Aaron had no time; Carlos had already disappeared beneath the water, and he doubted he could handle the beaver alone. Immediately, he activated [ Spectral Rush ], sending himself shooting after them. He didn’t like the idea of fighting it underwater, but he couldn’t just leave Carlos to die.

  Crashing through the surface, his eyes widened. It had only been a couple of seconds, and already the water was filled with a mist of blood, and Carlos’ twisted body was swirling around uncontrolled.

  Whirlpools had formed beneath the surface, some kind of Skill of the beaver’s. and one of them dragged the armored man into it, and sent him swirling out of control, which the beaver used to land additional attacks with its claws. He was trapped and unable to do anything in his hopeless situation.

  Anyone else would have already been dead, but the man’s armored shell was extending his life, and the torture he was being exposed to.

  Immediately, Aaron interjected in the fight. And he was surprised by the pull of the whirlpools. They were not normal. At this level, he would have easily been able to swim out of any normal whirlpool, no matter its size. But these were fueled with mana, no doubt, and the pull they had was incredible. In fact, he had to be careful to steer clear of them, or he’d be slowed too much to keep up with the beaver. Which only added to his disadvantages, as the beaver was clearly better suited to fighting underwater than he was.

  But this was Aaron Dober. And he had bested harder foes than this. Sure, it had some neat tricks, but it was no Mo’han, or even the simian reaver, and he chased it down with the same dogged determination that he did everything.

  Chasing after the beast, he slammed into it with another combo and [ Soul Shattering Strike ], fighting it with little concern for himself, and landed several devastating blows. But he was exchanging strikes with it, unable to take his time, else Carlos was sure to die.

  However, despite the less-than-perfect conditions for the fight, there was a benefit to fighting underwater. There was no one to see him die down here but Carlos, and Carlos wasn’t in a state to take notes. And over his next few exchanges with the beaver, that was exactly what happened.

  The first clash ended with Aaron landing clean, but he had half his body torn off. The second, he made it hiss in anger as he lowered its defenses and crushed bones and burst blood with a well-placed haymaker, for that, he had a claw stab through his heart.

  A rush of energy sent his incorporeal form rushing behind it, taking the beast’s flank, and they clashed a third time, by which point the beaver seemed utterly angered, frustrated, and confused.

  Razor-like claws took a limb from him, and in exchange, it ate another [ Soul Shattering Strike ], and with it, he felt the last pillars of the beast’s energy organs and reserves shatter.

  It was open, and Aaron was ready to end things, but another sea mine of timber shrapnel peppered him as he closed the distance, but he still had the aether reverses to resurrect once more, and he gritted his teeth as ignored the very real danger to his own life, and went after it with a flurry of powerful blows that crashed against the energy starved beaver.

  The beast was strong, but it was out of tricks, and Aaron pulled in the last of his adipose reserves as he pounded into its furry flesh, one strike after another, blasting Skills into its unguarded form, once, twice, and again, snapping and breaking things beneath his furious fists. Blood soaked through the water as he unleashed endless fury and felt its squirm helplessly against his rampage.

  An apex predator and ruler of its territory, the beaver had never experienced anything like this. First, its morale was utterly crushed, and then its body was broken down until it was nothing but a bloody pulp, and then it was mercilessly finished.

  You killed: Steeltooth Builder [ Level 109 ]

  Bonus Experience rewarded for killing beasts of a higher level than yourself!

  [ Empty-Handed Energy Monk ] has LEVELED UP!

  53 → 58

  Panting, Aaron smiled. During the battle, he had almost felt that he was back in the trials with the way he was dying, but seeing his level jump by five in one go reminded him where he was. He wasn’t constrained by them anymore. He could level up as he pleased.

  Grabbing hold of the beaver’s fur, he swam back to the surface, bringing the corpse along with him.

  What he found when he resurfaced, was… nothing. He pulled the corpse up, threw it onto the dam, and looked around.

  “Where’d they all go?”

  Several seconds later, Yuki appeared from the sky. The embarrassment on her face was impossible to hide, and she fell to the grown bowing.

  “Sorry. Sorry, Aaron!”

  Only seconds later, Carlos appeared. He was healing, but still in terrible shape, bleeding all over the place with limbs twisted in the wrong direction. It was clear he only just survived.

  “Fuck. You actually did it.”

  He glanced over at Yuki, then walked over and patted her on the shoulder with his only good hand, and she rose.

  “Forgive her. This was all my idea. I thought the mission was a failure. I called the retreat the moment I resurfaced. I’m sorry. Truly. That thing nearly killed me in seconds. I didn’t think we had a chance. Or you, for that matter. I owe you… again.”

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  Annie and Boris appeared a moment later, and all of them were still in terrible shape, even with Annie’s healing. But they were getting better by the second.

  It was close, wasn’t it?

  Aaron just sighed. He didn’t blame them. It was his fight to win anyway, and he was just glad there were no deaths.

  “It’s fine. However, you mentioned owing me?”

  Carlos nodded apprehensively. “I did. And I meant it.”

  “Good. Because I do have a few questions you could answer, if you’d like to make up that debt,” he said, smiling.

  Carlos looked nervous, glancing back at his broken party. “I…. I suppose we owe you that much. I’ll answer your questions as best I can.”

  “Great. And one more thing. I get to keep the corpse.”

  Carlos looked down at the beaver and nodded. “That seems only far.”

  “Nice. We make a good team,” Aaron patted him on the shoulder. “Now, to those questions.”

  The group settled down around a temporary camp as Aaron asked his questions. They were still healing, and it was nice to sit around on logs and take the load off their legs while Yuki made a fire.

  First, Carlos went, and Aaron sat and nodded as he listened to the man’s spiel on Julius, and before long, was groaning and rubbing at his temples.

  “Something wrong?” Carlos asked.

  “Yeah, you could say that. You say he is odd, but you can’t give any details? What do you mean, odd? I need something to work with, Carlos. You can’t just go dropping bombs like that without any details.”

  “Well, he is,” Carlos shrugged. “Why is this all on me? Someone else say something! You all know what I mean.”

  Annie nodded, her hands glowing as she continued to heal while they sat. “He’s not wrong. I don’t really know why, but Julius has always given me a weird feeling. Looked at me strangely, you know?”

  “Looked at you strangely?” Aaron raised a brow. “Look, the man is creepy, I know that. But that isn’t enough. I need to know if he is a genuinely good leader. If I can put my trust in him.”

  “I know what you mean,” Boris grunted. “He can lead. That much is for certain. But what I always found weird was the disappearing. Bad excuses, too. I stopped asking where he was a while back because of those answers. Figured a man is entitled to a few secrets, but if I were being entirely honest, there was always something about it I found uncomfortable about how he went about it.”

  “Disappears?” Aaron’s eyes lit up as he had finally gotten his smoking gun.

  “That’s right!” Carlos nodded. “I almost forgot I got so used to it. Every now and again, he just disappears. Sometimes only for a few hours, but every now and again, he is gone for a full day. Can’t help you with any more than that, though. Nobody ever knows where he goes. It’s a mystery we all just came to accept back in the Tutorial.”

  “I see.”

  Scratching his chin, Aaron realized that he had little choice but to go investigating and figure out what and where Julius went. A decision on what to do about leadership couldn’t be made until they knew exactly where he wandered off to and what he was doing.

  “Well, I’m obviously going to have to investigate this.”

  “That’s fine,” Carlos said. “I’ve always wanted to know where he went anyway. I won’t stand in your way. I agreed to fight for everyone in our Tutorial. Julius just happens to be our leader.”

  “Agree,” Boris said. “Julius is the boss, but we’re not mindless lap dogs.”

  “Good. It’s for the best anyway. If there’s nothing to be concerned about, then I’ll probably have to agree to Julius being the leader anyway. And we can all move on from this dispute.”

  The moment Aaron said what he said, he got a bad feeling. Julius understood the situation they were in as well as anybody. If he chose to hide something anyway, despite needing to earn their trust, then there was likely a good reason.

  He looked up to the sun, which was midway through the sky. He pulled out and checked his pocket watch and confirmed the time. He needed to get moving if he wanted to investigate whatever Julius’ secret was before dinner.

  It’s probably best that I find out what he’s hiding first. Then I’ll know how to properly react to whatever he proposes at dinner.

  Aaron got up and grabbed the corpse. “Thanks for this. Consider our debt paid. And Yuki. If you ever need someone to talk to, seek me out. I’ll be around from time to time.”

  “Thanks, Aaron!” She smiled and waved. “I’ll do that.”

  Getting back to camp was a bit of a pain. One of the drawbacks of his travel Skill was that the incorporeal nature of it only extended to him and his gear, meaning he couldn’t pull the massive corpse and use it at the same time. And the corpse was too big for the scabbard.

  The moment he got back to base, he dropped off the corpse with Marko and Zach, who were elated at its sight.

  “Whoa!” Aaron said as Zero raced around a corner and lunged at him, wrapping its big paws around him and tackling him, almost knocking him off his feet, and licking everywhere it got a chance.

  He took some meat from his scabbard and fed him. “There you go. Good boy.”

  It seemed his short time away was already too much for Zero, and the wolf was eager for his company.

  “I got one last thing to do. It shouldn’t take too long. But after I get done with this, we can go hunting together, okay?”

  Zero nodded and rubbed himself against Aaron’s hand, and licked.

  “Good. Look after these two for me. Make sure they don’t get into trouble, okay?”

  Zero nodded and then prowled around Mark and Zach, which immediately put both of them on edge and raised a wry smile from Aaron.

  “Good enough,” he chuckled to himself. “Is there a tent around here I can use?”

  “Y-yeah,” Zach swallowed as Zero’s tail whipped against his chest. “Just in there.”

  “Perfect,” Aaron said, rubbing his hands together as he entered the tent and sat down cross-legged.

  It was time to expose some secrets, and he activated [ Spectral Projection ], leaving his body behind and stepping out into the tent city.

  Zero was more intuitive than he had first realized, and the wolf’s head shot up, and it sniffed the air, and its ears twitched as he strolled past in spirit form. It seemed not be able to see him, but it certainly sensed something was around.

  However, as he walked through the alleys, it was immediately obvious that the rest of the people he passed on his way to the casino were not like Zero and were completely oblivious to his presence.

  He passed by the outer defenses still being constructed and straight through the building's wall without issue and wandered down its halls.

  However, there was still one question remaining. He had yet to test the next part of his plan, and wasn’t entirely sure it would work.

  Well, here goes nothing.

  Closing his eyes, he drew on the aether around him. He couldn’t expend too much, or risk losing his connection, and it was a delicate balance maintain, but he was determined to do so.

  With full concentration, he activated [ Soul Vortex ] and gasped.

  “What the hell is that?” He murmured as his identification field washed across the Bellagio, and the hidden vault beneath was revealed to him. But it was what was held inside that locked his attention.

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