An Encounter

Ten days later, Reke had already crossed nearly ten thousand miles. He was less than a day's journey from leaving the grasslands.

In those ten days, the Dabusu Adventure Group had advanced less than two hundred miles since entering the Wild Grasslands.

They had faced danger at every turn, their hearts in their throats with every step. Their clothes were in tatters, and even Eighth's pristine wings had been damaged.

It was their first time entering the Wild Grasslands. The energy detector had already shown them that the beasts here were powerful; there were practically no creatures with a rating below 500.

Even so, they had underestimated this forbidden zone.

Individually, the beasts were nothing special, but they always appeared in packs.

After they fought their way free of one group, they hadn't gone far before running into another.

When night fell and they finally found somewhere to rest, they still couldn't relax, afraid the beasts would attack.

The leader looked at his younger siblings, each of them worn out, and said with a face full of remorse, "Your big brother led you all into this mess!"

"I was too full of myself. After throwing my weight around in the little city, I thought I knew what I was capable of. Then I dragged you all in here. Let's turn back now!"

The burly man fell silent, his spirits swiftly fading. He looked ten years older.

"Boss, it's not as if we can leave just because we want to," Fourth said, watching their surroundings with a grave expression.

Fourth was a pudgy man with a pointed head. Despite his appearance, his people were known for their psychic powers. Every member of his race had an ability that let them sense the bio-energy of creatures within a thousand meters.

The energy detector had been developed using his people's abilities as a template. Their own powers were more convenient to use, but the detector had a much greater range.

He had already sensed that they were surrounded. Bio-energy readings came from every direction.

"Fourth, find us the direction that'll be easiest to break through."

The leader and his group had never considered staying to fight to the death. By now, he had seen that the beasts here were endless. If they fought head-on, they would all die here.

The group gripped their respective weapons and waited for Fourth's answer, ready to break through.

As it happened, Reke was heading toward them, and the two groups were less than fifty miles apart.

As mentioned earlier, Reke's ki senses now covered a radius of a thousand meters, so he had no idea there was a group of intelligent beings ahead.

He carried a ten-ton boulder on his back, hopping along as he went.

The distance between them steadily shrank.

At the peak of one of his jumps, Reke spotted a cluster of black dots far ahead.

He had seen this sort of thing plenty of times and knew the beasts were hunting.

He had no intention of changing course. He hopped straight toward the black dots, planning to make a meal of the beasts.

"Boss, I can't go on. You all should leave."

Thirteenth was a slightly plump woman about one meter sixty tall.

She had been too slow to dodge moments earlier, and a beast had injured her left leg. Now she limped along.

Knowing clearly that she wouldn't make it out, she kept urging the others to flee. Meanwhile, she clutched her twin blades, ready to make one last stand and use her life to open a gap for her companions.

"Thirteenth, we're not abandoning you. Eighth Sister, take Thirteenth up into the sky."

The leader refused Thirteenth's suggestion and began issuing orders.

Hearing him, Eighth didn't hesitate. She rushed over, grabbed Thirteenth, and flew into the sky.

Thirteenth was about to struggle and ask her sister to put her down when she spotted a boulder moving in their direction in the distance.

It was hopping along, as if a pair of legs had grown out of the rock.

The bizarre sight stopped the words in her throat. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open as she stared in a daze.

As it drew closer, she shuddered and snapped out of it.

She shouted, "Over there... Look over there!"

Her voice, hoarse from shouting, caught the attention of every creature. They all looked in the direction she had pointed.

The beasts were the first to react. They scattered in a panic.

They abandoned even the food right in front of them, ignoring the roars of the king in the distance.

The members of the Budaso Adventure Team were stunned, their expressions identical to Thirteenth's. Only their leader reacted differently.

As if he were seeing things, he rubbed his eyes in disbelief, then looked again.

Good grief, all four of his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

Reke also noticed what was happening about two miles away.

He tossed aside the boulder and vanished. The next moment, he stood in front of the burly man, right between his two pairs of eyes.

When the leader saw Reke disappear, he turned his head and looked around, not noticing the small figure at his waist.

Reke looked at them and gave an awkward greeting. "Hello there."

The group jumped in fright and stumbled backward. Only after putting some distance between themselves and Reke did they see him.

He was a boy about one meter twenty tall, with a tail and a smile on his face as he looked at them.

The air instantly fell still. The group stared at Reke, and he stared back. No one spoke.

Reke realized this wasn't going to work. He had finally met intelligent beings, and he couldn't scare them witless. He put a friendly smile on his baby-faced cheeks.

He raised his right hand and waved. Assuming they might speak a different language, he tried again. "Hello! Can you understand what I'm saying?"

"Oh! Oh! Yes, I can."

The leader was the first to come around and answer.

Reke breathed a sigh of relief, thinking happily, What great luck. This planet not only has intelligent life, but we can communicate, too.

Looking at their attire, they seemed to have developed a civilization as well.

Aside from the leader, who had seen Reke training with the boulder on his back and understood how much power his small body held, the others had no idea.

Fourth asked, "Kid, why are you here alone? How did you appear just now?"

According to Fourth's psychic ability, the energy reading of the kid in front of him was no different from that of an ordinary child, so he wasn't nervous at all. Instead, he immediately started asking questions.

He trusted his ability too much to realize that the gap between him and Reke was like the distance between heaven and earth.

He couldn't detect Reke's true energy at all. He could only sense the bio-energy Reke was letting show: a battle power of 10.

Reke thought he seemed easy to talk to and replied, "I've always been alone. I came from another planet." He paused, then pointed at the boulder two miles away and continued, "As for how I got here, I ran over from there."

Reke had never even considered hiding where he came from.

He wanted to use this planet's technology to build a Gravity Chamber and a new spaceship based on his own ship.

"Don't joke around. Lying isn't a good habit for a kid," Fourth said, not believing him in the slightest. He found Reke amusing and chuckled.

Reke was at a loss for words. He looked at Fourth as if he were an idiot and let out a deep sigh.

"Sigh!"