The four of them were inside the luxurious lodge, observing one another with varying expressions.

The bespectacled friends stared at the documents in their hands with awe, while Lyra continued staring at Marlon, completely speechless.

An awkward silence had hung over the room ever since Marlon arrived and shared his interactions at the Hunter Association with them, of course, excluding the part about the Vereenas.

Ashton and Logan were rather surprised by how he had managed to obtain four danger-zones for them. They were even more baffled when they heard that he had secured B-rank ones for himself. The mere thought of their friend raiding danger-zones that even veterans avoided was astonishing.

On the other hand, Lyra was dejected for an entirely different reason.

"You're going on a raid with my sister?" she asked, her voice dripping with something between jealousy and anger.

Marlon nodded casually.

He knew about the feud between the sisters. It had been a pretty popular rumor during their training camp era.

"It wasn't my idea, but I had no choice but to accept it," he followed up.

His response made her even more dejected. Why she was reacting this way to her sister being with Marlon was strange, yet she could not bring herself to ignore the feeling.

"Anyways, you guys should take this raid seriously."

Marlon checked the time on his phone. There were about two hours left before the arranged meeting time with his new raid members. Hence, he decided to hasten things up, he still had important matters to take care of before leaving.

"In a week's time, if you guys manage to reach level one hundred at least, I might let you in on my super secret mission. I might even include you," he said.

Ashton and Logan stopped going through the danger-zone list and turned to him.

"Why are you still keeping this a secret from us, man? Don't you know we can die from suspense?" Ashton complained.

"Yeah, man. Just tell us… a summary at least. You shouldn't have mentioned it if you were going to keep us hanging like this," Logan added.

Lyra also looked at him expectantly. Ever since his return from Axel Storm's place after his divine trial, they had been curious about the developments that had taken place.

Marlon had mentioned the mission casually once, but he had never spoken about it since then.

Well, he could have repeated it a few times, if he had been around more.

He had only attended class at the academy once before being sent on a mission. When he returned, the rift had already taken over the academy, and as a result, the entire academy session was cut short. It was unplanned and drastic, but to a lazy student like Marlon, it was nothing short of heaven.

"It involves the rift at the academy. Something like an exploration mission, but far more interesting."

He finally let them in on it.

He trusted them to keep their mouths shut.

But in case they planned to be talkative about it…

"It would be better to keep this to yourselves. The fewer people who know about it, the better your chances of filling a slot."

He had to remind them.

However, his warning went in one ear and out the other.

They were far too stunned by the revelation to listen properly.

Marlon was not ready to face the drama that would inevitably follow.

He turned his back and walked toward the door.

As if recalling something important, he halted. He retrieved all the items he had obtained earlier and handed them over before leaving, plunging the room into even deeper silence.

When he returned to his own lodge, he sat on the ground in a lotus position and brought out the prime-grade aether crystals.

He stared at them with a gentle expression.

"I have twenty of them. That's equal to one hundred thousand aether points," he muttered to himself.

"I wonder how long it will take to absorb them."

With that, he grabbed five crystals and shut his eyes, falling into a dual meditation state.

He began absorbing the aether within the crystals.

Surprisingly, after barely two minutes, three notifications flashed before him.

[ You've absorbed x1 prime-grade aether crystal… +5000 Aether Points ] [ Aether Points: 20,000 → 25,000 ]

[ You've absorbed x1 prime-grade aether crystal… +5000 Aether Points ] [ Aether Points: 25,000 → 30,000 ]

[ You've reached a threshold. Aether Regen has increased… Current Regen: 150 AP/min ]

….

[ You've absorbed x1 prime-grade aether crystal… +5000 Aether Points ] [ Aether Points: 40,000 → 45,000 ]

Marlon opened his eyes, reading the notifications with amazement.

"My absorption speed has increased exponentially. Even though these are higher-grade aether crystals, I'm absorbing them far faster than I ever could lower-ranked ones," he muttered.

"Well, that makes things a lot easier. I was planning to absorb only ten before leaving, but now I can absorb all of them."

A smile spread across his face.

A thought briefly crossed his mind -- to accept Stormis' challenge and request even more aether crystals.

But he shook his head quickly. Although he could be shameless when it came to obtaining what he needed, crossing that line with Stormis was not an option.

Just as he was about to continue absorbing, his phone rang.

An unknown ID.

He picked up the call anyway.

——"Hello. This is customer service from the Golden Hunter Bank. We're calling to ask if you would like to upgrade your bank account with us to the highest level."

'Golden Hunter Bank…'

He recognized the name. It was the bank his body's previous owner had used before he took over. Yet, since transmigrating, he had never once made use of it or even bothered to check the account balance.

Moreover, the Golden Hunter Bank rarely contacted customers unless the funds in their accounts far exceeded the current account tier.

And from what he could recall, he already had a one-billion credit limit.

Curious, he asked the lady about his account.

——"Your current balance is nine hundred and eighty-five million credits. However, there is a pending transaction of over two point seven billion credits. We would like to know if you wish to upgrade your account. The upgrade fee is ten million credits."

His account balance itself was not shocking.

"The two point seven billion,who is the sender?"

——"The Hunter Association. Aren't you aware of it?"

Of course, he wasn't.

But after a moment of thought, it made sense. He had handed over a massive quantity of monster cores to Anna.

His intention had been to exchange them for high-grade aether crystals and useful potions.

However, he had been far too occupied lately. So much so that when he visited the Hunter Association, he had completely forgotten about the deal.

The Association had a policy, if hunters failed to claim their earnings within ninety-six hours, the payment would be transferred automatically.

The rule had been implemented years ago, back when death rates in danger-zones were extremely high.

That way, if a hunter died during a raid, their family would not be cheated out of the hunter's hard-earned rewards.

After a brief mental pause, Marlon responded and gave the lady the go-ahead to upgrade his account.

Before ending the call, she invited him to visit the bank and retrieve his black card.

Marlon, however, was uninterested.

In this world, money was among his least pressing concerns.

He could eat freely at any restaurant, sleep in any hotel, even five-star establishments, without paying a single credit.

And then there was the Hunter Association, which handed him resources instead of selling them.

Money, to him, was practically meaningless.

He dismissed the matter and refocused.

He brought out another five crystals.

His aether capacity climbed to seventy thousand, and his regeneration doubled to three hundred per minute.

After ten minutes, everything was complete.

His aether capacity had risen to one hundred and twenty thousand, while his regeneration now stood at five hundred per minute.

It was a remarkable development.

It was far higher than that of most B-rank hunters and easily the highest among his peers.

Nonetheless, when compared to Stormis, he still felt he fell short by a considerable margin.

With his aether settled, he moved on to his health points.

He had more a total of 140 free points to distribute and he decided to pour all of them in vitality.

Since it required two points for one unit increased, he ended up with +70 vitality points, which reflected as 700 health points.

His health points capacity now sat at 2700.

He took a bath and changed into fresh clothes once he was done.

After heading downstairs, he ate his fill, purchased takeaways for the journey ahead, and left for the Hunter Association to begin his raid.

The outcome was uncertain, but he was confident that he would improve significantly.

B-rank was well within reach and A-rank was not entirely impossible.

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