The whole group now gathered in one village, meeting their friends again, the village was bustling with chatting noise.
While the others were chatting about what they experienced so far, Lu An met with Tang Shaoyang in the chief house. The young man lowered his head, did not dare to meet with his boss' eyes.
Lu An narrated from the first fight against the Beast King where he lost two slaves, and the fight against the Wartusk that almost brought a total of three teams down with him.
"I have failed you, Boss! Because of my wrong instruction, two slaves died. If not for General Mengyao, three teams would be wiped out too. I lowered my guard…"
Still looking down, Lu An began mentioning all his negligence in the last two battles against the Beast King. He admitted all his mistakes in front of his Boss without hiding a single thing. He was ready to be scolded or even punished.
Tang Shaoyang tapped his shoulders before giving him a big hug, "You have done well!"
Lu An had his eyes widened in surprise, he thought he would be scolded for sure. At least, for the fact that he had given up once. He saw the Boss returned to his seat with a big smile.
"You are not going to punish me?" Lu An blurted out the question that lingered in his head, "I have failed you, Boss!" He once again emphasized that he was a failure.
"Hooo, were you expecting me to scold you or even punish you?" Tang Shaoyang with a brim of a smile while Lu An nodded his head in response, "First of all, punishment will be carried out only after the battle is over. We are in the middle of battle, there is still a Beast King, A Guardian of Clarity Forest, and four more portals that await us. I can't punish you even you deserve the punishment, and you don't deserve to be punished,"
"Second, you just lack experience and you have learned from your mistake, and I do hope you will not repeat the same mistake! You admitted what you did wrong and you have realized it, I am proud of you. You are not just a jerk who tried to blame someone when a situation arises, you shoulder your responsibility well!"
"I am proud of you, Lu An! But don't get discouraged by just an accidental mistake. And you have to try to fix the weakness you have as well. Listen well, what makes a fine General is the experiences. You just experienced a failure, maybe you will experience more failures in the future, but I don't want you to crumble before failures, I want you to face and overcome them, so when I experience my failure, you will be my side to help me," he ended his words with a smile, and it was a genuine feeling he had, an expectation for the young man.
Tang Shaoyang then took out the Mana Master skill book and threw the book toward Lu An. The young man caught the skill book unprepared but still managed to catch the book. When he got a hold of the book, the screen showed on top of it. He looked up to his Boss.
"Now I will help you to face one of your weaknesses! Learn the skill book, I will teach you the new skill, no, two new skills. With those skills, it should not be a problem for you to handle the Beast King," Tang Shaoyang chuckled as he explained about the skill.
After learning the [Mana Mastery], he taught Lu An [Mana Perception]. After the young man learned the skills, he excused himself. Even without asking, Tang Shaoyang knew where and what he was going to do, "Don't forget your meal!" Tang Shaoyang yelled at Lu An.
"Now, who should get to learn [Mana Mastery]," Tang Shaoyang tossed the skill book to the air and caught up again. Mana would be useful for someone with a class and skill, Wei Xi was the only advanced class that had not learned [Mana Mastery] in the group, "Wei Xi, is it?" He smiled and got up.
The sun was ready to set as the sky tainted in dark yellow, "Hah… Should have moved into one big group rather than splitting up," he did not expect that the third portal was much harder than the second portal. The difficulty gap between the two portals was quite big.
Tang Shaoyang let out a sigh because today was uneventful for him. Aside from killing the stage-3 beast, he did not encounter anything particular. Shaking his head, he headed toward the house next to the chief house. He did not bother to knock as he barged inside.
Wei Xi was currently sticking out his tongue, the bitterness and also the shitness of the antidote was still crystal clear in his tongue. He raked his tongue with his nail to clear the disgusting antidote off his tongue. Then someone barged into his room, he was about to scold but froze when he saw it was his Boss.
'Yeah, only him who dare to do this to me, that makes sense,' Wei Xi thought to himself. He did not realize that he was still sticking his tongue out with his fingers on it.
Tang Shaoyang was about to yell to greet Wei Xi, but the words stopped in his throat when he saw what his subordinate was doing. With a frown on his forehead, he asked uncertainty, "What are you doing?"
Only then Wei Xi realized his weird pose. He immediately pulled his tongue in and hid his hand behind, "Nothing! Shouldn't you knock first, Boss?"
"If Cao Jingyi is here I will knock, but you are alone," Tang Shaoyang shrugged his shoulders lightly, "Here, I come to give you this!" He tossed the skill book to Wei Xi.
His body was still weak but it was not an issue to catch the book. He caught the skill book and looked to his Boss, "This is?"
"Learn the skill first…" Tang Shaoyang explained about [Mana Mastery]. Of course, he also told him about [Mana Perception] and taught him the skill.
"Should have saved it for my wife…" Wei Xi regretted learning the skill after knowing the use of Mana. However, a slap in the head was what he got from Tang Shaoyang, "If you save it for her, then you will most likely die when we fight against the Guardian…"
Tang Shaoyang paused midway as he thought of something, "What? Why stop midway?" Wei Xi asked suspiciously, suddenly he noticed a wide grin on his Boss's face, "You were right, you should save it for your wife. Even if you die, I will take care of your wife, stupid me, should save the skill…" saying that, Tang Shaoyang turned around while shaking his head.
Wei Xi's eyes widened as his pupils shook in shock, "Boss, are you joking, right? You are joking, right?" He yelled to get the answer but got nothing in return.
Of course, Tang Shaoyang was joking. He was not that low to take his subordinates' wife or girlfriend.
The night arrived, Tang Shaoyang looked at the roasted Rabbidog on top of the bonfire, "Hah, Rabbidog again…" he ate too much Rabbidog in the last few days.
After everyone had their dinner, most of them immediately went back to the house to rest. Especially for the men under Lu An's team, it was an exhausting day for them.
Tang Shaoyang did the same, he dragged her two women with him. The taste of the threesome was still lingering, he carved for more. Of course, they did it in moderation this time, after two rounds each, they slept.
*** ***
The following day
Wei Xi had recovered, he said it was thanks to Mana that he could recover faster. He did not sleep last night, he was meditating to increase his low Magic Power. In fact, not only him, Yu Shun, Li Na, and Lu An also did not sleep. They were meditating all night.
Since Wei Xi had recovered the group continued their journey. They stopped at the place where they killed The Serpent King.
"I found Lu An's team fought against The Beast King to the west from here, this place is Serpent King's territory, and behind us is the Deere King's territory. If I am guessed right, we can go to the north or east, we can find the fifth Beast King," Zhang Mengyao explained her theory about the Beast King's territory.
"Then let's go ahead then!" Tang Shaoyang chose the north over the east. He was the leader and the boss, no one was going to object to his decision.
The group headed to the north. After twenty minutes of quick walking, they encountered a new beast or maybe it was a giant insect to be more exact, a giant mantis. Stage-1 to stage-3 mantis posed no threat to the group. An hour later, after the killing spree, they found what they were looking for, The Fifth Beast King.