With no other choice, Kenji guided a major portion of his Ki into his arms and pushed himself up.

  The sudden action caused the Kobolds to retreat. Standing before them, Kenji didn’t look good. One side of his face was covered in dust, while the other had blood dripping from his ear.

  “Have to… do better than that… to kill me!” Screaming at the top of his lungs for the first time in years, Kenji charged at the Kobolds without a care in the world.

  The Kobolds, who were about to kill the human under their feet, were caught off guard by Kenji's sudden burst of power. One of them failed to dodge, and had its throat sliced by the dagger.

  Seeing another companion die, the two remaining Kobolds used their innate ability [Fury].

  In the blink of an eye, the thin bodies of the Kobolds turned robust, gaining a significant amount of muscle mass. With their newfound power, both charged at Kenji.

  But Kenji didn’t care. He gathered all of his remaining Ki into his right hand and swung the dagger with all his might.

  With their heightened senses, the Kobolds managed to stop just in time to move out of the dagger’s range.

  However, as the dagger waved through the air, it launched a powerful Ki blade at the Kobolds. Before long, both were on the ground, chopped in half.

  “Did I… do this… how?” Kenji wore a look of awe as he tried to figure out how he had formed a Ki blade.

  Although Kenji had never hunted before, he had acquired quite a bit of hunting knowledge by working as a transportation worker. To his knowledge, no hunter was able to use Ki the way he did.

  All of them used Ki through skills obtained from [Skill Books], like the ones Marcus and Julius got from the Treasure Chest.

  But just now, Kenji had performed a skill called [Ki Blade], which shocked him greatly.

  He had never heard of any hunter being able to perform a skill without obtaining a [Skill Book].

  “Maybe…” Suddenly, Kenji had an idea, and he wanted to test it out. “Let’s first collect the Ki.”

  Before testing his theory, Kenji went up to all four Kobolds and collected the residue Ki using the innate ability [Devour].

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  [Ki: 365→369]

  In the blink of an eye, his reserves went up by four whole units. After that, Kenji found a dark corner and sat down to recover all the lost Ki.

  Ten minutes later, his Source Ki was full, and Kenji began running tests.

  Getting up, Kenji concentrated half of his Ki into his right hand and swung the dagger with full force.

  Fwip

  The dagger created a whistling sound as it moved through the air, but the expected Ki blade was nowhere in sight.

  “Again…” Kenji guided every ounce of his Ki into his right arm and tried again.

  Once again, the result was the same; no Ki blade.

  But Kenji didn’t stop. He continued trying. On the fifth attempt, he succeeded, and a large Ki blade formed, heading toward the wall of the cave.

  Thud

  A loud noise rang out as the Ki blade made a deep cut into the wall.

  “Hah... wheeze... hah… That was…” Losing a large amount of Ki, Kenji lost the support holding his body and fell down, gasping for air. “I succeeded!”

  Although Kenji’s face looked grim, his eyes were sparkling with excitement.

  He had done something no one had ever done before, performing a skill without a [Skill Book].

  Kenji quickly restored his Ki, picked up all five Kobold bodies, and headed back to the city.

  Although Kenji could continue looking for other Kobolds, since he now had a move that could guarantee victory, he wanted to master [Ki Blade] before going back there.

  After all, if he went a little deeper into the cave, he would likely run into a horde of Kobolds, which he couldn’t deal with even with the help of [Ki Blade], unless he could use it five or six times in succession.

  Leaving the Kobold cave, Kenji had a clear goal in mind: master [Ki Blade], gather more knowledge about skills, and increase his Ki reserves.

  Returning to the city, Kenji went to a Fairy and cashed out the remains of the Kobolds.

  “These two have lost so much blood. Why did you have to be such a brute? The only good thing about these Kobolds is their blood.” The Fairy wasn’t happy with the condition of the carcasses Kenji brought. “Look here, cutting the head of a Kobold is the best way to preserve its value.”

  Before Kenji’s very eyes, the Fairy severed the heads of the Kobolds and started explaining.

  “See, after being cut, these veins immediately curl up. Next time, aim your [Ki Blade] toward the head instead of the stomach or chest.”

  After making sure Kenji understood everything, the Fairy put away the Kobold carcasses and handed him a single silver coin.

  Seeing just a single silver coin in his hand, Kenji looked confused. There was no way hunting was such a losing business. This silver coin barely covered the labor cost of carrying the Kobold carcasses back.

  “A level 2 Kobold’s current price is 30 copper coins. However, since two bodies were badly damaged, I am only giving 10 copper coins for those,” the Fairy explained, seeing Kenji stare at the coin in his hand.

  “At least…I increased my…reserves by five units.” Stepping away from the Fairy shop, Kenji tried to find an excuse to make himself feel better.

  “I think there is a library inside the Fairy market.” Remembering this, Kenji made his way there.

  All Kenji knew about [Skills] came from the mouths of hunters, so he wanted to gather more information and confirm whether his hunch was correct.

  “Kenji!”

  As he passed by the notice area, a very familiar voice called out to him.

  “Re..Rex.” Turning back, Kenji saw Rex looking straight at him.

  “We are short of people.” Although Rex’s voice sounded furious, there was a hint of softness in it.

  “S..short?...” Kenji didn’t immediately get what Rex was talking about, but seeing the workers gathered around, everything clicked. “I am free…I can…come.”

  “Good.” Finally, Rex relaxed. Yesterday he had an intensive battle, and today he was supposed to relax while helping to lead the group of workers.

  But who would have thought it would be such an exhausting job?

  He had no idea what the last person on transportation duty did, but whenever someone heard he was gathering workers for the Silver Party, they would immediately decline.

  Because of this, he had to do a lot of work just to gather workers.

  “Okay, let’s head out.” A few minutes later, the call stone rang, and Rex led everyone toward the Fire Lizard caves.

  The Silver Party had been hunting Fire Lizards for a while now, and ever since Roy acquired the D-rank Gift [Fire Body], hunting Fire Lizards had become much easier.

  Now they could clear two caves in a single day, and if they continued at this pace, it wouldn’t be long before the Fire Lizards went extinct.

  __________

  Author’s Note:

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