Chapter 143: New S-Grade Awakener
"You can get out now!"
Desther stated with a calm voice as he turned toward a particular direction.
After saying that, the bushes dozens of meters away trembled as a figure emerged from within with a wry smile.
"Boss, I swear I just got here, I did not see or hear anything at all. My eyes are closed, my ears are blocked, and my lips are sealed," Noah hurriedly explained as soon as he got out from the bushes.
"I know."
Desther stated calmly without a change of expression. With his Sense skill, he had actually 'seen' him from around two hundred meters away. At first, he actually did not know who it was, but the closer Noah inched toward them, the more he recognized him inside his 'vision'.
Noah heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing that Desther did not try to blame or interrogate him. He was just worried that he would be accused of something he did not do. As a matter of fact, the only thing he heard from their conversation was the part where Desther told Lexie to get in touch.
Since he already 'guessed' what was going on between the two, he did not think that it was a big deal hearing them say that to each other, and for that, he was quite sure and certain.
What Noah did not know, though, was that all of his speculations were actually not the truth and just mere speculations he concluded from bits of pieces of information and his own assumptions and interpretations toward certain matters.
Since he did not mention this to Desther, or to Lexie, or to anyone else, there was no way the two would be able to correct his thinking. Not that they would necessarily correct him, though—especially Lexie.
He immediately ran toward the treehouse's direction the moment he heard the explosion earlier. It took him some time, but he ultimately arrived and was even lucky enough to meet the two of them here.
As for why they could not be contacted earlier, he just assumed that they were busy doing something and could not pick up their phone because of it.
"Boss, have you heard of that explosion earlier?"
Desther merely nodded his head upon hearing his question.
Well, not only did he hear it, he was actually one of the main causes of it. Cornering a Tier 3 monster as a Tier 1 Awakened, making it decide to self-destruct, was something that needed not to be bragged of, but if known by others, would surely go as a legendary feat.
"That explosion is from the valley, right? Didn't you and the Lady Boss go there to hunt something? No disrespect but for a moment, when the explosion happened, I actually thought that the two of you were caught up in it. I'm glad to see you alive and kicking, though."
Desther did not know whether he would be grateful or not based on his words. One moment he sounded worried, the next moment he sounded as if he expected something bad would happen to him.
Inwardly, though, he knew that Noah was just expressing his concern toward them, so he did not take it to heart.
However, since when did he start calling Lexie, the 'Lady Boss?'
Too lazy to explain anything, Desther did not comment on his words and instead asked a question of his own as he gestured for Noah to follow him.
"Any notable news regarding those S-grade talents?"
Since his phone was already a goner, Desther wanted to inquire in regard to the general situation around the school and in the world.
The buzz with the S-grade talents was at the top recently, so he assumed that Noah was following updates for those too.
Hearing that, Noah nodded his head.
"Yes, boss. As a matter of fact, Russia, or the Brown Bear Alliance, has also announced an S-Grade Awakener of their own. And what's astonishing about it is that unlike the Celestial Kingdom, they actually included the video of the awakener as proof."
Desther tilted his head upon hearing that. He actually expected the Freedom Federation to be the next to announce their S-grade awakener.
"Have you seen their ability? What was it like?"
"Well, it was not fully shown in the video. It's just that the guy can control black orbs that would explode upon contact. The power is actually insane, one bomb of his can actually obliterate a house without effort. I even thought he was a high-tier awakener in disguise. However, they have proof that he's still around seventeen and eighteen years old like us, so it's mostly true."
Noah felt a shiver run down his spine after recalling the video he had seen online. He had seen such destruction on the internet before, but never to that scale if the perpetrator was someone their age and had just awakened like them.
In times like this, Desther did not think that the Brown Bear Alliance would be able to fake their own S-Grade Awakener just to remain relevant. It would be easily exposed if they did so.
Based on Noah's description of that holder, he also thought that it was only befitting of an S-grade awakener to cause such a destruction.
That kind of destruction might not even be the end of it. Once that guy transitions to a class, it would also enhance his whole capability a few times over, making him even more deadly.
'Well, it's a good thing that S-grade awakeners are surfacing one after the other. But why do I feel like this is just the calm before the storm type of thing? Anyway, I hope I'm just overthinking it.'
The two strolled forward, conversing about recent topics.
Desther asked about the situation in regards to the current rankings and if Victor was still accepting that commission. He also asked if there was any relevant news in regard to the explosion earlier.
For all of that, Noah answered patiently.
"Yes boss. Victor has been inquiring earlier why we stopped supplying the points, but I just told him that we are just resting. As for the rankings, most of it remains unchanged, the Top 1 is now Victor, followed by the Lady Boss and that kid from Class D."
"As for that explosion, the school did not say anything about it yet, just that we are warned not to go there while they try to investigate what had happened."
"By the way, where are we going, boss?"