"Grats on ranking up," Lone said to Hazel the second he and Soph returned.

It was clear that she had gone up from F-rank to E-rank during the short frame of time that Lone and Soph had delivered the hostages to Mystopolis' southern gate.

The girl was covered in sweat and clearly quite exhausted, but she still turned to face her brother and smiled. "Thanks. It wasn't that hard considering what this guy was thinking," Hazel said as she gestured to the C-ranker who was awkwardly standing there silently wishing that he wouldn't get noticed by Lone.

"I hope he wasn't gonna try anything funny just 'cause I took Saturn with us when we went to drop off the girls," Lone said as he stared daggers at the balding middle-aged man.

Hazel sighed. "No. Not a single bandit has any thoughts of rebelling or trying to kill us. Two tried to kill Scott, but Breena suffocated them. It was... gruesome. He just keeps thinking about what I look like without any clothes on. I was pretty angry, so as we fought, I managed to hurt his arm with my sword and instantly ranked up. It was like I'd accomplished something by actually landing a hit of a C-ranker in a kinda fair fight."

Lone nodded. "I see. Accomplishment, huh? Maybe that's how Breena ranked up during my 'training' session then. I'm glad to have some more proof for that theory. Good job, Lil Sis," Lone praised as he stretched out his hand and rubbed her head instinctively.

Hazel didn't dodge. She accepted his affection as her mind raced. 'Is this all I need to do? I just need to become stronger and impress him, help him figure out his theories, and then he'll love me like how he loves Breena?'

This was certainly a healthier mindset for the girl that the sort of thoughts that were swimming in her head for the past three weeks in regards to Lone and Breena.

Lone stopped petting her after a few seconds and glanced at the bandit she'd been fighting. "Okay, you did well. I don't blame you for having lewd thoughts about my sister, so I'll not touch your soul. Come with me. Hazel, find a new fighting partner. There's plenty to choose from."

"Is there a point?" She got her answer immediately. "Ah. Testing to see if you can get enlightenment early despite not being at the level cap?"

Lone nodded and said, "Exactly." He then walked away with the bandit who was both scared and relieved. He had already accepted his death.

Hazel did as she was told and chose another bandit to fight with. She picked another C-ranker since she had no confidence of beating a B-ranker or ever landing a hit on one. While she had holy magic and could read minds, she wasn't Lone nor Soph. She knew her limits.

Two hours passed like that. As the bandits fought with the teens, Lone proceeded to take them out of the castle and end their lives so the kids could fight different people and experience different types of enemies.

He was honestly very thankful that none of them begged him to spare them. He'd have killed them regardless, but it would have left a sour taste in his mouth.

Emma and Alisa had both successfully ranked up to become E-rankers after cycling through several different opponents. Unlike Hazel, they weren't skilled in any form of melee combat, so they were forced to learn how to cast their spells while under the constant threat of being injured.

As Lone remembered, Emma had some very powerful lightning magic under her belt, but since most of it had an absurdly long casting time, she was forced to use the basic lightning magic skill, Lightning Bolt - an old favourite of Lone's before he had moved onto his self-developed Lightning Wave.

Alisa only knew a single magic spell - Crude Wind Blade, and not only that, but it was also only beginner-level-four. Since it had such an absurd casting requirement of the host being forced to chant one-hundred lines of the language of magic either verbally or mentally, her fights took the longest.

Lone was curious as to why a student at The Academy only had a single magic skill and why it was still only a Crude skill, but apparently, Alisa mostly took theory classes and only took a single practical one - the bare minimum a student was required to take. She was only interested in space magic, which no one was willing to teach her.

Lone called her an idiot and said that if she wanted to learn such a rare type of magic, then she'd have to be strong enough to force them to teach her. No one would willingly teach someone something so rare only because they had an interest in it.

As far as the boys were concerned, Scott had managed to rank up and become a D-ranker, but George was still stuck at E-rank since he wasn't at the max level for that rank yet. Lone was desperately hoping that upon getting the needed levels, then the boy would immediately become a D-ranker.

Finally, Lone's glasses informed him that someone was contacting him via a communication orb. Checking which orb, it was the one that's he'd tuned to the orb he'd handed to Eolande.

"Progress?" he asked as he put some mana into the communication orb furthest down the length of his glasses' right mechanical leg.

"Yup. There's only one Elder, but about fifty Mishkohns. What should we do, Husband?" Eolande asked as she added a coy pitch to her voice.

Lone ignored her tone and replied, "Do you mind luring five away and put them to sleep or something? I want the kids to kill them to cap out their levels if they refuse to kill the bandits. We can always lure more if needed later anyway."

"Sure. That's easy. These things are almost mindless like Swind said, but that makes it easier to give them very simple instructions like 'move', 'stay', sleep', or even 'stop breathing'," Eolande claimed very calmly.

Lone smiled wryly. "It's a bit chilling when I think about how you could do that to people too."

He could almost hear her shrug as she responded, "The more complex the being, the harder and more mana-draining it is to control them with illusions. It's even harder to get them to do things they wouldn't want to normally do. Also, It's unethical. I'm a perfect maiden with a pure heart, so I'd never do anything like that."

Lone's wry smiled morphed into a warm one. "You dirty little liar. I know you'd fuck with another person's life if it was to help a Wanderer, wouldn't you? There's no doubt you'd do it if I asked you to, at least."

"Mmmmm... Call me dirty again. That was... exciting," her flirtatious voice demanded.

Lone chuckled softly and shook his head. "I'm ending the call. I'll see you soon."

"See you soon, Husband. I love you," Eolande said as sweetly as she possibly could.

Lone didn't reply to that and stopped channelling mana into the orb. He cracked his neck and sighed. "Man... That actually got my heart racing for a moment," He muttered.

Soph who was next to him was frowning, so he bent over and kissed her softly. "You know I'm not gonna do anything with her if and when you accept her, right?"

"I know. I just wish she wouldn't do that stuff until I actually do accept her," Soph said as her frown developed into a full-on pout.

''Until I actually do', huh? So you're going to? Soph has changed a lot since I first met her... She used to be so possessive, but now she's willing to think about letting another person into our relationship... She's more open-minded than I'll ever be. And that's why she's perfect...' Lone was very happy, which made Soph happy. She forgot her anger and cuddled a tail or two as Lone rounded up the teens.

A few minutes later and after giving Hazel's group some water and food to refresh them, Lone said, "I'm gonna finish up these bandits now. If any of you want some free levels and don't mind ending another person's life, feel free to help me. I won't force any of you though. There will be plenty of Mishkohn's to go around if this makes you feel uncomfortable."

Alisa looked very hesitant while the rest of her friends seemed accepting of Lone's offer. "Um... Do we... Do we have to kill them? Can't we, uh, just capture them?"

Before Lone could answer her, Hazel chose to do so herself. "Each and every single one of these men is a rapist. Did you know that they regularly capture girls just to gangbang them to death? From what I could tell, that happened at least fifteen times. They've done so much more on top of that, but just that alone is worthy of death in my opinion."

Alisa's face paled as she covered her mouth with her hand. Lone sighed as he added, "And if we did capture them, they'd only serve some time in jail before getting released or get bailed out by some scumbag looking to hire some new muscle. They might even get the death penalty if they've pissed off the wrong people, which would only waste their exp. Needless to say that the quest specifically said to kill them."

He was sorry for Alisa since she was so sensitive, but he had to be frank with her here. "Almost every human-run country on Altros has a jailing system where you can pay x amount to release whoever. Money matters more to them than punishing wrong-doers. That's why a lot of quests are to kill, not capture. There are other reasons too, of course, like it being easier on the adventurers since killing is infinitely simpler than capturing a dangerous and potentially powerful criminal, but a big reason is to prevent that abuse of the law. A dead person can't be bailed out of jail, pretty much."

"I... I see... Still... I don't want to kill anyone," Alisa said as her body trembled lightly.

"That's fine. You don't have to. What I'm doing here anyway is trying to get you five to a point where you don't need to kill people, like me," Lone said and immediately got funny looks from Scott, George and hazel. "Hey, just because I kill people, it doesn't mean that I have to. I do it because it's the surest way to get them to stay the fuck away from me. Of course, stats and levels are nice too."

After that particular conversation, George, Scott, Hazel and Emma all killed one B-ranker each. Lone got Breena to finish off the rest of them since he wanted her to become an S-ranker soon.

Surprisingly enough, only Scott hesitated at first before he managed to gather his courage to end another person's life.

Lone had expected Emma and George to be fine with it since they were both from Milindo, a place where death and killing were fairly standard, even despite the two of them being former nobles.

Unfortunately, George did not level up once he had reached his rank's level cap. This didn't confirm anything since it was entirely possible that the boy simply didn't have enough enlightenment to rank up anyway. It was also possible that the needed enlightenment only increased once you reached the level cap for your current rank. Lone's final theory was that you just didn't gain any enlightenment at all until you were at the cap, but this was his weakest and least trusted theory.

Regardless, it was new data, so Lone was somewhat happy.

On the flip side, what he didn't expect, however, was how easily Hazel had killed her designated B-ranker. She showed no mercy nor cowardice, and immediately plunged her sword into the man's heart.

'I guess she's actually quite a lot like me, isn't she? I initially hesitated to kill a lot back in Milindo, but after the first time, it was as easy as killing a mindless monster. I chalked it up to me having endured Dad's abuse as well as my views for equality, but I have to question why Hazel is so unphased?' Lone wondered as he held Soph's hand and teleported to where Swind and Eolande were waiting.

It was certainly some food for thought. In fact, it was practically all he thought about as he oversaw their subjugation of the Mishkohns.

After three hours of repeatedly forcing the kids to fight a single Mishkohn as a team and then having them kill one upon ranking up, they finally finished the quest.

Hazel had become an impressive C-ranker, while Emma, Alisa, and George all became D-rankers with their levels all capped, joining Scott.

"Okay, great job, kids. No more questing for a while though. We need your bodies to get used to your new power. You, in particular, Hazel. You ranked up three times today. Another rank up in the next week or two will probably kill you," Lone said.

Hazel lowered her head as she tried to hide her big smile. 'He's so proud of me! His thoughts are so full of praise! I love this feeling! I need to work harder to become stronger! If ranking up is banned for now, then I need to practise my holy magic and swordsmanship!'

Eolande just groaned as she whispered, "Geniuses. All geniuses. Why am I the only otherworlder that needs a life-changing event to gain enlightenment?" to herself.