Chapter 772: Higher Humans & Lower Humans - 2

Chapter 772: Higher Humans & Lower Humans - 2

The moment Tarun and Gunther’s eyes landed on Leo, their expressions hardened.

"Who did this?" Tarun asked immediately, crouching beside Leo and touching the wound on his chest.

Both immediately recognised the energy plaguing the wound and hindering Leo’s healing.

"Arrgghh..." Leo tried to sit up but coughed up blood. He was trying to say something, but the blood in his mouth and windpipe wouldn’t allow him to speak.

"Stay still. I’ll heal you," Gunther said, extending his hand.

An intricate magic circle glowed green beneath Leo.

With Gunther’s vastly superior healing magic, which surpassed Aric’s level by a considerable margin, Leo’s wound began to close rapidly.

"L-Lily! That person went for—cough! For Lily! Back in the territory!"

Tarun, who had been crouching beside Leo, disappeared on the spot.

"Kid, do you know what kind of attack hit you?" Gunther asked, supporting Leo as he sat upright after his wounds had healed.

"Some kind of divine attack... similar to Azrakar’s attack that wiped out our team during the competition... I felt the similarities, but this one was strange..." Leo replied, collecting himself as he reread the system’s notification.

If not for the risk of exposing the system, Leo would have already bombarded Gunther with questions.

The first was obviously about this new Human Monarch—Aethon Veyr Malakar. Wasn’t Louis the only known strongest Human Emperor? And also, wasn’t Emperor the highest-ranked being? How had another one suddenly appeared out of nowhere—not to mention, a Monarch—one who could even have subjects to whom he could bestow power?

But Gunther would obviously throw the same questions back at Leo, asking how he had got that information.

Gunther scanned Leo to check for any hidden injuries.

"Professor, was he some kind of demon? Because, as far as I know, humans don’t have any god from whom we can draw power."

Gunther sighed.

"We knew the time to tell you these things was drawing closer, but we didn’t know it would happen so soon..." Gunther said, shaking his head.

"Those people seem to be getting more hostile, considering we’ve started making progress at an accelerated rate."

"Those people?" Leo frowned.

"Hmm, how do I put it?" Gunther looked up, as if searching for the right words.

"Well, Emperor Louis will eventually explain everything to you in detail. For now, just know that..." Gunther paused, his eyes growing serious.

"Not all humans are part of humanity."

Both of Leo’s eyebrows shot up. He remembered someone saying the same thing!

"Professor Katherine... she once said the same thing..."

"Hm? Well, it’s not false."

"And also," Gunther continued, "saying that they aren’t part of humanity is a bit misleading. They are... but not in the conventional sense. Ahh... It’s hard to explain these things to you when you don’t know anything about World Cores. So, in short, the person who attacked you under the cover of an Individual Bounty wasn’t part of the humanity we belong to."

After a dramatic pause, Gunther continued.

"And the part of humanity that the attacker... I think his name was Aric... belongs to a being who sits on a pedestal equal to a demigod, thanks to his special talent and gift. This allows that part of humanity to harness divine power through that being."

Leo blinked.

"Yeah, like I said, you won’t understand without the necessary knowledge."

At that moment, Tarun reappeared.

He was holding the chained sickle weapon in his hand.

"He escaped through teleportation," Tarun said, then looked at Leo. "Your girl is safe, but you need to be careful from now on. We cannot remove the mark this Aric fellow placed on you, which means your life will be in danger."

Leo understood that the mark Tarun meant was the one left by the divine attack. Such injuries let the owner of the divine essence track the victim’s whereabouts unless one’s own supporting divinity offset them.

Thankfully, the Heaven’s Gate Medallion would still transport Leo away before he received any fatal injury anywhere in the world, even against beings up to the High 8-star level.

"Go back to your territory and rest. We have some matters to attend to."

Leo nodded and teleported away.

Tarun looked at Gunther, and the two of them disappeared as well.

The next time they appeared, they were inside the academy building. It was a busy workplace, with people constantly moving around to keep everything running.

A person approached them.

"I need the person who put the Individual Bounty on the first-ranked freshman. Right now," Tarun ordered.

The person bowed and hurried away.

Soon after, two men approached them.

The second man, who looked wiry and exhausted, stiffened the moment he noticed Gunther but immediately masked his reaction.

"Good morning, Vice Principal Tarun and Professor—heek!"

Tarun immediately grabbed the man by the collar.

"Are you going to tell us, or should I make you open up?" Tarun demanded, his eyes blazing with fury. His other hand was raised, with an extremely thin icicle pointing directly at the man’s eye.

The other office staff went still, watching the scene with frightened expressions. With Tarun present, the room’s temperature was already dropping rapidly.

"V-Vice Principal! W-what did I do?!" the man stammered in panic.

"Hey, do you know who I am?" Gunther spoke up from the side, staring straight into the man’s eyes with a dead-serious expression.

At that moment, everyone suddenly remembered Gunther’s epithet—The Mind’s Mirror.

He could read people’s minds as easily as reading a book.

The man’s complexion turned pale, and he even pissed his pants.

"I-I’m terribly sorry, s-sir! S-somebody paid me a huge sum anonymously to put the bounty up at a particular time! I don’t know anything else!!" he blurted out in panic.

"I didn’t think it was anything serious! Please let me go! I won’t do it again!"

While the man begged for his life, Tarun looked towards Gunther.

Gunther studied the man intently, then nodded. The man was indeed telling the truth.

"Please! I don’t know wha—"

Cachk!

An icicle jutted out from the man’s head, killing him instantly as his body went limp.

Thud!

Tarun dropped the corpse.

After that, both men turned and walked away, leaving the office staff frozen in place.

"Are they getting scared?" Tarun asked.

"Might be. Over the past few decades, our expansion and efficiency have improved considerably. The only thing holding us back is a representative... but with Leo’s appearance..."

"And what are they going to do?" Tarun asked with a slight curve to his lips.

"Those so-called higher humans... fucking cowards."