The second the words left Jack’s mouth, Saria took a sharp step back, forcing every muscle in her body to stay loose and calm.
“Is that so?”
Jack gave a small nod. “A B-rank phantom beast getting hit with a random curse out of nowhere and dropping all the way to C-rank? That’s way too sketchy. There’s definitely some kind of outside interference messing with this.”
He was about to keep digging into the logic when a roar of whoops and cheers cut him off from the other end of the clearing.
“The hell’s going on over there?”
Saria jumped on the chance to switch topics immediately, desperate to steer Jack away from his current line of thinking. She was dead sure if he kept pulling at that loose thread, he’d yank out secrets she couldn’t afford to let see the light of day.
Jack followed her gaze, turning to see X, Viktor, and the rest of their group clustered in a tight, buzzing huddle. Dead center of the crowd stood a brick shithouse of a guy, a thick, jagged scar slicing clean across his left cheek.
“Who’s that?”
Jack frowned slightly, drifting closer to pick up the whispers rippling through the surrounding onlookers.
From the scattered chatter, he pieced the story together. The scarred guy was Wardy, a graduate from the year prior. His awakened profession? C-rank: Titan.
With that kind of raw talent, he’d gotten a full ride to one of the most elite beast master academies in the region. But the guy had a hair-trigger temper and a habit of getting into fistfights on campus. One brawl too many got him expelled, and he’d ended up back in
Frostveil City with his tail between his legs. No one had a clue why he’d shown up out of nowhere at the trial grounds today.
“Wardy! You gotta back us up, man!”
Viktor was staring up at him with stars in his eyes, voice thick with petty grievance. “That Gale Ape straight up murked half our crew. That bastard’s a dead man walking!”
X studied Wardy for a second, taking in the unmistakeable street brawler vibe rolling off him. He hesitated for a beat, then spoke up, tone careful and deliberately respectful. “Wardy, what if we team up? We can take that Gale Ape down together, split the loot evenly.”
The second the words left his mouth, Wardy—who’d been leaning against a boulder with his eyes closed—snapped them open. A pair of icy, razor-sharp eyes locked straight onto X.
Before X could even blink, a calloused hand lashed out and cracked him hard across the face. The hit carried so much force it sent X flying three meters back, skidding in the dirt.
X spat out a mouthful of blood and a broken tooth, clutching his already swelling, purple cheek as he stared at Wardy in total disbelief. He came from one of the wealthiest families in
Frostveil
, had been coddled his entire life. He’d never once taken that kind of humiliation in public.
“What kind of bottom-of-the-barrel trash thinks they’re qualified to partner with me?”
Wardy planted a boot firm on X’s chest, staring down at him with unfiltered contempt.
He gave X a light kick to the ribs before stepping back, clearing his throat as his gaze swept over the rest of the crowd. A second later, his eyes locked straight onto Jack.
“You’re Jack, right?”
Wardy’s voice was steady, almost curious.
Jack nodded. “That’s me.”
“You wanna run with me?”
Wardy didn’t waste time with small talk. He laid the offer out straight, no fluff.
Before Jack could even open his mouth to respond, the crowd around them exploded into noise.
Viktor gaped at Wardy, completely incredulous, voice shaking. “Wardy! He’s just a Scavenger! The lowest, most useless tier of profession there is!”
By the end of his sentence, his tone had edged straight into open accusation.
Wardy glanced over at him, a faint, arrogant smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Yeah, yesterday at the Awakening Ceremony he was still a Scavenger. But today?” He paused, letting the weight of the words hang in the air, then dropped his voice lower. “Today, he’s a Wasteland Hunter.”
The words hit like a lightning strike. Every single person in the crowd went dead silent, frozen in shock.
X wiped the blood off his chin and roared, “Impossible! The Eternal Law’s still in effect! No one can break profession tier limits like that!”
“That,” Wardy said, staring down at X like he was a bug under his shoe, “is the difference between a genius and regular chum like you.”
He kept going, like he was explaining basic math to a toddler. “When I was studying at Southgate University, I met a handful of freaks like that. They used their innate talent to brute-force past their profession and level caps. Yeah, it’s insanely rare, and the drawbacks are brutal. But it’s not impossible.”
“How’d you find out I’m a Wasteland Hunter?”
Jack couldn’t help asking, curiosity pricking at him.
Wardy barked a rough laugh. “When you were tangling with that pack of
Ironhide Behemoths earlier, I was camped on that ridge over there watching the whole fight. A regular Scavenger doesn’t fend off two dozen
Ironhide Behemoths and walk away without a scratch. You did.”
“Guess I’m not as reckless as I look,” Jack said with a small nod, acknowledging the point.
Hearing that, the crowd’s faces all shifted with pure shock. Jack… had actually become a Wasteland Hunter? The two professions weren’t even in the same universe. A Wasteland Hunter was one of the most sought-after, high-paying roles in all of
Frostveil City. In the span of ten seconds, the way everyone looked at Jack flipped completely. The former golden boy who’d crashed and burned into useless trash less than 48 hours ago was already climbing back to the top.
“So what do you say? You in?”
Wardy clapped Jack hard on the shoulder, grinning. “Once we take down the Gale Ape, you get a full cut of the rewards. No skimming.”
The crowd practically burned with envy. Jack hadn’t just pulled himself out of the gutter—he was about to become the right hand of a C-rank professional. There were barely thirty C-rank pros in the entire
Frostveil City region! That was a one-way ticket to status and resources.
But faced with the offer everyone else would kill for, Jack just smiled and shook his head. “Sorry, Wardy. I’ll pass.”
“What?”
Wardy froze for half a second, convinced he’d misheard. It only sank in when Jack repeated the refusal, calm and unapologetic. Jack had actually turned him down.
“Fair enough. Suit yourself.”
Wardy recovered fast, patting Jack on the shoulder again, no visible disappointment on his face. Yeah, Jack had some raw talent, so what? Upgrading from Scavenger to Wasteland Hunter was a neat trick, but it wasn’t like he was gonna pull off another tier jump out of nowhere. The only reason Wardy had even bothered recruiting him was the legend around his weird profession flip—having a guy like that in his crew would make his own reputation that much flashier. That was it.
“What an idiot. He just threw away the only good break he’ll ever get!”
X and Viktor exchanged a look, two former rivals actually cracking matching smirks for the first time all day.
“Since you’re not joining, I’ll just take the beast down solo.”
Wardy shook his head with faint, lazy regret. He was gonna kill this Gale Ape alone, take all the credit and all the loot.
“Skill Activate: Titan Form!”
Wardy drew in a deep breath, triggering his signature skill. In the span of three seconds, his muscles bulged and his frame stretched, swelling until he stood a full ten meters tall, skin turning the color of weathered granite.
“GALE APE! GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE!”
Wardy’s roar boomed like a war drum, loud enough to rattle the trees. And exactly as he’d planned, the noise drew the beast straight to him.
A split second later, an enraged, guttural simian howl answered back. A massive ape with shaggy dark green fur came barrelling toward him, moving at shocking speed for something that size.
“WARDY! YOU GOT THIS!”
Viktor yelled at the top of his lungs, cheering so hard his voice cracked. Wardy was a C-rank pro, same as the Gale Ape. But the ape was already wounded, had burned through most of its stamina fighting X and the rest of the crew earlier. Wardy was fresh, fully rested. The odds were stacked completely in his favor.
“Is Wardy the one who was messing with the Gale Ape’s rank earlier?”
Jack watched the two massive figures lock into brutal, close-quarters combat, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper. Something was still off. He couldn’t pin down exactly what, but the unease wouldn’t leave him.
“Only a real genius like Wardy could take down that Gale Ape!”
“Yeah… we were such arrogant dumbasses thinking we could handle it ourselves!”
The crowd murmured in awe and quiet embarrassment, eyes glued to the fight as shockwaves rippled out from every blow.
“Is this fight actually gonna end with Wardy walking away the winner?”
Jack’s gaze swept the surrounding treeline again. That prickle on the back of his neck wouldn’t go away. Somewhere, hidden in the shadows, a pair of eyes was watching every single thing that happened here.
Saria had stayed quiet this entire time, but now she glanced over at Jack, a silent question in her eyes.
Jack met her gaze, lowering his voice so only she could hear. “I don’t think this mess is over. Hell… I think it’s only just getting started.”
Saria’s face flickered with a faint, unreadable emotion, then she nodded slow, answering just as quietly. “You might be right. But we’re not the ones in the middle of it. Not yet, anyway.”
Jack didn’t reply. He just watched Wardy trade blow after earth-shaking hit with the Gale Ape, the ground trembling under their feet, the air splitting with the crack of impact.
That weird, crawling feeling still wouldn’t leave him.
Someone else was here.
Someone was waiting.