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

had no interest in interacting with them, since they knew where the location of the hidden task was, it was only natural that

the way what's your

"Ehm.."

looking down, the young girl avoided Kevin's eyes and swiped her

a screen appeared in

ID : Ava

Age : 16

Picture : (Holographic image)

: Hero program Year

School Rank : 1078/2055

Potential : Unranked

Profession : Monster tamer

"..Ava? Monster tamer?"

Kevin looked at the information that was presented in front

the shy young girl once again, Kevin couldn't help but be

in the

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

Kevin begged

out of all the professions was the

person was born with a certain level

set limit that could never

unless you were Ren or Kevin

then the best you could achieve throughout

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

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

his whole childhood he was bullied for it. While everyone around him showed incredible talent that made them stand above their peers, Kevin was born with a mediocre E-rank talent. The

parents who also had low talents

Kevin's mentality was strong and he was never saddened by his low level of

that was until that fateful 'day'

the day that demons managed to infiltrate his hometown, and killed everyone

far away from any major city, no rescue came until dawn, five hours after

in order to hide him

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

their faces, those were the last words his parents had said to him before closing the trapdoor that led to the basement

a seed had been implanted inside of him, slowly

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

owed everything to

he managed to completely change himself,

Everything about him changed.

E-ranked talent to an SSS-rank talent over the course of a few months due to some strange

But, what determined talent?

was a measure of

talent was assed in

was something

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

the age of the 'awakened' happened. Slowly people started familiarizing themselves with mana through which they gained access to supernatural powers. Powers that enabled them to do things that they could've never

their status window they would notice that,

your

your aptitude

arts trained in sword arts, their comprehension would be nowhere near as

arts, their talent cap was still there. So if your talent cap was D-rank, then in your lifetime you could only be a D-rank

the reason why Kevin believed her talent was the

have a level cap because they don't need

the monsters, not

tamer to control the beasts, but even then,

unlimited number of beasts regardless of their potential. Making monster tamers some

for them to tame a monster, as a lot of complicated steps

an S-rank pet was

were fully grown, their daily food consumption alone could sustain a whole city for

It was just inefficient.

Kevin, this