New cover on work, featuring our lovely Hero xD (Image in the comment, I hope I can put it on time.)

***

[17 April 2023, 11:30 AM]

[New York, Pelham Bay Park]

Pelham Bay Park was New York City’s largest park, or so it was supposed to be on Earth. Thirty years ago, the dungeon located in this park overflowed, and this park became the home of D-Rank Forest Wolves ever since.

The area around it was surrounded by a lightning fence that kept the wolves inside. In the field, the trees had grown more than 5 meters high because of the influence of Mana. It became a small jungle in the middle of the city.

This field was not too common due to how fast the wolves moved around, so only a few people who specialized in hunting wolves were currently hunting inside the field.

We just needed to show our Awakener ID to the guards at the entrance to enter the field. The entrance was only a small steel door behind the guards.

And now, we were waiting for my turn to enter the field as Chloe peered at me and asked. “Are you nervous, Rai?”

“Nah, not really.”

Chloe wore a suit that matched mine. A sleeveless black hoodie with a skin-tight full bodysuit underneath it. She also wore a carbon chest armor and mini-skirt combined with knee-high combat boots. Her magic bag was strapped on her waist, and the [Party Bracelet] was secured on her left wrist, completing her fashion.

“I see. I thought you were nervous because this is the first time you are hunting in the field, but it’s good if you are okay.”

Due to Chloe’s clothing or people recognizing her as the Hero, we got a lot of stares since we arrived. Fortunately, I was wearing a mask and put my hood on, so no one noticed that I was glaring at them.

“I have been hunting alone since I was first Awakened, so I was used to it,” I answered Chloe and looked at the guards in front of me. “Anyway, how long do we have to wait until we can enter the field?”

“Because the last party entered five minutes ago, then five more minutes until we can enter.”

To avoid two parties bumping into each other in the field, the Awakener Association made a rule that a party needed to wait 10 minutes to enter the previous party. This rule seemed annoying, but it was needed to make the Awakeners feel secure.

Some Awakeners died because another party attacked them in the field after they were finished for the day. Apparently, the party that attacked the other was tailing them since they entered the field and were waiting for them to kill many monsters before killing them.

The Awakener Association had managed to catch the perpetrator a month after the incident, but five more parties had become victims before they were caught._-.

As the field was bigger than a dungeon, the Awakeners that patrolled inside the field couldn’t cover much area. That was why this rule was enforced, so no one could feel safe when they entered the field.

“Even so, it’s too long. I want to advance to D-Rank as fast as I can.”

The people behind me seemed to hear what I said as some of them gasped in surprise.

“D-Rank?! Isn’t he Awakened like… three weeks ago?” Asked one of the Awakeners.

“That’s right! I remembered the news about that!” Answered a female Awakener.

“What kind of training did he go through to advance that fast?” Queried another Awakener.

“I don’t know. But one thing is for sure…”

“Yeah…”

“He’s too talented.” Agreed all Awakeners. They even said it at the same time.

‘Hmm. It’s kind of embarrassing being praised in public like this.’

I scratched my head underneath my hood as Chloe chuckled.

“Fufufu, are you embarrassed, Rai?”

“What are you talking about?” I tried to hide my embarrassment by acting cool.

“Nothing.” She answered lightly while smiling happily.

Because the conversation stopped with that, she pulled out wireless earphones and plugged them into her ears. She then took out her phone from her magic bag and watched a video.

I was curious about what she watched and peeked over her shoulder. Unsurprisingly, she was watching a cat video. It was a video about a white cat rolling around the field, chasing a dragonfly around.

She noticed that I peeked into her phone and turned to me.

“Do you want to watch it together?” She moved her phone closer to me and pulled the earphone from her left ear, and handed it to me.

“Yeah. Why not? I have nothing to do.” I took the earphone and put it in my left ear. There was calming music accompanying a soft purr of the cat.

Honestly, it was rather addicting. I now understand why she loved watching cat videos.

“Cute, isn’t it?” Asked Chloe as she giggled happily, watching the cat rolling to the right in the video.

“It is…”

***

As I watched the cat videos with Chloe, five minutes had passed without me realizing it. The guards opened the door and urged us to enter the field.

I handed the earphone back to Chloe, and we entered the field. As soon as we entered, the door was closed, and we were left in the field. The exit of this field was through the same entrance. We just needed to knock on the door five times, and the guards would open it for us.

The previous party could possibly ambush us, so we took out our weapons and put our guard up. Chloe took out Gae Bolg while I took out Arash Bow. My job as the Sharpshooter was to make sure that the area around us was clear, so I looked around as I sharpened my senses.

We were surrounded by forest as soon as we entered the field; it was the perfect place to ambush someone. However, even after I sharpened my senses, I felt no one around us, not even Forest Wolves. It should be the previous party; they had cleared the area around us.

After everything was clear, I looked at Chloe and informed her. “All clear.”

“Okay. Where should we go?”

“First, let’s get the Artifact that I plan to recover. It’s located in the tallest tree right in the middle of the field.”

Hearing the information, Chloe nodded her head. “I will leave the path to you.”

“No problem. Follow me.”

I began to walk into the forest with Chloe walking right behind me. I was a bit nervous because the enemies were D-Rank monsters, but I should be fine with Chloe with me. She almost hit A-Rank, so D-Rank monsters were only small fries to her.

We walked for a minute with our guard up, so our pace was a little slow. We didn’t even cover a fourth of the distance from our goal, but it was at this time the first enemy showed up. I heard a movement from the area on my left; the footsteps were light and fast.

I stopped in my track and raised my right hand, and spoke.

“It’s a Forest Wolf.”

“How many?” Asked Chloe calmly.

“From the footsteps, I guess there are around five of them. Ten seconds before we made contact. I can get two of them from this distance. I will leave the rest to you.”

“Roger.”

I held the Arash Bow tightly and began to infuse Mana into it. Next, the Mana bowstring appeared, and I pulled it. Two Mana arrows appeared after I pulled the bowstring and infused Mana into the bow.

Currently, two Mana Arrows are my limit. I tried to do three arrows at once, but the accuracy was so bad that I needed more training before I could actually do it in a real fight.

However, there was a downside to using two Mana Arrows at once. The piercing power of the arrow was reduced. But, it was not a problem this time, especially with the new effect of the [Arash Bow].

I could see a pack of five Forest Wolves that approached us from a distance. I locked onto two of them before releasing the arrows.

Swoosh–

It flew straightly at a fast speed, severing the wind on its way. The wolves were still approaching without knowing that I had released my arrow. To my surprise, Chloe started to run toward the wolves right after my arrows flew toward them.

My arrows were still faster than her. They flew through the trees and hit the bodies of two wolves simultaneously before exploding, instantly killing them.

Boom!

The new effect of [Arash Bow], Exploding Arrow, was as good as I thought. I tried it against the tree a while ago, but the explosion still amazed me. I never thought that I would be able to kill a D-Rank monster instantly, even when I was not D-Rank yet.

That meant I could kill a monster with a Rank higher than me with this Explosive Arrow. An Artifact was indeed a cheat in this world.

“Wow!” Chloe let out an amazed sound as she reached the remaining wolves. The wolves tried to run from her, but her spear had already moved. It pierced three wolves’ heads almost simultaneously while leaving a golden trail.

Five wolves died just like that, almost like a joke.

“Good job, Chloe.” I approached Chloe and praised her.

“Un. It’s easy.” She answered me as she pulled the wolves’ fangs from the corpses. The ones that I killed were almost unrecognizable due to the explosions, so we couldn’t recover the fangs from them.

It was a shame. The fangs could fetch a good price in the market. Today, I learned something. I shouldn’t use an explosive arrow recklessly while hunting.

After securing all fangs from the corpses and putting them into her magic bag, Chloe smiled and said, “Hunting together is fun.”

“That’s right. This is my first time hunting with other people too. It’s fun.”

“Un!” She nodded her head energetically. “Let’s get that Artifact and continue our hunt, Vi- Rai!”

She was so happy that she almost blurted out my real name while I was in Rai’s clothes. Fortunately, she was able to call me by my persona name. Not like anyone could hear us in the middle of the field.

“Yes.”

***

After walking for a few minutes and killing a few more wolves, we arrived at the tallest tree in the field. It looked like a pine tree. The tree stood more than 20 meters tall, and we needed to look up to see the tip.

“We arrived!” Exclaimed Chloe. She expressed her emotion more clearly as the days passed.

“Yeah, we have arrived! Next, I just need to climb this tree real quick.” I became excited like a child, maybe I was infected by Chloe’s energy? However, this was not so bad at times.

“Huh? Climb the tree?” Chloe asked curiously as she tilted her head. She then looked at the tree and pointed at it. “This tree?”

“Yup. It should be easy. The branches are big, so I can jump on them.”

“Why?” She asked again.

“Because the Artifact is located at a hole near the tip of this tree.”

The Artifact was small and was hidden in a hole on the top of the tree. That was the reason why no one ever found it.

“Not that. I mean… I can jump to the top easily. Why do you want to climb it?”

Now that she mentioned it, that was true. As someone who was about to advance to A-Rank, she should be able to jump 20 meters easily. Could it be that I was an idiot? I still had the same mindset when I was on Earth.

‘I really am an idiot.’ I facepalmed as I realized what I had said.

“Please… I am counting on you to get the Artifact, Chloe.”

“No problem.”

She crouched a little and jumped highly, reaching the top of the tree in almost no time. She grabbed one of the branches to stay on the top while searching for the hole that I mentioned. After looking for a few seconds, her expression brightened. It seemed like she had found it.

She moved swiftly before reaching out to the hole and taking the Artifact. Her expression turned into a confused one as she looked at the item in her hand. She should’ve never expected the Artifact to look like that.

After getting satisfied with inspecting the Artifact, or maybe she didn’t understand it, she jumped down by stepping on the branches skillfully and landed in front of me.

“I am back.”

“Welcome back. So, how is the Artifact?”

“Un, I got it. But… is this real?” Chloe asked as she raised her hand that held the artifact. In her hand, there were sunglasses with a black frame.

“Yup, that’s the Artifact.”

“Ugh… I thought so. I never expected that there would be an Artifact like this… Here, take it.” She handed the sunglasses to me, and I took them gratefully.

“Thanks. It helps a lot… You did see the name and the effect of this Artifact, right?”

“Yes. But I never expected that an Artifact could look like… this.” She looked at the sunglasses in my hand.

“Hahahaha. Of course. No one would ever think that these sunglasses are an Artifact. Also, no one ever thinks that this Artifact held such an effect.” I said as I tightly clutched the sunglasses in my hand.

“That’s true… I will stop thinking about it. Artifacts are strange after all.”

With this, my preparations were complete. I smiled under my mask and looked at Chloe.

“Let’s raise our rank in five days, Chloe!”

“Yes!” She replied energetically.