"After you finish this mission, please don't be a hunter anymore, okay?" Jenny looked up at Dudian with full expectation. Now that a year had passed, she already knew that Dudian was no longer a scavenger but had become a hunter.
Although she wasn't interested in the affairs of the consortium, she had still learned something about it by osmosis. The duty of a hunter was to eliminate the dangers outside the Wall. In the past, she would have unconditionally supported Dudian in doing what he wanted. But now that their relationship was deep, just thinking that Dudian might encounter danger made her reluctant to see him leave the giant Wall.
Looking at her hopeful eyes, Dudian's heart softened, and he nodded, saying, "All right."
Jenny was overjoyed. She hugged him tightly and buried her head in his arms, saying, "In the future, we'll be clerics, examine the bad guys together, and be together every day. How happy that would be."
Hearing her words, Dudian was also filled with longing. As he loved this girl more and more, he became more and more reluctant to face the life outside the Wall and even didn't want to practice archery. When practicing archery, his mind was full of her figure, and it was difficult for him to concentrate. He just wanted to accompany her every day, look at her, and stay like this forever.
Since they fell in love half a year ago, as soon as Dudian finished his training every day, he would run to the Tribunal and accompany Jenny back to her home. Whenever Jenny had a vacation, he would take leave and accompany her to go sightseeing everywhere.
In such a life, he found that he was tired of the boring archery practice. Even the alchemical factory that he had already prepared was left there, and he hadn't gone back to check on it for a long time.
Whenever he thought of his former ideals and ambitions, Dudian felt weary. He just wanted to stay by this girl's side every day and didn't want to risk his life outside the Wall or train hard anymore.
"My father will give you the mission in a few days. You should go back and prepare well these days. I won't disturb you." Jenny lifted her head from Dudian's chest and looked at him.
Dudian smiled and said, "You're quite sensible."
"Of course." Jenny said proudly.
Dudian also thought that he needed to prepare well. Since the other party had given him this opportunity, he had to seize it. If the mission was beyond his ability, he would decisively refuse it. But if it was just a bit difficult, he was still willing to strive for it and prove to Jenny's father that he was worthy of entrusting his daughter's life to him!
...
...
Two days later.
Dudian received a notice from above that he had been assigned to the third team and was to go outside the Wall to carry out a mission.
The content of the mission was to go to Area 2 and slay the named monster in Area 2—the Corpse Eater!
"Corpse Eater!" When Dudian saw the content of the mission, he frowned slightly and quickly analyzed in his mind: "The captain of the third team is an intermediate hunter and a knight. The hunting level of this Corpse Eater is 18. With the captain's strength, he should be able to withstand it for a while. With the cooperation of the others and me, there should be about a 60% chance of successfully hunting it."
During this year of training, he had already taken the time to look through the monster atlas of the outside of the Wall. It was said that this atlas had been passed down from the inner part of the Wall. It recorded the simple information of various monsters outside the Wall and evaluated their hunting levels based on this information.
In the long process of development, there were deviations between the hunting levels on the early monster atlases and the actual combat power of the monsters. But now such deviations were very small. Basically, they were in line with the evaluated hunting levels, and the deviation would not exceed one level.
After thinking for a moment, Dudian immediately decided to go and carry out the mission.
Although it was difficult, there was still hope.
Dudian packed his bags and, by the way, put the blasting tube that he had secretly prepared half a year ago into his bag. At a critical moment, it might come in handy. After all, the fortress in Area 7 should have been scavenged almost completely by now, and there basically wouldn't be anything left.
When Dudian arrived at the Hunter Hall to gather, he immediately saw the members of the third team. There were four people in total, and with him, there were five. This was the standard size of a team, and the position configuration was also very particular. Each team must have one knight or defensive warrior, and the same was true for hunters. The remaining three positions could be filled randomly, either with two thieves or three knights.
"Are you Dudian?" A tall young man among the four people saw Dudian and took the initiative to ask.
Dudian apologized, "Sorry, I'm late."
A female hunter in her early twenties dressed in a close-fitting outfit carried a crossbow on her back. Seeing that a newcomer had joined, she couldn't help but say, "What's going on? The people above must be drunk. This is a mission with a danger coefficient rated as 'intermediate', yet they actually let a newbie join? Do they think our lives are worthless?"
"Yeah, Captain, could there be a mistake above?" Another warrior carrying a huge sword said. Judging from the shape of the sword, it was obvious that he was mostly a defensive swordsman rather than an offensive swordsman like Baylin.
"This is a decision from above. Stop talking. Get ready and let's go," the tall young man waved his hand slightly to stop the two from continuing and said to Dudian, "I heard that your demonic mark is the 'Fear Contaminator'. The task of tracking the ghouls is assigned to you."
Dudian nodded and said, "No problem!"
The female hunter and the young swordsman were slightly taken aback when they heard the captain's words. They looked at each other and didn't say anything more, just snorted coldly, still a bit dissatisfied.
Soon, everyone mounted their horses. Led by the tall young man, the captain, they headed outside the Wall.
After several hours of riding, they passed through the radiation area and came to the front of the giant Wall.
There were personnel from the Mellon Consortium waiting in front of the passage. When they saw Dudian and the others, they immediately greeted them and helped open the passage.
When passing through the dark passage, like the others, Dudian stopped in front of the Hunting Goddess engraved on the wall and prayed for a while before leaving the passage and coming outside the Wall.
This passage was different from the one Dudian had taken to Area 1 last time. Outside was not a giant tree forest but a desolate plain. The ground was full of rocks, and the outlines of building foundations could be vaguely seen under the rocks.
"Let's go." The tall young man obviously wasn't here for the first time. He glanced around, confirmed that there was no danger around, took out a map from his backpack, opened it and looked at it twice, and took the lead in guiding the way.
Dudian, the female hunter, the swordsman, and another short young thief followed closely behind.
"Newbie, if you smell any dangerous smell, remember to remind us." The swordsman said to Dudian.
Dudian frowned slightly but didn't say anything.
"The area where ghouls like to move is the Corpse Rot Swamp in the north," the tall young man said to everyone. "Hurry up. There are traces of other monsters wandering around here, and it's a big one."