“Klaus, when did you become this handsome?” Mark asked, looking suspiciously close at him. He wasn’t the only one; his other male friends were doing the same. Luckily, Miriam, Lily, and Hanna were sitting with Anna and didn’t blush as deeply as Miriam did.
Klaus looked at his friends and smiled. The expressions on their faces were just funny.
“I’m telling you, Danny, if we keep following Klaus around, we’ll never get any beauties,” Daniel said. Klaus had indeed become very handsome, the kind that would make any guy jealous.
With his looks, Klaus could have any lady he wanted, and with his strength, no one below the Great Sage stage could threaten him. He was both handsome and dangerous—a powerful combination.
“Relax, guys. With the beauties I have now, I won’t stand in your way,” Klaus said with a smile. “Friend to friend, though, if you stick around for a while, you’ll start swimming in beauties. I heard there are many at the academy,” he added.
But as soon as he spoke, three sets of eyes locked on him, making his back break into a cold sweat. He turned around with a guilty smile, meeting the gazes of Miriam, Lily, and Anna.
“What I meant to say was, no beauty would dare come closer with these amazing fairies by my side.”
Everyone burst into laughter at Klaus’s antics. Although they all knew the white-haired rascal wouldn’t have to do much to win over the ladies, they just decided to let the moment pass.
Klaus was just a wild one; his friends knew that. After all, he had managed to win over the War Goddess herself. If word got out, men would build churches and start worshipping him as their ultimate ‘Rizz’ god.
“By the way, Kilian, how’s Scarlet?” Klaus asked. Before they’d left Sinji Valley, Kilian and Scarlet seemed close, so if he hadn’t messed things up, they’d probably be even closer by now.
Kilian smiled and was about to answer when his sister, Lily, spoke up. “They’re practically married now.”
“Oh, really?” Klaus raised an eyebrow.
“Yes! Did you know Scarlet came to visit? For three whole weeks, they trained together,” Lily added with a teasing smile.
“My man,” Klaus said, giving a playful bow.
“Hey, brat, are you encouraging him? Although they said they were training, I know they were up to other things,” Lily glared at Klaus, making him feel like he was being scolded by his mother. Klaus’s mother even gave her a thumbs-up.
Unlike Miriam, who always chose to stay calm whenever Klaus’s friends were around—especially his male friends—Lily is rather fiesty regardless of the settings they are in.
Klaus sensed the same in Anna, though she was suppressing hers. The two innocent-looking ladies, in his view, were low-key vipers who would surely give him trouble in the future.
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Klaus just smiled at her antics and turned to Kilian. “Good to see you’ve made progress in your love life buddy, but I hope you haven’t been slacking off in your training,” he said, pausing.
“This goes for all of you—how has your training progressed so far?” Klaus asked.
Daniel was the first to speak. “Although when using the skill, the hammer retains its original form, it seems to have some effect on the mind. Right now, I can only make the hammer twice as big and five times heavier, but I know once I break through to the Grandmaster stage, I’ll be able to use the skill to its full power.”
“Impressive, Daniel, but you need to master the skill before you break through. Push yourself to master it fully before even thinking about leveling up,” Klaus advised before turning to Danny.
“I’m at about the same level of progress as Daniel, but I’ve managed to enhance the sharpness to six times out of the possible eight,” Danny reported.
“The same goes for you, Danny—no breakthrough to the Grandmaster stage until you’ve mastered the entire skill,” Klaus commented. “What about you, Mark?”
“I’ve been training my stamina and agility over the past week, so currently, when I use the skill to summon the spear, I can wield it for an hour. That’s the maximum I can manage in chaotic battle conditions.”
“That’s impressive. In a one-on-one battle, you can last longer if you know what you’re doing,” Klaus said, making Mark smile. “But you can do better. Like Danny and Daniel, until you can use the skill for two hours in the endless trial, don’t even think about breaking through.”
Miriam nodded as she watched Klaus assess his friends’ progress. His mother held a small smile on her face, her reason unknown. However, she was damn proud looking at her baby boy all grown up now.
“Kay, your turn—progress report,” Klaus prompted.
“Well, the Lion’s Roar Pierce skill consumes a lot of qi, so at first, I could only use it 120 times before running out. But after constant training, I’ve managed to push it up to 150 uses.”
“Good, but take it to 200 before breaking through,” Klaus advised. “You’re an archer, Kay, so you rely on arrows to fight. Make sure to enhance your fire elements more so you can use the skill for a longer time.”
“Okay,” Kay nodded.
“Don’t worry, after the trial, we’ll make arrangements to enter forbidden zones so you can all train more intensively,” Klaus said before turning to Kilian.
“I can create the two clones alright, but I can only maintain them for a minute max. After 15 minutes, I can’t use the skill again,” Kilian said with a slight sigh.
“Impressive, that’s actually very good,” Klaus replied.
“Really?” Kilian asked, looking shocked. He’d been frustrated by his limited progress, thinking a one-minute max was too short.
“Yes. The skill requires great mental strength, so being able to divide your mind three ways as a Master-stage expert is already impressive,” Klaus explained. “Clearly, whatever you and Scarlet did wasn’t wasted at all. Nice work, buddy.”
“But you’ll need to push harder—aim for at least two minutes before breaking through,” he added. He then turned to Lily.
“What about you, my dear?” Klaus asked.
“With my current stamina, I can only use the skill for a maximum of two hours,” she replied, and Klaus gave her an approving nod.
She possessed the wind element, and her skill allowed her to create copies of her wind arc attacks. Each arc looked identical, so any of them could be the real one. However, that didn’t mean the clones were merely illusions.
They contained 70% of the main wind arc’s attack power, so being able to maintain this skill for two straight hours was already impressive.
“I’ll reward you later,” Klaus said with a wink. “And what about you, my Ice Princess?” he asked, turning his smile toward Anna, the strongest among his friends.
“For my water element, the skill now allows me to trap a large quantity of Tier 5 monsters. However, if I limit the radius to a couple of meters, I can trap a weak Tier 6 and 7 monster for three seconds.”
“As for the Ice skill, with my current Qi level, I can summon three Ice Rhinos that last for 15 minutes before I run out. If I summon two rhinos, I can keep them active for 45 minutes. And if I summon just one, I can hold it for an hour and 15 minutes.”
“Well, damn, looks like you went all out with this one!” Klaus joked. “Nicely done, my dear. I’ll reward you too later,” he added with a smile.
Anna blushed.
“And what about you, sis?” Klaus turned to Hanna. She smiled, about to respond, when their mother interrupted.
“Why don’t you show us instead in Oracle…”