The difficulty wasn’t solely due to the weak monsters they would inevitably encounter. The constant battles would also cause wear and tear, and it was impossible to fight around the clock. However, once they surpassed level 10, the difficulty of leveling up would double, and this pattern would continue for every subsequent increment of 10.

I had heard that reaching level 200 was an extraordinary achievement. Less than 1% of active Vlandos had managed to do it. Ferzan was only 50 levels higher, which made him a Master adventurer, two ranks below the highest rank, excluding the number ranking system.

Despite this, I wasn’t overly concerned. The prospect of gaining teleportation was enticing, even if its functionality was extremely limited. At the moment, my primary goal was to reach level 100. Once I achieved that, I would be able to acquire the monster set manipulation perk, a perk that would allow me to teleport monsters to and from my farm.

“Move out of the fucking way,” I heard a voice. I turned to see a couple of higher-level guys pushing their way through the crowd. Unsurprisingly, they were quite unpleasant.

After a while, I overheard them conversing. It made me miss my monsters. Not that I had an emotional attachment to them. When Snaren died, my only thought was, ‘damn, I can’t use him anymore.’ It was disappointing; I had really liked its aesthetics.

Suddenly, a loud noise drew our attention. A ridiculously long white bus, shaped like a train with an insane number of wheels, pulled up in front of us. The long door slid open, inviting us to enter.

Brenda stood up. “Let’s go.”

“Right,” I responded, climbing up the three metal steps, which were covered in rubber. Once inside, I took a seat on the black cushion at the back of the bus. I had always preferred sitting there, even back on Earth. I think I stopped doing so when I turned 20 because it started to feel a bit off.

I had an extreme dislike for college. Or did I hate it? I recalled my time there and my thought process. I think I was simply indifferent to it. Whenever I had to go to college, I had to force myself to get ready. I just wanted to stay home. But it wasn’t like I did anything at home really. I would just chat on Discord, WhatsApp, or whatever.

Games? I couldn’t remember why I stopped playing them. I knew I enjoyed them when I was younger.

Once I had finished studying for my high school final exams, I was left to deal with the extreme stress. The pressure came from all sides - my parents, my older siblings, and even family friends who would say things like, “You have to do better than your brother.”

“Do you think you’re going to get a scholarship, darling? You need to know, college is expensive…”

All that nonsense infuriated me, but I kept it bottled up. Complaining would only make me look like a loser.

That was the turning point. Games lost their appeal. Comics, mangas, cartoons, animes - they all felt like chores. It was strange to look at a Flash comic and think, ‘Ah, I don’t want to read this.’ I, who was once obsessed with Flash.

This attitude extended to school. When I missed a day, it didn’t feel liberating. Instead, I thought, ‘Why is home so boring?’ Despite this, I continued to skip school, lying to my parents about why I wasn’t going.

I was sick, I had a headache, my stomach hurt. After missing one day, skipping the next became much easier. As I lay in bed at home, I was consumed by boredom. I remember it clearly, the day I thought, ‘If life is going to be this boring, this empty… then I might as well die.’

It’s pathetic, really. To lose your will to live just because… life was too boring.

“Hey, you’re new around here?” A guy I had noticed earlier asked me, his arms folded on my seat.

I sighed. “Sure.”

“Yeah, I figured that out. You know, going with completely zero armor is kinda… suicidal. But, I don’t really expect you all to listen to me since it seems you all are monster hunters.”

“What gave that away?” I said, only half paying attention.

“Don’t the guild give armor and weapon loans?” he asked.

“True, true.”

He removed his hands from my seat and said, “Sorry for bothering. I just wanted to give some advice.”

I showed him a thumbs up. “I appreciate it. Don’t worry about us, we’re familiar with monsters.”

He smiled faintly. “Oh. What about other people though?”

“Assume all adventurers or monster hunters will kill you for what you have. That’s my advice to you, since you seem so kind.”

“Oh… that’s… Nah. That’s just a nasty stereotype made up by regular humans that want to keep us divided.”

“You think so…?”

“Of course!” he hunched forward. “I’ve made a couple of great friends since I started adventuring like… 2 months ago.”

He was someone that would die early because of how stubborn he was.

I asked, “How old are you?”

He raised an eyebrow then smiled smugly. “Ah, of course, you want to know my age. 22.”

“I wasn’t trying to flirt. I just asked because I was curious,” I responded.

“Sure.”

My eye twitched, but I chose to ignore it and turned forward, dismissing him. After about an hour, we exited the city. The bus drove on a paved road. We weren’t in the monster zone yet, but now all around us were grasslands.

There were some really cool-looking trees. They were brown and curled up to 13 meters high. They reminded me of a snake. Then I saw a small purple cat climbing up a tree that was nearly parallel to the ground. Cute.

Brenda was unusually quiet. I glanced at her and noticed she was asleep, slouched on the seat. I decided I would wake her up when we were nearing the Monster Zone. In the distance, I noticed a Savannah. It wasn’t the monster zone, just a regular one.

I spotted some two-tailed cheetahs, wild goats with blue horns, and in the distance, a red lion which was about 2 meters tall. Just another hour…

I leaned back and tried to think of something to occupy my time, but nothing came to mind. Once again, the guy behind me spoke up.

“So… uh, how old are you?” the same guy from before asked me.

“Why do you ask?” I responded.

“I see you have a huge scar on your face, so I was wondering about it. I didn’t want to ask about it out of the blue, so I just used that question to lead to this one.”

Did he have some social issue?

“Monster attack,” I responded.

“Oh… were you battling it?”

“Yeah, it was very tough.”

“I can see that, haha. I have a cool scar on my side too. I got bit by a small dinosaur when I was a kid.”

“Not even caused by a monster? You are awfully weak, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I am,” he admitted, but with some kind of cheerfulness. “For now anyway. I am excited for the future and what it holds for me.”

I thought of him as somewhat annoying, but I was a bit curious.

“Why did you want to be an adventurer?” I asked him.

“Same reason most Vlandos do. Well, Vlandos from poor family backgrounds, I should say. We all come to the capital because the government not only incentivizes it, but also to make a living to support our family. I am doing it for my younger brother. My parents pretty much hated me as soon as they found out I was a Vlandos. The idea that I could control monsters scared them too much. Although, not as much as them thinking I would kill them because I thought I was of the superior race. A bunch of nut jobs that listen to too many conspiracy theories, or heard a couple of experiences and alluded them to us all.”

It wasn’t surprising hearing that. It was pretty much the reason for the Vlandos and humans conflicts that took place many times in the past.

The only nation with a long history that this didn’t evolve into a large-scale conflict was in Holvious since they always required the power of Vlandos.

I once heard that in Nelpan, there was a political figure who basically advocated for the enslavement of all Vlandos. He was famous for this quote:

“Let me be clear, my fellow citizens, the challenges we face are not merely looming on the horizon, they are here, now, in our midst. They pose a threat to us, to our way of life, and to the values we hold dear. But let us not be swayed by fear. Instead, let us remind them, and ourselves, of the strength that lies in our numbers. We are in the tens of millions, a testament to our resilience and unity. They, on the other hand, are but in the tens of thousands. We must stand firm, show them our resolve, and demonstrate why we, as humans, have thrived.”

Of course, that riled up people a little too much, and it ended with the killing of a powerful Vlandos child, which jump-started a full-on war.

How did the humans survive?

A famous quote, “We have set out to destroy them, but instead we have called them to save us from the might of their kind.”

The government resorted to underhanded tactics, employing Vlandos who were motivated solely by money. It wasn’t as if humans had no reason to fear Vlandos. There were ‘Vlandos islands,’ some of which were small human nations that had been conquered by Vlandos.

Not to mention, we often did what we wanted because we had the power.

This naturally bred hatred and resentment in the hearts of the powerless.

Finally, I decided to respond to him. “I see. I hope you become strong and wealthy for the sake of your siblings.”

“Yeah, same. Haha. What about you? Why did you become an adventurer?”

“To become strong... the strongest.”

He moved closer to the edge of his seat to get a better look at me. “You’re dead serious?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Sounds like something a naive child would say, that’s why.”

“Ironic.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing.”

Then, finally, the bus stopped moving forward. When I looked past the windscreen, I saw it. The blue and white wall of Qi. Just seeing it made my mouth water. I hadn’t felt this deprived in so long. But behind that wall were yellow, swaying flames shaped like grass.

I nudged Brenda awake. Her silly expression as she adjusted herself on the seat was somewhat entertaining. As the bus door slid open and people began pouring out, I told her, “We’ve arrived.”

Then I got up and joined the crowd exiting the bus. Brenda followed behind me, still a bit dizzy. Once we got off, I immediately made my way towards the Savannah. “By the way, the flames don’t burn?”

“The last time I checked, no.”

I grinned as I stepped foot into the monster zone, feeling all the micro prickles on my skin. “Sounds good.”

I stood in flames that were no taller than 2 inches and didn’t feel the heat. From a massive tree, a small snake with a massive beak for a head looked at the over 50 individuals that had just entered the zone.

Brenda hopped in and said, “So… we’re going to be secretly leveling up, right?”

“Exactly…” I said as I looked around the massive Savannah that seemed to have no end. I pointed in the far distance. “How many layers does this place have?”

“Four. The strongest monsters tend to be around level 50.”

“Let’s head to the… the second layer.”