I Hate Systems

It wouldn't have been easy to get the Hunter Association to support him. His S-Rank Hunter status wasn't enough for that. After all, there were two more S-Rank Hunters in the country.

Moreover, his only appearance as an S-Rank Hunter was towards the end of the recent raid, so his status wasn't yet concrete enough.

But that is where Ying's new nature came into play—Compass Carburettor's merchant mind.

He contacted the Hunter Association President and sold him one Elven Tear. The President was once an S-Rank Hunter. But now, he was gaining in on age, leading to a decline in his strength.

So, when he was presented with an Elven Tear, the offer was irresistible. The Hunter Association President had no other choice but to bite the bullet. The Elven Tear made him younger by a couple of decades, allowing him to regain the power of his prime.

His S-Rank Hunter body was able to digest its effects better, noticing a minor increase in his natural lifespan and regenerative abilities too. When Ying proposed that he would be able to mine one Elven Tear every year, the President decided to fully support it.

Ying only needed to kill all the monsters in a C-Rank Dungeon to produce an Elven Tear. But he didn't need to show his cards. The item was so valuable that there were just three of them in the world until now.

So, just being able to mine one every year meant their country would be able to climb the ranks to become a supreme world power. The greed of the President was triggered, hence why he invested a lot of capital into the Bone Crusher Guild.

The higher-ups of the country, those that formed the top of the topmost line were eyeing the Elven Tear, having already made bookings for the next three decades. Basically, it meant that the status of the Bone Crusher Guild was unshakable for the next three decades.

This was what Ying achieved overnight. The Guilds in the same city intended to sow seeds of chaos to prevent the rise of such a competitor. But all they received in response was horror, for whatever scheme they laid out was snuffed in its infancy stage itself.

After all, the country itself was now working toward Ying's favour.

"You're a terrifying individual," Noll commented upon staring at the reports. As the Vice Guild Leader, he was privy to the details. Even Meyn wasn't aware.

The duo of Ying and Noll had bonded in that few seconds of cooperation, having a collective sense of duty. Hence, they began to make extensive preparations.

Ying took charge of the finances and property acquisition, for he was exceptional at that. Whereas, Noll took charge of human resources, interviewing the applicants, making teams, installing people in their respective Guild positions, etc.

Within a week, the Bone Crusher Guild was fully operational, working with a Hunter group of over 300 strong. They began to rapidly clear the dungeons in and around the city to train themselves.

Meyn took charge of healing everyone, becoming more and more familiar with her improved skillset. That wasn't all. Ying fed her an Elven Tear once every three days, observing her power evolving gradually.

The reason she was evolving was thanks to the Secondary System's actions. But even though Ying was unaware of the reason, he noticed her special nature and intended to boost her all the way to an S-Rank Healer.

This was in preparation to have a strong backup while they faced the Lich and its army.

Ying and Noll teamed up with the remaining A-Rank Hunters as they went around the country, raiding all the A-Rank Dungeons. With Meyn healing them of all fatigue and mana exhaustion, they could fight continuously without much rest.

With her consuming the Elven Tears every three days, Meyn never ran out of mana. As for Ying, he hadn't had a wink of sleep since the incident, always on the hunt.

When he wasn't raiding with his team, he was killing the Dungeon Monsters solo to make more Elven Tears. Aware of the existence of the Hunter System and the Dungeon Monster System, he easily figured out the way to level up his hunters to the peak, intending to create a raid party wholly comprised of S-Rank Hunters.

During one such solo raid, Ying stopped his hunt as he inhaled a deep breath, muttering, "What…are you called?"

His surroundings blanked as Ying found himself in a void, walking through it with no surroundings in sight, stopping before a humanoid entity as he spoke, "You're the source of my Orc-Dragon Soul, right?"

<Ding!>

A familiar sound resounded as the humanoid entity grinned, "Bingo! I'm the one supporting your growth."

"What's your objective?" Ying frowned, "Are you planning to devour me in the future?"

"If you prove lacking, yes." The humanoid entity said as it leaned forward, pointing a finger at him, "I'll now show you the full truth."

A beam of Mental Energy slammed into Ying as countless pieces of information flowed into his head, allowing him to understand the existence of Arnark, Zaira, etc.

"The fateful event is drawing near." The humanoid entity said, "If I find you lacking, I'll devour you and then go into hiding. The choice is yours."

"Either become strong enough to defeat them or lose my support."

Ying spent a few hours in deep thought, at the end of which his eyes glinted with killing intent. Two months passed after that and now, Ying gained complete mastery over his Orc-Dragon Soul, not to mention being successful in raising a raid team of S-Rank Hunters.

He had yet to make the information known to the public as the team now arrived at a crater and stood in a defensive stance.

The rest of the Bone Crusher Guild had already begun evacuating the citizens and had also set up multiple barricades around the battlefield, stationing themselves to take care of the army of monsters that would arrive next.

The air strangely turned hot as it became dry until eventually, the asphalt cracked, producing a crisp sound. Ying stared forth at the moment, "They're here."

Crack!

The space before them cracked before forming a tear that expanded to a height of two hundred metres, more than large enough for the Bone Dragon to crawl out now.

The Lich was seated on its back, protected by its Royal Guard—the three S-Rank Hunter skeletons. Its army now consisted of skeleton raptors, peak B-Rank monsters that were stronger than Ogres, with dozens of Raptor Kings amongst them, monsters at the peak of A-Rank.

The Lich's eyes glinted dangerously as it stared at Ying, opening its mouth to utter, "Kill!"