After finishing their fight with the centaur monster, Ethan and Nuwa continued their journey.

Every now and then, they stopped to rest in a cave or near a waterfall far away from any monster groups.

Even though Ethan and Nuwa were heading east, Ethan noticed that Lara and the others were going west.

After walking for three hours, they had already discovered a lot of new areas.

Ethan sat on a rock by the river near the waterfall, keeping his digital map panel open.

There, he saw two villages that Lara's team had found.

He squinted his eyes, wondering if those two villages had their own side quests like Jared's village.

I have no information about that at all.

Not long after, Nuwa came over, holding a grilled fish on a wooden stick. She handed it to Ethan for his lunch.

They ate together by the flowing river, sometimes throwing small pieces of fish into the pond where other fish were swimming.

It was a calm, peaceful moment for them.

"I've always wondered… where does your real strength come from, Ethan?" Nuwa asked casually.

"Why do you ask?" Ethan replied.

"I don't know. I just feel like your power is strange. I mean, your strength is too high for your level, right?" Nuwa asked.

"It's just a little trick—like focusing on some attributes and other elements besides leveling," Ethan answered.

"Like what?"

"Soul servant, crystal, equipment, skill levels, attribute allocation, all of that," Ethan replied.

"If you focus on those more than leveling up, you can be stronger even with a low level."

"Is that what happened to you too?" Nuwa asked. Ethan nodded.

"Yeah."

Right when they were talking casually, a crimson slash attack suddenly came from the forest.

Ethan quickly pulled out his sword and stabbed it into the ground, protecting Nuwa from the attack.

His warrior-class shield activated, and the crimson slash hit it head-on. But the damage wasn't too bad.

Ethan didn't feel threatened at all by the sudden attack or their attempt to intimidate him.

Nuwa was shocked, stopping her meal and readying her assassin's dagger.

"Are you guys amateurs or something?" a man said, stepping out of the forest.

He wasn't alone—six other people came out behind him, all wearing black and red guild uniforms.

Ethan narrowed his eyes, looking at the guild abbreviation on their status bars.

"DSR? Who are you?" Ethan asked.

"We're from the Destroyer Guild. The best guild in Saranjana City!" the man declared proudly.

Saranjana? That's the westernmost city in the central region.

"What do you want?" Ethan asked.

"Simple. Hand over your Star Essences, and we'll let you go," said the guild leader.

"No way! We're not giving you even one Star Essence!" Nuwa shouted.

Her outburst made the seven people in front of them laugh loudly—five men and two women, all with different classes.

Ethan didn't like them. They were the kind of guild that stole Star Essences from others instead of earning them themselves.

"I don't want to fight here. You should leave and surrender now," Ethan said.

"Ha! You're underestimating us. There are seven of us, all above level 40. You're just two people—a level 55 warrior and a level 30 woman."

"Pathetic!" the man sneered.

"What should we do, Ethan?" Nuwa whispered quietly.

"Don't worry. We can handle them."

Ethan stepped forward, pulling his sword from the ground and gripping it tightly with both hands, as if waiting for them to make their move.

"I can take you all on by myself," Ethan said firmly.

"You bastard! Why do you keep looking down on us?" the man shouted.

"You're weaker than me. That's just a fact. Why are you so offended by it?" Ethan replied.

"I take that back. I'm going to kill you and take your Star Essences!" the man yelled.

He raised his hand and ordered his guild members to attack. Five of them charged forward while the other two stayed behind—the mage and the priest.

Ethan smirked, pulling his sword from the ground and dashing forward, jumping over the five who came at him.

"What the—"

"You shouldn't have left them behind!" Ethan interrupted, focusing his attack on the mage and priest in the backline.

There was a reason for that—priests and mages had low defense.

"Stop him!" the man shouted.

Ethan gripped his sword tightly and swung it fast, sending diagonal and horizontal slashes.

The female mage tried to block, but Ethan cut off her arm and grabbed her magic staff.

In seconds, Ethan stood behind the female priest, putting his sword around her neck, threatening to kill her.

"Threatening a priest? What are you, a coward?"

"It's called tactics, idiot. Without your priest, you can't heal," Ethan replied.

"If you're really a big guild, you should understand how important a priest's role is."

"So, what now?" Ethan asked, pressuring them.

"We still have HP potions—plenty of them. If you kill her, we can still heal up fast," the man said.

"Really? What about a long fight? Did you think about that?" Ethan asked.

The group went silent. Some of them even realized Ethan was right.

A priest was way more valuable than any HP or MP potion. Without one, they'd just run out of supplies.

"He's right… a priest is important for the team," one member said quietly.

"Looks like we don't have much choice but to negotiate," another added.

"Negotiate? Just because he's holding our priest hostage? Don't make me laugh!" the guild leader shouted angrily.

"Kill him! He won't escape from us anyway!" he yelled.

"You're a terrible leader, you know that?" Ethan sighed, then pushed the priest forward, letting her fall back toward her teammates.

The man looked stunned, confused that Ethan let her go instead of killing her.

"What the—"

"Leave before I take all your Star Essences," Ethan said, cutting him off.

The priest quickly healed the female mage's arm, while the others watched as Ethan calmly walked back to Nuwa.

"You're not going to kill them?" Nuwa asked.

"I don't know. I'm still hungry," Ethan replied.

"Y-You bastard!" the guild leader shouted, furious that Ethan kept humiliating him.

"You arrogant piece of trash! I'll kill you!" he roared, charging forward.

Ethan gripped his sword and swung it sideways, releasing a crimson lightning slash toward the charging man.

The man was shocked but quickly activated his sword shield. The other warriors did the same.

BLAST!

The explosion sent them flying backward, leaving them badly wounded with their HP nearly critical.

The female mage froze in shock, and the priest stood speechless, unable to believe Ethan's power.

"W-What… what kind of power is that?" the mage stuttered.

None of them dared to fight back. The priest was trembling in fear—she remembered how close she'd been to death moments ago.

Seeing Ethan's terrifying strength made her feel lucky to still be alive.

Ethan's sharp eyes locked on the group as he walked toward the Destroyer team to negotiate again.

Now, the situation had flipped—it was Ethan who was in control.

"W-What kind of monster are you?! Who the hell are you?!" the leader shouted.

"I'm EthanArk."

"I'll let you live if you hand over all your weapons and Star Essences," Ethan said firmly.

"Weapons?!" the female mage gasped.

"I need to make sure you won't attack me again. Taking your weapons should be enough."

"If not, I'll make sure your guild loses this event, and your guild leader will be very disappointed."

"The 'best team' in the Destroyer Guild, defeated in one skill strike. Pathetic."

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