Adam's Preparation

Ethan stands inside the cave while facing seven monsters of F Rank in front. He is already prepared for incoming battle but he still felt slightly tensed… but also thrilled. Ethan noticed few things as he fight the wolves before. Their movements are not complicated as he thought.

It's simple as he is unable to perceive them. He needs to calm down and keep their on movement… the only way he will can win against them is to read their movement and threw bombs at perfect time while also use bullets to slow them down or keep them in check.

Ethan actually had a trump card but he doesn't want to use it in anything besides boss monster.

Wolves surround him from all direction in heptagon shape. There were circling around him and keep making growls and metal grinding sound from their teeth. Ethan charges toward one and rest follows him right away. Ethan rolls a bomb in front and crosses over it. Wolves soon follow but bomb explode right at their feet.

Ethan makes his way to one he was after and shoots few bullets. It dodges them all and creates some distance. Ethan didn't follow it and fall back but also leave a mana bomb on his feet.

He ran back toward the one where he had left the mana bomb. It explodes and pushes the chasing wolf back. His danger sense rang and he twisted his body. A wolf comes out of the smoke and attacks him from behind but fails. Ethan took advantage of that and fire bullets in his gut and ass.

Ethan didn't throw any mana bombs and waits for him to run away. Ethan wasn't worried even with the smokes. Light sticks were lighting up all the smoke. He can't see the deeper but it is enough for him to react. He just wants opening and shove the bullets in their eye directly.

The wolves keep jumping over him and miss, only to run away as he stands in smokes dodging their attack with precise timing. Ethan attacks occasionally with bullets but it didn't have much penetration power… It only leaves a shallow wound… child have when they fell during playing.

These wolves took some damage when the bomb explodes at their feet. It had lowered their speed by a sub-rank…

Ethan folds his arms and sleeves falls down revealing his magazine holding wrist band. He withdraws one out of them and let the one inside the handgun fall. He put the new magazine and readied himself for new wave of attacks. It all took less than 2 second… around 1.9 second…

Ethan finally sees a moment as he saw a sliding in front of him.

Recall.

Ethan pulls his hands up and attack it right at it eyes with three bullets. Two of them missed but last one hits the bull's eye! It is out of commission. Ethan is sure he can kill him just by a bullet but it's time for it already…

Ethan rolls a mana bomb in certain direction. A whimpering sound comes out as mana bomb explode. Ethan has been keeping his eyes on a certain wolves and it keeps attack right after this one, who just knocked out. Ethan had been on his tail and finally he stepped on it.

Ethan used mana bombs and bullets. He killed them all after wasting all the bullets in his storage but he doesn't regret it. He killed seven F Rank monsters! Elite one at that! Can someone do the same?! Yes, they can, as long as they have money…

Ethan had used up all his bullets but he wasn't worried about at all. He already had a plan to kill the boss monster. Ethan went further into cave and saw five elite monsters surrounding the boss monster, staring at him menacingly.

Ethan already had put the gun into storage and was holding another type of bomb that will work like a charm in front of these monsters. Ethan threw it upward and monster stare at something moving toward ceiling in the darkness. All of wolves looks upward to see what the cavery thing it is?

Flash!

Whole cave lit up as flash bomb explodes. Wolves groan in pain as large amount of light enters the body. Adjust to this amount of light is not easy for any creature. Ethan rolls down the slightly unique mana bomb and it spins like a spinner and reach below them.

Ethan hurriedly runs as he knows what is going to happen.

BOOM!

This whole valley felt the explosion as tremor travels through the valley. Ethan stumbled upon his own leg. He hurriedly put his foot forward to support himself.

Ethan looked back and hurriedly ran at the place where boss monster was supposedly standing. Ethan looked around and found all the corpses and ran away from the cave opening he had seen from down the valley.

Ethan slides through hills and reach the ground. He didn't even bother a moment to look back. He didn't kill all the monsters and only kill around 40% of the total monster. Right now, all the monsters will be rushing toward the cave of boss monster. Standing there for even a second will result in brutal death!

Ethan comes out of dungeon portal and rested his hands on his knees. He was taking deep breaths as he was running with everything he got.

He had joined three of the mana bomb together and put the pressure rune on it. This was the result. It was just the right amount. He only made a blind guess but it seems to get rid of the boss monsters all he need to do is this. He will have to switch his strategy though. This time it was a dark cave and that makes light harmful to their eyes.

It bought enough time to have it reach them. If not, it would have ended up in disaster. Now, He finally cleared the F-Rank dungeon. Why there is no one opening champagne?

Ethan looked around but there was no one. Ethan suddenly felt something wrong. His eyes went to left entrances as he heard the footsteps. His body tensed up and he kept staring at the entrance. A foot comes in to vision. Ethan calls the sword in his hand and withdraws it, ready to charge forward.

"…Ohh kid, you came out…"

Ethan relaxed when he saw who he is. It seems to be a big misunderstanding. It was the same guard who doubted if he came into wrong dungeon.

"…You sure are talented. To think you can clear a dungeon one rank higher than yours… truly talented…"

Ethan just hurriedly finished all the formalities and left to academy. He also has another tomorrow. He needs to visit the auction house as a journalist…

*

Ethan was standing in front of a door waiting for permission to enter. Door slides to the side and opens the way to room. There was a man sitting in front of a desk who was looking at him with a frown.

"…They send a teenager as a journalist."

Ethan looks at him with his practiced smile. He had knocked out the one who was supposed to come and switch place with him. Raven had prepared the face mask and everything so he didn't have any problem reaching here.

"…If I told you, I am the best journalist you will ever see. Would care to believe me…?"

Ethan answered and also added more confidence to his smile. The middle-aged man who was in charge of auction house that will held auction for mind seed. Ethan had to done some jobs here assigned by Raven so here he is…

"…That's something every second journalist says…"

"It seems you had hard believing in my words."

"My Janitor outside, can say more interesting words than you…"

Middle aged man rolls his eyes as if he to show that his words are nothing more than pile of shit in front of him. Ethan didn't take his words as an insult and kept his smile. He knows that in front of professional he will need more than just acting.

"…Since you believed that, I might as well give my best…"

Ethan moves forward and relaxes on the chair in the front of the table. Man looked at him with amusement.

"…Pick a topic about auction and ask me… also if you are interested then you can also ask me about anything related to this auction, you and your predecessor, your family tree or the stocks manipulation of a certain company you did last month…"

Man face suddenly fell as if he was told his father died. He starts looking at Ethan with wary expression. There was also a hint of hostility in his eyes. Ethan just laughed in amusement as if he found this situation quite funny.

"You don't need to worry about that. I cherish my life more than you think. I carry lots of information but I know which to reveal or not but I will give you an advice that you should cut off your tail as soon as possible…"

Ethan just kept his relaxed attitude as if this place belongs to him and the one who is getting interviewed is not him but the middle aged man in front of him.

*

Ethan was lying over his desk in the classroom while people talking about him in daily time but he is slowly getting used to it but at the level of being unable to pay any attention to it. Ethan gradually thought that he will be able to brush off their words but once he gets use to one insult, they invent other one which is worse than past one.

"…Ethan…"

Adams calls Ethan from the front seat and turn around pushing his legs outside. Ethan stands while supporting himself with his hand and looked at him lazily.

"…Mind if I ask something?"

"Go ahead."

"There is one thing I wanted to ask you… how do you do this? You know… you have a confidence in you like… I can't explain but… if someone met you for first time, they won't even be able to tell that you are weak, poor… lame, pathetic-"

"Enough…!"

Ethan stopped him from going further. This guy! Does he not understand how much hurtful those words are? Lucas sneakily looked at them from the corner of his eyes. Alex also turned around and Ethan noticed a distinct stalker who happens to be rank-3 in among first-year perking his ears in their direction.

"…Where is this coming from?"

"Just answer me!"

Adam hurried him for an answer. He had been wondering about how he should approach the girl he feel in love with. It's not his first time but Adam happens to found out that the girl he is approaching is from Nix Family, one of the four big families.

He is not nervous because of that. He knows that he won't lose in term of handsomeness, strength or talent or any of his stats but he is worried if she cares about his background. He can't do anything if she is like that. After careful thinking, He noticed that he can avoid the issue as long as she doesn't found out.

His background is a mystery to most of the student and he have been careful to not tell other as this might chase students away but he can't just copy their presence can he? She is someone who has been sitting up and down with people like her. There is no way she won't be able to differentiate between a commoner and a noble just by their attitude.

So, He came up with a solution. He just needs to bring out a noble presence out of him. He needs to show that he drinks in chalice of gold and feed himself with a spoon of silver. As long as he did that, she might as well as jump on his lap… but there is one problem. He lacks finesse for it.

He knows that he can't execute such a lie with smoothness, but he happen to know a person who seems to be best at this kind of stuff. Ethan had always been a weird person in his eyes. He talks with you but you can never figure out what goes in his mind. He has a feeling that the finesse he is looking for might be hidden in his weird friend.