In a lush forest with tall trees around, the white sun is shining through the leaves giving it quite the beautiful view. Surrounded by the trees, a dark-haired teenage boy is sitting in meditation. In front of him is a corpse of a silver-furred wolf that is slowly melting into its surrounding. After around 20 minutes in meditation, Alex Volff opens his eyes with a sharp glint while the corners of his mouth arcing up a bit showing a slight smile.

This is his 10th prey for today and he has only been hunting for around 6 hours. It has been much quicker than the day before. This last one though has been particularly dangerous. That last Forest Wolf seems to be more intelligent and a bit bigger than his earlier opponents although they are still described as F* ranked. It was able to use its paws to cause trouble for Alex. He was even scratched on his left hand one time, but thankfully his {Beginner Leather Shirt} managed to hold up against the wolf's sharp nails. But, there is also the improvement to his {Energy Manipulation} skill that makes him happy. He's now more familiar with his spiritual control and in turns he's able to control more of his Mana to flow back to his dantian after every use of the mana-enhanced state. He's now able to retain 20-25% of his Mana that caused his resting time between each hunt to be reduced.

As Alex is getting ready to find another prey, he starts hearing sounds of battle originating not far from his current place. Actually, this is not the first time for him to hear sounds of battle as it has occurred a few times. He has even seen other Defenders battling the Forest Wolf from afar a couple times. Likewise, other Defenders have also spotted him. But, in this place nobody bothers to interfere with other Defenders, because their current focus at this stage is to gather as many credits as possible.

But, this time the sounds are a little different. It's far more intense the the usual battling sounds he hears in this forest. Getting a bit curious, Alex Volff starts moving carefully towards the source of those sounds. As he moves closer to the sound, he can see the battle up ahead. Around 30-40 meters in front of him a girl is battling two Fores Wolves. One of the wolf is a bit bigger than the normal Forest Wolves.

As Alex moves closer to the battle he can see more clearly. The girl looks to be the same age as him, which is quite surprising as there are few Defenders their age. She doesn't seem to be in a good state. Some strands of her long black hair have escaped her ponytail and looks disheveled, her face which still looks pretty cute is covered with dirt, and her clothes were torn and showing some blood on her left upper hand and her right thigh. She is struggling to dodge the attacks from those two wolves. As she dodges, she can see his figure not far from him. She flashes a smile and starts running towards his direction. Alex tensed up when he sees this.

He takes a battling pose and shouted, "what do you want?"

"You're the one coming here," replies the girl coldly.

"Help me take care of the smaller one and I will remember your favor," the girl continues, still with her cold demeanor.

Her cold tones makes him wants to argue with her, but he realizes that she's right. He's the one sticking his nose in here. Meanwhile, the girl manages to arrive a few meters beside him to his left. Both are still wary of each other, but they have no time to worry about it because the wolves starts moving in their direction after noticing his presence. The bigger one starts rushing to Alex's direction as it seems like the wolves has different ideas than the two young Defenders. The bigger wolf must have felt that Alex is a bigger threat than the injured girl, so its instinct tells it to take care of him first.

Alex gets ready to tangle with the bigger Forest Wolf. At the same time, the girl starts chanting some strange words. Alex isn't surprised by this as he already knew that this is the normal way people use skills. His {Energy Manipulation} is an anomaly in the first place. That's also why it's almost impossible for other Defenders to learn it.

Meanwhile, the wolves arrives in front of them. The smaller one starts opening its mouth trying to bite the girl while the bigger one makes a diagonal swiping motion with its front left leg at Alex. The girl manages to dodge beautifully while still maintaining her chants. On the other side, Alex makes a sidestep to his right and swings his wooden sword at the wolf's spine. Alex starts battling the bigger wolf using his usual method while being extra careful of its varied attacking patterns.

On the other side, the girl dodges the wolf's charge once again while still chanting. After missing its second charge, the wolf turns around ready to charge again. At this time, the girl stops her chanting after exactly 10 seconds has passed since she started chanting. A marble-sized fireball starts appearing in the air above her right palm. She dodges the wolf's third charge and throws the fireball at its body. A small explosion occurs as the fireball hits the smaller Forest Wolf's body. It flinches and lets out a painful howl while getting pushed back a little by the explosion. It seems to feel the injury as its movement starts to seem a bit sluggish.

Alex who witnesses this while battling the other wolf is a little surprised and envious at the skill's power. While {Energy Manipulation} is a great skill, it's much cooler to throw a fireball, besides that skill doesn't seem to exhaust her mentally after each use. Although, the mental exhaustion from the {Energy Manipulation} seems to be gradually reduced as he gets more proficient with the skill.

After using the fireball skill, the girl pulls out her wooden sword and starts battling wolf the same way as Alex. She's also looking for a chance to finish it off. After around 10 minutes of battling, Alex manages to kill his opponent by using his mana-enhanced state. He turns to see the other battle and can see that the girl is in more advantageous position. He still maintains an alert state but doesn't interfere with her battle. Interfering with other battles without the proper teamwork can have a negative effect instead of helping. After another minute has passed, the girl manages to kill her opponent by using another fireball thrown into its open mouth. She takes a brief moment to gather herself and faces Alex.