Eden’s expression grew serious. "Michael, leveling up doesn’t solve everything. Believe when I say this. Ranking up without putting in the real work isn’t the right path. You won’t be truly strong by doing this. You might look strong on the outside, but on the inside, you’ll still be weak."
I let out a slow breath. "Okay, we’ll see. But for now, can we just stop arguing?"
***
He nodded. "Okay. But I was only saying it for your own good, bro. I worry about you. You’re the only real friend I have. I don’t want to lose you because you went and did sothing stupid."
That actually sounded pretty heartfelt, except for the part where he called stupid.
I shot back, "First of all, I’m not stupid. Second, relax. Nothing’s going to go wrong. I know exactly what I’m doing. And I promise I won’t rely on Allen too much to level up."
Eden studied for a mont. "You sure about that?"
I nodded. "Absolutely sure."
He paused, then gave in. "Alright. If you say so."
Eden nodded but didn’t say anything else. An awkward silence settled between us.
Neither of us knew what to say. We just stood there in silence, side by side.
A few seconds passed, and the quiet beca suffocating. I figured I should be the one to break it.
I cleared my throat. "Anyway, Eden, I forgot to ask you earlier. Now that you’ve picked up that teleportation skill, how many skills do you have altogether?"
Eden paused. "Seven."
Seven, huh?
That was about what I expected from the main character. He always carried more skills than a typical hunter at his rank.
Eden flipped the question around on . "What about you? Do you even have a single one yet?"
I shrugged. "? Nope. Not all of us can be as lucky as you, picking up a teleportation skill like it’s no big deal."
Yeah, I lied to him.
There was no way I could admit that I’d obtained an SSS rank future sight skill just yesterday.
If I told him, there was a real chance the information would make its way to Allen. Eden and Allen were close.
The two of them had tead up on guild missions plenty of tis, and Eden looked up to Allen almost like a ntor.
That was a risk I couldn’t afford. If Allen learned about the skill, his suspicion of would only deepen.
He was already wary of as things stood. The last thing I needed was to hand him another reason to doubt .
Eden shifted gears. "Michael, I forgot to ask. Why did you suddenly decide to beco a hunter? You always said you’d never do that."
Right. I’d been waiting for this.
I knew Eden would bring it up sooner or later.
I exhaled slowly. "Well, I’ve been thinking lately about how weak I really am. If any serious problem ca up, I probably wouldn’t be able to do much about it. So I decided to beco a hunter and actually do sothing about that."
Eden looked at with a bit of surprise. "So you finally realized that? Good. At least you’ve got so sense."
I gave him a look. "I’ve always had sense."
He smirked. "Yeah, sure. I know all about your sense. Very impressive."
I chose to ignore the jab. "Whatever."
My reasoning worked on him, just like I thought it would.
And it made sense that it did. Eden, much like Allen, had told Michael in the past to train seriously, hunt monsters, and stop wasting ti. He didn’t bring it up as often as Allen, but he’d ntioned it more than once over the years.
So I’d used that to build my explanation. All things considered, it was a solid reason.
While I was thinking about this, sothing suddenly ca to mind.
Oh, right. I almost forgot to check Eden’s information.
I focused my thoughts inward. "System, use appraisal on Eden."
The system’s voice ca back right away.
[As you wish, Host!]
A mont later, a translucent screen appeared before , displaying Eden’s stats.
***
**Na:** Eden Garcia
**Height:** 5’11"
**Weight:** 165 lbs
**Age:** 21
**Evaluation:** Gold Rank Hunter
**Skills:** Sage’s Eyes (SSS), Teleportation (S ), Levitation (A-), Void Walk (SS )...
**Weakness:** Levitation (A-)...
***
Wait. A new section?
Weakness?
I was a little surprised to see this addition. The last ti I’d used appraisal on Allen, this section hadn’t been there at all.
Hold on. There was also sothing missing now.
The personality section.
That had been included on Allen’s screen, but it wasn’t showing up here.
Did the system swap it out for the weakness section?
That seed like the most likely explanation.
Well, I didn’t mind. The weakness section was actually far more useful than the personality one.
I took a mont to scan through Eden’s displayed information.
There wasn’t much point in examining this carefully. The original Michael already knew more about Eden than the system could tell .
Why?
Simple. Based on Michael’s mories, Eden had shared almost all of his skill details with him over the years. Eden trusted Michael so much that he’d openly discussed so genuinely dangerous and sensitive information without a second thought.
So the information the system’s appraisal was showing wasn’t much different from what I already had in my head.
More importantly, after a few seconds of looking everything over, I dismissed the screen.
Nothing had really changed. Eden’s information looked pretty much the sa as the last ti I’d checked it.
I pulled my focus back to the present.
Eden was leaning against the balcony railing, scrolling through his phone without a care in the world.
I was just about to say sothing when my smartwatch suddenly started vibrating.
Huh?
I glanced down at it and saw that Allen was calling.
Had it already been an hour?
I quickly checked the ti. 11:18 PM.
Damn it. I’d already gone over the hour.
I picked up the call and heard Allen’s calm voice on the other end.
"Young master, it has been an hour. As you instructed, I arrived a few minutes ago and have been waiting for you."
"Yeah, I’m on my way. Just give a minute," I said.
I ended the call and turned to Eden. "Hey, man, ti’s up. I’ve got to head out."
Eden looked up briefly and nodded. "Alright. Take care. See you later."
"Yeah, see you."
I quickly left Eden’s floor and made my way out of the apartnt, though not before stopping briefly to thank Miss May for the dinner.
She’d really made the night morable for .
I hurried down through the building. When I stepped out through the main entrance, I spotted Allen standing beside the car in his usual composed, professional stance.
I walked over to him. "Allen, sorry for running a bit late."
Allen gave a slight nod. "No problem, young master."
He opened the car door for .
I was about to step inside when sothing caught my attention.
Wait a second.
I pointed to the right side of his neck. "Allen, you’ve got sothing on your neck."
"Hmm?"
Allen quickly pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the spot away.
He glanced at briefly. "Thank you, young master."
I nodded and climbed into the car.
I sank into the back seat and let out a quiet breath.
Allen got in shortly after, settling into his usual spot in the front. He entered the necessary instructions into the automated system to take us back to the Frostburne mansion.
A mont later, the vehicle lifted smoothly into the air and began heading in the direction of ho.
Even after settling into the back seat, I couldn’t relax. A chill ran down my spine.
Why?
Because that had definitely been blood.
The spot on Allen’s neck had definitely been blood.
I hadn’t said anything to him about it directly, but the realization lingered in my mind.
What the hell had he been doing while I was eating dinner with Eden?
Based on what Eden had ntioned earlier about so group being unusually active these days, I was fairly certain Allen had been out there dealing with them. In person.
The thought unsettled more than I wanted to admit.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine what those people had gone through.
My condolences to whoever they were.
Later, after thinking about it for another few seconds, I let the thought go.
I finally allowed myself to relax.
I sank deeper into the seat.
God, I was tired.
Tonight had been draining. All thanks to Miss May.
anwhile, what should I be focusing on now?
Right now, I was sitting at Bronze rank. To reach Iron rank, I needed close to 5,000 essences. That ant I’d have to kill either 5,000 lesser rank monsters or 500 common rank monsters.
Common rank monsters were still way beyond my level. Their strength was roughly on par with Bronze rankers, which ant I’d have to stick with hunting lesser rank monsters for the ti being.
That was a massive amount of hunting. It was going to take a long ti, especially when you considered that a single F rank dungeon didn’t even spawn that many monsters in a single day.
I really wanted to level up as quickly as possible so I could earn another lucky draw. This ti around, I desperately hoped to pull a high rank skill.
But realistically, the odds weren’t in my favor. Each draw only gave about a 33 percent chance of landing an S rank skill. If I got lucky, that number might go up to 66 percent if two of the cards happened to contain S rank skills. But those odds were pretty slim.
I let out a sigh and closed my eyes.
There’s no way I can guarantee getting a high tier skill like this.
Then, right in the middle of that thought, sothing clicked in my mind.
I opened my eyes imdiately.
Wait. There actually is a way for to get a high tier skill.
Why hadn’t I thought of this sooner?
I quickly pulled up my character interface and navigated to the skills section.
A new screen appeared in front of .
***
**[Skills]**
[Seer’s Eye]
[Empty]
***
A slow smile ford on my face.
Of course. My Seer’s Eye.
I hadn’t considered using it until now, but if there was ever a perfect ti to rely on my future sight skill, it was right now.
This was the ideal mont to test it.
It would only last a minute anyway, so there was no real downside to trying.
I then focused inward. "System, activate Seer’s Eye right now."
The system’s reply ca right away.
[Host, I apologize, but I cannot do that. It is your skill. Only you can activate it yourself.]
Oh, right. Of course. It was my skill, not the system’s.
I nodded slightly. "I see. Then how do I activate it?"
The system responded without delay.
[Host, simply say the skill na in your mind, and it will activate within a few seconds.]
I paused. "Oh, just like that?"
I’d honestly expected the process to be more complicated.
[Yes, Host.]
Alright then.
I took a breath and concentrated.
"Seer’s Eye."
For the first few seconds, nothing happened. Then, suddenly, a sharp pain shot through my head.
"Agh..."
Before I could even understand what was happening, I felt myself collapse back into the seat.
Then everything went dark.
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