Looking at the latest notifications from the system, Asher moved further into the dungeon. He didn't know why the System needed time, but he didn't mind waiting.
Asher killed the monster, blood spurted all over him.
Feeling that he had reached the peak of D Rank, and as a D+ Rank Hunter, he could finally begin to advance to C Rank.
'It would be better at the World Academy,' he thought, turning to leave the dungeon.
Though he could reach C+ Rank outside of the World Academy, the mana quality and environment were superior there. Hence, it made sense to postpone it until he arrived at the World Academy.
There were still some days left in his allotted time outside of the World Academy, but Asher decided to return now that he had accomplished everything he planned to do.
Staying outside no longer served any purpose to him.
"I should work on the black element," Asher muttered, exiting the dungeon.
Although he still had one skill that Helena had taught him, there was much more to the Black Element present in the Great Library. That was his next goal.
In his previous life, he had felt it was a waste of his potential that he never really learned any techniques related to his Element Affinity. Even his sword art didn't involve any element at all.
For example, Nathan used a bit of Space Element in his sword art, but most of it was Wind Element. However, Asher had never used the elements he had an affinity for in his previous life.
Instead of elements, Asher used pure mana in each of his sword techniques. Although he couldn't recall now, he still remembered the inspiration behind it.
Asher exited the Dungeon with Kai and saw Dane waiting for them.
'What did they do inside?' the Manager thought, noticing Asher covered in blood.
'I guess he really gave it his all inside the dungeon,' the manager concluded.
In his eyes, Asher, being a D Rank Hunter, would have had a lot of difficulty hunting in a C Rank Dungeon because it was filled with D Rank Monsters. A party full of D Rank Monsters would be needed to kill all those D Rank monsters.
"We're done here, he'll give the monster corpses to you," Asher said, pointing at Kai.
"Okay, Young Master," the manager politely replied.
Asher headed towards the car with Dane, and Kai looked at the manager.
"Here, there are 115 Monster Corpses in this spatial ring. Where should I put them?" Kai asked.
"You can put them in the Storage Room, come, I'll show you," the Manager said, although he was initially confused.
'Did he kill most of them?' the manager wondered but refrained from asking.
In his mind, a D Rank killing around 115 D Rank Monsters in 5-6 days was impossible. But he had heard about the talented Asher Greville. Hardly a person in Somaria didn't know about him.
The rumors about Kevin Whiteheart being the prodigy of this generation were thwarted the moment clips of the Representative Tournament went viral.
This assumption led the manager to think that Asher had a solid chance of killing around 50 such monsters on his own.
Inside the car, Asher was searching for any news regarding the heist they had committed.
'So they're hiding the information from the public,' Asher thought.
Even though the blame lay with the Whiteheart Family, such news was enough to cause unrest and question the capabilities of the Elite Families. It was obvious why news about this incident was not made public.
Even now, only the Seat Holders in the High Council were informed about this heist and the word 'Zephyr'.
Asher had predicted such an outcome after the heist, after all.
He wanted the name 'Zephyr' to become an entity opposing everyone standing at the top of this world.
Unlike his previous life where 'Zephyr' was a source of fear among others, this time he aimed to go a step further.
It didn't take long for Asher to arrive at the World Academy. Before stepping out of the car, he returned the artifacts he had acquired to Kai and Dane.
However, he still had the one artifact shaped like an eye with him. It was the very artifact that Asher himself had gone on this mission for.
He was confident that this artifact wouldn't be detected by the devices planted all over the World Academy.
The source of his confidence came from examining the description of this artifact.
Right now, the system wasn't responding to him, and the strange snake tattoo on his right arm had also disappeared after appearing once.
He still had many questions, and he knew that some would be answered the moment his system became operational again.
*********
Inside the World Academy, far from the VIP Dorms,
"Please, I have given—" A boy was saying something but he was interrupted when somebody kicked him in the stomach.
He grunted in pain as he rolled on the ground.
From the corner of his eyes, he could see a green-haired boy looking down at him. At this moment, he wanted to kill this boy, but he was powerless against him.
The person beating him was not only stronger than him, but the family he came from was not something he could oppose.
"Now, now, don't cry like that..." Gavin said with a smile on his face.
He crouched down, grabbed the boy's hair, and pulled his face up from the ground.
"Why me..." The boy asked,
"Why, you ask?" Gavin tilted his head with a confused look on his face.
"I don't know, maybe because I felt like it," Gavin replied, acting like he was thinking hard about it.
'This crazy bastard,' The boy thought to himself.
He wasn't the only one that had suffered such treatment at Gavin's hands. There were many others who had endured the same treatment he was getting, but it was the first time Gavin had targeted someone outside his class.
The boy he was beating was from Class 1.
"Hey Gavin, you should leave that guy now," One of the seniors standing behind Gavin finally spoke up.
Although they were there to support Gavin, as they were ordered to, looking at the boy's condition, one of them became worried.
He knew that if Gavin kept beating the boy like that, things could go wrong for them.
"Heh?" Gavin looked back as he dropped the boy he was holding.
"Did I ask for your advice?" Gavin said with an annoyed look on his face.
These seniors were following him because he was doing a task that Leonard had given him. But seeing that one of them spoke up against him made him irritated.
"Well, coming back to you," Gavin turned towards the boy, smiling.
"Tell your friends to give me enough GP for this month, okay?" He said.
".....Okay," The boy had no choice but to agree to whatever demands Gavin had for him.
Gavin stretched his hands as he left the boy who was wounded all over his body from Gavin's physical attacks. He didn't use mana-induced attacks, so it wasn't against the rules.
**********
In an underground facility,
"How is the experiment going, Wagxon?" A man looking around 50 years old with light brown hair and slightly bluish eyes, wearing a black suit, asked.
An older man wearing a long white lab coat with silver-rimmed glasses looked at the man on his right and replied,
"I have been able to increase the efficiency of the mana core by 40%, but the fusion is unstable and its intelligence is also subpar,"
"We just need more humans. I need at least someone on the C Rank level—" Before Wagxon could complete his sentence, the strange creature in front of them started to bloat everywhere.
"Dammit, another failure," Wagxon said with a disappointed look on his face, raising his hands.
Suddenly, the bizarre creature stopped moving as water droplets fell from its eyes.
"Forget about getting new subjects for now. It was so difficult to gather your current subjects, and don't forget we cannot repeat the same method that we used with those Garcia bastards," The man wearing the black suit said to Wagxon.
"I know, I know, but great things require great sacrifices," Wagxon looked at the man beside him as he raised his hands.
"I have secured enough Pure Mana Crystals to continue the current experiments," The man replied.
"Well, the boosters are almost ready, and we can send them into the markets in the coming year if you want," Wagxon replied.
"Where do you want the supply of the Mana Crystals to go?" The man asked.
Wagxon thought for a second.
"I think our base in Fashia would be the right choice," He replied.
"But when will the supply arrive?" He asked politely.
"Depends, but in half a year, depending on the negotiations with the Black Market," The man spoke as he stared at the massive facility in front of him.
