"Thank you for your help, and I'm sorry for my rudeness earlier," the girl bows her head slightly and thank Alex using a more polite tone compared to before.

Flustered with the sudden change of attitude, Alex replies briefly, "ah, it's okay."

The girl smiles at him charmingly. It seems like her cold attitude earlier was due to her wariness of him. With him helping her dealing with the Forest Wolves she now has a bit more trust in him, although the wariness doesn't disappear completely. It's dangerous to completely trust a stranger in this Realm that is filled with the threat of death.

"My name is Ichiko Kagawa. May I know your name?" she introduces herself.

"Ah, my name is Alex Volff," Alex replies.

"Do you mind if we link our [Magic Chips] so I can contact you in the future?" Ichiko makes a sudden unexpected request.

Alex as an inexperienced 15 years old teenager wears a flustered expression and don't know how to reply as this cute girl says she wants to contact him in the future.

"As I said earlier I owe you a favor for helping me deal with one of the Forest Wolf. I want to be able to contact you in the future to return this favor," Ichiko explains further.

"Oh, okay then," Alex replies with a brief disappointed expression on his face.

Ichiko Kagawa then extends her right hand. Alex grabs her hand and both of them starts linking their respective [Magic Chips]. The process takes around 5 seconds to complete. Alex was nervous for this brief 5 seconds because this is the longest he has held a the hand of a female other than his mother and sister. He has been training hard for the last 5 years so he has had minimal contact with other people. He only has a couple close male friends from school and generally didn't socialize with his female classmates.

After that, both youngsters starts resting to get back to their peak condition. Alex was surprised to see Ichiko pulls out a small vial filled with red liquid. It is a {Health Potion} that could be used to heal physical injuries and restore stamina in minutes. It costs 50 credits to buy one vial of this potion. Beginners usually don't spend their credits on this as credits are hard to come by at this stage.

She opens the vial and drinks its content, then sits down to rest. Alex then starts sitting down and rest. He doesn't meditate and train this time as he doesn't want to leave any opening even though he slightly trust this girl. After 20 minutes of resting, Ichiko Kagawa gets up and says her goodbye. Alex continues resting without meditating for another 1-2 minutes. After that he walks in the opposite direction of where Ichiko Kagawa went.

....

After separating from Ichiko Kagawa, Alex starts looking for the next Forest Wolf. He finds another Forest Wolf similar to the one he just faced. It seems like as he ventures deeper into the forest, the wolves that comes out becomes stronger even though they are still described as F-rank 1-star. Alex spends the rest of the day hunting. He manages to kill a total of 20 Forest Wolves today, a significant improvement on the 13 wolves he killed the day before. By now he has gathered 66 credits. It's enough to buy the a return stone, but Alex decides against returning home for now.

Alex has another mission in mind, he needs to kill 50 Forest Wolves by tomorrow to rank-up. His basic stats is enough to rank-up to F-rank 2-stars, but according to the information provided by the UDA he lacks kill count. He needs to kill 50 F*-ranked creatures or 25 F**-ranked creatures to rank-up. Right now he has killed a total of 33 F*-ranked Forest Wolves. He needs another 17 to rank-up. Ranking up has its own advantage. By raising his rank from F* to F** he will be awarded 50 credits and another {Evolution Potion}.

The average new Defenders takes around 20-30 days to up their rank from F* to F**. Alex is about to rank-up in 9 days, and he spends the first 6 days training, while other Defenders usually only spend 2-3 days learning their skills. Alex is progressing at an unbelievable pace thanks to his high basic stats, his top battle sense, and the {Energy Manipulation} skill. A lot of other Defenders also didn't meet the basic stats requirement even if they have killed enough creatures. They need to save enough credits to buy the expensive {Evolution Potion} to raise their stats once more so they can rank-up. The {Evolution Potion} sells for 500 credits at the store, but it can be bought outside for 450 credits.

Alex walks back to Beginner Town while thinking all this thoughts. He immediately goes to his personal space. He eats dinner and trains for a bit before resting. The next day, he goes out again and starts looking for Forest Wolves. This time he tries to venture deeper into the forest. The Forest Wolves gets stronger as he heads deeper, but this is also a form of training for him. He needs to challenge stronger opponents as he gets stronger. After killing the 17th Forest Wolf for the day, he hears the voice he's been waiting for.

"Congratulations, Alex Volff. You have ranked-up to F-rank 2-stars Defender. You have been awarded 50 credits and one {Evolution Potion (F-ranked)}," Fay's voice sounds in his head.

Alex keeps hunting 5 more Forest Wolves that day before stopping his hunt. He uses [Observe] to check his own information.

>-----Name: Alex Volff

Age: 15

Race: Human

Rank: F**

Credits: 160

>-----Basic Stats:

- Strength: 28

- Speed: 26

- Agility: 27

- Endurance: 30

- Spirit: 42

- Mana: 45/45

>-----Skills:

- Energy Manipulation (F)

>-----Kill Count: [55 F*]

Achievements: 0

Records: 0

>-----

He has accomplished his objective. He now needs to head back home as he doesn't want to make his family worry for him.