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Chapter 36: Rowan

[Talent [Flame(D-)] upgraded to [Flame(D+). Trait [Adventurer] changed to [Rookie]

Along with two new soul orbs appearing in his inventory, it seemed his talent had somehow upgraded as well. He cast aside his questions about his new trait though as he was still in the midst of a battle. He could check these changes out later.

Unfortunately he hadn't received anything like that mysterious flame he obtained from the flaming lion. But he suspected those were rare enough already.

At the same time he concluded his battle with the two F+ rank beasts, a few of his stronger teammates had managed to slay their beasts too.

'Only one thing left for us to do now then!'

Naturally with no opponents left on the same rank as them, they went over and took care of the weaker F and F- rank beasts before dashing over to their team leader who had been holding the two E- rank beasts at bay this whole time.

They looked like two raccoons, but at the size of a human adult. 

'Probably a beast couple.' Alex thought to himself. He wasn't too worried about facing these two beasts, as not only did he have Rowan, the E rank team leader to rely on, but his own strength was around average in the E- rank—if he used his Flame talent to his advantage he even had a chance to kill a relatively powerful E- rank beast in a one on one fight.

Of course the world was not fair or at all equal, so the strength and power people could exert at the same rank could vary largely.

The most common example of this is that someone with a Talent, even a weak one will almost always be stronger than someone without.

Alex, with his F+ tier soul core, had strength rivalling those at E- rank.

If any recruiters from the federation knew of his strength, they would probably think he was a prospective talent worth recruiting. If they knew of his Flame talent as well, they would think of him as a genius worth investing a lot of resources into.

So it was to be expected that when he entered the fight against the two E- rank raccoons, it was over very quickly. The other F+ and F ranks didn't even have a chance to contribute as Alex and Rowan completely dominated them in the fight, with Alex drawing the attention of one raccoon away from Rowan, releasing the pressure he had to defend from two different opponents at once.

With his E rank strength, Rowan's fight was over in less than a minute. While Alex had managed to deliver some serious injuries to the raccoon he was fighting, only sustaining some light injuries himself.

These raccoons were clearly some of the weaker E- rank beasts one could come across.

It had to be noted that Alex didn't even need to use his Flame talent during his fight. This raccoon was only a little stronger than the two F+ rank beasts he had killed just minutes earlier.

'Who knew hunting beasts could be so fun when your life isn't constantly at stake!'

Naturally Alex was having a much better time than all his other times fighting beasts during his time in the Primordial Expanse.

If he wanted to finish off the raccoon then he would have to utilise his Flame talent, but he didn't want to waste his energy as he knew that Rowan would come over and finish the job for him when he was done with his own.

And he did just that.

'Man it feels good when you don't have to constantly be wary of not only beasts, but your teammates too.'

With the pressure from the beasts and the barrier blocking entry into the city weighing down on all the humans outside the city, no matter their strength, there was little to no discord or infighting as everyone there had one common goal.

Kill all beasts!

'If only everyone could think this way during normal, peaceful times.' Alex sighed as he realised that this unity was only temporary, and everything would go back to normal when this beast tide was over and the B rank higher life form fight had been concluded.

'Ah whatever, that's something for future Alex to worry about. Right now our job isn't finished!'

The team may have just finished killing the small group of beasts that attacked them, with no casualties on their own side to boot, but there were still thousands more still alive and rushing towards them, giving them no time to recover.

"Follow me, this team looks like they are having a tough time!" Rowan, upon seeing how coordinated and powerful his team was, in particular how powerful Alex was, was reinvigorated and started to become more active in his role as their leader.

The team he pointed to consisted of 1 E- rank team leader 1 F+ rank and the rest being F rank weaklings.

The beasts besieging them were led by an E rank beast, with some F+ and F ranks making up the ranks. There were only 7 beasts compared to the 10 humans, but the rank disparity made up for that difference.

Beasts at D- rank and below had no intelligence or mind to call their own, so they just move towards the first living thing they see and prey upon them. So this team was just unlucky that these beasts saw them first.

"Me and Alex will help their leader deal with the E rank beast, while the rest of you go and kill those F+ rank weaklings and below!" Rowan knew everyone in his team's names but this was the first time he was addressing one of them by name.

It wasn't that he saw himself as above them out of arrogance or anything like that. It was just that this whole arrangement was just temporary and would all be over once the beast tide was dealt with. So he didn't see any worth in remembering the names of people he would never see again.

That was until he made an exception for Alex though.

'No one else may have noticed him use the flame element to kill those two beasts, but I did. I must recruit him to the university! Just thinking of the rewards I'll receive is already making me drool…'


Chapter 37: Coordination

Alex was completely unaware of Rowan's thoughts. He was currently focused on the beast that stood ahead of him, in the process of overwhelming the E- rank team leader of the team they went to help.

'This one is weaker than that Flaming lion for sure.'

Alex had only really ever fought one other E rank beast before, and that was the flaming lion where he obtained his Flame talent from.

He only contributed a little bit to that fight, and he couldn't take any credit for the kill at all as that was completely due to Joanne's poison arrow.

But the aura this bear like beast exuded was nowhere near as terrifying as when he first felt the flaming lion's aura.

Alex suspected that it had something to do with that mysterious flame that granted him his Flame talent, but he had no evidence to confirm his suspicions.

'It doesn't matter anyway, with Rowan, me and that E- rank leader here this beast has nowhere to run.'

With nothing holding them back, Alex and Rowan ran alongside the E- rank leader from the other group, who was currently littered in all kinds of wounds from the accumulated attacks of the beast.

Blood was oozing from all over the place, it looked like he was on death's door.

Not everyone was like Alex—being able to fight a level above oneself was even rarer than having a talent.

"We'll take it over from here, friend! You need to rest and recuperate." Rowan announced his presence and intentions to the young man.

Phew!

When the young leader heard Rowan's words he let out a heavy sigh of relief. He had only recently advanced to E rank, which only a few others knew before he was drafted into this sudden war against the beast tide.

Just like most other adventurers, he only went by the vague version of his rank, simply listing himself as 'E rank' rather than his actual E- rank.

Due to his inexperience in the world of the awakened, he still chose to hide his real rank even when Wildblade was distributing him among the teams, hence why he was made a team leader while only being E- rank.

In truth he had no experience leading a team, and even less fighting beasts a whole level above himself.

"Looks like it's just me and you in this fight Alex, you sure you can handle this? This one is much more powerful than that E- rank you fought earlier." Rowan was genuinely concerned about Alex joining in with a fight against a beast not one, but two whole levels above him. 

Not to mention there was also a difference in the soul tier itself, with Alex being at F+ tier while the beast was at E tier, so the real difference in rank was more like 3 levels.

Every jump between major soul tiers (F,E,D,C etc) there was a qualitative increase in strength that was much more condensed and noticeable than jumps in level in the minor tiers (F-. F, F+ etc), hence the difference between F+ and E- was regarded by the general population of awakened as 2 levels.

This trend carried on all the way up until when the soul tier reached C rank, where the difference between a C and B rank was astronomical and could no longer be measured by the norms.

This was not information Alex was currently aware of though.

"I've fought an E rank before, and I'm still here. So decide what you want with that information." Alex was intentionally vague when he spoke of his past fight, there were many weird things about that fight that he still wasn't sure were normal.

Rowan raised his eyebrows in surprise at Alex's reveal. He knew he was strong, especially since he could wield an element while only at F rank. That could only be achieved through a talent directly gifted by the Primordial Expanse. But he didn't know he was able to survive against a beast 3 levels above himself.

He knew Alex was vague with his answer, but he didn't even entertain the possibility that Alex was able to kill the beast. 

Only awakened at the legendary S rank could achieve that!

"Well, alright then. I trust you know what you're doing."

Rowan didn't question Alex anymore and directly blocked the bear beast's attack from striking the injured team leader.

Alex reacted immediately after and without hesitation readied the same attack he used to kill the two F+ ranks before, and coated his dagger in flames.

The cracks widened on his dagger even more, prompting him to hurry up with his next actions before the thing crumbled completely.

The huge bear was currently launching attack after attack at Rowan, and with it's big bulky body it was slowly overpowering him in strength.

But soon a faint orange glow started to come from his side, where he saw Alex coating his dagger in flames, and he immediately had an idea.

He leaped from the ground to the back of the bear with minimal effort, wrapping his arms around the beast's neck—his hands barely interlocking on the other side.

Roarrr! 

The bear was enraged by this action and stood up on it's two hind legs, as it started flailing around like mad, trying to claw at Rowan who held his grip firmly around its neck.

"Now! Attack it Alex!" Rowan shouted towards Alex for him to attack.

The huge bear was slowly succeeding at shaking Rowan off, he was slowly slipping!

'Why does this attack have to take so long to prepare!'

Alex wished and hoped to any god that was listening that his flames would hurry up and encase the whole dagger.

'Finally!'

He didn't know if some god answered his prayer, with the process finishing a whole 5 seconds earlier than when he first used the attack. But he wasn't going to waste the opportunity!

With its chest completely exposed, and its whole attention focused on shaking Rowan off, the bear had no time to react when Alex snuck up in front of it and lunged his dagger right through its stomach.

Yelp! Roarrr!

The bear became even more enraged.


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