The Author's POV
chapter-376

===Status===

Name : Ren Dover

Rank : B

Strength : B

Agility : B +

Stamina : B -

Intelligence : B

Mana capacity : B -

Luck : A +

Charm : C +

--> Profession :

[Swordsmanship lvl.4]

The degree of understanding of the sword has evolved to the next level. User will find it easier to understand previously harder concepts.

--> Martial Manual :

[★★★★★ Keiki style] - Essence realm of mastery.

Sword art created by Grandmaster Toshimoto Keiki. A five-star module focused primarily on reaching the apex of swordsmanship and speed. Upon mastery, the sword art becomes so fast that before an opponent could even think about their next move, their heads would already be rolling on the ground.

[★★★ Ring of vindication] - Essence realm of mastery.

Highly advanced sword art that creates a perfect ring of defense around the user. The ring can create a three-dimensional sphere that protects the user from all sides upon mastery. Because of the lack of offensive capabilities, the manual was graded three stars.

[★★★ Drifting steps] - Greater realm of mastery.

Movement art that progresses with each step. With every step taken, user speed will increase. Unless the user stops, speed will continuously improve until the user either runs out of mana or is injured.

[★★★✰ Quick-slash style] - Minor realm of mastery.

A sword art fully focused on speed. With one quick draw, the user gains the ability to kill an opponent without them noticing anything had happened. Created to replicate the Keiki style. After years of research, this sword art was the result.

[★★★ Full-body martial arts] - Greater realm of mastery.

Hand-to-Hand combat technique dedicated to utilizing every single part of the body to incapacitate the enemy. It may be a 3-star art, but upon mastery, it can be used to complement other forms of martial art.

--> Skills :

[[G] Monarch's indifference]

A skill that enables users to erase all emotions, and act as a supreme monarch that only calculates the best option regardless of circumstance.

[[D] The one]

A skill that enables the user to instill fear into the opponents' minds resulting in them feeling like they were standing before a sovereign that overlooked everything. The skill may work on individuals who are one rank higher than them, however, if the difference between the two parties is greater than two ranks, the skill effect diminishes.

[[A] Eyes of Chronos]

Upon using this skill, the user will be able to see everything in slow motion. The more mana is used, the slower the time will be in their eyes.

'I'm slowly getting there.'

I inwardly muttered as I stared at my charm which was now in the <C+> rank range.

After my contract with Angelica dissolved, my charm and my stats immediately dropped back down to where they were originally supposed to be.

For about a week, staring at myself in the mirror, depression once again overcame me as recollections of my handsome days would spring upon me from time to time.

Still wasn't over it if I had to be honest.

Sigh.

That aside, my strength did drastically rise over the past year, and just a few months ago, I broke through to <B> rank.

'Can't have everything.'

I muttered in consolation.

Swooosh—!

Closing down my status window, a clear mountain breeze blew past and shook the leaves of the tree that I was sitting on.

The rays of light coming from the sun filtered through the gaps of the leaves, creating a small net that sank over me.

A calm peace enshrouded the area that I was in, inviting anyone present to want to relax. Of course, that was merely what was perceived on the outside.

Rustle—! Rustle—!

It wasn't long before the peace was broken as a clear rustling sound resounded from the nearby bushes.

"Roooooar!"

With a powerful roar, coming out of the bushes was a large brown bear with red eyes and sharp claws that were about the same size as my arms. A threatening aura expanded from its body, scaring away all of the nearby birds as they flew into the sky.

'An evolved black bear...hm, it's also <C+> ranked at that. Not bad.'

Staring at the bear with great interest, from the tree that I was sitting on, my eyes squinted slightly.

That was because a little fox was standing opposite the bear, growling at it with its canines.

'Looks like the bear was in the middle of his hunt.'

It had to be noted that this was no regular bear, but an evolved one. Their diet was drastically different from what they were prior to when they were normal bears.

"Rooooar!"

With another roar, the bear raised his body halfway up in the air and shot towards the fox that was standing opposite to it. It wasn't long before the bear and the fox neared the area that I was in.

'Well, guess that's my cue.'

"Huuup!"

Tugging my body forward and leaving the branch that I was sitting on, my body slowly fell to the ground at a high velocity before perfectly landing on the top of the bear's head.

BANG—!

Despite our size difference, the moment my foot pressed onto the skull of the bear, with a loud bang, the beast's head crashed against the ground.

Dust diffused in the air, masking my eyesight.

Swooosh—!

But of course, this was no problem for me. Waving my hand slightly and channeling my wind psyons, a small wind formed, blowing all of the dust away.

'Well, that's dinner sorted.'

Cleaning my hands, I got off the bear and took a good look at it.

With all four legs outstretched from its body, the bear laid on the ground unmoving. I didn't need to check whether it was dead as its skull was practically crushed into a pulp.

"Hm?"

"Grrrrr."

Just as I was about to skin the bear, I heard a slight growling sound coming from behind me. Turning around, I noticed the small fox from before glaring in my direction.

Before I could even make out what was going on, the fox darted in my direction. Its claws were outstretched trying to claw into me.

"I just saved you, and instead of being grateful, you're attacking me?"

Click—!

Without even moving, turning my attention back to the bear, a subtle clicking sound rang out and I heard a small 'thump' from behind me.

'Ugh, how did Waylan say that I should skin a bear...?'

Staring at the bear in front of me, I started to ponder over the different methods that Waylan had taught me about skinning a beast, but in the end, shrugging my shoulders I just decided to put the bear's body into my dimensional space.

"Oh, right, there's you too."

Once I put the bear back into my dimensional space, turning around, I found the dead body of the fox from before.

'Guess we're having roast and stew tonight.'

Picking it up, I also put it in my dimensional space.

Humming a tune, I headed back deep into the forest. Towards my camp, and where the others were.

***

The location of the camp wasn't far. About a ten-minute walk from where I previously was.

Coming out from one of the bushes, the first thing I saw were multiple tents set up on a flat piece of land. In the middle of the tents, a fire crackled, and sitting around it was everyone apart from Douglas who for obvious reasons, couldn't come.

They were all having a merry good time talking to each other and drinking whatever drink they had in their hands.

"I'm back."

I smiled as I approached.

"Back already?"

Waylan was the first to react as he looked at me from his seat. After him, the others also looked in my direction, but in contrast to the warm welcome that I had expected, they had all looks that asked the question, 'Where's the food?' Not one of them seemed to think about anything else.

'I spoiled them too much.'

I thought as a bitter smile appeared on my face, but I kept walking regardless.

I was the one who dragged them out to the forest as soon as the demons retreated. This was so that everyone could get some good training, which they did and learned a lot from, but still, they did hold a bit of resentment towards me.

After all, with how advanced the dwarves were, training there was not a problem.

The one that held the most resentment was probably Smallsnake who would snort from time to time whenever he would see my face. 'Why do I need to train when you know that I have no talent?' he would repeatedly mutter.

But of course, I ignored his words.

He needed to get used to such dangerous environments. He wasn't always going to be inside of a safe location like back in Henlour.

"Ren, we should head back soon. We've trained enough, we'll be heading to the elven domain in a couple of weeks' time."

Waylan stood up and stretched his back.

"Already?"

Tapping onto my bracelet I took the bear out and sat down on a small chair next to the fire.

"Oh? we having bear tonight?"

"This too."

Once again tapping onto my bracelet, I threw the fox on top of the bear.

"A fox?"

Hein said as he stood up to take a closer look at the dead fox. Extending his hand to try and touch it, right before his hand could touch the fox, a small hand grabbed onto his wrist. It was Ava.

"Don't touch that."

"Why?"

"It's gross."

"Is it?"

I questioned, secretly taking a sip of Smallsnake's drink.

Snapping her head in my direction, Ava repeatedly nodded her head before pointing toward Angelica's direction.

"It is. Just look at Angelica, she agrees with me."

Leisurely sitting on her seat, although Angelica didn't say anything, she too seemed to be in agreement as her brows were slightly knit into a frown.

Meeting my gaze, her face cringed a little.

'...For some reason, I feel like Angelica is more disgusted by me.'

Ava seemed to have noticed our slight interaction as she coughed slightly.

"Trust me, she was definitely referring to the fox, not you."

"...Are you sure about that?"

Didn't seem like that to me at all.

Over a year had passed since we had been together, and by now, pretty much everyone was used to Angelica.

In fact, you could say that she and Ava seemed to get along quite well.

"Well, whatever."

I shrugged my shoulders. Didn't really care about what they thought as I looked at Waylan who approached the bear.

Then, taking out a small dagger from his dimensional space, he stabbed it in the middle of the bear's stomach.

Staring at him from my seat, I opened my mouth and asked.

"About what you said, did Douglas contact you and tell you?"

Removing the guts from the beast, a pungent smell diffused around the area we were in. Ava and Angelica instantly glared in our direction.

Of course, they only glared.

The one who was doing this was Waylan who was by far the strongest of the group.

Taking out the heart of the bear, Waylan nodded his head. Throwing the heart to the side, he continued to remove the organs.

"Yeah. He contacted me not too long ago."

"Did he say that we had to be back now?"

"Mhm."

Taking the last organ out of the bear's body, Waylan clapped his hands together and droplets of blood spilled around the area we were in.

"We will return tomorrow morning, and start making preparations for our trip to the elven domain. We will be going by the portal."

"I figured that much."

Imagine going all the way to the elven domain by foot. That would take even longer than it took for me to reach Henlour from the human domain.

Just the thought sickened me.

"Anyways, how's your training been?"

"It's been alright, I shouldn't have a problem breaking into <B+> rank in a couple of months, granted that I don't take any special herb."

"Don't rely on those too much."

With a slight nod, Waylan grabbed the bear and put it on top of the grill that rested above the fire.

A sizzling sound rang out the moment the bear was placed on top of the grill.

"If you consume too many herbs, you'll end up being over-reliant on those. Just look at my daughter, I spoiled her too much. Sigh, back when she was only..."

'Here we go again.'

Should've known from the moment the word 'daughter' was mentioned that Waylan would go on another hour-long story about how precious Emma was to him.

It seemed like I wasn't the only one that thought this way as the others also had helpless expressions on their faces. Well, not everyone.

Sitting by the side, smoking a cigarette, Leopold would repeatedly nod his head as he listened to Waylan's words.

'Well, this isn't too bad.'

I thought as a smile crept on my face as I stared at everyone present.

Who knows, this could very well be the last moment of peace that I would enjoy for a very long time. I hoped not, but, my previous experiences suggested otherwise.

Leaning back on my chair, I tried to make the best out of the little time of rest I had remaining.