Her long white hair, flowed gracefully, walking in her blue eyes seemed to pierce through Vesper as a soft smile adorned her face, increasing her beauty by another level.
"Good morning, how are you feeling?" Catherine asked.
"Good morning Princess, I was okay but now that I see you, I feel in the best condition." Vesper replied with a teasing smile plastered across his face.
Catherine bowed her head as her face flushed with a red hue, Vespers words did hit a nerve, and a happy one at that.
"Big brother, do you not think it is bad to flirt like this in the morning, especially when you look like that." Aurora's voice came from the door, as she rested on the door with folded arms looking at both of them with a playful smile.
"Little lass, what do you mean looking like that, this big brother of yours is uncontested in terms of looks in the whole of the realm." Vesper replied with an indignant tone.
Catherine let out a stifled laughter, she never thought that Vesper had a playful side, growing up he was always silent and with Aurora, taking every insult and mockery without fighting back.
Vesper turned to see Catherine laughing without holding it any longer. Then he smiled as he said, "Well ladies, I must go wash up now, I really look like a mess, Vesper said as he walked into his wash room.
A few minutes later Vesper, Catherine and Aurora were at the Royal hunting grounds, it was a forest that bordered the eternal forest, this was where Vesper was found by Amara.
"Okay girls, we would just hunt at the perimeter, I want to get some rare materials and herbs so we would have to reach the outer layer of the eternal forest. Be careful, don't stray too far from the group." Vesper said to the two girls by him.
They nodded as the three of them departed into the forest, a few hours passed and the three of them stood in front of a river. Across it was a forest as well, but that was the eternal forest. The river was the border between the eternal forest and the royal hunting ground.
"Well, we would have to cross, but do not stray too deep." Vesper said as he stepped back, then he channelled his mana and his rank became exposed, apprentice rank mid stages.
Catherine and Aurora were shocked at the reveal, they knew Vesper recently started controlling mana, but to leave the novice rank to the mid stages of apprentice rank was beyond absurd.
"Do not think too much, I would explain what happened to the two of you when we get back to the castle." Vesper said, looking at the other side.
He then bolted and jumped the river, Catherine and Aurora followed behind but unlike him who landed with a loud thud, the both of them landed gracefully and quietly.
"What now brother?" Aurora asked as they scanned their surroundings.
"Now, we hunt." Vesper waved his hands as his halberd appeared.
Catherine and Aurora waved their hands and a battle axe and a one handed sword landed on their hands.
Without a word Vesper moved into the forest with astonishing speed, Catherine and Aurora followed him.
After a few minutes, they stopped as they saw a group eight of poison claw panthers. The panthers had black fur with golden eyes, their claws were black, one cut from their claw would render inject a venom that slows than the response speed of a person.
Aurora's blade blazed with fire as she slashed, while Catherine moved at an insane speed sweeping her axe in an arc, separating the head of one of the panthers from its body.
"I knew she was strong, but this is insane." Vesper said to himself. Then he closed his eyes and concentrated on his halberd.'
With a single piercing motion, a sharp aura moved from the tip of the halberd and three of the creatures fell down with a large gaping hole on their body.
Aurora slashed downwards as the flame in her sword engulfed the panther she was fighting.
The three panthers left, saw the strength of the humans they fought and ran into the forest.
"Vesper waved his hands as the bodies of the five panthers disappeared. "Let us get to that tree." Vesper said as he used his halberd to point a tree that was about fifty meters away from their current position.
Catherine and Aurora nodded and they bolted in that direction, along with Vesper. As they got closer to the tree, Vesper felt perception screamed danger as he bent down and screamed at the two girls.
"Dodge now!"
Without hesitation, both girls dodged by rolling on the ground when a beam of white light flashed above their bodies and blasted the trees behind them.
Looking forward the three of them saw a five meter tall wolf with white and green fur, Vesper and his group tensed when they saw this creature.
Then Vesper crouched as his eyes gazed on the creature with a wary look.
"That is the Grove Guardian, but why is it at the outer perimiter, is it not supposed to be closer to the mother tree?" Vesper asked.
"Vesper, what should we do now? That creature is in the peak stage of adept rank, and it has a terrain advantage, we would not fight that thing without getting severe injuries." Catherine said.
"I have a plan, both of you run back when I give you the signal." Vesper said.
"Brother, first what is your plan?" Aurora asked.
"Well, I would use myself as bait, while both of you make a run for it." Vesper replied.
"No."
"Not happening."
Both girls replied with a tone that gave no leeway for a refusal.
"Except you want three of us to get severely injured, and did the two of you forget I have a life saving artefact already?" Vesper said.
"So both of you go, I would not endanger myself yet, I am still young and just got a second chance at life." He continued.
"Fine." The girls replied.
Vesper jumped into the view of the guardian world and bolted towards with then threw a rock at its head drawing its attention.
"Now." He said as he ran to the right while the enraged wolf chased him.
The two ladies ran back to the imperial hunting ground to alert the guards.
After Vesper ran, he turned to see the wolf staring at him with a strange gaze.
"So it was you after all, no wonder I got a familiar scent." A voice said in his head.
"Who?" Vesper said as he turned around.
"In front of you, foolish boy." The voice replied.