Insignificant Value

Next to a small stream in which the clearest water that can be found runs through, a clearing that houses a mansion can be seen.

Within this mansion, all but the guards lay asleep. Well, all but one maid walking through the halls carrying a huge plate filled with light snacks and even some of the sweets that would rarely be brought to the Battlefield.

Taking the stairs toward the third floor the maid arrives before slightly large double doors. Taking a deep breath, the maid then lifts her head... err 'His' head as he gazes on the door that would be the last hurdle.

'I already spent a long time here, a lot more than what I had in mind. I must take back the core; else I would have wasted all this precious time for nothing.'

Yes its precisely Yu wearing the maid's costume, trailing behind him was the wolf, he had spent a long time sneaking around, especially when getting the food so as to not alert anyone and when putting the body in another unused room.

His plan, very simple, get them to let down their guard and have the wolf pounce on them as they wouldn't have any time to react.

'Simple but fast'

Rather than wasting time coming up with solutions he decided to be straightforward

'Also I didn't come up with a better idea in the last hour, but that's merely a secondary reason, yup'

With slight confidence Yu knocks on the door and opens it, when he did he lowered his hat so they wouldn't see his face.

"Who is.. oh Melis what are you doing at this hour."

He hears a gruff voice calling out to him, but as he can't imitate a female's voice, let alone of one he never heard, he kept silent and continued onward.

"Oh you got us some snacks nice, hehe you're so nice to us Melis"

Hearing the other voice laugh in delight, Yu guesses his trick worked but as cautious as he is he still keeps his slow pace toward them.

"Wait what's that behind you? NO MELIS WATCH OUT"

One of the guards' screams as he rushes to push Yu out of the way, taking a bite from the wolf to his shoulder in the process, but before the wolf can maul his shoulder the other guard rushes up and slams the wolf with his shield knocking the wolf back a few steps.

As for Yu, the shout had drained him of all colour, but as he saw what the situation turned out to be he suddenly felt an opportunity. Unsheathing his knife, he sneaked toward the nearest guard.

By this time the guard with the shield was entangled with the wolf, while the other guard had just finished summoning his Contracted Soul and called out to the other guard.

"Get back and summon your Contracted Soul I alrea.. Kugh..."

Lowering his gaze, the guard sees a knife plunged into his throat, shock, fear, and anger rush through his mind as he turns back to see a youth backing off to the core before his vision turned dark.

With a thud the guard fell to the ground while his Contracted Soul had already been summoned, a large size cat stood ferocious gazing at the body of its dead master before furiously starting to thrash it with a vengeful look on its face.

When the other guard turned to look back at his comrade and saw this scene he madly flew into a rage and charged at the perpetrator, the youth.

Although he was some distance from the youth, he was nonetheless leagues faster thus reaching him before he reaches the core wouldn't be out of the question.

Noting this the wolf was hot in pursuit, and it would definitely reach the guard before he the youth.

At this time a clamour can be heard at the stairs with several loud shouts, apparently the head guard and the ones from the first floor had all summoned their Contracted Souls and were on their way to up.

With the reassurance of support coming the guard jumps over the cat and headed straight toward the youth triggering a response from the cat, fortunately for him or unfortunately for the wolf, the cat lashes out on the incoming wolf as it sensed far more danger from it than the guard.

While describing this might take a while, it only happened in 5 seconds since the fall of the first guard.

While 5 seconds might seem trivial in our day to day lives, these 5 seconds were a roller coaster of emotions for Yu, who had been running as fast as his feet could take him, from suspense to anxiousness to relief to pure dread, as the guard got closer and closer.

Finally, the core was within an arm's reach, but the guard's mace was already in front of Yu's face, even though all he had to do was stretch his arms to save his life he had already run out of time. Again an insignificant value, barring him from his life.

'No, I don't want to die again, not again!'

Peng-

A metal rebound rang out in the hall followed by a low rumble that went through the mansion signalling the end of its visitors stay.

The hall suddenly quieted down all of a sudden and only the sounds from the wolf and the cats battle could be heard.

Yu stared in a daze at the dome surrounding him, holding the core in one hand while supporting himself on the pedestal with the other. Suddenly he fell to the ground with a plop and broke into a fit of laughter.

"haha ...hahaha..hehehahahaha"

Tears rolled down his eyes as he rejoiced the fact that he is still alive, the fact that he escaped death, the fact that he wouldn't have to go through that painful experience called death once again.

A crash then woke him from his absent-minded laugh, turning around he saw the wolf bloodied fighting a slightly less bloodied cat which instantly brought him back to the current situation.

"Come here and enter the Shield, it will be easier to fight it from here "

The wolf looked in his direction and after some hesitation decided to forsake the fight and ran toward the shield while the cat scored some hits on the wolfs back.

"Once you get close dive in and then attack back as fast as you can. trust me on this"

The wolf flared its nostrils at Yu but still did as he had said. Diving into the shield at the first chance then turning around to see the underbelly of the cat. A gleam flashed through the wolfs eyes as it lunged forward and ripped open the cat's stomach letting its intestines fall to the floor with a mad howl, followed by an intense banging one the shield.

But a shield like this can't even be scratched by Gold rank Soul Beasts let alone a weak bronze rank cat.

Thus the wolf and the youth stood in the safety of the shield watching the cat slowly lose out its life.

'Beasts would jump at others when they present a weakness, thus the moment the wolf landed would be the best timing, that is in instinct and even when their mad they would still take the opportunity.'

Yu had utilized the Soul Beasts instincts against it which ended in having it showing one of its weakest spots to its enemy when it got sprawled on the shield after the jump.

Looking over at the body of the wolf Yu noticed the many wounds covering it, if left as it is, it would certainly leave a long injury if it wasn't a Guardian Beast, but even then it would take some time to recover.

"Eat the cats body I'll go look for any herbs they might have left"

Disabling the shield Yu starts walking out of the hall, passing over the dead man's body in a nonchalant attitude.

Upon reaching the second floor he headed straight toward Kore's room.

Upon entering the room Yu notices The extravagant setup, a white large-sized bed, a mirror table, wardrobe filled with frilly cloth and a cabinet with many items in it.

Ignoring all the fancy decor Yu heads straight toward the cabinet messily searching around until he found what he was looking for.

He then returns to the third floor to see the wolf standing in front of the cat that was a breath away from death, deliver the life-ending strike with pride in its eyes.

Weng~

Light shines on both Yu and the wolfs body signalling a rank up, much to Yu's surprise which doesn't stem the fact that the wolf ranked up, as indeed it had killed two Soul Beasts outranking it and it already had been through battles before as a 3-star bronze rank.

What surprised him the most was his own rank up which would mean his grimoire had indeed reset as fights like these counted as nothing toward silver ranks.

"Well this turns out for the better"

As the previous owner had his Soul Beasts die on the hands of that genius youth, the pages of the grimoire had been damaged, thus marring any more contracts being made using them, which in return crippled him.

"This means that I'm 4 starts bronze rank. as for the wolf..."

Summoning his grimoire Yu takes a look at the wolfs portrait, noting the 2 stars on the top he smiles a bit before proceeding to walk toward the wolf.

"Il apply this medicine on you, it might hurt but endure it a bit, and drink this supplement while you're at it."

as he reached to pet the wolf it suddenly growled and dogged his hand, then with slight anger in its eyes it walks to the cat and starts eating away.

"Sigh well the rank up healed you a bit anyway so I guess you don't need this as much"

Realizing that he still had a long way to go before amending for the past owner's grievance, he sighed and pocketed the medicine before making his way downstairs to search the rest of the mansion so as to get back to his own as fast as he could.