System's POV
chapter-451

Sitting by the campfire and being with the Hero Party sure brought some nostalgic memories for the System of Cannon Fodders.

Tiona, who was coiled around his neck, was resting her head on Thirteen's shoulder.

Erica, Diana, and Mildred were looking at the Domini Mortis with great interest. Before today, they had only, at most, seen its pictures in drawings due to how elusive it was.

"Zion, how did you tame that Domini Mortis?" Erica asked. "In fact, how did you even find one? They are extremely rare—only three hundred of them exist in the entire world of Solterra.

"You even made her your Beast Companion. How did you do it?"

Thirteen smiled faintly as he told the Sorceress about his meeting with Tiona—he got her after he was forcefully sent to Solterra when he was only seven years old.

When they found out that Tiona was captured by slave traders, it finally clicked to them why the teenage boy managed to gain possession of her despite her being extremely rare.

"You guys should have seen Zion when he was still a cutie," Rianna said with a smile. "He's grown to be a bit more handsome now, but back then, he still had adorable chubby cheeks."

"I've been meaning to ask this, Miss Rianna, but how did you meet Zion?" Diana inquired.

"Well, we met when I was captured by the Orcs, alongside dozens of other Wanderers who appeared in the Valbarra Archipelago," Rianna replied. "We were locked up in their dungeon, so imagine my surprise when a boy under the age of ten suddenly popped up.

"He saved you guys from the Dungeon?" Mildred, who found the story quite interesting, asked.

"No," Rianna replied. "He said that it would be very difficult for us to make an escape while staying inside the Orc Stronghold. He saved us after we were sold to a Barbarian who traveled back to the city with us inside their wagons.

"Thirteen dealt with them during their return trip. But after being saved by him, Colbert decided to be an assh*le and made things difficult for him."

"Wait—when you say Colbert, are you talking about Colbert Riggs?" Shana blinked in confusion. "Zion's second Captain?"

"Yes. THAT Colbert." Rianna hissed. "I don't know why Zion made him part of his inner circle, but just remembering what he did back then makes me want to smack him silly."

"What did he do exactly?" Roland, whose interest had been piqued, decided to join the discussion.

"He initiated a mutiny right after Zion saved us," Rianna answered. "He convinced the other Wanderers that he wasn't suited to be our leader and voted for Harry Remington to lead our group.

"I didn't like how things were turning out, so I decided to join Zion's team with Cristopher instead. Fortunately, I made the right choice. Those who were part of Harry and Colbert's team died, and only the two of them managed to survive.

"Things could have ended differently if he followed his lead from the start. Although he was young, Zion was already oozing with charisma back then."

Everyone gave the thirteen-year-old a side-long glance, while the latter casually flipped his hair with his hand as if telling Rianna to praise him more.

"So, I've been meaning to ask, but how did you guys beat Arundel the Destroyer?" Joshua asked the question that had been nagging in his mind for a very long time.

"He's a Majin Prince, so it's truly impossible for a bunch of Wanderers who weren't even Rookies to defeat him. Heck, even if all of you were Champions, the chances of you guys winning are also non-existent. So, just how did you guys do it?"

Before Rianna could even answer the question, Thirteen decided to answer it himself.

"We defeated him with the power of love and friendship," Thirteen replied, doing his best to not cringe as he kept the smile on his face. "Without everyone working together, none of it could have been possible.

"You can even say that a series of fortunate events lined up perfectly, allowing us to gain the upper hand in battle. Of course, Arundel had already been badly hurt by one of the Fiends of Solterra—you know him as the Fiend of Greed and Money, Mammon."

Thirteen scanned the faces of everyone around the campfire before lightly patting Tiona's head with his finger.

"After all of Arundel's subordinates had been turned to gold, he pleaded for the Mammon to spare him. The Fiend agreed, but just as Arundel was about to pinch me to oblivion, Cristopher used our Trump Card.

"He successfully impaled the Majin Prince's chest with the reinforced steel bolt that we had made in advance. After that, Cranky gave the finishing blow and severed Arundel's head, ending the battle."

Erica, who was now immersed in the story, interjected. "Who's Cranky? That sounds like a pet name."

"Cranky is a Rank 6 Sovereign, Devil-Horned Honey Badger that Zion befriended," Rianna replied in an amused tone. "I didn't know how Zion managed to befriend that crazy monster, but it had helped us a lot during the battle against Arundel."

"It's a shame though. If Cristopher had been the one to land the last hit on Arundel's body, he might have gotten an amazing reward. He might have even obtained the Avatar of a Majin Prince!"

Thirteen glanced at Rianna and chuckled in his heart.

What many didn't know was that The One had also recognized Cristopher as one of the key players in the fight against Arundel. Because of this, the teenage boy was handsomely rewarded and had Arundel counted as one of his kills.

Of course, he knew what Cristopher received—his right-hand man personally told him about it.

However, Thirteen told his right-hand man to keep what he had gotten a secret and only use it as a Trump Card when he was pushed to a corner.

A secret that, if known by the Leventis Family, would make Arthur cough out blood because he had given permission for Cristopher to serve his no-good grandson instead of staying as Terence's subordinate and becoming a retainer of the Leventis Family.

Fortunately, he didn't know, which allowed the Patriarch to sleep better at night.

"So when the battle ended, I realized that Colbert is not that bad of a person," Thirteen said. "Because of this, I decided to give him a second chance and make him my third-in-command next to Cristopher."

Rianna scoffed. "You sure trust snakes, huh? No offense, Tiona."

Tiona nodded in Rianna's direction, as if telling her that she didn't mind it.

"So, after you defeated Arundel, you set sail towards the Main Continent and met up with your brother and sister, right?" Diana asked. "At least the Wanderers who mentioned that they met you during that particular timeline affirmed that you helped them tremendously."

"What can I say?" Thirteen smiled. "I can't turn a blind eye to people who need my help."

"How noble of you," Diana commented. "I'm sure that it must have been hard, considering how young you were at that time. But among the stories about you, there's one that really piqued my interest—the event that happened in the Arcadia Archipelago."

"The Moon Princess Event, right?" Mildred chimed in. "I also love that story. Shasha Leventis who was chosen as the Moon Princess Candidate has become a trend three years ago. Even my brother had a crush on her.

"Hey, is she still single? Let's not count that overly clingy Kane Stallard, who made a declaration that anyone who will pursue Shasha will become his enemy. Although that move is gutsy, he had acquired so many haters because of it as well."

"Yes. Even now, they still call Shasha as the Moon Princess," Erica chuckled. "If that were me, I'd probably freak out from the unwanted attention because I don't like to be too high profile."

'Liar'.

That was the collective thought of the members of the Hero Party.

Among all of them, Erica was the one who wished to have prestige and influence the most.

If she were in Shasha's shoes, then she would have definitely used that opportunity to open an OnlyPans account and earn millions of gold coins every month by showing her feet pics.

Heck, she might even go as low as selling her bath water to people who would buy them as long as she would earn a lot.

Unlike most people, Erica grew up in a poor family, so money was something that motivated her very much.

So, when the Central Government scouted her to become one of the members of the Hero Party, she agreed on the condition that she would have brand deals of famous beauty products, as well as a high salary.

Lawrence agreed to it without batting an eye because he knew about Erica's situation.

Now that Erica and her family were now living a comfortable and stable lifestyle, she only wished to become more popular, and maybe become a celebrity after she retired from the Hero Party.

"Well, I'll be sleeping now," Thirteen said. "Make sure to take up at seven tomorrow. We will do one final assessment before you officially start your training. Don't stay up too late, everyone."

After saying those words, Thirteen finally entered his tent and joined Rhia, who was sleeping peacefully while hugging the small Beholder, Uncle Boo, in her arms like a hug pillow.

Everyone stayed for an hour longer chatting with each other before they, too, retired in their tents to rest.

When morning came, they had a light breakfast before Thirteen gathered them in the Training Room and asked the Hero Party a question.

"Among the monsters you all fought together as a group, which one was the most difficult opponent that almost wiped out your entire party?" Thirteen asked.

Shana exchanged glances with her team members and all of them nodded their heads in unison.

There was indeed one monster that had almost wiped out their entire party when they fought against it, and it was none other than the Three Horned Dread Minotaur, a Rank 5 Overlord.

"The Three-Horned Dread Minotaur?" Thirteen smirked. "Very well. All of you, get a Neuro-Link each. You guys will be fighting it again."

The entire Hero Party groaned after hearing Zion's words. They already had a hunch that this was where things were going, but since this was part of their training, they reluctantly wore the Neuro-Links before lying on the yoga mat on the floor.

The Hero Party wasn't aware that Thirteen had also fought against a Three-Horned Dread Minotaur while farming Apocalypse Points.

He had to admit that it was indeed a very tricky opponent to fight in battle, but only if one didn't know its attack patterns in advance.

But Thirteen knew about it, so he managed to devise an effective strategy that brought one of the strongest Jinns in the Rank 5 Overlord Category down to its knees.