[Ancient Calendar: 13 Mar 0001]

  The next day, Kenji took a food pill and headed out.

  “Where’s…Muhammed?” Arriving at their usual gathering spot, Kenji only saw Duy, with no sign of Muhammed.

  “About that… Yesterday, we went hunting, and Muhammed got badly injured.” Duy spoke in a low nonexistent voice. He felt it was his fault for not trying harder to stop Muhammed.

  Yesterday, early in the morning, Muhammed had woken him up and dragged him out to hunt a few Wild Boars.

  Knowing that Wild Boars were very cowardly monsters, Duy eventually agreed after some convincing.

  However, after they killed two Wild Boars, another boar charged at them and struck Muhammed. The hit broke multiple bones in Muhammed’s body.

  The Fairy Doctor didn’t heal him immediately; instead, she wrapped him in Self-Healing Bandages and sent him home with a massive debt.

  “Is he…okay?” Hearing that Muhammed was badly hurt, Kenji grew worried.

  “He’s fine. But he won’t be able to move for at least a week. Kenji, I have to take care of him. Can we continue hunting together after he recovers?”

  Muhammed’s ribs were currently in pieces, and he had a hard time moving, so Duy wanted to stay by his friend’s side and help him.

  “Sure. Is there…anything I can do…to help?” Kenji asked, feeling sorry for Muhammed.

  “It's okay, gotta go, I need to take care of him.” Saying so, Duy hurried away.

  After Duy left, Kenji was at a loss. He could try hunting Iron Bisons all by himself, but that would take too much time, and he would still have to think about how to get the Iron Bison carcasses back to the city.

  Not knowing what to do, Kenji wandered around near the city gate.

  Finally, he decided to go for Wind Rabbits.

  “My friend, are you interested in joining our team?” Just as Kenji was about to walk out of the city, a man stopped him and asked.

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  “...Team? Are you…talking to me?” Kenji was surprised that someone had invited him to join a team. This was the first time anyone had approached him, so he had a hard time believing it.

  “Yes, my friend. Are you interested?”

  Pausing, Kenji looked at the man and his three teammates. After some thought, he decided to join.

  “Sure…”

  “Great, welcome aboard. This is Joon, Anon, and I am Zhen.” Zhen introduced the other members of the team to Kenji.

  “Kenji…” After the introductions, they left the city and headed toward the Evergreen Forest.

  After more than an hour of walking, they arrived at their destination, the territory of Grey Hounds.

  Grey Hounds are dog-like creatures that survive by hunting other small monsters. Unlike most monsters that prefer staying in groups, Grey Hounds like to be alone, which makes them easy targets.

  “In that direction.” Using his sensory talent, Zhen quickly sensed the location of a Grey Hound.

  Following his lead, they soon spotted a giant dog-like creature resting under the shade of a tree.

  “Okay, same as usual. Joon, you will be responsible for annoying it, while Anon and Kenji will provide backup, and I will fight the Hound.”

  Zhen, Joon, and Anon had been hunting Grey Hounds for quite some time, and they had formed a good strategy to take them down.

  “On it.” Relying on his agility, Joon climbed a nearby tree and took aim at the Grey Hound.

  “Now!” Screaming, Zhen rushed at the Grey Hound.

  Woken up suddenly, the Grey Hound saw a human and immediately got up, barking furiously.

  “Woof!!!”

  Seeing the furious look on the Grey Hound’s face, Zhen stood his ground and gripped his sword tightly.

  As the Grey Hound charged at Zhen, Joon, who was on top of the tree, fired an arrow, hitting the Grey Hound in its back leg.

  Seizing the moment, Zhen used [Skip] to close the distance between himself and the Grey Hound and then activated the [Sharp] rune on his sword.

  Instantly, the sword’s edge became crystal clear, and Zhen attacked.

  “Woooof!”

  [Iron Bone] [Wild Power]

  The Grey Hound let out a sharp moan as the sword cut through its flesh. But it wasn’t long before it used its talents to get away.

  Every Level 3 Grey Hound has at least two talents: [Iron Bone] and [Wild Power]. [Iron Bone] makes their bones as hard as steel, while [Wild Power] increases their overall stats by five times.

  “Kenji, Anon!” Seeing that the real fight was about to begin, Zhen instantly called for backup.

  “Don’t worry, [Wild Power] only lasts for five minutes. Then we can easily kill it.” Anon said, feeling that Kenji might get cold feet due to the Grey Hound’s overwhelming aura.

  With the massive boost in power, the Grey Hound fearlessly attacked the humans.

  However, neither Zhen nor Anon truly tried to fight the Grey Hound head-on. Instead, they focused on not letting it get away and waited for [Wild Power] to run out.

  Occasionally, whenever the Grey Hound got too close to Zhen, Anon, or Kenji, Joon on top of the tree would fire an arrow to distract it.

  Their whole operation was almost perfect.

  As time ticked by, Zhen and Anon became more and more excited, while the Grey Hound grew increasingly desperate. If it didn’t kill the humans soon, its [Wild Power] would run out, and it would die.

  So, it decided to run away, and since Kenji hadn’t been harassing it much, the Grey Hound felt that this human wasn't very strong.

  As the Grey Hound charged at him, Kenji launched a [Ki Blade] and immediately retreated using [Flash].

  By the time he looked at the Grey Hound again, its head was already rolling on the ground, blood spraying from its body like a fountain.

  “What… Kenji, you have such a powerful skill!” Zhen stared at the dead Grey Hound in disbelief, his voice filled with excitement.

  Although the trio had been hunting monsters for more than a month, they could barely afford any decent [Skill Books]. All three of them combined only possessed four F-rank skills, and only Joon had an offensive one.

  “Which skill was that? It’s so powerful.” Anon also looked at Kenji with undisguised excitement.

  With Kenji’s help, hunting Grey Hounds would become extremely easy.

  “It’s [Ki Blade]… an E-rank skill.” Kenji was taken aback by their reaction. While he understood being excited about killing a Level 3 monster, the two of them seemed overly hyped.

  “How many times can you use that skill?” As the excitement faded, Zhen asked the most important question.

  __________

  Author’s Note:

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