Someone helped Grey to take the head of the bear, and they also helped him walk. He had been forcibly pushing through the injury, making himself move, but it was challenging to walk with a floppy foot.
The injury, now treated, no longer hurt, but it wasn't healed. He needed his tendon back.
The journey back to the Border was short; Grey had traveled surprisingly close before he managed to kill the bear.
The Border was shut as always, but it was opened quickly, making way for the group of Hunters.
They brought Grey back to the border town, and someone also brought the truck back.
Once there, Grey thanked the Hunters, before separating and entering the Association himself. He trudged to the receptionist's counter, placing the 2 heads on the desk.
"I'd like to turn these in, and complete the quest." He said to the man behind the counter.
"Of course, sir." The receptionist complied, quickly getting to work. The man skilfully tallied up the reward for both the quest and the bear, before presenting it to Grey.
"Good. Can you give me a 3rd Rank potion and the change, if possible?" Grey asked the man. He didn't know how to make the potion himself, and the sooner he healed, the better.
"Of course, sir." The man left the reception, heading to the back, where Grey assumed the storage was.
'Not very expressive, is he?' The man who was attending to Grey was a different one from before, and this one hadn't said anything but that, and his face hadn't changed expression from deadpan.
The man returned a minute later, holding in his hand a potion. He passed it to Grey, who immediately drank it, while the man calculated the revised amount of money Grey had earned.
In Arkusia, there was one currency. Arks.
However, the vampires had their currency, Blood Coins, owing to the nature of their Magic.
The amount of Arks that Grey earned was quickly recounted, and it was claimed as quickly.
Grey left the Association, his foot healing quite fast but not enough for him to stop walking due to itching.
He entered the truck and then relaxed in his chair.
'Being a Hunter is fun, and rewarding, but also so painful. Twice now I've been attacked when I should have come out unscathed. The first time, the bear got lucky. The second time, the bear shouldn't have been there. There were no signs!' Grey thought to both himself and his partner.
- It seems that bears have some unknown animosity with you! - Fallen Star laughed, taking more than a minute to calm down.
- But on a serious note, it's up to you to choose what you want to do. We have our goal, but it is your life. Personally, however, I feel that you should take a break from Hunting, to get better at Alchemy and learn to use an axe. You can never be too prepared. - It said.
'I had the same thoughts as you. I just wasn't sure if I should. Now, I am.'
Grey turned on the truck, driving slowly to enjoy the view as he returned home. Due to the design of the truck having no pedals, he was able to control it smoothly. Instead of pedals, the vehicle was controlled by moving the steering wheel forward and backward to control the speed.
It was confusing in the beginning, but once used to it, extremely simple to use.
The scenic ride back was calming for Grey and helped to put his mind off the pain.
---
"Hah, why is the cheat over here?" A black-haired boy asked no one in particular.
He had been walking for the past 12 hours and had also taken a train for 4 hours, where he was next to a baby who kept crying.
His goal was a cheat that lay in a canyon on the edge of the Human Domain, bordering the sea. Since The Island's teleporters only went to major cities, and there were none so far south, he had been forced to walk.
The heat bore down on him, the open plains of the territory his worst nightmare at that moment. If there were trees to shade him from the sun's rays he would have been much happier, but there weren't.
He had run out of water long ago but wasn't too bothered by that. There was a lake at his destination —he just had to make it there.
"I'm close, I think. I can smell the sea." Kim Jaehyun said to himself.
'Whilst I have the chance, let's recap.' He thought. He often liked to recap what he had done, to keep the knowledge fresh in his head. It was a habit from being an author.
'I am an author. I wrote the book 'Bloody War of a Hero', and at the final battle, I succumbed to my obesity. After a short 10 minutes, or it felt like 10 minutes, I woke up in the body of Kim Jaehyun, with his memories.
I have parents, but they are away all the time. I'm also an only child. I'm broke, too.
I enrolled in The Island as the weakest student, and compared to the main cast, still am. However, now I have the chance to get a cheat. Once the talent limiter comes off at 20, my stats will boost to match the protagonist's. Then, I can help Elijah.
In the story, he was supposed to lose, only to have to world reset. Then he would fix it all. However, now that I'm here, I can solve that and then go home.
I also need to save Hannah.'
There was just one problem.
'There's a variable, and I don't like variables.
Grey Heart. He didn't exist in the book. I need to know what his goals are if he'll get in my way and all that.
First, however, I need to get stronger.'
After finishing his recap, he felt refreshed. He was still fatigued, dehydrated, and sunburnt, but he felt a bit lighter, a bit stronger.
With renewed vigor and determination, Kim Jaehyun continued.
In another hour, he reached the top of the canyon. In the far distance, he could spot the sea. It was overpowering, the sulphury smell associated with it stronger than ever.
'The sea smells more than on Earth, but I know for a fact that the sea is cleaner here. Strange... Meh.'
He looked down at the canyon, discovering that he could barely see its depths. It was covered by a layer of darkness, making it look like an endless pit of despair, but Kim Jaehyun knew that there was 100 meters of free space between the coat of darkness and the bottom. However, between him and that dark layer, there were more than 2 kilometers.
Outside the canyon, he could see that the sandstone stretched as far as his vision could reach, to both the east and west, and at the very end of the east side, he could see a slope down to the canyon.
'There's the slope, but it will take me so much longer to go down that way.' He thought, standing still for a minute to think about what he could do.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up, as he came up with an ingenious, yet deadly idea. 'I've been in this body for 3 months, and it's surprisingly strong. I can do it.
He peered over the edge one more time, before imbuing his arm with his Mana. He jumped off the edge, digging his arm into the rocky face.
'ARGH!' He cried in his mind. 'It hurts so much more than I thought it would!'
For the past 3 months, Kim Jaehyun had been extensively training both the physical and Mana capabilities of the body, using the best method he knew, and it had paid off.
His mana capacity had broken 400, and his body could be compared to Var's —one of the main characters in his story. It hadn't reached the heights of Elijah, or that monster in human skin called Grey, but it was near. He hoped.
His arm was dug a few centimeters into the rock, slowing his descent, and causing him pain. His body also smashed against the wall occasionally, causing more than a few bruises.
It took a few hundred meters of free fall, but he came to a slow stop.
He looked down to see how far he had to go, dying inside when he saw that he had barely gone a tenth of the way.
He removed his arm from the wall, letting him fall down the harrowing depths of the dark canyon. The rock rushed passed him again, blurring as he sped up, and jolting as he dug his arm back into the wall to slow him down.
'ARGH!'
DRIP PLOP!
Once he stopped, a few drops of blood fell onto his head, and he could see that his entire arm was dripping with blood.
'This is going to take a while.' He realized.