“Stormwall was destroyed?”
Ethan slowed his pace amid the crowds outside. At first, when he had just left Chicago Gate Terminal, he regarded the rumors about Stormwall as the aftermath of another incident at Stormtide Reach. But the public screens had now begun replaying more detailed data on the great flood's path. The southern island region, the time the massive waves appeared, the direction the water spread, and the final impact against the defensive line quickly came together into a chain Ethan knew all too well.
That was the wave created by his battle.
A sense of unease immediately rose in him. Stormwall was not some nameless defensive structure. It was one of the oldest defensive lines in Stormtide Reach, and it had appeared in the exploration-history materials Ethan had studied at school. He truly hadn't expected the aftermath of Elemental Calamity to spread so far that it directly brought down the entire structure.
What if someone traced it back?
The thought only made Ethan tense for a moment. He continued listening to the conversations around him and gradually realized that the current assessment from the monitoring agencies was still the same as what he had heard before. The source of the Forbidden Spell, the traces of a battle with a Supreme-Rank monster, and the scale of the disaster led most people to believe that a clash had occurred in the southern island region between an extremely powerful awakened person and a high-level monster.
No one thought of a Life Priest who had awakened less than two days ago.
By any reasonable standard, there was no reason to think that way.
Ethan let out a soft breath, finally no longer too worried. As long as his identity wasn't directly linked to the incident at Stormtide Reach, the current speculation would actually conceal the truth better than any explanation he could come up with.
It was nearly dark when Ethan returned to Calumet Court Apartments. The moment he opened the door to Apartment 504, he heard kitchen utensils clattering inside.
“Ethan, you're finally home.”
Daniel Mercer was carrying a plate of food from the kitchen to the table. The tension on his face immediately eased when he saw his son. “Your mother was just about to call the people in charge at Gate Terminal to ask whether there was a list of anyone trapped there. The news about Stormtide Reach this afternoon had her worried sick.”
He set down the plate, then looked Ethan up and down. After confirming that his son had no new injuries, he continued, “Stormwall collapsed too. Apparently, the whole thing started with a battle between an extremely high-level awakened person and a Supreme-Rank monster. I have no idea who that person was. All that matters is that you came home in one piece.”
Ethan shifted awkwardly.
The mysterious awakened person his father was talking about was him.
“I'm fine.” Ethan took off his shoes, trying to keep his voice casual. “What are the odds of being unlucky enough to be standing right where two things like that are fighting?”
Laura Mercer stepped out of the bedroom just in time to hear his last sentence. The worry on her face had eased when she saw Ethan, but her voice was still full of irritation. “No matter how powerful that person was, the battle nearly swept an entire residential area into it. Stormwall had to give up the whole defensive line just to hold back the wave. Be careful when you go out these days. Just because you've awakened a profession doesn't mean you should try everything that comes to mind.”
“I know, Mom. Don't worry.”
Ethan immediately sat down at the dining table before the conversation had a chance to return to Stormtide Reach. He picked up a piece of food and put it in his mouth, then naturally changed the subject. “Dad, this tastes better than last time.”
Daniel laughed. “Of course it does. Slow down. No one's going to take it from you.”
Ethan only smiled and lowered his head to keep eating. No one in the small apartment knew that the culprit behind tonight's nonstop Stormwall coverage was sitting right in front of the table, eating dinner while trying not to look at the news screen for too long.
After dinner, Ethan returned to his room to rest.
The next morning, he left home early and went straight to the Chicago Advancement Center.
Ethan had now reached Level 10, the limit before the first advancement. He already had the Elemental Origin required for his Life Priest profession, and even possessed both the Fire Origin and Wind Origin. The only thing left was to activate the Advancement Quest and complete the requirement given by the system.
When Ethan arrived, the reception area already had quite a few people in it. This was the period immediately following the Profession Awakening Ceremony, when the number of new applications surged. Quite a few awakened people who had reached their level limits also came to register for advancement. Nearly every service counter had people waiting, but the lines were still moving fairly quickly.
Ethan looked around once and found a counter that had just become available.
The receptionist was a young woman. She watched Ethan approach, her eyes lingering for a moment on his tall, imposing build before she asked, “Combat profession?”
“Life Priest.”
She paused slightly. “Support profession?”
“Yes.”
Surprise briefly appeared on her face. Given Ethan's physique, her first thought was that he belonged to some branch of the Warrior profession. Someone with a physical foundation like his would certainly have a considerable advantage in close combat, but the profession one awakened wasn't something that could be chosen based on appearance.
She quickly returned to her professional demeanor and opened the registration form in front of her. “Give me your profession information and current ability data. You can enter it directly here.”
Ethan accepted the verification device from the counter and began filling in the required fields. There was nothing to hide in the basic information, but when he reached his personal attributes, he entered numbers only slightly higher than they had been when he first awakened.
After all, his actual attributes had already surpassed one million.
If he entered all the correct data into his profile, what came afterward would certainly be far more troublesome than an Advancement Quest.
The receptionist took back the form and began checking it. “Life Priest, Level 10. Do you already have an Elemental Origin?”
“I do.”
She nodded, but then her gaze stopped on the awakening date listed in the profile.
She looked again to make sure she hadn't misread it.
Ethan had awakened his profession less than two days ago.
And yet he was already Level 10.
Even among people with professional teams supporting them, not everyone could push their leveling speed this far. More importantly, Ethan claimed to already possess an Elemental Origin, a resource that couldn't simply be bought whenever someone had enough money.
She looked over the attributes Ethan had reported. Even though they weren't yet to the point of being absurd, they were still significantly higher than what she usually saw from a newly awakened support profession.
A speculation quickly formed in her mind.
Perhaps the young man in front of her had a very wealthy family, a guild, or a powerful exploration team backing him. That was the only way to explain his leveling speed and how he had obtained an Elemental Origin so early.
“Can I accept the Advancement Quest now?”
Ethan's question pulled her back to work. She closed the ability profile and nodded. “Yes. You've met the basic requirements, but before activating the quest, I need to explain the two options.”
She turned the screen toward Ethan so he could see the interface. “The first route is a selection quest. The system will provide quests suited to your advancement requirements, and then you can choose one from the list. Most will be Difficulty B or A, though a C may occasionally appear. The center has no control over the list generated by the system.”
“The second route is a random quest. The system will directly select a quest without telling you its difficulty in advance. It could be below C, or it could go all the way up to S. It all depends on the result returned by the system.”
She paused for a moment before continuing, “Since you're a Life Priest, I recommend choosing the selection quest. Support professions usually need a suitable team formation to bring out their strength, so a quest with a stable difficulty will be safer.”
Ethan barely needed to think.
“Random quest.”
The receptionist looked at him. “Are you sure?”
“I'm sure.”
She fell silent for a beat, confirming that Ethan wasn't joking before taking an activation device from beside her. It was a mana-conducting orb set on a base connected to the center's system. “Place your hand on the surface and channel mana into it. Only a small amount is needed for verification.”
Ethan did as instructed.
Mana flowed from his palm into the orb. The light inside the device gradually brightened, then the signal was transmitted to the screen behind the counter. Only a few seconds later, the quest interface appeared.
「Name: Ethan Mercer」
「Profession: Life Priest」
「Level: 10」
「Advancement Quest: Enter a dungeon, find and kill the Abyssal Apostle, and obtain the Abyssal Heart」
「Difficulty: S」
Ethan stared at the final line.
Straight to S.
This luck was nothing to be proud of.
Without Limitless Amplification, a Level 10 Life Priest assigned a quest like this would have virtually no chance of completing it. The name Abyssal Apostle alone was enough to show that the target definitely wasn't something a newly awakened support profession should face alone.
But the current situation was completely different.
Ethan carried five abilities that had been classified as Forbidden Spells. With the power he had just tested at Stormtide Reach, an S-Difficulty dungeon wasn't enough to make him hesitate. As long as the conditions inside allowed it, he only needed to choose the right Forbidden Spell and control its area of effect. Most of the dangers within would have a hard time becoming a genuine obstacle.
He looked at the receptionist. “I'll accept this S-rank quest.”
She froze.
From the moment the result appeared, she had assumed Ethan would use his right to switch to the selection-quest route. A newly Level 10 Life Priest being required to hunt an Abyssal Apostle was practically the worst combination he could encounter for his first advancement.
“Mr. Mercer, I need to remind you one more time.” Her voice grew more serious. “An S-Difficulty quest carries an extremely high level of danger. Given the nature of the Life Priest profession, the completion rate for this quest under normal circumstances would be very low. You still have the right to abandon the random result and switch to the selection-quest list.”
Ethan understood that she was only doing her job. He wasn't annoyed; he simply shook his head.
“No need. I'll take this quest.”
The receptionist looked at him for another moment. Once she was certain Ethan had no intention of changing his decision, she didn't try to dissuade him any further.
The S-rank quest had been selected.
The target was the Abyssal Apostle.