I closed the screens and examined my body; I could see and even feel the difference in my physique. I had no more pudge but a solid frame, chiseled abs, rock-solid pecs with precise definitions in all my muscles from top to bottom. My body was covered in a thick black sludge oozing slowly from my pores, and it smelled horrendous. Good thing I did this on the floor and not my bed, heading to the showers; it took over an hour with scalding hot water to rub away the filth. I even had a couple of beast-kin yells a multitude of insults my way. Specifically asking why the fuck I pick here to breakthrough. Note to self, for now, let's make breakthroughs hidden away or at least away from people.

Getting back to my room, I equipped my leather gear. While with Xavier, he taught how every world runs off the same system of measurement for time. Something to do with the Origin Point using numbers and specific formats as stabilizers for all planes of existence. From there, he taught me how to access [System Time] from what I learned is the only correct time anywhere in the omniverse. With this specific world having a 32hr rotation, I have around 6 hours of sunlight left before nightfall.

Receiving all the guild required items from camping supplies, Guild System ID, finding my room, showering, eating, and necessary know-how of the buildings. Took up most of my day. I have to use all my hours as efficiently as possible. The 75k debt popped up and with that focused my mind.

Leaving my room and guild headquarters without anyone asking me questions. I remembered the route that was taken from the guild headquarters to the town gates. Heading to [Seathra Forest] was my first objective. I overheard some lower rank guildmates talking about a recently cleared area that D-rank or below members were allowed back in. Asking the town guards for directions and approximate time, I walked towards the outskirts of town. On the outskirts of Algasta, I ran full speed, holding nothing back with each full stride, a cloud of dust was produced. The change in scenery from harsh dead lands slowly moved to abundant vegetation with no color from the rainbow being left out was refreshing, to say the least. A mile ahead of the oasis, I passed two figures came into view. One was an Orc male with the tusk being a definite give away even with the helmet on. Combine that with a set light armor and broadsword shield combo, we got our tank with his companion being a female fox beast-kin but with a much more human-like appearance. Equipped with leather gear and the distinct impression of having a red tail with the signature white tip and 2 black tipped furry ears, I couldn't see her weapon either it was hidden or maybe a mage.

Around a pack of 5 what seemed to be galloping alligators were on their lead. When our eyes met, and I finally noticed, and with that, I couldn't run away now.

Do or die

Keeping speed, I passed in between the two adventures. I propelled myself into the air With my left foot, twisting my body downward, I used my right leg to kick the spine of the first of the gators. A straightforward audible pop came from its body, and with that, it ceased moving, landing on my forearms. I quickly burst activated {Corrupted Qi Augmentation} channeling the Qi towards my legs and jumped to my right, attacking the closest gator still in a stunned state. Grabbing its snout with my right hand, I yanked it towards the ground with my hand holding it down. Last-minute, activating the skill, I elbowed its neck against the hard dirt ground. I could feel the crunch of the vertebrae as it shattered. One of the gators gained its sense quicker than the rest, scanning for its target and acquiring its target, it lunged. I raised my hand to guard myself, but the orc from before charged the gator as the creature was mid-air. Using his shield to block the gator mid-leap. With the creature stunned, he swung his sword, chopped the gator clean in half. The gator to my right howled in pain as it erupted to fire. I could hear the fox-woman mumble something about "Fire to ashes." Get out of your head Jack. I jumped to my feet and charged the last remaining gator. Colliding bodies with the beast, I made sure I landed on top, pinning my weight using my knee. I pummeled the beast rib cage until the bones caved, and the skin broke. Only when it stopped moving did I rise to my feet. I turned to the Orc and Fox-beastkin

"Damn, bro, going in on that [gollaptor]" He walked towards me and extended his hand. I shook it, and he continued to talk. "We killed 7 before, but these guys ambushed us, we've been picking them off since then."

We all introduced each other, with the orc male being Hanguk and the fox-beastkin, Chole, lucky she knew [Purify]. It was Hanguk that spoke first. "Thanks for the help, you can have 4 of the [gollaptors], 3 you killed and one from us. We'll take the charred one" He even gave me the non-burned one. "The offer seems fair, I can do that" As I thought about what to do with the corpses, I asked, "Can you teach me the properly handle these? I'll pay with mats from 2 of the corpses" They talked to each other for a second then agreed. Once the agreement was made, an entire [gollaptor] vanished in a split second. We were all visually spooked until I remembered the contract; I completely forgot, "I'm in a contract that transports my loot," I said the bare minimum. Once I explained, they seemed to understand, next on the menu {Survivalism} class.

I learned a lot from these two from skinning and the different knives needed to separate the different layers of skin. To butchering and all the available edible parts and the specific parts, alchemists and a profession called pill cultivators to use. When we finally started cooking, the taste was breathtaking; I could never get used to this. A cool feature I learned is in group events like cooking. The highest level base stat modifier gets applied, but everyone gets EXP; it's divided based on your participation in the final result. That comes with 80% of the total acquired exp going to Hanguk and the rest between Chole and me. But that still nets me a higher exp gain than by myself. Level 8 was my best bet to what my {Survivalism} skill would be if I had to guess, bringing it up mid-chew on a piece of steak, I asked, "How much would 1 gator get me back at Algasta?" Chole spoke up, "1 silver if fully dismantled to 75 bronze if you sell it to the guild whole; quality matters a lot. "The charred one we just ate would get close to 30 bronze,"

I responded, 'Is the guild the only place you can sell to?" they both looked at me like I said something stupid. Hanguk interrupted, "Yeah, the guild is partial owners of the settlement; everything goes through them one way or another. Above them is the kingdom that gives them land for settlements. I feigned ignorance using the amnesia excuse I told Emila and Emily.

Changing conversation topics, I openly asked the two, "Are you both members of [Deceived Gods]?" It was a simple question, and beating around the bush won't help. Chole answered, "No, we're not; we only just completed [Ritual of Maturity] within the last month. When the last of the words left her mouth, Hanguk's mood instantly sunk. "I'm sorry, Hanguk" An awkward silence overtook the once cheerful campfire. The reasoning for the drastic mood change was me or the effect of what made me. He clearly lost someone in the monster's raids. The 5000 that died aren't the only victims. I'm so damn worried about the debt, I couldn't even have the common decency to pay respects to the dead.

"It's ok Chole, we all lost someone" Raising a cut of meat into the air, he spoke, "To this meal, We honor those who have passed may Shauug welcome them all to his free lands" Chole followed him and not wanting to burst the bubble I did too. The mood lightened up with that, the joyous feeling surfaced a tad bit. Curiosity killing the cat, I asked

"I want to know what is the [Ritual of Maturity], I've heard it a couple of times. Why is it so important?

"Basically for all sentient races from 18-20 there are some exceptions but their special exceptions, have to perform their cultures form of initiating adulthood, that tells the system you're ready to handle Qi, Mana, Psy with that you have full access."

Responding with many questions, "Why 18-20, why not younger, and what do you mean adulthood initiation?"

'I'm only telling you what Elder Baba told me, it has something to do with the body's ability to handle the influence of energy. My big bro Hoggard did his at 10; even in our clan, he's considered gifted."

"With the adulthood initiation, to be honest, I don't know. The best answer I could get from the Elder is, "Would you give a child access to your weaponry."

Having him, be Hogard brother put a damper on my mood; it took me by surprise to be honest. Like what are the chances of this happening. I had to clear my suspicions "Is your brother the 'Battle Specialist Hogard' from [Deceived Gods]?

"Yeah, how did you know?, is that why you asked earlier about [Deceived Gods]"

"He's the one who gave me my introduction to the guild; meeting the kid brother is something else" I slightly laughed, looking back at the scare he gave me. More like the reality check I needed.

"The chances would have been pretty big; actually, our clan helped [Deceived Gods] claim the land, I would say 10% of the orcs here come from us.

"Holy shit, speaking to royalty, I see," using my elbow to nudge him.

"Yeah, right, I wouldn't be out here if I was," pointing around to the empty wastelands towards Algasta.

We both laughed, even Chole had a slight chuckle escape her mouth.

"Ok, boys, it's getting late. We should start packing up before nightfall."

Looking around, I just now noticed how fast time passed. Hanguk and Chole seemed like good people. Asking before, we went back, "Do you want to group up tomorrow, hunt more [gollaptors]? I can be a second frontline with Hangkuk, and we can do a ⅓ split on all loot," Hanguk answered, "I wouldn't mind personally having another frontline would help a lot." He looked towards Chole and waited for her input on the matter. "I wouldn't mind, ⅓ split seems fair. We usually meet up at 12:00 system time at the front gates."

I learned that the guild loans out spatial rings 20 gold for the smallest available space being 10m cube. After the run back to Algasta, we split ways. The route was smooth with the town's life dying down, the streets were bare, and only the naked moon shining.

As I rattled my brain with questions on how to improve my loot earnings, I finally arrived at my room, and I was exhausted. My body fell instantly onto the soft mattress, and I faded off into the dream world.