Chapter 22: These D-Rank Monsters Are Too Weak (Part 1)
"Let's take a short break here," Henry said to Evan and the other hunters after stopping the van.
"Evan and I will stay here to protect Henry and the cargo. You two should scout our surroundings," George said to James and Dean after coming out from the van.
"Alright," Dean said and went to scout their surroundings along with James.
"What kind of monsters can attack us here?" Evan asked while guarding the cargo.
"There are many types of monsters you can encounter here. But most of them will be around E rank. And if I'm not wrong, there is a pond not so far away from here. So there is a high possibility that we can encounter water-type monsters here," George said while looking at their surroundings carefully.
James and Dean returned after twenty minutes. "We scouted two hundred meters around us. There were just some E-rank monsters. We took care of them without any problems," Dean said after coming back.
"That's good. If nothing goes wrong, we should be able to leave from here without facing any monsters," George said after hearing Dean.
"Hey, guys, lunch is ready. Come here," Evan and the others heard Henry's voice.
When Evan looked in their direction, he saw Henry and his driver had set up a small barbecue stand and were grilling some meat.
What is this?
Are these people nuts? Or I am the odd one here?
Evan thought with a speechless expression when he saw Henry and his driver doing a barbecue in this wilderness.
He looked at George wanting to say this is not good for them to barbecue like this, but when he saw George's normal expression he closed his mouth.
'Looks like I am the odd one here.'
"You two go and eat first. We will keep watching until you finish," George said to James and Dean since they had just come back after scouting their surroundings.
Evan and George kept watching their surroundings for monsters until Dean and James came back after eating.
"Are transportation missions supposed to be this easy?" Evan asked while eating.
"Nope, most of the time you will have to face monsters whenever you stop in the wilderness. I am surprised that no monster has come to bother us even though we have been here for more than an hour," George said while eating a large chunk of meat.
Howl! Howl! Howl!
Just as George said howls of wolves rang out one after another.
"Looks like I jinxed it," George said with a speechless look on his face.
Just as George finished speaking, everyone heard the howls of wolves. "Get ready to fight. A pack of wolves is coming towards us. They will be here in twenty seconds," Dean shouted after hearing the howls.
"You guys go inside the van. We will take care of these monsters," George said to Henry and the driver, who quickly rushed towards the van after hearing the wolf howls.
"How many are there, Dean?" George asked after he and Evan came back near the van with Dean and James.
"If I'm not wrong, there should be three wolves," Dean said while holding his sword.
'is this his ability?' Evan thought to himself when Dean was able to tell how many wolves will be attacking them.
"You two can take care of one wolf," George said to Evan and James. "Dean and I will take out the other two."
Evan and James nodded and didn't say anything.
'Even if there are more than three, it should be no problem for me to take care of them,' Evan thought while looking in the direction from which they heard the wolves howl.
After twenty seconds, Evan finally saw three wolves coming towards them with rapid speed. The wolves were two meters tall, and their fur was completely green. All three wolves were looking at them with their deep yellow eyes which were filled with bloodlust.
"Be careful while fighting against them. They are wind wolves, and their agility and reaction speed is quite fast. If you give them even a single opportunity, they will not miss it," Dean said to everyone after seeing the wolves.
Upon seeing the wolves, Evan extended his hand forward, and a sword shot out from his shadow, which he caught without any problem.
"What the hell was that?" George, who was standing near Evan, asked when suddenly a sword came out from the ground.
"Just one of my skills," Evan replied while looking at the sword.
"Dude, at least tell me beforehand if you're going to do something like this. I thought there were bandits who attacked us by taking advantage of the situation," George said while shaking his head. Anyone would be scared if a sword suddenly emerged from the ground.
James was holding a spear surrounded by purple lightning, George was using a long sword, and Dean was the only one who was bare-handed.
"Let's kill these bastards so I can eat my lunch," George said and was about to charge towards the wolves when he heard
"Haste!"
Swish!
With a swift motion, Evan, who was standing beside him, disappeared. When he looked towards the three wolves, George saw Evan suddenly appear in front of one of the wolves and slash his sword at its neck.
Evan's sword was shining in a light blue color, indicating that he was using mana to increase the power of his attack.
Evan's speed was too fast. When he slashed the sword, George and the others couldn't see his slash clearly. They only saw Evan moving his hand slightly while holding the sword.
Thud!
The next second, the eyes of James and the others popped out from their sockets when they saw the head of the wolf standing in front of Evan severed cleanly, and its body dropped to the ground lifelessly.
The entire area fell into dead silence as everyone witnessed what had just happened.
"What the hell did I just see?" Dean asked with a dumbfounded voice when he saw how a D-rank monster was killed with just a single strike.
The shocking thing was that since Evan used mana while killing the wolf, they could all tell from his aura that he is still an E rank hunter.
Chapter 23: These D-Rank Monsters Are Too Weak (Part 2)
'What the hell happened?' Evan thought when he saw how easily he killed a D-rank monster.
"Is a D-rank monster supposed to be this weak?" Evan was shocked that he was able to sever the head of a D-rank beast with a normal sword.
He looked at the sword in his hand, which was still shining in blue light because of his mana, and noticed a very thin black layer mixed with the blue layer of mana.
The black layer was so thin that Evan was sure that if his eyesight hadn't improved after obtaining the monarch core, he wouldn't have noticed it.
'Is my attack this powerful because of this black energy mixed with my mana?' Evan thought as he observed the thin black layer.
Howl!
"Be careful!" Evan snapped out of his dazed state after hearing Dean's shout. When he looked at the other two wolves, he saw that one of them was already in front of him, slashing at his neck with its front claw.
Evan was still using the haste skill, so he saw everything in slow motion. He lifted his sword and parried the wolf's claw with his sword. As he parried the claw, he was pushed back a little due to the wolf's running momentum.
But because of his high agility he was able to react quickly, and before the wolf could regain its balance after the failed attack, Evan slashed his sword at the wolf's shoulder blade.
Howl!
The wolf howled in pain as its shoulder was almost severed from the rest of its body, and a fountain of blood erupted from the wounded shoulder.
"Watch out!" Evan was about to attack the wolf once again when he heard George shout again and without hesitation, he jumped sideways.
Just as he jumped sideways, a green blade passed by his previous location and hit a tree not far away from him.
The tree split in two when the blade struck it. Cold sweat appeared on Evan's back seeing the result of the wolf's attack.
'I should pay more attention to my surroundings while fighting.' He thought while thinking he need more fighting experience.
"What the hell is going on? From his aura, I can clearly feel that this guy is an E rank hunter, so how can he fight against these D rank monsters like this?" Dean said with a voice filled with shock.
"Hey, you guys are from the same academy. Do you know what's going on?" George asked James, who was looking at Evan with his mouth wide open.
George and Dean didn't know Evan, but James was well aware that Evan was the weakest student in the academy, and everyone called him trash.
"Just what happened to this guy?" James asked himself as he watched Evan take care of D rank monsters without any problem.
'Just a few days ago, I saw how Mike and some other students were bullying him. Was he pretending all this time?' James thought feeling his eyes were not working properly.
"Hey, are you listening?" James snapped out of his thoughts after hearing Dean's voice.
"I never talked to him in the academy, so I don't know about him," James replied, not revealing what he knew about Evan since he was also unsure of what was happening.
After evading the wind blade, Evan looked at the wolf that had attacked him and charged toward it with agility much faster than a D rank hunter.
The wind wolf was an agility-based monster, so somehow it was able to spot Evan when he appeared before it, the wolf used its front claw to strike at Evan like a hammer. However, instead of dodging the claw, Evan used his sword to clash with the wolf's claw.
Puchi!
When Evan's sword, covered in a blue layer of mana, clashed with the wolf's claw, it sliced through it like a hot knife through butter.
Howl!
The wolf howled in pain, and even before it could react, Evan once again slashed his sword at the wolf's neck. Although Evan wasn't able to sever the neck of the wolf with a single attack this time, he followed up with another slash, completely severing the head of the wolf.
After killing it, Evan turned his attention to the remaining wolf, which was trying to stand up but failing miserably due to its shoulder being almost severed from Evan's earlier attack.
Evan calmly walked toward the wolf and killed it with a single slash. James and the others looked at Evan as if they were looking at a monster.
Evan ignored them and began searching for cores. After looking at all the wolves he only obtained one core from the three wolves.
He dropped the core and his sword on the ground, and both items suddenly disappeared upon touching the ground.
Evan wasn't considering sharing his cores with anyone because the mission details stated that he could keep the cores of the monsters he hunted for himself.
After taking care of everything, Evan calmly walked toward George and the others.
"Who are you?" Dean asked Evan when he approached them.
"Didn't I already tell you? I'm Evan, an E-rank hunter," Evan replied.
"E-rank my ass! Even a D-rank hunter can't kill those monsters like this," George exclaimed, looking at Evan in disbelief.
"I just have some skills that improve my fighting power for a limited time," Evan explained without going into much detail.
"Oh, what kind of skill can improve your power by two ranks?" Dean asked sarcastically, thinking Evan is a high rank hunter who joined this low level mission to mess with them.
"I don't think I have any reason to tell you guys about my skills," Evan retorted, feeling irritated by their questions.
"Well, you don't have to tell us about your skills, but since we're going to work as a team, you should have at least inform us that you can easily handle D-rank monsters," Dean persisted.
"Oh, if an E-rank hunter came before you and said, 'Hey, I can kill D-rank monsters easily,' would you believe him?" Evan rolled his eyes in response.
Dean wanted to say something, but no words came out of his mouth because he knew he would never believe such a claim.
"Sigh, I'm sorry I overreacted," Dean apologized after realizing the futility of his argument.
"Don't worry, I understand what you thinking. But you don't have to worry about that since I have no intention of harming any of you," Evan said to them as he walked toward the barbecue table where he had been eating his lunch.
James watched Evan, lost in his own thoughts, while George and Dean pondered over something.
Evan paid no attention to them because he had never intended to hide his power from the beginning. His main purpose for joining this mission was to take a break after two years and collect some cores if possible.
If he conceal his power, how will he gather enough cores?
'Ihope I'll be able to obtain sufficient cores to advance my rank to E+,' Evan thought to himself as he enjoyed his steak.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
14 Power
stone 
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