The party was over once Jeff had had enough of fun. People felt bitter, but they complied with his order. Left with nothing to do, they came back to their rest stations. They were resting while Jeff and the others were having a meeting.

Without wasting time, Jeff asked about what to do for the next day’s hunt. Having an idea, Mark lifted his arm. He told them they were already strong enough, so he proposed to move their hunting ground and let the others level up by hunting rabbits the same way the main team had done.

Jeff approved his idea and nodded. He was about to decide the hunting ground, opening a map on the table. However, Mark suddenly pointed his finger to a certain region where they had faced the Frost Wolf.

“Mark, don’t tell me….” Cole knew well about his idea, and he thought it was a bad idea.

He hit a mark when Mark replied, “Let’s hunt Frost Wolves.”

Cole shook his head. “No, it is too dangerous. They are—”

“Level 15 monsters. Just like those rabbits. We can defeat them.”

“No, it is different. We may as well call those rabbits walking dolls. Frost Wolves are the real deal. They are powerful.”

“I am aware, but we will have new abilities by then. Besides, I believe we can pull it off if we act as a team. Let’s do it, Cole.”

Cole stared into Mark’s eyes, and he could see his persistence. Still, he was aware of his desire for Frost Wolves’ blood. “You want to revenge your friends, right?” he asked.

“You can tell. Of course, I do.”

“You should know you can’t find your friends’ killer among them. How can you differentiate them anyway?”

“I don’t care. I just want to appease my anger on them. I will be satisfied with killing one of them. I promise.”

This promise was just an empty word, Cole thought. Once someone smeared their hands with the blood of their enemies, they couldn’t quench their hatred. However, he couldn’t give the advice to stop Mark because he knew about that feeling well. He had smeared his hands with too much blood, and that was the reason a seed of wrath existed in his heart.

“I won’t stop you, but just so you know you can’t quench your anger by killing. Are you prepared for the consequence?”

“I don’t care. No, forgive my words. I have been feeling angry. I can’t help it, Cole. I promise my feeling won’t hinder my fighting skills.”

Cole looked at Jeff. “What do you say about this, Doucette?”

Jeff replied, “We can see how much we have grown by fighting them. Besides, we get bigger resources by killing them.”

“I want to fight those wolves too,” Lisa said.

“If you all agree about this, then I will follow along. After this hunt is over, I want to announce something.”

“What is it?” Lisa asked curiously.

Cole looked at her and Mark. He couldn’t deny he began to see them in a positive light. Staying with them would be fun, but he had made a promise to find his gladiator brothers, and he felt their goals couldn’t align. So, he wanted to leave the party after the Frost Wolves’ hunt was over.

He had steeled his decision, but he realized he couldn’t say it at the moment. He feared they couldn’t focus on the hunt if he broke the mood at the party. “You will find out after the hunt is over,” Cole said to Lisa.

Lisa eyed him suspiciously as if she knew what he was thinking. However, she couldn’t utter any words to stop his decision.

Mark—oblivious to Cole’s intention to leave the party—slammed the table out of excitement, and he exclaimed, “Then it has been decided. Let’s hunt Frost Wolves tomorrow.”

Jeff clapped his hands and announced the meeting was over. He ordered them to buy survival necessities for the next hunt on the counter.

On the counter, Lisa had bought the cards first, but she didn’t immediately go. She waited for Cole. Cole had a feeling she would ask something troublesome, so he told her he was tired before she could ask anything.

Cole successfully dodged her and came to his rest station on the floor. He lay and closed his eyes. He didn’t have a hard time resting, and he woke up refreshed in the dawn.

……

The big road was still empty when Cole stepped out of the base because the rabbits were resting on the riverbank. He stretched his body and then performed a simple exercise. After that, he took a deep breath of the fresh air. The air felt chilly as it entered his nostril, but it woke up every cell in his body. He was ready for the hunt.

“Oh, Cole. You seemed to be the one with the biggest spirit today, even though you were against my idea of hunting Frost Wolves,” Mark exclaimed as he scurried to the big road.

“What’s in the past should stay in the past,” Cole replied calmly as he tossed Mark’s hand. As the man passed by, he noticed many people got out of the base after him. He guessed they were going to hunt Ace Frenzy Rabbits.

Jeff and Lisa approached him, so Cole asked the old man about his guess. “Are they going to level up the same way as we do?”

Jeff nodded. “Let’s go,” he said indifferently as if those people were not important. “We should focus on our goal today.”

Worried about those people, Cole grabbed Jeff’s shoulder, making the old man stop. “Hey, wait. Don’t you think you have to give them an example of how to hunt those rabbits?” Cole asked.

Jeff swept Cole’s hand away from his shoulder and stared at him. “They literally didn’t have jobs when we were hunting those rabbits, so I told them to watch us closely. I believe in their observation and duplication ability as fellow humans, so you have to believe them too.”

Cole stared back at him, but he didn’t talk back. He simply couldn’t decide whether Jeff was careless, indifferent, or really confident of them. However, he didn’t think too much of it because he didn’t want to stir trouble.

“Well, if you are really confident in their abilities, then I will believe it too. Let’s go to the forest,” Cole said.

They didn’t argue anymore as they didn’t want to waste time. After a brief check of the necessity items, they went to the forest.

As they arrived in front of the forest, Jeff opened a drawn map and looked at the drawn region where Cole and the others had met the Frost Wolf. Beyond this region was still blank, meaning Jeff didn’t know about the place yet.

After seeing the drawn map, Jeff took out two cards and activated them. The first card appeared as a floating map, and he was the only one that could see it, meanwhile the second card was the highest-grade monster detector that could detect monsters in a three-kilometer radius.

Jeff compared both maps just to be sure his drawn map was accurate with the map from the card. However, he found out the Frost Wolf that had killed his people had gone out of their original region.

“I see. There is a chance we can meet the wolf that has killed your friends,” Jeff said.

“What do you mean?” Mark asked.

“I have bought information about Frost Wolves and their cousins. They usually hunt in a pack, except the lone wolf. The pack shunned the lone wolf after losing from an alpha, and they ventured alone in order to find their mate.”

“Does that mean we can find the one that has killed my friends?”

“Is it that simple?” Lisa asked. “I mean how can we be sure it will stay in one place?”

“Monsters’ situation is complicated. In their instinct, they can’t carelessly pass through other monsters’ territory. They have to make sure other regions are safe, and they usually take a long time to be sure. So, we have a fair chance to meet it.”

“I can’t wait to meet it,” Mark said as he clasped his fist. “I will take the last hit to kill the b!tch.”

“Are you done talking? If so, I will lead the way,” Cole said as he entered the forest first. He remembered the path to the lone wolf’s spot, so it was only appropriate for him to lead the way. Furthermore, he had encountered several aggressive monsters when he had escaped from the wolf, so he wanted to avoid unnecessary enemies.

When he was leading the way, they didn’t encounter any monsters. However, they knew they would meet one sooner or longer, and their premonition came true.

On the way, they smelled fresh blood in the air, and they immediately found the source. A humanoid monster with the head of a goat crouched over a giant anteater corpse. It feasted from the hole in the corpse’s gut, voraciously tearing the flesh apart.

Name: ??

Title: Ace

Level: 12

Cole and the others faced the goat’s back, and he planned to escape before it noticed their presence because he knew that monster was dangerous. The proof was the goat could eat in the open while the corpse emitted a powerful stench of blood. Furthermore, it had an ‘Ace’ title, meaning it had more [HP] than normal-titled monsters of the same species.

As he was about to turn back, Mark suddenly grabbed his arm. “Where are you going, Cole?” he asked.

“We need to escape. That monster is dangerous.”

“Didn’t you say Frost Wolf is more dangerous? We can handle that monster.”

“Yes, we can, but don’t think it will be easy. We don’t know what the monster is capable of, and we have to conserve our energy to fight the wolf.”

“I agree with Mark, Cole. We can handle that monster. We have bought new skills, haven’t we?” Lisa said.

Cole didn’t know how to respond to this question. Yesterday, he had pretended to buy skills to hide his secret that he couldn’t put active skills into the active skill slots. He looked at Jeff, hoping the old man would agree to his point.

“We haven’t tried our active skills yet. We can test it by fighting that freak,” Jeff exclaimed as he pointed at the monster.

And it was already late for Cole to convince them to not fight it. The Demon Goat suddenly sensed their presence, turning its head to the back. The monster dropped the meat on its mouth and roared as it saw them.

“Prepare to fight!” Jeff summoned a Japanese katana in his hand, and a blue aura coated his body.

The same phenomenon happened to Lisa and Mark. This was the active skill they had bought when they had reached level 12.

“Oh, wow, we bought the same skill,” Mark exclaimed.

Lisa laughed. “Well, it increases all stats by 35%. Added with [Raging Strength] and other passive skills that increase our stats, we have 70% bonus attributes.”

Thinking their similar choice of skills was funny, Jeff smirked. However, it seemed Cole didn’t choose similar skills because the man did nothing. “Hey, Cole, what are you doing? Use your active skill. The goat is coming.”

“Don’t worry about me. I—” Cole paused, thinking of a reason. “I think you forgot I have got a passive skill card.”

“Up to you. Here it comes!” Jeff exclaimed as he leaped to the side.

As the other scattered to the sides, Cole stuck his greatsword into the ground, shielding his body behind it. As the consequence, the goat targeted him, butting its head against the flat of the blade.

Cole gritted his teeth as he held his ground, but the goat kept pushing him back. In the end, the difference in the frame made the goat win. It lifted its horns, pulling the sword from the ground.

As his body was floating, Cole flipped midair and swung its sword. The sword came under the goat, but it had noticed it. The monster shifted its head a bit, letting the tip of the sword scratch its face. After that, it lengthened its claws and slashed his chest.