Chapter 20: Gulu Gulu, Boom!

Early the next morning, Aolang and the other two bid farewell to the seniors of Desert Fin and piloted the Sand Ship back to Luokelake.

The return journey was uneventful, yet the three humans and one cat on board, including Asa who was the loudest of them all, were far quieter than on the way there.

It was not due to any heavy atmosphere; rather, the experience of this mission and the seniors' stories had given them considerable inspiration.

That phrase, "find your own place," had made Aolang ponder for a long time.

However, the two brothers, Nuri and Asa, were actually more deeply affected by those words.

Though unwilling to admit it verbally, they both understood in their hearts that they too belonged to the vast majority of "mediocre ones."

A Star One at nearly twenty, and a Star Two just past twenty; while not utterly dull, these were hardly achievements worthy of praise.

During this mission cooperating with Aolang, they had felt the gap between themselves and a "genius" even more directly.

If this trend continued, they might serve for a long time in the Citadel Guerrillas, or perhaps leave in a few years and advance to Star Three before turning thirty.

Spending a long time accumulating experience and honing skills, if luck was good enough, they might perhaps advance to Star Four during their prime in their forties.

But just like the several seniors of Desert Fin, they might face repeated failures, might lose their lives to dragon jaws; the best outcome would be remaining unknown for a lifetime, retiring without disability.

As young people around twenty, still full of drive, such a future felt suffocating just to imagine.

But the seniors' words had given them another direction.

Who says mediocre ones cannot achieve accomplishments of their own?

Back in Luokelake, the three settled the mission, collected their reward, and sold the Wyvern Livers, which could only be described as ordinary quality by current standards, for a total income of three thousand and several hundred z.

Nuri distributed this income; his method was simple and direct: one thousand z for each of the three, with the remainder going entirely to Shaji.

By rights, as the Captain and the only Star Two in the team, taking a larger share would have been entirely reasonable.

But the successful completion of this mission did not rely solely on his abilities; everyone contributed significantly, and an equal split made everyone feel comfortable.

"Generally, after a mission is completed, there is three to five days for rest and adjustment. The Citadel Guerrillas have no fixed teams; in the future, you can act alone or cooperate on missions as you wish, just give advance notice, but remember not to slack off too long, or the Boss will get angry."

Handing Aolang his share of the reward, Nuri continued, "Asa and I plan to go home and stay for a few days; the address is at..., come find us anytime if you need anything."

"Or if you're just bored, come hang out with us!" Asa put his arm around Aolang and bumped shoulders with him.

"Alright, thanks for your hard work, seniors." Aolang bowed slightly.

"Don't be so formal! Let's go!"

Watching the two brothers leave, Aolang looked at Shaji. "What are your plans for these few days?"

Perhaps due to having similar experiences, their relationship had grown much closer after this mission.

Shaji scratched his ears. "I'm planning to dig up some ore, meow. I've been wearing this Oak Acorn Cat Armor for quite a while, and the Cat Pickaxe made from herbivore dragon bones has become too dull, meow."

"If I can dig up some higher-quality ore, I can exchange it for new equipment, meow."

Aolang paused, surprised; Shaji's words had reminded him.

According to his original plan, he intended to replace his weapon immediately after advancing to become an Official Hunter, so his Hunter Dagger had remained in its initial state, with no thought given to upgrading it.

But the message left by his teacher before departing had changed his mind.

He calmed himself and asked: Have I truly decided to change my weapon?

Currently, besides the One-Handed Sword, the only weapons he could use directly in combat were two types: Dual Blades and Great Sword; these were actually the preferred weapons of his teacher and Teacher Haifa.

If he switched to Dual Blades, could he still employ the Great Sword's Charged Attack technique? It seemed impossible; he couldn't keep dropping his off-hand sword and then raise his main-hand sword with both hands to forcibly perform a Charge Slash every time, could he?

If he switched to a Great Sword, even if he could still activate Demonization, he feared he wouldn't be able to run or wield it effectively.

Looking at it this way, the One-Handed Sword was actually the weapon most suitable for him at present; furthermore, he had only just made some progress in Fatal Combo, and integrating the Charged Attack technique into Fatal Combo was a fairly clear direction for effort.

Since he planned to use the One-Handed Sword for a while longer, leaving the Hunter Dagger untouched was inappropriate to begin with.

This One-Handed Sword had used only Iron Ore during its forging; the blade's hardness was insufficient, its sharpness was too poor, and it would chip even when cutting the bones of small monsters.

However, this weapon had one advantage: it was easy to upgrade.

As long as he could obtain higher-quality ores like Swallow Stone, Brilliant Dragon Stone, or even Blue Flash Stone, he could easily improve its various performance aspects.

"Did she even consider all this..." Aolang murmured to himself.

"What did you say, meow?"

"Nothing." Aolang adjusted his mood. "If you're gathering ore, I'll go with you; I also plan to upgrade my Hunter Dagger."

"No problem, meow! But we must go say hello to the Boss first, meow, so the Boss doesn't wonder where we've gone, meow." Shaji's tone was cheerful, clearly in a good mood.

Having a companion to look out for each other, even if just to chat, could relieve boredom.

The human and the cat ran to find Qiaoda, who was busy handling official duties in his office.

Hearing that the two had just returned to the city in the morning and now wanted to go out again, Qiaoda sighed with emotion. "Young people have such abundant energy."

"If you're mining ore, I recommend the Gobi to the northeast; there are many exposed ore veins there, and if luck is good, you might even collect high-grade ore materials like Light Crystal."

"However, since you are going there anyway, hmm, wait a moment..."

Qiaoda took a blank mission form from his drawer and filled it out on the spot. Quickly, he pushed the completed form toward Aolang. "How about taking this mission as well?"

Aolang accepted the form with both hands.

——

Subjugation Mission: Gulu Gulu, Boom! (★)

Mission Content: Subjugate 5 Shieldbugs

Mission Location: Gobi north of Luokelake

Mission Duration: 5 days

Reward: 600z

Possible Monsters: Yellow Velocidrome, Herbivore Dragon

Client: Your Boss, me; no need to waste ink.

——

Aolang: "......"

This was really his first time seeing a client fill out the paperwork on the spot—was that really okay?

"No problem, no problem. Don't forget that we Citadel Guerrillas are an official organization too." Qiaoda took out a seal, breathed on it, and stamped the mission form. "Reasonable, compliant, and legal."

Seeing Aolang still looking a bit doubtful, Qiaoda explained with a smile, "The target number for Shield Bug extermination is set by the Guild—seventy in total, covering the entire large region north of Luokelake.

If the target extermination count is fifteen, the mission difficulty is set at two stars. If large Monster activity is reported in the target area, the difficulty is raised further to three stars.

The Gobi you're heading to—a Hunter came back from there just yesterday. No traces of large Monster sightings, so it's very safe.

On top of that, the mission target is only five, so it's set at one star. Correspondingly, the pay won't be too high."

"Understood." Aolang nodded. "Thanks, boss."

He knew this was Qiaoda looking out for him—why else bother specifically lowering the mission target count and reducing the difficulty and threshold?

"Look for mineral veins and gather ore while you're at it. By the way, do you know much about Shield Bugs as Monsters? Their shells are really hard—don't go at them head-on, okay?"

"I know, boss. My teacher demonstrated for me how to deal with those things."

"Good then, saves me the trouble of explaining." Qiaoda waved his palm, signaling that they could leave.

Walking out of Qiaoda's office, Aolang looked at Shaji and said, "Rest up for half a day, maintain Equipment, prepare props—how about we set off early tomorrow morning?"

"No problem meow! Don't forget to bring two extra pickaxes meow!"