After savoring his roasted meat, Kaelen watched Shia and the others set up their tents nearby. His campsite had become a makeshift base for the night.Once the shelters were ready, everyone ducked inside to rest. Kaelen stretched out on the soft bear hide, turning the rescue pointer over in his hands. Never before had he seen anything like it. Not even in the old game.Back then, players used magic crystals to communicate. Cheap ones existed, but they were rare. Here? Even the simplest communication trinkets were practically legendary.The rescue pointer wasn’t just a toy. Kaelen could tell at a glance: no ordinary adventurer could have made this.Its design was deceptively simple, almost plain—but to Kaelen, it gleamed. It carried a certain weight, a quiet authority.Faust Cathedral had crafted it. Anything from that place was flawless. Blessed by the light of the gods, every item they produced was precious.Even the Heroic Adventuring Squad wasn’t what it seemed. Kaelen wondered whi

The sky stretched endlessly overhead, soft blue and wide open, a few lazy clouds drifting like silk ribbons across the sun. The air felt still, almost reverent, as though the world itself was holding its breath.Kaelen moved carefully through the brush. Each step was quiet, deliberate. It had already been a full month since he’d arrived at Boar Ridge.At first, he’d done nothing but grind. Hunt, fight, recover, repeat. Days blurred together—blood, sweat, and fatigue blending into a numb rhythm. But after hitting his limit, his focus narrowed down to one goal: the blue treasure chest hidden somewhere in this wild stretch of land.And now, finally, everything was ready.He’d killed more beasts than he could count, yet progress came slower than he’d hoped. Level two had been easy enough, but the jump to level three? Ridiculous. Even now, his bar wasn’t a third full. He’d wanted to reach level three before the festival, but unless the gods decided to halve the XP requirements—or double

Breaking free from the circle of Heavy-Armored Boars, Kaelen yanked the Rescue Beacon from his pack. The moment he did, it started buzzing nonstop—shrill, urgent, and impossible to ignore. Not a single pause.He glanced at the direction it pointed. East. Still inside Boar Ridge.For Shia and the Heroic Adventure Squad, that was… mostly safe. As long as they weren’t cornered or trying to bait dozens of monsters at once, the danger was minimal.Kaelen had only met the three briefly, but it was enough to know they weren’t reckless. They hadn’t been fighting level-5 Heavy-Armored Boars, choosing weaker ones instead. Careful. Deliberate. Not fools throwing themselves into danger.If they weren’t in Boar Ridge, he would have ignored the beacon entirely. People were selfish. You help when you can—but once it goes beyond your strength, you have to think.He’d met Shia and the others once. There was respect there, maybe even the start of a future friendship—but that was later, not now.Outside

Kaelen didn’t move. He wasn’t leaving.Seeing that, Shia clenched her jaw and bit her lip hard. Fine. Then she wasn’t leaving either.The rare wild boar roared, the sound shaking the ground. Its hulking body heaved and shuddered, its health bar only halfway down.“Don’t panic. Stay calm!” Kaelen shouted, his voice cutting through the chaos like a whip. His eyes locked on Antonio.A priest without mana was dead weight. And a mage without mana? Not much better. When the energy ran dry, all they had left were empty hands and fear.The moment Kaelen heard Jeka gasp that his mana was gone, he noticed it—Antonio’s attacks growing wild, his rhythm collapsing. The man’s nerves were shot. Kaelen gritted his teeth and barked again, sharper this time.That wasn’t just for Antonio. Shia needed to hear it too.And somehow, it worked. Little by little, their movements steadied. Antonio’s magic began to flow again, clean and precise, his spells hitting true. Every bit of mana counted now—waste even

“Greg… what the hell do you mean by this?” Shia snapped, his voice sharp, tense.“Loot isn’t divided by courtesy,” Greg replied bluntly, the words rolling off his tongue like they were obvious fact. No apology. No hesitation.“Greg… you’ve gone way too far,” Shia said, his face darkening. The faint smile from moments ago vanished entirely. Greg’s greed—for the rare monster’s drops—was impossible to ignore.“Too far?” Greg’s eyes glinted with hunger as they landed on Kaelen. “Relax, Shia. That green item? Yours. Don’t worry about it.” He leaned closer, voice smooth, shameless. “Our team’s been lacking raw firepower for ages. Look at this blue two-handed sword—it fills that gap perfectly.”“You agree, Derek?”“Exactly,” a burly man standing beside Greg said, eyes burning hotter than Greg’s. “This sword is made for me. With it, my damage output will skyrocket. Get ready—we can finally storm the Flame Cavern dungeon.”Even without stats, the sword’s deep blue glow and sheer size—twice tha