Leonel didn't react much to all of the eyes on him. He was much more interested in learning what was going on here. This place looked so beautiful, but judging by the fact they were all at least a hundred meters away from the nearest riverbank, nothing was as simple as it seemed.
"Hello." Leonel spoke first. Though he didn't think the amiable smile he had on right now was helping very much considering the fact he was wearing a mask, he still used it out of force of habit.
??
Those of the Southern Lookout responded to Leonel's greeting with awkward nods, while those of the Eastern Lookout didn't say much of anything. Most were only curiously observing Leonel, however, the young man in question walked by them all and approached the closest riverbank.
"Indomitable, wait!"
Surprisingly, it was Roaring Black Lion who called out. Hearing the voice, Leonel couldn't help but stop and look back.
"It's dangerous. There's a group of creatures hidden in the lake led by an exceptionally powerful leader. Some of us almost lost our lives."
When he was saying these words, Roaring Black Lion sent glares toward the Eastern Lookout youths once again. They had reached this place long before they had, yet hadn't said a word. Obviously, he had more than just one grievance with this group of people.
Leonel nodded. "Got it. Just want to check something."
Leonel turned back and continued to walk forward. Roaring Black Lion didn't try to stop him again, he had already done all he could. Plus, it wasn't like he could stop Leonel by force.
It wasn't long before Leonel had made it to the side of the closest river. He tried to reach in with his Internal Sight, but he suddenly found that passing it through water was a lot different than air. In fact, his range was reduced by a factor of ten, barely stretching down a couple tens of meters.
In truth, this should have been enough to make it to the bottom of most rivers. But, the issue was that not only was this river much deeper than usual, but even if it wasn't, the fact was that there was still the rest of its length and width to deal with. Even if he could see to the bottom, he could still only look to the left and right a few tens of meters.
It didn't take Leonel long to decide that it was a fruitless endeavor. Instead of continuing to do something useless, he flipped his palm, causing the corpse of a deer with particularly sharp antlers to appear in his hands.
The others were stunned by this. Some even had eyes that gleamed with curiosity and greed, most of whom came from the Eastern Lookout. It wasn't that those of the Southern Lookout were better people, it was just that they knew enough about Leonel to not foolishly think of stealing his things.
Spatial treasures were already innately high grade treasures. They were all at least A-grade treasures. But, this alone wasn't enough for the to turn their greedy eyes toward Leonel. The most important point was how large of a space Leonel's spatial treasure must have.
What they didn't know was that this carcass wasn't taken from Leonel's spatial bracelet, but rather from his Segmented Cube.
In recent days, Leonel was really lamenting not knowing more about the Segmented Cube earlier. It was actually able to house Little Tolly just fine even while within his spatial ring. Had he known this earlier, he could have stored Aina inside it while he escaped that day instead of sending her off to some unknown world.
But at this point, he could only sigh. It wasn't like he could go back in time.
Leonel turned his attention back to the riverbank. Then, with strength that surpassed a normal human, he tossed the deer carcass toward it.
The reaction was immediate.
The calm surface churned. In one moment, there was not a life form in sight. But, in the next moment, the water suddenly fell as though a pit hole had appeared at its bottom. Then, a massive mountain of blue shot up.
Beneath the towering wave of water, Leonel could faintly catch a glimpse of beautiful, reflective blue scales.
Without hesitation, he pulled out his pistol, shooting a single normal shot. He thought that this would be all he needed to end things. But the result was far outside of his expectations.
DING!
Leonel's shot didn't even leave a dent. It rebounded off, causing Leonel to look in shock as his shot landed on a nearby patch of grass, burrowing into the soil.
After a moment, Leonel smirked.
'Well, good thing I picked that beast in particular.'
The massive scaled creature fell back into the waters, causing waves to flood over the sides toward Leonel. However, he didn't move, weathering the storm.
"… What is he doing?"
This was a question many of the youths were asking each other. Why was he standing in such a dangerous place? It should be obvious that normal methods weren't enough now.
KKKKKKKUUUUUAAAAAAAAAA!!
'There it is.'
Leonel's gaze gew focused. This was exactly what he was looking for.
'Don't blame me.' Leonel grinned to himself. 'I've lost count of the number of times I've gotten fish bones caught in my throat. Consider this a little payback.'
The rage of the massive beast shook the river. Leonel could imagine its pain. That deer he had fed it was no joke. Leonel had defeated it easily, but after testing the strength of its sharp antlers, the result shocked even him.
One could imagine the damage it could do inside that creature's stomach.
However, this wasn't all Leonel wanted. He was still biding his time, still waiting.
By now, the other youths realized that Leonel had done something. As for whatever it was, it was clear that it was very effective.
'There it is!'
The creature surged up once again, doing whatever it could think of to try and alleviate the pain it was suffering.
At that moment, Leonel did the unthinkable and jumped into the air with it.