A little earlier, there were three guys who noticed this fight of Drayen's group with the boars. They were on a tree branch quite far from the battlefield.

  Among the leaves were hidden the three Rockskins kept by Drayen and the others.

  A red-haired young man—he looked about 21 or 22—had sharp eyebrows and a mostly flat nose. He looked average overall. He was only Rank One; he could be said to be equal to Kael.

  He was the nephew of the vice branch leader of Titan. He had a very bad reputation and was considered a wastrel in the family.

  He took the Rockskins and hung them on his shoulders.

  “Now this is our loot. Hehehe.”

  He laughed creepily.

  The other two guys looked similar, probably brothers. Both had small statures compared to this red-haired man.

  They said, “Foolish imbeciles, keeping loot like trash. Young Master Zayden, we should take the loot over there too.”

  Red-haired Zayden looked at the fallen boars. He also saw that their members were injured.

  “Hahaha. The moment I saw the boars, it was my loot. Let’s go.”

  He tapped the shoulder of the minion who had just spoken.

  Back to the battlefield.

  Drayen and Kael turned toward the slow clapping.

  It was the red-haired guy who had caused trouble at the guild that day.

  Their gazes shifted from his face to the Rockskins hanging from his shoulders.

  It was their loot.

  A bad feeling crept into their hearts.

  Without saying a word, both of them subtly adjusted their stances and became alert.

  Kael turned furious.

  “Hey, who are you bastards? That’s our loot.”

  His claws and wolf legs, which were slowly retracting, returned to their full form.

  The red-haired guy arrogantly smiled creepily.

  “Looks like you don’t want your tongue, just like your loot.”

  Kael fumed with anger, but before he could speak, Drayen yelled loudly,

  “Who do you think you guys are talking to?”

  “Leader, don’t let these fools get away. Especially that red-haired coward who hides behind people. Pull out his disgusting hair.”

  Kael was shocked.

  When did he become the leader? And what was Drayen saying?

  But he chose to go with the flow. Internally, he felt good hearing “leader” from him, even in that situation.

  One of the guys stepped forward, his face twisted with rage.

  “I’ll kill you first!”

  Drayen immediately pointed at him and shouted again,

  “See, Jim? I told you there’s nothing to be afraid of! Their leader is a coward! He doesn’t even have the guts to face our mighty leader himself!”

  He burst into loud, mocking laughter.

  “Hide behind your dogs more, red-haired coward!”

  The air went still.

  Zayden’s smile slowly faded.

  He was being treated with such disgust. As a wastrel of the family, listening to the taunts made him feel even more useless and angry. Not to mention, he was being disrespected in front of his boys.

  Zayden pushed back his minion and handed him the Rockskins. The Rockskins were quite heavy to have them on shoulders and fight.

  His hands erupted in flames.

  “Let’s see how great your leader is. And then I’ll take your head personally.”

  He started attacking without saying anything further.

  His fingers flared with fire and shot fire pellets rapidly. These were more powerful than the triplets’ fire pellets. The fire in his hands amplified them.

  Fortunately, he was only Rank One and seemed to be at a similar level to Kael.

  Kael dodged them. He tried getting closer, but Zayden maintained his distance. Whenever Kael got near him, he would use his skill to flee and create distance.

  After a few minutes, Kael’s physical fatigue began catching up.

  Drayen was analyzing the fight.

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  'Hmm, it seems Kael is doing better than expected.'

  He was talking to Wing.

  [He seems to have upgraded his ability to Night’s Favor.]

  Drayen was relieved inside.

  Night’s Favor—this was the upgrade, if you had to call it that. This happened when an already awakened ability reawakened after absorbing cores. If an ability was granted Night’s Favor, the Nightmare Essence usage became half.

  Kael mainly had two abilities — Werewolf Claw and Wolf’s Legs.

  Both cost a lot when transforming at first, roughly 15 essence each. After that, they had to be maintained at 5 essence per minute each.

  If you stop supplying Nightmare Essence, they won’t instantly revert. It takes a minute or two. But the power drops the moment you stop feeding essence.

  Now he had gained Night’s Favor on Werewolf Claw, it seemed.

  Its expenditure was halved.

  This was why he was so confident in the earlier fight and was fighting aggressively with his claws.

  But he had already fought the boars.

  Even if he had essence left, he had accumulated physical fatigue as well.

  Drayen had done everything he could; now he could only wait for time.

  But Kael didn’t know that Drayen wanted to delay time and was starting to go all out.

  With burns all over his body, he screamed,

  “I’ll fucking kill you.”

  Zayden immediately distanced himself.

  Close call.

  He was sweating inwardly, seeing his immediate aggression and disregard for any attacks on him.

  Zayden was about to continue his fight.

  A sweet voice came mockingly,

  “Looting others when they are tired fits trash like you.”

  Zayden immediately stopped and turned in the direction of the voice.

  Kael became more alert as he also looked around.

  It was a girl. She barely looked sixteen, and her hair was blonde. She looked cute and pretty with small lips. Her eyes were bright.

  Behind her was a middle-aged man. He was leaning on a tree with no intention of getting involved. He was bare-chested with a muscular physique.

  She slowly took her steps as she came into the center of the battlefield. She glanced around.

  “You should learn your lesson, or else I’ll break your legs.”

  She released her Rank Two aura.

  Zayden and even Kael stepped back involuntarily. They felt a chill down their spines.

  Zayden was indignant.

  “It is our loot. They are the ones looting it.”

  She said,

  “Oh. I didn’t know people were more disgusting than you.”

  There was clear disgust on her face.

  Drayen recognized this girl. She was the bookstore girl.

  He immediately stepped forward.

  “He is lying. It’s ours. You can check the poison ability used on the corpses.”

  He pointed at the corpses. The eight boars had all died; one of the main reasons was poison. She checked a corpse.

  She gave a fierce glance at Zayden.

  “Since when does your group have a poison user?”

  “I guess your uncle will be pleased knowing all this.”

  She laughed.

  Zayden gritted his teeth.

  This bitch always needs to get involved, he thought as he clicked his tongue.

  “Let’s go,” he angrily said to his men.

  Drayen immediately spoke once again.

  “Those skins in their hands are also ours. I have made a mark.”

  The guy holding them immediately spoke, “These are ours. Check if you want.”

  Zayden just took the Rockskins and threw them on the ground.

  “Can’t you understand? I said let’s go.”

  He just left.

  The man who was watching from afar called out,

  “Come on, Zona, if you are done already.”

  She playfully turned around.

  As she took the skins on the ground, she said,

  “I’ll take this as payment. Hehe. After all, I saved the three of you. Three skins are not much, right?”

  Drayen didn’t think they were acting or collaborating.

  He said,

  “Thanks for your help, but I don’t think you saved us. You saved us from trouble, yes. You can take it.”

  He smiled politely.

  “It’s dirty. Don’t forget to clean it.”

  She scanned him. Just a Rank One. She simply turned around and left.

  Zona had come quite a distance.

  “I regret saving those jerks. To think that for a Rank One, he is so arrogant.”

  She snorted coldly.

  The muscular man lifted the three skins which were on his shoulders and said,

  “He wasn’t completely wrong. After all, these skins were laced with poison. That’s the reason I pulled you away from them. With enough contact time, it is quite effective.”

  She looked at the skins. Her pupils focused on them.

  “Poison-laced?!”

  She remembered his words.

  It’s dirty.

  Zayden and his group were traveling, while Zayden kept cursing. The two of them were silent, afraid of Zayden.

  “That… bi—”

  “OWW! OWW!”

  He puked blood. He immediately used a purifying skill, and one of the guys who was decent at healing healed him.

  “That scoundrel.”

  His fist tightened.

  ---

  Kael was breathing heavily, burns covering his body.

  “You had to bluff, didn’t you?”

  Kael was in very bad shape. He had no confidence that he could win. So he was genuinely happy that the girl called Zona helped out.

  Jim shook his head weakly.

  “He wasn’t bluffing. Remember when we hid the Rockskins?”

  Earlier—

  When they were hiding the Rockskins in the tree, Drayen had quietly taken Jim’s poison saliva and carefully coated the skins.

  Kael had scoffed.

  “Is that really necessary?”

  Drayen had laughed lightly.

  “Just being cautious.”

  Drayen had coated the three Rockskins with Jim’s poison saliva mixed with crushed Rock Apple juice. That was why it had become undetectable. Rock apples were quite smelly.

  On its own, the poison could be detected by smell. It also had a weakness — the effect was very delayed. If someone noticed the symptoms early, most healing abilities could neutralize it. But once the symptoms appeared, it became troublesome.

  Drayen had already guessed it wouldn’t be enough to kill someone if you had a group with someone who knew how to heal. It could be dealt with. But it would damage him. That was enough.

  Originally, Drayen had only done it out of caution. If someone stole their loot, they would pay a price. But who knew the situation would turn out like this?

  If the poison had reached its peak mid-fight, it was Zayden whose life would be in danger.

  Poison reaching its peak normally versus poison reaching its peak mid-fight — there was a difference.

  Drayen didn’t want to kill Zayden and make enemies with the Titan guild.

  So he was actually happy that the girl intervened. Or else, he was also thinking of running away.

  ---

  Back to the present.

  Kael snorted. “Lucky.”

  But thinking again about the acting and the immediate response of Drayen after seeing them getting ambushed, he felt a chill in his heart. If the poison had activated mid-fight, he gulped inwardly.

  Drayen didn’t reply.

  Was it luck? The answer was yes and no.

  When he saw Zayden hang the skins on his shoulders…

  He simply used the opportunity.

  But was it really only luck?

  When playing chess, do you know every move of your opponent?

  No.

  You make the most optimal move available with the information you have.

  Being cautious after noticing so many hunter groups nearby wasn’t luck. He was cautious about somebody taking the loot.

  It was calculation.

  And this time, that calculation worked in his favor, so it was luck.

  Drayen muttered inwardly to himself, "Fortune favored the cautious."

  Drayen — no, Rael.

  Was he weak? Unintelligent? No.

  Drayen had simply been placed in situations far beyond his control.

  In Etherion, it was like a prison.

  He was like a newborn in a foreign world called the Nightmare Realm — a baby thrown into a cage called Etherion. What could he have achieved back then?

  Not to mention, his opponent last time had been overwhelmingly strong.

  But now he can grow. He can grow freely.

  Rael was not some fantasy hacker who could break systems with a keyboard like in movies.

  That wasn’t reality.

  In the real world, there are encryptions layered upon encryptions. Some systems wouldn’t crack even if you waited until the universe collapsed.

  In his previous life, stealing WING wasn’t just hacking.

  It was a war between institutions.

  And he a disabled in bed, was in the middle of that war among institutions.