"To what do I owe the pleasure of having a beautiful lady stare at me with such an expression?"

"You were hiding your strength all these while..." Ava said, her expression changing ever so slightly, "why?"

Amon lingered on her for a few seconds before speaking up, "I wasn’t hiding my strength; rather, you just never bothered to ask."

Hearing this, she fell silent. After all, Amon was right.

Momentarily, she didn’t know what to say.

Noticing the slightly impatient look on Amon’s handsome face, she finally gritted her teeth and said, "C—can I have your contact information? In case I find a high-tier Quest in the future?"

Amon furrowed his brows slightly.

Naturally, he had heard about the ’chat’ feature in Nexus; however, since his own interface was different from the others, he hadn’t focused on it much.

’System, is there anything you can do about this?’

[Ding! Synching Player’s information to Nexus.]

[Ding! Syncing 1%... 3%... 10%... 99%]

Amon waited for a few seconds before his screen changed slightly, displaying an inbox interface that was blank.

[Ding! Player’s chat idea ’Weaver’ created. Feel free to share contact information. Xxxxxxxxxx.]

Noticing the familiar number that was similar to the ones he’d seen in the forums, Amon let out a relieved sigh.

Just as Ava was already feeling awkward due to the prolonged silence, Amon began calling out his ID number.

Ava’s eyes lit up, and she quickly pulled out her interface and typed in the number mentally.

[Ding! Shiny Butterfly has sent you a message request! Do you wish to accept?]

Amon clicked ’yes’ mentally and noticed a new inbox appear.

It opened to reveal a simple ’Hi.’

Amon closed it and then returned his attention back to her with a smile.

"It was nice meeting you, Weaver..." Ava said with an elated expression.

She was glad she had been able to get Amon’s contact information. After all, she could tell he’d become a powerhouse in no time.

"Alright." Amon replied cooly, "I’ll be heading deeper into the forest to increase my level for a bit."

Ava nodded and seemed as though she wanted to say something; however, understanding that asking to tag along with Amon might be a little too much, she kept her mouth shut.

With that, she waved Amon farewell and walked farther away from the clearing.

At the same time, she couldnt help silently muttering to herself... ’Weaver... huh..."

...

Amon watched Ava’s petite departing figure as she vanished into the scrubs and trees, then a serious expression appeared on his face.

Turning his attention back to the Tusk Boars he cracked his neck slightly.

"Enough of the chitchat..." His back straightened, and he gripped the sword. "It’s time to grind."

With that said, Amon immediately increased his speed, lunging at a Tusk Boar and dealing a killing blow to it.

[Ding! Congratulations! You Have killed A Level 1 Tusk boar. Gained 20 Exp. Do You wish to extract?]

Amon ignored the notification while already giving the system the command to extract.

In that manner, notifications continued ringing in Amon’s mind; at the same time, he headed deeper into the forest as he continued his killing spree.

[Ding! Congratulations! You Have killed A Level 1 Tusk boar. Gained 20 Exp. Do You wish to extract?]

[Ding! Congratulations! You Have killed A Level 1 Tusk boar. Gained 20 Exp. Do You wish to extract?]

[Ding! Congratulations! You Have killed A Level 1 Tusk boar. Gained 20 Exp. Do You wish to extract?]

After more than an hour straight of killing just Tusk Toars Amon paused, his chest heaving slightly as he decided to regain his stamina.

’Grinding is anything but easy...’ Amon couldn’t help but muse silently to himself.

As he recovered his stamina, Amon glanced at the few remaining Tusk Boars and frowned slightly.

"Although killing them is a good way to farm Exp, in the end it doesn’t give me as much of a thrill for battle as I want."

Amon contemplated silently, already feeling a little bored of just killing a single beast that couldn’t even defend against his onslaught of attacks.

"In that case, I’ll head deeper to where there are other dangerous beasts..." Amon thought to himself and ultimately decided to head deeper into the forest.

The main reason he wasn’t too worried about dying was because he would be resurrected at the starter village.

Although his stats would be halved, those were actually the normal stats of an average player!

Deciding on his next course of action, Amon rested for a few more minutes before heading deeper into the forest.

Around him, the Tusk Boars slowly walked towards him, nudging him with their noses; however, Amon ignored them. He couldn’t be bothered to deal with them.

As he walked deeper, gradually, he began hearing voices coming from the nearby bushes.

Without hesitation, he rushed towards the direction.

He soon noticed a group of six players struggling loudly with two Tusk Boars.

These seemed to be a mutated version of the Tusk Boars with swifter movements and far stronger defenses.

However noticing that they still wouldnt give him any trouble Amon was instantly disappointed.

He no longer hid himself and casually continued striding deeper into the forest.

At the same time, the group continued shouting formations at each other, burning potions; one of them was already limping after being attacked.

Amon didn’t stop walking. He glanced sideways at the scene as he passed.

One of the struggling players soon noticed him walking past, alone, no party, and no visible gear, heading deeper into the forest.

"Hey man," he quickly called out, "you shouldn’t go in there alone; the wolves start appearing past the second ridge—"

Amon had already casually walked past them.

The player stared after him.

"...Did he hear me?"

His friend, still wrestling with a tusk boar, shook his head and was about to speak when a silvery light flashed by.

Shing!

The two Tusk Boars that were giving the group of six tough time were instantly sliced apart, their blood and gore splattering onto the group.

However, they weren’t disgusted; rather, a look of horror and shock appeared on their faces.

They glanced in the direction the nonchalant young man had gone, seeing the silver sword rapidly retreating towards there.

Clearly, the young man had delivered the strike from meters away.

"...what in the world?" One of them couldn’t help but mutter, his expression still frozen in shock.

The others didn’t speak as well; however, they slowly picked themselves up and quickly hurried off.

They had to... because they could tell the player who had just passed was an expert.

An expert who was about to grind.

And the forest was about to be filled with blood shed soon.

... 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Meanwhile, the crisp chime of a system echoed in someone’s mind.

[Ding!]