face as he realizes that he just assumed Colonel Sol’s lack of knowledge on basic geography. Fuck, he thinks to himself.

Colonel Sol gives the soldier a stern look before quickly moving on and saying, “Contact the surrounding army bases and ask them to assign some soldiers to keep watch.”

This time, the soldier quickly saluted. “Yes sir!” He says before turning to leave the office.

Colonel Sol looks to the departing soldier and a hint of a smile couldn’t help but appear on his face. It must be good to be young, he thinks to himself.

…

…

One more week later…

A giant praying mantis pushes off the ground and like a ghost, flits forward as a blur. In the next instant, a bladed limb connects with Frey’s sword with a loud clang. The impact forces Frey to bend his knees to soften the blow.

Frey grits his teeth as he pushes up against the bladed limb. It felt like a bison was pushing against his sword, with his arm barely able to hold back the weight.

Frey forces himself to focus as he gathers his energy to push forward.

This praying mantis is almost at the Master level of power, and while Frey is technically at the same level of power as an Expert level cultivator, his limited experiences as both a soldier and a cultivator couldn’t quite match up to a monster who grew up in the wild. From a basic level of power, this praying mantis has grown and refined its instincts through countless encounters for survival. Although Frey has spent the last week or so awakening his battle instinct, he is still someone who safely grew to the Expert level without experiencing a real fight.

As Frey pushes forward with his cultivation energy, it was being refined against the pressure pushing down on Frey.

Frey’s cultivation energy began to condense to withstand the weight while impurities in the energy were burned away, and eventually, Frey let out a roar as the weight pushing against him began to feel lighter and the flame on his sword doubled in size.

The praying mantis lets out a screech as its arm catches on fire before being pushed away by Frey’s blade.

“Fucking bugs! Stop being so creepy!” Frey roars as he slashes down on the praying mantis one last time causing it to fall and begin to convulse on the ground.

Frey lowers his sword and tries to catch his breath before finally exhaling in relief. “What a gross way to break through to the Master level,” Frey says, feeling slightly unsatisfied. He looks to the fox lazily laying on the ground nearby, then to the darkening sky. “Let’s go Sparky; let’s get away from this thing,” Frey says, trying to stifle his sense of smell.