With the meticulous mind control by Kyle, the branded sword bullseyed the forehead of the Black Lizard.

The accumulated strength and speed allowed the branded sword to penetrate the Lizard's skull very easily. The sheer impact of it all made the essence coated on the sword go berserk inside its brain, turning it into mush, snuffing out any life that still remained.

Satisfied, Kyle then turned around and smiled at the bewildered twenty-five humans behind him. A few seconds earlier, they were about to experience the most perilous moment of their lives, but they had gained a new lease on life before their turbulent thoughts had time to settle.

They were still finding it hard to believe that a simple wave of a hand from the ordinary Kyle could end the life of a tier 3 beast that even a group of Senior mages would have to expend a lot of efforts to accomplish the same feat.

"If you don't mind, I will claim this kill." Kyle said as he moved to dislodge the branded sword from the Black lizard's skull.

As he was about to have me store the carcass in the copper ring, we heard: " Wait! What do you mean by 'claim'? We all fought together. Shouldn't we share the spoils?"

We turned around to see a plump man breaking out of the hunters' encirclement. He was one of the five Junior mages.

Kyle frowned, he appeared to be irritated by the greedy look he saw in the plump man's eyes, he said: " I killed it, so it is mine by right. Do you still have anything to say about it?"

"All I say is...there are twenty-five of us and you're all alone." The fat man said.

I knew we needed money at the moment and the amount of Krells we could earn from selling the corpse of a tier 3 beast was significant enough to allow Kyle to live comfortably for a few years. It was understandable that this fat man would greedily try to take the Lizard's corpse for himself.

It was at that moment that Leo's voice was heard: "That's enough Edwin. We shouldn't make it hard for him...after all, he just saved our lives."

The fat man, Edwin, then turned to look at Leo saying: " Don't tell me that you're not the least bit intrigued by his magic sword? If I'm not wrong, it should be a Legacy item far above Enchanted items. If we sell it to the Imperial clan, we'll never need to risk our lives to earn any more money and will live like kings our entire lives even if we divide the bounty into twenty-five parts."

Edwin finally exposed his true aim. He was after the sword that could move on its own, calling it a Legacy item.

I didn't bother to read their minds to learn what a Legacy item was. I surmised that it was an item that far surpassed the ordinary Enchanted items in might.

In simple facts, Enchanted items only added strength to the user. It was even possible to gain abilities such as flying through their use.

For example, a mage could store a spell like Raging Inferno in a ring. He could then cast that spell anytime he needs it without tapping into his mana pool reserves.

Mages could recharge their Enchanted items easily as they had mana pools inside of them.

Hunters, as normal human beings, had to pay the mages to charge their Enchanted items. Most of the time, they could earn back the money by hunting enough prey.

For the lowest-ranked Enchanted items, you could use it for an entire month before feeling the need to recharge it. It was only when its rank was high that the time of use would shorten.

Leo had been taken aback by Edwin's words. He had to admit that the sword in Kyle's hand was intriguing...he even wanted it for himself...but he still felt that Kyle was dangerous somehow.

First, Kyle had known that danger was approaching before anyone else could know. It showed that he used means unknown to them, which made him very dangerous.

Second, Kyle possessed a weapon that could very well be a Legacy item, which spoke in great lengths about his possible background.

Was he an important scion of an ancient family out to roam the world? Or was he just a normal person who chanced upon that sword?

Should they try and kill him?

Was the twenty-five of them enough to subdue him or were they suicidal?

Many thoughts crossed Leo's mind as he pondered on the best solution for the situation they were in.

I admired him for his cautiousness but I knew that his greed would soon take over just like it had been for Edwin.

It was at that moment that I sensed magical ripples of a spell being cast. I immediately told Kyle: " Jump as high as you can."

Just as soon as Kyle jumped, three Earth Spikes sprouted from the earth and would've impaled him if I hadn't said anything.

After the earth spike came a gale that blocked him from moving and kept him in the air for the now approaching hunters to impale him with their swords.

Seeing no way out of it, Kyle called me for help. It was his first time fighting mages and he saw firsthand with his own eyes how their strength couldn't be underestimated.

As for me, everything came to a stop as I released one of my most powerful spells: Soul Call.

The bodies of all the humans in the clearing, except for Kyle, went limp and fell on the ground appearing lifeless. On the other hand, above my staff were twenty-five little orbs that were fusing with each other to create a bigger translucent white orb.

Since they were all on the level of mortals to me...yes, even the Junior mages. It was easy for me to call their souls outside their bodies for me to refine into the purest tonic for Kyle's Soul Whisperer cultivation.

With this Soul Orb created from twenty-five humans, he should be able to reach the 2nd stage as a Soul Whisperer effortlessly.

It had to be justified for us to take souls from the living. If we went on a rampage, wanting to grow stronger by taking that kind of a shortcut, chances were that we would be hated and hunted until the ends of the world in a world we knew nothing about.

If I happen to be the strongest there is in this world, then we have nothing to worry about. If that wasn't the case, our life here would be short-lived.

I was also planning to test Kyle.

Would he accept to absorb the Soul Orb created from the massacre of his peers in order to become stronger? Or would he refuse it?