Outside the Hunter Tavern, beside a bald old man followed by a group of strong males, stood phist in hunter attire.
Her silver hair and silver eyes shone brilliantly under the firelight, quite conspicuous.
Rod’s ignoring made the bald man even angrier.
He leapt with a shout, his large hand flashing towards his shoulder like lightning.
But Rod dodged by shifting his shoulder and frowned, "Old man, what are you doing?"
Jahan laughed angrily, "Good lad, you tell what I’m doing! You’re fighting and causing trouble here, smashing up my tavern, what do you think I’m doing?"
Rod retorted, "They hit first."
Jahan’s orange eyes glared at him, "You still think you didn’t do anything wrong? You think you can fight, huh? Today, let show you what real fighting is!"
His hand flashed with Spiritual Light, striking at his shoulder again.
Rod twisted his waist and shoulder, counterattacking with an elbow, and swiftly grabbed his right arm, laughing, "Show what?"
Jahan shouted angrily, "Let go, do you know who I am?"
Atos cried out, "Grandpa Jahan, he’s helping . It’s these drunkards causing trouble; don’t hit him!"
Jahan said angrily, "Atos! Are you blind?"
Rod let go, smiling, "Bald Grandpa, it’s just as Atos said, these people started the fight. We rely used physical combat thods, kindly sparring, that’s all. As for the tavern’s losses, they’ve already agreed they’ll compensate for the damages."
Jahan sneered, "You’ve said your piece. It seems we were mistaken today."
He waved his hand, and a group of male hunters crowded around.
"Kid, you think you can fight? Hmph, today you’ll see what it ans to be outnumbered."
Suddenly, a hunter softly said, "No, Captain, he seems to be that Rod who received the King’s comndation."
"Yes, that’s him, Lord Dalin regards him highly, and he has even been to the Holy Fire Sacrificial Ground for a eting with the King."
"Maybe we should let it go... If we fight him, Lord Dalin might get angry."
The Hunter Group is strictly under the jurisdiction of the Military War Departnt. To them, the First Defense Chief Dalin is practically a God, the General Logistics Departnt is a grandfather, other Defense Chiefs are fathers, and various Commanders and Leaders are elder brothers.
The Hunter Group has always been the littlest brother.
After earning significant rits twice, Rod had beco a favored person in the eyes of First Defense Chief Dalin.
Many people knew about this.
But Jahan did not show a smile; his expression suddenly turned cold, almost showing hostility.
"Kid, I don’t care who you are. As long as I, Jahan, am still Captain of the Hunter Group, you can’t bully others with your status."
Rod burst into laughter, "Captain, if you don’t believe , that’s fine, but you don’t believe Atos either?"
Jahan sneered, "I only believe what I see with my own eyes. You think you can fight? If you’re so capable, go to the battlefield, hunt monsters! I and these old hunters are discussing hunting a Demon Dragon, while you young hunters are here making trouble while drinking! What a degeneration."
Rod’s eyes lit up, "You’re preparing to hunt a Demon Dragon?"
Jahan looked at him dismissively, "It’s an elite-level mission from headquarters, extrely dangerous. Hunting the Corrupted Demon Dragon in the depths of the Royal City Sewer, do you dare to co?"
"Sure!"
Rod readily agreed and grasped his hand.
"To express my regret, I’ve decided to join you in hunting the Demon Dragon."
Jahan’s eyes widened, his orange pupils like copper bells.
----
After so wrangling, Rod brought up his past accomplishnts, and Jahan reluctantly agreed to let him join the team, briefly clarifying the mission’s cause.
The sewers of the Royal City are extrely deep, with the middle and lower levels being restricted areas, ho to monsters that have existed for who knows how many years.
The Royal City’s consistent strategy had been to clean them out slowly and carefully, prioritizing areas that directly affected the city.
And their current mission target was to hunt the Corrupted Demon Dragon ensconced in the lowest area of the sewers.
It was an injured Ancient Giant Dragon, sohow appearing deep within the Royal City Sewer. Over the long years, it had been corrupted by the Black Fog, causing further deterioration and mutation of its wounds—its ribs had grown into a massive blood-filled mouth, emitting an intensely twisted and corrupted aura.
It was not in a completely dormant state; it periodically searched for food in the depths of the sewer, devouring the filth settled at the bottom, and each of its movents triggered disturbances among the monsters deep in the sewers, subsequently affecting the upper levels.
So, just as the Black Tide had ended, the Military War Departnt began considering hunting it.
However, there were many such cases, and so the Military War Departnt handed this mission over to the Hunter Group.
Due to extre danger, it was not a public hunter task but belonged to the elite missions of the Hunter headquarters.
Jahan had gathered the strongest hunters in the group to discuss strategies.
This was not a mission that could be completed by simply amassing numbers. They had to hunt the Demon Dragon with minimal disturbance, to avoid alerting other dormant powerful monsters and unnecessarily increasing Royal City’s defensive burden.
Jahan finally agreed to include Rod in the team, considering his rich experience in the sewers.
And to everyone’s surprise, the renowned King of both the North and South Royal City Sewers, ’Black Barrel’ Rod, and the Great Hunter Sculpture turned out to be the sa person.
By that count, he alone had done the work of so two thousand sewer workers.
And two thousand n constituted the strength of an army.
Jahan couldn’t help but exclaim, "In the sewer, you alone are an army."
The current captain of the Hunting Squad, the foremost Hunter Atos also sighed, "Rod, brother, why don’t you just take responsibility for guarding our sewer?"
Hey, can you guys pay attention to my brilliant achievents in the Third Battle Zone?
Do you all not care about the glorious mont when my teammates and I destroyed the Abyss Rift?
Rod was very unhappy and determined that in the future he must accomplish sothing even more earth-shattering to overshadow the dark history of the sewers.
After he joined, the Hunting Squad quickly set out.
The first Hunter Atos was in a strong forward position, Rod was in the rear as a scout, phit was a mid-position controller, and the other four were all forward pioneers.
Rod skillfully led them into the sewer, through the upper layer, to the entrance of the middle-lower layer.
The next part of the journey was led by Atos.
Rod finally had a chance to speak with phit.
From the first mont he saw her, phit had not shown any expressions, her indifferent gaze like that toward a stranger.
"Don’t be so cold, after all, you agreed to go on a date with . Isn’t it nice to et earlier and warm up?"
phit did not reply, but Atos spoke instead.
"Rod, brother, stay away from her, don’t talk to her."
Another hunter also said, "Don’t be fooled by her appearance, this woman is both vile and malicious, getting too close to her will bring bad luck."
Rod frowned and said, "Isn’t it too much to speak of her this way? She is our comrade after all. Even if she has been cursed, it’s not her fault."
A tall hunter said, "Rod, brother, you don’t understand the situation. Just don’t get close to her, she’s not a person, just a tool."
Rod angrily said, "What do you an by this? Even if she is a forbidder, she is still a living, breathing, emotional being. How can you treat a teammate as a tool?"
Atos ca back from the front, his strong arms enveloping Rod and separating him from phit.
"Under the Silver Oath, all are tools."
"Don’t be deceived by her appearance. She is not human."
A hunter laughed, "Rod, brother, you’re still young, you probably haven’t seen many won."
"Once this mission is over, old brother will take you to the Red Workshop street. There are lots of beautiful won. They are much more fun than this cold witch. Just try it out once with ."
The hunters spoke without any reservations while phit remained silent, walking last in silence.
Rod furrowed his brow, feeling that things were not as simple as he thought.
He secretly resolved to carefully ask her after the mission was over.
The middle layer of the sewer was highly complex with a significant disparity in height. Most areas lacked sewer functionality and resembled so kind of underground city.
As they went deeper, the darkness intensified, and the range of light was gradually compressed. An enveloping black fog seed to seep from nowhere.
When they once again jumped down into a deep pit, the thick black fog extinguished their lanterns.
Red lights illuminated from everyone, the Red Tear Stone beginning to take effect.
"We’ve reached the bottom layer,"
Atos whispered.
"From now on, don’t use Spiritual Energy lightly. Follow , and don’t fall behind. I don’t want to see your nas on the condolence fund list."
The hunter squad followed him deeper into the darkness.
The bottom layer of the sewer had completely lost any signs of man-made structures, filled with rugged boulders. The filth that had seeped from the upper layers over the years had turned into unknown viscous substances. A cold and dark essence hit them in the face.
The bottom layer was much larger than Rod had imagined, reminding him of the Abyss Rift.
Suddenly, Atos halted and spoke softly, "It’s just ahead, I can hear its breathing."
Everyone stopped and listened to him continue.
"The Corrupted Demon Dragon’s size is roughly two hundred yards, it retains the Ancient Dragon’s imnse strength and high Spiritual Energy, and also has astonishing corruption. Don’t let any part of its body hit you."
"When the battle starts, I’ll confront the Demon Dragon head-on. You four attack from the sides. Rember, at no ti should you stand directly behind it."
"Rod, keep an eye on the Demon Dragon’s movents at all tis and provide so long-range firepower."
"Be attentive to restrict the Demon Dragon’s actions."
"Let’s go."
Atos charged forward first, Thunder Light rising around him, a long spike appearing in his right hand.
The others followed him down a cliff that was at least two hundred yards high.
The next mont, Rod saw a massive Spiritual Body, its powerful Soul Waveform shrouded in a layer of dark mist.
Atos yelled out loud, the spike exploding with Thunder Light forming a thunder blade hundreds of yards long, heavily piercing the Spiritual Body.
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