In the forest Hilda walks along the river, her hands bound behind her back. Marco follows behind her.

Popping a core into his mouth he feels his Aura slowly increasing. His Sharingan constantly scans the surroundings, looking for his next meal.

Suddenly Hilda stops walking.

Startled, Marco grips his saber, ready to draw it anytime.

“I'm hungry and thirsty!” Turning around she stares at Marco.

“Ok, but after this tell me about treasures”

“Untie me so I can eat.”

Not answering her, Marco pulls a piece of bread from the bag. Walking up to her, he holds it up to Hilda’s mouth. “Eat"

Hilda looks at his face for a moment, her gaze lingers on his scarlet eyes for a while. Seeing the three tomoe around his pupil she takes a bite of the bread.

After she finishes eating he pulls out the canteen and pours it into her mouth, his gaze never leaving her body in case she tries something funny.

A bit of water leaks from her mouth rolling down her chin, it travels down her neck and disappears into her robe. Following the path of the drop, his eyes land on her chest as it rises and falls from drinking.

Removing the bottle from her mouth he puts it back in his bag. “Ok that's enough, now walk and talk.”

With her lips moist from water, she turns around and stomps off.

“Treasure are just like techniques, they both have ranks. The ones I know are Unranked, Mortal, Earth, and Heaven. That saber you have is unranked and the sword is mortal ranked.” glancing over her shoulder she looks back “My whip that your holding onto is also mortal ranked.” turning back around she walks in silence.

“That's it??”

“What else do you want to know??”

“Why can I inject Qi into the sword but not the saber?”

“Ahhh you're hopeless.” shaking her head briefly, only the sound of the river and birds chirping reverberate in the area. “Treasures can be created at various levels by a skilled blacksmith, but you can still advance a low ranked treasure. Actually, hardcore cultivators prefer to advance an Unranked treasure from the beginning. Just like you infuse Qi into your body for foundation establishment, if you constantly pressure an unranked treasure with your Qi it will advance to a mortal ranked treasure. By doing so the treasures will be more compatible with you and show greater results. Its harder to advance treasures that are created at a higher rank. That's all I know”

“Well, that's good. I guess I'll just read the book later"

Hilda angrily turns around “You have a book and you still made me explain it to you!?!”

Smiling at her anger, he ignores her outburst. “You're the first female I've met and I really enjoy the sound of your voice.”

Hilda's cheeks turn slightly red from the complainant, a stark contrast from her blue eyes and hair. “How old are you?? 16? 17? How can I be the first female you've met? What about your mother!”

Marco shakes his head before pointing forwards “Walk"

Stopping her foot she turns around and continues to follow the river.

In a somber tone Marco speaks towards Hilda's back “I don’t have parents. It took two lives to create me, but I wouldn't call them my parents. I have inherited both their wills, and I plan to make use of the life I was given”

Not responding, she continues to walks.

Noticing nothing dangerous in the area, only birds and forest critters, Marco decides to try pressuring his saber.

Activating his unused Qi, he covers the saber in Qi and tries to pressure it. Qi completely surrounds the scabbard, it also seeps inside and surrounds the blade.

With all of his Qi gates open, his stamina decreases faster causing his Aura to diminish at a greater rate.

Qi doesn't enter the saber or scabbard but pressures it from all sides.

“I have nine cores left, so it should be ok.” Marco mumbles to himself.

“Did you hear that?” Hilda suddenly looks around.

“I was just talking to myself” Marco shakes his head, a little embarrassed.

“I don't mean you, listen!”

Furrowing his brow Marco stops using Qi on the saber and walks closer to Hilda, as she was a bit in front of him. His eyes never leave her in case she's trying something.

As he moves closer he begins to hear a low pitch squeaking noise and the sound of cracking trees.

“There's something over there, let's go take a look” grabbing Hilda by the upper arm he begins to pull her in the direction of the sound.

“I can walk by myself!” discomforted by the pulling she complains, but it falls on deaf ears.

Walking for a moment the cause of the noise comes into view. A small group of winged creatures is being chased by a large toad creature.

The toad has massive spikes growing out of its back and seven horns on its head. Every time it hops it leaves an impression in the ground. As it shoots out its tongue it either catches a winged creature, eating them or splits a tree trunk as it misses.

The winged creatures look like small humans with wings. Only two remain as one was eaten when they arrived, gobbled like a fly. One of the creatures has two wings. A larger pair pointing upward and a smaller pair pointing down. The other one has three pairs of wings. The same ones pointing up and down, but also a third medium sized pair filling the space in the middle pointing slightly upwards. With the three pair of wings, the creature looks more complete.

The toad shoots out its tongue again, seeing that it's going to hit them the two winged creature pushes the three winged creature away. The tongue hits the two winged creature instantly turning its body to jelly, as whatever skeletal structure it has disintegrated. The tongue retracts into the toad's mouth, eating the creature.

Seeing this Hilda screams “Dart toad and pixies!”

Hearing the scream the pixie begins flying in their direction, unknown if its seeking help or hoping to divert the attention. Naturally, the toad follows and they are both heading towards them now.

“We have to run!” Hilda becomes flustered “A Dart Toad is an iron level creature! The same as foundation establishment!”

“Iron level??” Marco’s eyes flash as he runs towards the beast.

Seeing this Hilda opens all six gates and rips through her bonds. Before she can run she notices Marco’s eyes on her, a look of disappoint on his face.

Marco never stopped being vigilant against Hilda, but he gave her a chance. If he could get an ally like her he naturally wouldn't be dissatisfied, so he tested her. This was the first open opportunity she could use to escape, and she took it without thinking twice. Disappointment washes over him but quickly fades, as he only knew her for a day.

His tomoe rotate and she drops to the ground.

Opening all four gates he faces the front. The pixie flies rather quickly towards him, the toad closely behind. The toad shoots his tongue but misses, striking nothing but air. As the tongue lashes a loud whipping sound echoes as it breaks the sound barrier.

Close enough Marco's tomoe begin rotating. The pixie flying towards him instantly drops. Marco catches it out of the air as he continues to run at the toad, staring it down.

With Hilda and the Pixi combined half of the Qi from the 2nd gate is used up. He uses the Qi from the other half of the gate on the toad, but it has no effect.

The toad is getting ready to launch his tongue again.

Catching every movement with his Sharingan he knows what the toad is about to do. Pouring in all the Qi from his 3rd gate the toad finally enters an illusion.

Trapped in an endless black abyss the toad looks around “RooAhhhhhh" as it roars cracks begin to appear in the ground and air.

Feeling that the illusion is about to break he pours in all the Qi from his 4th gate as well.

In the illusion, world chains erupt from the ground and wrap around the toad, but It still continues to struggle.

“Is the gap between levels this big!? 2 ½ gates of Qi and its still going to break out soon? No, my illusion skills are just too poor" shaking his head he holds the pixie in his left hand and with his right, he reaches into his bag. He brings out a blood dried core after core and eats all nine of them.

Aura surges through his body. He feels as though his Aura is now at the same level of his 3rd gate. At this time he finally arrives next to the toad. Drawing his saber he slashes down.

The blade skims it's tough skin, unable to break through. Seeing this Marco's eyes go wide. Returning the saber to the scabbard he turns and runs.

“Fuck! Even if I can trap it, I can't kill it!” running with all his might he arrives next to Hilda. He scoops her up and slings her over his right shoulder. He has no time to enjoy her body as he runs.

“The illusion can only trap it for around another few seconds tops! I need as much distance as possible!” following the river he runs with all his might.

20 seconds later he feels the illusion break. Using all of his now free Qi he runs even faster.

“ROAHHHHHHHH"

A loud roar reverberates through the forest.

Using all his Qi and running causes his Aura to drain faster than ever. After 20 minutes of nonstop running, he is unable to continue as his Aura is now gone. Gathering Qi quickly begins to sap his stamina. Looking around all he sees are the river, trees, and small animals.

Taking a breath he deactivates all his gates, except the ones needed for his Sharingan and to keep Hilda and the pixie in an illusion to lessen his stamina drain. Marco sets Hilda down against a tree trunk.

“Trapping stronger creatures completely in an illusionary world is going to be impossible” shaking his head he looks at the Pixie in his hand.

He finally gets a closer look at the pixie. She is about the size of his hand. She has thin transparent bug like wings and her ears look like the tail of a fish, except instead of two points they have three. One point going up, one in the middle pointing straight out, and one pointing down. Her hair is the color of grass and is braided into a long ponytail that runs down her back. Her skin is the color of pale green tea, she has thin eyebrows, and her dull upturned shaped eyes are solid red. She has a small Roman nose and tiny red cupid-bow lips. Her body looks like that of a girl just on a smaller scale. Small leaves are wrapped around her ankles, exposing her bare feet. Small leaves also wrap around her wrist. Some sort of tiny vines wraps around her chest, covering her moderate sides chest for her size. The same vines wrap around her crotch and hips forming pants. Her waist is exposed along with her small belly button.

“What a beautiful creature” using his finger he feels her body. Its as if she has no bones because her entire body is soft. Her skin is smooth with no blemishes and warm to the touch.

With his eyes he can see, even though this is a humanoid creature, in the center of its body is a tiny core.

Marco places the creature sideways into his mouth, his lips holding her by her torso and back, Her arms and legs dangling. As she enters his mouth a sweet feeling is transmitted to his tongue. His tongue travels over the side of her body in his mouth.

Suddenly his eyes go wide as he realizes why the toad was eating them. If he had lesser control he probably would take a bite.

His arms and legs turn into that of a Phoenix, using his claws he grabs Hilda and flies to the crown of the tree. Setting her down he lands and reverts his arms and legs, he then pulls the pixie out of his mouth, saliva cover half her body from licking her. Sitting down he pulls out a Qi stone knowing its a waste, but if he doesn't offset the stamina drain his Aura will never recover.

Looking at Hilda he shakes his head before entering her illusion.