:::[Third person POV]:::

'He is going on a trip?' Liu was taken aback by what Adam said because It would be a problem if she couldn't test him before he left.

Liu's visit was supposed to be a quick detour, and she intended to return to the Empire immediately after she finished assessing the situation, but if Adam went on a trip, then she wouldn't have the choice but to leave this matter for another time.

In the first place, it was hard to find an efficient way to gauge Adam's ability without an all-out fight.

After all, it was unlikely for Adam to tell her everything out of nowhere.

For now, she needed to find out how to take advantage of this unexpected situation, or so she thought.

"Training.. Are you looking for a master?" She asked.

As for Adam, he sounded quite pleased to see that Liu talked more than usual. "Yes, I heard that this person is a legendary master."

Truth be told, Liu was just bad at dealing with people. All she could do was use her fist to test someone, but she didn't expect Adam to be quite mature in certain aspects.

She thought that Adam would be no different from a 15-year-old kid from the Empire who liked to show off their power, and so, would be easy to deal with.

'There must be something..oh, I know,' Liu thought to herself.

If Adam wanted to go somewhere, then he would need a ship, and if viewed from a more optimistic point of view, this trip was in a way an opportunity to test him without attracting unwanted attention.

This was a very odd reaction on Liu's part. Most of the time she wouldn't give that much thought to such a trivial matter.

Yet, at that moment, her mind was full of questions related to Adam. She wasn't aware of it but she was interacting with Adam more than she would normally do with any other male.

"Interesting. I want to see this master too.. I have a ship, so I can bring you there if you want," Liu said.

Her expression didn't change but what she said was extremely shocking, mostly for Adam.

Of course, some of the thoughts that crossed his mind were just his delusion, but still, it was very unexpected.

First of all, she spoke for more than ten seconds, and she also invited Adam to go with her in a very awkward way.

It created a very awkward atmosphere between the two of them.

This was something that Liu would never do if it was someone else, but there was the mysterious baby who never approached anyone else apart from Liu and Adam.

This little fact was one of the key elements that made Liu drop her guard a little bit when she was with Adam.

Still, what Liu said didn't make sense at all. There was no reason for Liu to go with Adam even if she wanted to meet this master. After all, Adam and her just meet two days ago.

Cristal was suspicious of Liu's intention and Adam became wary of Liu's motive too, but if Liu was a bad person, he thought, then Verte wouldn't act that way with her.

After all, Verte was so attached to Liu, so Adam deduced that at least for Verte, Liu was a trustworthy person.

Regardless, Adam wasn't stupid, and even if he wanted to get closer to Liu, he didn't accept right away.

"That's very unexpected coming from you, Miss Liu. Let me think about it a little. I will give you an answer later. As you can see, I need to recover a bit."

For the first time in a very long time, Liu felt slightly embarrassed.

Most of the time, people wouldn't even think twice before accepting such an invitation.

Yet, Adam's answer was mature and very logical.

The circumstances were not that special, but Liu exchanged words with a boy for a certain amount of time.

Both of them were very awkward because they didn't have much experience with someone of the opposite sex, even if it was just a casual conversation.

"I understand."

Liu didn't stay any longer after saying these words, and so she left with Verte. She knew that Adam would be suspicious of her, but she thought that rather than using an underhanded method, it would be more effective to challenge Adam more directly.

However, such a tactic would be difficult to execute if Adam wasn't willing to take the challenge seriously.

Adam felt a little bit conflicted as he saw Liu walking away.

*****

:::[Adam POV]:::

'What just happened?'

I couldn't help but rethink everything that Liu said.

First of all, her voice was extremely delicate and beautiful. That was one thing.

However, I was surprised that she offered to bring me to where I wanted to go, more or less out of the blue.

'What is she trying to achieve? Don't tell me that she is interested in me and wants to spend more time alone with me..Nope, impossible. It must be something else,' I thought to myself and tried to keep my images as realistic as possible.

Nonetheless, I needed to think seriously about what I was going to answer from here.

'I might not meet Liu again if I refuse her invitation now, but I might fall into some kind of trap too if I just accepted it like that. Still, would someone, who wants to use an underhanded trick, invite me in such a direct manner?'

I wasn't sure what was her true intention.

I theorized that maybe she wants to recruit me to join her faction because from what I found out about her, she was from a very influential family.

However, there were also more questions related to that theory.

'If that was the case, does that mean that she just traveled to this planet just to meet me?'

Of course not, I didn't think that I was that important. Still, if I supposed that this was the case, then, there must be some information that she knew about me and my situation.

'The question is what does she know?'

As I was lost in my thoughts Cristal approached me.

"Let's head back master."

I glanced at Cristal's emotionless face. I was wondering what she thought about this situation. "Cristal, what do you think Liu's intentions are?"

"I can't come up with a definite answer to that question, for now, because of the lack of information. Master, what do you think of her?"

"Me? I think that she is a very attractive person," I answered honestly.

"I was not talking about that. Do you think you can trust her?" She asked.

As we talked, Cristal helped me to stand up because I felt dizzy and exhausted.

Depleting my reserve of primordial particles was undoubtedly a very bad idea. I needed to be careful in the future, mostly when fighting monsters.

Cristal's question was really direct, and I didn't have a definite answer to this question yet at that moment.

"I am not sure, but from what I could see, she is not a bad person," I said, thinking back about Verte.

"I see."

Cristal and I walked back to my room, and she supported me on the way.

It was a little bit embarrassing because people were glaring at us, but there was nothing I could do. I needed to accept the fact that sometimes I was weak, and needed to depend on other people.

It was not a bad feeling to know that someone got your back, but I couldn't spare any effort in becoming strong because of that.

When we arrived inside my room, Cristal reverted to her cube-like form for some reason.

As for me, I immediately slumped down on my bed after a quick shower.

I didn't realize that it was already past noon, and I was hungry.

Cristal and I continued to talk about what to answer to Liu's invitation and also about the training and stuff related to the trip.

[You are smarter than I thought you were, master. You managed to learn the basic control of your power in just one day.]

Cristal complimented me, but from what she said, I was wondering how exactly she evaluated me all of this time.

"I don't know, I felt like it could have been done more easily," I said, looking back at how slow I was at figuring out certain things.

To be honest, I wouldn't have been able to do it if Cristal didn't use that kind of method.

It was very painful and frustrating, but fortunately, it was something that I required to change my mentality.

[Maybe, but the most important thing is that you learned something new today. From tomorrow onward, you will focus on practicing your control while swinging your sword.]historical

"Yeah, I understand," I said.

I was thinking about my immediate goals again as I chewed a piece of meat.

Firstly, I needed to learn the basic control of my power, then find this mysterious master, and lastly, learn decent sword skills.

However, there was Liu who wanted to come with me, and her intention was still unidentified.

There was also a question that I had been curious about for a long time now. "Cristal, why did you suggest this master in particular?"

[According to a certain story, this master was a giftless person. However, he used some other methods to make up for it. What we are interested in is this technique. Master, your power is absolute, but it is more for self-defense than for battle. That is why you need something to make up for it. After all, you can't win a fight if you don't deliver a decisive blow. ]

"I see. You are right, I realized that too."

It was fortunate that such a master was currently on this planet.