’Dhruv?.. hmm! I haven’t seen him around here...’ Hearing the reply, the mage tried to remember, but no one significant came to mind.

’He killed the boss in one shot... shit... Why do I have to deal with people this strong...’ Not knowing the intentions of the man in front of him, the mage began thinking of his best course of action.

Before he could come up with anything though... he heard a voice coming from beside him.

"Give me the core... we were about to finish the monster anyway..." Yelling, the swordsman moved forward, trying to snatch the glistening core from Dhruv’s hand.

Dodging effortlessly, Dhruv looked at the man with a curious smile.

Before he could say anything, the mage stepped forward, positioning himself between the two.

’This hothead... can’t he be calm for once...’ Fearing for his life, the old man quickly spoke, "Sorry for his rude behavior, but there is no need to do that... you killed the boss and can keep the core..."

"B-But old man..."

The swordsman tried to refute, but the old man quickly silenced him.

"No buts... if it weren’t for this man, we might have been dead." Saying this, the mage looked toward Dhruv and bent down, apologizing for his teammate’s behavior once again.

"Oh! No, you don’t have to do that..." Dhruv lifted the old man awkwardly and asked his own question.

’It is nice that Vexar isn’t with me... or else your fate would have been the same as the boss...’ Smirking, he looked at the old mage and asked a question.

"Was this your first time hunting a boss? I mean a Tier IV boss."

’How does he know... is that what they call experience?’ Thinking this, the mage replied honestly.

"Yes, although we’ve hunted many monsters as a group, this was truly our first experience with a boss of this tier."

"Hmm! Seems like it. Consider it a suggestion, but I don’t think your group is ready to take on a boss by yourselves. A few more levels should do the trick..."

Thinking about how the boss in front of him wasn’t even of a unique tier, Dhruv quickly corrected himself, "...No, scratch that. Don’t mess with a boss until you gain sufficient battle experience."

Nodding his head, the mage sighed, "We thought the same, but after finding the boss, we decided to risk it... considering the boss didn’t seem to be the offensive type..."

Seeing the young man remain silent, the mage added with a smile, "If we had killed the boss ourselves, the core would have fetched us enough coins to upgrade our equipment... but at least we’re happy to be alive."

Listening to these words, Dhruv smiled, understanding what the old man was hinting at. Ignoring it, he asked something else. "You can exchange cores for coins?"

"Y-yes, we can... you didn’t know?" The old mage asked, a little bit confused.

After a week or two into the third evolution, numerous places have opened up, taking cores and exchanging them for coins. The main markets for these types of exchanges are guilds or clans... especially those that specialize in crafting.

Except for weapon and armor crafting, humans haven’t found any other ways to use the cores, but everyone is sure this is only true for the time being.

Due to all this, Core Engineering has become a really sought-after class, and numerous guilds have begun investing resources to access its full potential.

These guilds are the ones who decide the price for the cores as well.

"You see, I was busy somewhere else and didn’t know much about the ins and outs of things here," Dhruv replied with a smile.

Before the old man could say something, he asked another question, "Say, how much would a Tier IV core cost?"

"For normal monsters, it’s around one-fourth the amount one gets from killing the monsters. For bosses, it’s twice, and in some cases, even thrice the amount."

"Is that so..."

Pausing, the old man continued, "This is the general way. Another factor that is considered is the element of the core. The rarer the element, the higher the price."

"Hmm! Sounds about right..."

"Alright then... let’s meet again sometime." Knowing there wasn’t much left to discuss, Dhruv nodded and began moving away from the group.

Seeing the young man go his way without causing a ruckus, the old mage heaved a sigh of relief. He was about to teach the swordsman a lesson when a sound reached him:

"And... you can keep this."

"What!?..."

Shocked to see the core flying toward him, the mage quickly caught it.

"Thank y—" he was about to thank the young man, but to his surprise, nobody was in front of him.

The man had disappeared.

"See... I think he got afraid of me and returned the core," the swordsman said, looking at the core.

"Yay! I don’t think so..." Laura replied, not convinced by his words.

Slap!

Slapping his head, the old man said, "When will you learn to keep control over your mouth... you could have gotten us killed."

"Gotten us killed... don’t you think that’s a bit much?" The group’s tank replied with a bit of hesitation.

"Killed... don’t say it... do you think he is one of those?" The archer asked, looking at the old man.

"I’m not sure, but there’s a chance that he might be a ’Slayer,’" the old man replied.

"I don’t think he could be one... he was alone after all," the swordsman replied.

"Yes, you might be right for once. Not only did he not take our coins... there wasn’t any need for him to return our core either. From what I can sense, he was powerful enough to handle all of us," the old man replied, suddenly lost in thought.

’But still, his timing is too perfect. And considering how he disappeared like that, he could be an assassin...’

"Snap out of it, old man. Let’s return. It’s time for celebration, not deep thinking," the swordsman said enthusiastically.

"Yes! Let’s go..." Nodding his head, the old man tried to forget about it all, but for some reason, he couldn’t.

"Dhruv..." he whispered the name, remembering the face that had been plastered in his memory.

Saying the command that was given to them by the bartender on the first floor, the group waited five seconds before teleporting.

When the group had disappeared, a man appeared there. Waiting for his subordinates to arrive, he whispered new words:

"Slayers... what are those?"