Cosmic Peak

After upgrading his chakram and armor, Aren took out a random lightning-based skill box but didn't open it and put it back in his inventory.

He kept the random lightning-based skill box for a similar reason as he kept the Armalist Box and Blueprint box. Anyway, he was not lacking in any skills, especially elemental-type skills. Since he didn't have an affinity with lightning-element, he wouldn't be able to use the full power of whatever skill he would get from the box.

Days passed as Aren continued traveling...

Day 25 after the descent of Myriad mountain.

After traveling for four days, he stopped at the Star-River Kingdom. His map ended here, and he needed to buy a better map that also included the area of the Demon continent.

He only knew that the direction of the Demon Continent was in the north after asking in the Focrent Kingdom but didn't know its exact entry border. So he had decided to stop at another Kingdom in the north and buy a large map from there.

On the way, he took some small breaks and had to kill some monsters. Hence, he gathered 24,600 Exp as well, but he didn't encounter life-threatening trouble, so he didn't level up, nor his protective amulet's remaining protection was used.

Well, he mostly played it safe by moving high above the ground and flying carefully as he could see danger from afar with his Astral-X eyes.

So after finally arriving at the large town of this Star-River kingdom, he went straight to the Guildhall. Here, he actually saw some people from Earth who had formed a company. They were four people, two men, two women. All four of them were in their late twenties.

After seeing that Aren was alone, they offered him to join their company, but Aren declined as his goal was Demon Continent.

However, they still invited him to do a dungeon quest.

"You can check the details of the dungeon quest from this map. Take a look," Granger said as he handed the map to Aren.

Aren looked at the map and saw that the map covered a relatively large area and included a part of the Demon Continent as well.

He then looked at the place pointed by Granger. He got the notification about whether he wanted to accept the dungeon quest or not.

[Dungeon quest: Sirenel's Aqua palace.]

<Objectives>

-Kill ten shark-warriors. (20%)

-Destroy Water-Moon stone. (30%)

-Kill Nadoiren Aqua King(40%)

-Steal Aqua King's eggs (if possible) (10%)

<Reward per head>

-20,000 exp.

-A random water-based skill ( B rank to S rank)

<Extra Reward>

-Based on completion % and individual contribution.

"What do you think? Do you want to do this dungeon quest with us?" asked Lila cheery smile. She was a vivacious woman with long wavy brown hair.

Aren looked at Lila, who was also the most powerful among the four in their group according to his Astral-X eyes.

-Name: Lila

-Level: 30 [stored exp: 56,003 Exp]

-Path: Arcedus Rexam.

-Spinergy Method: Chroma Mungenity

...

...

'She must be on the leaderboard, for sure,' thought Aren as he gave back the map and said, "thanks for the offer, but I don't want to do this dungeon quest."

"Eh, fine. Anyway, good luck and be careful in your journey, little bro," Lila said with a grin.

Aren smiled a little and nodded, "thanks, you all too. By the way, I want to buy a similar map as yours. Can you tell me how much it cost you?"

"2500 gold coins," said Rakil. The second man in their group.

"Thanks for the info," Aren said with a nod before leaving them and going towards the quest board to accept some quests to gather gold coins and buy the map.

However, he was surprised by a quest and decided to do it right away.

[Precious Claws]

<Objective>

-->collect claws of Dirt-bound Gophers at Grokul Meadow.

<Reward>

--> 500 gold coins for every two pairs of claws.

<Note>

-->The quest owner needs 50 pairs of claws.

-->Current collection: 12/50.

"This is quite good," Aren murmured with a smile, 'with my eyes, it's a piece of cake to find these things underground.'

After accepting the quest, he left the town without wasting any time and flew towards the quest's location marked on the small map he bought for 300 gold coins. He had to buy this small map for the quest because the map he purchased from the Focrent Kingdom ended at the borders of this Star-River Kingdom.

After a while of flying, Aren arrived at the quest location, Grokul Meadow. After coming here, he saw many people digging the ground, possibly wanting to dig out Gophers like him.

Aren didn't bother with them and focused on his work.

He flew up again to ten meters in height before thinking while focusing his eyes on the ground, 'find Gophers...Dirt-bound Gophers,'

After a few moments, Aren saw his eyes highlighting two parts of the hundred-meter ground he was seeing. However, he acted as if he was still looking around.

After a while, he descended and did some fake digging at different spots for five minutes before finally digging at the highlighted part.

*Zzzzzzz....*

He spun the chakram fast before manipulating it to touch the ground.

*kreeeeeeeee....*

The chakram started shredding the ground with its sharp edges and fast spinning speed.

That was how he rapidly dug the ground.

*chichi..chichi...*

Suddenly, Aren heard some sound and stopped digging.

*shuaaaa...*

[-360]

With a fast speed, a creature left the soil and injured his shoulder as Aren felt a sharp pain there.

Aren disregarded the pain and hurriedly threw a seed of the <Demonic Grasp> skill to trap the fast little gophers the size of twenty centimeters, who had shining large dirt-brown claws that were actually the same size as its body.

After trapping the Gopher, Aren cut off its claws and let it go.

"Hahaha, nice work there, kid. Now obediently, give me that pair of claws if you don't want to get hurt."

Hearing the words, Aren frowned as he turned around and saw three people coming towards him.

He saw their information judged that none of them were from each before they were supreme lifeform people. The three people were all male who looked to be in their early thirties.

Aren turned cautious and looked around as he saw people shooting him, gazes filled with pity and sympathy.

The three people arrived in front of him as a man in the middle spoke with a grin, "If you don't want to give up on those claws, then, hehehe, pay 200 gold coins to us, just like all those people. You get the claws to get 500 gold coins, and we also get 200 gold coins. Hahaha, isn't it win-win for both of us?"

"So...I am supposed to give you 200 gold coins every time I find a pair of claws?" Aren asked without emotions in his voice and expression.

"Yep. Our entire company of fifty people cleared this Grokul Meadow so you low-level adventurers can peacefully dig out Gophers. So...better pay 200 gold coins every time you collect a pair of claws."

"Oh, and don't think about leaving this place and going to another area in this Grokul Meadow because our whole company is scattered in the entire Grokul Meadow to keep an eye on everyone and collect protection fees from them."

Hearing that, Aren frowned internally, 'What the fuck...this is cutting 40% of our original quest reward.'

However, he didn't want a frontal confrontation with them, which would result in him losing his life, so he nodded and gave them 200 gold coins.

Seeing them leaving, a cold light flickered in Aren's eyes as he had already made a plan to deal with them.

'The plan is good, but I need to buy the map before executing it. Sigh, it looks like I'll have to waste more time since those bastards are taking 40% of the cut my reward.'

After twenty minutes of fake digging, he finally went to the highlighted spot. There, he dug out another Gopher before taking its claws.

"Hahaha, kid. You sure are lucky. Some people have been here for over an hour but didn't find anything."

The three people arrived again for an obvious reason.

Aren gave them 200 gold coins without wasting time.

'Welp. I can only give them 400 gold coins more before I have to return and submit the claws to get more gold coins before coming here.. Sigh, what a hassle,' Aren thought with a sigh as his eyes turned cold, and he decided that he would take revenge and get even more benefit for the trouble these bastard caused him.