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

in interacting with them, since they knew where the location of the hidden task was, it was only natural that his

by the way what's your

"Ehm.."

avoided Kevin's eyes

a screen appeared

ID : Ava

Age : 16

Picture : (Holographic image)

: Hero program Year

School Rank : 1078/2055

Potential : Unranked

Profession : Monster tamer

"..Ava? Monster tamer?"

his chin, Kevin looked at the information that was presented

again, Kevin

thought was the strongest in the world,

as swordsmanship, or fancy professions that were flashy and pleasing to the eye as the

Kevin begged to

of all the professions was

born with a

was a set limit that could never be changed no

Ren or

best you could

reached your talent limit, no matter how much extra time you spent training, you

the despair that stemmed from

talent was terrible. It was so bad that throughout his whole childhood he was bullied for it. While everyone around him showed incredible talent that made them stand above their peers,

the time, his parents who also had low talents blamed themselves

was never

until that

to infiltrate his hometown, and killed everyone

no rescue came until dawn, five hours after the

parents had sacrificed their lives in order to hide him from

ourselves to let you live should be enough to atone for letting you be born with a low talent that made you suffer

his parents had said to him before closing the trapdoor that led

dreams, like a plague that never ceases to attack the immune system. It was almost like a seed had been implanted inside of

suddenly appearing before him when he was in his most dire state, he would've never been able to survive, grow strong enough to rank first in the school ranking, and let alone enroll in the

everything to the

he managed to completely change himself, his body, his talent, his

Everything about him changed.

to an SSS-rank talent over the course of a few

But, what determined talent?

was a measure

was assed in regards to the profession one

was something that could not be chosen

humans were able to access mana, strange status windows similar to the ones that appear in games appeared in front

people started familiarizing themselves with mana through which they gained access to supernatural

would notice that, right

was your natural

then it meant that your aptitude towards spearmanship was amplified naturally by the

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

everyone had different levels of talent in regards to their natural talent. Meaning that even if someone was talented in spear arts, their talent cap was still there. So if your talent cap was D-rank, then in your lifetime you could only be a

case of Ava, the reason why Kevin believed her talent was the best, was because

cap because they don't need to have

mattered was the monsters,

of control was required by the tamer to control the beasts, but

of beasts regardless of their potential. Making

highly 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

pet was raised. They

their daily food consumption alone could

It was just inefficient.

Kevin, this didn't