Three adventurers marched down the muddy forest road beneath the morning canopy, arguing about bounty shares from their night contract.
Jonas adjusted the bulky pack across his shoulder, kicking loose gravel while glaring at his shorter companion.
"I deserve sixty percent of the payout!" Jonas bellowed, gesturing furiously with a gloved fist. "I pinned the beast before you even drew steel!"
"Pinned it down?" Toby scoffed with a derisive laugh, dodging a deep mud puddle with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. "You got thrown into the bushes by its damn tail..."
Jonas spat into the damp green ferns and quickened his stride, forcing his shorter companion to lengthen his hurried steps.
"I absorbed the main hit on my shield!" Jonas snapped back, his face reddening as he kicked a loose pine cone. "The guild clerk credits frontline work!"
"Frontline work?" Toby mimicked in a high-pitched whine, walking backward along the rutted path with an irritating smirk. "Oh? Then who spent ten minutes screaming for emergency healing?!"
They traded loud insults across the path while Cassie followed half a pace behind, resting both hands on her staff.
She listened to the identical dispute after every single bounty hunt, keeping her gaze fixed on the muddy ruts ahead.
'They'll shout all the way to the intake counter... then split the silver right down the middle.'
She sighed quietly beneath her hood, shifting her grip along the smooth ash wood of her long magical focus.
"Cassie," Jonas barked, glancing back over his broad shoulder. "Tell this idiot my axe carried the entire contract."
He stabbed an accusatory finger toward her polished staff as the morning light caught its tip.
"Go on," Jonas demanded with an impatient scowl. "You saw the whole skirmish, so tell him who did the work."
Toby stopped in the center of the path, opening both hands wide with an irritating, cocky smirk.
"I think... both of you performed adequately," Cassie replied with a tired sigh, keeping her hood pulled low against the morning mist.
She stopped where she stood, knowing her diplomatic answer would satisfy neither of the two stubborn men before her.
"That's not an answer!" Jonas grumbled, scowling at the ground.
"It's a peaceful answer," Cassie pointed out dryly, tapping her staff against a root.
She watched the morning mist drift slowly between the trunks, hoping they would drop the subject for good.
"That's a tie!" Toby declared with a triumphant grin, clapping his palms together. "Fifty-fifty at the counter, big guy."
"You always take his side," Jonas muttered sourly, hiking his pack straps with an angry grunt. "Ever since that miserable river crossing."
He grumbled under his breath about incompetent swordsmen and biased mages, continuing his march down the rocky slope again.
'One more hour of their whining... and I'm demanding hazard pay from the clerk.'
She shook her head with quiet exhaustion, following the two bickering fighters down the winding gravel carriage path.
Cassie looked past the two squabbling men, spotting a thin plume of gray smoke rising from a rocky hollow.
A small clearing sat nestled between three boulders, half-hidden beneath the tangled branches of an old tree.
"Wait," Cassie whispered, holding out her arm to stop the two men. "Someone's lying by that campfire."
Both men went quiet instantly, dropping their petty dispute as their hands moved instinctively toward their weapon hilts.
"Adventurer... or a corpse?" Toby asked in a low whisper, his hand dropping to his hilt.
"Hard to tell," Jonas grunted, squinting through the branches. "He isn't wearing guild colors..."
Jonas unhooked his brutal battleaxe from his leather harness, stepping carefully across the damp carpet of pine needles.
"Either of you seen him around the tavern?" Jonas asked, his eyes scanning the quiet hollow.
Cassie kept three paces of safety behind the front line, gripping her carved staff with both hands.
"Never in my life," Toby murmured, easing his blade free from its scabbard with quiet caution.
They approached the rocky hollow with weapons drawn, fanning out in a wide arc across the damp forest soil.
Jonas held his broad axe low across his waist while Toby kept his sword point angled toward the figure.
Cassie extended a thin thread of sensory mana from her staff, utilizing her specialized talent to inspect the body.
Her instructors in the capital academy taught her to read internal circulation before approaching any unknown, motionless fighter.
Toby noticed the scattered venison bones first, pointing the tip of his blade toward the roasted meat scraps.
"He ate recently," Toby observed, nudging a charred rib bone with his foot. "Something interrupted him last night."
Jonas examined the dried crimson streaks across the young man's shirt, noting the torn linen wrapped around his ribs.
"Maybe he bled out after cooking," Jonas suggested with a shrug, crouching beside the ashes of the spent fire. "Wouldn't be the strangest corpse on this road."
Jonas lowered himself into a low crouch beside the ashes of the spent fire, inspecting the boy's pale, motionless face through messy bangs.
Cassie's sensory thread touched the boy's chest, and a sudden wave of dread traveled up her staff.
His mana circulation did not move in standard linear paths, but rotated in a closed, unbroken amber circle.
'This mana flow violates every guild principle... it belongs to no known class in the empire.'
She withdrew her sensory thread with a sharp gasp, feeling an icy chill settle across the nape of her neck.
The steady surge of that bright current felt ancient and suffocating, completely drowning the faint magical resonance of her own silver academy ring.
"Leave him alone," Cassie urged in a panicked whisper, clutching her staff as dread washed over her. "His internal circulation is dangerously unstable!"
She took a cautious step backward into the morning shadows, her sharp instincts screaming that danger lurked nearby.
"Someone who cleared a two-Shard horned beast with a notched iron blade isn't an ordinary beggar."
Toby nudged a cracked antler with the toe of his shoe, his seasoned veteran eyes narrowing at the precise puncture wound through the skull.
"Clean thrust through the soft roof of the mouth... took down a mountain beast with a single gamble."
The air around the rocky hollow grew strangely dense, carrying the subtle pressure of an ancient, sleeping apex predator.
Jonas ignored both warnings, his greedy eyes catching two bright violet gems resting beside the torn travel pack.
The monster cores pulsed with rich purple energy, catching the pale morning sunlight filtering through the dense branches.
"Look at these," Jonas whispered greedily, his eyes lighting up at the violet glow. "Two high-grade crystals from a two-Shard beast."
Cassie stared at the sparkling purple stones, recognizing the dense aura of a dangerous mountain horned beast from afar.
"A dead beggar doesn't need twenty silver," Jonas sneered, reaching a thick hand toward the pouch.
"Don't touch those!" Cassie hissed, reaching for his collar. "I told you something is wrong!"
Hajin opened his eyes before the thief's greedy fingers crossed the halfway mark toward the glowing monster crystals.
His body snapped off the damp earth with explosive blinding speed, twisting his hips into a vicious back spin kick.
His heel caught Jonas square in the sternum, shattering his breath before the thief could blink.
The impact launched the armored adventurer backward through the air, sending him crashing ten paces into the bushes.
The broad battleaxe slipped from his numb fingers, landing with a dull thud in the soft pine needles.
Dry branches snapped under the man's full weight as he rolled through the thorny brush with a choked gasp.
Hajin dropped into a balanced low stance, drawing his notched blade with a smooth, lethal hiss.
His messy black bangs shadowed sharp, mocking eyes as he watched the remaining two strangers across the clearing.
Toby froze in place with his sword held high, too shocked by the sudden counterattack to advance a step.
The longsword trembled slightly in the swordsman's grip as he stared at the young vagrant standing before them.
Cassie gripped her weapon with trembling palms, staring at the slender boy who stood before them like death.
'He was unconscious a second ago... his core should be shattered!'
She focused her mana-reading talent upon his right wrist, where a faint golden ring revolved beneath his skin.
The light formed a continuous unbroken band rather than the separate crystalline Shards carried by all registered guild adventurers.
'That isn't a Shard at all... what kind of monster is standing in front of us?!'
Her training in the capital archive covered every known adventurer class, yet this luminous ring matched no imperial record.
The foreign mana radiated unyielding royal authority, suppressing the feeble magical flow circulating within her own modest staff.
"Looting a sleeping man carries a steep tax out here," Hajin said with a razor-thin smirk, resting the tip of his notched sword toward the bushes. "Who wants to pay first?"
"We were just passing through," Toby replied quickly, raising his free hand in a placating gesture while keeping his guard high. "Checking if you needed medical aid."
"Your buddy was checking my pockets," Hajin countered with a mocking chuckle, his eyes narrowing with icy disdain. "Try selling that garbage to a blind merchant."
"Jonas, stay down!" Cassie yelled, rushing to grab the warrior's arm. "Don't provoke him!"
Jonas dragged himself onto his knees with dirt smeared across his nose, coughing violently while rubbing his bruised chest.
"You think you can kick me, punk?!" Jonas roared, spitting blood and pine needles as he hauled himself to his feet. "I'll split your skull!"
"He isn't normal!" Cassie pleaded, her voice trembling with sheer terror. "Look at his wrist, listen to me!"
Two bright yellow Shards flared to life around Jonas's right arm, channeling aggressive mana into his thick fists.
He retrieved his fallen battleaxe from the loam, ignoring the young mage's warnings in his blind, wounded pride.
'This idiot will get us killed in this ditch... his wounded pride is blinding him!'
She raised her staff in desperation, but the furious warrior shoved past her shoulder toward the clearing.
"Lucky shot," Jonas snarled, shaking off her grip and raising his broad battleaxe with a vein-bulging glare. "You only hit me! I slipped on the damn leaves!"
"Try it again, big guy," Hajin taunted with an amused tilt of his head, twirling his notched sword in a casual circle. "Let's see which limb you lose next."
He calculated the distance between their feet, noting the clumsy weight distribution of the larger man's battle stance.
The two yellow Shards around the adventurer's forearm flared erratically, leaking raw heat into the damp morning air with sloppy dissipation.
Compared to the razor-sharp refinement of the golden ring humming beneath his own sleeve, the brute's power felt like a child splashing muddy water.
'Telegraphing every swing from three paces away... just like the clumsy thugs back in the slums.'
Three years of street brawls in the gutters had taught Hajin that loud men always fell the hardest when their pride shattered.
He rested his left hand casually in his worn trouser pocket, showing zero concern for the glowing yellow weapon before him.
The mountain breeze whistled through the tall pines, carrying the sharp scent of ozone and spilled monster blood across the clearing.
Toby backed away two cautious steps, signaling to Cassie that neither of them intended to join this suicidal brawl.
'Let Jonas learn his lesson... I'm not dying in the mud for stolen crystals.'
He kept his steel longsword lowered near his hip, watching the confrontation unfold with tense, silent reluctance.
"I am a registered bronze vanguard of the capital branch!" Jonas bellowed, his face twisting with murderous fury as yellow mana flared across his blade. "You're just another nameless slum corpse!"
The broad battleaxe blade whistled downward in a furious, diagonal cleave aimed straight for Hajin's exposed collarbone.
Hajin shifted his weight onto his front heel, feeling the effortless speed humming through his newly reconstructed Ring channels.
'Let's see what this reconstructed body can actually do against a two-Shard fighter.'
He stepped forward instead of back, ducking directly beneath the whistling arc with a smirk that dared Jonas to try again.