I JUST WANT A PEACEFUL LIFE

After detonating the Fire Wyrm, Angus keeps track of the Explosion Bug despite his exhausted mind. On the contrary, the others were pretty much exhausted after sending various kinds of fire-based attacks to supply the Angus's Fire Wyrm.

*Thump* *Thump* *Thump* Using his [Mana Echolocation], Angus could feel the heartbeat and life from the explosion bug. However, he also noticed its miasma is thinner than before.

'It's still alive!!' thought Angus before looking at everyone.

Angus found that everyone is already at their limit. Jacob even cancels his flight spells and stands on the ground with a pale face. Angus knows that his father is already on the brink of mana deficiency.

"Haa.. Ha… I need to do something." said Angus.

At this moment, the smoke cleared a little bit and the humanoid explosion bug appearance was worse than before. Its two arms are blown away along with some part of its body. His remaining arm is also charred and looks like charcoal. One of its legs was also blown, leaving a stump.

Currently, it is sitting on the ground while coughing black colored blood. Looking at this appearance, everyone knows that it is already on its limit. However, as a fifth-grade monster, there is always a chance that it could survive if it is left alone.

It is common sense never to give mercy to monsters, especially the higher grade one, since it could always harbor grudges and create more destruction in the future. Despite this, everyone is already at its limit and couldn't approach the explosion bug casually.

Seeing the explosion bug in a horrible state, "A chance!!" said Angus while pushing his body to the limit.

Just as everyone doesn't know what to do with the explosion bug, Angus charges at the explosion bug [Beast Walk]. In the blink of an eye, Angus arrived in front of it, cutting its body into pieces using his twin artifact [Twin Sword Art - Flurry Slash].

Angus' speed and attack are many times faster than before. Even the explosion bug didn't know what killed it. After making sure the explosion bug died leaving its core, Angus slumped on the ground exhaustedly.

In this finishing attack, he didn't use mana but his chi to charge and kill the explosion bug. Unfortunately, his body is already at the limit after battling with the explosion bug for a long time. Therefore, his body and mind couldn't bear the violent energy of his own chi.

Fortunately, his monstrous regeneration is already at work and heals him. Still, his mind is pretty exhausted after using Nature Firecast a few times. Looking at Angus is slumping on the ground after killing the explosion bug, Jacob and the others immediately approach him in a hurry.

"Angus!!" called Jacob.

"Haa.. Ha.. Don't worry, I just need some rest." said Angus before going blackout as his mind had already reached its limit.

Everyone immediately calls Angus but feels relief after finding he is just sleeping from over-exhaustion. After that, they immediately return to the Black Fortress as they are practically still inside the Black Forest.

They didn't know when another stray monster appeared and attacked them. In their exhausted state, they are practically vulnerable even to low-grade monsters. Before leaving, Jacob also didn't forget to take the explosion bug corpse and store it inside his storage device.

After walking back for a while, they meet Borkins and a few soldiers. Apparently, the others managed to kill all the incoming monster waves in the Black Fortress. Then, they immediately send some people to help them fight the fifth-grade explosion bug.

Knowing that the explosion bug is already subjugated, everyone begins to go back to the Black Fortress. After returning to the Fortress, the other soldiers had already started the cleaning up process in the surrounding area.

They need to take care of the monster's corpse or the one that managed to survive. These monsters are good resources for the black fortress and the Heart Kingdom. Because of this, the entire area is guarded by the soldiers until all of them are secured and stored properly.

Some of the brave merchants that stayed in the Black Fortress also got a chance to buy the high-quality monster corpse directly.

Although they still need to go through some administrative process first, they could book and choose the intact high-quality monster corpse before the others.

Under Angus's bomb and magic cannon bombardment, along with everyone's attack, most of the monster's corpse is damaged badly.

Some even turned to nothing but charred meat and ash. The only thing that is still intact is their core. An intact high-quality monster corpse is rare and limited even among these thousand monster corpses.

Still, the price of the intact monster corpse is usually a few times higher than the damaged one. Therefore, every merchant will compete to get this monster first.

While the merchant and the administrative staff are busy sorting the monster's corpse, the other combatants begin to recuperate and heal themselves.

Fortunately, Jacob foresaw this situation and called some healing priests/healers from the various religious organizations in the surrounding area before the monster wave came.

They are tasked to take care of the wounded. Jacob also didn't spare any expense and used the miasma curing potion to heal the injured combatants.

Still, this potion distribution is secured and under strict regulation. This way, they could minimize the potion being smuggled away. However, it will be stupid to do it since there is a team of extermination squad standby and observe the potion distribution.

Once they know the potion is being smuggled, they will immediately catch the preparator or in the worse case execute them on the spot.

The hype of miasma curing potion may decrease in these last few years. However, it doesn't mean the potion price is going down significantly. Each bottle of them is still so costly that even a middle-class family will have a hard time affording one of them.

As for Angus himself, he immediately gets first-class treatment along with Jacob and the other high-grade combatants. Since Angus didn't receive any injuries and was only mentally exhausted, he was transferred to his room for a better place and rest.

Late in the night, Angus finally wakes up and immediately inspects his body along with the surroundings as a habit. Finding he is inside his room along with the sleeping Jayna beside him, Angus feels relief.

'Haa.. It seems we managed to survive and won.' thought Angus in relief before looking at Jayna beside him.

Seeing Jayna unhurt, Angus feels relief for the second time and embraces Jayna. Feeling the familiar warm embrace, Jayna instinctively snuggled into Angus's embrace. At this moment, Angus couldn't help but feel at peace.

Just as he wanted to go back to sleep, he noticed his mana was somehow restless. The feeling is the same as when he is fighting the explosion bug. As he tried to inspect his mana core, the mana began more restless and wild.

Angus couldn't help but try to control and circulate properly. After a while, he noticed that his mana core was releasing pulses and absorbing his mana at a fast rate. The pulse is similar to a heartbeat and gets stronger with each beat.

*Thump* *Thump* *Thump* After more than half of his mana absorbed, the mana core released a powerful pulse that even it could be felt from the outside. Along with the last pulse, Angus feels his mana is getting purer and denser than before.

He also feels his body become a little by little getting enhanced by the mana. He could perceive his surroundings like doing a constant [Mana Echolocation] at a small scale.

After inspecting his mana core for a while, he notices his mana core become more saturated and release a stronger aura than before.

'This is third grade!!' thought Angus.

Opening his eyes, Angus noticed that Jayna had already woken up beside him.

"Angus, y-you… are you just breakthrough?!!" asked Jayna.

"Yeah, I somehow reached the third grade." said Angus.

"Ehh… How?!! Aren't you supposed to be at least twenty or older before reaching third grade." asked Jayna.

Every civilian race has a different age standard when it comes to the third-grade breakthrough. Some could happen very young, while some need to be very old. For the human race, combatants usually reach the third grade at the age of twenty.

The youngest age for the human race that reaches third grade in the record is at the age of twenty-two. At that time, that person was also hailed as a prodigy that only occurs once in millennia.

Reaching third grade at the age of seventeen is unheard of and completely shatters common sense.

"Err.. I am not sure either. I just feel my mana getting restless. Before I knew it, it absorbed a lot of my mana and upgraded." said Angus.

Then, Jayna is looking intensely at Angus.

"Hmm… you are not lying, right? You are not keeping a secret method to upgrade your core, right?" said Jayna.

"N-No, of course not." said Angus.

"Alright, then. Keep your little secret." said Jayna before hugging Angus and kissing him.

Angus was surprised at Jayna's sudden attack, but he didn't complain and received her. After having a passionate kiss for a while.

"Angus, I am glad you are safe." said Jayna