"Should I just attack them from my place here?" I thought silently to myself. "I can sense about seventy something, should I go it anyway?"

Since the monsters are not S Iron or even A, they won’t give me much problems. I nearly chuckled at what I thought. Now I’m thinking S Iron monsters can only give me troubles. Well, to be fair I’ve been fighting things even higher than S so I’m not frightened by things much lower.

I brought Onus out. "Time to earn your food buddy."

The Onus growled at me, easily taller than me it was looking down at me with narrowed eyes and I smiled. "What? You think you’ll just eat and eat? What do you mean I’m using your powers and so you shouldn’t fight?"

The Onus grumbled but eventually followed me as we bust the monsters’ lair. They weren’t expecting it and even if they were it won have changed the result for me.

The first waa brief and the growls was loud in the forest. The monsters have no special abilities except for their fangs and claws. The Onus fight mostly with its too legs and changing gravity force around its target.

While I just focus on cutting the monsters in two with my sword and soon they are done. The Onus began to fish for monster cores but was soon disappointed. The monsters here in this special space don’t have that.

I laughed, covered in too much blood. "I should feed you? But it’s not lunch time... ok ok, I’ll feed the two of you. Ah! I really have to bath. Let’s explore our surroundings first."

☆☆▪︎☆☆

Litha was unlucky. When the light brought her, it was among other Awakeners. Twenty of them was brought together in one place and the tension immediately tightened around them.

Fortunately, no one want to fight so soon to the second stage and everyone stand up once their bodies stabilize. Everyone wants to leave until one of the Awakeners noticed a small monsters hiding behind a small bush and killed it.

"Hey! See it’s an hopping rat! And it immediately turn into a single badge!" The ignorant Awakener shouted, raising his hand up to show the shining metal with the dead monster at his feet.

Litha sighed. "This won’t turn out well."

The remaining eighteen turned to the Awakener raising the badge high and their eyes glinted. Not because of the badge but because a monster as weak as this one can even provide a badge. And if there’s one hopping rat around, there might be many others as well.

They turned and without searching far they saw the hopping rat monsters lair. Built like a termite’s mold but way bigger with lots of holes.

There’s must be hundreds of them in that place, Litha thought. Hundreds of free badges. But Litha hesitant to make any move because having that much badge right now will be the most dangerous thing to do.

But the others didn’t hesitate, they jumped at each other and the air trembled as multiple skills were unleashed at once. Litha quickly hide herself to the side but instead of leaving the place she wait to see how everything will turn out.

Having that much badges might be dangerous but now she have to decide just how much danger she’s willing to take on now. No, she have to determine if she’s going to go after the title or not.

’I’ll take until the end of their fight to determine’ she thought.

The fight ended much faster than I thought. There were Awakeners still standing among them, but the weak ones had already been taken care of.

"How about this, we share the badges among each other," one of them said, breathing hard.

The three of them looked at each other. They’d come this far not only because of their strength but because they knew how to use their heads. They knew they had to share, especially since there was still one more person to deal with.

They turned to Litha, and one of them, the female elven, sneered. "You think you’re some hot shit? Staying back and trying to act all mysterious and shit. Well, are you going to fight us?"

Litha looked at them with curiosity. "I’m still trying to make up my mind if I should," she said truthfully. I could tell she was weighing something deeper. Should she actively go after the Title? That wasn’t what they’d discussed with her team, but then again, all they’d promised each other was to give it their best.

After the whole incident, Litha was feeling a certain way. It was the first time she had ever been truly close to death and had seen her friend close to death. It changed her perspective on a lot of things, and one of the reasons she was so critical was somehow clear even to me, it boiled down to getting power.

Being kidnapped and locked away reminded her of places she wanted to shut away. She hated the helplessness. She had to be as powerful as she could get. She had to reach for as much as she could grasp with her hands.

And having a Title was something that would certainly increase her power and help the others on her team too.

While she was thinking, the three Awakeners began inching closer. "Are you ignoring us right now? You arrogant bitch! How dare you!"

"You’re really asking for it. Nothing is illegal here, and nothing will be used against us later."

Litha opened her eyes and leaned away from the tree. "I’ve made up my mind. I’ll be taking the hopping monsters."

"Ahahaha! You are really funny. You’ll be taking the monsters? At least you are bold."

"Maybe she’s not mentally okay. Someone from the first stage might have knocked her head in or something."

"Then let us just end her and forget about her. We still have a lot to hunt today!"

Litha walked forward, and the three surrounded her. They weren’t stupid. They knew she might be powerful or have a strong Artifact, that was why she was so bold. Even though they had just met, they signaled to each other with their eyes.

As one, they jumped her but Litha didn’t move from her spot. In fact, she let two of the three warriors reach her before she reacted. Her palms glowed with blue-hot light that rippled as she dodged their clumsy first attacks and slammed both their chests with her hands.

Litha could control her own internal organs with her power, but what about others? No, she couldn’t but she didn’t need to. What she did was send hot mana blasting straight into their hearts.

The surprise didn’t even finish forming on their faces before they fell. She casually raised a shield in front of her to block the green magic attack from the female elf.

The elf began inching backward from Litha, her eyes twitching, her hands trembling. Litha smiled at her gently, then formed a spinning disc of mana and flung it. Instead of flying straight, the mana disk unfurled and snapped like an angry whip and the female’s head fell.

Litha shook her head. "They are like C-rank Iron monsters. Why were they so arrogant?"

First, she went around looting all the dead Awakeners’ badges. Then she turned toward the monster lair—but before leaving, she looked into the forest. "Won’t you come out now?" she asked mildly.

At first, nothing happened. Then I stepped out from behind the tree. "You noticed me."

"I noticed you immediately when we all arrived here." She turned to face me. I was an elf, with long ears and white hair reaching all the way to my buttocks. I wore a permanent smile, my half-opened eyes dark.

And I was strong. She knew it. But the first thing she said was, "Why do you keep your hair so long? It’ll interfere with any fight you get into."

I shrugged, keeping my elegance. "I’ve not been in a situation like that before."

She nodded. Obviously—otherwise I would’ve cut it or at least tied it. "So what do you want from me? Do you want the hopping rat as well?" Honestly, she sounded willing to give it away to avoid a real fight so close to the beginning of the second stage.

I smiled. "Why, the hopping rats won’t be bad, but I want to hunt bigger monsters."

She sighed in what resembled relief. "Then you can go. I’ll hunt the hopping rat." She started moving forward.

"Wait," I shouted. "Since we were brought together at once, don’t you think that means something?"

She turned and blinked. "Well, this is unexpected, but I’m not interested in any romantic relationship now. Maybe when I’ve climbed higher, you can—"

My smile sharpened and dimmed. "I don’t mean that! I mean to fight! I can already tell that you will be a problem for me later someone who wants to join the Title."

"I will be a problem for you later. So?" Her eyes glowed hotly. "Piss off, you smiling bastard. How do you want to hit on a girl with an attitude like that?"

I stopped smiling. "You bitch, do you think you are some hot chick because you killed those common Grimoire bastards?"

She nodded encouragingly and fully turned toward me. "That’s it, the real person behind the smile. We can have a real conversation now, can’t we?"

My eyes widened with joy. "Yes we can, after I stand over your dead body."