Santiaga stepped out of the large building with a frown on his face. The agency leader really got on his nerves.
'Well, I never dreamed of meeting an S-ranked hero one day.' Santiaga smirked. 'This just means that the possibilities are very vast for me. They would all pay.'
He, of course, knew of all D-ranked heroes in the world. They were very famous figures in their region.
Sera Hill, for example, is not working for the church and created the hero agency to give heroes without connections to the church guidance and a purpose.
Back in the year 2020, when the heroes were very few and the demons were winning, the church was able to provide guidance to all of them.
Now, fifty years later, the heroes are awakening randomly, and although they still weren't up to 30% of the entire human population of 3 billion, they were still a lot.
Sera Hill, despite retiring to do such meagre work instead of fighting demons at the border, is highly respected by all the sanctuaries and churches in the world.
Santiaga still didn't let his guard down against the man. He was ready to teleport away from the man if anything came up.
People like him wore fake smiles on their faces only to gain things out of people. He learnt this firsthand.
Santiaga let out a breath as he stared at the streets of passing cars. The heroes leaving the building all gave him weird stares as they wondered who he was.
Santiaga didn't mind, though.
If this rumor spreads, he might be able to gain the attention of people hosting the academy's trial.
"Yaaaaaawwwwwn..." he yawned, stretching his arms.
[I don't like that guy.]
Santiaga paused as he saw the words on the translucent screen floating in front of him.
"Yeah, me too."
He stepped down, targeting his next destination. There was no time to waste anymore.
He was going hunting.
...
After an hour, he finally arrived at a special region in the city heavily guarded by fully armed soldiers.
Approaching the gate, he showed the soldier his hero ID, and he was let through.
Clank!
'Hmm, this danger zone should do for a training session,' he thought, entering the large gates.
Danger zones in the city are where monsters that are dangerous to humans decide to settle down and live.
Instead of wiping them all off the map, the agency used this as an opportunity to create a lot of training grounds for heroes. Now heroes can go in and hunt all they want.
This was also one of the reasons why the hero agency and the church were so lenient with each other.
The loud sounds of monkeys could be heard from the gate, and he walked forward, paying attention to his surroundings.
It didn't take long for him to find a creature not far in.
It was a green salamander that looked to be around one foot tall. Its glossy skin and slow movements made it seem like perfect prey.
Santiaga smiled, getting excited.
As he was about to jump down, a realization dawned on him. He didn't have a weapon to kill monsters.
'Now this is an issue, a punch is not killing a mana beast.' He frowned, looking at the large salamander munching on the bark of trees.
Feeling movement on his left hand, Santiaga was startled, turning quickly. To his surprise, he could see his skin turning black and an eye popping up behind his palm.
There were long red claws extending from his fingernails.
"Oh, now what's this? Ruin?" He smiled, admiring the arm.
[A gift, it's associated with void touch. It'll be updated soon...
Oh, it's done.]
[Updated void touch]
[Previous rank A >> Current rank SSS]
[Description: Anything touched with this ability slowly erodes, stronger with emotion or intent. The user can devour and create inanimate objects out of thought.
The more you devour, the bigger and stronger things you can create.]
Santiaga's lips twitched as he was stunned by the sudden upgrade. A sadistic smile suddenly found his face, and he chuckled lowly.
"Most heroes only get one skill upon getting a brand. Here I am, blessed with three of the highest rank ever. Hehehehe..." He chuckled, twitching like a robot as he relaxed on the branch.
The rustling of flowers and leaves broke him out of his world of happiness, and he got on guard.
Something zoomed past the tree, wrapping the salamander in that moment.
'What the?' Santiaga paused attention.
A long, golden-scaled snake curled around the salamander, squeezing it with all its strength.
Santiaga didn't jump in immediately. He wasn't familiar with monsters on this side, so he couldn't tell what rank it was.
Judging from the speed, it should be C-rank or above. It couldn't be a D-rank creature.
C-rank creatures and above are intelligent and can hunt and play with their prey. Creatures of higher levels are able to command others to obey them.
Julius watched the snake digest the salamander, its mouth expanding.
The snake took in the salamander, laying there.
'Almost...' Santiaga waited patiently for the food to move a bit deeper so the snake couldn't spit it back out.
'Now!'
He leapt off the tree.
The snake's green split eyes caught him in an instant, but it was already too late.
Santiaga suddenly vanished mid-air. In that split second, the snake fell into confusion.
Bang!
The young man struck the snake with a heavy blow, pushing its head to the side a bit.
Santiaga didn't immediately stop attacking. The snake hissed loudly, and he jumped, vanishing and appearing above the head.
He raised his clawed hand up, bringing it down with force.
Sha!
Santiaga was shocked—his hand slid into the golden scales of the creature and even went to its tongue and pierced it.
Soon, the snake went limp, relaxing its body and the half-eaten food.
[You have killed a C-rank creature, Golden Viper.]
[Attention, useful parts of the creature can be harvested and sold]
'What the fuck?!' Santiaga thought.
And he wasn't even paying attention to the new words on the screen in front of him—he was looking at his right hand, which was covered with a black gooey substance.
It was probably from inside his own body.
Back when he was studying to defeat heroes, he wasn't able to penetrate a C-class creature with a bullet.
Now he nearly did it... and it wasn't stressful.
Santiaga smiled happily before he started humming a tune. Walking over to the corpse, he frowned as he noticed something at the corner of his eyes.
Whish!
He disappeared, dodging an arrow slightly.
"Hahahaha, who knew the new guy would get so lucky?" a man's voice sounded out.
A group of six people came out from behind the trees, holding all sorts of weapons.
Seeing this, Santiaga looked back at the snake with golden scales on the ground and then back at the men.
"Gentlemen, don't tell me you want to rob me?"