A week had passed since Evan arrived in the capital, and during that time he had thoroughly explored it.

Among the many things he did, he sampled the local delicacies and visited the city’s most popular locations just to see what made them so special. Aside from that, he spent almost all of his time hunting from one place to another.

It didn’t take long for his reputation to follow him here.

It didn’t take long for him to regain his reputation as a mad adventurer. So much so that despite only being D-Rank, he was held in high regard even by many C-Rank adventurers.

He had been invited to join other parties on multiple occasions, and had turned down every single one.

While the idea of stealing kills was certainly tempting, there was one problem.

The beasts around the capital simply weren’t strong enough.

Most of the hunting missions available were meant to keep local beast populations under control rather than eliminate truly powerful monsters.

For those, one had to travel to specific regions marked on the map, places located much farther away.

A proper expedition was required to reach them, with several days of travel both ways. As such, unless absolutely necessary, very few people bothered making the trip on their own.

And honestly, why would most adventurers bother?

For them, mana cores were enough to sustain their cultivation at a steady pace. They weren’t like Evan, gaining strength hunt after hunt through raw accumulation. Their progress was slower by nature, but that was simply how it worked for most people. Even with higher quality cores, they couldn’t rush the absorption process, the body needed time to refine that energy properly. Skip that step, and the core would be riddled with impurities, which would weigh heavily on future advancement. In severe cases, impurities could halt progression entirely, or worse, become genuinely dangerous.

The mana core functioned like a second heart. It wasn’t something to be careless with.

Evan didn’t have that problem. The system handled purification automatically, all he had to do was accumulate ESS. Even that, however, was becoming increasingly difficult with each passing day.

---

[Name: Evan]

[Age: 15]

[Rank: D]

[ESS: 24% → 29.2%]

[Bloodline: God of Life (5%)]

[Divine Clone]

> [God Of Death]: 27%

> [God Of War]: 21%

[Skills]: 4

[Storage]

---

The progress he had made over the past week was far from insignificant, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he could be doing more. The majority of his kills had been E-rank beasts, with only a few dozen D-ranks mixed in.

Even so, his activity had left a noticeable mark on the capital’s market, greatly increasing both the quantity and quality of beast materials being sold on the market.

At the end of the day it was still a modest gain by his standards, but the effect on the branch was anything but modest.

He was pulling in roughly three to four platinum a day. After a week of this, Megumin had looked him dead in the eye and told him that at this rate he was going to drain the Association’s funds dry.

It was a joke, naturally.

The main branch operated on a scale that dwarfed BranLeaf’s by a considerable margin, and it could more than absorb the expenditure, especially since the materials recovered from his hunts sold quickly and reliably.

The demand was always there, and whatever went on display was gone within hours.

The profits from those sales alone were enough to recover the costs and still leave the Association with a modest profit.

As such, the Association was more than happy.

In fact, his standing within the organization had grown to the point where even Megumin, who had by now effectively become his personal receptionist, received a promotion off the back of it.

His adventurer’s license had also been upgraded, moving from D-rank to C-rank.

Under normal circumstances that would have been verydifficult to achieve.

Most D-Rank adventurers relied more on advancing their personal strength than completing missions to obtain a rank promotion.

Advancement through missions was possible in theory, but rare in practice, it required an absurd volume of high-level completions to even qualify.

Thanks to the massacres he had carried out over the last week, Evan had fulfilled that requirement.

As a result, the Association had been more than willing to promote him.

He didn’t pay it much mind. Between hunting and keeping an eye out for anything interesting that might surface on the market, there hadn’t been much else competing for his attention.

Or so he thought.

"Oh? Now this is an interesting one," he murmured, eyes moving over a C-rank mission he had just pulled up.

With his rank updated, he now had access to a wider range of information, including details on higher level missions that weren’t posted on the standard board. These weren’t pinned publicly. Their difficulty warranted different handling, and they were treated accordingly.

Evan had barely begun browsing when one caught his attention.

-------------------------

[HUNTING MISSION]

TARGET: Sunspine Serpent

RANK: C

Description: An apex predator native to the southern forests and surrounding mountain regions. Recently, multiple sightings have been reported near villages and trade routes, far beyond its usual territory.

A subjugation request has been issued. Adventurers are asked to eliminate any Sunspine Serpents encountered and return scales, fangs, or other body parts as proof of completion.

Warning: The monster’s rank is an estimate only. Individual specimens may be stronger or weaker than indicated. Adventurers are strongly advised to exercise caution.

--------------------------

The mission itself wasn’t bad.

However, after reading the final note, Evan couldn’t help but hesitate.

It wasn’t the first time he had come across a mission with a warning attached, but those were usually for E or D-rank targets.

This was C-rank, and not only was the rank listed as an estimate, but the reports indicated multiple sightings across a wide area.

What exactly did that mean?

The risk was significant. And while the listed difficulty was C-rank, he had the distinct feeling there was more to this than the description let on.

’Why would beasts of this caliber start pushing beyond their natural territory like this?’

The warning pointed to it indirectly, but Evan was already fairly certain he knew the answer.

’Looks like there might be a commander level beast in the mix,’ he thought.

Beasts of this type weren’t naturally pack creatures. But leaders could emerge among them, individuals that rose above the rest and began directing the group’s behavior. That kind of dynamic would explain the unusual movement patterns perfectly.

The presence of a commander would make this considerably more dangerous than the mission’s face value suggested. By all reasonable logic, that should have been enough to make him walk away.

But then again...

Wasn’t this exactly the kind of opportunity he had been looking for to finally accelerate his growth?

’Well. Worst case, if things get out of hand, I’ll just run.’