"Hey! Carry those monsters carefully! If even a single wound appears on them, all of you will pay the fine!"

A middle-aged man wearing a noble suit and a monocle shouted loudly while supervising the workers. The man was called Mr. Gilles.

Groups of people were currently moving various monsters into large cages. Each cage was attached to a carriage. In total, there were five carriages and five massive cages.

They were currently inside a large building hidden deep within Bark Forest, the only building located within the enormous forest.

"When are we leaving, Mr. Gilles? If we don’t move now, we’ll be late to the rendezvous point." one of the carriage drivers asked nervously.

He had only been paid to transport one of the carriages. But deep down, he felt uneasy. After all, he did not want to get involved in whatever shady business this was.

"Alright, alright. Everything is set. We’ll move now. Just wait a second." Gilles then walked toward one of the carriages and knocked on its door. A woman’s voice came from inside before Gilles carefully opened it.

"Ermm... Miss Pearl, are you ready to move?" Gilles asked with a forced smile while rubbing his hands together nervously.

Inside the carriage, a woman sat lazily while carrying two lances. She had short orange hair and a horizontal scar across her nose.

Pearl glanced lazily at Gilles while chewing something inside her mouth.

"Yeah, whatever. Just finish your delivery already. I don’t want to waste my time escorting you." Pearl replied coldly. She then stuck out her tongue slightly, revealing a scorpion symbol tattooed upon it.

Gilles immediately bowed slightly before hurriedly ordering the convoy to move. He then entered the same carriage as Pearl.

Soon, the convoy began moving through the forest while the monsters inside the cages growled and cried out from being shaken around.

Gilles opened a book and carefully checked its contents. If everything proceeded smoothly, the convoy would arrive at its destination within three days.

Gilles had already been involved in this business for over ten years. His work revolved around trading exotic and protected monsters illegally.

In this world, certain monsters were extremely rare and highly sought after by tamers. Some possessed unique skills, while others were valued for their body parts, which could be used to create powerful potions or craft special equipment.

The price of a single rare monster could easily reach thousands of gold coins. Some even sold for hundreds of thousands or as high as one million gold.

To Gilles, this business was nothing less than a gold mine. And his customers were not ordinary people. Most of them were VIP individuals, wealthy collectors, and even nobles who loved collecting rare monsters.

However, transporting such valuable cargo safely required powerful protection. And no group was more infamous than the Five Scorpions.

The Five Scorpions were a group of five extremely powerful former official tamers and dungeon hunters.

After being exiled from the Tamer Guild, they became mercenaries who accepted underground jobs such as assassination, robbery, kidnapping and many other illegal missions.

And Pearl was one of them.

Gilles secretly took a glance at her body. Her attire revealed part of her cleavage, while her figure carried the alluring curves of a young woman. A perverted smile briefly appeared on his face.

But then his eyes landed on the pair of lances resting beside her. Those lances had torn apart countless men and drunk far too much blood. The thought instantly sent a chill through him.

He immediately averted his gaze back toward his book.

Meanwhile, Pearl simply stared out the carriage window quietly as she watched the sunrise beyond the forest.

---

Inside the Forest of Stonefall, a large creature was running as fast as it could across the ground using all four legs.

It was a Platomole.

Its back was covered with thick armored plates, while its large nose continuously twitched as it desperately tried to track an escape route.

<Platomole>

However, the creature was not hunting anything. It was being hunted. For the first time in its life, it had become prey. Occasionally, it glanced fearfully behind itself.

Only a few meters away, a teenage boy dashed rapidly between the trees. Beside him ran a gigantic wolf nearly five meters in size.

"Come on, Husk! Don’t let it escape!" Oliver shouted. He was now fifteen years old. His height had grown to around 180 centimeters, and his body had become lean yet well-built.

His sharp jawline and matured features made him look far more handsome than before.

"Can’t you see what I’m already doing?" Husk replied.

He was currently in his original size once again. Thanks to Oliver completely maxing out his Familiarity with all his monsters over the past five years, they were now capable of enlarging themselves back to their true original forms.

Of course, they could still freely shrink their sizes whenever they wished.

"Scarlet Pursuit!"

Oliver instantly appeared above the fleeing Platomole, which looked shocked by his sudden appearance.

"Crimson Fang!"

Intense crimson aura wrapped around Oliver’s leg which was far denser and larger than before. He then swung the attack directly toward the monster’s head.

BAM!!

The Platomole was slammed violently into the ground as massive cracks spread beneath it.

The monster struggled briefly before going completely still.

Oliver landed calmly beside it and looked down. Its head had been completely crushed open, exposing brain matter to the surroundings.

Thanks to years of relentless training, Oliver could now control the crimson aura with incredible precision. He could shape it however he wished across his body. At this point, the crimson aura felt like a natural extension of himself.

"Good job, Oliver, for defeating the rogue boss! I never imagined we could kill three rogue bosses in this area in a single day." A group of men arrived at the scene while praising him excitedly.

"As expected of Oliver. Ever since you officially became a hunter three years ago, the number of rogue bosses around our region has been decreasing rapidly."

"Hehehe. It’s nothing. I’m just doing what I can." Oliver replied while scratching his head with a smile.

Indeed, over the past few years, Oliver had actively joined hunter groups in tracking and hunting rogue bosses. Sometimes, he also participated in dungeon raid expeditions together with them.

His monsters had become so powerful that the hunters now felt completely safe whenever he was around. Dungeon raids also took far less time than before, while the risk of injuries had nearly become zero.

After cutting off the necessary monster parts as proof of the hunt, Oliver finally began heading back toward Ashville Town.

As he walked, he opened his system interface and looked at it.

[The system is currently undergoing an update. Most features will remain unavailable until the process is complete.]

[Current Progress: 99.99%]

For the past five years, the system had remained in an updating state, and Oliver had patiently waited all this time.

Now, it was finally almost complete. Just a little more before the system would come back online.

And once that happened, Oliver’s true plan would finally begin.