The man at the head of the table looked to be in his mid-forties, he had short hair and dark skin. He was wearing an outfit with the guild emblem. He then stood up and asked, "Lia, who is he?", "Mister Gerald, this is a new adventurer who just applied for the mission.", "What is your name and rank?", "My name is Gen, and I am an awakened one.", "An awakened one, how great! Please sit down, we were discussing how to divide the monsters. Thank you Lia, you may go now.", "Excuse me then." said Lia, and then left the room.

Gen looked for a chair and sat down, and right after they sat down Gerald said, "Well, let's recap what we were talking about, so Gen understands the current situation. First of all the twenty gold rank monsters, we are planning to leave the fifty silver and five gold adventurers to take care of them. The 15 platinum rank monsters will be left with the rest of the gold adventurers, and ten platinum.

Gerald then continued, "As for the ten diamond rank monsters, the platinum ones will get together in five groups of two people, and each of these groups will deal with one monster. The other five monsters will be left with one diamond adventurer each. This leaves us with the four red diamond monsters, and the awakened leader. With Gen's entrance I think we can split it up like this. I'll deal with one of them, the five remaining diamonds deal with another red diamond, Karin deals with another, and Gen or Raja deals with the last one, leaving their leader for the other."

Hearing this Gen thought, 'It really is him. I wonder what he's doing here. Has he moved out of town? Or maybe he has come here to help with this mission. Maybe he knows how things are in Dekin.', Gerald then said, "Are we all agreed on this plan?", everyone nodded, but the woman next to him raised her hand, Gerald then said, "Go ahead Karin, what is it?"

Karin was a slightly older woman, she must have been in her mid-thirties, she had straight blonde hair that went down to her shoulders, and dark skin. She was wearing light armor on some parts of her body. Karin said, "I think the plan is good, but before we leave, we need to decide who will take care of the Grunar leader. If possible ideally Raja and Gen should tell us what their essences are so we can decide who will stay with him."

Gerald then asked them, "Would you mind telling us?", "No problem," said Raja, and then continued, "My essence, it's the essence of the mirage, and it's on the material level.", The area around Raja began to blur, and around him appeared two clones, and he then continued, "As you might be guessing, these clones are not real, however I can easily roll with their leader using my essence."

After that everyone at the table looked in Gen's direction, including Raja, and upon seeing Gen he spoke, "You?! What are you doing here?", "I could ask the same of you, have you given up running after Lina?", Raja felt a shiver run down his spine and said, "Don't even remind me of that. I still have nightmares about that day.", "Oh, it wasn't that bad, you just passed out.", "You say that because you weren't there at night. For some reason Lina went crazy, the city was in chaos."

Gen started sweating on his hands and said, "H-haha, damn, she must have had some trouble at home, hahaha ...," "It wasn't that, she was looking for someone. I don't remember who now.", "Forget about it, it's a thing of the past, it's been a year since that happened.", "That's right.". Gerald looked at both of them and said, "Looks like you two know each other already?", Gen then said, "Yeah, I've seen Raja fight once. He should really be able to handle the Grunar leader. Now, about my essence, -", "Hey, you have an essence? I didn't know that. I thought only Lina and her mother had essences on Dekin.

Gen then said, "I didn't, it's been less than a year since I awakened it.", "And what level are you on?", "External.", "Hmm, way off for less than a year of essence.", "That's right.", Gerald said, and then continued, "is there any way you can demonstrate what you can do with it?", "Sure.". Gen then took his platinum ring and placed it in the center of the table, and then said, "I made it impossible to touch my ring. Anyone who wants to can try to touch it to test it."

A diamond-ranked adventurer who was facing the ring reached out his hand to try to touch it but as he got very close to the ring his hand stopped, he then stayed like that for a while until he returned his hand and said, "That's strange, it's not like there's a barrier or anything. The feeling I got was like I could stretch my hand out forever and I'd never get to it.

Karin stood up and then said, "Let me try.", she then approached the ring, and as she came in front of it she got into a position with her right arm back. She then concentrated for a few seconds, and quickly stretched her arm toward the ring. Her hand was approaching it very fast until at one point it stopped. Karin kept her arm still for a while, until she pulled it back and said, "That's strange, there really isn't a barrier. At no point did I feel my strength being stopped by anything, it's like it's really not possible to reach the ring."

Gerald then stood up and said, "Gen, do you mind if I break your ring trying?", "No, you can do your best.", "Okay", he then went to a corner of the room and picked up a huge hammer that was hanging there, he then approached the table and said, "I'm going to need a little space, please stand back.", everyone then got up from the table and went to the corner of the room.

Gerald then closed his eyes, and concentrated for a while, until he opened them and struck the hammer towards the ring. The hammer was heading for the ring, and you could hear the sound of the air in the way being crushed by it. The hammer was then about to hit the ring, when suddenly it stopped. Gerald kept the hammer there for a while until he gave up and pulled it back. He then turned to Gen and said, "It really is impossible to get at this ring, what is its essence, Gen?", "endless," replied Gen.

Gerald then asked, "Endless? What kind of essence is it?", "It's a conceptual essence", "Conceptual?! I don't believe it, I've never seen a concept essence before, but you can see it's very strong.", "Not so much, it helps me more with my defense. When it comes to attacking, it is not so good", "Even so, it is still strong. I even think you'd better hold their leader.", "Wait a moment," said Raja.

He approached the table and said, "So far, only people with no essence have been trying to touch the ring. Isn't it better that you guys let me try before you make your decision?", "True. After all their leader is also an awakened one." said one of the diamond adventurers. Gerald then said, "It really makes sense. Is there a problem with him trying Gen?", "None, after all, he's been trying for a while now without succeeding. It can't hurt to give him a few more tries."

Gerald tilted his head slightly and asked, "What do you mean he was already trying?", "Yeah, I was standing in the corner the whole time," said Raja, and hearing this Gen said, "You've already forgotten that I saw your fight with Lina, right? You can stop pretending, I know how your essence works.", "I don't know what you're talking about, I think you're just afraid I might touch your ring.", "Okay, then you can try."

Raja then approached the ring, reached out to it, and took it off the table holding it in the palm of his hand, he then said, "See, that was pretty easy.", Everyone around was open-mouthed, and Gerald asked, "How did you manage to get it?", "It's pretty easy for another awakened person to break the rules of an essence.", Upon hearing this Gen said, "Oh yeah? Then do me a favor, give the ring to Gerald so he can examine it."

Upon hearing this Raja gave a little smile and said, "No problem.", he then handed the ring to Gerald and asked, "Is everything okay with the ring I gave you?", Gerald looked at the ring for a while, observed its weight, and even put it on his finger, and right after that said, "It looks normal to me. "See, what's your excuse now Gen?", "I really owe you an apology, you're a lot smarter than I thought, but it's time to end this", Gen then started to walk towards the table.