After returning home, Yakeru practically threw himself in the shower, eager to wash the stench of swamp water off his body. With how physically demanding his new job was, the warm water on his body was very therapeutic for him.

After drying himself off and putting on a change of clothes, he headed to the kitchen where he found his sister whipping up a meal for them. Before, he'd be the one looking forward to hearing all about her adventures. Now the roles were reversed as she urged him to give her the details of his latest adventure.

"Fungus Blights, huh?" Akari placed two bowls of beef and carrot stew on the dining table. "Good that you nipped them in the bud when you did. You didn't get hurt, did you?"

"No, I'm fine. They were around E to D-tier anyway so they weren't that strong." He sat at the table.

"Don't get too cocky," she said, sitting across from him. "Just because something isn't much of a threat doesn't mean you should let your guard down. Weak monsters are still monsters."

"I know, I know. 'Always assume my opponent is stronger.' You've already engrained that into my head."

"Nice to know you haven't forgotten." She said before eating.

"The only blight there that could've posed a threat was around C-tier. But Kenji took it out." Yakeru said, idly stirring his stew.

Akari's eyebrows lifted slightly in surprise after hearing this. It wasn't difficult to piece together that Kenji wasn't the strongest of the party based on Yakeru's story of his first experience doing a mission. Even if it seemed like he'd softened Kenji's shortcomings.

Briefly spectating their little training session from yesterday only confirmed her assumptions about the young conjurer.

"Really? He improved that much after your little training session?"

Yakeru paused for a moment. Of course he hadn't improved. Not in the slightest. But he couldn't bring himself to say something so blunt.

"He brought along an enhancement elixir."

"Oh, I see." She said between bites. "That'd be the first monster he's killed, right?"

"Yeah..." Yakeru poked at a sliced carrot floating through the steaming bowl.

Akari stared at him for a moment. Despite beef and carrot stew being his favorite dish, he hadn't so much as touched it during their whole conversation, signaling something was off.

"So what's up?" She probed.

"Huh?"

"Don't 'huh' me. I've known you long enough to know when you have something on your mind."

She remembered him mentioning a third party member they'd been running missions with. Someone strong yet not the social type. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"That Fuyumi girl isn't causing any friction is she?"

His eyes shot open as if surprised she would think such a thing.

"No, no! It's nothing like that! She's actually really nice when she wants to be."

"Ending your sentence with 'when she wants to be' doesn't exactly improve my impression of her." She countered leaving Yakeru a bit flustered.

"Just...it's nothing. I promise it's nothing major."

'Or at least I hope not.' He added in his head.

"Well, then eat up or it'll get cold."

He did as she suggested, appearing to be deep in thought.

'I hope I'm just reading into this too much. It was his first time taking down a monster. I should be happy for him...so why am I worried?'

*****

Hours had passed since Kenji departed from the capital by carriage, traveling through an unfamiliar landscape. He scanned his surroundings, intrigued by the mysterious craters that dotted the plains and the warped trees sprouting from the crimson grass. Monstrous craggy rock formations jutted from the earth on either side of him and herds of human-sized birds pecked at the ground.

As he was dropped off, the white and burgundy birds raised their heads to study the boy as if disturbed by his presence.

"Easy now..."

Luckily they resumed eating the grass once enough distance was put between them. They didn't seem aggressive despite their intimidating size.

He paid the coachman before the carriage rode off into the distance.

"Now then, there has to be something stronger that I can kill here..."

This plain stretched between the inner and mid-rim. He didn't have much information on the area, only that the majority of monsters were C and B-tier. What type of monsters that lurked in these parts, he didn't know, thus he moved cautiously.

He also didn't have a party accompanying him so he had no one to rely on. If things went south, he'd be forced to retreat.

He passed a cliff face and grazed his hand along its jagged surface. Ducking under a tree that almost twisted into the ground, he came across a metallic sphere suspended in midair. A soft white glow emitted from its grooves as some unknown force warped the light around it.

Confused yet curious, he approached it cautiously. Once he came within a certain distance of the mysterious object, its color suddenly shifted to a blood red. Kenji stopped in his tracks almost as if his body had locked in place.

'What just happened?' he wondered, unsure if he should be worried.

Pebbles began to gradually levitate toward it. Loose rubble dragged along the ground, gravitating to the sphere.

Soon the earth began to tremble as the cliff face fractured. He felt himself sliding toward the sphere. So much so that he was forced to grasp onto a nearby tree. It was as if gravity had shifted, pulling him toward the sphere.

Boulders were ripped from the cliff face and swirled around it. The more debris that slung toward it, the more a golem started to take shape.

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"This must be a gravity dyson!" he assumed, still clinging onto the tree that, luckily, was strong enough to withstand the intense gravity well.

After its golem was complete, the strength of its gravity subsided just enough for its creation to still be held together, leaving behind a crater.

It resembled a typical stone golem, except it didn't have legs. Instead, its lower half consisted of swirling debris. The dyson itself had cleverly concealed itself somewhere within the golem.

This told him that the dyson wasn't very durable and relied on its environment to compensate.

As the golem outstretched its large hand, a section of the earth tore apart. It swung its arm, flinging the debris toward Kenji.

𝘚𝘭𝘢𝘮!

He leaped out of the way as the ground he was just standing on was pulverized. The golem scanned the area for him through the dust.

Kenji hid behind a boulder, pulling out an elixir from his pouch and drinking its contents.

He'd never encountered a gravity dyson before but based on the crater it left earlier, he concluded that its gravity field had a limited range.

Just as his body began to swirl with radiance, the boulder he'd hid behind was ripped from the ground. The golem whipped its arm and sent it crashing into a barrier Kenji conjured. He waved his staff and fired a blast toward the beast. With a flick of its wrist, it warped the terrain in front of it, pulling together chunks of the earth to tank the brunt.

𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘮!

Without delay, he fired a second time. He couldn't allow it to advance. As long as he stayed out of range and continued his onslaught, it wouldn't have any breathing room.

The dyson rearranged the debris that made up the monster's arm and formed a shield.

𝘚𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘩!

His attack had eviscerated the golem's top half but despite that, it began gathering more rubble to fill the missing mass. He assumed the dyson was buried in its chest cavity or maybe its head so naturally he thought he'd finished the fight with that attack. Apparently not but that only narrowed down where the dyson was located.

As the golem pulled itself back together, he'd already fired another devastating blast, tearing apart its lower section. Confident this time, Kenji nearly let down his guard when his eyes widened in shock. The golem began repairing itself again.

He was positive that the dyson was in its lower half...unless,

'It must be repositioning itself.'

This made this fight exponentially more challenging as he was clueless about where the main body was located. His elixir was still in effect, however, so there was still a chance at victory.

He raised his staff again, bombarding the golem with a flurry of projectiles. Each one punched holes through its body, slowly eating away at its mass.

He ceased fire after a dense smoke cloud had formed. Surely that was enough to end things. He waved his hand, coughing as he tried maneuvering his way through the cloud when he came to a sudden halt.

"Huh?!"

His body felt heavier and his movements were sluggish. He fought to keep himself upright but the mysterious force grew stronger in objection. The additional weight buckled his knees and he face-planted into the dirt, forming a small crater. He gritted his teeth as he realized what was happening.

"No...! Not like this...!"

As the smoke cleared, he could see the golem's outstretched hand. It waved its other hand as a chunk of rock was ripped from the cliff.

If it weren't for the increased gravity locking Kenji in place, he'd be trembling. His mind scrambled for a solution to his predicament, clutching onto his staff as the golem positioned the boulder above him.

At that moment, he thought of the only thing he could do, willing radiance into his staff.

"Hope this works!" he prayed as the golem released the boulder, sending it tumbling down. Before it could crush him, he conjured a dome around himself.

𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘩!

The boulder buried him beneath the surface upon impact. Using its ability, the golem lifted the boulder and tossed it to the side to scan the area for the ranger.

As it approached, a tremor began to shake the earth. As it glanced down a beam of radiance erupted from the ground, slamming into its arm.

Kenji stood just below the surface, peering through the tunnel left behind by his surprise attack. Observing from below, again, it didn't seem like he hit the dyson because it started repairing itself. However, he'd noticed a flaw in its strategy to conceal itself, something he hadn't seen in the heat of battle.

Before he alerted the dyson, the light was warped around it. The golem had small crevices, allowing light to pass through its body in some areas. But occasionally, he'd see the light bend. This bending of light would dance from one point inside the golem to the next, allowing him to pinpoint its location.

"Got you now!" he exclaimed confidently.

As it was busy "regenerating" its missing limb, the boy aimed his staff, tracing it in the air to track the bending light before he fired.

𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘮!

The shockwave from the blast ripped the golem apart, sending stones flying in all directions.

Kenji dove into cover as the debris hammered the surface. After the commotion ceased, he built up the courage to climb out of the tunnel he'd left behind. He peeked outside to see the area demolished and lying at the center of the ruins was what used to be a metal sphere, now twisted and sparking.

"I did it..." he panted, relief washing over him as he stood up from the hole to get a better look. "I actually did it!"

There was an obsessive look in his eyes as he celebrated, a smile creeping along his face. The radiance around him gradually dissipated.

"So this is what power feels like."

He checked his satchel and confirmed he had three more elixirs. It took one to take down one gravity dyson, but now that he was familiar with their tactics, he estimated he could kill at least two, possibly three, before having to use another elixir.

With that, he burned through another hour slaughtering dysons. As expected, they never deviated from their usual tactics. This only presented more opportunities to refine his strategy.

The only issue he had was when they were clustered together. If he triggered one, they'd all be alerted so his original strategy was to trigger them, retreat, then pick them off one by one while ensuring he was out of range of their gravity field.

This wasn't very efficient since it'd burn through his elixir quickly. After a while, he took a new, more effective approach to deal with these clusters, sniping them from afar while they were still idle.

"These things didn't stand a chance," he muttered.

After he'd exhausted all his elixirs, he rested on a stone slab to admire his work, looking out at the dozens of dented and smoking scrap metal he'd left behind.

As he went to stand, though, he was hit with a sudden wave of throbbing pain, grounding him again.

"What's going on?!" He panicked, clutching his chest.

The throbbing pain quickly turned into a burning sensation that spread throughout his body. His muscles were sore and his breathing became constricted.

He writhed on the ground for several minutes as the excruciating pain intensified.

He didn't think to bring a health elixir since he figured he could kill the monsters in the area quickly enough so he had no means to soothe his pain.

However, after those agonizing minutes, it'd subsided just as sudden as it had appeared. He took a few minutes to steady his breathing before attempting to stand.

Still sore, he carefully placed one foot under him before pushing himself upright. Using the boulder as support, he rubbed his chest. Surprisingly, the pain had almost completely vanished.

"What was that?" he said in confusion.

He did do a considerable amount of fighting recently. From fungus blights in the swamp to gravity dysons it wasn't exactly far-fetched to say his body had had enough. He was a conjurer after all, unlike Yakeru and Fuyumi who had more endurance than him.

Chalking up that unpleasant experience to simple exhaustion, he began heading home once he felt comfortable to do so.

*****

It was already nightfall by the time he arrived. The streets weren't as lively this time around as he navigated through the familiar neighborhood.

He walked into his deteriorating home to find his father slouched on the couch. The rusty door hinges must've gotten his attention because he glanced back.

"Oh, it's just you," he mumbled, his cheeks the usual red.

The alcoholic took a swig of the drink in his hand only to find it empty. Irritated, he tipped it upside down but only droplets came out.

"Make yourself useful for once and grab me another beer."

Kenji didn't even get a chance to take his shoes off before he started barking orders. Regardless, he reluctantly obeyed, walking into the kitchen and coming out with a cold beer, tossing it to him.

"Here."

Catching it, his father asked,

"You still leeching off strong rangers?"

Kenji clenched his fist in anger.

"I've been holding my own." he countered.

His father placed the edge of the bottle cap on the table and slammed his hand down on top, effortlessly popping it off.

"Yeah, sure." he huffed, slightly amused.

Kenji wanted to add more but didn't bother. He wasn't in the mood for another fight and frankly, he couldn't muster the energy for one either. Instead, he marched to his room and slammed the door. Collapsing onto his bed, his mind began to race.

There was no respect for the weak.

At this point, he was willing to do whatever it took to gain that which he longed for. He weighed his opinions, searching for the fastest solution in his head. Images of the missing person's posters flickered through his mind.

His eyes lit up.

"That's it!" He exclaimed, shooting upright. The solution was obvious. For the world to recognize his potential...

"I'll just have to hunt 𝘩𝘪𝘮."