Rebirth: The Shadow Of Greed

... Hirgram took a swig of alcohol and laughed as he left the room.

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Z bent down and went beside Odrunn's ear who was still sobbing away.

"Listen to me Odrunn, if you're seeking strength, I have a method that will help you grow exponentially, but with this method, it will bring you a lot of pain and suffering. Will you take this opportunity to become stronger? Or will you continue to just lay down crying?"

Z stood up over Odrunn as he extended his hand out to Odrunn offering to pull him up. This was the Odrunn's crossroad moment, it was the moment where he needed to make a decision. Odrunn steeled his nerves as he grabbed on to Z's hand pulling himself up.

Soli watched on to the side as she felt a shiver run down her spine. She had seen a lot of talented individuals where she came from, those who were good at leading, those who were good at fighting. But she'd never seen someone which such a great presence, it wasn't anything like a 14-year-old would have.

Z turned around after Odrunn stood up and looked at Soli.

"Using your manifest would improve your control, making you stronger. You're involved in the training too."

Soli nodded, she had wanted to become stronger and not be a burden, coming from someone who was unmanifested made her fire burn even more.

"Boss, what do we do now? What's the first thing on our agenda?"

Odrunn looked at Z with anticipation, if he was supposed to go through hell training, the least he could do was be prepared for it.

Z simply took out the meat he'd obtained from the tiger beast and he stared at the bear beast as he said,

"Dinner!"

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In a mansion somewhere,

"What do you mean?! What do you mean by you're raising your prices! It's just one brat, isn't it because of your incompetence that you've failed to kill him?"

Kyzil's mother shouted over the commswatch.

"Tsk Tsk Tsk, 3 of my men and dead, 1 of them is missing. These are not just regular foot soldiers we're talking about, they're highly trained warship level, dark hunters. So unless you lied and someone there is way past that level or someone is secretly protecting them, you had better increase your payment. I'll take care of it myself."

Addison said, with venom in his voice.

"Fine fine, just do what you must do. Make sure you get it done, otherwise my precious son won't love me anymore."

Kyzil's mother gave the order before hanging up her commswatch. She clutched her head before she started crying, she was upset that she didn't do a better job raising Kyzil, but it was her son. Her precious son, she'd spoil him every chance she had even if it cost her a lot of money and even though the other party was a son to a mother too.

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Z, Odrunn, and Soli sat around a fire inside the cave roasting the meat of the bear. They had already previously cooked up the meat of the tiger and are voraciously consuming it.

Odrunn wiped his greasy mouth with his sleeves as he chomped loudly on the meat that was in his mouth. He turned to look at Soli asking,

"Is the meat not good?"

"I'm just not used to it... Usually, the tiger meat should be braised or steamed, if it's just roasted over the fire, it gets a bit tough and is difficult to chew."

Z shook his head as he patiently replied.

"If we could braise it we would, but given our current predicament, it's good that we even have food to eat... Or would you prefer a nutrition bar?"

Soli blushed as she looked down on the ground,

"I mean, that's the way you cook these kinds of meat, I'm not saying we should eat it now... I'm not being picky, I'm just..."

Z walked picked up a piece of bear meat from over the fire and handed it over to Soli,

"This particular cut of the bear is really tender, you can have this. Leave all the tougher cuts of meat to Odrunn, he can heal his teeth if it breaks."

Odrunn looked up from his meat and gave Z a blank look before continuing his meal. Z walked over and sliced strips of meat off from the carcass of the bear, he tied the bones of the bear together to form a stand where he started to hang the strips of meat, he took the burning logs from the fire and placed them underneath the makeshift A-frame.

"Boss what are you doing?" Odrunn asked in curiosity looking at Z set up something weird in the corner."

"I'm smoking meat. If we were to leave it out for too long it will definitely spoil fast, I'm smoking the meat so that we have rations to last us while we find our way out of the Caverns. This will take a while to be done, let's head deeper in the cave, I think I saw something inside. It could be our ticket out of the cave."

The trio left the fire pit and walked deeper into the cave, Soli held on to the light orb as they ventured into the cave cautiously.

'Crunch'

A loud sound rang through the cave as Odrunn stepped into something brittle.

Soli immediately shining the light onto where Odrunn had previously stepped, noticed a long white item on the ground.

"It's a bone!"

Odrunn panicked and hid behind Z,

"Spirits of the cave, sorry sorry, I didn't mean to step on your bones!"

Z took a knee and inspected the bone,

"Seems like it's been here awhile I'm not entirely sure if it's the bone of a human being, let's go in further to see more."

Progressing further they gradually reached a dead end of the cave, Soli shined the light around the cave and eventually, her eyes widened as she saw the figure in front of her.