《Worlds Defenders》 Chapter 001 - Realm of Defenders 30 years ago, in the year 2020 the world was shaken by an unprecedented event. Thousands of cities saw black lights spiraling on the air. Brave people who tried to touch the lights disappeared in front of many eyes. The governments of countries affected by this phenomenon deployed military personnel to restrict people from approaching these spiraling black lights. For a few months, nothing happened. The world''s best scientists cannot explain the strange phenomenon. That is until a person suddenly came out of the black light in Kyoto, Japan. That person was Keisuke Kagawa, now known as the First Defender. After the reemergence of the First Defender, other people who disappeared due to the black lights started to reappear from those black lights in the following months. Although, not everyone who disappeared managed to came back. From the people who came back, the world learns the truth about those black lights. They are portals to another dimension known as Realm of Defenders. The Realm of Defenders is a realm full of horrifying and wonderful things at the same time. In there it''s possible to learn how to wield magic, evolve a person''s physique, and obtain various items with wondrous effects previously thought impossible for mankind. But, to obtain all of those a person needs to struggle in the face of death. Just to obtain a return stone that enables someone to return to Earth requires them to face death multiple times. Those who were unable to return were those who died trying or those who gave up.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. To this day, 30 years later, nobody knows how the Realm came about. All kinds of theories were published: government conspiracy, alien technology, time travel, divine intervention. But nobody can confirm which one is true. Nevertheless, everybody in the world accepted its existence, because the Realm of Defenders enables Earth to enter a rapid growth in terms of technological advancement. All new kinds of technologically advanced and magical items could be found inside the Realm. Unimaginable wealth and power can be obtained by being a Defender. Defender, it''s a term used to describe people who explores the Realm. It''s a term assigned by the Realm itself, but nobody knows why it''s called Defender instead of other terms like Explorer or Adventurer. What are they supposed to defend? There is no answer to this question until now. Chapter 002 - Alex Volff Alex Volff is looking in the mirror on the wall of his bedroom. There he can see a nervous 15 year old teenager with short dark hair, sharp blue eyes, and strong jawline looking back at him. He just turned 15 yesterday. His body looks quite muscular for a teenager. He pats his cheeks twice to get rid of his nervousness and swap his nervous look with a smile. "Okay, today is the day," said Alex while smiling. "Alex, Elsa, come out! Breakfast is ready." "Okay mom, I''ll be right there," replied Alex while changing his clothes. "Okay mom," Elsa replied soon after Alex. Alex soon came out of his room after finished changing his clothes to see his little sister and his mother already waiting at the table. His mother, Erina, still looks beautiful despite being 37 years old this year. She is half Asian and half Caucasian. Her long dark hair and clear brown eyes accentuates her beauty. Her face though is showing how time and hardness of life is catching up with her. "Come sit down quickly and have breakfast," said Erina while smiling to her son. "Yes, mom," Alex replied while sitting down at the table. "So, big bro, are you really going to register as a Defender today?" asked Elsa while chewing on her french toast. Elsa, his little sister looks just like his mother, if their mother were 25 years younger. "Hmm.." Alex nodded to his little sister while also chewing on his french toast vigorously.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Their mother flashed a nervous smile while looking at her son''s reply. She had tried to talk to him to not do it or to delay it until he''s older, but she couldn''t change her son''s mind. Alex saw his mother''s brief change of expression and felt a pang of guilt in his heart. He can understand why his motherdidn''t want him to become a Defender. His father, Pavel, became a Defender to support their family after the Elsa''s birth 12 years ago. Pavel did really well as a Defender. He was very careful every time he entered the Realm and always came back within 2 weeks. But, suddenly 10 years ago their father never came back. Alex looked at a ring on his finger his father gave him 10 years ago before his last trip to the Realm of Defenders. Everybody around him is sure that Pavel has met his demise in the Realm, but Alex refuses to believe this. He is sure his father is still alive and there is another reason why he can''t come back. That''s why 5 years ago Alex made his resolve that he will become a Defender as soon as he meets the age requirement. He has to become a Defender. First, to search for his father, but also to provide for his family. He has seen how hard his mother had to work to provide for him and Elsa. To enter the Realm of Defenders for the first time, there''s an age restriction attached to the portal itself. The person has to be at least 15 years old but not older than 25. Most people waited until they are older than 20 to enter the Realm. The years before that were used to train their physique to increase their chance of survival. Alex has started training 5 years ago when he was just 10 years old due to his resolve. He never missed a day of training. If adults could see his training menu, they would vomit due to the harshness of it. He has trained in various martial arts just to prepare for this day. That''s how much he wanted to become a Defender. And that''s why nobody can stop him now. He can''t wait another 5 years. He''s afraid that his fatherwon''t be able to wait that long. His mother''s health has also started deteriorating due to overworking herself. That''s why although he feels a bit guilty for making his mother worry, he still has to do it. Alex soon finished his breakfast and said goodbye to his mother and little sister, stepping out of his home to go to the Defender registration office. Chapter 003 - Defender Registration A sharp blue-eyed teenager stepped off the high-speed hyperloop capsule across the United Defender Association Office. This teenager is of course Alex Volff. Alex made his strides towards the huge building that stood across from him. The UDA office is a 50 stories skyscraper that stood in the center of Kyoto, Alex''s hometown which also happens to be the hometown of the strongest Defender, the First Defender, Keisuke Kagawa. The UDA came about around 10 years after the opening of the Realm of Defenders. It was formed by the 10 strongest Defenders to manage all activities relating to the Realm. Before that, anyone was free to enter the Realm of Defenders. This caused very high death-tolls for people who were enticed by the promise of wealth from the Realm and entered without sufficient preparation. There were also evil people who gained power from the Realm and caused chaos around the world. Now, every portal to enter the Realm of Defenders are being guarded by the force from UDA. To enter the portal for the first time, a person needs to register and pass a test. It ensures that the entrant is sufficiently prepared and if there are evil people who cause chaos, it would be easier to subdue them because the UDA already have their personal information. Nobody dares to oppose the UDA because it has the strongest force in the world. It is being led by the 10 strongest people on Earth, and it has massive quantity of Defenders as its military force. .... Alex entered the building and went straight to the receptionist. She informed him that the registration office is on the 3rd floor and gave him an access card to ride the elevator to the 3rd floor. As he stepped of the elevator on the 3rd floor, another female receptionist greeted him. "Welcome. Are you here to register as a Defender?"This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. "Ah, yes," Alex replied while being flustered with the equipment he could see through the glass walls of the rooms around him. "Then please fill in this form with your personal information and please hand me all the required documents so I can process them," the receptionist said to him while handing him a tablet showing a registration form. Alex handed her the documents and started filling in the form. After he finished the receptionist quickly processed his data. "Your data has been processed. There are two parts to the Defender registration test. First part is the writing test and the second part is the physical test. Please enter the room to my left for the written test. You can enter any unoccupied capsule to start the written test. You have 90 minutes to finish the first test. Good luck." Alex entered the room for the written test after nodding to the receptionist. There are 10 capsules there and there is already one occupied capsule. Seems like someone else is taking the test. Alex chooses one of the unoccupied capsule and entered it. The written test is about the basic information regarding survival in the Realm of Defenders. As this information has become a world-wide school curriculum since 7 years ago, most people don''t have a problem with this first test. Alex quickly finished the written test within 60 minutes and moves on to the physical test. The other person taking the test with him is nowhere to be seen. The physical test involves punching test for strength, running for speed, dodging for agility, and one-hour fighting a mechanical opponent to test endurance. After finishing all the test required he waited nervously for 15 minutes to get the result. The receptionist soon called to him to hand him his test result. "Here is your test result, sir. Congratulations! You passed the test. Please wait for another 15 minutes while we process your Defender Identification Card," said the receptionist to him using a more respectful tone than before. Alex replied to the receptionist a little flustered, "ah, okay. I will wait." He immediately went back to sit and wait. After getting rid of the initial surprise, he soon wore a big smile on his face and clenched his fist. "I did it! Father, wait for me. I will soon find you." Chapter 004 - Entrance A beautiful Japanese woman is sitting in her office on the 45th floor of the UDA office building in Kyoto. She is the manager of this UDA Japanese branch, Kyoko Akagi. Her assistant has just told her that the result for today''s registration tests has been compiled and sent to her personal files. She opened her holographic computer and soon finds the file she''s looking for. After opening the file and seeing the first name on the list she smiled and uttered, "as expected of the young miss." The first row showed the name Ichiko Kagawa, age group rank: #1, overall rank: #10. She took a quick glance at the names below and wore a surprised expression after seeing the second name on the list, Alex Volff, age group rank: #2, overall rank: #19. She opened up both results side by side. >-----< <15 y.o.> >-----< >-----< >-----< >-----< <15 y.o.> >-----< Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.>-----< >-----< "Hmm, interesting. For her to get this result is expected, but for some unknown guy with the same age to rival her is surprising. And his written test just broke the record. Looks like another interesting seedling has appeared," mused Kyoko Akagi to herself while smiling. .... Alex didn''t immediately go to the Realm of Defenders after he got his Identification Card. He went back home and waited for the next day. He prepares himself mentally before entering. Today is the next day, the day he will officially becomes a Defender. He stood in front of a big round hall that is being guarded by men in uniform that shows UDA on the back. Alex shows his Defender ID card to the guards and was allowed in. The inside of the portal hall is very simple, it''s just one big circle hall with the portal in the middle. The portal was surrounded by thick glass walls and there are two UDA guards guarding the door to the portal. Around the edges there are UDA staffs sitting on the back of a table with holographic computers. There are other Defenders in front of the few tables trying to gain entrance. Alex already knows the procedure for entrance. He went to one of the idle staff and shows him his ID card. After the staff scanned his ID card, the computer system granted his entrance request: (ALEX VOLFF, 15 YEARS OLD, ENTRANCE #1 GRANTED). Alex went through the guard to the portals and stood in front of the portal. He touched his hand on the spiraling black lights and immediately his vision went dark for a few seconds After regaining his vision he sees a bright light and realized he''s not in the portal hall anymore. He''s in the Realm of Defenders now. Chapter 005 - Personal Space Alex glances around as soon as he exits the portal. He is in a big, bright room with what seems to be high tech equipment all around him. In the center of the room there is a holographic projection of a fairy. Alex soon realizes that this must be his personal space mentioned in the basic information about the Realm of Defenders. That fairy must be his personal guide. He walks up to the holographic fairy. As soon as he walks up to around one meter from the projection, the fairy greeted him. "Ah, a new Defender. Welcome to the Realm of Defenders. Before doing anything further please go in the capsule behind me to receive your [Magic Chip]" Alex already knew the initial procedures. He nods and does as the fairy said. A circular blue light moves up and down around him for around 5 minutes. "Please stand still," a prompt from the capsule sounds in his ears "Ouch..!" Alex flinches and rubs the back of his neck as he feels a sudden prick there. The capsule door soon opens up. Alex walks back up to the fairy who starts explaining things to him. "Welcome again, Alex Volff. I''m sorry for the slight inconvenience. We had to implant the [Magic Chip] to every new Defender," explains the fairy "It''s okay," replies Alex who already knew what would happen, but he still feels weird how the fairy already knows his name without him introducing himself. "You''re probably wondering how I know your name. One of the [Magic Chip]''s functions is to scan your body and brain and read simple memories such as your name," continues the fairy. "Ah, I knew this. Can we skip these introductory steps?" Alex tries to move things along quickly.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. "I''m sorry, this is the procedure. I have to explain everything clearly to new Defenders," the fairy replies. "The [Magic Chip] has several main functions for Defenders. The first main function is [Observe]. It can be used to gain information about yourself, items, or the creatures in the Realm of Defenders. [Observe] cannot be used on other Defenders to prevent malicious actions between Defenders," the fairy starts explaining things that Alex already knows. The fairy continues, "the second main function is to [Communicate]. You can [Communicate] with me from anywhere in the Realm of Defenders. Oh, by the way, my name is Fay. You can also [Communicate] with other Defenders if your [Magic Chips] are already linked and the other person accepted your communication request." "The third main function of the [Magic Chip] is a tracking device. It is used to record your activities and achievements as a base to give out your credit rewards. Credit is the currency of the Realm of Defenders. You get certain amount of credits for eliminating hostile creatures, getting achievements and setting new records. Credits can be used to buy items from the store," Fay keeps explaining things while Alex is looking bored. Fay ignores Alex''s bored expression and continues, "other important functions includes [Radar] and [Automatic Translation] which are self-explanatory. That''s all the functions that I need to tell you. You have a beginner package to help you get started as a Defender. It''s in the [Transporter Box] to my left. All items you buy from the store will be delivered there. You can access the store using the holographic computer that is right next to the box." "All of the [Magic Chip] functions can be accessed by using your thought. Ah, one last thing. This room is your personal space. You can come and go to this space by communicating with me. I can transfer you to this space from any non-combat territories in the Realm of Defenders. Only you can access this space and nobody other than you is allowed in this space. To return to your dimension you need to buy the return stone from the store and use it on the teleportation machine to my right," Fay continues. "I hope to be your guide for a long time, Alex Volff," Fay finishes the introduction. Alex finally heaves a sigh of relief at the end of the long introduction. He smiles at Fay and immediately walks to the [Transporter Box] pointed out by Fay earlier. He opens it up and sees several items inside: a long-sleeved shirt, a pair of trousers, one wooden sword, one small box, and a small vial filled with blue glowing liquid. These items will be his initial capital to get started in the Realm of Defenders. Chapter 006 - Evolution >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: F* Credits: 0 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 19 - Speed: 18 - Agility: 18 - Endurance: 20 - Spirit: 28 - Mana: 0/0 >-----< Skills: - N/A >-----< Kill Count: 0 Achievements: 0 Records: 0 >-----< "Hmm.. there are two new stats that were not tested by the UDA, Spirit and Mana. I know everyone doesn''t have any Mana before the first evolution, but it''s weird that they didn''t test Spirit. Or maybe they can''t do it. Anyway, my Spirit stats is surprisingly high, which can only mean a good thing," mused Alex after using [Observe] to look at his basic information. With a thought, the image describing his basic information disappears from the air in front of him. Alex then starts to examine the items he gets as part of his beginner package. >-----< Beginner Leather Shirt >-----< A shirt made from the leather of F* rank creatures. Its toughness can withstand attacks from similar ranked creatures without tearing. >-----< >-----< Beginner Trousers >-----< Trousers made from the leather of F* rank creatures. Its toughness can withstand attacks from similar ranked creatures without tearing. >-----< >-----< Beginner Wooden Sword >-----< A wooden sword made from the wood of Blacia trees. Suitable to be used as a blunt weapon instead of cutting. It''s effective against F* ranked creatures and some F** ranked creatures. >-----< >-----< Skill Book Mystery Box (F-ranked) >-----< Contains a random F-ranked skill book. >-----< >-----< Evolution Potion (F-ranked) >-----< A potion that enables genetic evolution for Defenders. This is the lowest grade evolution potion. Its maximum effectiveness is 50% and will decrease with repeated usage. Use this with the evolution capsule. DO NOT DRINK THIS POTION! >-----< Alex checked everything again and then nodded. All the items in his beginner package match the basic survival information circulated by UDA. His current Mana is 0, which means he cannot use any skill yet. The first thing he needs to do is use the {Evolution Potion} to evolve and be able to use Mana. He picks up the glowing blue vial and walked to the evolution capsule pointed by Fay. He inserts the vial into the slot on the side of the capsule, takes off all his clothes and enters the capsule. The capsule starts filling with transparent water-like liquid. Alex starts panicking a little when the liquid reaches his head. He reflexively holds his breath for a brief moment even though he already knew that he can breathe normally inside this liquid. After the transparent liquid has covered all the insides of the capsule, it starts mixing with the blue evolution potion. The liquid turns blue and glowing. Alex starts feeling a slight itch all over his body. The itch intensifies and seeps into his body all the way into his bones. After the itch comes slight pain all over his body. It''s not to the point of making him scream from pain, but it is a very uncomfortable feeling.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. As the blue glow starts dimming, the painful feeling and itchiness start disappearing and replaced with a very comfortable feeling. Alex can feel his body getting stronger and his mind clearing up. He feels his lower dantian (the space in his body about three fingers below the navel) starts warming up. It isn''t painful but it brings about a very comfortable warm feeling. Alex spends 2 hours like that in the evolution capsule. After 2 hours, the liquid in the capsule which has turned transparent again starts draining out. Alex comes out of the capsule feeling refreshed and stronger. His muscles look more toned than before and there is an extra sharpness in his eyes. He uses [Observe] on himself to find out how much his stats changes. >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: F* Credits: 0 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 28 - Speed: 26 - Agility: 27 - Endurance: 30 - Spirit: 42 - Mana: 45/45 >-----< Skills: - N/A >-----< Kill Count: 0 Achievements: 0 Records: 0 >-----< His stats have seen big changes. From the basic information circulated by the UDA, he knows that the average normal humans'' basic stats are around 10. An increase from just one vial of F-ranked {Evolution Potion} is equal to 5 years of his bitter training. But the most important thing is that now he can use Mana. Which means he can learn how to use skills now. Skills are important for surviving in the Realm of Defenders. A good skill can get someone out of a tight spot and increase their chance of survival. Skills can be divided into three main categories depending on their use: attack, defend, and support. Before starting his adventure as a Defender, Alex knows that he has to learn a skill to increase his chance of survival. Alex takes out the F-ranked {Skill Book Mystery Box} and starts opening it. "Let it be a good attack or defense skill," mumbles Alex as he opens up the box. Inside the box is a white book with strange writings on its cover. Alex can immediately understand the strange script due to the [Automatic Translation] capabilities of his [Magic Chip]. The script reads {F-ranked Energy Manipulation}. "Sh**, it''s this one," Alex lets out a curse as he read the title. It''s one of the skill books that the UDA deems "useless". It''s the most expensive F-ranked support-type skill book. The skill is very complicated and almost impossible to learn. There are other Defenders who have tried to buy and learn this skill but none has succeeded so far. It''s now deemed as a waste of credits. Alex obviously didn''t use any credit to get this skill book, but it''s still regarded as impossible to learn. Which means he might have to go out on his first adventure in the Realm of Defenders without any skill at all. But, after the initial brief period of feeling dejected, he firms his resolve. He still needs to try and learn this skill. "I will try to learn this. If there is no progress in 5 days I will have to go out without any skill and starts earning credits to buy another skill book," Alex makes his own resolve. Alex opens the skill book and reads the introduction. "F-ranked Energy Manipulation - Support Skill. The world is full of energy. It exists everywhere around us in various forms. It also exists inside of us. To understand energy is to understand oneself. To control energy is to control the world." Alex keeps reading the content of the book. It teaches someone how to move the Mana from the lower dantian to every part of their body. Mana is energy, so when it permeated his whole body it will make him stronger beyond his basic stats. In theory, this is a good skill, but how much stronger can one get is still a question. And the difficulty in learning this skill made many people gave up on this skill. Chapter 007 - Energy Manipulation In a training room adjacent to the main room in his personal space, Alex Volff sits down in a meditating pose. The {F-ranked Energy Manipulation} skill book is open in front of him. He tries to follow the first instruction in the book, to try to concentrate and feel his spirit. The spirit is the guide to control energy. First he must be able to control his spirit before he can learn how to manipulate energy. Other Defenders that has tried learning this skill has always failed at this first step. Trying to grasp such an abstract thing such as spirit is nearly impossible. Alex though still maintains a bit of optimism because his Spirit stat is very high. It is 4 times as high as the average human. He has a tiny hope that maybe this can help him taking this first step. It has been 4 days since he started trying to learn the skill. Other than when he needs to eat or perform other bodily functions he has been sitting in meditation still trying to feel his spirit. He feels like he almost succeeded but always failed at the last step. He still can''t feel his spirit. This is now the fifth day of his training. It is the last day that he will try. Alex keeps trying to follow the method written in the skill book to try and feel his spirit. He tries to concentrate and empty his mind at the same time. He skips his meals and keeps sitting in meditation position. When half a day has passed he finally makes a progress. For a brief moment, Alex can feel his mind being transported to an empty place with a small flickering light in the middle. This is his spiritual sea and the flickering light must be his spirit just like the skill book described. He tries maintaining the state he''s in but he can''t hold it for long. Soon he''s out of that state and his mind comes back to reality. Still, Alex clenches his fist and wore a big smile on his face. He has succeeded in the very first step that has stumbled other Defenders. He calms himself down and tries to recall that feeling again. After another half day of training he can now easily access his spiritual sea and maintain that state for 30 minutes. He has even makes a tiny progress in controlling his spirit to move around his spiritual sea. An entire day of training has made Alex mentally exhausted. Entering that state is tiring, but controlling his spirit for a long time is even more exhausting for him mentally. He has to take a 30 minute break every time he tries to control his spirit for 15 minutes. Alex decides to take a rest and continue his training tomorrow. He has already made progress, so he might as well try to learn the entire thing. The next day, Alex wakes up from his long sleep with his mind feeling refreshed. He soon feels an intense starving feeling as he has skipped his meals the day before. After feeling up his stomach with the rations he brought from Earth he starts training immediately. The next step of training progresses smoothly after he has breakthrough the initial bottleneck of controlling his spirit. Alex spends 2 hours familiarizing himself with controlling his spirit inside his own body. He can now control his spirit freely for 10 minutes before he starts getting tired and the maximum time limit of controlling his spirit now stands at 20 minutes. Now he''s ready to move on to the next step, controlling his Mana with his spirit as a guide.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. With a thought, the flickering light in Alex''s spiritual sea moves to his dantian. In his dantian he can see blue gas-like substances floating around. This gas-like substance is his Mana. He tries binding the Mana using his spirit according to the method written in the {F-ranked Energy Manipulation} skill book. His first few attempts failed, but he perseveres and keep trying. Every time the tiredness starts creeping up he would rest for 15 minutes and try again. After another 3 hours of trying, Alex Volff finally succeeded in binding his Mana using his spirit. Then he tries to move it around his body following the path described in the skill book. He can''t move it far before the binding dissipates. He can feel some of the unrestrained Mana rushing back to his dantian and some of it vaporizes to his surrounding. Alex uses [Observe] to check his stats and confirm his suspicion. His Mana stat now reads 10/45, which means he used up 35 points of Mana in that failed first attempt. Alex immediately tries again but the failure happens much more quickly this time and his Mana pool appears to be empty after this second failure. It seems like he needs a full Mana pool to have a chance of succeeding. Alex waits for 30 minutes for his Mana to restore on itself and try again. This time after a failure he waits for his Mana to fill up before trying again. After 6 hours of trying, Alex finally succeeded to circulate his Mana to his entire body. He can feel his body getting stronger and lighter at the same time. He can barely holds this state for 5 seconds before the binding dissipates. "Congratulations, Alex Volff! You have gained initial mastery of the {F-ranked Energy Manipulation}," Alex can hear Fay''s voice resounding in his head. "I did it!" Alex makes a fist pump with an elated expression on his face. Alex immediately calms himself and starts resting. That attempt left him with only 1 point in his Mana pool and a mentally exhausted feeling. He continues his training for another 4 hours. He can now holds this mana-enhanced physical state for 35 seconds, retaining 7 points of Mana in his Mana pool after each usage. Alex now feels that this skill is usable in a fight, but it should only be used in critical situations because after using this skill he''s still left in a tired state. The exhaustion is not as severe as his first attempt, but it will affect his combat proficiency. "I''ve done all I can to prepare. Tomorrow, it''s time to start exploring the Realm of Defenders," Alex muses to himself. He fills up his hungry stomach and starts resting. He needs to be in a peak condition tomorrow, because tomorrow is the day he starts his real fight. Chapter 008 - First Fight "I want to start exploring the Realm of Defenders now," Alex Volff says to Fay the fairy. This is his 7th day in his personal space. He has used the first 6 days to prepare as much as he can. Now he needs to go out and start earning credits. He needs at least 50 credits to buy a return stone to return to Earth. He doesn''t want to stay in there for too long for his first trip, otherwise he might make his mother and sister worried. "Okay. But, before I send you out, I need to tell you a few things. First, you will be transported to the Beginner Town. The town is surrounded by magic barrier that prevents hostile creatures coming in while Defenders can come in and go out as they please. Inside the barrier is regarded as a non-combat zone. Remember, you need to be in a non-combat zone to be able to come back to this place," Fay starts explaining some basic things. Alex already knew all of this, but he has learnt that he can''t skip this so he just listens. "The next thing is, the areas around Beginner Town are filled with F-ranked creatures. The areas nearest to the town generally only have 1-star creatures. The further you ventures from the town you will find stronger creatures. Be careful not to run into 3-star creatures and above. Based on your current stats you will have difficulties dealing with them. Oh, and don''t venture too far because you don''t want to meet E-ranked creatures. Even meeting just an E* (E-ranked, 1-star) creatures will mean the end of your life," warns Fay. "I suggest you only fight with F* creatures for this first experience. You need to get used to the rhythm of battle and survival before moving on to more difficult fights," Fay finishes off his explanation. "Okay, I understand. Now please send me out," Alex nodded and replies to Fay. "Then, go inside the transporter and I will send you out," Fay points to the transporter. .... Alex appears in the middle of a large open square bustling with people. Some people take a quick glance at him and continue with their activities. He''s wearing the same clothes as plenty of people around him, beige long-sleeved shirt, beige trousers with a wooden sword strapped on his waist. After shaking off the distorted feeling, Alex ignores the activities around him and starts walking south. With his increased physical capabilities and his quick pace it still takes him around 30 minutes to be able to see the edge of the barrier. This Beginner Town is more suitable to be called Beginner City due to its size. This is equivalent to big cities on earth with tall buildings everywhere. These buildings are being used as residential and commercial properties. There are Defenders who choose to stay in this Realm for a long time or even permanently instead of going back and forth between dimensions to save credits. There are also Defenders who don''t have talent for battling choosing to learn production skills and trade their products with other Defenders for credits. They can buy blueprints and recipes from the store. They can get the raw materials to produce items at a cheaper price so they can sell the finished products at a cheaper price than the Realm of Defenders'' store. Of course not everything in the store can be produced by Defenders. Skill books and some items don''t have blueprints or recipes available for purchase. There are also those items with highly-complicated production method which only a handful of Defenders are able to produce. These items are difficult to find outside the store and most people uses the store when they need to buy these items.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Alex ignores all of this as he doesn''t have any credit to spend now anyway. He keeps walking until he gets outside of the protective barrier. Around 300 meters in front of him, he can see a lush forest. He takes an alert stance, grabs his wooden sword and starts walking towards the forest. .... Inside the forest a teenager with dark short hair is standing face to face with a silver furred wolf. The teenager is Alex Volff and he is facing off with the first hostile creature that he found after entering the forest. Alex is quite big for a teenager his age, standing at 1.75m tall, but the wolf in front of him is almost as big as him. The wolf is around 1.5m tall and 2m long. It gives off a pressure looking at its size and ferocious expression. Alex calms down his nerves and use [Observe] on the wolf. It says that this wolf is one of the weakest creature in this realm, but the pressure it''s giving off is real. The realization that this is the start of his constant struggle between life and death now dawns on Alex. He raises his concentration to the maximum waiting for the Forest Wolf to make the first move. The wolf then starts howling and charge at him with a frightening speed. Alex who was ready for this attack rolled to his right before the wolf arrives to his original place. The wolf that missed its target stopped and turned to its left to face Alex again. Alex steadies himself in the time it took for the wolf to stop and turn. The wolf immediately charge at him again in a straight line with its fangs ready to bite Alex into pieces. But this time instead of rolling out of the way, Alex timed its attack and sidestepped to its right side. The wolf charged past him for around 2 meters, stops and turn around to face Alex again. "Hmm.. as expected. The information from UDA is accurate. This Forest Wolf is quick when charging at a straight line, but quite slow on the turn," Alex mumbles to himself. He grabs the wooden sword firmly with his right hand and tilts his body so his left foot along with his left side of the body is in front of his right foot. He lifts the wooden sword and rests the back of its "blade" on his right shoulder, getting ready to counter its charges. The Forest Wolf growls at Alex. It is getting irritated that its first two charges misses the target. It immediately charges at Alex again. This time, Alex makes a sidestep to his right with is right food so he''s facing the left side of the wolf and swings his wooden sword at its torso. He immediately feels the sensation of hitting a very hard tree from his right hand. The Forest Wolf seems like it receives a bruise, which is only a minor injury. The wolf gets angrier and keeps charging at Alex. Alex keeps his rhythm and delivers more blow to its torso. He tried hitting its legs and head to cripple it, but the wolf is alert and able to avoid the blows to its head and legs. 10 minutes gone by with the same scene repeating over and over again. The Forest Wolf''s movement starts to get a bit sluggish due to its injury piling up. It''s also getting a bit wary of Alex and doesn''t charge at him immediately after each turn. Alex senses its sluggishness and wariness. He picks up a stone from beneath his legs and throw it at the Forest Wolf to provoke it. The wolf gets angry again after getting hit by the thrown stone. It charges at Alex once again. This time, Alex tries hitting its head again after sidestepping to avoid its charge. The Forest Wolf is still alert and avoid a hit to its head by ducking so the wooden sword only managed to hit its torso. Alex spends another 10 minutes doing the same thing again. This time he tried to hit the same place repeatedly to deepen its injury, but only managed to do it twice. Alex can feel his body getting tired, but the wolf is in worse condition than him. Its movement is getting more sluggish and its breath is getting labored. Alex provoke it once again by throwing a stone at the Forest Wolf. But it doesn''t have any immediate reaction this time. It''s too exhausted to mount another charge. Alex''s eyes flashes a sharp glint. This is his time to finish this. He uses the {Energy Manipulation} skill by circulating his Mana all over his body. He can feel his tired body gets significantly stronger. Then, he charges at the Forest Wolf getting ready to finish it off. Chapter 009 - Earning Credits Alex charges at the Forest Wolf while in his mana-enhanced state. The wolf tenses up its body, ready to retaliate. As he neared the wolf''s head he makes a slight sidestep to the left, but the Forest Wolf responds immediately by moving its head to the its right, getting ready to bite him. Alex in his enhanced state can see the wolf''s movement clearly. He reacted by twisting his body to the opposite direction and make a sudden stab with the wooden sword at the wolf''s left eye. The wolf can''t react to Alex''s fast speed in its current exhausted state. The wooden sword stabs at its left eye straight into its brain. The Forest Wolf lets out one last painful howl and collapses on its right side. "Congratulations, you have killed the . You have earned 2 credit," Fay''s voice sounds directly in Alex''s head. "Huff.. huff.." Alex pants with both his hands holding his knees. It was an exhausting battle that lasted more than 20 minutes. He might have came out of it unscathed, but one wrong move and it would have been life-threatening. After calming down, he pulls out the wooden sword from the Forest Wolf''s left eye and cleans it. He sits down while showing a big smile on his face. That was his first fight which was done successfully. He also earned 2 credits. It''s a small amount, but it is a start. Alex uses [Observe] and check his current information. >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: F* Credits: 2 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 28 - Speed: 26 - Agility: 27 - Endurance: 30 - Spirit: 42 - Mana: 3/45 >-----< Skills: - Energy Manipulation (F) >-----< Kill Count: 1 Achievements: 0 Records: 0 >-----< He closes the floating image with a thought and starts recovering his strength. After 5 minutes of rest, Alex''s mental state has gotten back up to its best, but his Mana hasn''t filled up yet. Suddenly, the Forest Wolf''s corpse lying a few meters in front of him starts to glow with a gray light and starts melting into its surrounding. Alex doesn''t get surprised witnessing this mysterious scene as he already expected it. It was in the basic survival information circulated by the UDA. The UDA doesn''t give any explanation to why this strange phenomenon happens. The flesh and blood creatures melts into its surrounding after their death. But, then again, this Realm of Defenders in itself is a strange phenomenon with no explanation, so Alex just shrugs it off and not think about it anymore.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Alex keeps waiting for his Mana to fill back up while training on moving his spirit around his body to get more familiar with this skill. After alternating between training and resting for 30 minutes Alex confirms that his Mana is full again. He continues moving around the forest to find another creature. He manages to find and kill another 12 Forest Wolves that day, earning a total of 26 credits. He uses the same method to kill each one, keeps hitting them, wait for them to tire out and go for the finish using the {Energy Manipulation} skill. He keeps resting for around 30 minutes after each kill while training his spiritual control. Alex can feel his spiritual control gets a little bit better after each training session. Also, the time he takes to finish off a Forest Wolf keeps decreasing after each kill. He manages to hit the same spot on their body at least 4 times against each Forest Wolves starting from the 5th wolf he faced. He even managed to finish the last wolf in 10 minutes. He got a bit lucky there as he managed to hit the same spot 7 times within 10 minutes and caused its skin and muscle to break down and bleed out. It was easy to go for the kill after that. When he finished resting after the last kill, Alex can see that the white sun in the sky is starting to go down and parts of two moons are starting to be visible. The time in Realm of Defenders is roughly similar to the outside world, which means he must have spent around 11-12 hours hunting. It''s starting to get dark. Hunting in the dark is more dangerous as creatures gets wilder at night. They also have better senses than human so they fight better than humans when in the dark. Alex starts going back to Beginner Town by following the [Radar] blinking in the air in front of him. He hasn''t ventured deep into the forest, but he''s now more careful to avoid meeting any creatures lest he be delayed. It takes him around 80 minutes to go back to Beginner Town. He doesn''t own any resident in Beginner Town yet and his pitiful amount of credits can''t afford to rent a place, so he tells Fay to transport him back to his personal space. A black light starts to surround him and within seconds he''s back inside the transporter capsule in his personal space. Alex goes to the holographic computer beside the [Transporter Box] to check the store. The cheapest items in there is priced at 20 credits, but they are completely useless to him now. These items are low-ranked raw materials for production. The cheapest usable items for him now are priced at 50 credits, which includes [Return Stone], some basic skill books, some basic potions and other miscellaneous items. As he doesn''t have enough credit to buy something useful, he closes the store page and heads to the training room. After filling up his starving stomach, Alex starts training the {Energy Manipulation} skill. He can feel his spiritual control and the control of his Mana gradually getting better. When it''s almost midnight according to Earth''s time, Alex stops his training and starts resting on a futon in his training room. He needs to be in his best condition for the next battles. Chapter 010 - Meeting In a lush forest with tall trees around, the white sun is shining through the leaves giving it quite the beautiful view. Surrounded by the trees, a dark-haired teenage boy is sitting in meditation. In front of him is a corpse of a silver-furred wolf that is slowly melting into its surrounding. After around 20 minutes in meditation, Alex Volff opens his eyes with a sharp glint while the corners of his mouth arcing up a bit showing a slight smile. This is his 10th prey for today and he has only been hunting for around 6 hours. It has been much quicker than the day before. This last one though has been particularly dangerous. That last Forest Wolf seems to be more intelligent and a bit bigger than his earlier opponents although they are still described as F* ranked. It was able to use its paws to cause trouble for Alex. He was even scratched on his left hand one time, but thankfully his {Beginner Leather Shirt} managed to hold up against the wolf''s sharp nails. But, there is also the improvement to his {Energy Manipulation} skill that makes him happy. He''s now more familiar with his spiritual control and in turns he''s able to control more of his Mana to flow back to his dantian after every use of the mana-enhanced state. He''s now able to retain 20-25% of his Mana that caused his resting time between each hunt to be reduced. As Alex is getting ready to find another prey, he starts hearing sounds of battle originating not far from his current place. Actually, this is not the first time for him to hear sounds of battle as it has occurred a few times. He has even seen other Defenders battling the Forest Wolf from afar a couple times. Likewise, other Defenders have also spotted him. But, in this place nobody bothers to interfere with other Defenders, because their current focus at this stage is to gather as many credits as possible. But, this time the sounds are a little different. It''s far more intense the the usual battling sounds he hears in this forest. Getting a bit curious, Alex Volff starts moving carefully towards the source of those sounds. As he moves closer to the sound, he can see the battle up ahead. Around 30-40 meters in front of him a girl is battling two Fores Wolves. One of the wolf is a bit bigger than the normal Forest Wolves. As Alex moves closer to the battle he can see more clearly. The girl looks to be the same age as him, which is quite surprising as there are few Defenders their age. She doesn''t seem to be in a good state. Some strands of her long black hair have escaped her ponytail and looks disheveled, her face which still looks pretty cute is covered with dirt, and her clothes were torn and showing some blood on her left upper hand and her right thigh. She is struggling to dodge the attacks from those two wolves. As she dodges, she can see his figure not far from him. She flashes a smile and starts running towards his direction. Alex tensed up when he sees this. He takes a battling pose and shouted, "what do you want?"If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. "You''re the one coming here," replies the girl coldly. "Help me take care of the smaller one and I will remember your favor," the girl continues, still with her cold demeanor. Her cold tones makes him wants to argue with her, but he realizes that she''s right. He''s the one sticking his nose in here. Meanwhile, the girl manages to arrive a few meters beside him to his left. Both are still wary of each other, but they have no time to worry about it because the wolves starts moving in their direction after noticing his presence. The bigger one starts rushing to Alex''s direction as it seems like the wolves has different ideas than the two young Defenders. The bigger wolf must have felt that Alex is a bigger threat than the injured girl, so its instinct tells it to take care of him first. Alex gets ready to tangle with the bigger Forest Wolf. At the same time, the girl starts chanting some strange words. Alex isn''t surprised by this as he already knew that this is the normal way people use skills. His {Energy Manipulation} is an anomaly in the first place. That''s also why it''s almost impossible for other Defenders to learn it. Meanwhile, the wolves arrives in front of them. The smaller one starts opening its mouth trying to bite the girl while the bigger one makes a diagonal swiping motion with its front left leg at Alex. The girl manages to dodge beautifully while still maintaining her chants. On the other side, Alex makes a sidestep to his right and swings his wooden sword at the wolf''s spine. Alex starts battling the bigger wolf using his usual method while being extra careful of its varied attacking patterns. On the other side, the girl dodges the wolf''s charge once again while still chanting. After missing its second charge, the wolf turns around ready to charge again. At this time, the girl stops her chanting after exactly 10 seconds has passed since she started chanting. A marble-sized fireball starts appearing in the air above her right palm. She dodges the wolf''s third charge and throws the fireball at its body. A small explosion occurs as the fireball hits the smaller Forest Wolf''s body. It flinches and lets out a painful howl while getting pushed back a little by the explosion. It seems to feel the injury as its movement starts to seem a bit sluggish. Alex who witnesses this while battling the other wolf is a little surprised and envious at the skill''s power. While {Energy Manipulation} is a great skill, it''s much cooler to throw a fireball, besides that skill doesn''t seem to exhaust her mentally after each use. Although, the mental exhaustion from the {Energy Manipulation} seems to be gradually reduced as he gets more proficient with the skill. After using the fireball skill, the girl pulls out her wooden sword and starts battling wolf the same way as Alex. She''s also looking for a chance to finish it off. After around 10 minutes of battling, Alex manages to kill his opponent by using his mana-enhanced state. He turns to see the other battle and can see that the girl is in more advantageous position. He still maintains an alert state but doesn''t interfere with her battle. Interfering with other battles without the proper teamwork can have a negative effect instead of helping. After another minute has passed, the girl manages to kill her opponent by using another fireball thrown into its open mouth. She takes a brief moment to gather herself and faces Alex. Chapter 011 - Rank-up "Thank you for your help, and I''m sorry for my rudeness earlier," the girl bows her head slightly and thank Alex using a more polite tone compared to before. Flustered with the sudden change of attitude, Alex replies briefly, "ah, it''s okay." The girl smiles at him charmingly. It seems like her cold attitude earlier was due to her wariness of him. With him helping her dealing with the Forest Wolves she now has a bit more trust in him, although the wariness doesn''t disappear completely. It''s dangerous to completely trust a stranger in this Realm that is filled with the threat of death. "My name is Ichiko Kagawa. May I know your name?" she introduces herself. "Ah, my name is Alex Volff," Alex replies. "Do you mind if we link our [Magic Chips] so I can contact you in the future?" Ichiko makes a sudden unexpected request. Alex as an inexperienced 15 years old teenager wears a flustered expression and don''t know how to reply as this cute girl says she wants to contact him in the future. "As I said earlier I owe you a favor for helping me deal with one of the Forest Wolf. I want to be able to contact you in the future to return this favor," Ichiko explains further. "Oh, okay then," Alex replies with a brief disappointed expression on his face. Ichiko Kagawa then extends her right hand. Alex grabs her hand and both of them starts linking their respective [Magic Chips]. The process takes around 5 seconds to complete. Alex was nervous for this brief 5 seconds because this is the longest he has held a the hand of a female other than his mother and sister. He has been training hard for the last 5 years so he has had minimal contact with other people. He only has a couple close male friends from school and generally didn''t socialize with his female classmates. After that, both youngsters starts resting to get back to their peak condition. Alex was surprised to see Ichiko pulls out a small vial filled with red liquid. It is a {Health Potion} that could be used to heal physical injuries and restore stamina in minutes. It costs 50 credits to buy one vial of this potion. Beginners usually don''t spend their credits on this as credits are hard to come by at this stage. She opens the vial and drinks its content, then sits down to rest. Alex then starts sitting down and rest. He doesn''t meditate and train this time as he doesn''t want to leave any opening even though he slightly trust this girl. After 20 minutes of resting, Ichiko Kagawa gets up and says her goodbye. Alex continues resting without meditating for another 1-2 minutes. After that he walks in the opposite direction of where Ichiko Kagawa went.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. .... After separating from Ichiko Kagawa, Alex starts looking for the next Forest Wolf. He finds another Forest Wolf similar to the one he just faced. It seems like as he ventures deeper into the forest, the wolves that comes out becomes stronger even though they are still described as F-rank 1-star. Alex spends the rest of the day hunting. He manages to kill a total of 20 Forest Wolves today, a significant improvement on the 13 wolves he killed the day before. By now he has gathered 66 credits. It''s enough to buy the a return stone, but Alex decides against returning home for now. Alex has another mission in mind, he needs to kill 50 Forest Wolves by tomorrow to rank-up. His basic stats is enough to rank-up to F-rank 2-stars, but according to the information provided by the UDA he lacks kill count. He needs to kill 50 F*-ranked creatures or 25 F**-ranked creatures to rank-up. Right now he has killed a total of 33 F*-ranked Forest Wolves. He needs another 17 to rank-up. Ranking up has its own advantage. By raising his rank from F* to F** he will be awarded 50 credits and another {Evolution Potion}. The average new Defenders takes around 20-30 days to up their rank from F* to F**. Alex is about to rank-up in 9 days, and he spends the first 6 days training, while other Defenders usually only spend 2-3 days learning their skills. Alex is progressing at an unbelievable pace thanks to his high basic stats, his top battle sense, and the {Energy Manipulation} skill. A lot of other Defenders also didn''t meet the basic stats requirement even if they have killed enough creatures. They need to save enough credits to buy the expensive {Evolution Potion} to raise their stats once more so they can rank-up. The {Evolution Potion} sells for 500 credits at the store, but it can be bought outside for 450 credits. Alex walks back to Beginner Town while thinking all this thoughts. He immediately goes to his personal space. He eats dinner and trains for a bit before resting. The next day, he goes out again and starts looking for Forest Wolves. This time he tries to venture deeper into the forest. The Forest Wolves gets stronger as he heads deeper, but this is also a form of training for him. He needs to challenge stronger opponents as he gets stronger. After killing the 17th Forest Wolf for the day, he hears the voice he''s been waiting for. "Congratulations, Alex Volff. You have ranked-up to F-rank 2-stars Defender. You have been awarded 50 credits and one {Evolution Potion (F-ranked)}," Fay''s voice sounds in his head. Alex keeps hunting 5 more Forest Wolves that day before stopping his hunt. He uses [Observe] to check his own information. >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: F** Credits: 160 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 28 - Speed: 26 - Agility: 27 - Endurance: 30 - Spirit: 42 - Mana: 45/45 >-----< Skills: - Energy Manipulation (F) >-----< Kill Count: [55 F*] Achievements: 0 Records: 0 >-----< He has accomplished his objective. He now needs to head back home as he doesn''t want to make his family worry for him. Chapter 012 - Return Alex Volff is standing in front of his glowing [Transporter Box]. This is the morning of his 10th day in this realm. After he went back to his personal space yesterday he didn''t immediately return home as it was already late at night. He''s now waiting for the items he just purchased to arrive. He bought one {Return Stone} spending 50 credits for it and one F-ranked {Energy Stone} for 20 credits. {Energy Stone} is the main source of energy on Earth right now. Almost everything on earth now are being powered by {Energy Stones} that comes from the Realm of Defenders. Bringing back {Energy Stones} is the main method for Defenders to earn money. One F-ranked {Energy Stone} is being priced at $100 by the UDA. One hundred dollars don''t seem like much, but as Defenders gets stronger it gets easier for them to earn credits and it becomes a lucrative opportunity to earn money. Of course as the rank of the stones gets higher, the price increases exponentially. One E-ranked {Energy Stone} goes for $1,000 and it''s rumored that a C-ranked {Energy Stone} is being priced at $100,000. Alex doesn''t know how much credits he needs to buy an E-ranked {Energy Stone} not to mention the C-ranked one. Right now he doesn''t have access to E-ranked and above items as he''s only a F-ranked Defender. The UDA doesn''t provide public information beyond the F-ranked. After waiting for 10 seconds his ordered items finally arrives. Alex opens the box to find one black stone and one white stone inside. The black stone is almost as big as a child''s fist and the white stone is the size of a marble. Alex takes the white {Energy Stone} and stuffs it inside his jacket pocket. He''s now wearing a black jacket and blue t-shirt with a pair of jeans. These are clothes he packed from the outside world. He''s leaving his leather clothes inside his training room for the next time he comes back. Alex then takes the black {Return Stone} and walks to Fay. After saying his goodbye to Fay, he walks beside the [Transporter Capsule] and inserts the {Return Stone} in a tube attached to the capsule. He goes inside the capsule and tells Fay to send him home. .... Not far from the portal that Alex used to enter the Realm of Defenders, a black light starts flickering and a person appears inside of it shortly after it stabilizes. The black light starts fading to show Alex Volff''s figure. He''s now back inside the portal hall again. After making sure nothing''s wrong, Alex walks out of the portal room, greeting the guards when he passed them. He then walks up to one of the UDA staff inside the big hall.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. "Hi, my name is Akira. How may I help you, sir?" a bespectacled young man greets Alex politely. "Ah, I want to trade the {Energy Stone} that I bring back from the Realm," Alex states his request. "Please show me the {Energy Stone}," Akira replies with a smile. Alex pulls out the white stone from his pocket and gives it to Akira. Akira looks at it and says, "Oh, one F-ranked {Energy Stone}. We will give you $100 according to the market price. Please hand me your Defender ID Card so I can credit it directly to your card." "Okay," Alex hands Akira the card and waits. After around 15 seconds of processing, Akira hands Alex back his card. "Is there anything else I can help, sir?" Akira asks politely. "It''s okay, that''s all," Alex replies briefly. "Then thank you for your hard work," Akira ends the conversation and makes a slight bow to Alex. Alex then walks away, pulls out his old-school smartphone and use it to scan his card. He can see that $100 has been deposited to his Defender account. The corners of his mouth makes an upturn tho show a big smile. This is just a small amount of money, but this is his first hard-earned money. From now on he can help his mother to support their family. .... On his way home from the portal hall, Alex stops by a convenience store to buy some tasty snacks for his mother and little sister. The respectful expression of the employee at the check out counter when he takes out his Defender ID Card to pay makes him feel a bit proud as he walks home from the convenience store. He soon arrives in front of his family''s apartment door. "Mom, Elsa, I''m home," Alex shouts as he enters his home feeling a bit moved. He has only left home for 9 days, but he has also been struggling on the edge of life and death for 3 days straight. As he enters the familiar comfort of home, he can feel his tense body and spirit relaxing. Soon, a little head pokes out of the dining room to look at his direction. That little head had a cute surprised expression on the face. It''s his little sister Elsa. "I''m back," Alex smiles gently at his little sister. Elsa immediately smile and tears up a little. She then runs to hug her big brother and shouts to her mother, "mom, big bro is here. He''s back. Come here fast." Alex pats her little sister''s head to calm her down. He seems a bit more mature now after coming back from his first adventure in the Realm of Defenders. Soon, his mother comes out from the dining room. Her eyes also starts tearing up while smiling. "Welcome back." Chapter 013 - Invitation (1) "That''s everything that happened in the Realm of Defenders," Alex finishes his story. "Wow! Big bro, you''re awesome," Elsa stares at Alex with admiring eyes after hearing his exploits in the Realm of Defenders. Of course Alex didn''t tell everything to his family. He left out the more dangerous parts of his experience because he didn''t want to make his mother and sister worries. Despite that, his mother still has a worried expression on her face. As a mother, she can''t help but be worried about her children, especially in a dangerous place like the Realm of Defenders. She knows that his trip must have involved some dangers. Otherwise, her husband wouldn''t have died without any news in that place. Alex, with his sharp eyes is able to see the flash of worry in his mother''s face. He tries to change the subject. "Oh yeah, mom. I earned some money from this first trip. I will transfer it to your account to help with the family expense," Alex says to his mother. "It''s okay, you can keep it in your account. Use it to have fun this time. After all, this is your first earning," replies Erina with a warm smile. "Ah, but I won''t have time to have fun. I plan to return to the Realm the day after tomorrow, after I prepare everything I need tomorrow," Alex replies to his mother. Erina shows a bitter smile on her face and urges her son to change his plan, "I think you shouldn''t push yourself. You should have more rest." "Besides, you haven''t met with your friends for a while. Don''t you want to meet them?" Erina continues to persuade Alex. "Elsa also missed you, so you should spend more time with her," Erina then faces Elsa and blinks at her daughter. "Yeah, big bro, stay and play with me for a few more days," Elsa pleads with her big brother with big moist eyes. "Ahh.. Okay. You guys win, I will stay two more days," Alex can only surrenders to his mother and sister''s scheme. "Sigh.." Alex exhales his breath as he sees his mother and sister''s happy face for succeeding in their scheme. He decides to return to the Realm of Defenders on June 24th, 4 days later. .... Alex spends the next day playing old video game with his little sister. Then at night, he takes his mother and little sister to a nice dinner after his mother finished working. Erina told him to use his money to have fun instead of treating them to dinner, but Alex insisted that this is fun to him. On the next day, June 22nd, Alex calls up his two best friends to meet up. They agree to meet up at the cafe near their training dojo. The training dojo is a small dojo that teach martial arts to people aspiring to become a Defender. Currently this kind of dojo can be found everywhere.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Alex walks into the cafe and finds two youngsters sitting near the window waving at him. He walks up to their table and sits down across the two youngsters. The bespectacled youngster to his left is a Japanese boy with dark hair and firm body. His name is Takeshi Fuji. To his right is Karl Heinz. He has blonde hair and brown eyes with toned muscles. Karl''s father is from Germany while his mother is Japanese. Both of them are Alex''s two best friends. They were classmates in school. They also aspire to become a Defender, so they joined the dojo together. Alex has "graduated" from the dojo earlier than them. "So, how are you mister esteemed Defender?" Karl opens up the conversation by teasing Alex. "Haha.." Alex laughs embarrassingly. "Cut it out, Karl. So, how was the first trip to the Realm of Defenders, Alex?" the calm Takeshi cuts off Karl and seriously asks Alex. "Well, it was very interesting. I got an unexpected skill," Alex starts telling them his experience. "Ah, what skill? Is it perhaps {Ice Bullet}?" Karl asks Alex excitedly. The calm Takeshi also can''t help but gets a bit excited, "Is it {Earth Armor}?" {Ice Bullet} is considered as one of the best F-ranked attacking skill due to its strong controlling capability, while {Earth Armor} like its name is one of the best F-ranked defensive skill. "Neither. I got {Energy Manipulation}," Alex whispers to them while smiling. "What the hell?! Why are you smiling? Isn''t it the useless skill that''s impossible to learn?" Karl was surprised and starts cursing. Takeshi also shows a stern expression and asks, "So you went out without learning any skill?" "No, I managed to learn it," replies Alex. "You managed to learn {Energy Manipulation}?" this time it is Takeshi''s turn to be surprised. "Yes. It doesn''t lose out to {Ice Bullet} or {Earth Armor}. In fact, I think this skill is better than those two," Alex continues surprising his friends. Both Takeshi and Karl wear dumbfounded expression on their faces. It takes a few seconds for them to calm down. Alex then starts telling them his experience in the Realm of Defenders. This is also a valuable information to the both of them as they also want to be a Defender in the near future. The two friends often shows dumbfounded expression while Alex tells them his experience in the Realm of Defenders. Their face even froze for a good 20 seconds when Alex tells them that he managed to rank-up within 9 days. After talking some more, they said their goodbyes. "Be careful on your next trip," Takeshi reminds Alex. "Yes, don''t go dying on us before we explore the Realm of Defenders together," Karl jokingly says to Alex. "Haha.. Yes. You two also need to work hard. Don''t make me wait too long," Alex encourages his two friends before saying goodbye. .... As Alex is about to reach his apartment building, his old smartphone suddenly starts ringing. The screen shows an unknown number. "Hello," Alex answers his phone. A man''s voice replies to him, "Hello. May I know if this is Alex Volff?" "Yes. I am him. May I help you?" Alex replies. "My name is Ichiro Tanaka. I am an assistant to the manager of United Defenders Association branch in Kyoto," the man introduces himself. "Oh.. The UDA?" Alex was surprised. "Yes. My boss wants to invite you to our office for a chat tomorrow. May I inquire if you are available for noon tomorrow?" "Ah, your boss? The UDA''s Kyoto branch manager wants to meet me? Did I do something wrong?" Alex asked confusedly. "No. You did nothing wrong. So, may I know if you''re available?" Ichiro assured him. "Oh, yes, I''m available. I will go to the UDA office tomorrow," Alex replies still a little confused as to why the UDA invites him. "That''s great. Then see you tomorrow." Chapter 014 - Invitation (2) Alex walks into the UDA office and goes straight to the receptionist. He gives her his Defender ID Card and says, "I have an appointment with the manager." "Please wait a minute, sir. Let me check first," the female receptionist replies. Alex nodded his head and wait in front of the receptionist desk. "Oh, here it is. Please wait on the couch, sir. Someone will come to meet you shortly." "Okay." Alex then walks to the couch on the left of the receptionist desk and sits down. After waiting for around 5 minutes, a man walks up to him and greets him. "Welcome Mr. Alex Volff. I''m Ichiro Tanaka, the assistant," the man introduces himself. "Ah, yeah. I''m Alex Volff," Alex replies nervously. "Please follow me to meet the manager," Ichiro Tanaka makes an inviting gesture with his right hand and starts walking. They ride the elevator to the 45th floor. After exiting the elevator, Ichiro Tanaka brings Alex to the large corner office. "Manager, I''ve brought Alex Volff here," Ichiro Tanaka says as he knocks the door. "Yes, please come in," a woman''s melodious voice sounds from behind the door. As they walk into the office, Alex was stunned to see the manager. The manager is a beautiful woman, and she seems too young to be a manger of an important UDA branch office. She seems to be in her early thirties. "Manager, this is Alex Volff," Ichiro Tanaka introduces Alex while making a slight bowing gesture. Alex wakes up from his stunned state and introduces himself, "Ah.. I''m Alex. Nice to meet you." "My name''s Kyoko Akagi. You can call me Ms. Kyoko. Nice to meet you Alex. Please take a seat," Kyoko Akagi introduces herself while showing a beautiful smile. After Alex and her are the only ones left in the office, Kyoko Akagi starts talking.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. "You''re probably wondering why I invited you here. I won''t start talking around in circles. I want to recruit you to join the UDA," Kyoko Akagi goes straight to the point. Alex is surprised at this sudden invitation. The UDA is the strongest force of this world. Everything regarding the Realm of Defenders goes through the UDA. There are other organizations formed by Defenders, but none of them can hold a candle to the UDA. To join the UDA is not an easy feat as only the elites of society can become an official member. Currently, around 15% of the world''s population are Defenders which amounts to 1.5 billion Defenders. But, the UDA only has around 1 million official members. "Umm.. Why me?" Alex asks confusedly. "Well, I think you have great potential as a Defender. Your Defender registration test result puts you in the top 50 of all time," Kyoko answers Alex, concealing the fact that his result was in fact is in the top 20. "Oh.. Haha.." Alex laughs awkwardly with a bit of a smug look on his young face. "So, how is it? Do you agree to join the UDA?" Kyoko pushes for his answer while still smiling. After calming himself down, Alex starts to consider this offer. This is an amazing offer, but he can''t just decides blindly. "May I know what do I have to do if I join the UDA? Also what are the benefits for me?" Alex asks what he wants to know. "(This little rascal. He wants to know the benefits? When countless other Defenders would do anything to join us)" Kyoko thinks to herself, a little upset at his calm attitude. Still wearing a smiling expression on the surface, she answers, "Well, for now you will only be a free member. As a free member, you only have to bring out a fixed amount {Energy Stones} every time you make a trip to the Realm of Defenders. The amount will be determined by your rank. For F-ranked Defenders they have to bring out 10 F-ranked {Energy Stones} for every trip. If you can rank up to the E-rank, we will give you the choice of joining as official member or keep your status as free member." "As for benefits, first of all you can access all of UDA''s information database pertaining to your rank and some important information about the next rank. A lot of these information are not available for public. Another benefit, if you can bring out the required amount of {Energy Stones} then we will compensate you 20% more than its market value. We will also reward you with points that can be used to exchange for items from the Realm of Defenders. Of course if you fail to bring out the required amount we will only buy the {Energy Stones} with 60% market price and deduct your points," Kyoko finishes her explanation. "So, how are the points calculated?" Alex asks Kyoko. "We give 5 points for each F-ranked {Energy Stone}. We will deduct 5 points for every lacking stones. You can use the points on the exclusive member-only UDA store. The value of points is the same as credits. An item that cost 50 credits will also cost 50 points in the UDA store," Kyoko answers his question. Alex starts mulling his decision. This is an extremely beneficial condition for him. First of all, he needs the money from selling {Energy Stones}, so getting an extra 20% would be great. Plus, he can earn extra points, which is the same as earning extra credits. "Then I will accept your offer, Ms. Kyoko," Alex makes his decision right away. "Oh, wonderful. Then, welcome to the UDA, Alex," Kyoko replies with a smile and stretches her right hand. Alex grabs her hand and says, "Please take care of me." Chapter 015 - Power-up (1) After settling the matter of him joining the UDA, Alex starts preparing for his return trip to the Realm of Defenders. He starts buying rations and pack some clothes in his backpack. After his preparation is done, he sits in front of his computer at home and opens up the UDA Member''s Knowledge Base. There really are a lot of information that wasn''t divulged to the public. There are detailed explanation on almost every skill in the Realm of Defenders, their strength, weakness, the best way to use them, skill combinations. There isn''t one about {Energy Manipulation} though, as expected. There are also detailed information about almost every item in the F-rank store. The section Alex is most interested in though is the Creatures section. There are information about the strength and weakness on every F-rank creatures. There are also tips on how to fight them. After reading everything he needs, Alex shuts down his computer and starts sleeping. On the next day, June 24th, Alex reenters the Realm of Defenders. .... Alex Volff appears in the bright room again. This is his personal space. "Welcome back, Alex," Fay greets him. "Hello, Fay," Alex replies. "Do you want to start exploring immediately?" Fay asks Alex. "No. I want to sort out some things first," Alex answers Fay''s question. Fay nods and let Alex does his thing. Alex then walks to his [Storage Box] to retrieve the items he left there before. He takes out the vial filled with blue liquid. He then walks up to the [Evolution Capsule] and inserts the {Evolution Potion} into the slot on the side of the capsule. Before walking into the capsule, Alex checks his basic stats one more time. >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: F** Credits: 90 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 28 - Speed: 26 - Agility: 27 - Endurance: 30 Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.- Spirit: 43 - Mana: 45/45 >-----< Skills: - Energy Manipulation (F) >-----< Kill Count: [55 F*] Achievements: 0 Records: 0 >-----< To his surprise, his Spirit has grown by one. He has never stopped training the {Energy Manipulation} skill, maybe that''s why his Spirit grew. Alex then enters the capsule and starts absorbing the {Evolution Potion} to evolve his body for the second time. After staying in the capsule for 2 hours, Alex steps out feeling more powerful than before. He checks his stats once again using the [Observe] function of the [Magic Chip]. >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: F** Credits: 90 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 39 - Speed: 36 - Agility: 38 - Endurance: 42 - Spirit: 60 - Mana: 60/60 >-----< Skills: - Energy Manipulation (F) >-----< Kill Count: [55 F*] Achievements: 0 Records: 0 >-----< Even though his basic stats saw a bigger increase than the previous evolution, he can see that in terms of percentage it wasn''t as big as the first one. This increase is only because his stat is already high. It seems like the effectiveness of the F-ranked {Evolution Potion} will truly keep decreasing as he uses it more. There is also one thing that bothers him, his spirit. He seems to have a natural talent when it comes to his Spirit stat. If ranking up criteria is only based on his spirit, he already possess the requirement to rank up to F-rank 5-star. The problem is that his high Spirit stat has no direct use in combat other than to use it for the {Energy Manipulation} skill. Alex thinks of it as a waste of his high Spirit stat. "Hey Fay, can you tell me about this Spirit stat?" Alex decides to try and asks Fay. "The Spirit stat is related to the strength of your soul," Fay explains. "My soul?" Alex shows a confused expression as things like soul is an abstract concept to him. "Yes, your soul. Every intelligent creature is composed of physical body, soul, and energy. Energy is the soldier, soul is the general, and physical body is the vessel," Fay continues explaining with a cryptic statement. "I think I get a bit of what you''re saying, but it doesn''t help me. Can you tell me more?" Alex asks Fay again. "I''m sorry, that''s all I can tell you. You rank is still too low for now, so I can''t tell you more," Fay replies to Alex. Alex is a little disappointed, but a little clue is still a clue after all. Alex tries to ponder on Fay''s statement. While pondering, Alex keeps training using the {Energy Manipulation} skill, trying to increase his proficiency in it. After using the skill for a few times, Alex can now feel it''s easier for him to control his Mana. Alex can understand a bit of Fay''s cryptic message. As his Spirit grows stronger, it gets easier to control his Mana. The Spirit is the general, and the Mana is the soldier. As the general gets stronger, the soldier gets more obedient. Chapter 016 - Power-up (2) Alex Volff is sitting in a meditating position in his personal training room. He has been training the {Energy Manipulation} skill for a few hours. Alex can now holds the mana enhanced state for more than one minute. He''s also able to retain more mana after using the skill, about 40 points of mana, when he checks his stats. The biggest improvement though is he doesn''t feel as mentally tired as before after each time he uses the skill. He only needs to rest for about one minute between each use. Alex feels there is one problem though. His mana has increased significantly. Common sense dictates that with more mana, his mana-enhanced state should also see a significant power-up. Instead, there is little difference than before his second evolution. If before his mana-enhanced state increased his physical strength by 50%, this time it seems to only increase it by 51% to 52%. Alex frowns as he keeps thinking on how to improve his fighting power. He plans on hunting the F**-ranked creatures this time, so he needs to prepare adequately. After thinking for some time, Alex decides to buy another skill book. Now he can spare more mana after using the {Energy Manipulation} skill, so another skill is a logical choice as he still has some credits saved. Alex walks up to his holographic computer and starts browsing for skills. He decided to get an attacking skill this time. After looking at the skill books that he can buy, Alex narrows it down to three skills. { Energy Arrow (F) } { Uses 10 units of Mana to form a small arrow made of energy and shoots it at enemies Uses 5 rune-words to cast. Can be held for 5 seconds. [75 credits] } { Energy Blade (F) } { Uses 15 units of Mana to form an energy blade that can be used to slash at enemies. Uses 7 rune-words to cast. Can be held for 5 seconds. [80 credits] } { Energy Blast (F) } { Uses 20 units of Mana to compress an energy up to 10 meters in front of the caster and explodes the compressed energy. Uses 10 rune-words to cast. [90 credits] } The normal skills in the Realm of Defenders requires a fixed amount of Mana and rune-words to use. Rune-words are the strange words that needs to be chanted to use a skill. To learn a skill, usually a Defender has to be able to chant one rune-word in one second, except for a few special skills. Of course as a Defender gets more proficient in using a skill, the time to chant the specific rune-words can be decreased. As a rule of thumb, the more rune-words and mana that are needed to cast a skill, the more powerful the skill that comes out.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. After thinking it through, Alex decides to buy the {Energy Arrow} skill book. It is the weakest skill among the three choices, but he chooses it for its versatility. The {Energy Blade} is more powerful than the {Energy Arrow}, but it can only be used in melee combat. As he already has the {Energy Manipulation} skill for melee combat, Alex decides against this skill. The {Energy Blast} is a long-ranged skill, but it will be hard to hit the target with it as it explodes in place immediately after the Defender finished chanting. Alex feels that the {Energy Arrow} skill is the most suitable skill for him now. It''s a long-ranged skill which increases his option of attacking. Being an arrow shape, it also offers penetration power, something Alex lacks right now as his weapon is still the {Wooden Sword}. It can also be held for 5 seconds before shooting, so he can control when and where to shoot it. After confirming his purchase, Alex retrieves the white skill book from his [Transporter Box]. As usual, the cover shows a strange script that can be translated as {Energy Arrow}. Alex starts reading the skill book and tries to memorize its content. Alex is unable to memorize the 5 complicated rune-words even though he has managed to memorize everything else in that book. Alex gives up trying to memorize it and decides to try the skill instead of trying to memorize it. He heads to his training room with the skill book. He clenches his right hand and points his index and middle fingers upward as the book dictates. After that he starts trying to chant the rune-words to invoke the {Energy Arrow} skill. After the first few tries, Alex can feel that this is going to be a difficult task. He hasn''t managed to even chant the first rune-word properly after the first 5 minutes. After another 10 minutes of trying he finally manages to chant the first rune-word properly in one second. Alex can feel the mana in his dantian churns slightly. He tries again excitedly, but fails to do it again. Only after another hour can he consistently chant the first rune-word properly. Alex then starts chaining the second rune-word to the first one. When he succeeded for the first time he can feel his mana moving, but it dissipates immediately after he fails chaining the third rune-word. The second rune-word takes more time to master as he needs to rest and recover his mana every time he fails for a few times in a row, leaving him with an empty dantian. After succeeding with the third rune-word, he can see the air above his two pointed fingers flickers with white light. The fourth rune-word is used to form an energy ball around 2.5 cm in diameter. It''s only the next day that Alex manages to chain the 5th rune-word. As he finishes chanting the 5th rune-word, the energy ball transforms into an arrow 10 cm long. Alex throws the arrow to a target in his training room. The arrow missed the bulls eye, but half of the arrow managed to pierce the edge of the target. After that the arrow disappeared. Alex is surprised with this result. The target''s hardness is comparable with the normal F-rank 4-star creatures'' skin. This will be a powerful weapon in his arsenal to face the higher ranked creatures. Chapter 017 - Steel-billed Raven Alex spends the entire morning of his second day in his personal space getting familiar with the {Energy Arrow} skill. Now he can hit the bull''s-eye on the moving target 5 out of 10 times. He''s also now able to cast the skill every time he tries. After feeling that he has made adequate preparation, Alex gets ready to head out once more. He puts on his leather cloth and trousers and straps his wooden sword on his waist. .... A young man walks out of the barrier of Beginner Town and heads to the forest that lies to the south of the town. Alex plans to head deeper this time, to the territory of F**-ranked creatures. After walking for a couple hours and getting rid of 5 , Alex finds himself in a denser part of the forest. The trees in front of him are different than the trees behind him, creating a weird sort of line that separates the two parts of the forest. The trees in front of him are taller, thicker, and has denser leaves leaving minimal amount of "sunlight" shining through the gaps between them. Alex heightens his alertness as he knows that he has entered the territory of F-rank 2-star creatures as written in the UDA''s information database. His preparation and training before truly hasn''t been for vain. He is now stronger than before. Alex didn''t even need 5 minutes to get rid of one now. He also didn''t need to enter the mana-enhanced state to get rid of one. An accurate use of {Energy Arrow} was enough to finish off the Forest Wolves. Gripping the wooden sword with his right hand, Alex starts walking carefully into the unknown forest area in front of him. Alex hasn''t even walked for 5 minutes when he hears a screech coming from the sky behind him. Without looking, Alex immediately rolls out of the way. From the corner of his eyes Alex can see a black shadow flying past his original position. The black shadow then slows down and stops on a tree branch. Alex also steadied his position and takes a fighting stance. He can now see that the black shadow is a black bird with a metallic-looking beak. Alex can see its information after using [Observe] to quickly confirm his suspicion. As he suspected, it''s the . This raven''s length is around 1 meter, bigger than the common ravens on earth. According to the UDA''s database, this bird is adept at sneak attacking, but it''s cowardice nature also makes it easy to get spooked. Defenders who are not alert of their surrounding might lose their life to this bird without even realizing what hit them. But, it''s also a coward as a small injury will make it flee away in fright. That''s why it is very hard to kill this creature.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. The raven once again becomes a black shadow launching itself at Alex''s position. Alex can easily see the bird''s attack and moves his body to the side to avoid this attack. But this time Alex moves too early as the raven is able to respond and change its flight path midway to chase after Alex. Being surprised by this change, Alex has no time to dodge again. He raises his wooden sword to parry the raven''s beak. The raven missed its target as it steered to the right. Alex can feel pain in his right hand that is holding the wooden sword. The force of the raven''s charge has been reduced due to it changing direction midway, but it still hurts his palm when trying to directly meet its attack. After this exchange, the immediately disappears into the dark forest. Alex was surprised to see this as he doesn''t feel that the raven has received any injury. He suddenly remembers that in the UDA''s database, it''s also written that the is a cunning creature capable of tricking Defenders. Alex keeps his fighting posture, waiting for the raven to launch another sneak attack. After waiting for 5 minutes, there is still no sign of the raven. Alex release his posture and starts walking again meanwhile being alert of his surrounding. A few seconds later the cunning raven launch a sneak attack from behind him. Alex, still alert, dodges this sneak attack by rolling out of the way. Alex can only see its shadow before it disappears again. This happens a couple more times, driving Alex into frustration. This bird is really not easy to deal with. After thinking of how to fight this raven, Alex gets an idea that he has to try. He starts repeating the same thing, and the raven keeps attacking him sneakily. After a few times, Alex manages to get the timing of its sneak attack. Alex starts walking again, but this time he''s doing something different. Counting the timing, Alex then puts his right hand up in front of his chest, points his index and middle fingers upwards and starts chanting the {Energy Arrow} skill. Immediately after he finished forming the {Energy Arrow} above his two fingers, the bird attacks once more. This time, being ready, Alex dodges quickly to the side and shoots the {Energy Arrow} into the calculated path of the . The arrow scratches the left wing of the raven and leaves a visible wound. Feeling the pain from its wing, the raven screeches loudly and quickly fly away, disappearing from Alex''s sight once more. Alex does the same thing once more, walking while preparing the {Energy Arrow} skill to try and kill the bird this time. But, even after the {Energy Arrow] disappears the raven doesn''t show itself again. It seems like the wound has really frighten it this time. "This d*mn bird, making me waste energy and time for nothing," Alex mumbles, cursing the raven. After calming down and resting for a bit, Alex continues his hunt in the forest. Chapter 018 - Forest Werewolf In a dim forest, a black-haired young man is facing off against a black raven. The young man is of course Alex Volff. He''s only been in this area for less than an hour and he has been attacked five times by the ravens. After the first raven that manages to run away, there are three more that follows. All of them managed to run away after getting scratched by the {Energy Arrow}. This is the fifth that attacks him. Alex has missed with 4 {Energy Arrows} earlier. This time he increases his concentration and starts chanting the rune-words for {Energy Arrow}. A black shadow charges at him from his back. Alex steps to his left and avoids the raven, meanwhile he shoots the white {Energy Arrow} to a space in front of him. The arrow manages to pierce the raven''s body, causing it to fall from its flight onto the ground. Seeing this result, Alex immediately runs to the raven while brandishing his wooden sword. He swings the sword towards the raven''s head to end its life. "Congratulations, you have killed the . You have earned 4 credits," Fay''s voice sounded in Alex''s head, marking the death of the raven. Alex checks his stats using [Observe]. >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: F** Credits: 29 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 39 - Speed: 36 - Agility: 38 - Endurance: 42 - Spirit: 60 - Mana: 11/60 >-----< Skills: - Energy Manipulation (F) - Energy Arrow (F) >-----< Kill Count: [60 F*], [1 F**] Achievements: 0 Records: 0 >-----< He was left with only 11 mana. Alex used up 50 mana using the {Energy Arrow} skills 5 times in a row. The 1 mana point seems to be recovered while he was fighting. Alex sits down in meditation and wait for his mana to recover while training his spiritual control. After his mana is recovered, Alex decides to head a little deeper to the area where there are less ravens. These ravens are a pain to deal with. He can''t guarantee to be able to kill one when he encounters them. They are just a waste of his time. After frightening off another 3 , Alex finally encounters another creature. Fifty meters in front of him is a wolf standing on its two hind-feet like a human. Alex uses [Observe] on the creature. "As expected, this is the territory. According to the UDA database, they are stronger than the , but they should be easier to handle than the ravens," Alex mumbles to himself. Alex Volff grips his wooden sword with his right hand and starts forming the {Energy Arrow} with his left hand as he approaches the werewolf. Alex plans to sneak attack the werewolf to gain an advantage, or even to one-shot the creature. As Alex draws near, the werewolf can sense the danger coming from behind it. It turns around to see Alex that has finished chanting the rune-words and in he middle of shooting the white arrow made out of energy.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The werewolf avoids the arrow and howls at its human attacker. It immediately charges at him with frightening speed. All of its limbs are pacing on the ground trying to shorten the distance with the human. Alex knows he doesn''t have time to use another {Energy Arrow}. He readied himself to meet its charges. After getting in range, the werewolf immediately swings its left front paw diagonally at Alex. Alex responds by parrying it with his wooden sword. When both the paw and sword meets, he can feel that they are both equally matched in strength. Alex manages to parry the first attack, but the werewolf immediately attacks with its right front paw without caring about its slightly unbalanced body. It is easy for Alex to avoid this second attack with a slight tilt of his upper body. After avoiding its second attack, Alex try to put a distance between him and the werewolf, waiting for its next attack. Without waiting, the immediately leaps at him and trusts its right paw towards Alex''s head. Being ready for this attack, Alex uses his footwork to move towards its right side and swings the sword at its body. The werewolf is unable to avoid this attack because it is in mid-leap. Knowing that it cannot avoid this attack, the werewolf uses its left paw to block his sword. The sword and the paw meets, making the werewolf loses its balance and lands on its left-side. Both man and werewolf continues to exchange blows. But, what worries Alex is that the doesn''t seem to suffer internal injuries despite being hit several times. If this keeps up, Alex is the one that is going to be in trouble. His stamina won''t be able to compete against the werewolf, because according to the UDA database, this creature has frightening amount of stamina. Alex decides to finish this battle fast. He immediately uses the {Energy Manipulation} skill and enters the mana-enhanced state. This state enhances his physical stats by around 50%, so he can now overwhelm his opponent. But, he has to finish this fast, otherwise when he can''t keep up the skill anymore he will be in a disadvantaged position. In this state, the werewolf''s movement seems slower than before. Alex is now sure that he can split his attention to chant the {Energy Arrow} rune-words now while avoiding its attacks. After avoiding another attack, Alex starts chanting the {Energy Arrow} rune-words. But, to his surprise, he fails after the first rune-word. Alex immediately realizes the problem. He doesn''t have any mana now in his dantian as all of his mana is being used for this mana-enhanced state. He can''t direct any mana to his dantian now, because doing this will bring him out of this mana-enhanced state. Alex only tested entering the mana-enhanced state after forming the {Energy Arrow} when he was training. He didn''t test forming the {Energy Arrow} after entering the mana-enhanced state. While contemplating his current situation, the werewolf''s attack almost hit his head. Alex rolls out of the way when he comes to awareness. Alex firms up his mind and try to finish this battle without using the {Energy Arrow}. Alex increases his attacking pace and manages to pile up injuries on the werewolf. But, it doesn''t seem to be enough to finish it off as there is only around 10 seconds left for him to be able to keep up being in this state. Alex decides to try and go for the kill on the next move. As the werewolf once again swings its left paw towards him, Alex jumps up and makes a flip in the air to avoid the attack. He extends his right leg towards the werewolf''s head while fully concentrating, trying to gather all of his power onto his right leg. Suddenly, he can feel all of his mana dispersed around his body gathers in his right leg. His right foot meets the werewolf''s head and he hears a crack sound immediately. "Congratulations, you have killed the . You have earned 5 credits," Fay''s voice sounded once more in Alex''s head. Chapter 019 - Roberto Silva Alex Volff turns around only to see a werewolf corpse with a deformed head. He''s surprised with the power of his last kick. The werewolf which was so difficult to injure now lies dead with a deformed head from his one kick. Still in disbelieve, he uses [Observe] to check whether he is really the one that killed this creature. >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: F** Credits: 34 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 39 - Speed: 36 - Agility: 38 - Endurance: 42 - Spirit: 60 - Mana: 0/60 >-----< Skills: - Energy Manipulation (F) - Energy Arrow (F) >-----< Kill Count: [60 F*], [2 F**] Achievements: 0 Records: 0 >-----< After confirming it himself, the realization comes to him. He really kills the with one kick. He wasted all of his mana in the process, but that was the most powerful attack he has ever performed. Alex decides to go back to Beginner Town while keeps recalling the feeling he had when performing that one kick. .... In the top floor of UDA Brazil''s main branch, a beautiful Latina woman enters a big office and hands a flash drive to a man. "Chief, this is the information you asked for," the woman says to the man. The man is sitting behind a big desk in the big office. He has a slightly darker skin, bald head, and an imposing stature. This man is Roberto Silva, a member of the Council of Ten, the 10 strongest Defenders that founded the UDA. Roberto Silva grabs the woman''s hand that is holding the flash drive and pulls her to his lap. He starts groping her inappropriately while inserting the flash drive to his computer on his desk. The woman shows an awkward smile. There is an unwillingness in her eyes, but she is powerless to stop this man''s behavior. "Haha.. so it''s true. That man''s son really becomes a Defender," Roberto Silva laughs while looking at the hologram in front of him. The hologram shows the picture a blonde middle-aged man and a young man that resembles the middle-aged man. The young man is surprisingly Alex Volff. "Fernando only manages to force him into a danger zone 10 years ago. Maybe I can use his son to enter it and retrieve it for me," Roberto thinks loudly while smiling deviously. He then proceeds to see Alex''s information. It records the data from his test result and his first entrance into the Realm of Defenders.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. "Oh.. he''s not bad. He ranks 19th on the registrant ranking and he has entered the realm for a second time," Roberto Silva continues his loud thinking while still groping the unwilling assistant inappropriately. After some more digging around about Alex''s information, Roberto Silva finally closes the hologram. He releases his assistant and gives her a command. "Show his picture to every members from our branch. Tell them to look out for him and try to befriend him if they encounter him in the Realm of Defenders. And tell them to report back to us if they encounter him," Roberto Silva instructs his assistant. "Yes, chief," the assistant replies with an awkward smile. "Also, show them this picture and tell them to try and probe subtly about this item from him. Retrieve it using any means necessary if they find this item," Roberto send another picture to his assistant''s tablet computer. "Yes, chief," the assistant replies. "That''s all. You can leave." The assistant hurriedly leave Roberto Silva''s office and executes his command. Meanwhile, Roberto is still sitting in his office, while pondering something. "Hmm.. Finally there''s some hope. Everyone I sent there has failed to return and now nobody wants to enter that d*mn place anymore," Roberto Silva mumbles to himself. .... In the top floor of UDA Japan''s main branch, Kyoko Akagi enters the big office bringing her tablet computer. A Japanese man is siting in a meditating position in the big office. This man is Keisuke Kagawa, the First Defender, and the publicly acknowledged world''s strongest Defender. He has lean body and his height is only about 170cm, but when people look at him they can feel an intense pressure from his entire being. "Chief, I have something to report," Kyoko Akagi seems surprisingly calm in front of this intense pressure. Keisuke Kagawa opens his eyes and calmly replies,"Please start." "You told us to monitor the Brazil office''s activity. They just accessed our Defender registration information yesterday," Kyoko starts her report. "Oh, isn''t it normal? It''s a publicly available information to every UDA branch," Keisuke Kagawa asks Kyoko Akagi. "Well, they accessed detailed personal information that is only available for clearance level of branch manager or above," Kyoko continues. "Whose information is it? Is it Ichiko''s? She took the test half a month ago, didn''t she?" Keisuke Kagawa asks while showing a little frown on his face. "No, it is not the young miss. It is this guy, Alex Volff. He placed just slightly behind the young miss in the registration test. He shows huge potential, and I just recruited him to join us as a free member a few days ago," Kyoko replies. "Oh, let me see. Hmm.. interesting talent. What does that Roberto guy wants with him?" Keisuke Kagawa was surprised with this revelation. "I don''t know, Chief. What do you think they want?" "I don''t know either. But, I still have my suspicion about Roberto, so we should be wary. Keep monitoring their activity and report to me if there''s anything even slightly suspicious," Keisuke Kagawa replies. "Oh, also monitor this Alex Volff guy," Keisuke Kagawa continues. "Yes, Chief. Do I need to warn Alex Volff about this?" Kyoko Akagi replies. "No need for now. We don''t want to spook him and Roberto Silva while we don''t know their intention," Keisuke Kagawa replies. "Yes, Chief," Kyoko Akagi replies and walks out of the office. Chapter 020 - Skill Evolution (1) A young man with dark hair and blue eyes is walking past the barrier of Beginner Town inside the Realm of Defenders, heading from outside to the inside. The sun is about to set on his right side and the two moons are about to come out. "Fay, bring me back to my personal space," Alex Volff communicates with Fay through the [Magic Chip]. Black light starts to surround Alex and soon he is back inside the transporter in his personal space. Alex immediately exits the [Transporter Capsule], changes his clothes and heads to his training room. He didn''t kill anymore creatures after he performed that one ultimate kick on the . Some harassed him, but he managed to frighten them away. After that, he just ran and avoid meeting any on his way back. After he enters the training room, Alex immediately sits down in a meditating position and starts calming his mind. When his mind is calm, Alex stands up and starts controlling his spirit to move into his dantian. Alex starts using his spirit to gets hold of his mana inside the dantian. Then, he starts moving the mana around his body to enter the mana-enhanced state. Everything is smooth as usual up to this step. Alex tries to recall the feeling he had earlier when he performed that kick. He can only remember some vague things as he was in an agitated state due to the battle earlier. When he feels like he has grasped that earlier feeling, Alex starts controlling all of the mana around his body to move to his right leg. All of the mana around his body starts wriggling and moving towards his right leg. But, immediately after his mana starts moving, all of it disperse from his body, leaving him with an empty feeling. Alex uses [Observe] to confirm. >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: F** Credits: 34 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 39 - Speed: 36 - Agility: 38 - Endurance: 42 - Spirit: 60 - Mana: 0/60 >-----< Skills: - Energy Manipulation (F) - Energy Arrow (F) >-----< Kill Count: [60 F*], [2 F**] Achievements: 0 Records: 0 >-----< As expected, that empty feeling is because he is left with no mana at all. "Hmm.. It seems like it will be hard to try and master this move," Alex frowns and mumbles to himself. Alex calms himself down once more and proceed to sit down in a meditating position again. While waiting for his mana to recover, he tries to recall that same feeling from his earlier attack and tries to simulate it by moving his spirit around his body without using any mana.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! After checking and seeing that his mana is back to full again, Alex stands up once more and starts doing the same action as he did earlier. He raises his concentration and enters the mana-enhanced state once more. Again, he tries to move his mana from all over his body to his right leg, controlling them with his spirit. When his mana starts to move, it disperses once again. Alex then sits back down into meditating position and once more starts moving his spirit around his body while recalling the feeling of his kick earlier. He repeats doing the same thing for hours until midnight without making any progress. But, Alex doesn''t despair and gives up. He knows he can do it as he already did it once by coincidence. Alex decides to rest for the night and try again tomorrow. Alex spends the next three days repeating the same thing over and over again. He has made a tiny progress as his mana can now move a little before it starts dispersing, but that''s it. Although, this repeated training is not without its result. Alex has made huge progress in his spiritual control. He has tested and he can now retain almost all of his mana after entering the mana-enhanced state, only losing about 5 points of mana in the process. Today is the morning of his 6th day in the Realm of Defenders. Alex starts sitting down and meditates. He starts training his spiritual control while pondering on why he has failed repeatedly. Controlling his spirit has now become so easy that it starts to feel like a second nature to him. He can now split his attention to doing other things while smoothly moving his spirit around his body. Alex starts recalling the feeling of that kick again. He still feels that there is something slightly off when he try to replicate it, but he can''t point out what is wrong. He is not sure whether he can figure it out even if he keeps doing the same thing over and over again. Of course, there is an option of replicating the situation he was in when he performed the kick. Maybe if he faces the and put in the same situation then he can do it again. But, it is a risk he is unwilling to take for now, because there is also the chance that he can''t replicate the move and will end up in a situation where he has to face the werewolf without any mana in him. Alex keeps thinking on how to solve this problem and decides to start again from the basic. He stands up and enters the mana enhanced state. Alex then starts to perform attacking moves while in this state. Due to his training this last 4 days, he can now hold this state for 5 minutes without a problem. After performing the attacking moves for 5 minutes, Alex controls his mana back to his dantian and starts meditating. After repeating the same thing for a couple hours, Alex suddenly gets an inspiration. "Why is it easy to move the mana from my dantian to all over my body and vice versa, but it has been impossible to move it to my right leg?" Alex mumbles to himself. "When I move my mana from my dantian to every part of my body, it includes the right leg. It is easy to do it after some practice. Why is it so easy?" Alex continues thinking while talking to himself. "Aha.. It''s the path. I''m such a moron," Alex shows an enlightened expression then he slaps his forehead with his right palm. Alex starts to get excited and continues his train of thought, "when I enters the mana-enhanced state, I move my mana according to the internal energy path described in the {Energy Manipulation} skill book. I have became too familiar with the skill that I forgot about the basic theory." Alex then calms his mind and prepares to test his theory. Chapter 021 - Skill Evolution (2) Alex Volff stands in the middle of his personal training room inside the Realm of Defenders. He controls his spirit to grab onto his mana in the dantian and moves them all around his body, entering the mana-enhanced state. After that, he starts moving the mana around his body, except the mana in his right leg. He moves it using the internal energy path described in the {Energy Manipulation} skill book just like when he withdraws his mana to his dantian. The mana go through his dantian once more and starts gathering towards his right leg. When almost all of his mana gathers in his right leg, suddenly he can feel his spirit getting strained beyond what he can handle. He lose control of his mana and all of it disperse to the outside. It''s another failure, but Alex shows an excited expression as this is already a massive progress compared to his earlier trials. Alex repeats the process for a few hours, but he still lost control of his mana every time all of it almost gathered in his right leg. Once again, Alex Volff sits in a meditating position and starts pondering on how to solve this problem that he is facing. When controlling his mana to fill all of his body, it is very easy to do for his current self. But, when almost all of his mana gathers in his right leg, his spirit can''t hold onto it for even a split second. On the other hand, he has no problem holding onto all of his mana when it was in his dantian. After thinking for a long time, Alex comes to the conclusion that it is easy for his spirit to hold the mana in his dantian because the dantian is the natural place for mana inside the body. Even without his spirit controlling the mana in his dantian, it will stay there. Meanwhile, to hold the mana around the other parts of his body, he has to continually hold it using his spirit because the other parts are not the natural place for mana. If he left the mana inside the other parts, then it will naturally disperse to the outside. Another important thing is that when he enters the mana-enhanced state and infuse the mana within every parts of his body, the amount of mana inside each part is only a tiny bit, so it was easy to hold onto it. Even then, in the early days of him learning this skill, he could only hold it for a few seconds. It shows how difficult it is to control mana using his spirit outside the dantian. After thinking for another period of time on how to solve this problem, Alex comes up with an idea to try. When he uses the {Energy Arrow} skill, only 10 points of mana was used to form the arrow. Maybe he can learn to control just a portion of his mana.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. All this time, he has always used the easiest method when invoking the {Energy Manipulation} skill, to grab every bit of mana in his dantian in a bulk using his spirituality and start distributing all over his body it by spreading his spirit. Maybe he can try to grab just a portion of his mana this time and try to execute the move. Alex immediately stands up and starts controlling his spirit to move into his dantian. He can see the cluster of gas-like energy that is his mana in his dantian. Usually he would just infuse his spirit into the gas cluster and bind everything, but this time Alex tries to form his spirit into a smaller ball shape and infuse it with just half of the gas cluster. His spirit starts infusing with half of the gas-like cluster. But, it suddenly starts spreading to the other parts of his mana that he didn''t want to bind. Alex tries to hold back his spirit, but it was like a dry sponge meeting water. It was so quick to bind with all of his mana that Alex can''t stop it. Another failed attempt. Alex then breaks the binding and try again. His mana and spirit is easy to bind, but it is also easy to break the binding, otherwise trying to release the mana-enhanced state before he gets dead tired mentally would have been impossible. Trying other methods such as splitting his spirit won''t work because his spirit has to move as a whole. He can spread it but he can''t split it. Alex doesn''t give up and keep trying the same thing over and over again. He spends 2 hours before making any progress. After 2 hours of repeated trials, Alex can now limit his spirit to just bind with around 90% of his mana pool. Alex tried to execute the move with 90% of his mana, but it still proved to be impossible to control that amount of mana in once place. Alex keeps working hard to be able to replicate the finishing move he did against the . After 2 days, he is finally able to execute the move crudely. With half of his mana, he moves it to enter his right leg directly using the path in {Energy Manipulation} skill book without entering mana-enhanced state first. He has realized that he doesn''t need to enter the mana-enhanced state first as the mana can just move directly from his dantian to his right leg. This time, all of the controlled mana managed to gather in his right leg and holds for around 0.7-0.9 seconds before dispersing. He just needs to time his attack right to be able to perform the move now. Alex tries the move and kick the F-rank 3-star training dummy in his training room with it. Alex is surprised by the result. The training dummy that was as hard as the bones of F*** ranked creatures breaks to pieces from his kick. The power is at least 4 times the power he can exert when he enters the mana-enhanced state, maybe even 5 times of his normal mana-enhanced strength. But, Alex still is not satisfied with this result. First, the timing needs to be right to execute this move as he can only hold it for less than a second before the mana in his leg is gone. Second, he can feel the pain in his right leg after executing this move. Apparently, his muscles still isn''t strong enough to handle that much mana. Chapter 022 - Unexpected Gains Alex Volff is in his personal training room, repeatedly breaking a training dummy every few minutes. There are pieces of broken training dummies on the ground with different sizes. The smallest piece was when he first succeeded in executing the ultimate kick using 50% of his mana. As he works to decrease the amount of mana he uses for the kick, the resulting power gets smaller, but the amount of time he can hold his mana in his right leg increased. The pain he feels as side effect also gets reduced to the point that he doesn''t feel any pain when he used around 30% of his mana to execute the skill. Alex has spent 2 days to reach this point. He can now use 30% of his mana to execute the kick, enabling him to hold the mana in his right leg for around 2 seconds, giving him more time to execute the kick. The power of the kick with 30% mana isn''t as strong as when he used 50% mana. His kick can still break the training dummy, but now it only breaks in two, a far cry from when he breaks it into small pieces when he used 50% mana. Nevertheless, Alex is satisfied with this result. Breaking a material with the strength of F-rank 3-star creature''s bone is no easy feat. When he was in his normal mana-enhanced state, he could only made a small dent in that training dummy. This kick is still 3-4 times stronger than his kick in normal mana-enhanced state. He has also get significantly familiar with the {Energy Manipulation} skill. His spiritual control has now increased leap and bound compared to before. Alex even feels like he could control his spirit to leave his body. But, that is just his feeling, as he doesn''t even know if it is possible for his spirit to leave his body. Despite being satisfied, Alex still trains so he can get more familiar with this new move and can execute it under every condition. He also try to do this using other parts of his body, not just his right leg. Executing it using his left leg pose no problem as it is not that much different than using his right leg. When Alex tried to punch using this move, he still feel a bit pain in his hand when using 30% of his mana. Alex thinks that this is logical since the muscles in his leg should be stronger than the muscles in his hand, so they could handle more mana to stretch their power. Alex keeps training to reduce the mana consumption when executing this technique. He also finds out that when his mana moves to his legs or hands, the part of his body that is filled with mana also increased in toughness and elasticity, which means increased defensive strength. Hence, after mastering using the move with his hand using 20% of his mana, Alex keeps working to try and enhance the vital parts of his body.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Every vital parts need different amount of mana, so Alex spends another 2 days for trial and error. The last part of his body that he needs to work on is his heart muscle. He has been working on it for half a day without success. The heart is a delicate organ and it is constantly moving, so it is the most difficult organ for him to work on. These past 2 days has been highly beneficial for Alex. As after many trials and failures, he can now control his mana to 5 point precision. Alex once again uses 15 point of mana to cover his heart muscles carefully. 15 point is the most he can move without feeling pain in his heart muscles. When he tried to move 20 points, he always felt a little pain that made him retract his mana from his heart immediately. Alex raises his concentration to the maximum and starts resonating his spirit and mana with the beating of his heart muscles. Alex starts infusing his mana into his heart muscles carefully. This time, Alex shows a small grin as he can feel that he is almost successful in executing this move. Suddenly, when he successfully covers his heart muscles with 15 points of his mana for the first time, he can hear a "ding" sounded in his head, followed by Fay''s voice. "Congratulations, Defender Alex Volff. You have evolved the {Energy Manipulation} skill from F-rank to E-rank," Fay''s voice sounded in Alex''s head. Alex was surprised to hear this notification from Fay. Did it say he now possess E-rank skill? But, when his surprise hasn''t subsided, another sentence sounded in his head. "Congratulations, you have gained one achievement for being able to evolve a skill without using a skill book. You have been awarded with 1,500 credits." This next notification brings further shock to Alex''s mind. He has suddenly gained an achievement and received 1,500 credits. 1,500 credits is the equivalent of killing 300 . Alex estimated that he would have needed 20 days with his current strength to kill this many . The him before this training session wouldn''t be able to achieve this even after spending 2 months. Now, after spending a few days of training, Alex suddenly gets 1,500 credits. This is truly an unexpected gain. After calming down from the shock, Alex uses [Observe] to check his stats and the evolved {Energy Manipulation} skill. >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: F** Credits: 1,534 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 39 - Speed: 36 - Agility: 38 - Endurance: 42 - Spirit: 60 - Mana: 30/60 >-----< Skills: - Energy Manipulation (E) - Energy Arrow (F) >-----< Kill Count: [60 F*], [2 F**] Achievements: 1 Records: 0 >-----< {Energy Manipulation - E} {The first evolution of the Energy Manipulation skill. Enable Defenders to use their spirit to control parts of their mana and use this controlled mana to enter focused mana-enhanced state for one part of their body. The focused mana increases the offensive and defensive power of the enhanced body part beyond the normal mana-enhanced state.} Chapter 023 - New Plan After confirming everything, Alex Volff clenches his fist in the air and lets out a big laugh as he can''t contain his joy. He now possess an E-ranked skill despite being only a F-ranked Defender. He can''t access the E-ranked store right now, but according to the UDA database, the price of E-ranked skill books ranges from 1,000 credits to 10,000 credits. Seeing that the {Energy Manipulation} skill is the most expensive of F-ranked skills, its E-ranked skill book price must be in the higher range. This is an even bigger gain than the 1,500 credits he received as a reward for his first achievement. Alex spends the rest of the day getting more familiar with his evolved skill. The power he gains in his normal mana-enhanced state is still the same as his mana pool hasn''t grown at all. But, Alex''s increased familiarity with his spiritual control makes it possible for him to retain 100% of his mana after releasing the normal mana-enhanced state. He can also hold the normal mana-enhanced state for around 20 minutes now, which means he can enter a fight in his normal mana-enhanced state, hence increasing his hunting speed. The biggest upgrade to the normal-mana enhanced state is the fact that he can control how much mana to use now. After experimenting, Alex finds out that using 40 points of mana is enough to gain the same power as before. That left him enough mana to use 2 {Energy Arrows} even in his normal mana-enhanced state. Of course, the biggest gain is his new focused mana-enhanced state. The power he can exert in this new state is several times greater than the normal mana-enhanced state. Alex estimated that his current strength is enough to easily sweep through even F-rank 3-star creatures. And, this is a move that can get stronger as he evolves further. His current physical strength limited how much mana his muscles can handle. But, as he evolves further, his physical strength will increase, which means his muscles will be able to handle more mana, increasing the power of the focused mana-enhanced state. The {Energy Manipulation} skill is now an E-ranked skill. E-ranked skills are skills for E-ranked Defenders to deal with E-ranked creatures. With this skill in his possession, Alex thinks that he should be able to quickly sweep through the F-rank and quickly increase his rank to become E-ranked Defender. This means, his previous plan of slowly increasing his power and gathering credits needs to change. But, he also can''t show his rank-up speed to the outside world as it will raise suspicion. Alex knows that he possess something that other Defenders do not have. Possessing some unique secret will always carry certain dangers. Alex is not a fool that will announce this secret to everyone. He can''t even show it to the UDA. While the UDA has done an incredible job managing the Defenders and advancing Earth''s civilization, it is still composed of many different individuals. Who knows if there is a vile person inside the UDA that would put his life in danger if this secret is out.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Alex also needs new equipment if he is going to face stronger creatures. His {Beginner Wooden Sword}, {Beginner Leather Shirt}, and {Beginner Trousers} won''t cut it anymore as he faces stronger creatures. With the 1,500 credits he just got, this will not be an issue. Alex opens up the store using his computer in the personal space and starts browsing for new equipment. After looking around, Alex decides to get four new equipment. {Black-steel Katana} {Katana made from black-steel, the hardest F-ranked material. Capable of cutting through even some low level E-ranked materials. Cost: 500 credits} {Iron Leather Shirt} {A shirt made from the leather of Iron Rhinoceros, the toughest F-ranked leather material. It has the toughness of an iron, and the flexibility of a normal leather. Cost: 400 credits} {Iron Leather Trousers} {Trousers made from the leather of Iron Rhinoceros, the toughest F-ranked leather material. It has the toughness of an iron, and the flexibility of a normal leather. Cost: 400 credits} {Iron Leather Boots} {Boots made from the leather of Iron Rhinoceros, the toughest F-ranked leather material. It has the toughness of an iron, and the flexibility of a normal leather. Cost: 300 credits} Those four equipment would cost him 1,600 credits. Which means his 1,534 credits are not enough to buy all four of them. But, thankfully there are the shops in Beginner Town that sell equipment with cheaper price. These shops are owned by those Defenders that have no talent for fighting. After exploring the Realm of Defenders, they realized that they would just waste their life if they continue hunting creatures. Hence, they decided to instead earn credits by producing equipment. Every equipment at the system store has their blueprint also available at 3-5 times the equipment price. But, the raw materials can be bought at 50-60% the finished product''s price. So, by selling at 85%-90% of the system store''s price they can still make nice profit and slowly recoup their initial investment. This is also welcomed by other Defenders as they can get equipment cheaper and can save some credits. It''s just not everything can be produced by Defenders. Things like skill books and special items like the {Evolution Potion} needs to be bought from the system store. Alex decides to go to Beginner Town to look for those equipment he wants to buy. He changes his clothes to his beginner outfit and enters the transporter capsule in his personal space. "Fay, send me to Beginner Town," Alex commands Fay through the [Magic Chip]. "Okay, transporting to Beginner Town," Fay replies. A white light shines from the capsule and Alex Volff disappears from inside the transporter capsule. Chapter 024 - Harold Schmidt Alex Volff appears in the middle of the large open square in Beginner Town. He starts moving to the west part of town where the center of commercial activity is situated. The central square was bustling with people, but this commercial center is even more full with people. The side of the road is filled with multiple storied buildings. There are also a huge number of Defenders opening stalls in front of the buildings. Countless number of people crowded the stalls, looking for items and negotiating with the stall owners. The stalls generally sells the lower ranked, cheaper items, while the more expensive, higher ranked items are generally sold in the store buildings. Hence why the number of traffic entering and exiting the store buildings is less than those in stalls. Alex enters a store that says "Schmidt''s Equipment Store". From the outside, one can see that the store has 3 floors. Alex enters the first floor where there are a few other people browsing the items on the shelf and a female store clerk who are negotiating with other Defenders. The store clerk gives Alex a glance as he enters the store, then continues her negotiation. Seeing that the store clerk is busy, Alex helps himself and starts browsing the items on display. The stores in this town are under the protection of UDA, so nobody dares to try and rob them. After going around the first floor and seeing all the items on display, Alex can''t find the items he''s looking for. The items in this floor are all items with a price range of 100-200 credits, so it''s normal that Alex can''t find what he''s looking for. Alex decides to ask the store clerk whether they have the items he''s looking for. He queues behind the Defender that is finishing his transaction. When Alex''s turn comes, he steps forward and starts talking to the store clerk. "I need to buy some equipment," Alex says to the store clerk. The female store clerk takes a look at Alex''s beginner clothing and immediately assumes that he''s looking for cheap items. "You can find them on the shelves. We have everything you can buy in this store," she replies with a cold tone and forced smile. Alex frowns at her attitude, but he doesn''t want to make a mountain out of a molehill so he ignores her rude attitude. "I can''t find what I''m looking for on the shelves," Alex replies coolly. The store clerk frowns at Alex and asks, "what are you looking for?" "{Black-steel Katana}, {Iron Leather Shirt}, {Iron Leather Trousers}, {Iron Leather Boots}." The store clerk displays a shocked and disbelieving expression hearing the names of the items coming out from Alex''s mouth. "Do you have them?" Alex asks, a bit impatient and annoyed by this store clerk''s attitude.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. "Ah, pl..please wait minute," the store clerk was woken up from her shocked state and answers Alex''s inquiry. The store clerk then starts to be silent while making various flustered and apologetic expression. Alex just waits there as he knows that she is contacting her employer through the [Magic Chip]. Soon, she gives an answer to Alex with a much more polite attitude. "Ah.. Sir, please head to the 3rd floor using the elevator in the back. You can discuss about the items with my employer." "Okay," Alex replies. "Please forgive me for my rudeness earlier." The store clerk bows and apologize to Alex while he''s heading to the back to take the elevator to the 3rd floor. "It''s okay," Alex waves his hand and replies coolly. The other Defenders in the store displays a surprised expression seeing a Defender in full beginner clothing heading to the back of the store. Usually only those F-rank 4-star Defenders and above gets this treatment, and they don''t wear beginner clothing. After riding the elevator to the 3rd floor, Alex comes out greeted by a blonde Caucasian man wearing a lab coat. "Welcome, my name is Harold Schmidt. I''m the owner of this store. You can call me Harold," Harold Schmidt introduces himself with a smile and extends his right hand. Alex shakes his hand and introduces himself. "I''m Alex Volff. I believe your employee already told you about why I''m here." "Yes. Please come into my office first to talk." Harold Schmidt leads Alex into his office at the end of the corridor. After arriving inside his office, Harold lets Alex takes a sit in front of his desk. "You are lucky you come into this store first, otherwise you might get ripped off by other stores for those items you''re looking for," Harold starts the conversation. "Ah, what do you mean? Those items are available in the system store with a fixed price. How can I get ripped off?" Alex asks confusedly. "Yes, you would still be able to get those items at cheaper price than the system store, but they will still charge more than my store. You see, in this Beginner Town, you can only find F-ranked items, and the items you''re looking for are the highest grade F-ranked items. Stores usually don''t have these items in stock. That''s why they will order these items from other stores such as mine and sell it to you at a more expensive price." "Ah.. is that so?" Alex nods at Harold''s explanation. "Yes. That''s why I said you''re lucky to come to my store," Harold replies with a smile. "Then, I assume you have these items in stock? How much for these 4 items?" Alex asks the important question. "Ah, you misunderstood. As I said, stores usually don''t have these items in stock. They are expensive to make and not many Defenders will buy them. These items are usually made to order," "Oh, then do you mean you can make them?" Alex asks with a surprised expression. "Yes, I can make them. In fact, in the whole Beginner Town, there are less than 10 people who can make these items. You are lucky that I''m one of them," Harold replies with a slightly smug smile on his face. "Then, how much for crafting these 4 items?" "Usually it will be 1,400 credits, but seeing that this is your first transaction and it''s such a big transaction, I will personally give you a promotional discount and only charge you 1,300 credits," Harold replies while flattering Alex using his merchant tricks. "Oh, thank you. And how long would you need to craft these 4 items?" "I will have them ready by noon tomorrow. If you''re okay with everything we can sign the contract. Oh, you need to give me 500 credits as down payment and for me to buy the materials. You can pay me the rest when you come to pick them up tomorrow." "That''s okay with me," Alex replies. "Pleasure doing business with you," Harold Schmidt smiles and shakes Alex''s hand. Chapter 025 - Gift Alex and Harold Schmidt links their [Magic Chip] and starts drafting up a simple contract using the [Magic Chip]. After both parties agrees to the term, they confirmed their consent to their respective fairy, effectively signing the contract. This way they can both be sure that no one will renege on the contract. The party that renege on the contract will still see their hard-earned credits disappear according to the value of the contract. After transferring the credits through the [Magic Chip], Alex says his goodbye to Harold. The items will be done by noon tomorrow, so it means that Alex has a day of free time. Alex decides to stroll around the town for a few hours to relax. He has been cooped up in his training room for the past few days. One day of training won''t make a big difference anyway as he just made a breakthrough in his {Energy Manipulation} skill. As he walks around the commercial area, Alex finds a stall that sells F-ranked {Mana Potion} and {Health Potion}. He decides to buy them from this stall. It might be useful in emergency situations. "How much for a vial of {Mana Potion} and {Health Potion}?" Alex approaches the stall and starts asking. "Oh, hello. 45 credits for each vial, 85 credits if you buy two of the same type," the seller replies with a flattering smile. "Then I will take two vials of each potions," Alex gets right to the point. "Thank you, dear customer," the seller replies with delight at this customer''s quick purchase. Alex and the seller shake hands to start linking their [Magic Chip] so Alex transfers the 170 credits to the seller. After confirming the payment, the seller hands Alex the potions. Alex puts the potions in his backpack and continue strolling down the bustling road. After walking around for half an hour, suddenly Fay''s voice sounded in his head. "Alex, there is a communication request from Ichiko Kagawa. Do you want to accept?" Surprised by this sudden notification, Alex stops in his place for a few seconds. He recalled the beautiful and valiant girl he met at the southern forest on his first trip to this realm. "I will accept it." Despite being confused by this sudden communication request, Alex still accepts it.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. "Hi Alex Volff, I''m Ichiko Kagawa, the girl you helped in the southern forest two weeks ago. Do you still remember me?" a girl''s voice sounded in Alex''s head. "Ah, hello. Yes, I still remember you. Is there anything I can do?" Alex replies through the [Magic Chip]. "I told you that I would return the favor of you helping me back then," Ichiko Kagawa replies. "Oh, it''s nothing really. No need to return anything," "No, I insist. I don''t like owing anybody," Ichiko Kagawa replies with a firm tone. "Okay then if you insist," Alex replies helplessly. "Are you free right now?" Ichiko asks. "Yes, I''m just strolling around in the western commercial area of Beginner Town," "Oh, perfect. Can we meet somewhere there?" "Let me see. Wow, there is a ramen restaurant not far from me. They even sell ramen in this realm, haha. Let''s meet there," "What''s the name of that ramen restaurant?" Ichiko asks. "It''s called #1 Ramen. Haha.. what a boastful name," Alex replies. "Okay. Please wait for me there. I will be there soon," says Ichiko. "Okay." .... Alex is surprised when he walks into the ramen restaurant. There are a lot of people inside this restaurant. It seems like the name of this place is not just empty brags. To eat in this place Alex needs to pay using credits. The ramen costs 1-2 credits each bowl. Alex finds an empty seat and orders a bowl of ramen as he feels hungry after walking around all morning. "Ah, I''m about to eat with a beautiful girl," Alex starts mumbling to himself. "Can this be considered a date? The first date in my 15 years of living?" The inexperienced Alex starts blushing from his own (delusional?) thought. While Alex is indulging in his own daydreams, Ichiko Kagawa enters the ramen restaurant. She finds Alex and proceeds to walk to his table. "Hello," Ichiko greets the daydreaming Alex Volff. "Ah, hello. Please sit down," Alex wakes up from his daydreams and greets her back while blushing a little. "Thank you," Ichiko takes a seat while not noticing his slightly blushing face. "Oh, I''ve already ordered. Please order whatever you like. My treat. Haha.." Alex starts the conversation with an awkward laugh. "Thank you, but no need. I have other matters to attend to, so I will be direct," Ichiko replies coolly. Alex flashes a disappointed look on his face which he quickly disguises. "Okay then," Alex replies with an awkward smile. "As I said earlier, I want to return the favor of you helping me back then. Please accept this as my thank you gift," Ichiko hands Alex a small brown pouch. "Thank you. What is this?" Alex asks with a confused expression looking at the pouch. "You can use [Observe] later to find out," Ichiko replies. "I have other matters to attend, so I''m sorry that I have to leave immediately," Ichiko continues. "Oh, okay. No problem. I''m still waiting for my ramen," Alex replies still with an awkward smile. "Goodbye, then. Again, thank you for helping me back then," Ichiko says her goodbye while slightly bowing. "Goodbye." Shortly after Ichiko Kagawa walks out of the restaurant, Alex''s ramen arrives at his table. Alex decides to put the brown pouch inside his backpack and use [Observe] later to find out what it is. For now it''s time to satisfy his starving belly. Chapter 026 - Climbing the Rank (1) After finishing his meal, Alex walks out of the restaurant and immediately go back to his personal space. He is curious about Ichiko Kagawa''s gift, so as soon as he exited the [Transporter Capsule], he pulls out the brown pouch from his backpack and starts examining it. Unable to find anything, Alex uses [Observe] on the brown pouch. {Spatial Pouch - E} {A pouch made from special material that contains spatial power. By combining spatial magic and technology, this pouch is able to hold a stable separate dimension inside it. This E-rank spatial pouch holds a 3 cubic meter dimension inside of it. By controlling time and space, items placed inside the separate dimension will decay at a much slower rate compared to outside. Can be controlled with [Magic Chip].} Alex was surprised when he found out what this pouch really is. It is the legendary spatial storage item. According to the limited E-rank information from UDA database, spatial storage items are only available from E-rank store. They are included in the most expensive list of items one can buy from the E-rank store. This makes Alex curious about the identity of that mysterious beauty. She is clearly only an F-rank Defender, but she has the ability to acquire this type of treasure. Alex has a suspicion in his mind, but he quickly dismisses it as it sounds ridiculous to him. "E-rank spatial pouch detected. Do you want to link this spatial pouch with the [Magic Chip]?" Fay''s voice suddenly sounds in his head while Alex is thinking. "Uh.. Okay," Alex replies after he wakes up from his own thoughts. "Linking process started," Fay''s voice once again sounded in his head. After a few seconds of waiting, Alex once again hears Fay''s voice in his head. "Linking process finished. Do you want to learn about the [Storage] function of the [Magic Chip]?" "Yes," Alex replies. Fay then starts the explanation. "After obtaining your first spatial storage item, the [Storage] function of the [Magic Chip] will be available to you. To [Storage] function will enable you to see the inside of your spatial storage items. It will also enable you to store and pull out specific items with a thought through the [Magic Chip]. To store an item, you need to touch the [Spatial Pouch] with the item you want to store inside. To take out an item, you need to touch the [Spatial Pouch] with the hand you want to hold the item. You should try it out." After hearing Fay''s explanation, Alex starts trying out the new storage function and gets familiarized with this new function. Having familiarized himself with the new [Storage] function of the [Magic Chip], Alex proceeds to spend the rest of his day training the {Energy Manipulation} and {Energy Arrow} skills.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Noon of the next day, Alex once again goes to *Schmidt''s Equipment Store* to retrieve his ordered items and finish his transaction. Alex Volff comes out of the store fully clothed in iron leather materials. A sheathed sword hangs on his left waist, while a brown pouch hangs on his right waist. With the new full set of equipment, Alex confidently walks to the southern forest to start executing his plan of raising his rank quickly. .... Alex runs quickly through the F*-ranked creatures'' territory and avoid meeting any F-rank 1-start creatures. He quickly arrives at the F**-ranked creatures'' territory. Not long after arriving there, Alex meets his first opponent. Or maybe victim is the more suitable word instead of opponent as he easily gets rid of this creature. Alex''s first victim is the . After dodging its first sneak attack, Alex immediately unsheathed his new katana and got ready to fight it. He entered the normal mana-enhanced state and waited for its next attack. When the raven dived in for its second attack, Alex swung the katana to meet the raven heads on. The sharp katana coupled with his enhanced physical stats bisected the raven into two parts. He heard Fay''s voice giving him 4 credits after the raven was killed. The raven that was so hard to kill previously is now an easy target for Alex. Releasing his mana enhanced-state, Alex immediately continues his journey inside the forest. When he has killed 9 other ravens, Alex finally meets with the . The is harder to deal with than the . It has varied attacking pattern and it is more intelligent in guarding its vital spots. Nevertheless, Alex still managed to kill it within 10 moves. Alex proceeds to hunt inside the F-rank 2-star creatures'' territory. The usually only takes 1-2 moves to kill, while the would take 5-10 moves. After 1 and a half day of hunting, Alex finally manages to kill a total of 50 F-rank 2-star creatures. Having met all the criteria to advance in rank, Fay''s voice once again sounded in his head. "Congratulations, Alex Volff. You have ranked-up to F-rank 3-stars Defender. You have been awarded 100 credits and one {Evolution Potion (F-ranked)}." After hearing this voice, Alex immediately goes back to Beginner Town and tells Fay to transport him to his personal space. Not wasting any time, Alex takes the {Evolution Potion} from his [Storage Box] and proceeds to use it inside the [Evolution Capsule]. When he comes out of the capsule, Alex once again uses [Observe] to see how his stats have changed. >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: F*** Credits: 389 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 53 - Speed: 49 - Agility: 51 - Endurance: 56 - Spirit: 81 - Mana: 81/81 >-----< Skills: - Energy Manipulation (E) - Energy Arrow (F) >-----< Kill Count: [60 F*], [50 F**] Achievements: 1 Records: 0 >-----< His stats has once again see a massive change after another evolution. Alex rests for the day, preparing to continue climbing the rank quickly. He doesn''t forget to train his {Energy Manipulation} skill and {Energy Arrow} skill before resting. Consistent training has been the reason he has managed to quickly gets stronger. Chapter 027 - Climbing the Rank (2) A teenager with sharp blue eyes is standing on the edge of a forest, looking into a swamp area in front of him. This teenager is none other than Alex Volff. After increasing his rank to F-rank 3-star, Alex continues his hunt to quickly increase his rank. This is his 20th consecutive days in the Realm of Defenders after his 2nd entrance. The day before, Alex Volff has managed to increase his rank once again to F-rank 4-star and once again evolved his physique. Due to the repeated evolution, Alex now looks a bit taller and buff compared to when he first became a Defender. The difference is not very big, but it is still noticeable when one pays attention to observe him. Using the [Observe] function of the [Magic Chip] once again, Alex confirms his current stats. >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: F**** Credits: 989 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 69 - Speed: 64 - Agility: 66 - Endurance: 73 - Spirit: 105 - Mana: 105/105 >-----< Skills: - Energy Manipulation (E) - Energy Arrow (F) >-----< Kill Count: [70 F*], [63 F**], [57 F***] Achievements: 1 Records: 0 >-----< Alex killed 50 and to advance to F-rank 4-stars. The is a large snake with deadly poison all over its body, while the is a cat-like creature capable of stealth by hiding in the shadows of trees in forest. By using the normal mana-enhanced state combined with the focused mana-enhanced state, Alex had no problem dealing with both creatures. Add in his new powerful equipment, it was easy for Alex to kill 50 of them. He just needed time to find them and kill them. Alex only needed to be little careful of the due to its poison. Alex gained 10 credits for every F***-ranked creatures he killed. He also gained 150 credits after increasing his rank once more from F-rank 3-stars to F-rank 4-stars. With the other low rank creatures he killed when he journeys back and forth through the forest, Alex had 1,189 credits saved up. He used 200 credits to buy 5 {Antidote Potion} specifically to counter the poison of the . If anyone finds out that Alex only needs a bit more than a month to advance to F-rank 4-stars, they would drop and break their jaws from the shock. Going by this pace, Alex could advance to E-rank within 2-3 months. The fastest Defender to advance to E-rank according to UDA database took around 5 months to do so. This record was set around 10 years ago by a Defender from China named Lin Ming. This Lin Ming is now one of the higher echelon of UDA. Just by this, one can see how Alex would face questions if the UDA finds out his advancement speed. It could be said to be inhuman speed.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Alex''s next target is in the area in front of him. It is a swamp area that looks empty at first sight, but hides tremendous danger inside of it. By heading deeper into the southern forest, one will encounter this swamp area. This swamp is the habitat of the F-ranked 4-stars . Alex unsheathe his {Black-steel Katana} and takes up a battle ready pose as he starts walking into the swamp. Even though Alex has much better physique compared to normal people, or even other Defenders of his rank, walking in the swamp is still different than walking on a dry land. He can feel his movement getting more restricted by the dense swamp water. As Alex is walking in the swamp, he suddenly sees the water not far from his position starts to form a small wave. From the small wave an alligator head comes out, going straight for his right thigh. Being alert, Alex waste no time in pulling his right leg. Despite his alertness and quick reaction, his movement was a bit restricted by the swamp. The alligator managed to clamp his right leg with its mouth full of sharp teeth. Thankfully, the {Iron Leather Trousers} managed to prevent its teeth from tearing Alex''s flesh. The cannot bite into his flesh due to the hardness of the trousers'' material. Being surprised by the {Iron Leather Trousers}, the alligator tries to clamp harder to try and break its victim''s bone. Sensing its intention, Alex quickly brandishes his katana and swings it at its head under the water. The alligator, sensing the incoming attack immediately releases Alex''s leg from his mouth and starts maneuvering inside the swamp to dodge this sharp katana. Initially, the attack would have met the vital spot on the alligator''s head, but the swamp water once again slows down the attack and enables the to get away with just a shallow cut to its torso. Being hurt by its victim, the swims to a safe distance from Alex while its head and two eyes pops above the water to stare at Alex. Alex takes up a battle stance in spite of the painful feeling he can feel from his right leg. Alex uses this chance to use [Observe] and confirms the alligator''s identity. Confirming his suspicion about the alligator''s identity, Alex enters the normal mana-enhanced state to quickly deal with this alligator. The alligator once again dives under the water and goes for Alex''s right leg once more. Being in the normal mana-enhanced state, Alex''s reaction is now faster and his movement is smoother. He easily dodges the alligator''s attack to his right and starts swinging his katana towards its head. Sensing that it can''t dodge this attack, the alligator made a desperate move. It swings its tail towards Alex''s head in an effort to perish together. "Humph.." Alex snorts when he sees this attack. He doesn''t stop the swinging katana, but Alex starts activating the focused mana-enhanced state to focus on his head. The katana cuts through the alligator''s skull while a dull sound is produced when the tail meets Alex''s head. "Congratulations, you have killed the . You have earned 15 credits," Fay''s voice sounded in Alex''s ringing head. Chapter 028 - Troublesome Opponent >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: F**** Credits: 1,696 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 69 - Speed: 64 - Agility: 66 - Endurance: 73 - Spirit: 105 - Mana: 105/105 >-----< Skills: - Energy Manipulation (E) - Energy Arrow (F) >-----< Kill Count: [76 F*], [67 F**], [60 F***], [43 F****] Achievements: 1 Records: 0 >-----< Alex Volff closes the holographic image in front of him describing his personal stats. This is the morning of the 24th consecutive days for Alex being in the Realm of Defenders for the 2nd time. He has spent 4 days killing 43 of the F-rank 4-stars . This is the day that Alex will raise his rank once more to the F-rank 5-stars. He only needs to kill 7 more to accomplish this. With a firm resolve, Alex walks back into the southern forest towards the swamp area. .... "Congratulations, you have killed the . You have earned 15 credits," Fay''s voice sounded in Alex''s head. "Congratulations, Alex Volff. You have ranked-up to F-rank 5-stars Defender. You have been awarded 200 credits and one {Evolution Potion (F-ranked)}," Fay continues with another notification. "Yeah! I finally reached F-rank 5-stars," Alex shouts in the middle of the swamp while clenching both of his fists and raising them to the sky. After calming himself down, Alex continues to venture deeper into the forest through the swamp area. He managed to kill another 5 while walking through the swamp. Not far from where the swamp ended, Alex arrived at the edge of the southern forest. In front of him is a huge clearing with a large lake in the middle. "This should be the habitat of the F-rank 5-stars creature, ," Alex mumbles to himself. "Hmm... I should use the last F-rank {Evolution Potion} first to hunt them easily. This should only be a scouting mission to gauge their strength and fighting pattern to come up with a countermeasure," Alex continues mumbling to himself while stroking his chin with his right hand. Alex walks forward in an alert posture. After walking for a dozen meters, he can see a frog head peeking out of the water on the edge of the lake. He starts chanting the rune words for {Energy Arrow} and releases the arrow towards the peeking head. The head immediately dives underwater when the {Energy Arrow} got near and not long after that, a giant, black frog leaps out of the lake to the shore. The giant black frog stares at Alex dozens of meters in front of it and starts leaping towards its offender. Alex uses [Observe] to quickly confirm his opponent''s information. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Confirming his opponent''s information, Alex takes up battle stance to face the incoming . Alex doesn''t dare to underestimate his opponent. He immediately activates the normal mana-enhanced state to face this giant black frog. By now, Alex has no problem staying in the normal mana-enhanced state for more than 40 minutes. As the frog is landing a few meters in front of him, Alex dashes forward to meet it head-on. It seems like they would meet head-on after the frog landed, but its next move surprised Alex. It immediately leaps again to Alex''s right side while launching its spit towards Alex''s position. Not wanting to get poisoned on their first exchange, Alex increases his dashing speed and dives forward and rolls on the ground. The poisonous speed missed Alex and hits the ground behind him. The grass where the spit landed immediately turns black and dies. "Gasp.." Alex is shocked by the potency of its poison. Alex doesn''t have much time to be shocked as the giant frog once again launches another attack immediately. This time, after it landed, the giant frog immediately leaps towards Alex''s location to try and stomp Alex with its legs. Being forced into a defensive position, Alex once again rolls to his right to avoid this attack. After avoiding the attack and before the frog landed, Alex immediately springs to his two feet and starts pulling back while making a zigzag to avoid another immediate attack. The frog after seeing Alex''s maneuver makes a big leap towards Alex''s back-side to try and cut his path of retreat. Alex stops his backward movement and starts dashing forward to try and create a distance between him and this troublesome opponent. After seeing this, the frog stops its attack and waits carefully while observing Alex. As it seems like this frog won''t make the first move this time, Alex starts dashing forward towards the frog''s position. The giant black frog reacts by throwing another spit towards Alex, forcing him to alter his direction to his left. The frog follows by leaping towards Alex''s left side while launching its poisonous tongue towards Alex while it is in mid-leap. Alex reacts by swinging his katana to try and cut this d*mned frog''s tongue. The frog recognizing the sharpness of the katana immediately pulls back its tongue. Seeing his attack missed, Alex wasted no time in changing his direction towards where the frog is going to land. The frog not wanting to face Alex head on, immediately leaps once again to avoid clashing with Alex and launch another poisonous spit towards Alex. This time, being ready for the spit, Alex easily dodges it. But, he can''t immediately launch another attack as the frog has leapt to outside his attacking range. When this kind of exchange has lasted for around 5 minutes, it is clear to Alex that the frog has no intention of clashing with him in a melee confrontation. Getting frustrated by this frog, Alex try another way to kill it. Alex starts chanting the rune words to cast {Energy Arrow} to try and kill this frog with a long range attack. Timing the casting time of {Energy Arrow}, Alex dashes forward once more towards the giant frog. The frog reacts by leaping and launching another poisonous spit. Alex easily dodges this attack and immediately launch the {Energy Arrow} when the frog is still in mid-air. Alex lifts the corners of his mouth, as he is that this frog has no way to dodge this skill while being in mid-air. To his surprise, the frog launches another spit to meet with his arrow. The spit and arrow meet and both dissolve into black and white gas. Chapter 029 - Breakthrough Seeing that even his {Energy Arrow} cannot do anything to the , Alex starts running out of ideas on how to face this creature. He has no way to force the into a melee confrontation. He also only have one method of attacking from long range and it was easily countered by the giant frog. Alex wants to regret that he didn''t get other long-ranged skills, but regretting now will not change the current situation. After another futile attempt on trying to engage the giant frog in a melee battle, Alex decides that he needs to retreat. He should increase his strength before engaging with this frog again. Maybe even learn a strong long-ranged skill to increase his attacking options. Alex immediately turns back and dashes towards the forest to run away from this . The frog, noticing Alex''s intention, leaps into the air and lands not far in front of Alex''s retreating path. Alex doesn''t want to engage with the opponent in front of him, so he changes his direction to pass it from its left side. The frog then throws its spit so that it will hit Alex if he doesn''t stop. Seeing this, Alex is forced to change his direction once again towards the frog. The frog reacts by extending its tongue towards Alex. Alex counters by swining his katana to cut the frog''s tongue. Alex smirks as he managed to force the frog into this situation where it only has a choice between stopping its tongue attack or get its tongue severed by his katana. Unfortunately for Alex, the scenario he envisioned doesn''t happen. When it seems like the tongue will get severed by his {Black-steel Katana}, the tongue starts wiggling and changes direction. The tongue moves to his right side and tries to circle around his waist. If Alex continues his attack, it will only graze the tongue and in return he will get caught by the frog''s tongue. Alex forcefully stops his attack and rolls to his left. Alex didn''t manage to dodge in time as the tongue grazes his right upper thigh. To Alex''s surprise, the tongue managed to tear the hard {Iron Leather Trousers} and forms a small cut on his thigh. Alex feels a throbbing sensation from that cut. He can see that the area on his thigh around the wound starts turning black. "S**t, I''ve been poisoned." Alex immediately dashes backwards in retreat and touches the brown {Spatial Pouch} on his right waist. A small vial containing green liquid appears on his right hand. Alex wastes no time in emptying the content of the vial into his mouth. That liquid was the F-ranked {Antidote Potion}. Against other type of poisons, the antidote would have worked immediately and neutralize it, but Alex knows that this poison from the won''t be that easy to neutralize. He needs to rest for the antidote to fully neutralize the giant frog''s poison. If he keeps moving the antidote will only delay the effect but eventually the dosage will be wasted and the poison will start acting up. There is also the risk that he will get poisoned on other parts of his body as he continues this fight. Alex only brought a limited amount of {Antidote Potion} with him, so he has to finish this fight fast.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Alex tried to run away into the forest once again, but he can''t shake away the persistent frog. It kept pestering him and tried to prevent him from retreating into the forest. Having no other choice, Alex firms up his mind to stake his life in this fight and finish this as quickly as possible. One {Antidote Potion} will be able to suppress the poison for around 5 minutes, so he only has 20 minutes to finish this fight. Alex brought 5 {Antidote Potion} with him, but he has to leave out one to neutralize the poison, not just suppress it. The problem with facing the is its unpredictable movement. Alex always reacted one step too late. If he can predict its movement, Alex will have an easier time to deal with this frog. Alex increases his concentration to the maximum and observes every tiny movement the frog makes. The frog waits for Alex to make the next move. Alex dashes forward while observing every tiny changes happening around him. The frog starts a leaping motion to avoid Alex''s charge. Alex can see the frog''s intent and moves to his left to catch the frog when it lands. Unfortunately, Alex moved one step too fast this time and alerts the frog. The frog changes its leaping motion and instead leaps to Alex''s back while throwing its spit towards Alex from the air. He dodges the spit coming at him and faces the frog once again. Alex keeps maintaining his mana-enhanced state in this fight, so other than the surprise attack that grazed him earlier, he had no problem dodging other attacks from the frog. Once again, Alex tries to observe the frog and the tiny changes around him, even to the tiny movement of grass swaying. He increases his senses to the maximum in order to catch the in front of him. After ten minutes, Alex once again drinks his third {Antidote Potion}. In this ten minutes they have exchanged dozens of moves to no avail. Alex could predict the frog''s initial movement, but couldn''t do it once the frog made adjustments. It was hard for him to keep concentrating in the middle of attacking. Being pressed for time, Alex once again tries to initiate another attack while trying to increase his senses to feel the changes around him. The frog once again leaps to avoid Alex''s attack. Alex predicts its movement and changes his direction to where the frog is going to land at the same time as when the frog made its leap. And once again, the frog extends its tongue to prevent Alex from reaching its landing spot. But, this time Alex can feel something is changing. Suddenly, his spirit that is circulating around his body extended to a perimeter outside his body with him as the center. Alex can feel the tiniest detail of the world around him. From the movement of the air, the movement of the grass, the movement of energy around him, and the movement of every muscle on the tongue that is reaching for him, everything feels so vivid to him. Earlier, Alex could only halt his charge to avoid this tongue as it can change its attacking pattern and catch Alex in a bad position. But, this time, Alex swings his sword to meet the moving tongue that feels much slower than earlier. The tongue once again wiggles and changes its attacking pattern, but Alex is able to follow every tiny movement of the tongue. He changes his swing to meet the tongue. The is the one being surprised this time, but it has no time to retract its tongue. The sword meets the tongue and cuts it clean through. "CRRROOAAAKKKK!!!" The giant frog lets out a below due to the pain from its freshly severed tongue. Chapter 030 - Killing Spree The keeps screaming due to the pain from its severed tongue. Alex, still in the weird state he accidentally discovered, charges forward, towards the giant frog. He can still vividly senses everything around him. His sense extends to a radius of 10 meters around him. The frog, still reeling from the pain of its severed tongue, failed to notice Alex''s attack until after Alex was only less than 10 meters from it. Due to its wound, the frog can''t use its two key attacks, the spit, and the tongue. Noticing Alex''s attack, the can only run away. It leaps away towards the lake on its left side. Unfortunately for the giant frog, Alex has locked on to every tiny movement of its muscles. As soon as the frog leaps, Alex changes his direction to his right, chasing after the giant frog. Unable to use its spitting attack and its tongue attack, the frog can only croak angrily when it sees Alex chasing after itself. Alex arrives just a moment before the frog lands. It extended its legs to try stomping its opponent, but how could Alex who is aware of everything happening around him let this happen. Alex dodges its attack and stabs his katana forward. The katana pierces through the giant frog''s head, instantly killing it. "Congratulations, you have killed the . You have earned 20 credits," Fay''s voice sounds in Alex''s head. As he hears the confirmation that the giant frog is dead, Alex releases all of his tension from battle. He suddenly feels a ton of weight has been put inside his brain. He falls on his buttocks and feels like he''s going to fall unconscious. But, he can''t let himself falls unconscious in this dangerous place. Alex musters every bit of his physical and mental power to stand up. He grabs the katana from the giant frog''s head and uses it to drag himself towards the edge of the forest. After finding a safe spot surrounded by tall trees, Alex collapses onto the ground. Before he fell unconscious, Alex grabbed the {Antidonte Potion} from his {Spatial Pouch} and drank it. After he wakes up, Alex checks the time with Fay and finds out that he''s been out for around 30 minutes. Alex checks his wound and feels relieved that the poison seems to has been cleared from his body. The wound itself is not dangerous. The wound was shallow and it has started healing when he was unconscious. Now that everything seems to be okay, Alex starts to recall everything that happened in the earlier fight with the . He tries to remember the weird state that he accidentally discovered. Alex sits in a meditating position as he tries to extend his spirit outside his body. To his surprise, it happens as easily as when he used to circulate his spirit inside his body. His spirit starts extending around him. Alex controls his spirit to extends farther, but he starts to feel a headache as it extends to approximately 10 meters around him. Alex starts retracting his spirit. He feels comfortable when it is approximately 8 meters around him. This distance seems to be his limit for now.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. He also found out that his spirit could even extend inside the ground, but it was much more restricted than extending it in the air. He couldn''t even reach one meter inside the ground and he already felt a headache. As Alex keeps experimenting with this state, he feels more and more amazed by it. In this state, he can sense everything happening inside his spiritual extension area. Just like in the fight earlier, every movement of the grasses, every movement of the air, the insects, sounds, everything around him is so vivid. The most wondrous thing is how Alex can feel the energy around him. He can vaguely feel different types of energy around him. The most abundant and clear to him is a type of energy that feels full of life. Alex spends the next hour familiarizing himself with this new state. He tried to bind the energy around him just like how he used to bind his mana with his spirit, but it was a failure. He has decided to keep hunting the as he now possesses something that can be said to be a perfect counter against them. Earlier, Alex wanted to use the last F-ranked {Evolution Potion} to try and increase his strength and learn a couple other skills before dealing with the giant frogs once more. But, now he doesn''t need to do that. His current physical stats is more than enough to deal with the , it was just their unpredictable movement that made them such a difficult opponent. With this new state that he called Spirit Perception, Alex is confident that he can easily kill those giant frogs now. After firming up his decision, Alex walks out of the forest towards the lake. He starts luring the one by one and finishes them quickly. The only drawback is that he needs to spend a significant amount of time resting for his mental state to come back to its full capacity before engaging with the next target. Alex starts his killing spree against those giant frogs. He camps at the safe area on the edge of the forest at night, and resume his killing spree from the morning until the evening. Of course with his Spirit Perception, night and day are now the same to Alex. He can sense everything in the dark as clear as under the light. This area is the habitat of one the strongest F-ranked monster, so even though this area is a large clearing there aren''t many other Defenders around. In the 3 days that Alex has spent in his killing spree, he has only spotted 4 other Defenders in this large clearing. Those Defenders didn''t dare to approach him when they saw how easy Alex was dealing with those giant frogs. This way, Alex spent his 3 days without disturbance, focusing on killing one at a time. On the afternoon of the 3rd day, Alex finally confirms that he has killed 50 . As expected by Alex, there is no notification from Fay that he has raised his rank once more to rank E. Alex knows that this is because his physical stats are still not enough to rise to the E-rank. To rise to E-rank, each of his physical stat have to be a minimum of 75 points. Eager to finally graduate from the F-rank, Alex immediately starts journeying back to Beginner Town. It''s time for him to use the last F-ranked {Evoluton Potion} to raise his stats and breakthrough to the E-rank. Chapter 031 - E-Rank "Fay, send me back to the personal space!" Alex commands Fay through the [Magic Chip] after as soon as he arrives at Beginner Town. Alex exits the [Transporter Capsule] and goes on to retrieve the F-ranked {Evolution Potion} from his [Storage Box]. He inserts the potion into the [Evolution Capsule] and starts his 5th evolution. After 2 hours, Alex comes out of the capsule. "Congratulations, Alex Volff. You have ranked-up to E-rank 1-star Defender. You have been awarded 500 credits and one {Evolution Potion (E-ranked)}," Fay''s delightful voice sounds in Alex''s head as soon as he comes out of the [Evolution Capsule]. "Congratulations, you have broken the record as the fastest Defender from Earth to advance from F to E-rank. You have been awarded 500 credits," Fay continues with another notification. Alex was expecting the first notification, but the second one catches him by surprise. Alex calms down after a brief period of euphoria. He uses [Observe] to find out his current stats. >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: E* Credits: 3908 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 83 (+14) - Speed: 77 (+13) - Agility: 79 (+13) - Endurance: 88 (+15) - Spirit: 126 (+21) - Mana: 126/126 (+21) >-----< Skills: - Energy Manipulation (E) - Energy Arrow (F) >-----< Kill Count: [80 F*], [72 F**], [63 F***], [53 F****], [50 F*****] Achievements: 1 Records: 1 >-----< All of his stats are now above 75 points, the requirement to advance from F-rank to E-rank. Just based on his spirit and mana, it is enough for him to rise to E-rank 3-stars, but his other stats are still not enough. Alex refrains from using the E-ranked {Evolution Potion} he just got. Using the evolution potion twice in a short amount of time will just waste the effect of the second one. He needs to let his body gets used to the recent evolution first before attempting another evolution. The next thing Alex does is check the system store for the E-ranked items that are now available for him to buy. He has quite a lot of credits saved up. They are enough to purchase some decent E-ranked items from the store. Usually, Defenders don''t have as many credits as him when they rise from F-rank to E-rank. Other Defenders need to buy new skills and equipment everytime they rise one star. By the time they rise from F to E-rank, they would usually only be able to purchase low-quality items. Alex''s advantage lies with his {Energy Manipulation} skill. Alex can feel how truly marvelous this skill is. With the {Energy Manipulation} his fighting power rises proportional to his basic stats, so as he gets stronger, the skill gets stronger with him. This is not the case with other skills in the store. Other skills would get less effective when facing an increasingly stronger opponent.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Take his {Energy Arrow} skill for example. Against the , it was completely useless as it was easily countered by those giant frogs. And even if the {Energy Arrow} had hit them, it would only leave a small wound on them, not enough to finish them off. Meanwhile, the {Energy Arrow} was really effective when facing the lower-ranked creatures such as the and . Alex puts away his stray thoughts and returns his focus to the list of items in front of him. He doesn''t want to buy something immediately. Instead, Alex takes a note on which skills, equipment, or other items that might be useful and affordable for the current him. He will decide which ones to buy when he gathers enough information about the E-rank. Gathering more information about the E-rank is now another problem for Alex. He knows Fay will explain all the new things about the E-rank. But, there are other things that he will need to find out for himself. The E-rank is shrouded in mystery for the public on Earth. The UDA only made information regarding F-rank available to the public. Also, those publicly available information only cover around 50% of the F-ranked information in the UDA database. There are some minor pieces of information about E-rank that are accessible for F-ranked Defenders, but they are very much lacking compared to what he needs as a true E-ranked Defender right now. Of course, if Alex just tells the UDA that he has risen to E-rank those problems would disappear. It will be easy as he only needs to bring out an E-ranked {Energy Stone} as prove. Then, he will be able to access the E-rank database. But, by doing that he will create new problems for himself. There will be many questions raised about his unbelievable performance. The Realm of Defenders'' system itself just confirmed that Alex is the fastest Defender to rise from F-rank to E-rank. He doesn''t want to create unwanted attention towards him. Despite being young, Alex knows the importance of keeping his key cards close to his chest. Another thing is that Alex doesn''t trust everyone inside the UDA. He remembered overhearing his father and mother talking about a member of UDA pressuring his father not long before his father disappeared. He was still a little 5-year-old boy then, so he wasn''t really clear on the detail, but it still causes him to be careful about sharing a secret with the UDA. Of course, the UDA as an institution and members of the UDA needs to be differentiated. The UDA as an institution is the biggest organization on Earth. It possesses an unbelievable amount of resources and knowledge that can help him advance in his path as a Defender. That''s why he was thrilled to join them when they asked. But, as a huge organization, it can''t control every move of its members, so there are bound to be some bad apples inside of it. Alex doesn''t want to reveal his secret and gains unwanted attention from these bad apples. Alex decides to use the internet to find some information for now. There are some pieces of information about E-rank that can be found on the internet, but as with everything on the internet they are not reliable. He needs to filter out which ones are true and which ones are false. This is his only option for now. Having decided what he needs to do about obtaining information, Alex closes the store page hologram in front of him He walks up to Fay to receive the explanation about this new rank of his. Chapter 032 - A Whole New World "Fay, tell me about the E-rank. I know that I can choose to go to a new town. Am I right?" Alex asks Fay. "Yes, you are right. A new city called the Gaia City is now open to you. Gaia City is in a different area than Beginner Town. You can''t go between the two places without going through the [Transporter Capsule] in your personal space. The Gaia City is in the area specifically for E-ranked and D-ranked Defenders," Fay answers Alex''s question with a detailed explanation. "D-ranked?" Alex asks in surprise. "Yes. The area around Gaia City is filled with E-ranked and D-ranked creatures. Of course, you have to travel far from the city to encounter D-ranked creatures," Fay explains. "So, there are D-ranked Defenders and E-ranked Defenders in this Gaia City?" Alex asks another question while calming himself down. "You are right. But usually, the D-ranked Defenders like to stay inside the villages around the area where the D-ranked creatures appear. The new area for E and D-ranked Defenders is many times bigger than the area for F-ranked Defenders. There are small safe zones that we called villages scattered around the realm. You can travel to these villages directly from this personal space once you have discovered the specific village. You can also travel from these villages to the personal space as they are also non-combat zones," Fay answers with another detailed explanation. "Will I still be able to travel to the Beginner Town?" Alex asks another question that suddenly pops out to his mind. "You are allowed to travel to lower-ranked areas, but you are not allowed to leave the non-combat zones. The barrier around these non-combat zones will prevent higher ranked Defenders from going out. This is to prevent higher ranked Defenders from abusing their power and also to protect lower ranked Defenders from the danger of being killed by the higher ranked Defenders?" Fay answers. "Then why do you mix E-ranked Defenders with D-ranked Defenders in this Gaia City?" "It''s to introduce increased danger, but we want to limit the danger. As your rank rises, the frequency of you encountering stronger opponents and more dangerous situations will increase. You have to get used to being around dangerous situations. The Beginner Town was limited to F-ranked Defenders because the creatures F-ranked creatures were enough to provide dangerous situations for new Defenders. But, as you get stronger, the dangers you will face will increase. This is the best way for Defenders to develop their abilities. Constant danger will bring out the best potential out of living creatures. The survival instinct is the best catalyst to bring out people''s fighting talent."This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. "Why does it sounds like the Realm of Defenders is created purposefully to train us?" Alex asks suspiciously. "I can''t answer that question as your rank is still not high enough," Fay gives a disappointing answer. Alex stares at Fay suspiciously for a bit, but he quickly dismisses his suspicion. There''s no use in thinking about this. He might come to a conclusion, but he has no way to clarify if his conclusion is true or not. The important thing is for him to get stronger to provide for his family and find information about his father. "Okay, then. Is there anything else I need to know about the E-rank?" Alex asks Fay calmly. "Actually there are a few other things. Do you want to hear about them now?" Fay replies with a question. "Yes, tell me everything." "Okay. First of all, in the new area for the E and D-ranked Defenders, there are the different classifications for creatures. Starting from this area, creatures can be divided into Normal, Elite, and Boss creatures. Normal creatures are the same as the F-ranked creatures you have faced. Normally, a Defender can kill a creature with the same rank and stars by themselves. Elite creatures need a party of 3 people of the same rank and stars working well together to kill them. While Boss creatures normally need a party of 10 people of the same rank and stars to kill them," Fay starts explaining. "Party?" Alex interrupts Fay''s explanation. "Yes. Starting from E-rank, the [Magic Chip] allows Defenders to form parties. You just need to link your [Magic Chip] with other people that you want to form a party and use the [Party] function to register your party through the [Magic Chip]. One party can register a maximum of 10 Defenders. A creature you killed in a party will still count towards your kill count normally, even though if you are not the one landing the last blow," Fay answers Alex''s question. "Then, won''t it be easy to kill 50 normal creatures in a party to rise to the next star rank?" Alex asks a question that suddenly pops into his head. "You''re right. That''s why the requirement to raise your rank starting from E-rank is a bit different. The first requirement is still basically the same. To raise 1-star rank, you need to raise your stats by 25 points for each star rank. So, to rise to E-ranked 2-stars you will need 100 points on each stats. As for the kill count requirement, you need to kill 500 Normal creatures of the same star rank. If you don''t want to waste time killing 500 normal creatures, you can choose to kill 100 Elite creatures or 10 Boss creatures." "Huh..." Alex lets out a surprised gasp. "Then, will I be able to substitute each class with each other? I mean, if I kill 1 Boss class creature, 50 Elite creatures, and 200 Normal creatures, will that count as 500 Normal creatures and raise my star rank?" Alex continues with another question. "No. You need to complete one of them." "Alright then," Alex replies while frowning. "Next is an explanation about Dungeons. Do you want me to continue?" Fay asks Alex for his confirmation. "Dungeons? Please continue," Alex replies to Fay as he''s curious about this new thing called Dungeon. Chapter 033 - Dungeons "Starting from the E-ranked area there will be separate dimensions called Dungeons," Fay continues explaining things. Alex stares at Fay curiously, trying to remember everything Fay told him. He has read a bit about this from the limited E-ranked information he can access in the UDA database, but most of them are new to him. Especially this Dungeon thing, it''s completely new to him. "Dungeons are pocket dimensions inside the Realm of Defenders. The entrance to Dungeons is in a form of a dimensional portal, just like the one you used to enter this realm from Earth, only they are smaller than the portals on Earth. Usually, the Dungeons will have different entrance and exit, so you will need to find the exit portal in order to get out of the Dungeons. There are no safe zones inside the Dungeons, so you will have to get out first if you want to get back to this personal space." "What''s inside these Dungeons?" Alex asks the important question. "The world inside the Dungeons vary from one Dungeon to another. The creatures inside the Dungeons vary in class and rank, so you will need to be really careful before entering a Dungeon. There are Dungeons that only contained E-ranked creatures, but there are also Dungeons that contained both E-ranked and D-ranked creatures. If you''re really unlucky, you might even encounter C-ranked creatures in a Dungeon that opens up in E-ranked area," Fay answers Alex''s question with another detailed explanation. "C... C-ranked creatures!? Won''t we all die inside these Dungeons?" Alex is surprised by this revelation. "Relax, the chance of encountering C-ranked creatures inside Dungeons that opened up inside the E-ranked area is minuscule. It''s not even 1 in 10,000 chance. I''m just telling this as a protocol to warn Defenders who are just stepping up to E-rank of how dangerous the Dungeons can be," Fay calms Alex down. "Oh... Okay," Alex starts to calm down. "Although, with high risk comes high rewards. The Dungeons often contained treasures worth massive amount of credits. These treasures are mostly natural treasure that can be used to craft equipment, potions, and other types of items. You even have a high chance of finding D-ranked items inside Dungeons that have D-ranked creatures." "D-ranked items? So I can find C-ranked items in Dungeons with C-ranked creatures?" Alex asks excitedly. "Yes. But don''t forget that you may probably die in a Dungeon with C-ranked creatures," Fay sneers at Alex. "Yeah... You''re right," Alex was brought back to reality.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. "Okay, I will continue my explanation. Inside the Dungeons, there are also very rare occurrences of Defenders finding unique items that are not available in the system store," Fay continues. "There are items not available in the system store?!" Alex is surprised by another revelation. "Yes. And if you find one and can''t find what it''s used for, you can sell it to the system in exchange with credits. You can use the [Storage Box] inside this personal space to send the item to us. After taking some time to grade the item, we will give out a fair compensation in the form of credits to you," Fay answers. "Another important thing is about the creatures inside the Dungeons. The creatures inside the Dungeons won''t disappear after they die, unlike the creatures outside. You can harvest various parts of their bodies. You can trade them with the system. The system will reward you with credits in the amount of 95% of the price of the same materials within the system store. These parts include their bones, skins, meats, organs, and energy cores for some creatures that have them." Alex is in constant shock as he listens to Fay''s explanation. Now he can even sell to the system. It has to be known that before this, he couldn''t sell his items to the system. It made sense though, otherwise, he could just buy a skill book, learn the skill and sell it back to the store to save credits. "So, now I can trade items with the system?" Alex asks for confirmation from Fay. "Yes, but it''s limited to items classified as raw materials and unique items. Items you can only find inside the dungeons," Fay answers Alex''s question. "Ah... I see." "One last thing about Dungeons. Inside the Dungeons, there are a higher ratio of Boss and Elite class creatures compared to the outside world. Hence, it''s advised that you enter Dungeons in a party. It will be really difficult to enter Dungeons by yourself. If you''re not already in a party when you enter a Dungeon, there is a high probability that you will arrive at different places inside the Dungeon, even if you enter the Dungeon at the same time with other Defenders," Fay finishes the long explanation about Dungeons. "Oh, okay. Thank you for the information," Alex thanks Fay for the thorough explanation. "Then, do you want to be transported to Gaia City right now?" Fay asks. "No, not right now. I need to go back to Earth first. I''ve been in this place for almost one month. My mother and little sister are most definitely already worried sick about me," Alex replies with a sad smile when thinking about his family. "As you wish, Alex Volff. As an E-ranked Defender, you can be considered to be a true Defender now. So, you have been granted permission to contact me through the [Magic Chip] even when you''re on Earth. You are also forbidden to share any information about Dungeons with anyone who is not a Defender or Defenders below the E-ranked. If the [Magic Chip] detects that you have shared this information with those people, your access to the Realm of Defenders will be restricted or even revoked, so be careful," Fay gives Alex a warning before his return to Earth. "Oh, wow... Why can''t I share about Dungeons with them?" Alex is confused by Fay''s warning. "I can''t tell you due to protocol, but you will find out eventually," Fay answers vaguely. "Well, alright then," Alex waves it off thoughtlessly as his mind is now filled with his mother and little sister Elsa He hasn''t seen his family in almost a month. As he starts thinking of them, a homesick feeling starts to creep inside of him. This is the longest time he has left his family. He can''t wait to get back home and brag about his achievement to his mom and Elsa. Chapter 034 - Research Alex Volff appears in front of the spiraling black light that is surrounded by a thick glass wall around it. He can see two guards standing outside the door from behind the glass wall. Alex walks out of the portal room, greeting the guards when he passes them by. He walks up to the bespectacled UDA staff that he met the last time he came out of the Realm of Defenders. "How are you, Mr. Akira? I want to exchange {Energy Stones} again," Alex starts the conversation. "Ah, good work, Mr. Alex Volff. Please hand me the {Energy Stones} and your UDA ID card," Akira replies to Alex. "Oh, you remember my name?" Alex asks in surprise while handing Akira 15 F-ranked {Energy Stones} and his new UDA ID card that shows that his new status as a member of UDA. "Yes. We rarely get someone as young as you enter the Realm of Defenders, so I specifically remember you. Oh... you have become a member of UDA too?" Akira replies and shows a mild surprise. "Oh... And here I thought that all UDA staffs are good at remembering names. Haha..." Alex replies with a light laugh. "Haha..." Akira laughs. After taking a short while to verify everything, Akira hands Alex''s ID card back to him. "Everything is taken care of. $ 1,800 has been credited to your account. Because of your status as UDA member, you have been given 20% more than the market value of those {Energy Stones}. Also, 75 points have been added to your UDA account," Akira gives Alex an explanation about his gains this time. Alex smiles and says his goodbye to Akira. He has earned $ 1,800 this time. Much more than the $ 100 he earned from his first entrance. This money will enable him to start helping his mother in taking care of their family. Alex bought 15 F-ranked {Energy Stones} to exchange for money. Of course, he is now able to get E-ranked {Energy Stones}, but he didn''t get them. First, to hide the fact that he is now an E-ranked Defender, but also because their worth will end up the same. E-ranked {Energy Stones} cost 200 credits each and their market value when exchanging with UDA is $ 1,000 for each E-ranked {Energy Stones}. It''s no different than buying 10 F-ranked {Energy Stones}. Of course, in the future when he can spend thousands of credits on {Energy Stones}, it will be foolish to bring out hundreds of F-ranked {Energy Stones} and he will just switch to the higher ranked ones.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Alex walks into a nearby hyperloop station and gets into an individual capsule to take him back home. Being a Defender has its perks. One of them is being able to ride on these hyperloop networks for free. The hyperloop network is one of the results of the technological advancement caused by resources from the Realm of Defenders. As people who risk their lives in the Realm of Defenders to bring out these resources, the Defenders can enjoy these technologies for free or at a discounted price. He arrives at the station near his housing complex. Alex runs straight home after getting out of the hyperloop capsule. He arrives at the front of his family''s apartment only to find a locked door. He uses his electronic key to open the door and walks inside. "Mom, Elsa, I''m home!" Alex shouts to announce his return. "..." There is no answer from inside the house. Alex checks the time on his watch and realizes the problem. "Ah, that''s right. It''s 2 PM now. Mom must be at work and Elsa is at school. Well, I guess I will just surprise them when they''re back," Alex talks to himself. Alex goes straight to his room and starts unpacking. While waiting for his mother and little sister to return, Alex starts accessing his personal computer to do some research about the E-rank. He has to wait for a while for his computer to start up. This computer is an old model that used to be popular more than a decade ago. It uses voice control as its main input method. His father bought it. Now, with the new programs installed, this computer is running really slow. "Ah... This thing is so slow. When I get more money in the future I will buy the newest brain-controlled holographic computer," Alex mumbles to himself while dreaming about the future. Of course, he won''t get rid of this old computer. Afterall, this is something his father bought. Even if he can bear to depart with it, his mother won''t allow him to get rid of this computer. Alex starts by opening the UDA database. His F-ranked Defender status only allows him to access limited E-ranked information. He reads up on everything he can find. Alex realizes that there is no information about Dungeons in there. After reading the little amount of information in the UDA database, Alex decides to continue his research in the Defenders'' Online Forum. Not every Defender have access to the UDA database. In fact, most Defenders are not UDA members, so they can''t access the classified database. This online forum is a way for Defenders to share information between themselves. Alex scans his UDA ID card on the computer to gain access to the online forum. Due to the information in his ID card still describing him as F-ranked Defender, Alex finds a lot of sub-forums that he can''t access. In spite of that, Alex still searches for every accessible post that contains the keyword "E-rank". There is a lot more information in this forum, but as he expected earlier, they are unreliable. For example, there is information about various creatures one can encounter in the E-rank area. There are even descriptions of their strength and weakness, but some of them don''t match each other, and some of them even contradicted each other. Alex starts taking note and doing his own research. He has to decide for himself which bits of information are true and which ones are fake. Chapter 035 - Mysterious Object When Alex finishes up his research, he looks at the clock in his room and realizes that he has spent more than 2 hours in front of his computer. It is now only around 1 hours until his mother or little sister come home. Alex decides to do some training while he waits for them. He starts by repeatedly entering and coming out of the normal mana enhanced state, trying to improve his spiritual control as well as his mana control. His mana control hasn''t improved much since he managed to learn the focused mana-enhanced state. He''s still only able to control his mana in units of fives. Next, Alex starts training his focused mana-enhanced state by circulating his mana to different parts of his body. Since he has evolved multiple times now after he first learned this new state, Alex can now use more mana in each part of his body. The focused mana-enhanced state still can only multiply his attack power by 3-4 times. But, with the massive increase of his stats, 3-4 times now is a world of difference than 3-4 times before his multiple evolutions. Alex has been trying to improve these skills while he was in the Realm of Defenders, but he hasn''t succeeded. After finishing with the focused mana-enhanced state training, Alex glances at the clock sees that he still has to wait for around 20 minutes until his mother or little sister come home. Alex continues his training. He starts training the Spirit Perception ability he gained while fighting the giant frogs. Alex starts spreading his spirit into his surrounding, covering everything inside his room. The first thing he notices is the density of energy in his room. The natural energy inside the Realm of Defenders is much denser than the natural energy inside his room. As he has no way to control these energies, Alex leaves them be and starts focusing on everything else inside his room. He is training to increase his perception of the tiniest details around him. When his focus is raised to the maximum, Alex can feel his spirit rippling from somewhere inside his room. Alex tries to find the source only to be surprised. The source is inside his drawer. Inside it, there is a crude wooden box. Inside the wooden box is a plain black ring. It is the ring his father gave him before his father''s disappearance. Alex tries to separate the ring and the wooden box to see whether it is really the ring that causes the ripple in his spirit. After testing it out, Alex is now sure that it is the ring that causes the ripple. He used to wear this ring on his finger all the time as this is a reminder of his father. But, he never wore this ring when he entered the Realm of Defenders because he''s afraid of losing it when he''s fighting. It''s been sitting inside his drawer in the wooden box whenever he entered the Realm of Defenders.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Alex takes a closer look at this ring but he doesn''t find anything. It''s just a plain black ring without any decoration on it. He can''t use [Observe] while he''s outside the Realm of Defenders, so that option can only be used when he enters the realm again. Being out of option, Alex decides to use his Spirit Perception to probe this ring. Alex spreads his spirit to the outside once again. He doesn''t spread it to cover everything inside his room this time, but just enough to cover the ring. When he focuses once again, he can feel his spirit rippling around the ring. But, other than the ripple around the ring, he finds nothing. After thinking for a while, Alex uses his Spirit Perception once again to cover the ring. This time, he controls his spirit to try and penetrate to the inside of this ring. His spirit can penetrate through solids and see the inside of things, just like how he sensed the inside of his locked drawer earlier. The only thing that has been hard for him to penetrate with his spirit was the ground inside the Realm of Defenders. Of course, seeing inside the body of living creatures has been really difficult for him too. It takes some effort, but his spirit finally manages to go into the ring. Inside the ring, he finds some carving of rune-words like characters. But, these characters are different than the usual rune-words he found in skill books and other things inside the Realm of Defenders. His [Magic Chip] can''t translate these characters. Usually, the [Magic Chip] automatically translated these types of characters when he encountered them. Alex''s spirit slowly fills the inside of this carving. When his spirit has filled every nook and cranny of this carving, he suddenly feels like his spirit is being sucked out of his body into a strange space. Alex tries to resist but he is powerless to resist. When he comes to his senses, Alex can feel that he''s floating inside a strange warm place. He feels weird as he can''t sense his physical body anywhere. But, it''s also strangely comfortable being in this space. His spirit starts moving on its own in a strange pattern. As it is moving, Alex feels more and more comfortable. It''s like his soul is returning to a place where it belongs. After his spirit does a couple rotation, it starts to leave this strange space. Alex feels reluctant to leave this comfortable place, but he''s still unable to control his spirit, so he can just let it do its own thing. When he comes to his senses again, Alex can see that he''s now back to his room. He is inside his body again, and the ring is still in his hand. Alex tries probing his spiritual see and sees that his spirit seems to have shrunk, but it shines with more luster compared to before. Alex wants to further understand what happened, but before he can do anything else, he hears a rustling sound from the front door and the sound of his little sister. "I''m home." Alex decides to postpone his probing and greets the little sister that he has not seen in almost a month. Chapter 036 - Family Ales walks out of his room and greets his little sister who is taking off her shoes. She''s still in her summer school uniform, a white blouse with red tie and a simple black skirt. "Oh, you''re home. Welcome back, Elsa." "Yeah," Elsa replies mindlessly at first. "Huh..." Elsa realizes the situation and turns her head to look at Alex. "Ah... B... Big Bro! You''re back!" Elsa stammers and shouts in surprise seeing her big brother that she hasn''t seen for almost a month. "Yeah, I''m back," Alex displays a smug smile, happy that he managed to surprise his little sister. "W... When did you get back?" Elsa asks, still agitated from the surprise. "I got back this afternoon. You and mom weren''t home, so I just went straight to my room and wait for you and mom," Alex replies still with a smile. "Ah, I see," Elsa replies while her eyes start tearing up. "Ah... Please don''t cry. I''m sorry to have made you and mom worried," Alex gets flustered when he sees his little sister is about to start crying. "I... I''m not crying," Elsa pouts while trying to wipe her eyes with her right hand. "Haha..." Alex pats his little sister''s head while laughing. "Come on, let your awesome big brother tells you about my adventure while we wait for mom to come home," Alex starts bragging to try and cheer up his sister. "Haha... Okay, awesome big bro," Elsa starts cheering up. Alex starts telling Elsa stories about his adventures. Of course he tells her an edited version that made it sounds like he had an easy time inside the Realm of Defenders. He doesn''t tell her about his advancement to the E-rank. It''s best that his family knows as little as possible to not make them worry too much. After around 15 minutes of story-telling, the front door opens once again. "Ah, big bro... Looks like mom''s back. Let''s greet her first. She will be glad that you''re back," Elsa interrupts Alex''s story. "Yeah, let''s go," Alex replies with a smile. Elsa starts running ahead of her brother and starts shouting at her mother. "Mom... Look who''s back!" Their mother is taking off her shoes. As she realizes what Elsa means, she looks towards Elsa and then she turns her eyes to look towards the figure on the back walking towards her.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. "Welcome home, mom," Alex greets her mother with a wide smile. "Ah... A... Alex?!" Erina replies with her eyes starting to tear up. She runs towards her son and hugs him tightly. "Wel... Welcome home," Erina welcomes her son with her cracking voice. Alex just stays silent. He just hugs his mother back. After a short while, they separated and Erina starts to calm down. "I''m glad you''re well. When did you get back?" "Ah, big bro came back this afternoon. He was telling me the story about his adventures in the Realm of Defenders right before you came home," Elsa answers for her big brother. "I see. Well, it''s about time for dinner. You guys better get cleaned up first to get ready for dinner," Erina commands her two children. "But, I want to hear big bro finishes his story," Elsa tries to persuade her mother to let her hear the rest of Alex''s story. "You can continue the story later. Now go get cleaned up first while I prepare dinner," Erina replies with a stare towards Elsa. "Ah... Mom... I want to take out us for a nice dinner tonight," Alex interrupts her mother. Elsa who was staring down after her mother scolded her a moment ago snaps her head upwards and starts cheering. "Woaahh... Let''s go eat outside. I want sushi!" "But..." Erina shows a reluctant expression. "Please, mom. Don''t worry about money, I got some money after coming out of the Realm of Defenders. Take this as a welcome home party for me," Alex starts pleading to his hesitating mother. "Please... Mom..." Elsa shows a begging expression. Erina looks towards her children and sighs. "Okay, let''s go out and eat sushi tonight." "Yaay! I love you mom," Elsa jumps up in joy and starts hugging her mother. "You should thank your big bro," Erina smiles towards this cute daughter of her. "Haha... Thank you, big bro. I love you," Elsa changes the target of her hug towards her big brother. "Haha..." Alex can only laugh while looking at his cheerful little sister. Alex can feel the constant stress he felt due to the pressure from the Realm of Defenders starts to melt away. Despite his rapid advancement and constant power up, he still had to face a life and death situation almost every day inside that realm. Other than it being a physical burden, it was also a huge pressure on him mentally. He''s still a 15-year-old teenager, facing this unknown world by himself. It was, of course, his decision to do this, so he doesn''t utter a single word of complaint. But, it doesn''t change the fact that the burden on him is huge. It''s nice to be able to return home and recharge his mental energy and focus for a few days before going back to the high-pressure environment inside the Realm of Defender. Alex took his family out to a nice sushi restaurant a few blocks from their apartment building. He retold the story about his adventure inside the Realm of Defenders. Of course, he still told them the edited version in order to not made them worry for him. Elsa kept praising her big bro on the way to the restaurant and back because they were able to ride the hyperloop capsule for free. After they got back from the restaurant, Alex told his mother that he would transfer money to her account to help take care of their family. Her mother told him to not worry about it. But, after Alex''s insistence, his mother gave up and let him transferred the money. Alex transferred $1,700 to her account and only kept around $100 for himself. Erina was surprised by this amount. It''s still less than what she usually made in a month, but it''s not too far off. She could only imagine how hard his son had to struggle to earn that much money. Of course, Alex didn''t realize that him giving his mother money only made his mother worried about him more than before. Alex now sits in his room after spending the whole evening with his family. It''s now time for him to continue probing the mysterious ring his father left him. Chapter 037 - Improved Spiritual Perception Alex takes the plain black ring off from his finger and places it in his hand. Alex starts spreading his spiritual perception once again to probe the ring. But, before he even starts to probe the ring, just when his spirit leaves his body, Alex is left dumbstruck. The world around him that he is sensing now feels somewhat different than what he usually sensed before. Alex tries to understand the difference. He increases his concentration to the maximum and spreads his spiritual perception farther. Soon enough, Alex realizes the difference between now and before. He can actually sense the energy around him in a different way compared to before. He can say that this time it''s more vivid compared to before. He could somewhat differentiate the different types of energy around him before, but right now he can do it far more easily. Alex can also sense their movement more clearly now. He tries to bind the energy around him with his spirit. Unfortunately, he still fails like before. He feels that if he can control the natural energy around him then he will have an advantage in a fight. For starters, he can absorb them to replenish his mana. Ever since he discovered spiritual perception, Alex found out that his mana was actually replenished by absorbing the natural energy around him. His body did it naturally without him knowing. If he can actually control the natural energy and absorb them as he wishes, then he will possess a virtually inexhaustible mana pool. Having infinite mana is a big enticement to him. Due to him being able to clearly sense the natural energy and their movement, Alex feels that he should be able to control the natural energy using his spirit. He keeps trying to bind them using his spirit and control the energy around him, but he keeps failing. After a few more failures, Alex decides to leave it for now and try it another time. Alex still feels there''s something more to this improved spiritual perception of his. He extends it farther, trying to reach its limit. To his surprise, the distance he can reach with his spiritual perception has been significantly extended. He can reach 15 meters around him before he feels a headache due to straining his spirit. It''s almost twice the distance that he could reach before. His spiritual perception is able to cover the entire apartment and even extends to the outside and the neighboring units. He can "see" his sleeping mother, little sister, and the couple next door who are his neighbor. The couple is holding each other in bed, obviously just finished doing some coupley thing. Alex, the inexperienced teenager immediately blushes when he sees this and quickly retracts his spiritual perception for fear of being called a pervert. He then realizes that they have no way of knowing that he spied on them. But, he doesn''t intend to extend his spirit to the neighboring unit again, because he swears to himself that he''s not a pervert. Even though, as a teenage boy going through puberty, he really wants to do it.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. After calming his boiling blood, Alex extends his spiritual perception once again. This time, he limited it to inside his apartment. He now realizes that this new ability of his is not something to be used carelessly. He starts sensing the things around his apartment. He then focuses on his sleeping mother and sister, trying to burn their figures in his mind before he goes back to the Realm of Defenders once again. To his surprise, this time he can feel the movement of energy in their body. Obviously, he can''t extend his spirit into their bodies. He was unable to do that before, and still unable to do that now. He could probe inside the corpses of creatures, just not a living creature. His spiritual perception is only wrapping around his mother and sister, but he can really feel the movement of energy inside them. Of course, their energies are really feeble compared to the energy inside his body as they don''t possess mana. It''s just the energy their body produces to sustain their lives. Alex is baffled by this discovery. He couldn''t do this before. He was able to sense the tiniest movements of the creatures'' muscles when he fought them, but he was never able to sense the movement of energy inside their body. Now, he can sense the movement of these tiny bit of energies from his mother and little sister. He wonders what will happen if he extends his spiritual perception to the creatures inside the Realm of Defenders. What will happen if he does it to other Defenders! Alex wants to try to probe other people, but he remembers what happened earlier and curbs his intention for now. After probing further and not finding anything, Alex retracts his spiritual perception and looks at the black ring in his hand. "What a strange ring. It shrunk my spirit, but my spirit actually improves in new ways after I entered that strange space," Alex mumbles to himself while feeling confused and excited at the same time. "It''s a shame that I can''t use [Observe] outside the Realm of Defenders. I''d like to know if my spirit stats actually changes or not. It will probably also be useful to identify this ring. This ring is clearly an object dad brought from inside the Realm of Defenders," Alex continues mumbling while thinking. "Ah, well, I''ll just do it the next time I enter the Realm of Defenders." After he finishes his train of thoughts, Alex looks at the ring in his finger once again. He wants to try and probe the ring once again with his spirit. Maybe this time it will improve his spirit once more. Alex starts extending his spirit and controls it to go inside the ring. He finds the rune-words carving once again. Alex controls his spirit to fill the carving. But, to his disappointment, this time nothing happens. He tries to do it a few more times and still gets the same result. Alex decides to stop trying and goes to sleep. Chapter 038 - New Skills Alex spent the last 3 days with his family and friends. He met with his two best friends, Takeshi Fuji and Karl Heinz on the 2nd day of his return. These two aspiring Defenders let him knew that they intend to take the Defenders Registration Test by the end of this year. They are about to graduate from the martial art dojo in a few months due to their hard work in training. They said that they don''t want to be left too far behind by Alex. He left some words of encouragement for them and they parted ways. Today, Alex is going to enter the Realm of Defenders again. He has spent the last 3 days trying to probe the ring further, but it has brought no result. That''s why he decided to bring this black ring with him to the Realm of Defenders this time around. He can just leave it in his personal space later if he''s afraid of losing this ring while fighting creatures. Alex steps out of the Hyperloop station and walks into the portal hall. After taking care of the usual administrative affairs, he steps into the portal room and walks towards the spiraling black light that is the portal to the Realm of Defenders. He touches the portal with his hand and finds himself inside his personal room once again not long after that. Alex walks to the holographic computer in his personal room as soon as he arrives. He plans to get some new skills before going out to the E-rank area. Alex buys 3 skill books at once, two E-ranked skills and 1 F-ranked skill. His {Energy Manipulation} has been amazing for him so far, but he doesn''t want to face the same situation that he faced against the . If he had better skills, he wouldn''t be in such a dangerous situation the first time he fought it. Of course, he managed to profit greatly from that situation, but he doesn''t want to constantly gamble his life this way. Alex has decided to be more prepared this time around. That''s why he spent 2,600 credits on those skill books. He takes out the first skill book. It is an E-ranked offensive skill called {Lightning Strike} that cost him 1,000 credits. As the name suggests, it''s a skill that enables the user to shoot lighting out of their hand to strike the opponent. It has the added advantage of paralyzing the opponent due to the muscle spasm caused by electrocution. It takes 20 rune-words to cast and 40 units of mana. The second skill book is an E-ranked defensive skill called {Ice Dome}. The skill cost him 1,250 credits. Defensive skill books tend to be more expensive than the offensive ones because they are a big help in surviving inside the Realm of Defenders. The effect of this skill can also be guessed by its name. Invoking this skill creates a dome formed from ice walls around him ranging from a radius of 1 meters to 5 meters around him. He can control the radius of this ice dome using different rune-words when he casts this skill. It takes 20 rune-words to cast and 20-100 units of mana, depending on the radius he wants to cover.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The last skill is the F-ranked {Detection} skill. It cost him 350 credits. This is a support skill he bought to hide his spiritual perception ability. It can be used to detect enemy up to 35 meters around him. In some ways, this is even more useful than his spiritual perception. But, of course, this skill can only detect the presence of enemy while the spiritual perception can tell him everything he needs to know about the enemy. Alex wants to use this skill to hide his spiritual perception, especially if he joins a party in the future. His spiritual perception is too powerful to not be used as a scouting tool. But, it''s also a secret he wants to keep. If he can detect an enemy the other Defenders in his party cannot see without casting a skill, it will raise suspicion. That''s why he bought this skill. Besides, this is still a useful skill in its own way, so it''s not like he''s wasting his credits buying this skill book. The skill only needs 3 rune-words to cast but uses 20 points of mana. The nature of this skill made it more expensive than other skills of the same level. After having bought the skill books, Alex realizes a problem he managed to overlook because of his excitement in buying those E-ranked skill books. 20 rune-words mean he will need around 20 seconds to cast each skill when he first masters them. Even if he trains for a long time to shorten the casting time, he will probably unable to shorten it to less than 10 seconds. Will it even be practical in battle? He starts questioning the usefulness of these skills. Or, maybe this is why the party system starts to be available in this rank. With a party, the other party members can distract an opponent while someone in their party is casting their skill. He comes to a realization. But, it doesn''t get rid of the frown on his forehead, because it means he will have to rely on the member of his party. For him who doesn''t know anyone in the E-rank area, this is a big problem. He has no one he can trust in this early stage of entering the E-rank area. What if the other party members are unreliable and they are unable to protect him while he''s casting his skill! Even worse, what if the other party members were to have an evil intention towards him! While still in doubt, Alex has no other choice but to open the first skill book. He has spent credits in buying these books, it''s better to learn them than to waste them. To his surprise, his worries have a solution right on the second page of the skill book after the introduction page. "{Lightning Strike} can be stored in E-ranked {Skill Gems} and above. It needs 2 rune-words and 5 mana points to invoke. One E-ranked {Skill Gem} can be charged 10 times with {Lightning Strike}." Alex is stunned after reading this statement. What is a {Skill Gem}? It only needs 2 rune-words and 5 mana points to cast this after using this {Skill Gem}? His mind is full of questions. He forces himself to calm down and open the other E-ranked skill book. "{Ice Dome} can be stored in E-ranked {Skill Gems} and above. It needs 3 rune-words and 5-25 mana points to invoke. One E-ranked {Skill Gem} can be charged 10 times with the 1-meter radius {Ice Dome}. The 3rd rune-word is the modifier to control the radius of the invoked {Ice Dome}. To invoke the skill with more than the minimum radius, multiple corresponding charges will be used up." The explanation in this second skill book is longer and more complicated, but the gist is the same. He can store his skills in these {Skill Gems}. Alex reads the F-ranked skill book, but like the other F-ranked skill books, it doesn''t say anything about {Skill Gems}. Chapter 039 - Unidentified Object After reading everything, Alex decides to take a look at the {Skill Gems} in the store. After looking around for a bit, he finally finds them. It''s under the miscellaneous section in the store. With the countless types of items inside the store, he has missed them when he looked at the store in the past. He was only looking for skill books, equipment, and potions. There were other sections such as blueprints, raw materials, miscellaneous, and others that he only took a quick glance. {Skill Gem - E} {A gem that was specially crafted to hold skills. Able to store E-ranked skills and below. The number of charges that can be stored depends on the type of skill. One gem can only store one type of skill. To use the stored skill, one must hold this gem and chant the rune-words required for the specific skill stored in the gem. Cost: 500 credits.} After looking at the description, Alex decides to buy two {Skill Gems}, spending 1,000 credits. He wants to store the {Lightning Strike} and {Ice Dome} inside of these two gems. He confirms his purchase. After waiting for a few seconds, his [Transporter Box] starts to shine. As the light dims down and vanishes, he opens the box to find two transparent gems inside. Each gem is in a flat oval shape with around 10 cm long, 5 cm wide, and 2cm thick. He takes out these two gems and uses [Observe] to confirm their information. The result of [Observe] matches the description from the store. After getting everything he needs, Alex heads to his training room. He''s in no rush to go out into the E-rank area. There are loads of things he needs to do first. The most important thing before he even attempts to learn the newly acquired skill books, he needs to learn more about the ring his father gave him. Alex uses [Observe] on himself to see if anything has changed compared to before. >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: E* Credits: 258 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 83 - Speed: 77 - Agility: 79 - Endurance: 88 - Spirit: 150 (+24) - Mana: 126/126 >-----< Skills: - Energy Manipulation (E) - Energy Arrow (F) >-----< Kill Count: [318 F] Achievements: 1 Records: 1 >-----< Alex is surprised to see his spirit stats. It has increased compared to the last time he checked his stats. It increased by 24 points, almost 20% of his previous spirit stats. He starts to be filled with a feeling of anticipation. If he can uncover the secret of the ring, will he be able to increase his spirit indefinitely? How much stronger will his spiritual perception be? Or maybe he will be able to control the natural energy around him using his spirit? His mind is filled with all the potential benefit he might be able to receive in the future if he can figure out how to use this ring again. But, he soon realizes, to do that he needs to figure out how this ring really works first. He needs to figure out what kind of item this ring really is. Alex starts to calm down. He sits in the usual meditating position and takes off the ring from his finger. He uses [Observe] on the ring to see if the [Magic Chip] can figure out something about this item.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. {Undefined Object - ?} {A mysterious, unidentified object shaped like a ring. Seems like it has something to do with the soul. It''s possible to be traded with the system.} Alex feels disappointed at the result of his [Observe]. It doesn''t reveal anything useful to him about this ring. Although, there is one thing he can confirm. The last sentence, "It''s possible to be traded with the system", means this ring is something his father found inside the Realm of Defenders. Only items found inside the realm can be traded with the system. He starts to get curious about the price of this ring. How many credits will he receive if he decides to trade this ring? As far as he knows, there is no other item that is able to increase a Defender''s stats inside the store, aside from the {Evolution Potion}. And this ring didn''t only increase his spirit stat. He could change that the quality of his spirit itself has changed compared to before. This item must be worth a massive amount of credits, especially if it''s able to increase his spirit multiple times. That being said, Alex has no intention of trading this ring for now. This is a memento of his missing father. There''s no way he will trade it away. Plus, he feels that this ring might contain a clue about his father''s disappearance. After deciding to hold onto the ring, he tries to probe the ring once again since he''s now inside the Realm of Defenders. He is hoping to get a different result this time. However, he is left feeling disappointed. After trying for a few times, he gets the same result as his previous attempts. Although, there is another thing that he notices after he spread out his spiritual perception inside this training room. The density of energy in this room seems to be more than the density he could feel in the past. He doesn''t know if this is because his spirit has improved or because the amount of natural energy in this place has actually increased. Another strange thing he notices is the ratio of the different types of natural energy in this place. Every type of natural energy seems to exist in this place and they''re all in a state of balance. He never found this condition outside his personal space. This place seems to be artificial in a way. Of course, with all the systems in place, it was a good guess for everyone who was not dense. All these tools inside this place just did not seem natural. But, this discovery of the state of natural energy in this place just strengthened his suspicion. After a few more tries, Alex still fails to find anything about this ring. He thinks for a while and decides to check out the store once more. Maybe there is an item with similar appearance or similar effect inside the store that will be able to give him a clue. After searching the store, he is left feeling disappointed once more. There are a few ring type accessories inside the store, but none of them has the same appearance. The 3D model he can see in his holographic computers all shown rings with rune-words engraving on them. He''s also unable to find an item that deals with spirit or soul. Unable to find a clue, Alex finally gives up trying to figure out anything about this ring. The last time he discovered this ring''s function was an accident anyway. Maybe, he will find out more about this ring in the future. Alex decides it''s now time for him to learn the new skills before going out into the new E-rank area. Chapter 040 - Party (1) It took Alex 5 days to master the three new skills. The E-ranked {Lightning Strike} and {Ice Dome} took around 2 days each to learn, while the much simpler F-ranked {Detection} only took him 1 day to learn. He spent another day to charge the two {Skill Gems} to full capacity. He has spent one week to prepare for the E-rank area. Now, feeling ready to face the E-rank area, he steps out of his training room and enters the [Transporter Capsule]. "Fay, send me to Gaia City." "Okay," Fay replies to Alex and immediately executes his command. .... Tall, futuristic structures surrounded a large square. A huge number of people wearing all kinds of strange clothing and carrying different types of weapons can be seen everywhere in this large square. An orange "sun" that looks bigger than the sun on earth shines its light from the western sky, causing the large buildings to form large shadows towards the east. Despite the orange sun, the sky still appears to be as blue as earth''s sky. In fact, the blue sky here is even clearer than some parts of the earth where pollution has caused the sky to appear more gray than blue. Even though the problem of atmospheric pollution has decreased due to the new technological advancement made by the discovery of the Realm of Defenders, it still exists on earth. Alex Volff appears in the middle of this large square wearing his old iron leather set with the {Black-steel Katana} on his left waist and the brown pouch hanging onto his right waist. He looks around in wonderment at his surrounding. The large orange sun surprised him a little, but for someone who has seen two moons in the sky, it only took a short moment for him to calm down. The way he looks around so much, made him look like a country bump who just arrived in a big city. In fact, this is not a bad description. The scale of this Gaia City is indeed much larger than the Beginner Town in F-ranked area and his hometown on earth. He''s indeed a country bump who just arrived in a big city. "Excuse me," a girl''s voice sounded in Alex''s ear along with a tap on his shoulder. "Ah..." he jumps forward in surprise. Alex turns his body around to see two people arguing with each other. One of them is a large middle-eastern man about 180-190 cm tall. He has a large blade hanging on his left waist and the same brown pouch Alex has on his left waist. Opposite him is a beautiful middle-eastern woman. She has long dark hair, big gray eyes, olive skin. The curves of her perfectly proportioned body can be seen through the skintight leather suit that she is wearing. She is carrying a crossbow on her back and two small quivers filled with arrows on her left and right thighs.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. "You shouldn''t surprise people like that, Alia" the man is scolding the woman in front of him. "But... I called out to him multiple times and he didn''t respond," Alia offers her rebuttal. "But, still... You shouldn''t just startle people like that." "Hmph..." Alia harumphed and turns her head away. "Huh... This girl," the man shakes his head and turns to face Alex. "Hi, my name is Bassel, and this is my friend Alia. May we know your name?" Alex is startled by this sudden introduction from this man. It takes him a few seconds to respond. "Ah... My name is Alex. Do you need something from me?" "Oh, nice to meet you, Alex. We were wondering if you''d like to party with us. We saw you looking around and thought you were looking for a party to join," Bassel replies with a smile. "Party?" Alex looks at the man in front of him then to the woman who is still turning her head to face sideways. He starts looking around and sees groups of people holding all sorts of planks with written text on them in different languages. Due to the automatic translation ability of his [Magic Chip], he can understand all of them. They all share the same content, "Looking for party member(s)". "Yes. You''re looking for a party, aren''t you?" Bassel replies. "You see, we want to form a 5-man party. We don''t have a permanent party right now. The other people we used to party with have ranked up and now hunting in the higher leveled area. We have teamed up with another Defender. He was looking for another member and just contacted us that he has found one other member. We saw that you still have your F-ranked equipment and figured that you''re the same as us, an E-ranked 1-star Defender. If you agree to join us, then we will have 5 people in our party and we can start hunting," Bassel continues his explanation. Alex starts to consider this offer. Before he went out of his personal room to this Gaia City, he has decided that he wanted to try this party system. Based on Fay''s explanation, it seems like starting from E-rank, the hunting method is focused on partying with others. Otherwise, it will take a long time for a single Defender to finish off 500 creatures of the same rank. He had wanted to look around for party members as soon as he entered Gaia City. It''s unexpected that others have tried to recruit him first. As he looks around, this kind of thing seems to be a common sight around here. Of course, he can''t make a rash decision. Partying with others mean they have to depend on each other in battle. A single mistake or a member with evil intention can mean a life being lost. His problem is that he doesn''t know anyone in this city. In other words, he has no one he can trust right now. Of course, it also means it doesn''t matter who he chooses to party with. He still needs to be careful all the time. The only other problem is the competency of the party members. He doesn''t want to party with incompetent members and lose his life because of others'' mistake. After finishing his train of thoughts, Alex replies to Bassel''s inquiry. "Can I meet the other members first before answering?" Chapter 041 - Party (2) "Oh, no problem. I''ve told them to come here. We can wait for them here," Bassel replies with a smile. "Alright," replied Alex. They waited for a couple minutes for the other members to arrive. They talked while waiting. Alia''s attitude has warmed up while they talked. Both of them knew each other from earth. They trained in the same martial art dojo and became Defenders around the same time. They have been working together since the F-rank. Even though there was no party system in F-rank, there were people who worked together to kill the creatures. All the system cared was who performed the last hit. The system would then give the kill count to the Defender that performed the last hit. Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the other members. The two new members are a pair of man and woman. The man seems to be a Chinese guy, while the woman looks to be South American. The Chinese guy has an average build, around 170-180 cm tall. He has long dark hair that he tied into a ponytail. His two eyes seem to permanently be in a downward curve while one corner of his lip seems to be slightly raised compared to the other corner. His appearance gives one an uncomfortable feeling at first glance. The South American woman stood at around the same height as the Chinese man. She has the same perfect proportion as Alia. Although Alex feels that Alia is more beautiful, this woman who has what people might describe as an innocent looking face holds her own charm. She is not shy about displaying a wide smile even as they meet for the first time. She gives the exact opposite feeling one might get from the Chinese man. After they have gathered together, Bassel who seems to be the leader starts his introduction. "Welcome to our new member. My name is Bassel. I''m usually the melee fighter in a party. I have two main skills, the E-ranked {Steel Muscle} and {Flaming Punch}," "Hi, I''m Alia. Bassel and I are from the same hometown. As you probably can see from my weapon, I''m a long ranged fighter. I usually act as the scout for the party. My two main skills are the F-ranked {Detection} and the E-ranked {Lightning Enhanced Arrow}," Alia introduces herself next. "I''m Song Huo. I met Bassel and Alia earlier today and agreed to form a party with them. I''m a melee fighter with two main skills, the E-ranked {Wind Step} and {Wind Blade}. This is Carina. I met asked her earlier to join us and she agreed." the Chinese man introduces himself as Song Huo.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. "Hello, everyone. My name is Carina. This is my first time in this E-rank area, but I promise I won''t drag anyone down, so please bear with me. I guess you could say I''m a long ranged fighter. My weapon is throwing daggers. I''ve only learned one E-ranked skill, the {Shadow Bind} skill. And I guess the F-ranked {Fireball} can still be useful here," Carina introduces herself with a wide open smile. "Oh... A newbie," Alia and Bassel responded at the same time. Their wide-open eyes looked at Song Huo at the same time. "Ah, don''t worry about her. Her {Shadow Bind} should be quite useful when hunting creatures," Song Huo defends his recruit. Carina puts her hands together in front of her face that shows wide-opened eyes and starts begging. "Plea... Please don''t kick me out. I pro... promise I won''t drag you down." "Haha... relax. We won''t kick you out. We were just joking earlier. Your {Shadow Bind} skill will be useful for our party," Bassel calms her down with a teasing laugh. "Ah... Haha" Carina replies with an awkward laugh. "So Alex, have you decided whether to join us or not?" Bassel turns his attention towards Alex. Alex takes a look at the party composition. This seems to be a balanced party. They have two melee fighters, one scout and another one who can disable the opponent. He still doesn''t trust them, but he also won''t be able to trust the other Defenders in this area, so it''s a moot point to consider. After thinking for a bit, Alex decides that he will join them. He planned to join a party anyway, and the composition of this party seems to be good. "But, I''m also a newbie. Is that okay to have two newbies in your party?" "Oh... You''re also a newbie?" Bassel''s eyes open wide once again to show his surprise. "Buy, you have decided to join us?" He continues asking for confirmation. After hesitating for a bit, Alex answers firmly. "Yes." "Then, it''s okay. We can start slow to let the both of you get used to party hunting. Welcome to the party," Bassel extends his right hand which is met by Alex''s right hand. "Okay then. Please introduce yourself to us." "Alright. I''m Alex. You can say I''m a hybrid fighter as I can do long range or melee. I have two main skills, the F-ranked {Detection} and the E-ranked {Lightning Strike}. I don''t have melee skills, but I was born with a strong physique and was lucky with the {Evolution Potions}. I have higher physical stats than others," Alex introduces himself. He only told the half-truth about himself. He said he has better physical stats through natural born talent and lucky evolutions to hide his mana-enhanced state from the {Energy Manipulation} skill. He also didn''t tell them about his E-ranked defensive skill {Ice Dome}. It can be a life-saving skill for him if things go wrong. Besides, a newbie possessing two E-ranked skills is suspicious. "Welcome to our party, Alex. Let''s link up our [Magic Chips] first so we can form an official party recognized by the system," Bassel shakes Alex''s hand with a wide smile on his face. The others also welcome the two new members with handshakes. The five of them then forms a circular formation and put their hand together in the middle. The link-up took a few seconds. "You have formed a party with four other Defenders: Bassel, Alia, Song Huo, Carina," Fay''s voice sounds in his head. The others also heard their respective fairy''s voice to confirm the forming of their party. Chapter 042 - Party (3) "If you have anything else to take care of, please do so now. As this is a temporary party, we will take care of our own potion needs. We will help you using our own potion if you can''t move, but you have to compensate us later. Let''s meet at this place again in an hour." After Bassel''s speech, they go their separate ways to take care of their own business. Alex moves towards the market district pointed by Bassel earlier. He plans to buy some potions as he is now left with only one {Mana Potion}. He has used up everything else in his fight against the . Soon, Alex finds himself in the market district of Gaia Town. He finds a stall that sells potions and starts haggling. After spending 250 credits to get 3 {Health Potions}, 2 {Mana Potions}, and 1 {Antidote Potion}, he left the market district with an empty pocket. He''s now left with only 8 credits to his name. He started with almost 4,000 credits to his name and now he''s broke. He hasn''t even changed any of his F-ranked equipment to E-ranked ones. This rank is truly an abyss hole that swallows credits. Alex finds himself in the promised meeting area once again. The other members are not there yet as it''s still 30 minutes to the promised time. After waiting for 15 minutes, one member shows up at the meeting place. It is Carina, the South American woman. They chat for a bit while waiting for the other three members. He finds out that Carina became a Defender around 7 months ago when she was just 19 years old. She just turned 20 a few months ago. The calluses and cutting marks on her hand showed that she spent a long time training her throwing dagger skill. From their short conversation, Alex can conclude one thing: this woman is too naive and innocent. She told him almost everything she could tell him in that short conversation. She even told him about her family and hometown in Brazil. The other members arrive on time after they have talked for 15 minutes. Seeing that everyone has gathered, they immediately set out to the eastern side of Gaia City towards the Irriburn Forest. After they arrive on the edge of the forest, Bassel starts giving out instructions. "From here on out we have to be careful. Since we have two members with {Detection} skill, the two of you will alternate in using them in order to save mana. If a creature is detected, Alia as our scout will go out and lure the creature to our spot and we will work together to finish it off. Listen to my instruction when we are in a fight, otherwise, I will not be responsible for your demise," Bassel warns them.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. "But, remember, if more than two creatures are detected, we are not to engage them immediately. We will have to find a safe spot that will enable us to lure one creature without alerting the other creature(s) with the sound of fighting," Alia interrupts to remind them of an important rule. "She''s right. We should try to avoid engaging more than one creature at a time. These E-ranked creatures are different than the F-ranked creatures. If we''re unlucky and have to face two creatures at once, then one or two of us will have to distract one of them while the other members finish off the other one," Bassel finishes his instruction. "Understood?" he looks at the two newbies and asks for their confirmation. "Yes," Alex replies. "Yeah, I understand," Carina replies. "Okay, let''s head in. Alex, use {Detection} when I tell you to," Bassel commands them to start moving. "Okay." After they have walked for around 50 meters into the Irriburn Forest, Bassel tells Alex to use his {Detection} skill. Alex complies and starts chanting the rune-words for {Detection}. As he starts chanting, he can feel his spirit moves on its own to bind his mana and starts spreading it in a dome shape around his body. After he finishes chanting the last rune-word, the mana around him blasts outside to a 35m radius around him. If a part of it meets a large clump of mana, that part of his mana will form roughly the same clump and bounces back towards his original location. His spirit will automatically detect this clump of mana and the location it originated from, which will tell him the location of an enemy or other Defenders. Alex still feels weird at how his own spirit and mana move outside of his will when he casts a skill. He has tried to replicate those process on his own, but he failed. The way these skills get executed still left him in wonder every time he casts them. Especially, when his spirit has been transformed by the ring now. He can feel the way his skills execute much more clearly. The party keeps walking forward as they didn''t find anything with Alex''s {Detection}. They move another 50 meters forward to where the trees start to appear bigger in size. This time it''s Alia''s turn to use the {Detection} skill. She still doesn''t find anything. This is still near the edge of the forest, so it''s normal for them to not find any creature loitering around this area. But, they still have to be careful and keep using {Detection} every 50 meters. The area they are in right now is surrounded by dense trees. The rays from the orange sun have more difficulty in penetrating the dense leaves of those trees. It causes this part of the forest to look dimmer than the earlier area, but there is still enough sunlight for the Defenders to see around them. Although, it is difficult for them to see too far into the distance as their views are being blocked by those trees and the minimum lighting. This is Alia''s 5th time casting the {Detection} skill, which means they have walked for 500 meters inside this Irriburn Forest. "Oh... I found a creature around 30 meters northeast from here. Seems to be an E-ranked 1-star creature. I will go and lure it here. You guys should get into position," Alia tells them a good news that they''ve finally found their first prey. Chapter 043 - Party (4) "I will go first to scout and tell you what type of creature it is through the [Magic Chip]. You guys should prepare the ambush. Be ready," Alia knits her brows to remind them the seriousness of the situation. All the other members knit their brows and nod in response. She starts walking quietly towards the northeastern direction. After walking for 20 meters, she can see a large lizard in front of her by using the small gaps between the dense trees in the forest. Its 2 meters tall and 5 meters long body gives off a pressure on the small human. Its dark red scales shine with a metallic luster that gives one a feeling that it will be impossible to penetrate. "It''s the . Get ready," Alia informs her party through the [Magic Chip]. "Okay, I will go around and hide to cut off its path of retreat. Song Huo will act as the main melee fighter this time. His high agility and skills will be a powerful weapon against the slow {Infernal Lizard}. Alex, you stay at mid-range and start casting your as soon as you see Alia and the lizard come here. Get ready to help Song Huo as a melee fighter if the situation requires it. Carina, you stay further back and try using your throwing daggers to distract it so Song Huo and I can deal with it more easily. Alia will help you later. Use your {Bind} skill when I tell you to. Lastly, be careful of the {Inferno} skill of the lizard, it can burn us alive if we''re directly hit by it. Alright, start getting into formation now," Bassel gives out instruction to each member on how they''re going to face the lizard. Bassel heads out 10 meters to the northeast direction and starts climbing a tree there. The dense leaves help to hide his presence once he climbs on top of the tree. Song Huo pulls out his Chinese-style sword from his back with knitted brows, showing his readiness to face the opponent. Alex pulls back around 5 meters behind Song Huo and gets ready to cast his {Lightning Strike}. Carina pulls back behind Alex. Two black throwing daggers suddenly appears in both of her hands. "We''re ready," Bassel gives Alia the signal. "Okay," she replies coolly. Alia takes out an arrow from her left quiver and puts it on her crossbow. She quietly walks towards the until it''s only 10 meters in front of her. She can hear the huge lizard''s rough breathing sound from this distance. She increases her concentration to the maximum and starts casting the {Lightning Enhanced Arrow}. Soon, an arrow with a purple glow around it and some electric crackles around its pointed head flies towards the giant lizard. The growls in pain and anger as the arrow pierces its neck.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. It failed to notice the ambush until the arrow was only a few meters from its neck. The wound is shallow, and can only be counted as a small injury to this giant lizard. How could that small arrow pierce through its hard skin and hurt it! But, that small wound gives it a shocking and burning sensation at the same time while the muscles around the wound start twitching, giving it an uncomfortable feeling. Its right eye turns toward the attacker''s direction. It can see the little creature that attacked it. The creature looks delicious and full of meat. Driven by its anger and appetite, the starts running towards Alia''s direction and. Alia starts running towards her teammates'' location as soon as she spots the lizard charging at her. It might be slow for its rank, but it''s still a huge creature. One stride from the lizard can cover a large amount of ground. The lizard starts to gain ground on her, but she has spotted Song Huo in front of her. She accelerates and goes past Song Huo. The lizard, still blinded by anger and appetite, doesn''t stop its charge. It can now see four preys in front. Of course, it can''t count to four, but it can see that it has more food to devour and vents its anger on. But, just when it gets to less than 7 meters in front of the frontmost prey, it can''t continue its charge. It can sense a large transparent sharp wind coming at its head. If it does nothing, it will be left as a corpse. The lizard immediately opens its mouth and spurts out flame towards the incoming {Wind Blade} skill. The two skills collide and the {Wind Blade} can only continue for a short distance before it dissipates. The flame from the lizard''s {Inferno} skill continues towards Song Huo who dodges them in time. The lizard stays in its place. It is getting wary of the humans in front of it. The earlier human was able to leave a stinging wound on its neck, and this other one was able to threaten its life. It starts to hesitate. Its small brain is considering between two options, to fight or flight. But, just as it''s still trying to decide, another human jump from a tree behind it with a fist covered in flame. The fist is being aimed towards its body. It recognizes this as another threat and swings its tail towards the incoming attacker. The flaming fist and the large tail meet. A small explosion occurs where the two meet. The attacker is thrown five meters back and collides a tree with his back. The lizard once again growls in pain and anger due to the burning sensation it feels from its tail. It turns around to face this new attacker and gets ready to trample this human due to its anger. But, before it can even move, the lizard senses another incoming attack from the direction it faced before. A large purple lightning streaks through the sky towards the . It has no time to dodge this attack and can only receive the lightning with its body. The lightning engulfs the lizard''s body and leaves a few burn marks on its scales. The lizard stops moving for a moment due to the paralyzing effect of the {Lightning Strike} skill earlier. "NOW! ATTACK TOGETHER!" Bassel shouts to his teammates after seeing the lizard gets paralyzed by Alex''s {Lightning Strike}. Chapter 044 - Party (5) Song Huo finishes chanting the rune-words for {Wind Step} as soon as Bassel finishes his command to attack. He charges forward and hacks his sword towards the lizard. His acceleration makes the force of his sword swing much greater than normal. The sword is able to dislodge a few scales from the . Bassel who didn''t suffer any injury from the earlier collision thanks to his {Steel Muscle} skill attacks right after Song Huo. With the {Steel Muscle} skill still in effect, he jumps and throws an uppercut towards the lizard''s jaw. The huge lizard once again growls in anger. It''s angry at letting these small humans freely attack it. The numbing feeling it felt earlier because of the purple lightning is now gone. The soon retaliates. It swings its large tail towards Song Huo who is hacking away its scales and at the same time it opens its mouth and lets out a breath of fire towards Bassel. Seeing that both its targets managed to dodge, the lizard prepares to attack once again. The tail immediately swings towards Song Huo who is still in an unstable position after dodging the lizard''s attack earlier. But, before the tail can hit Song Huo, the lizard senses another attack coming from the other side. Alex has quietly entered the normal mana-enhanced state and jumped towards the lizard with his katana. It hastily swings its tail the other way to meet with the katana coming towards it. The tail and katana meet in the air. Due to his increased strength from the normal mana-enhanced state, Alex''s attack causes a shallow wound on the lizard''s tail. If he is using a better weapon than the F-ranked {Black-steel Katana} it might have caused a deeper wound. The force from the swinging tail throws Alex into the air. He does a backflip and lands on the ground a few meters away. The lizard though cannot relax. This time two projectiles come from its rear side. One is a small black dagger and the other one is a small arrow glowing with purple light. They come from the left and right, so it''s only possible to dodge one of them. The lizard quickly decides to dodge the familiar arrow that managed to penetrate its neck earlier and take the small unassuming dagger instead. It only realizes its mistake after the dagger has penetrated its left back leg. The penetrated leg can''t move from its place despite its effort to move the leg with all its strength. Carina has cast {Shadow Bind} on the dagger after Bassel told her to do it through the [Magic Chip]. With the unable to move from its place due to the {Shadow Bind} skill, the battle becomes easier for this new party of five. Bassel and Song Huo starts attacking it on its body, trying to distract it and make it unable to hit them with the {Inferno} skill at the same time. After around 20 seconds, another {Lightning Strike} hits it, leaving behind more burning marks and paralyzing it. The purple lightning is quickly followed by a purple arrow and two black daggers aimed at the lizard''s head. The first black dagger with another {Shadow Bind} skill arrives first and dislodge into the lizards bottom jaw. Unable to move its head, the arrow manages to penetrate its right eye and the other dagger stabs into its left eye.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. It wants to raise its head and lets out a pained growl, but the dagger in its jaw won''t let him do that. While it is still unable to move its head, Song Huo climbs on top of its head and hacks away at some scales to reveal the skull underneath. Soon, Bassel follows him to climb on top of its head and starts casting the {Flaming Punch}. He brings down his punch that is wrapped by flame. The punch collides with its exposed skull and causes an explosion. The lizard''s body slumps to the ground and stops moving. "Congratulations, you have killed the . You have earned 10 credits," Fay''s voice sounds in Alex''s head, marking the end of his first party battle. "Ah... How come I only receive 10 credits? Isn''t this less than the F-ranked 5-stars creatures?" Carina asks innocently after she receives the notification. "Oh, right. I forgot to explain to both of you. If you kill this lizard by yourself without a party, you will earn 50 credits. But, since we are in a party of five, it was divided by 5 people and each person only gets 10 credits," Bassel explains to the two newbies. "Oh... I see," Carina mumbles while nodding her head. "Then, do all of the normal E-ranked 1-star creatures give 50 credits?" Alex asks another question he''s curious about. "No. The normal E-ranked 1-star creatures give out credits ranging from 50 to 100. As we want to let the two of you get used to battling in a party, we chose to head to this area that is the habitat of these . They are considered one of the weakest E-ranked 1-star creature. That''s why they only give out 50 credits," Alia is the one who answers Alex''s question this time. "What about the Elite creatures and the Boss creatures?"Alex asks one more question. "The Elites give out between 250 and 750 credits, while the Bosses give out between 2,500 and 7,500 credits. We will start targeting the Elite creatures once our teamwork starts to get better. It will take too long to kill 500 Normal creatures, so us E-ranked Defenders usually set Elites as our target for ranking up as they also generally give us more credits. We will start with stronger Normal creatures and move on to the weak Elites. With our team of only 5 people, we shouldn''t think about facing those Elites that give out more than 400 credits. And, if we detect a Boss creature, we should quickly run away as fast as we can," Song Huo gives a long explanation to answer Alex''s question. "Oh, alright," Alex nods his head. "Okay. Let''s rest here for a bit to recover our strength. We will head out after everyone has recovered and find another . We did well earlier, we just need to work on improving our timing when we work together," Bassel instructs his teammates. Chapter 045 - Party (6) Alex''s party of five is sitting not far from a melting lizard corpse. This is their fourth victim for the day. Their teamwork has been improving after each fight. The time it took to take down this last was much less than the first they encountered. It only took around 10 minutes to lure this lizard and finished it off. The problem is finding these lizards. Although this area is their habitat, the sheer amount of Defenders in this area make it a difficult task to find one. Just in this short 2.5 hours of hunting, they have met with 10 other parties who are also hunting these . After everyone has recovered, they start walking towards the southeastern direction. They have decided earlier to move deeper into the area inhabited by stronger creatures. Their teamwork is now solid enough to face stronger creatures. Each one of them now understands their respective roles inside the party and able to perform them without a reminder from the other party members. The party rush towards the southeastern direction while avoiding the along the way, thanks to the {Detection} skill from Alex and Alia. They arrive at a rocky part of the Irriburn Forest after rushing for an hour. The trees here are sparser than the earlier area. The ground is littered with large and small rocks, some of them have dark-green moss growing on top. They stop rushing and start using {Detection} every 35 meters. This area is quieter compared to the earlier area where one can meet other parties every few hundred meters. This is the area of the . This rocky area is a perfect camouflage for these snakes that like to ambush people. But, due to having two members with {Detection} skill, they can travel safely in this part of the forest. After having walked for a few hundred meters, they finally find the first , hiding among the rocks on the ground. As usual, Bassel goes around to cut off this creature''s path of retreat. Song Huo and Alex stand near each other to fight this creature while Ala goes to lure this creature. Carina is standing further back while holding her two daggers. Alia shoots the purple glowing arrow towards a rocky area 15 meters in front of her and immediately bolts off to where she came from. The arrow hits a rock in that area and bounces off. It only manages to chip it off slightly. "Hisss" The that just got its outer stony scale chipped immediately hisses and jumps towards Alia''s direction. Thankfully, she ran away as soon as the arrow flew off so the snake''s attack missed her by a few meters. The snake starts chasing after her running figure.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The other members finally get a good look at the . Its enormous body is around 15 meters long and its thick body would need 3 adults with stretched arms to wrap around it once. But, the most shocking of all is that its entire body, from head to tail is covered by various sized rocks, giving one a feeling that it''s impossible to breach its defenses. And, it''s the correct feeling, because this creature is known for its high defense. The stones surrounding its body are different than the normal stones found on earth. It is a few times tougher than the stones on earth. There are three methods to kill this creature. First, is to skillfully find gaps between the rocks covering its real scale underneath. Once one can get past the sturdy stones outside, its real scale underneath is easy to penetrate. The second method is to use brute force and break some stones to reveal its real scale and attack it. The third and most difficult method is to hit it through its small eyes or mouth, but it will be hard to land a fatal attack this way. Alex''s party has decided earlier to use the second method to defeat this creature. Bassel''s {Steel Muscle} and {Flaming Punch} should be able to deal some damage to the stones covering the . Song Huo''s {Wind Blade} will also be able to deal some damage. They''ve also found out that Alex''s physical strength doesn''t lose out too much when compared with Bassel''s {Steel Muscle}, so he will also be able to deal some damage to the snake''s outer stone defense. Carina and Alia have been reduced to a supporting role because their attacks won''t be able to do anything to the snake before its defense is broken. Alia''s arrows and Carina''s daggers won''t be able to cause significant damage to the snake''s defense. Their attacks will just bounce off the sturdy rocks covering the snake. They need to hit it between the gaps or wait for its stone defense to break for their attacks to take effect. This is also why Alex won''t be able to rely on his {Lighning Strike} to deal damage to this snake. The lightning simply won''t cause any damage or even paralyze the snake while its stone defense is still intact. Alia speed past Alex and Song Huo to take her position in the back. The chasing snake changes its target to Alex who has entered the normal mana-enhanced state a moment ago. Its large open jaws head towards Alex, trying to swallow him in one big gulp. Alex easily avoids this attack and speeds up towards the middle of its long body. He swings the {Black-steel Katana} towards its body. Sparks come out where the katana and stone meet. It doesn''t seem to cause any damage, but Alex knows that there is definitely some reaction from this hit. Song Huo and Bassel join the fight as soon as Alex makes his first move. Song Huo activates his {Wind Step} and starts casting the {Wind Blade} while moving towards the same part of the snake''s body as Alex. Bassel charges from behind with his {Steel Muscle} activated and right hand covered in flame. Their battle against this new creature starts now. Chapter 046 - New Weapon (1) Bassel''s {Flaming Punch} meets with the stone on the head that is full of cracks. A small explosion ensues and blows away the stone, revealing the soft scale underneath it. The attack is immediately followed by a small black dagger that makes the snake''s head freezes in place when it successfully penetrates the head. Two arrows that are emitting a purple glow and a wind blade collide with the swinging tail that is coming towards a youngster holding a katana while standing on the snake''s head. The tail changes direction due to the collision and misses its target. The youngster stabs the katana downwards into the snake''s skull. It manages to penetrate the skull in one move. The snake collapses into the ground, followed by the sound of notification in the heads of its killers. "Congratulations, you have killed the . You have earned 18 credits." Alex and the other party members sit down to recover while confirming their future plans. "We are close to the area now. If we rush, we will be able to enter Gaia City in 2-3 hours," Bassel starts the conversation. "After we separate, we will meet again in Gaia City in 5 days, right?" Alex asks. "Yes. We have been in this forest for 30 days. We have gathered more than 3,000 credits from this one month. This is a good time to rest and improve our fighting power before executing our next plan," Bassel replies. "Can''t we just charge straight into the dungeon you mentioned. You said it is one of the easiest dungeons, didn''t you?" Carina asks. "Yes, I said that. But, we shouldn''t underestimate even the easiest dungeons. Our skills and equipment won''t be able to hold out for long against the Elite creatures in the dungeon. Alia and I entered the dungeon with our party at that time. The other 4 people in the party had better equipment and skills compared to our current party and yet we still struggled," Bassel frowns while answering Carina''s question. "Bassel''s right. We should use the credits we earned during this one month to improve our fighting power before we enter the dungeon. We have only killed 12 Elite creatures in this one month, and we even had ample time to rest between each fight. This will not be the case inside the dungeon. We might face one Elite creature after another without much rest. We have to be extra careful," the usually cheerful Alia also frowns while explaining about the dungeon. The other members nod with serious expression when they see Alia''s expression. This girl is usually a playful girl. The only times they could see this girl frowns was when they were in a battle. Hence, seeing the frowning expression on Alia''s face when they are conversing normally make them realize the seriousness of the situation.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. After spending two and a half hours rushing back, they finally arrive at Gaia City. Each of them go their own ways after promising each other to meet at the square five days from today. Alex commands Fay to send him back to his personal space. In the personal space, the first thing he does is to retrieve the E-ranked {Evolution Potion} that he hasn''t used. He has gone through one month of intense battles, which means that his body is now ready to use the {Evolution Potion} again. The {Evolution Potion} can''t be used consecutively without letting the body adapts to the previous use. The potion works by digging through one''s potential power hiding inside their body and push it to the surface. After one use, there will be less hidden potential left for the next use. The best way to build up hidden potential is through constant battles. Physical training can do it too, but it''s much less effective than life and death battles. Alex uses the {Evolution Potion} once again. He comes out of the capsule feeling much stronger than before. He uses [Observe] to check his evolved stats. >-----< Name: Alex Volff Age: 15 Race: Human Rank: E* Credits: 3,258 >-----< Basic Stats: - Strength: 125 (+42) - Speed: 115 (+38) - Agility: 118 (+39) - Endurance: 132 (+44) - Spirit: 225 (+75) - Mana: 189/189 (+63) >-----< Skills: - Energy Manipulation (E) - Lightning Strike (E) - Ice Dome (E) - Detection (F) - Energy Arrow (F) >-----< Kill Count: [318 F] [139 E* - Normal] [12 E* - Elite] Achievements: 1 Records: 1 >-----< The corners of his lips rise to form a big smile while he clenches his right fist and punch it to the empty air in front of him. He can feel the new strength coursing through him. He gains the best possible effect from his first E-ranked {Evolution Potion}. All of his stats increases by 50%. As he calms down from the excitement, Alex walks into the holographic computer and starts searching the store. He needs a better weapon if he wants to do well in the dungeon. After thoroughly searching the weapons he can buy with his current amount of credits, he notices one specific weapon. {Crimson Katana} {A katana made from the material Crimson Ore. Its toughness is rated in the lower end of E-ranked metals, but its ability to conduct spiritual energy makes it very suitable for casting weapon-based skills.} The toughness of this item is in the lower end of E-ranked metals, but the phrase "ability to conduct spiritual energy" makes him curious. Spirit is his highest stat right now and the one thing he can say he''s better than most Defenders of his level. Previously when he was researching the ring, he only searched for items that could increase spirit, so he didn''t notice this katana. "Fay, what is this phrase means?" "It means that casting weapon-based skills on items made from this metal will be more effective than using other metals. For example, the skill {Shadow Bind} your teammate used was cast through the dagger. If the dagger was made from this metal, the skill {Shadow Bind} will last longer than usual," Fay replies. He doesn''t have any weapon-based skill right now, but he has the {Energy Manipulation}. Will he be able to use it with this weapon since that skill relies heavily on his spirit? "Fay, will I be able to use {Energy Manipulation} on this weapon?" Alex asks Fay once again.