Chapter 9: Meet Raphael

Leo didn’t pay much mind to Michael disagreeing with him. He had encountered this a lot, one more person wasn’t anything special.

“I feel you could be enlightened, you know.”

“Thanks, but I don’t need that kind of enlightenment.” Michael shook his head and refused. Whoever wanted to be a hero could go ahead, he didn’t want to.

Being a genie was tiring enough, going to be a revolutionary liberating others would kill him with exhaustion. He liked having a bit of fun, a bit of relaxation.

“Let’s not talk about these things for now. Hey, where’s your bronze oil lamp?”

Leo frowned, he remembered throwing the oil lamp on the ground earlier but now couldn’t see any trace of it.

“It’s temporarily hidden, you don’t need to worry about it.”

“So, do you have a place to stay now? If not, come to my house.”

Even though he asked, Leo was certain Michael had no place to stay for now. The lamp disappearing meant his home was gone.

“Do I have another choice?” Michael widened his eyes at him.

In the middle of fulfilling a wish, he couldn’t crawl back into the lamp. Staying in the forest was seeking death, might as well follow Leo.

Besides, Leo’s father was a master. Even if severely injured, he wasn’t someone weak like Michael could compare to.

—

Standing in front of Leo’s house, Michael couldn’t help but widen his eyes. Not because it was luxurious and magnificent, on the contrary, it was of the same kind as Leo’s clothing – tattered and torn.

Calling this a house was an overstatement, it was simply a few wooden posts covered with some large ragged cloths on top.

’What the hell is this? Is this where a master lives?’

Michael cursed silently, this was way too rudimentary.

Back on Earth, he’d seen in movies that reclusive masters lived in simple huts, but simple, not ruins. This place was clearly worse than a slum house, not better.

He pointed his finger at the ’house’, his gaze suspiciously looking at Leo. Not saying a word, just that look was enough to say it all.

Leo wasn’t the least bit embarrassed that his home was so poor. He just grinned and laughed heartily.

“Haha, what’s so surprising about this? During the resistance war, there were times I didn’t even have a place like this to stay.”

His and Michael’s experiences were different. One from relatively good conditions in a stable society. The other spent a lifetime being chased everywhere, hiding, only able to start a war in the last few years of his life. Of course Leo would adapt more easily to difficult circumstances than Michael.

“You motherfucker think everyone is like you? But you’re not wrong, compared to staying in the forest, this is much better. But aren’t there other people living nearby?”

Looking around, at least within a few hundred meters, there were no other people. This gave Michael the feeling that these two were on the run.

“There’s a small village at the foot of the mountain, the village chief visits me occasionally. That old man Raphael built this here just to avoid too much contact with others.”

Leo explained, his tone also not showing any resentment about having to live in this desolate place.

With his decades of experience running away, clearly his father was in a similar situation. But unlike him, that old man didn’t seem to have any ideals, he was just running.

“If I stay here, will your father have objections?” Michael probed.

He also didn’t know what this person’s temperament was like. If he accidentally made the other suspicious and got killed, it would be a huge injustice.

“Objections? That old man doesn’t have the energy for that. Even though he’s tall, I see him as someone about to die. Let me take you in and you’ll understand.”

Explaining is difficult, seeing is simpler. Leo directly pulled Michael’s hand and led him inside.

As soon as they entered, what hit his eyes was an extremely weary scene. A man with a beard and hair messy like a bird’s nest, a tall figure but skinny to the bone. His clothing and Leo’s were indeed from the same designer, both utterly miserable.

He lay on a stone bed with a few scraps of cloth spread on top. Though his body couldn’t move much, careful observation would reveal small, constant tremors on it.

This appearance bore no resemblance to someone who was once the continent’s peerless genius. To someone who once faced three demigod-level figures and managed to survive and escape.

’This… is this really a powerful person? Looks no matter what like someone about to die.’

For a moment, Michael felt Leo’s reliance on this person was utterly ridiculous. Really didn’t know who was relying on whom.

“This… is this really okay?” Michael pointed his finger towards Raphael, the corner of his mouth twitching.

Leo scratched his head awkwardly, he also didn’t know how to assess it anymore.

“Probably. Looks can be deceiving, this old man is very strong. A wild boar that big, he can lift it with just one hand.”

As he spoke, he gestured with his hands and feet to show the size of the boar had to be at least two meters tall.

Hearing that, Michael unconsciously swallowed a gulp of saliva. Lifting that boar with one hand, wouldn’t that mean with just one squeeze he could kill him? Must curry favor, definitely must curry favor with Raphael.

’System, what’s wrong with him? If I can help him, maybe he won’t kill me.’

[System scanning…]

[Detected Raphael is injured from receiving an extremely powerful attack directed inside his body.]

[You don’t need to do anything, in just three more years he can resolve this technique.]

[If you want to help, tell him to find a divine herb with strong cooling effects for him to consume. The time will be greatly shortened.]

???

System, you rate me that highly? I don’t even know what a divine herb looks like, let alone find one.

Michael really wanted to curse the system, but the system had already said from the start it wouldn’t give him anything. Having a bit more information was better than none.

’System, you can help provide information?’

[Depends on what information you want. If it’s intelligence, then no. But if you encounter something strange and ask me, I will answer.]

’That’s enough.’

For someone who understands nothing about this strange world like him, explanations of basic things like that are very useful.

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