Competition

"Hu…" Clovis let out a sigh of excitement after getting what he wanted from the mall. The desire to get more money became stronger in his heart.

Even though he wanted to eat the chips right away, he had to test the essence he got from the Saber-toothed Tiger. 

Looking at the two bottles of essence, Clovis muttered, "How much progress can I get from these two bottles? There are more than a hundred, so I should expect something, right?"

With this thought in mind, Clovis stabbed his left arm and started injecting the essence into his blood.

In that instant, his body began to warm up as though he had a fever. This was a normal symptom since his body was assimilating the essence. 

It took Clovis an entire hour for his body to return to normal. After that, he opened the system to check on his progress. 

Name: Clovis Hacfield

Tier: 0

Evolution Rate: 15%

Brain: 0%

Heart: 0.3%

Blood: 0.3%

Muscle: 1.4%

Bones: 0.6%

"Seriously?" Clovis exclaimed in shock. "100 ml is equal to 1.6% progress? But I need about 500% for each of them. So, I need more than three hundred times that. So, 30,000 union dollars to become a Tier 1? If it's a talented person, they only need 5,000–8,000 dollars to become Tier 1.

"It's said that after Tier 1, the progress will become even harder. A few hundred thousand might only be the start; what about the next tier? A few million? Then, a billion?" 

Clovis let out a long sigh. The rich could definitely nurture a lot of people, but if they didn't make their money back, it would be useless. It was no wonder why people wanted talented people.

In exchange, Clovis looked at the Another World Mall in a new light. He could make more progress than the essence with far less cost.

He could focus on getting real money and use the otherworldly coin to nurture other people or pay for equipment. 

It seemed that he had gotten on his own path.

"There's no helping. Let's just use these chips for breakfast, then hunt more tomorrow. I need to at least get 500 union dollars in tomorrow's hunt so that I can upgrade the membership the day after." Clovis smiled, finding his path. 

…

The next day. 

Clovis headed straight to the gate. This time, he changed his target from the tiger to another animal called Dire Wolf. According to the information, it was a large and powerful carnivorous mammal that lived during the Pleistocene epoch. 

They had strong jaws and sharp teeth, making them formidable predators. They likely hunted in packs, collaborating to take down large prey.

This was quite ambitious for Clovis, but he still had his pistol if he got cornered by this beast. And in this place, their number should have been thinned out, meaning only a few of them would appear at a time.

Clovis rushed toward the southeast. According to the map, this area had a lot of dire wolves. 

"Each beast has a different value for the attributes. According to the information, this beast will give a boost to Brain, Blood and Bones. Since I have the chips for Heart and Muscle, the beasts should be perfect to balance my progress." 

Like previously, he would sell the majority of the essence and absorb the rest.

However, because they hunted in packs, they were more dangerous than saber-toothed tigers. If he wasn't careful, he might lose his life. 

Clovis made sure that his pistol was working before entering the woods. 

Unlike the previous day, he instantly found the dire wolves. There were only four dire wolves, which was the number he could take on with his current strength.

'Alright. The dire wolf has weaker strength than the tiger, but it has speed. So, I'm going to take down one of them with a sneak attack first.' Clovis thought while observing the group of wolves. 

He couldn't approach them very close since they should have sharper ears than the tiger. So, Clovis carefully moved forward while clenching his short sword. 

When there were only a few meters between them, Clovis jumped out of the bushes. He was still a bit short of reaching the wolves, so he took two more steps, which ended up alarming the wolves.

He hurriedly tossed the short sword right at the wolf's neck. 

The other wolf seemed to find the trajectory and tried to bite the flying sword.

'I'm not gonna make it?' Clovis squinted his eyes, but it seemed that the wolf was just a split second too late. The short sword passed through his mouth, causing the wolf to only bite the chain. Meanwhile, the short sword had impaled the wolf's neck, or so he thought.

Right before the sword reached the wolf, a young guy jumped off the tree. Clovis's word impaled at the neck at the same time as this young guy's saber sliced the wolf's head.

"Huh?!" Both of them widened their eyes in shock. It was the same person they had seen yesterday. 

"Wh—" Clovis wanted to say something, but the wolf didn't let him. The one that managed to bite the chain pulled Clovis toward him while another wolf rushed from the side to flank Clovis. 

The last wolf pounced on the other person as if avenging its friend.

"Tsk." Clovis clicked his tongue. It didn't seem that he was able to retract his short sword, so he spun his body so that his blade could meet the wolf coming from his left.

The strike was more powerful than the one that took down the saber-toothed tiger. When the sword hit the wolf's fangs, it actually crushed the teeth and sliced through the head without any restriction.

After that, Clovis rotated his body to pull the chain, using the momentum to overpower the wolf.

The wolf got pulled toward Clovis, so it immediately let go of the chain and went straight at Clovis. The latter had been waiting for this and swung with all his strength, trying to cut the wolf like earlier. 

But to his surprise, the figure of the young man appeared behind the wolf, striking the same spot as him. 

As a result, both of them cut the wolf's head at the same time which resulted in their swords clashing with each other. 

"!!!" Both of them were surprised that they actually went for the same spot and at the same speed. They couldn't help but shout at the same time. "Who the heck (fuck) are you?!"

"I should be the one asking that!" They said the same thing again. 

"Kh!" The guy gritted his teeth, annoyed. Meanwhile, Clovis tried his best to remain calm. He shouldn't make someone an enemy for petty reasons.

When they calmed down, they finally noticed the identity of the person before them. 

'Huh? Isn't this guy the one who I saw in Essence Bank?' He thought while recalling Clovis's movement. 'His swing is sharp, powerful and precise. He doesn't bat an eye of a sudden change and adapt easily.'

'This guy is that troubled guy from before. Did we hunt in the same area? Still…' Clovis also recalled how he moved. 'His slash was extremely swift and accurate. He is hunting alone and doesn't seem like he has any companions. Broke up?' 

Clovis took a deep breath before saying, "My name is Clovis. I've just arrived at this place, so I don't know if this is your hunting ground."

"I'd reached this place not long ago. My name is Jay." 

"How about we split these four beasts evenly and go on our way?" Clovis suggested. 

"That's not a bad idea." Jay seemed to have no objection.

But when they reached an agreement, both of them thought of the same thing. 

'Wait a minute. This guy doesn't have a companion anymore. He seems to be talented and strong. Should I make him my companion? If his evolution rate is low, I can simply boost his progress with the items in my mall, right? Of course, only after I can completely trust him.' Clovis squinted his eyes, examining Jay. 

'This guy should have been selling a lot of essence yesterday. His martial prowess doesn't seem to be lower than mine. Looking at how fearless he is by hunting alone, shouldn't it be good if he becomes my subordinate? If I return to the family with talented subordinates…' Jay smirked, excited to see people's faces when they knew about his achievement. 

Both of them suddenly looked into each other's eyes and asked, "Hey, you! Do you want to be my comrade (subordinate)?" 

"Huh?!" Clovis and Jay's eyebrows twitched.

"If you're going to join me, then I should be the leader!" Jay argued while raising his tone.

"No way! I'm going to become the greatest explorer, so I am the leader!" Clovis gritted his teeth.

"Then, what is your evolution rate?! My evolution rate is 95%. If your evolution rate is higher than mine, I will follow you." Jay harrumphed. 

"Is that even relevant? Why do you care about the evolution rate when it's just a number? What matters is strength, right?!"

"It seems that you don't have confidence in your evolution rate." Jay had a smug smile on his face.

"My evolution rate is 15%," Clovis stated with a determined expression. 

"Hah?!" Jay thought that Clovis was lying. "You want to become the strongest explorer with only a 15% evolution rate?"

"It's because I only have a 15% evolution rate!" Clovis corrected his words.

"!!!" Jay's body shook. Just for an instant, he saw Clovis's future figure which somehow left him in awe. Clovis was serious about aiming to become the greatest explorer. "Do you even understand what that number even means?"

"I know it very well. All I have to do is kill seven times more beasts than you." Clovis harrumphed.

Clovis's seriousness somehow moved him, but it also made him look silly. There was no one as insane as Clovis, but it didn't seem that Clovis was bluffing. 

When he glanced down, he noticed the swords on Clovis's hands. 

'Wait a minute. What are those swords? What materials are used to create those swords? Now that I think about it, those swords can slice even the fox's fangs. Those swords should be better than my swords. He might not be an ordinary person. If that person thinks that this man will become a great figure, then I…' Jay's expression turned serious.

He pointed to the side. "How about we make a bet?"

"A bet?" Clovis frowned. 

"Yes. It's just a little competition. How about we find a big pack of dire wolves and kill them? Whoever kills more will be the leader." Jay smirked.

"You are insane. That competition is simply throwing your life away! But…" Clovis fell silent before smiling excitedly. "…we both know that to make us drop the idea of becoming a leader, we have to put our lives on the line."

"That's right. If you don't dare to accept the bet, you don't even have the right to rule over me. At the same time, if I'm not brave and strong enough to challenge those beasts, I am not fit to make you put down your ambition. How's that?"

"That's a fair agreement. We both are insane to even agree to this kind of competition."

"True. But none of us are going to back down, right?" 

"Alright. I agree to the bet. Let's have a competition. I'll definitely make you my subordinate. Having a 95% evolution rate subordinate sounds amazing, right?" Clovis grinned.

"You said it earlier. It's just a number. That insane mind of yours is what piques my interest. Get ready to call me, Sir Jay!"

"We'll see if you're capable of that or not!" Clovis harrumphed. "In that case, we have to find and decide which pack of wolves we're going to hunt."

"Let's go then."