Transcendent.

It was a title given to those who had gone beyond the reach of humanity’s limit. Never in two hundred years had there ever been someone born to become one.

In the past, there was one person who managed to taste a bit of that power before perishing.

He was Prometheus, the Golden Sanctity Knight.

He had battled an evil god to defend humanity against the inevitable demise that awaited them. Their fight lasted days until both finally perished.

Although Prometheus managed to unlock a power beyond the current limit of humanity, he had died doing so. The price for obtaining such power exhausted his mortal body.

He had unlocked the legendary level 101.

Some might not think there was much of a difference between 100 and 101. However, to this world’s standards, it was like the difference between heaven and earth.

A level beyond the 9th star.

That was how the lore of Transcendent was described.

When the Guild master finished explaining to everyone, an uncomfortable silence ensued.

Everyone’s widened eyes was looking at Arnold—no, at Nova.

Said person shrunk back as multiple people’s eyes focused on him.

“Gyahahha! Don’t worry, kid. Although you’re far more talented than the average person here, your growth is the same. Nothing about this should change how others see you!” The Guild master slapped Arnold’s shoulder with a hearty laugh.

‘What the hell…No wonder this bastard becomes a troublesome foe for the hero.’

“W-Wow…sir Nova is amazing! He’s going to become as strong as the Great Nobles!” Lucri looked at Arnold in awe.

The same could be said for all the other adventurers. Their eyes were looking at him in a different light compared to before.

The Guild master bent down to whisper into Arnold’s ear.

“Rest assured. I will keep quiet and not tell your father…Arnold von Berkley.”

‘Shit. He can see through my disguise!’

Flord smirked before heading out of the Guild. He left saying: “Take care of the rest, everyone~!”

Arnold watched him leave the Guild with a heavy heart.

‘I didn’t expect this item to be so easy to see through. Well, being a 7-star warrior, of course he can see that it’s me.’

The magic item didn’t seem to be too strong against people who had a higher level than Arnold. Of course, he didn’t expect to run into anyone stronger than him.

‘I need to find a way to buy a stronger magic item.’

Arnold finally signed his name as part of the Raid Party. Lucri left to go greet Clint and his party members so it was only him listening to the receptionist going over the basics of adventuring.

Things like: if you want to increase you rank, capture bandits or do escort quests which paid higher than regular exterminations.

The receptionist spoke in a stutter: “T-Then, y-you are officially a member of the Adventurer’s Guild…”

She bowed politely and offered his identity plate. On the surface was carved “E”.

‘So I start out as an E ranker, huh?’

A wave of nostalgia waved over him as he remembered his days before joining Alecs’ Guild. He was a solo player who joined the Adventurer Guild right after reaching the level cap of the game.

Of course, he climbed the ranks within months since everything was easy for a level cap player like him. The only reason he even joined the Guild was because he was bored.

“I-If you would like to, I can assign you as a VIP for a small price. Ah, of course, there will be a discount!”

‘She’s still not done yet?’

Arnold sighed as he looked at the bashful receptionist. Her entire face was flushed red and she was fidgeting uncontrollably.

“No, thanks. I won’t be staying here for long anyway.”

“A-Ah…T-Then would you like to go to dinner—”

Arnold ignored the woman who was still talking to him and walked away.

He looked around and noticed that many of the female adventurers were looking at him with warm gazes. Some were less subtle than others. For example, there was one who bit her lip and winked at him.

Again, Arnold paid them no heed and quickened his pace out of the Guild.

**

Everyone had already exited the Guild and were being assigned teams outside on the street. Since it was too troublesome to remember all their names, Clint suggested they assign everyone a number.

Arnold looked intently at Sylphiala who was handing out flares to everyone.

‘Was she banished from her tribe or something?’ Arnold thought to himself as he looked at Sylphiala.

Unlike Dark Elves who were hated by every race and despised by the world, regular Elves usually stayed in their tribes until death. That was unless they became nomads and left their tribes.

‘Why does her ear look like that? Was she banished or something?'

There was a cut through Sylphiala’s right ear. Arnold didn’t see it before since her hair was in the way.

“You’re gawking at her a bit too much, kid.” A feminine voice came from beside Arnold.

It was the magic caster of Clint’s party, Lucia.

“Oh, um…” Arnold realized that he was making it too obvious and looked away from the Elf.

“What’s your name? I heard something quite interesting about you earlier.” She bit her lip and looked him up and down.

“I’m…Nova.”

“It sounds like an alias to me. But I guess there’s a reason why you’re hiding it, huh?” The woman smiled seductively. She pushed her chest out which was probably to show him her assets.

“Well….You’re right.” Arnold nodded his head.

“So it’s like your adventurer name, huh? Interesting. By the way, I haven’t seen you around here before.”

“I just began adventuring so this is my first day. I come from a village in the mountains.”

“A bumpkin, h~m?” Lucia circled around Arnold and put her hand on his arm. “You have such a cute face. What do you say to a night with me?”

She blew her warm breath into Arnold’s neck. Her breasts touched his arm.

‘This woman sure is bold. Is being a Transcendent that big a deal? I haven’t heard of it from the game. Maybe it’s something that only exists in the new world.’

He pushed her away gently by her shoulders.

“I apologize but I am on the path to becoming a swordsman. A woman will only distract my goals. Now if you would excuse me, I must go meet my party member before we depart.”

‘The only woman who can make my heart race is Victoria.’ Arnold thought to himself as those peaks of Venus appeared in his mind.

Not only beautiful, but she had a hot body as well. A body that not even a goddess could compare to.

He steeled his heart to make her fall for him.

Arnold heard an unpleasant click of the tongue from the woman as he walked away, however, he didn’t pay her any heed.

After looking around for a while, he found Lucri talking to Clint. The two seemed to be having a serious discussion so he didn’t interrupt them. He could hear bits and pieces of what they said.

‘Do they know each other?’

Judging by the fact that both of them were conversing with a friendly atmosphere around them, he thought that ought to be the case. Lucri was looking at Clint with sparkling eyes like a person who was meeting their idol.

He seemed to also enjoy conversing with Clint.

After what seemed like minutes of conversing, Clint bade Lucri farewell and headed towards his party members. The adventurers gathered around them since it was time to depart.

“You two seem to be having fun. How long have you been friends?” Arnold asked when Lucri arrived by his side.

“Ah, I used to be their porter several times in the past so we quickly became friends. He always gives me tips on adventuring and all the best spots to hunt.”

“Why didn’t you just join their party instead of searching for a teammate?”

To Arnold’s question, Lucri scratched his head. He said in a small voice:

“I’ll just slow them down…” He looked at the four members of Dead Hollows. “To us low ranking adventurers, they are like this city’s heroes. Although there are stronger parties in the empire, in this city, we see them as such.”

Heroes, huh.

Arnold understood what he meant. When one sees another who is more talented or powerful, one can’t help but see that person as a hero.

That was the example that the top ten Guilds in 《STAR FANTASY》 was as well.

Liam was part of a Guild known as the Misteltein Guild. It was named as such since the Guild Master wielded the legendary World Tree Sword, Misteltein which was a Star-class weapon.

It could split oceans in half, shatter entire cities and cut though space. It was a reality bending weapon which knew no equal.

Even the top Guild in the game, Lost Conquerors, feared to go against Alecs. They knew that no matter how many of them try and attack her, they’d always lose. Only the Guild Master could compete against her since he had a Star-class weapon as well. It was a sort of requirement for guild masters to have high grade weapons.

The top rankings were based on experience as a Guild(years they’ve been active) and the number of members. When Lufulur was recruited, Misteltein only had five members. They were the core of the Guild back then.

The fact that they rose to the number three spot was surprising in and of itself. They had a total of 10 Star-class artifacts while the number 2 Guild had 15. The top Guild had about 25. The 2nd best Guild had about 40 members while the top Guild had 100 active members.

‘And we only had 20 people. I’m kind of proud that we managed to get that far with so few members compared to the other top guilds.’

“We’re moving out!” Clint shouted atop his horse.

Everyone shouted in agreement. Arnold and Lucri nodded to each other and followed after the Raid Party.

**

In order to get to Whitage city, they had to circle around the Culb forest which was east from the north gate of Lockinge castle city. Past the forest would be a large horizon of endless grasslands. No Man’s Lands stretched beyond that.

That so-called no man’s Land was called the Undead Hills. That place was once a battlefield which meant that many people had died honorably. Although, their souls did not rest since they rose from the dead and became undead monsters.

An undead’s power depended on the hatred and other negative emotions towards the living they had within their vessel. It wasn’t rare for Liches and the like to spawn there.

Regarding the grasslands, slimes of various colors and species spawned every now and then. Sometimes there is a chance of a Higher Slime of appearing.

Although slimes were known to be experience points for new adventurers, this particular one had various other uses besides serving as Exp. Their bodies could be used to make a kind of paste that healed burning wounds or scars.

Extracting their liquids could also be used to make lower grade potions. Although the potions aren’t exactly high quality, they benefitted newbies who don’t have the capital to buy potions from any local temple. Temples were fairly expensive in their services in comparison to magic stores who make the potions.

However, the quality of the potions of the temples were much better. They don’t rot after a certain period of time and never lose their effectiveness unless exposed to extreme conditions.

If he had time, Arnold considered going to the land of the demihumans which was past the Great Ridge which served as a border to separate the four main races: Elves, Demihumans, Dwarves and humans. He wanted to collect the rare herbs that grew in the Forest of Tiliu and make the potions from Star Fantasy. That was the territory of the Wood Elves.

Arnold looked at the potions in his magic bag. They were an odd color and flowed like a thick paste. It would’ve been strange if he had high-grade potions so he only bought about low-grade. There were five in total.

“Oh. It’s changing color.”

Arnold poured the liquid of the Higher Slime. It was a gold paste that blended with the syrupy potion that he took out of his bag.

‘The effect should improve somewhat.’

He nodded in satisfaction. With this, the potion’s overall healing effects should increase a little.

“Oh? You know of this as well?”

A man’s voice came from behind Arnold as he was collecting the slimes he killed.

“Most rookies aren’t aware of how useful slimes actually are. Especially the Higher Slime. They only kill the slimes and leave them to die.”

Clint was the one who was standing there.

“Ah, party leader.”

“Nice to meet you. Your name is Nova, I believe? Lucri has been talking a lot about you with everyone.”

“Ha…ahaha…”

‘Where is that brat anyway? He keeps disappearing.’

“It’s a godsend that we have such a reliable member in this raid party. Protecting the lives of forty people is too much, even for me.” Clint looked around at everyone.

They had travelled about ten kilometers and were now resting in an open plain. The Empire could be seen to their backs.

“So you heard, huh…”

It was a blunder on his part for wanting to check his level so badly. Everyone now knew of how powerful he was.

‘Thank god I didn’t come as Arnold. If the nobles of the Empire were to find out, then they’ll do their utmost to eliminate me.’

He was already troublesome as he was now, how big a threat would he be if he were to become as strong as a Great Noble?

“It’s pretty amazing. You know, I look up to that great man called Prometheus. Now we have his descendant walking amongst us. I’d say it’s good fortune. As you can see, everyone is looking at you in admiration.” Clint gestured to the other adventurers.

Although they didn’t make it obvious, some kept glancing at Arnold.

However, not a single one approached him.

Was it fear? No, more like wariness.

‘They know how strong I am so they’re avoiding contact huh?’

As for the women, well, many seemed eager to speak with Arnold.

In this world, a strong man is much desired by females. He must be able to protect both them and their children in times of danger. The reassurance of a powerful man beside you was better than having a man with a pretty face with no power. Although, that didn’t apply to all women. Just the majority.

“Do you need something, party leader?” Arnold asked politely. Although he felt annoyed, that wasn’t a reason to chase him away.

“Ah, that.” Clint clapped his hands. “I was hoping you would be a vanguard in our raid party.”

‘I knew it.’

Before anyone even heard of his Transcendent blood, none of them approached him so brazenly. He had a handsome face, sure, but nothing else about him stood out.

He wore average clothes and had an average sword.

“I’m not confident in my skills to be a front-liner. My expertise lay in attacking multiple opponents at once.”

That wasn’t a lie. In the game, Arnold was known to be a One Man Army. Using his immense output of aura, he could fight thousands of people or monsters at once.

“No need to worry about that. I can guide you through the process. All you have to do is follow my commands.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. As I am the party leader, I must guide everyone. What do you say?”

Clint extended his hand. There was a big smile on his face.

“…Alright. As I am on a journey to perfect my swordsmanship, this might be my chance to test my strength.”

“That’s the spirit!”

Arnold and Clint shook hands.

“We’re moving out in ten minutes! Gather your things! We should arrive by tomorrow morning!”

Clint shouted after leaving Arnold’s side.

Arnold looked towards the Empire in the distance from the hill he sat on.

‘I wonder what's father doing...’