After deg to focus on his skills, Mikael reflected on the system. ‘Is it just me, or is progress with the system being increasingly difficult? At first, the XP cost for leveling up a css increased progressively with each level, which made sense. But now, the XP cost is evenly distributed across all levels, making it harder. It’s more difficult because, at higher levels, you would typically have extra stats, which allow for faster killing speeds and, in turn, faster leveling.’

  ‘And now, it’s bee even harder with the race level cap. But when I think about it, it’s not really a surprise. The only strahing is that it wasn’t shown iatus window, like with the css. Anyway, the real problem is the stat caps, which raise the difficulty of being strain. If this tihe difficulty will quickly escate to areme level.’

  ‘At this point, I’ll o figure out a way to create a unique power system just for myself and use it to grow stronger. But until then, I’ll stick with the css and stat system, at least until I hit this soft cap.’

  After Mikael fihinking, he decided to try resting. For a while, he couldn’t fall asleep, but after some time, his injuries hurt less, perhaps because he stayed still. The important thing is that he eventually mao sleep.

  In this way, three more days passed before Mikael could no loand doing nothing. On the m of the fourth day, he decided to go outside. It's true that, aside from sleepiing, and reading, he hadn’t done much. On the se, when he was no longer sidered critically injured, he had visited the Records and bought a few books on useful subjects: a survival guide, a first aid manual, and others. He spent most of his time reading but was incredibly bored.

  A positive side to these three days of rest is the valuable knowledge Mikael gained and the fact that his dition has signifitly improved. All his minor cuts and wounds have pletely healed, and his broken bones have mehough they’re still fragile and could easily break again until he makes a full recovery.

  Wheepped outside, he saw a lively city with many people moving toward their destinations. What fasated Mikael was the diversity iy—not only were there the usual humans, but also more fantastic races like elves and demi-humans. He tio look around, enjoying this moment of respite pared to the ret b days.

  As he walked, sav the rexed atmosphere, he eventually arrived at a bustling market. He spotted a food stall and decided to buy something.

  Approag the stall, which was selling some kind of sweet on a stick, he asked, "How much for this?" while pointing to the item.

  The vendor replied, "It’s 1 copper ."

  Mikael nodded, handed over a copper , and took the sweet. He tinued his walk through the city, eating the treat.

  After spending some time strolling around, he threw the sti a trash and soon found himself standing in front of the Hunter’s Guild. Entering the building, he noticed that Ruby was once again at the ter. He was a little surprised to see her w again but didn’t give it much thought as he approached her.

  "Hello Ruby, I would like to redeem the Orc Extermination Mission."

  Ruby had expected him to return soon, sidering how quickly he had pleted the quest the first time, so she wasn’t surprised to see him and replied, "Same as st time—I he ears as proof."

  Mikael nodded and handed her his backpack taining all the orc ears and cores. After calg the total from his first hunt, he had 62 orc ears and 42 orc cores, plus the orc chief’s core, which he kept on him. He didn’t want ao know that he had mao kill a B-rank monster, even at the cost of severe injuries.

  He kept it secret in case someoried to ambush or assassinate him, so they wouldn’t be able to pn around his full strength.

  After Ruby ted all the ears and verified their authenticity, she said, "All good, but this time you’ve really outdone yourself—31 orcs killed, which means you’ve pleted the mission six times." She spoke with a hint of admiration as she took his hunter card aered the pletion of the mission.

  At that moment, Mikael received a notification.

  [Orc Extermination Mission pleted x6 +200 LP x6 = +1.2K LP]

  Pleased with his reward, Mikael tinued, "I’d like to exge 20 orc cores for tribution points."

  Ruby took the twenty cores and said, "I’ve updated your hunter card. You now have 9,000 tribution points."

  "Now that I have some points, I would like to buy the promotion to a k hunter."

  Ruby nodded and made the necessary modifications before handing him back his hunter card, now 5,000 points lighter but with a C repg the D-rank. She then said, "Your k promotion is plete! If you want to bee a B-rank hunter, you’ll o go to the Hunter Guild Headquarters in the capital. The promotion will be more difficult and will require you to fight a B-rank huo prove you have parable strength. Of course, you’ll still need tribution points—20,000 for the B-rank promotion."

  She tinued, "As for quests, we do have some B-rank ones here, but not many. If you want to take on higher-caliber quests, you’d be better off heading to the capital."

  [Quest: k Hunter pleted.Rewards: 1.8K LP]

  Mikael took a moment to process what she had said, along with the notification that appeared, before responding. "Okay, thanks for the info. For now, though, I’d like to check the catalogue. After all, I still have 4,000 points left."

  Ruby uood and handed him the book.

  Mikael took his time browsing through it before deg to purchase a k sword for 3,000 tribution points. He thought, 'That’s the only item that’s really worth it. Sure, the k body refining teique is somewhat iing, but not only is it too expe 5,000 points, it’s also of limited use for now. Oher hand, a better sword will be extremely useful. If I had a k swainst the orc chief, I might have been able to cut through his skin, and the fight would’ve been much easier.'

  Mikael poi the k sword and said, "I would like to buy this sword."

  They followed the same procedure as st time, heading to the secured room, before Ruby returned with his sword. Mikael took it, said goodbye to Ruby, ahe Hunter Guild. He then found a quiet bench, where he took the time to examine his neon. To his surprise, it looked almost identical to the D-rank sword he had retly bought, except for the darker bde.

  After this brief moment of surprise, he began to think about his move. 'I now have 3,000 LP, which is enough to either buy the Training System or the Basic Race Gaining System. Both are the most useful at the moment, but the issue is that I've decided to foy skills, and sequently, on body refining. For that, I’ll need both systems if I want to be effit. After all, I’ve always had the habit of w smarter, not harder.'

  'For example, if I buy the training system and train in body refining for a week, I might achieve the same results in a single day if I had a better race, like the natives of this world. So yeah... if I foy skills, the best path would be to get the Basic Race Gaining System first, then farm LP to buy the Training System, and have enough left for training with Kiara. The problem with this pn is that I need LP, and the ways to earn more in this world are limited.'

  'I think I'll leave this world. After all, I’ve already gained a lot here, and while further progress is possible, it would iably be slower. I’ll do one, maybe two quick worlds with the sole goal of farming LP.'

  After making this decision, he immediately purchased the Basic Race Gaining System, redug his total LP to a whopping 0. His new system works by allowing the user to gain a new race by killing someone of that race.

  Mikael decided to kill a human because he wao keep his inal appeara would also be easier to blend into a modern world if he wasn’t an elf or a simir fantasies race. He chose tet a bandit—not because he wouldn’t dare to kill an i person, but because, if he could avoid it, he preferred not to.

  Mikael exited the city and followed the road leading to Onissa City, hoping to enter some bandits. After searg for several hours, he finally heard something.

  "HELP, HELP ME, PLEASE!" a woman's voice screamed.

  He moved toward the sound, suspeg it was what he was looking for.

  Mikael arrived at the se and perched himself in a tall tree. Below, he saw three rough-looking men in worher armor and dirty clothing ering a beautiful young woman. She appeared to have just reached adulthood, with Twintails styled bck hair and tear-filled bck eyes.

  One of the men stepped forward and spped the woman hard, causio fall to the ground. "Shut up, bitch! It’s useless to scream—we're in the middle of the forest. Be a good little pything, and maybe we'll let you go," he said with a cruel smirk.

  Seeing this se didn’t faze Mikael. After all, it wasn’t the first time he had witnessed something like this. In the pce where he used to live, things like this could happen. For example, when a woman was i, it wasn’t unon for her to be forced into prostitution, which, if that isn’t rape… So, he retty mudifferent. It's just that Mikael had never liked rape or even uood it. He always thought, if you want to sleep with a woman, just seduce her. To him, rape was the solution of the weak.

  Seeing this se, Mikael decided to interve because he had a savior plex or anything like that, but simply because killing the bandits would be him. If it didn’t, he would either have passed by or maybe interfered; the odds were 50/50.

  As he observed, the situation ged slightly.

  One of the men spoke, "Ber, we have our way with her after you?"

  The man who had spped the young woman replied while unbug his belt. "She's a pretty o’s been a while since I’ve had a girl like this, so I'll take my time enjoying her. But once I’m done, you have her."

  "Thanks, Boss."

  The woman, hearing their words and seeing Roger’s as, turned as white as a sheet. She began pleading, tears streaming down her face. "Please, don’t do this!"

  Sobs

  "Mia don’t want to be raped. Think about the women in your family… please, don’t do this to her."

  Roger respoo her, "But that’s what makes it better. I mean, if you don’t resist, it’s less fun. So, do your best to fight back." He ended with a sadistic smirk.

  Hearing this, Mikael thought, Oh, so that’s why! It’s a mix of a kink for rape and being too me to get a woman holy. And they seem weak, so no dahere. I make my move.

  As soon as he finished his thought, he moved at such a speed that it seemed like he disappeared. He reappeared behind Roger and, with a single ssh, decapitated him. Roger's head flew into the air, spraying blood all over the nearby bandit.

  One of the bandits turned his head in the dire of the blood spsh and was immediately horrified to see Roger’s headless body. He began to scream, "AHhhhhhhhh!"

  The sed bandit turned around and said, "Why the hell are you screa—"

  He didn’t have time to finish his sentence before Mikael swiftly decapitated the both of them.