"Huh?"
The first group was stunned to find that there was already a group standing in the small clearing. They immediately put their guards up, thinking that they would have to fight for the treasure before they could even lay eyes on it.
However, that was when a second and a third group appeared.
The tense atmosphere only grew worse.
Leonel looked up. When a few saw his face, they were quite shocked.
While it was a toss up whether or not a senior would recognize Leonel's face, freshmen, especially those who had yet to join a Peak before the rule changes, were a completely different story. After all, because of Leonel, many of them hadn't gotten a good night's rest for weeks. If they didn't know him, they'd be way too ignorant.
The freshmen's gazes flickered with some hints of confusion and hesitancy. Unlike the seniors of Valiant Heart, they hadn't been here for long enough to understand a lot of the rage around Leonel. They simply followed the flow in most cases. Those of them that looked down on Leonel were just going along with the crowd.
But while it was easy to do this when amongst their own friends and their private groups, when faced with the man himself, especially when his fingers were working on the corpse of a massive Titan Hyena, they suddenly couldn't find the words to say.
"Moos." Leonel spoke. "Explain the situation to them, you understand it all far better than I do."
"Ah! Yes!"
Moos, the third freshman amongst Irolana and Ingkath, began to explain things from the very beginning. As he began, Leonel put up a small silencing barrier that only allowed sound in but not out and handed the dictionary to Aina.
As his fingers worked, he began to pepper the dictionary with questions about the Oryx Tribe. He realized that knowledge was power a long time ago. The fact he knew nothing about the Oryx could come back to bite him very soon.
Leonel wasn't arrogant enough to believe that he could take on whoever the Oryx Tribe had sent.
Whoever they dared to send so deep into Valiant Hall Mountain's territory was definitely extraordinarily skilled. Beyond that, who said that there was just one?
Leonel had a feel that this matter was far larger than he knew.
'So it's like this…' Leonel's eyes narrowed, his fingers never stopping. By now, he had already formed over a hundred arrow heads.
He split one mind toward thinking of what Force Arts were best suited toward it, focused another on the discussion between Moos and the others, another was trained on his surroundings, and the last focused on the words of the dictionary. The more he learned about the Oryx, the more he was intrigued. It seemed that he had finally met a non-human humanoid race.
Leonel quickly summarized what he had learned.
The Oryx were the original race on this world, it wasn't until later that Valiant Heart was established.
This was quite rare for this quadrant. No, for this entire galaxy.
The Milky Way was a galaxy of humans, the population of other races and species was quite low unless one counted beasts. But even then, the beasts one could find here were decidedly less mystical than one could find in other galaxies.
The Oryx were known for their superior strength, their three eyes, and especially the metal skeleton. The uniqueness of this world in being 90% land allowed the birth of certain special Ores that triggered the evolution of the Oryx down this path.
When coming to this point, Leonel couldn't help but wonder if the Morales family evolved in this way as well. He couldn't help but draw comparisons even though the Oryx were still definitely inferior in this regard.
What intrigued Leonel even more than this, though, were the eyes of the Oryx. According to the dictionary, that was one line of their evolution that was rapidly progressing with each generation.
Apparently there was a special term for this. The dictionary knew it as Hyper Evolution.
Hyper Evolution appeared rarely in the history of a species. It allowed the process of evolution that usually took billions to trillions of years to complete to have massive leaps every generation.
Hyper Evolution usually targeted a single trait and allowed it to progress quickly. But, obviously, it wasn't helping the Oryx see a wider range of colors, so what was it building up to?
Leonel shook his head, even the dictionary couldn't predict the future, and neither could he, so there was no use in wasting time speculating.
If a species entered a state of Hyper Evolution, they would either rise to the top in one shot or fall to the wastes of history. As a non-human species, the Oryx most definitely had a tall mountain to climb, especially since most Hyper Evolutions ended in failure.
'Is this why they're suddenly making such large movements?' Leonel's gaze narrowed, dispelling the sound proof barrier around him.
"… All of you should know about how dangerous the Oryx Tribe is, we've suffered at their hands too many times despite their populations being a mere fraction of our own."
'A fraction?' Leonel frowned. 'During Hyper Evolution, fertility is also increased for a period of time. But, even the dictionary can't tell me how long they've been in Hyper Evolution for, its too loose a concept…'
"Are you trying to tell us to trust you all? Let's say the Oryx Tribe is making such a big move so deep in our territory, who are we supposed to follow exactly? Him?"
The young man who spoke was called Senior Lu despite also being a black belt freshman. Maybe he was emboldened by the respect his 'juniors' gave him, but he pointed toward Leonel whose hands were still moving like striking lightning.
At that moment, the group had already grown to almost 30 and more were still arriving.
Having finished going through the entire skeleton, Leonel whipped out his quill and began to write at a blazing pace. But, his actions left 'Senior Lu' feeling stifled.
Leonel continued to work, his eyes locked onto this Senior Lu.
Regaining his composure after realizing the Leonel didn't dare to do anything to him here without fear of losing the support of the crowd, Senior Lu continued to speak.
"I'm not one to cast judgment, but I'm sure many of you were there that day when Senior Raylion gave his speech. If we follow this man, won't we just end up like cannon fodder to fuel his escape?
"Remember, he is the one who called us here. He needs OUR help. Why should we risk ourselves for the benefit of his safety? I've seen this play out way too many times.
"If he wants our trust despite his terrible reputation, he needs to prove himself. He should be taking up the most dangerous tasks and heading the vanguard, or else won't he just be using us?"