Chapter 63: Monster Slayer

That voice was so pleasing to the ear, and familiar words emerged:

[It Was Just Another Unremarkable Day As You Embarked On An Adventure Into The Abyssal Domain With The "Adventurer Burdened By The Curse Of Worldly Calamity," And "The Princess Who Rules Over Ashen Darkness".]

[At The Beginning Of Your Adventure, You Cleverly Used The 'Power of Misfortune' To Choose The Right Path For Exploration.]

[Your Team Quickly Encountered A Treasure Chest And Easily Defeated The Guardian. However, Under The Influence Of Misfortune, You Unexpectedly Fell To The Second Level And Encountered Formidable Opponents.]

[With Excellent Coordination, You Narrowly And Dangerously Succeeded In Defeating The Enemies.]

[The Adventuring Team Moved Forward Once Again. You Contemplated Using The 'Power Of Misfortune' Once More, But Whether Misfortune Would Strike Or Not, It Doesn't Depend On Changing Choices; It Naturally Follows You.]

[You Encountered The More Dangerous Abyss Order, But With Your Powerful Strength And Clever Tactics, You Successfully Defeated Them And Uncovered The Conspiracy In The Secret Realm.]

[Later, Facing The Wandering King Of The Hilichurls Mobs, You Knew You Couldn't Overpower Him Directly. Using A Strategy To Divert Him, You Eventually Discovered The Demon God's Remains Intent On Revival.]

[This Abyssal Demon God Was Killed By A Human Powerhouse, And Its Lingering Grudge Held Inextinguishable Hatred Towards Mankind. If Allowed To Fully Revive It Would Surely Seek Vengeance, But You And Your Companions Prevented This From Happening.]

[It's Been A Day Filled With Wondrous Adventures. The History You've Experienced And Created Will Be Remembered, And A Character Specialty Is Taking Shape—]

[Please Wait A Moment…]

Scenes of this adventure flashed in his mind—finding treasure chests, meeting the Ruin Hunter, defeating the Abyss Mages, luring away the Lawachurl, cleansing the Demon God's Remains…

As the reminiscence concluded, all the history began to converge and anchor on Nolan.

[You Have Gained A New Character Specialty: Monster Slayer]

It was expected that this adventure would meet the criteria for acquiring a new specialty, especially after dealing with the potential threat of the Demon God's remnants and disrupting the Abyss Order's plot.

The effect of "Monster" is that when Nolan attacks any monster, all attacks receive a small damage bonus.

This is probably due to defeating many monsters during this adventure.

Overall, it's not bad. Although the bonus isn't significant, it applies to various types of damage—physical or elemental.

Nolan and his team looked around the camp, where adventurer tents were set up everywhere. Some tents even had stoves outside, wafting the aroma of mushrooms and meat.

It seemed many adventuring teams planned to spend the night at the Thousand Winds Temple camp.

This was indeed the norm for adventurers. Going back and forth takes time and is troublesome. The treasures in the secret realm won't wait, and if someone else grabs them first, they're lost.

Confident adventurer teams may even camp directly in the secret realm, exploring until they reach a satisfying conclusion.

After all, the secret realm is vast, and you can't explore it today and retreat, only to return tomorrow. The time spent on the round trip is not insignificant.

Branch Master Cyrus brought Nolan's group to the Adventurers' Guild outpost, where many people busied about.

Most were intelligence officers gathering information from all over, keeping up with the latest secret realm situation. That way if any adventurers met danger they could provide emergency aid at the first moment.

This outpost also served as a temporary medical station.

Indeed, several injured adventurers were there, heads lowered in embarrassment with bandages exposing their sorry states. Expressions shifty and awkward.

Getting injured on the first day of exploring the secret realm, they had to temporarily halt their exploration journey.

If others found out, it would indeed be a bit embarrassing. Perhaps they might be labeled as "rookie adventurers."

Those who got injured this quickly were usually inexperienced newcomers.

Such as hastily running towards a treasure chest without paying attention to the ground, tripping over, and falling. Or losing in a confrontation with small-sized slimes due to neglecting obvious traps. There are all kinds of ridiculous and funny reasons.

Certainly, things unexpectedly happened even with seniors around, and what else could be said except "inexperienced."

"Huh? Jack, how come you're here too?" Bennett saw a familiar figure and called out. Wasn't this a member of his Benny's Adventure Team?

"No! Not at all! Captain Bennett, you've got the wrong person. There's no Jack here!"

Wearing a green adventurer outfit with a bandage wrapped around his head, the rookie adventurer Jack swiftly ran away like the wind.

He didn't expect to still have such awful luck even after leaving the Benny's Adventure Team. And now got seen by someone familiar in this sorry state.

Jack felt utterly awkward thinking to himself.

"What's up with him?" Bennett had a confused expression, scratching his head.

"That brat Jack, during the exploration stepped in some monster droppings, got spooked, and fell down hitting his forehead. Hahaha!"

Cyrus guffawed without restraint, mercilessly exposing Jack's embarrassing moment.

The other injured also chuckled, although their reasons were a bit better than that.

"Oh my, how unlucky indeed," Oz casually remarked.

"Sigh, I've experienced that before too," Bennett seemed to recall something, empathizing a little with Jack.

The reason the Branch Master laughed was to make these rookie adventurers remember this lesson. Otherwise, being reckless next time might not guarantee a safe return.

Afterwards, Cyrus boasted loudly to the Adventurers' Guild members about Nolan and the others' deeds, and then, he rewarded each of them with 150,000 Mora for discovering the second and third layers of the secret realm.

Not much, but it was the guild's commendation for outstanding adventurers.

After that, Nolan and his team left the Thousand Winds Temple camp and returned to Mondstadt before nightfall.

On the way, they distributed the spoils. Firstly, they had gained six Primogems from this adventure, worth around six hundred thousand Mora, one of which Nolan already used.

More precious was the 4-star artifact.

There were also some 3-star, 2-star, and 1-star artifacts, Chaos Devices, Chaos Circuits, Broken Masks, Mora, and so on.

Nolan only took the five Primogems and the Lawachurl's broken mask, already about one-third of the total value.

He didn't feel right taking more.

Fischl and Bennett didn't find his fondness for the shiny, valuable Primogems strange at all. Many people liked them after all.

Since today was a fruitful day, they decided to go to the Good Hunter restaurant to celebrate with a feast.

After all, how could adventurers not celebrate when they found treasure?

It wasn't until late that Nolan bid farewell to Fischl and Bennett, returning to his home in Mondstadt's Val Berry Street.

They agreed to venture into the secret realm together again in a few days, and tomorrow would be a day for proper rest.

Nolan also had to prepare elemental potions to gain more attacking options.

(End of Chapter)