[Ancient Calendar: 3 April 0001]

  The next day, after having a healthy breakfast, Zhen and the others headed back to hunting Howlers.

  “Didn't you get any sleep?” Seeing Kenji's somewhat red eyes, Joon asked.

  “Something… like that.” Yesterday, Kenji was planning on going to sleep after his usual training session, but then he got a call from Mary, who was worried sick about him.

  She hadn't seen him for days and thought something bad had happened to him. So, he had to explain that his party was helping the Cross party clear the Howlers territory.

  After which, their conversation drifted into other topics, and unknowingly, hours went by. But by the time Kenji was about to go to sleep, the sun had already risen.

  Leaving the camp, Zhen and the others had to spend an hour arriving at the area that wasn't cleared.

  In the past two days, the majority of the outer region of the Howlers territory was almost cleared.

  Thus, today, before leaving, all the parties got together and formed a plan to clear the entirety of the outer region by the end of the day.

  After killing the pack of Howlers, Zhen put the carcasses in the storage bag and continued leading the others in the direction of the next pack.

  Just like that, another day went by, and they had hunted a total of 124 Howlers.

  “Zhen, we should head back now.” Finally clearing the last area, Anon wanted to head back and have something to eat.

  “Wait…” Zhen kept staring at the last remaining bright dots on the map, but soon they too disappeared. “We can go now.”

  The entire outer region of the Howlers territory was finally cleared. Starting tomorrow, they could finally start clearing the middle region.

  “Incoming.” As they were walking back to the camp, Zhen sensed a group of monsters heading their way at a very fast speed.

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  Hearing Zhen's warning, Anon immediately activated [Iron], Joon started forming Ki arrows with [Arrow], and Kenji began concentrating Ki on both his hands simultaneously.

  As they got ready, the barrage of wind blades also started.

  Zhen and Kenji, using their speed, quickly got out of their way. Joon too hid behind a tree. Only Anon fearlessly charged at the group of Storm-thorns.

  After the wind blade attack, the Storm-thorns were just sitting ducks, and before long they all were reduced to dried leaves.

  After that attack, Zhen and the others faced three more attacks from Storm-thorns before they finally arrived at the camp.

  “Did they, by any chance, migrate here?”

  “I contacted a few of my friends, and it's the same up there. In fact, for unknown reasons, the number of Storm-thorns seems to have increased a lot.”

  “What's there to worry about? Some Storm-thorns? They are just level 1 monsters. If someone has a sensory gift, it's very easy to spot them.”

  While the party leaders were busy arguing, the camp manager returned from exchanging the Howlers' carcasses for gold.

  “Finally, let's get some gear updates.”

  “Dua, let's get you those remaining materials.”

  The savings of these three days were enough for all participating parties to buy some useful things.

  Zhen took today's earnings and headed back to the city. He got a call from the Party Hall that someone had a Soul Pearl and was willing to sell it.

  As Zhen left, Anon and Joon got together with their new friends, while Kenji went to practice [Beam].

  He already mastered it and can even fire [Beam] two times simultaneously. Now he wanted to see if he could fire ten [Beams] at the same time.

  After practicing for a few hours, Kenji talked to Mary for a while before going to sleep.

  [Ancient Calendar: 4 April 0001]

  The next day, they entered the middle region and hunted a total of 146 Howlers.

  [User: Kenji

  Age: 18

  Ki: 5,504

  Profession: None

  Innate Ability: Devour

  Heavenly Gift: Recovery (F), Rapid (E)

  Skills: Flash (E), Ki Blade (E), Bull Fist (F), Beam (C)]

  “Should I focus on [Enforce] now?”

  Walking back to the camp, Kenji was lost on whether or not he should continue improving his control over [Beam] or focus on [Enforce].

  Staring at his massive Ki reserves, Kenji felt that it was such a waste that he wasn't able to put them to use. Thus, he decided to work on [Enforce] starting today.

  __________

  “Finally cleared the whole region.” Datu, the leader of the Cross Party, finally relaxed after killing all the Elite Howlers.

  Yesterday, after they bought the binding treasure, everything went well and they hunted many Elite Howlers.

  However, when this news reached the Territory Boss, the Supreme Alpha, he ordered all the Elite Howlers present in the inner region to gather together and ambush the humans that dared to enter the inner region.

  Because of this, the three parties had to spend many hours trying to find all the missing Howlers.

  The map also didn't help, as it only showed the areas whose Howlers were still alive, not their current location.

  When they finally came across a lone Alpha Howler, they frantically chased it, hoping that it would lead them to their hideout.

  But instead of the expected 4–6 Elite Howlers, the entire population of Elite Howlers pounced at them.

  “This treasure is such a lifesaver, we should also get one. It can come in handy during the Monster Tide.” The leader of the Blade Party, Ricardo, looked at the small orb in his hand and said.

  Today, the barrier orb saved their lives. If it wasn't for the orb, many of them would have died.

  When the whole population of Elite Howlers attacked them, the leader of the Aqua Party, Solomon, thought on his feet and activated the barrier orb, trapping a portion of the Elite Howlers and themselves inside a protective bubble.

  The Elite Howlers outside the bubble weren't able to get in, and those trapped inside with them quickly turned into lifeless corpses.

  When they shut down the barrier orb and the Elite Howlers outside found the opportunity, they attacked them.

  In Howlers minds, that annoying bubble barrier was a one-time thing. But to all their horror, that bubble appeared once again, trapping many of their fellow Howlers with bloodthirsty humans.

  Using the barrier orb twice, the three parties were able to kill almost half of the Elite Howlers.

  __________

  Author’s Note:

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