"Get ready… move out!"
No time to waste tangling with these Ironhide Behemoths. Jack triggered his Rapid Surge skill on the spot and bolted straight for the cave mouth.
The behemoths had zero intention of letting him get away. Bellowing in unbridled fury, they thundered after him, every heavy hoof strike shaking the ground, clearly dead set on trampling him into a bloody smear.
"Sis! Help! I need backup!"
Jack skidded to a halt at the cave entrance and yelled into the dark interior.
A second later, the leather-clad woman stepped out. One glance at the stampeding horde of Ironhide Behemoths bearing down on them from the distance, and she pieced the whole situation together instantly.
"You actually pulled it off."
She looked at Jack, a faint note of unfeigned admiration in her tone.
She hadn’t seriously expected him to retrieve the horn tips for her. It had been a total Hail Mary, nothing more. If Jack had failed, she already had a backup plan to get back to
Frostveil City in one piece—but her entire mission would’ve gone up in smoke. She’d never thought the kid would actually come through.
"Can you… hold them off for two more minutes?"
The woman took the horn tips from Jack’s outstretched hand, her voice coming out a little awkward.
"What?"
Jack’s eyes went wide. He darted a glance over his shoulder at the behemoths closing in fast, their snorts already loud enough to rattle his eardrums.
"I need to grind these horn tips into powder and ingest it to neutralize the poison in my system. It’ll take a minute."
With that, she turned and headed back into the cave, tossing one last half-teasing encouragement over her shoulder before she vanished into the darkness.
"You’ve got this, trash-picker… Hunter."
Jack let out a helpless sigh, then pulled his Blood Talons from his inventory and slid them onto his hands.
"Fine then… let’s dance."
He drew a deep breath and charged straight toward the oncoming
Ironhide Behemoths.
He wasn’t stupid enough to go toe-to-toe with them in a brawl, obviously. Instead, he stuck to kiting, darting back and forth, dragging the whole pack in chaotic circles across the rocky terrain.
Ironhide Behemoths weren’t exactly known for their brains. Under Jack’s constant weaving and feinting, they quickly lost all sense of direction. A few of them even plowed straight into each other with sickening, bone-crunching thuds, letting out confused roars as they stumbled.
As the minutes dragged on, Jack’s stamina drained fast, bleeding down to almost nothing. Just when his legs were about to give out under him, he finally heard that familiar voice ring out.
"Little hunter, looks like you could use a hand."
The second her words faded, dozens of
Ironhide Behemoths let out agonized bellows and crashed to their knees one after another, as if an invisible weight had crushed their legs.
"Die."
The woman gave a soft, cold command. Dozens of glowing sword arcs materialized out of thin air, slicing down toward the incapacitated behemoths.
"Hold your strike! Spare them!"
Exhausted as he was, Jack still forced the words out at the top of his lungs.
"What are you saying?"
The leather-clad woman frowned, her tone sharp and serious.
"I get you might feel some sympathy for them, but monsters are monsters. Their very existence is an anomaly. They’re humanity’s born enemies."
"No, no!" Jack shook his head, waving his hands in frantic denial, then spoke dead serious: "Can you let me land the killing blows?"
At that, the woman rolled her eyes. She had zero clue why Jack would bother with something so trivial.
After the Eternal Law descended, everyone’s profession and level cap were permanently locked. Take Jack’s Wasteland Hunter profession—its level cap was only Lv.10, a threshold most people hit in a week of casual grinding. There was literally no reason for him to push himself this hard, going out of his way to personally finish off a handful of
Ironhide Behemoths.
What she didn’t know was that Jack had a system that operated above the Law itself.
As Jack slit the throat of one
Ironhide Behemoth after another, his level ticked steadily upward. Sure, only landing finishing blows meant the XP gain wasn’t great, but he still managed to hit Lv.7 by the end of it.
That was more than enough. It checked off the first task the system had given him, and every behemoth he killed counted toward the second task’s progress. As for the final task—obtain a D-rank beast carcass…
Jack’s eyes drifted toward Saria. With her power level, grabbing a D-rank carcass should be child’s play for her.
"Let me properly introduce myself."
The woman walked over to Jack and offered a faint smile.
"My name is Saria."
"Jack."
He extended his hand and shook hers.
"Saria, are you heading out of the Wasteland soon?" Jack asked.
Saria shook her head, pointing toward the distant Bramble Thicket with a faint grin.
"There’s a pretty good show going on over there. Interested in tagging along?"
"A show? You mean the Gale Ape?"
Jack’s voice turned somber.
"I think that whole thing’s a trap."
At those words, Saria’s eyes widened with genuine surprise.
"You figured that out all on your own?"
"It actually is a trap?"
Jack could barely believe it. He’d just thrown out a wild guess off the top of his head.
Saria laughed, neither confirming nor denying it. She just smiled and said:
"Come on. Let’s go watch those so-called chosen prodigies get absolutely wrecked."
With that, she grabbed Jack by the collar and launched into the air, flying straight toward the Bramble Thicket.
"Saria, if you don’t mind me asking… what’s your profession?"
Jack dangled awkwardly in midair, held aloft only by Saria’s firm grip.
Saria answered flatly:
"Something close to Scavenger."
"Ha. Sure."
Jack let out a dry laugh, chalking it up to her brushing him off. It wasn’t like a random scavenger could fly and take out dozens of
Ironhide Behemoths in a single move.
They reached the Bramble Thicket and descended slowly. It was only then that Jack saw the full horror of what had unfolded here.
Corpses littered the ground as far as the eye could see. Blood ran in shallow rivulets through the dirt, and the air was thick with the coppery stench of iron and rot.
"This…"
Jack stared at the scene, stunned into silence. These bodies had been living, breathing people just that morning.
"Jack?"
As he stood reeling, a low, guttural growl came from somewhere up ahead.
Jack looked up. It was X, and what was left of his crew.
All traces of X’s earlier elegant, noble demeanor were gone. His tailored suit was shredded to rags, his hair was a tangled, matted mess, and a deep, oozing gash ran down his arm, blood dripping steadily onto the ground.
"You didn’t beat the Gale Ape?" Jack asked, though he already knew the answer.
"Don’t even mention that thing!"
X roared in unfiltered fury.
"I overestimated Viktor’s intelligence. That man is a complete and utter moron! If he’d coordinated with me for even five seconds, we wouldn’t have gotten routed that badly by that damn ape!"
He kept cursing Viktor in a torrent of rage, completely oblivious to the quiet look of contempt on Saria’s face.
"Jack!"
Saria pulled him aside to a secluded spot behind a thick bramble bush, lowering her voice.
"How would you like to kill the Gale Ape?"
"Me?"
Jack pointed at himself and shook his head immediately.
"I’m not strong enough for that yet. No way I’m taking that risk."
"I’ll help you."
Saria tapped her own chest with a faint smile.
"Think of it as the reward I promised you for getting the horn tips."
Jack looked straight into her eyes. He didn’t hesitate for even a second before turning her down firmly.
"Let’s not."
"Oh? Why’s that?"
Saria asked, genuinely caught off guard. She’d assumed Jack would jump at a temptation this huge—killing a high-rank beast with a free carry was the kind of opportunity most Wasteland Hunters would kill for.
"It’s too dangerous."
Jack drew a deep breath, explaining in a low, steady voice.
"The Gale Ape is absurdly powerful. All those teams combined couldn’t take it down. If I’m the one who lands the killing blow, every eye in the Wasteland will turn to me. Jealousy, greed, malice… I’d be painting a giant target on my back."
"Not bad."
Saria nodded, letting out a quiet breath of relief inwardly. Most kids his age would’ve leaped at the chance for glory without thinking twice.
"And another thing…"
Jack looked off toward the center of the Bramble Thicket, adding slowly:
"I don’t think the Gale Ape’s fate was ever up in the air. It was sealed the second this whole operation started."