Aspirations

The middle-aged man scoffed and began to lecture his group, "You guys were too careless. What are you going to do if we meet stronger monsters in the future?"

His party members could only hang their heads down in shame. After gaining the power to contend against [Users], they had become complacent. Instead of working their hardest to catch up to their [User] counterpart, they were taking things too easy because they placed all their trust into the [Great Human Method]. The [Great Human Method] by itself was nothing short of a miracle but they had to put work behind it as well. This could be seen in their party leader who had already acquired the second part of the method.

The middle-aged man who is also the party leader sighed softly and dragged the minotaur's corpse over. "Let's eat and get stronger,"

At the thoughts of getting stronger the party's spirit was rejuvenated, "Okay!"

They set up a little corner within the cave to start a fire and began to cook the minotaur the meat. It was a very relaxing process for the members of the party who just went through an intense battle to kill this minotaur. They thought of how nice life would be if it continued this way. Gather in front of the city wall every morning with their leader, set off to the dungeon, kill one monster, go home and then repeat everything over again.

The smell of the cooked minotaur began to gather in the small corner they hid in. Besides the light from their fire, the only other source was from blue mana crystals that emitted a dim blue light. Their little fire was the only source of warm light. Around them and everywhere else, there was only a dim blue light. It reminded everyone present that they were still in a dangerous location.

The party leader ate while standing up. He took it as his responsibility to take care of his party members. Despite being assigned this job without much say by Shadow after being given the second part of the [Great Human Method], he did not have many complaints. He had grown to like his party members.

The way it worked was like this. The first batch of people who had shown royalty to Shadow was given the second half of the [Great Human Method]. The party leader was among this first group. As more people joined, everyone of the first batch became party leaders. It was Shadow's plan to develop the strongest force he could under him.

There were a few benefits to leading his group like this. By using the people who could use [Harmonization] as party leaders, the party members would become more motivated to work harder so they could begin to use [Harmonization] as well. On top of this, the party members would continue to get stronger by going out to hunt minotaurs. There was little to no risk because they were led and protected by those who were capable of [Harmonization].

[Harmonization] allowed one to mimic the abilities of [Users]. It was not that simple but it was essentially the case. [Harmonization] theoretically allowed the user to replicate and mimic any abilities however the requirement was that the user had to understand the ability as well. This was why the current users of [Harmonization] were limited to just replicating basic abilities.

Sounds of footsteps could be heard in the distance. A group of three emerged from the darkness. They were slightly surprised when they saw a group of 10 odd men crowding around a fire roasting minotaur meat but it was none of their business. With a polite smile, they continued to hunt their own minotaur.

The party members around the fire immediately had their face darkened when they saw the group of three. They knew right away that the three were not one of "them". Those three were [Users] which was why they could get away with coming into the dungeon with just a group of three.

Their reason for being upset was simple: inferiority complex. Previously, they could only hide behind their houses as the [Users] did their best to protect them on the city wall. Back then, their feeling towards [Users] was gratitude.

After having a taste of power, this previous feeling of gratitude had disappeared. It was now jealousy. How come those people had abilities and they didn't?

They had access to the second part of the [Great Human Method] which would allow them to learn [Harmonization] but it was only a matter of time before those [Users] had access to [Harmonization] as well.

Within the first batch of people who were able to use [Harmonization], there were a few [Users] included already but those people were different. How were they different? They did not know.

Humans were complicated creatures. At one moment, they could view one in a favorable view and completely change that view in the next second. Double standards, hypocrisy. They were things that came as natural as drinking water to them.

There were currently two batches of people under Shadow. The first batch already had access to [Harmonization]. The second batch were the ones that were only recently recruited by who knows what method. There were many more people in the second batch than there were in the first batch.

The condition for the second batch people to get access to the second part of the [Great Human Method] was simple. A few days from now a man and a woman would be leaving the city.

The order was to capture them dead or alive.

As long as they succeeded, everyone in the second batch would be rewarded. With thousands hunting down two people, what could possibly go wrong?