The Author's POV

"pfff, you can't even remember the faces of your own teammates?"

Smirking, Jin mockingly looked at Kevin.

"Oh? so you're telling me that you remember the face of all your teammates?"

Raising his brow, Kevin turned around and skeptically looked at Jin.

"..."

Turning around, Jin pretended to have not heard Kevin and walked away.

Dumbfounded, Kevin helplessly looked in Emma and Amanda's direction, only to be left even more speechless.

Swiftly moving around the trees, Emma was currently being chased by Amanda whose face remained expressionless.

-Swish!

-Swish!

-Swish

Taking out her bow. At an inhuman speed, Amanda's fingers danced between the bow and the quiver. Soon, three arrows flew in Emma's direction at a speed that couldn't be seen by the naked eye.

-Thud! -Thud! -Thud!

"Stop! Stop! Stop! I give up!"

Taking cover behind a tree, Emma raised her hands in defeat as she fearfully looked at the arrows that were imbued on the tree she was hiding. Each arrow perfectly penetrated the hard outer shell of the tree. Looking closely, the tip of each arrow was only a few centimeters from Emma's face, sending cold shivers down her spine. If it weren't for the fact that Amanda restrained herself, Emma might've actually died.

Shaking his head, Kevin turned his attention back to the young girl, not before letting out a long sigh. He was starting to doubt whether grouping with them was the right thing to do.

'Maybe if Melissa was here things wouldn't have been as bad...'

Thought Kevin for a moment before shaking his head.

Knowing Melissa's personality, things might've actually turned out for the worse.

Sighing once again, and ignoring the commotion that Amanda and Emma were causing, Kevin squinted his eyes and took a good look at the girl before him.

She was a beautiful, light-skinned young girl with a petite yet curvaceous frame and below-average height. She had long, slightly curly black hair that reached all the way to her back. Her large crystal eyes were slightly covered by short square bangs. She had plump rosy cheeks which accompanied by her short figure made one want to tightly squeeze them.

"Did you come to me to ask me to protect you?"

"N-no!"

Quickly shaking her head, the young girl timidly pointed towards another group of people in the distance.

"They sa-id that they know where the hidden task was..."

"...oh?"

Taking one good look at the members in the distance, Kevin was reminded of the people he had previously seen in the waiting room.

Although he did not remember the young girl, he did remember two out of the four individuals gathered.

They were the most arrogant and prideful of the bunch, so of course, he knew about them.

If he didn't remember wrong, they should've been ranked around the hundreds and were extremely prideful of their ranking. They were so proud and arrogant that they thought that they could fight Kevin on equal terms.

Like they all say...

Powerful people often grew confident, and confident people were often conceited.

Power gets in the head of everyone. Kevin was no better, but because he had a clear goal, he managed to suppress his inner desires.

Shaking his head, he walked towards them

location of the hidden task was,

way

"Ehm.."

avoided Kevin's eyes

screen appeared

ID : Ava

Age : 16

Picture : (Holographic image)

Hero program Year

School Rank : 1078/2055

Potential : Unranked

Profession : Monster tamer

"..Ava? Monster tamer?"

chin, Kevin looked at the information that

at the shy young girl once again, Kevin couldn't

one asked Kevin which profession he thought was the strongest in the

regard things such as swordsmanship, or fancy professions that

begged

most fearsome out of all the

person was born with a certain level of

a set limit that could never be changed no matter

you were Ren or Kevin who

then the best you could achieve throughout your whole life was becoming a

matter how much extra time you spent training, you would never be able to

all too familiar with the despair that stemmed from knowing their talent was too

that throughout his whole childhood he was bullied for it. While everyone around him showed incredible talent

also had

he was never saddened by his low level

that was until

day that demons managed to

city, no rescue came until dawn,

sacrificed their lives in

be enough to atone for letting you be born with a low

last words his parents had said to him before closing the trapdoor that led to the basement and disappearing from

this day, he had still not gotten over that day as it still haunts him in his dreams, like a plague that never ceases to attack the immune system. It was almost like a seed had been implanted inside of him, slowly eroding his state of mind. Kevin couldn't remember how many times he had woken up because of the nightmares, only to find

was in his most dire state, he would've never been able to survive, grow strong enough to rank first in

owed everything

he managed to completely change himself,

Everything about him changed.

an SSS-rank talent over the course

But, what determined talent?

a measure of natural

assed in

something that

of the second cataclysm and humans were able to access mana, strange status windows similar to the ones that appear

themselves with mana through which they gained access to supernatural powers. Powers that enabled them to do things that

someone paid closely to their status window they would notice that, right below their status,

was your

status window showed 'Spearmanship' then it meant that your aptitude

if a person talented in spear arts trained in sword arts, their comprehension would be nowhere near as fast as their spear

someone was talented in spear arts, their talent cap was still there. So if your talent cap was D-rank, then in your

talent was

a level cap because

the monsters, not the tamer

was required by the tamer to control the beasts, but even then, what mattered most was

could tame an unlimited number of beasts regardless of their

regarded. This was simply due to how difficult it was for them to tame a monster, as a lot of complicated steps were required. Moreover, the financial burden one would incur just to raise a monster could even cause some of the wealthiest people in the

if an S-rank pet was raised. They

daily food consumption alone could sustain a whole city

It was just inefficient.

Kevin, this didn't matter