The streets were packed with people even though it was barely morning, but the difference was that there were no stalls or little tents set up to sell items, only armed Avatars hurrying towards some other places that Misha couldn't see.

'Probably going to join one of those big groups.'

She realized a bit too late that she was also going with the crowd, and that one of those groups was pretty much in a straight line forward from the entrance of Dame Terra's Hotel. Guessing that it was probably a good idea to heed Mrs. Lenardia's advice and check it out, she opted to keep on going north. And even better, that was also the way towards the restaurant she'd seen earlier.

Chomping through her 3rd piece of bread, she ignored the weird looks people nearby were giving her.

"Hey, what's up with her...?"

"I mean, shouldn't she have some respect for the occasion?"

"Ugh, but she's so fucking huge, though..."

She was indeed big, and very big at that. Even though she didn't give off a very threatening aura or anything like that, she was still commonly a full head bigger than most people, and her wide, broad frame was also a bit intimidating.

"Look at all the equipment she has, too. Maybe she's a part of Kedrick's squad?"

"I haven't seen her around before, so she's probably just a new arrival from another outpost."

"Well, now that you say it like that... There's no way I'd miss someone as big as her."

After scarfing down the 4th piece, she couldn't help but wrinkle her brows a little bit in annoyance:

'Don't these guys have anything better do to than pay attention to me?'

She didn't feel like she was striking enough for everyone to pay attention to her like this, even with her height added in. She learned early on that attention always brought both benefits and problems in equal measure, even more so when you were weak, with no backing or influence or money to help.

Before Nuhvel took the attention of everyone around the globe, a few smaller Guilds had tried to scout her, while the bigger ones stayed back and just observed silently. It went from threats and bribery, to scaring away competition, and many more.

As her strategy in this world was going for high notoriety though, she'd have to deal with things like that again, making her groan quietly as she remembered just how aggravating it was. She'd even lost a good amount of hair over it in those times.

It would've been for the best that they forgot about her if it wasn't for the KPI.

But still, even after all that the Solar Knights still recruited her. It was a small blessing, as even the weaker Guilds still didn't normally try their best to take someone in if they weren't just starting, no matter how promising they looked...

Something that she didn't.

'Honestly... When I was starting out, I was a bit...'

Quoting the words of her comrades — 'completely hopeless.'

Even then, they still trained her the best way they could, and also supported her when she went to repair her equipment. She wasn't special in that regard though since the Solar Knights backed everyone equally – armour and weapon repairs were common, after all – but still. It was the principle of the thing that made her admire them.

But getting back on topic, she wanted to limit the amount of attention she received until she was certain of her power.

Misha hurried her pace and kept eating her soft, warm piece of fresh bread, matching the quick pace of all the other Avatars and blending into the crowd effortlessly until she reached the location of the gathering.

To her satisfaction, the mass of people was right next to a small coffee shop-like building with chairs outside.

She settled down on one of the wooden chairs with dark green metal legs and kept chomping down on her food, watching the crowd that was rapidly swelling get bigger and bigger. With just a quick count she could make out roughly 180 people.

Her eyes naturally shifted to a young man standing close to her, with his hands tucked into his pockets as he absentmindedly stared at the huge group with expectation in his eyes. The young man was probably mid to low-ranking, with light-weight iron armour and a helmet that resembled a medieval English one completely covering the top of his head, and a saber sheathed into his waist.

'He doesn't seem that hard to get information out of.'

She deliberately softened her posture and put away her food, looking up at him lazily as she talked:

"Hey, do you know why everyone's gathering here?"

"Eh, yes...? Are you talking to me?"

"Well, I'm not looking at anyone else in the eye right now."

He looked at her weirdly.

"How come you don't know?"

"It's just simply not knowing."

"Well... Ask someone else, ok? I'm not really in the mood to explain stuff to a newbie."

After saying that, he locked his arms behind his head and walked away, his attention somewhere else. He went towards a duo of a man and a woman deep in the crowd who were waving at him, most likely his teammates or friends.

She was left there looking like a fool before grumbling quietly under her breath and then taking out her bread again, scarfing them down as if trying to swallow her annoyance along with them. Honestly, it was the expected outcome of the situation. Only protagonists had the luck of finding a patient person to explain everything to them in a crowd of unknown people.

'I wish I could have a nice halo over my head like that too...'

After sulking for a bit, she decided to quickly get to business as she waited for whatever was happening. Originally she wanted to see if there was anything tasty to eat in the cafe building, but she was dissuaded by a small wooden sign near the entrance:

[We do not take responsibility for your financial state. If you can't pay, then don't order.]

"Being poor feels horrible, really."

She pouted and then downed her 8th piece of bread. When she reached for another piece, she found out that there weren't any more left, but she still felt hungry. It was weird, like she hadn't eaten for days or even weeks.

'Well, it's not like I'm gonna starve to death just because I haven't eaten well today.'

On that note, she went back to thinking.

First things first, now that she had enough information to at least blend into this new Earth's society – on the surface at least – she didn't need to worry about being found out. Well, not yet. Second, since it looked like this dimension leaned heavily on the tropes of some light novels and other media she found on her original Earth, maybe she would be able to guess the Hero's traits.

'This looks like a common fusion fantasy-type world, so probably a returnee or regressor? If I go that route, then he'll likely have a lot of knowledge up his sleeve, which can be problematic for me. There's going to be some problems if he's a regressor, though...'

Most notably the fact that she had no idea how to deal with someone like a regressor.

'If he's a regressor, then I'll first need to figure out just what type of regression ability I'm dealing if. Whether it's the common one like going back in time whenever he dies or something else, I need to have some idea about it to hunt him successfully.'

'If he's not either one of those, then he'll have something like a unique skill, class, or item backing him, which can be worrying in its own right but is still better than a damn time traveler. Let's just hope that he's the second type, or I'm in a lot of trouble.'

As she waited for whatever event was about to happen, she quietly constructed her hunting plans.

It was something that wasn't unknown to her since she'd done it a lot back when she was just a common Awakened. After starting her solo career, she always had to be prepared for everything. At least a week for an F-Rank hunt, and a month or even more for an E-Rank one. But no matter what, she never got greedy and went for a D-Rank Gate, no matter what.

D-Rank monsters were just on another level entirely.

Reminiscing, her mind couldn't help but wander to the faithful day. The day Solar Knights ended.

 

It was just an E-Rank Gate, nothing to be worried about. The entrance of the Gate sprouted from the middle of the street like an engorged, twisted tree made out of rubble; the mass of rocky spikes that crowned it was also filled with leaf-like wisps of fiery azure.

Around it were many sleek Gate Reader machines operated by men in white, while armoured personnel had already set up a cordon.

They had prepared for many weeks and were going with all the 50 members of the Guild, including the E-Rank Guild Master who always said he was just a few days short of breaking through and becoming a D-Rank Awakened.

Just like any other Gate, each one of them injected their Force Aura into the "tree's" trunk and was warped inside the first room. She still vividly remembered the design, which was a fantastical mix of cavernous stone walls with dark wooden beams and pillars supporting the chamber, and makeshift torches drenched in an oily dark liquid fixed to the sides.

They went through the door in front of them in an orderly fashion, trekking deeper into the maze.

It was truly deserving of the name {Dogman Lord's Fortress}, as it was not only confusing to navigate through its winding and twisting halls, but there were also crudely armed Kobolds and domesticated Dagger-Fanged Wolves patrolling the entire structure.

Sometimes the odd elite Gnoll also appeared, 2 heads taller than normal Kobolds and leading them through wild violence.

The race typically referred to as the Dogmen species, which had Kobolds and Gnolls as their most common members, was renowned for their aggressiveness and bloodthirst, making them tough opponents to tackle in groups.

While they were little more than suicidal lunatics alone, a band of fanatics was never easy to deal with.

But even then, they still marched on relatively unharmed. Some were wounded and poisoned by the Dogmen, but until that moment there had only been 3 casualties. Deeper inside the Gate they had some trouble with a Cavern Basilisk that had been chained to the wall like a watchdog, but even then it'd just managed to bump that number up to 7.

("We're gonna reach the Gate Leader in no time!")

("The money from destroying an E-Rank Gate is really big... we'll eat well for at least a few weeks.")

("Oh man, I've been wanting to eat some good barbecue again for so long...")

Morale couldn't have been higher as countless people talked about their desires, but no one had forgotten that they were inside a Gate yet. The mental exhaustion after 2 hours of concentration was big, but they were all trained enough to endure it.

They had almost forgotten about the friends that'd died in the raid.

And then, they reached the last room.

It was at that moment that they saw the Gate transform, the rocky but still well-kept walls growing darker and cracking to reveal thick black roots with bright violet details, the pillars breaking apart to welcome the same infectious tendrils into their wood, and the torches flickering before rekindling themselves with a cold purple flame that raged like they were full of grudges.

("What the hell...?")

("Why's the Gate changing?")

The Guild Master was the only one to understand what was happening, and his face twisted slightly with somber opportunism glinting in his eyes. He knew it would be a gamble, but it would be incredibly worth it if they succeeded.

("This is a Gate Mutation. You all may not know this since most of you are all newbies, but this is a great opportunity for us.")

As he explained very simply, Gate Mutations could mean 2 different things. Firstly, a monster that didn't fit with that Gate's setting was born, like a fairy-type monster appearing in a Gate full of aquatic beasts. Secondly, the Gate Leader was slain by another monster from that Gate, and the setting changed to reflect its new leader.

("Seeing the complete overhaul happening inside this Gate, we can assume that those 2 distinct events both happened, with the foreign monster killing the Gate Leader we were supposed to be hunting.")

("Then... Isn't it dangerous since it had the strength to kill the Gate Leader?")

("Yes, but that doesn't matter right now, not at all. Since both fought each other, the winning monster must now probably be severely wounded and weakened, which means we can kill it no problem.")

Everyone listening to him – at the same time – had an epiphany:

("So we'll be able to harvest the Core Stones from both the old Gate Leader and the new one easily!")

Core Stones were something that every beast possessed, taking the forms of multi-colored neon crystals grafted onto their hearts through either natural reasons or a mysterious procedure, which the goal of was unknown.

All that they knew was that it was packed with a primal version of Force Aura, which although couldn't be safely handled by humans, could still be transmuted into a type of more easily handled artificial Force Aura through a process that only the AA knew. The false Aura could then be used to make things like Ether Levitation Crystals, and many other things.

The stronger the monster, the more primal Aura resided inside the Core Stone.

Harvesting the nuclei of 2 Gate Leaders would undoubtedly bring them mouth-watering amounts of wealth.

With a fire lit inside their hearts, they threw open the heavy stone gates that were guarding the last room and rushed inside, weapons ready and thirsty for blood. But what they found inside... shattered their fantasies of easy money to bits:

The original Gate Leader, a giant and towering Lycanthrope with pitch-black fur and bright neon blue fangs, claws, and eyes with an iron chestplate covering its chest, was broken and brutalized.

The front part of its armour was smashed, the sides of the monster it couldn't cover blown open to reveal thick cracked ribs that splintered outwards, and muscle and pieces of lung which were oozing out of it. The thing's head looked no better, with its left half violently crushed and its right eye bulging out of its destroyed skull and leaking blood from the impact.

("...")

Their fires were extinguished in a matter of seconds.

Behind the corpse was a giant of stone and sludge, which let out a rumbling growl that reverberated into their bones as it washed through them. The thing was covered by a lean rocky carapace that poorly imitated a lizard, but with a sharp tusk-like chin and spines growing on its back, and a large tail whirling around behind it with a blunt club-like tip splattered with blood.

The thing's spikes rippled and stood on end like a feline beast, and then the massacre begin.

When everything was over in just mere minutes, she was the only one left behind, coughing and hacking from the noxious fumes that the thing breathed out, singing her lungs. It had ignored her since the start, not because of caution, but because she wasn't any threat.

Misha had never lifted her spear at it and never tried to resist either.

As it feasted and engorged itself on the corpses like a glutton, she stumbled out of the room, and then boarded herself up in one of the rooms where the Dogmen had previously kept their food. It was a mystery as just where the meat came from, but it was edible.

Since she'd grasped from her deceased Guild Master's explanation that the Gate had pretty much been reset, she guessed that new monsters would most likely sprout up. From the usurper's sheer strength and special ability to breathe out that burning miasma, she guessed that it must've been a D-Rank monster, which meant that the strength of the new creeps and mobs would match it accordingly.

In that infected room with pulsing dark roots, she stayed and almost starved before the rescue team arrived.