Standing a bit over one eighty, with defined muscles and releasing a small magical aura, Aki thought it'd be enough to avoid the cliche of being stopped from registering by some idiot, but he'd forgotten that those were literally the minimum for a healthy commoner, nevermind an adventurer.

Ironically enough however, he had been robbed of the chance of making the two meter tall muscle mountain meet his new lover, the ground, by an older man that had basically the same stature as him with as many scars as he didn't have, which was to say he could have been posing together with the wolverine.

"Sara." He said with gravitas that had the room quiet down completely. "I thought you knew better than to step in here again." Though it sounded like a threat, it was quite simple to see the look he directed at her formerly crippled feet before actually examining her equipment and the young man by her side

Though it was not immediately obvious, Aki had enchanted the two sets of leather armour to be as resilient as metal and the cloth to be as strong as hide, both maintaining their weight and flexibility. The spear on the other hand, was a magical copper variant that had been reinforced for general and heat resistance, with the blade being made so heat would more easily escape from it.

He'd actually given Sara four more of those, all inside a small sub-space in her new bracelet, in case the spear proved to be even more brittle than he'd first thought.

"I do. Were I still in the same situation I'd not have brought my discipline on such a disaster." She shook her head, getting only a grunt for an answer before the man walked away.

It was simple to see he was still observing the surroundings for something bad coming their way if one were to use mana sight however. Aki didn't really need that either though, the guy looked exactly like what Sara had described, and he was rarely wrong about his first impressions.

"Nice father figure you got there." He smiled at her as they walked to the line of adventurers waiting to talk to a clerk. They'd began running in the middle of the night, so they'd reached the city a bit before lunch time, which was a so so time to talk to clerks thanks to there being plenty helping with the bar/restaurant.

This effect was caused by both the amount of adventurers that routinely came back to eat after some simple request in the morning and by the discount guild member gained as they climbed the ranks.

It was ridiculously complicated to find someone with useful appraisal skills, so after some simple introduction, Aki simply passed through a small lie detector and was asked about how much of a criminal he was.

The guild really didn't care what you did as long as you weren't caught, but he was sternely warned that if he was taken in by something worse than a bar fight or the like, his license would be revoked and he'd have to clear his name with the law before even trying for a reapplication, which he was told was quite harsh, but would still never see him being recognised as an A-ranked adventurer.

"More than enough reason for me. That extra authority in times of dungeon breaks and waves would certainly be great. You said something about a star system though, anything you would recommend for me to get one while I'm climbing up to D rank? I'm not really looking to form a team yet, so two would be my maximum before I turn out as the hero of a disaster or get pass her requirements." He explained with a charming smile while mentioning towards the serious Sara, getting a giggle out of the young receptionist.

"Well, I shouldn't really indicate something like this to a newbie, but since you've got a renowned C rank with you, I guess it should be fine if you took on this D rank goblin tribe extermination. Bring back their left ears as proof and we will quickly dispatch someone to verify the site before you receive the quest completion." She explained, rummaging through some papers till she found the one she was looking for. Making a show of asking for confirmation, Aki turned towards his companion and waited for her to nod before taking the request.

"Great, then I will look for some gathering quests around the area and bring back whatever I can find before going out to get preparations done." He smiled and they turned towards the bulletin board filled with requests as no one else deemed it a good idea to pick a fight with them.

*****

By the time a blood covered Aki came back, it was already night time. The clerk on duty reacted rapidly, but he wasn't actually injured, showing his now less than full potion stock to the man as a excuse.

Explaining how he'd put a mild poison in the goblins water supply before killing the sixty or so green pests was simple, though he didn't show the rest of the three hundred goblin ears from the other camps he'd raided or from either hobgoblins, redcaps and shamans.

Stolen story; please report.

Those went straight to the dungeon to become points, their villages destroyed in a completly diferent way so as to look like a beast did it.

This had not been on the original plan, but turns out that despite an epic class needing only four times the amount of XP a normal class, it was not that much easier to level if you did not do ridiculous things. He'd not gained one level from the goblins, only through bonus XP for killing monsters higher leveled than him did the few monsters in their thirties even amount to the five levels he actually got. The difficulty could not even be compared, though he figured his class in specific had some attributes that heightened the need for energy further.

After making sure he was not being followed by any more Aki went to the inn they'd be staying at, finding a sweaty Sara swiftly passing through her new elemental kata while being weighted by the accessories he'd provided. His browns twitched like mad for a moment for several reasons before calming down.

"I know you are exited about your new capabilities, but please, don't go releasing such image inside a city. Even if not someone that has magical forms of detection, anyone at level one hundred would naturally come to kill whatever is making such scary waves. You're lucky i have a tool and a crafting image, without both you'd have knocked out several civilians on the surroundings while training already." He said, practicing his control as he ignored the woman and plopped into the not so cheap bed that could not be compared to his dungeon goods.

"Sorry, but you're the one that hogged the villages you detected. I am bored." She grinned at him, setting down her spear before changing the configuration of the bracelets and anklets before they killed her.

"I'll see if i can find a dragon for you to bone while you are at it than." He waved at her, turning on his side as he went to sleep. His comment sent fear down her spine for a moment, but she knew he'd not put against an opponent she had no chance to win against.

*****

Looking down at the ferocious predator sleeping below them, Sara sweeted, the cold drenching her back as Aki stood besides her with a horrid grin.

"I learned my lesson already, so can we not try to attack something level 89?!" She whisper shouted, dreading to awaken the crocodilic mountain wivern at every action. It's scales were brown and black getting darker around the head, the wingspan easily enough for three to four people to lay horizontally on it if not for the bone protrusions that looked harder than metal. The two meter tall monster not as large as it was wide, but it was easy to see how it'd eat a cow whole like the several skeletons around suggested

"You're not fighting it. I am. Killing more of those mindless beasts isn't good enough. Survive and watch." He ordered, in a completely normal volume before jumping into his prey.

While dragonoids were heavy sleepers, they'd still awaken from sensing a great energy concentration, so he really only had the time he'd take to fall to get a significant accumulation.

It was enough.

As his heel connected to the base of the big lizard's skull, the monster instantly awoke, feeling fire on it's neck as it's head was shoved into the rocky ground it slept on. Pain like it had never felt before resounded through it's very being, the scream resounding from it leaving both humans nearby and several lesser monsters paralyzed.

The answer it got from that was another bloodthirsty roar from it's side, a punch sending it's head and long neck jerking backwards despite the small amount damage the strike had actually caused.

Being a predador it's whole life however, the wivern simply swung it's spiked wing to the side, cutting a thin line on Aki's forehead. The fact such simple movement would have likely cut open his skull had it hit fully stored something in him, his grin hurting his face as his magic coursed through his body and his hands held onto the passing wing despite the scales pricking and cutting his palms open.

Taking advantage of he his prey trying to dislodge him, he swung his head upwards, the blood from his lips coating his teeth and hardening as he bit into the wing's crunchy side, tearing it up even as his mouth bleed, teeth being left behind even as he was thrown back a bit in the beast's trashing.

His blood was not exactly usable for transfusions anymore, though the pain certainly had to do with the arcane energy he used to actually bite into it, which literally 'unmade' things.

The notion that the attack was even remotely similar to one of his hero's would have put a smile in his face were it not for the fact his mouth was torn open.

Neither did he have the time for it as the wivern finally focused all it's strength in dislodging his death grip from it's wing, swinging the appendage at with him on it like he was trying to crush a bug against the ground.

Suddenly, his brown eyes flashed light blue, his brain going into overdrive with blood magic so as to follow the speed he wanted to attain, slowly sincronising with the time dilatation. There was little time even then, his body slowly coming closer to being mashed against the ground.

Mana, however, was only slightly slowed down in this state, and that was mostly due to his own phisical and mental ineptitude.

As Aki slowly pushed the kinetic energy around into reversing it's tragectory and added his own magical push into the manuver, his head felt like it was about to explode, the beggining of an acid and metal smell building up against the entrance of his nostrils, which he suspected to be his brain juice leaking from his skull.

It was twenty odd seconds in that he reached his limit, time resuming it's march and the altered phisics lagged as his frosting body stood in place for a moment before gravity made him fall the remaining height With a small tud, completely silent compared to wivern being torn in half and screaming it's lungs out as it got stuck in the stone wall and the wivern paste that used to be it's side.

Moments of silence followed the whimpering beast's demise, blood, bones and stone suffocating it's vital energy after what seemed like a long time.

To this, there was only laughter.