An Accidental Encounter with an Acquaintance, Lucas

Matthews dragged his wounded body, pierced the skull of the level 8 Green-Eyed Blood Mastiff, and retrieved its magic core.

When Matthews arrived at the battlefield between Asolun and the level 7 Iron-Armored Dragon, he saw that Asolun was still locked in a struggle with the beast. Asolun lacked sharp, sturdy claws and could only rely on magic attacks.

However, his magic could not deliver a fatal blow to the Iron-Armored Dragon, which was why he hadn't managed to take it down yet.

Seeing Matthews arrive, Asolun flew over to him.

"Sorry, Boss!"

Watching Asolun shrink down and coil around his body, Matthews said nonchalantly, "It's fine!"

Seeing the Iron-Armored Dragon run away, Asolun asked, "Boss, did you finish things on your end?"

"Yeah!"

Seeing Matthews nod in confirmation, Asolun asked curiously, "Who won?"

"Your boss, of course. But I got injured too, so let's find a place to recover!"

"Boss is truly amazing!"

Matthews and Asolun found a canyon to cultivate, as he needed to train now. He wanted to continue deepening his insights from this battle; his blade technique had entered the third realm. Furthermore, he had begun to grasp the concept of Light as Heavy, which would allow him to attempt to comprehend the momentum of heaven and earth before reaching level 9.

In the canyon, Matthews' figure flickered with the speed of lightning. His blade light sliced through the trees along his path with ease; it was only after his figure had passed that they fell due to gravity.

Asolun, lying not far away, breathed in a rhythm that caused the water elements around him to gather like a tide. Asolun's body rose and fell with his breathing as he absorbed these water elements from the world.

"Roar--"

Asolun let out a roar that didn't sound like a snake, and immediately after, his excited voice echoed in Matthews' mind: "Boss, I've broken through to level 7!"

"Hahaha, very good."

Matthews praised him; Asolun's personality was like that of a child. Moderate praise made him very happy, which was how Matthews had taught Mia to practice martial arts back in the day. It was a pity that the girl didn't want to work hard at martial arts anymore after becoming a mage.

Time slipped away quietly during Matthews and Asolun's cultivation, and a year passed in the blink of an eye. On this day, Matthews was still familiarizing himself with his blade technique, hoping to integrate the Light as Heavy concept he had grasped into his everyday attacks.

The Battle Qi within his body suddenly accelerated as he practiced, and once the set of blade techniques was finished, Matthews quietly felt the circulation of his Battle Qi. Everything broke through naturally.

"Boss, did you break through?"

Asolun felt his boss's suddenly enhanced aura and asked the question happily. Matthews nodded calmly and replied, "Yes, your boss has broken through to a level 8 warrior!"

"Hahaha, that's great. I've been wanting to go out and challenge a level 7 magic beast for a long time!"

Matthews heard the excitement in Asolun's tone. For the past year, they had been cultivating in this canyon. Asolun had long wanted to wash away his previous humiliation and challenge the Iron-Armored Dragon again.

"Alright, it's time to move on!"

After Matthews and his companion left the canyon, Asolun specifically sought out a level 7 Iron-Armored Dragon to fight. After a long struggle, he used the Water Blade Technique to kill the beast, only then following Matthews in high spirits as they continued deeper into the Magic Beast Mountain Range.

"Huh, there's someone ahead!"

Hearing Matthews say this, Asolun subconsciously asked, "Boss, should we kill them?"

"No, it looks like an old acquaintance."

As Matthews and Asolun approached, the level 8 mage also discovered them and immediately became alert.

"Hey, I didn't expect to run into you here!"

The mage opposite them frowned; he didn't remember knowing the person in front of him. However, Matthews remembered very clearly: this mage was the fire-element mage who had been imprisoned with them and later auctioned off alongside them.

"Don't come any closer, I don't know you!"

"Hmm? Didn't we get locked up together by the Maple Leaf Slave Group in the Bright Empire?"

Seeing the person opposite him say this, the fire-element mage finally recalled that dark, unbearable history he preferred to forget. Because he was lustful, he had been seduced by a beautiful woman. After being drugged, he was fitted with magic-suppressing shackles and sold to the Maple Leaf Slave Group.

Only after realizing this did he carefully look at Matthews. Because of his warrior training over the years, Matthews' physique was somewhat different from before, but his facial structure was still recognizable.

He asked uncertainly, "And then?"

"We were auctioned off by the Bright Auction House, and afterwards, we were saved by someone unknown. By the way, you mages are really valuable. I was only worth 100,000 gold coins, but you were worth 200,000!"

Hearing Matthews say this, the young man confirmed that this person was indeed someone who had suffered with him.

He immediately smiled and said, "It really is you! We all thought you were dead when you jumped into the river back then!"

Matthews chatted with him casually. After sitting down, Matthews took out some meat, cut a piece for him, took one for himself, and asked, "Speaking of which, I jumped into the river, but how did you escape?"

Seeing Matthews eat the meat, the young man picked up the piece he had been given and started eating.

"Heh, actually, you didn't need to run at all. The ones who saved us were the Divine Beast Sect; the ones who captured us were the Church of Light!"

Hearing this, Matthews immediately felt lucky. If he hadn't been saved by the Divine Beast Sect—he had read the original story—the Church of Light would have sacrificed pure souls or used powerful bodies for an angel descent.

His body back then had clearly reached the peak of level 6, and with a bit more tempering, it could have reached level 7. The Church of Light could have easily used his body to descend a level 9 or Saint-level angel.

In this light, he and the Church of Light were enemies, and he wouldn't mind killing a few members of the Church of Light to vent his anger.

"Oh, is that so? My name is Matthews. And you?"

The fire-element youth smiled and said, "My name is Lucas."

"Nice to meet you. If there's a chance in the future, let's team up to wipe out the Maple Leaf Slave Group!"

Lucas nodded and continued, "Wiping out the branch that held us captive back then wouldn't be a problem, but the Maple Leaf Slave Group seems to have Saint-level experts behind them. They have influence in the Bright Empire, the Divine Beast Empire, and the Dark Empire. We can't afford to offend them!"

After hearing what he said, Matthews remembered. They had influence even in the capital of the Furio Empire under the rule of the Divine Beast Sect, and this group had even arrogantly intercepted him back then.