The Land of Origin did share some similarities with games.
Loot.
Quests.
For the first time since arriving, Michael had received a quest.
“Tasks from the Hunter Guild can trigger quests? I wonder if it’s the same for the Adventurer’s Guild.”
Michael had his eyes on the Adventurer’s Guild as well and planned to register there in the future.
At first, he wasn’t sure if it was possible to be part of both, which was why he had chosen the one that interested him most.
Fortunately, from his interactions with the receptionist, he had confirmed that registration in both was allowed.
Despite their similarities, they were two separate organizations with different functions.
“The reward is quite substantial too.”
With about thirty more tasks like this, he could likely level up again—and this was only one of the lowest-tier quests.
Michael figured that as his Hunter level increased, he’d gain access to higher-tier missions.
If every Hunter Guild task could trigger a system quest, the rewards might soon go beyond just experience points.
Even if they didn’t, the experience gains alone would be significant.
This method of earning experience seemed slower and more tedious than simply killing monsters, but it was steady.
And considering the nature of the Hunter Guild—where most tasks involved combat—he could still earn experience from both missions and battles at the same time.
Regaining his focus, Michael didn’t hesitate and continued toward the guild’s exit.
Once outside, he glanced down at the paper in his hand—a rough map sketch.
“With no idea of this region’s geography, I might need—no, I will need help getting there. As long as I can find out which trade routes the bandits frequent or where their base is located, tracking them down shouldn’t be a problem.”
Michael wasn’t too concerned about the bandits themselves.
Though he was still learning the inner workings of the guild, he knew his strength far exceeded that of a typical Iron-ranked hunter.
Most hunters at his level of power had likely already advanced beyond this stage, leaving only those, the real iron level hunters, who were still struggling to take on missions like these.
For them, this task was very difficult.
“The time limit for the task is the same as my quest. I can take this slowly, but for now, I need to get out of the capital.”
The reason was simple.
In less than twenty minutes, Michael’s daily points would arrive, granting him a large influx of evolution points—enough to push his total beyond a hundred. That alone was a significant milestone.
With that many points, he could create a few more Rank 1 rare-grade undead.
But that wasn’t what excited him.
Among his undead, the most recent special cases were his human undead. Even the weakest of them required far more evolution points than usual.
The standard cost for evolving a common-rank creature to a rare rank wasn’t enough—not even when doubled.
He knew they could evolve. His talent made that clear. The issue was the sheer cost.
This was as concerning as it was intriguing.
So far, all of his undead evolutions had been overwhelmingly positive. Not once had he encountered a failed or negative transformation.
Was this a quirk of his talent, or had he simply never triggered the conditions for a failed evolution?
Michael didn’t know.
Based on past experience, his human undead should only become stronger after evolving.
So, what kind of evolution required such an absurd amount of evolution points?
Michael hoped to find out soon.
He put the paper inside his room, using it as a guise while actually storing it in his storage space.
But just as he was about to move, he suddenly froze.
His lips twitched.
For some reason, his action reminded him of the first time he went into a Crack in the real world.
Grace had given him a paper to hold, but instead of storing it away, he had actually carried it in his hand the entire time.
Back then, he thought he didn’t have a place to put it.
Michael experienced one of those moments where past actions made his future self feel incredibly stupid.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. I was still getting used to being an Awakener. It’s normal to forget my own prowess at times, right?”
He consoled himself, shaking his head.
Just as he was about to leave, his thoughts shifting back to his quest, he paused again.
His lips twitched—again.
Now that he thought about it, the Land of Origin really was starting to resemble a game.
And that led him to another realization—his undead had killed a large number of monsters earlier today.
His first loot in this world had come from the slimes in that ruins, his first location in the land of origin.
So… wasn’t there a high chance that he had overlooked some loot when he left in a hurry?
Sure, he could blame it on his undead. By the time he had arrived, they were already clearing the area, likely disregarding any items that weren’t obviously valuable.
But that wasn’t exactly an excuse.
He could have at least checked.
“No. I wouldn’t have been able to search for anything even if there was loot there,” Michael muttered to himself.
“Ignoring the threat of that monster tracking me down, I also needed to catch up to Mage Lian and his group back then… there was just too little time.”
Even though he knew this was the truth, it didn’t make him feel any better.
Putting aside the possibility of rare loot appearing, the real loss was the spirit crystals. Those crystals were readily available evolution points, and missing out on them stung the most.
“Speaking of evolution points… In the absence of spirit liquid, buying spirit crystals isn’t a bad alternative.”
However, that option required careful planning. Spirit crystals were expensive. If he wanted to make use of them efficiently, he had to ensure the cost was worth the gains.
It didn’t take long for Michael to calm down and shift his thoughts elsewhere.
Maybe it was because he was in a good mood, or perhaps knowing there was nothing he could do about what had already happened made it easier to let go. Either way, he wasn’t too bothered.
After placing the paper in his storage space, he didn’t hesitate any longer and made his way toward the outer city gate.
Just like when he had found the inner gates, locating the outer gates wasn’t difficult. Getting out was just as easy.
Along the way, Michael felt various gazes on him—some filled with curiosity, others with indifference.
Most of them flickered on and off, vanishing as he moved past their line of sight.
However, there were at least two presences that remained constant.
One of them seemed neutral, or at least mostly so.
But the other… the other felt different.
There was something personal about it, something charged.
The situation puzzled Michael.
He resisted the urge to turn around, not wanting to alert them or scare them off.
Instead, he let them continue trailing him.
Unfortunately, as soon as he stepped out of the outer city, he felt their presence disappear. That alone disappointed him more than he expected.
“They might’ve been useful,” Michael thought. “But I guess they’re lucky they didn’t follow me.”
Michael was always cautious when it came to people with ill intent toward him.
He wasn’t the type to kill everyone who looked at him the wrong way, but he also wasn’t someone who could always ignore it.
The fact that those two felt familiar made it even more concerning.
If he recognized their presence, it meant they had been tailing him since he left the inner city. That kind of dedication made him uneasy—and curious.
But they hadn’t followed him outside.
That was unfortunate. If they had, he would’ve made good use of them after an interrogation.
For one, they could’ve served as guides.
If they could read and write it would have been even better.
“I don’t know if I’ll run into them again,” Michael thought.
“But considering how things are in the outer city, if I move around at night, I might attract a new batch of stalkers, right?”
Already, he was forming plans for any unfortunate pursuers.
As he thought of this, Michael moved further away from the capital and into the wilderness..
A moment later, a massive figure shot into the sky, its dark wings cutting through the wind in a flash.
It was his black griffin.
Michael had summoned it to carry him further away from the capital.
Moments later, as he soared above a dense forest with his undead keeping watch over his surroundings, he finally gave the order to descend.
He jumped off the griffin just in time to see a new notification appear before him.
His evolution points had been refreshed.
Excited, Michael quickly turned to check his talent section.
******
A/N: Happy New Month from _Drakon. Thank you for the support!