Rise of the Legendary Emperor

"Where will you think the elixir will be?"

Arrora asked Knight as he glazed the meat with honey.

"I think there will be a place for potions too like the ones for herbs and spells"

Knight said and sprinkled more spices onto the meat

"Don't worry, we have time and strength on our side, we are invincible among the ones entered the dungeon"

After seeing Don pounded the golem, Arrora had no doubt that he could only be stopped by a heavenly level cultivator.

"Don, when we return, I'm planning to host a tournament in Everlight to distribute the pills and stuff we get here"

"Yeah, good idea"

"If you two don't participate, I have a good chance of winning the tournament"

Arrora had always wondered about Knight's full power but until now, she didn't have the full grasp of his true strength. However even though she witnessed how he handled the golem, she realized that it was not his true strength and she had a feeling that even Don couldn't beat Knight easily.

"Sorry to disappoint you but you, Glacia and Arwen won't be competing"

Arrora slightly wanted to show off in front of the whole Everlight but Knight threw a wrench at her excitement.

"Why? I want to participate"

She panicked and said

"Relax,you'll get the pills if that's what you're afraid of, but do you think anyone could take you on in Everlight? If we let you, Arwen and Glacia compete, you three will take the first three place since there won't be anyone to give you a fair fight"

Arrora frowned and thought about it for a moment before agreeing with Knight as he did make some good points.

"This tournament should be forced on finding new talents among our army, but in the future, we will host the biggest tournament among our kingdoms and then you can compete in that one"

While they were talking the meat started to radiate a mouth-watering aroma. She never thought a roast in a campfire would make her swallow her saliva as she couldn't wait to take a bite.

She started at the meat as Knight slowly took it out from the fire and Don cut the meat into three chunks.

"Oh hot, hot, hot"

Arrora touched the meat and quickly shook her hand.

After blowing on the meat a couple of times, Arrora took the first bite and when the meat touched her taste buds, a smile appeared on her face as she closed her eyes.

The meat melted in her mouth and the aroma of the species, as well as the honey, were perfectly complimented each other. 

"So good"

She was already pretty hungry and didn't care for any etiquettes as she dug into the roasted meat.

"I didn't know you can cook"

Arrora said as she took another bite

"He learned it by setting out home on fire, you should have tasted that one"

Arrora saw the grin on Knight's face vanish hearing Don 

"You are never going to let that one go, huh?"

"Probably no"

Knight's guilty face piqued the curiosity of Arrora

"What happened?"

Arrora saw Knight and Don looking at each other as Knight shook his head

"You'll get bored, it's not an interesting story"

"Come on, you can tell me, please"

Hearing her plead, Knight sighed

"Alright, fine, I'll tell you, it happened when we were little and poor as beggars. Then Don would go to a mine to work while I'd stay at the makeshift hut that we called home"

"I can't imagine you two poor but you must have looked cute when you were little"

Knight let out a sad smile as he continued

"Three copper coins, that's what they gave him for thirteen hours of labor, we had to manage with that, most of the days, we share a piece of bread. Then a piece of meat was only a dream for us but I saved enough coins little by little to buy a piece of meat "

Arrora placed her meat aside and listened to Knight's story

"So I bought a piece and wanted to surprise him"

"You did surprise me, by setting our home on fire"

"What happened then?"

Arrora giggled when she heard Don 

"The fire grew so big as a bunch of other houses were also caught on fire"

Knight gritted his teeth and said

"They wanted to chase me away and some of them even wanted to kill me, we ran away from the slums and started to do all kinds of jobs to fill half of our bellies, that's where our journey started"

She could see the brotherly bond between them by looking at their eyes

"Shhh"

Arrora closed her mouth when she saw Don shushing her and turned his gaze towards the woods.

"What is it?"

Arrora stood up and readied to take out her sword as she looked at the direction where Knight and Don were looking and saw six tiny light balls in the darkness.

"Sneaky bastards"

Since Don's barrier was still active, Knight did not scan the area and he was surprised to see that they didn't even hear a sound.

"I really hate when someone interrupts my dinner"

Knight took a step forward but the six tiny light balls suddenly jumped out of the darkness.

"Huh?"

The three of them were shocked and surprised to see the six tiny balls they saw were nothing but three pairs of eyes of little tiger cubs.

"They are so cute"

Arrora's eyes glistened looking at the three cubs eating the meat she put beside her. The three cubs looked so fluffy and chubby, one cub had a golden fur, one had black shiny fur while the last one had pure white fur.

"Don't even think about it"

After finishing Arrora's chunk, the three cubs turned their gaze towards Knight's chunk and licked their lips.

"Can we keep them?"

Arrora stepped forward towards the cubs and bent over to take them in her hands but the cubs purred at her and showed their teeth.

"Let's try this again with this"

Arrora waved her hands at the piece of meat beside Knight and the chunk of meat flew right into her hands

"Hey"

Knight shouted as Arrora held out the meat towards the cubs. Seeing the chunk of meat, the cubs looked at each other and slowly began to step towards her.

"Kitty kitty, come on,dont you want this juicy piece of meat?" 

Arrora waved the meat at them and acted like she was going to take a bit.

Seeing this, the cubs feared that she's going to eat the meat as they quickly leaped at the meat and fell right into her hands.

"Oh they are so fluffy"

The cubs were so busy devouring the meat as they didn't seem to mind her rubbing their heads.

"Here"

Don tore his piece of meat into two halves and handed one half over to Knight.

"Just like the old days huh?"

"Just like the old days"

Realizing the cubs present no danger to them, Don and Knight sat on the ground and continued to eat while Arrora was busy feeding the cubs and rubbing their heads.

Knight was surprised to see their speed of eating as even he didn't finish his half but the cubs had finished and started to lick Arrora's hand

"Do you want anything to drink?"

"Like they understand you"

Knight snickered at Arrora but he suddenly saw the cubs nodding their heads.

"Look they do understand"

Arrora's excited smile grew bigger as Knight shook his head

"Nah, I don't think so, how can they understand? Look at them, they are so little and probably not even crossed the beginner level"

Surprisingly the cubs turned their gaze at Knight and growled as Knight's eyes went wide in surprise

"Oh no, I'm so going to keep them but before that"

Arrora waved her hands and retrieved small cups, a jug full of milk, and the ingredients to make tea.

Don and Knight sat there without uttering a word while Arrora quickly made tea as the tiger cubs sniffed the cup of tea and started to jump in excitement.

Holding the three cubs in her hand, Arrora began to pour the tea into their mouths, little by little. Just like the meat, they drank the tea in seconds and rubbed their heads against her chest to show their affection.

"That was quick"

"Look at those dumb cats, getting cozy with a total stranger just after eating a piece of meat, what if we plan to steal them?"

Knight said as the cubs growled again when they heard him calling their dumb and Arrora chuckled seeing their reaction.

"They are not dumb, they are bravest little cuties who knows how to take care of themselves"

Arrora pitched their cheek as the cubs purred 

"Or they have a powerful parent near them"

Don said as he and Knight had sensed a magical beast heading towards them.

Three of them quickly stood up while Arrora held the cubs tightly against her chest with one hand and took out her sword in the other hand.

"Purrr"

The three cubs shook their heads as the rustling sound coming from the darkness grew louder.

"Get ready"

This time Knight didn't sense threatening energy as he did from the last floor so he had more than enough confidence to beat the hell out of the beast coming at them if the need arisen. 

And out of the darkness, suddenly a huge gray furred tiger jumped out and landed before them.

"How dare you, humans? Let go of my kids and I'll grant you a quick death"

The tiger was at least the height of Don's chest and it would be taller than him if it stood up in two legs.

"Mid-level grandmaster"

Arrora saw the tiger releasing its magical fluctuations to threaten them but when Knight heard her, he started to laugh.

"You lowly pet, are you tired of living?"

Knight's laughter angered the tiger more as it stepped forward.

"Knight, don't hurt it"

Arrora shouted at Knight but the tiger stomped the ground with a greater force when it heard her.

"You stupid humans, I'm a grandmaster and you're just masters, I can kill the three of you in a single slap"