31 Excitement

Ren passed the metal doors, and before his eyes, laid the real entrance to the gate.

It was a mass of energy shaped like fog in a circular shape. It glowed a pale blue color, and Ren moved through it without hesitation.

His vision was met by the blue fog for a bit before it all cleared up.

*Fouish*

After passing through the entrance he was met by a whole different view from before.

Ren immediately focused. One hand on his Khopesh sword, as he surveyed the area.

He won't be letting his guard down anytime soon.

'So, this is the C ranked Anthill gate' His eyes roamed about as he took in everything.

As he had expected from his research, he was positioned inside a widely forested area.

This gate was known for housing mostly ant-type monsters. And it was fairly easy to go through as an upcoming hero, and even the boss, wasn't something impressive for the stronger heroes.

So, it was one of those gates that didn't need to be closed permanently, as even in the state of overflowing, the heroes can take care of it easily.

A gate for young upcoming heroes to train in before joining a raid group for higher-ranked gates.

Many stronger heroes belonging to agencies use similar gates to induct and train their newcomers.

His posture was battle-ready, as he eyed the surroundings while walking around slowly.

Even a few B ranks can finish this gate as he had researched, so it was safe to say that he, as a new A rank, can do this easily.

The hero organization added the security measure via verification at the entrance, since anyone can just come and enter as they wish otherwise.

This way, they can monitor what was happening. Things like disposing of heroes in gates weren't few in numbers.

And this way helped a bit to prevent such situations.

'Mn, according to the map, the monsters would only be around this area…'

Ren could remember the place, as such after taking a deep breath to suppress his growing excitement, Ren started heading inside.

He took to jogging, as he kept a tight hold on his sword. It won't do to become careless due to arrogance and end up losing an arm or leg.

Ren always thoughts about things carefully.

The air inside this gate kind of smelled weird.

It was both refreshing, but also at the same time, suspiciously hiding something else.

'Hmm'

As if it wasn't natural.

'This is a dimensional gate after all.' The gate transported a person to a certain dimension where the monsters were, and there would only be one entrance to enter or leave. That could be the reason why he had this weird feeling.

This was a very rich mana-filled location.

When the mana in the gate just reaches a high state, the gate explodes with monsters into the real world.

C, B, and even A rank gates were manageable threats.

But from S rank and above, the overflowing gates required the stronger heroes to band together.

As an S rank gate and above can produce monsters above its own rank if it had reached the overflowing stage.

Unlike the lower-ranked gates, the higher ones overflow after giving an upgrade to the monsters.

This was quite dangerous if it happened inside of a city. The destruction that would follow would be devastating.

Back to Ren's thoughts.

He was feeling the mana surrounding them suffuse into his cells vigorously.

'It feels amazing…' His body just felt full of strength.

It was so much, that he was having some guesses.

'It could be possible that fighting under such an environment stimulates a person to break his limits…'

Before Ren could further expand on the thought though, his ears picked up a sound.

The leaves rustled, and there was a very faint thumping sound nearby.

Grabbing his sword, Ren stood there waiting. A grin found its way onto his face.

'My first gate fight'

He was very excited.

While he had decided to become a hero, and stronger, it didn't mean he had to be bitter about it. Why not enjoy the journey? He had to anyway if he was going to use his first trait.

A car-sized pinkish-looking ant entered his vision soon.

Its thorax, antennas, and legs were a pinkish red, meanwhile its abdomen and head were a start dark black color.

*Ting*

Its mandibles closed violently like steel pincers. The giant compound eyes provided an eerie look.

'A Formica C ranked ant…'

Ren had come prepared before entering the gate.

He had read about all the types of monsters that appeared, and while mutations might happen, it was very unlikely.

This before him was named as the Formica ant.

They were the most numbered of monsters among those in the gate, but not the only type of ants.

Ren unsheathed his Khopesh sword.

*Fuah*

A very deep breath, and then Ren was gone.

He appeared near the ant and slashed with his sword. In a second, various strikes were made to various body parts of the ant.

And while the ant swung around trying to bite Ren and screeching, it couldn't catch up to his speed.

'The neck is its weak point'

Ren concluded after a bit. Before he attacked again.

A clean sword strike that landed on the vulnerable part of its neck.

And the ant's head was cleanly separated.

The body burst into particles, leaving only the mandibles, and a small magic stone.

Granted he didn't even use that much of his power, since he was just testing the waters, but it appeared to be quite strong.

Still in his eyes, this ant was very weak.

But that was something he already knew.

So, what made him go through with this training when he already knew how weak an ant monster was?

*Rustle* *Rustle*

It was due to this.

Tens of ants started rushing at the dying screech of the monster ant Ren killed.

B rank, A-rank, or C rank, one can be provided a stimulation if they fought hundreds at the same time.

Especially when their ability was like Ren who was more suited for singular opponents' fights.

"Let's do this"

**********

Six hours later.

"Sigh, that was very tiring" Ren mumbled.

He could be seen standing at the entrance of the hero organization building near the gate.

This gate was a very new experience for him.

While he expected the fight to be brutal… He didn't expect that literally hundreds if not thousands of monster ants would be on to him.

Even as impressive as he was, there was no way to beat that much, and he would just be swarmed to death.

This was why, after fighting with his everything against them for a while, putting his life on the line, he decided to head for the boss directly.

As if anticipating such a change, the boss monster had turned out to be a mutated fire monster Queen ant, and it was almost on the verge of reaching the A rank.

Seeing the concentration of mana in this gate, he wasn't that surprised.

What made the fight harder though, wasn't the Queen ant, but the other monsters it could summon every time. He was lucky it couldn't summon them all at the same time due to range limitation perhaps.

Still, in the end, he had turned out to be the victor.

And now after fighting in the gate, he had gotten out and took a shower to get rid of the yellow blood of the monsters that was sticking to him. A special type of soap was provided that can easily dispose of that.

He had gotten the stuff he had put earlier, which were in a bag he brought with him.

This time's trip was fulfilling.

Ren couldn't help but grin. An enthused expression adorning his face.

'The goddess did say that my path would be smooth'

The reason he was this happy, was that his status had changed.

[Status]

[Rank: A]

[Strength: B]

[Agility: A]

[Magic: A]

[Traits: - Embrace of Bonds (EX)

-Weapon mastery (B)]

*******

[Skills:

-Air Blade (B)]

Just as if it was an easy thing to do, something that Robin was struggling with, took him one gate outing, and one fight against the monster ants, to do.

He had gotten his speed to reach the A rank.

Granted, he had fought until he was almost out of mana inside the gate, what with the monster ants being very huge in numbers to what he had expected. But even so, this was way faster than any other known hero.

Ren had every reason to be happy.

'Hm'

His decision to enter a gate, and become a hero was correct.

Add to it that he was planning to fully utilize his first trait, and he was sure that very soon he would join among the ranks of the greatest in this world.

Only when he reached that level of power, would Ren feel like he had control over his fate and life.

At that time, who would dare stand in his way?

'Very soon,'

It just required some time.

He started walking towards his car as he rummaged in his bag for his keys and phone. He had already changed clothes to very clean regular ones.

He was wearing black jeans, sneakers, and a white t-shirt that clung tightly to his body, showcasing his vigorous muscles.

Taking his phone from his bag, Ren's eyes raised up.

'Robin? Why so many calls…?'

He saw that she called him three times.

He recollected his thoughts as he opened the door of the car, and was pretty sure that they didn't have anything planned.

'We were supposed to meet in the gym tomorrow, right?' He wondered to himself.

He started to think on what it could be.

'Don't tell me it's because of that…' Ren's face couldn't help but adopt a smile as his anticipation soared.

Well, there was no need to complicate it with overthinking.

He could just call her back.

He pressed the dial button, and he waited for her to respond.

*******************

A/N: Important question. *Serious face*

What approach to take:

-Loli girls from anime: make them bigger in age and body.

-Loli girls become legal due to age. Legal lolis.

*******************

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-Special thanks to *"Arun"* ; *"Carl Steelhammer"* ; *"ShadowFangus"* ; *"Coby"* and *"HaiiroOokami"*

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