Chapter 58: Another World-Class Gate
"You seem frustrated..."
Anastasia commented as they waited in line to enter The Frontier, all three of them in their standard gear.
Nothing too expensive, nothing too cheap, just what John preferred for the three of them.
"You could say that..."
He couldn’t exactly say that his wife had refused to sleep with him just the night before. So he kept it to himself, fingers fidgeting with the standard longsword at his hip.
"Next!"
The guard at the front waved them over, then gave the three of them a quick once-over. By now, Sarael had already mastered the abilities granted by the amulet.
Neither she nor Ronan had any idea where it came from, so they chose not to dwell on it until more information surfaced. For now, they treated it as a power-up.
"You’re good."
The guard said, finding nothing suspicious about the trio of brown-haired, black-eyed hunters who almost looked like siblings.
Sarael’s illusion held firm, and even the Association would have a hard time seeing through a goddess’s magic.
The three of them stepped through, the world around them distorting before snapping back into focus. On the other side, compared to Tartarus-B, it was a metropolis.
Even that word didn’t fully capture the scale of the place. It looked like a living, breathing medieval fantasy.
One of the first World-Class Gates, this was the place where humanity had first discovered the elves. Now, its entrance had effectively become a hub where both races mingled.
"Whoa... are those—"
"Yeah. Elves. The one and only."
Sarael scanned their surroundings, surprised by the sheer foot traffic, when a memory surfaced, one of Ronan’s choices in those photos.
"Isn’t this the race you said you had a preference for?"
"Well... I guess." Ronan looked away.
Sarael might have sounded calm, but even now her moods could flip in an instant. Wiping out an entire city of mortals still felt like an option to her, especially since it was still night.
Night, which had effectively become daytime for Ronan, Sarael, and by extension, Anastasia.
"I see. I don’t see anything special about them besides their pointed ears," she said. "But I’ll keep it in mind."
"For the gift?"
"Mhm."
Whatever that gift was, Ronan just wanted it over with. The only consolation was that he was still as strong as an S-rank.
No matter how frustrated or distracted he got in battle, he was strong enough to shrug off most things anyway.
"Let’s head to the hunting grounds. It’ll be good as a warm-up," he said.
"Those are the places where they keep low-level beasts, right?"
"Yeah. Better I check what’s the strongest you can handle before we leave the safe zone."
The three of them made their way through the cobblestone streets, past merchant stalls hawking elven crafts and human imports alike.
Anastasia’s head swiveled constantly, taking in the architecture, the clothing, the way humans and elves moved around each other like it had always been this way.
Ronan remembered his first time here. He’d been nineteen, fresh off his hunter exam, hired to carry supplies for a C-Rank party clearing out a nest of dire boars. He’d spent the whole trip gawking at everything like a tourist until the party leader threatened to dock his pay.
Now he walked through the same streets as a man who could level a building with his bare hands. Funny how things changed.
"The hunting grounds are this way. They keep the low-rank monsters in controlled enclosures. Good for testing new gear or training recruits."
The gate opened onto a wide field divided into sections by enchanted fences. Each section held different creatures, from slimes to dire wolves to something that looked like a small wyvern.
Ronan led them to a section marked with a faded sign: DIRE WOLVES - PACK HUNTING - RECOMMENDED RANK: C.
"Dire wolves," Anastasia said, unimpressed. "I’ve killed these before."
"Alone?"
She hesitated. "...With a party."
"Then today you’re doing it alone. Sarael and I will watch."
Anastasia tightened her grip on her rifle and stepped through the gate. The dire wolves noticed her immediately. Three of them, each the size of a small horse, with gray fur and eyes that glowed faintly in the dim light.
The first one lunged. Anastasia sidestepped and fired, the bullet catching it in the shoulder. It yelped and stumbled, but the other two were already circling.
Ronan watched with crossed arms. Her footwork was better now. The month of dodging his attacks had forced her to learn how to move. And she wasn’t panicking.
The second wolf charged. She dropped to one knee, braced her rifle, and put a bullet through its open mouth. It collapsed mid-stride, skidding across the dirt.
"One left," Sarael observed.
Anastasia was already moving. She switched to a sidearm, a compact pistol strapped to her thigh, and put two rounds into the third wolf’s chest before it could regroup with its wounded packmate.
Then she turned and finished the first one with a clean shot to the head.
Three kills in under a minute. Not bad for someone who’d been stuck at B-Rank for years.
"Good."
Ronan said.
"Your positioning’s improved. You’re not freezing between shots anymore."
Anastasia holstered her pistol, breathing hard but smiling. "That’s it? Just ’good’?"
"You want a trophy?"
"I want something better than ’good.’"
Ronan uncrossed his arms, in a teasing mood.
"I don’t know... seems pretty subpar."
"Oh shut up, you know full well you two and father aren’t good benchmarks..."
They moved deeper into the hunting grounds, past enclosures with larger and more dangerous creatures. The controlled environment meant they could push Anastasia without risking a real disaster.
If things went wrong, Ronan could intervene before anything serious happened.
Sarael walked close beside him, her hand occasionally brushing against his. She’d been quieter than usual since they entered the gate, her eyes tracking the elves they passed with an intensity that Ronan recognized.
"Still thinking about the pointed ears?" he asked.
"I’m thinking about a lot of things."
"Should I be worried?"
"No."
She looked up at him, and for a moment, the illusion flickered, her true violet eyes showing through the brown.
"You should be excited. Very excited~."
Comments