"Dante are your sure? Torab is the capital of the Sordan Kingdom and it's far grander than Winterlake city and it's filled with many opportunities! Even the headquarters of our mercenary company is there... At least take this, it's our invitation card."

Gordon tried to convince Dante for the umpteenth time but he knew that his offer would most likely be turned down, so he gave him an invitation card for the future.

The two got to know each other in the last three days and it could be said that they had become close friends.

"I really can't, I have some important business in Winterlake city that I can't delay anymore. I'll be sure to visit your headquarters when I go to Torab... Hehehe, you better be there when I visit."

The Caravan had already resupplied the day before and they were now ready to resume their journey.

Dante wanted to bid them farewell so he decided to delay his schedule a bit.

Theodore, the young merchant, even gave him a recommendation card for the merchant guild as a token of his appreciation, so that they would give him fair prices in the future.

Still, Dante felt it was a pity that they had to part ways as he had befriended many of them, but he still knew that he was only an abnormally stronger Lieutenant level.

In any organization, only those at the Commander Level and above could be said to call the shots!

After three days of rest Pan had already recovered a lot from his injuries thanks to his special slaughtering technique, but his lost arm would need at least three months to heal.

Seeing that everyone was ready Pan waved his hand towards the city walls before nodding in acknowledgement towards Dante. During those three days, even Pan thought that in the future Dante would become someone worth befriending.

In the end, true friendship could only be established between peers.

"Farewell, have a safe journey!"

"Have a good stay in Winterlake city and remember to visit us when you come to Torab!"

And just like that, the caravan departed.

Dante felt a bit empty, but after a few moments, he decided to burn those precious memories in his mind.

...

The day before Dante had explored the city with Drake and Joseph as the guides, the duo had visited the city several times and were already familiar with the city.

They had suggested him a good inn and gave him some information about the local powers and the nearby locations, so Dante only lost himself a couple of times as he looked for the inn.

Entering the nice looking inn, Dante looked for a plump middle-aged woman before saying.

"Good day! You should be the manager, can you arrange me a spacious room?"

He didn't know why but his voice was louder than normal and this brought a good scare to the manager.

She had been sweeping the floor quietly when that loud voice almost made her lose the broom in her hand, turning around she forced a smile as she politely greeted.

"Welcome customer, we only have three free rooms now and as luck would have it, one of them is a spacious room.

The price is three gold coins a day with all services included, for how long do you mean to stay?"

Initially, the woman wanted to cause some trouble to this newcomer but seeing how she couldn't phantom his cultivation she gave up on the idea.

Dante already knew the price thanks to the help of Drake and Joseph so he had already prepared the money.

"I will stay indefinitely, here is an advance for half a year's stay."

After saying that he pulled out 6 bills of a hundred gold each.

In the five continents, the lunar calendar was the most commonly used so all transactions were based on that.

The pupils of the manager almost turned into gold coins as she saw 600 gold coins taken out like that.

"Rich! I struck it rich! One of those young masters has come to my inn!"

The manager was really excited as she took the money and almost forgot to give the customer his change, six hundred gold coins were the amount of money they made in a good week!

Dante felt some heartache when he handed the money, but as he remembered the Life Cores in his spatial ring he quickly regained his calm, the price of a soldier level Life Core ranged from 30 to 40 gold coins with Lieutenant level ones being sold at prices which reached three digits.

Less than a week ago he only had on him no more than a thousand gold coins, but now everything was different.

The manager quickly handed him the key to his room, only now did Dante noticed that the manager was at the late stage Soldier level.

Dante was surprised but at the same time, he found it reasonable as a weak manager could be easily bullied.

Walking upstairs he quickly found his room and entered it, it was a neat room with a bed and some good furniture.

A window lit up the room, walking closer to it, Dante found out that it was actually reinforced with mana.

Had it been before he experienced Predation, Dante wouldn't have sensed anything from that window, but now his mana sensitivity was much higher than before.

Heading to the bathroom, Dante washed away all worries with a good shower.

He could have simply cleaned himself with the 2nd circle spell "Clean", but a spell couldn't beat a nice shower.

After drying himself and wearing some comfortable clothes, Dante lied on the bed and began thinking about the plan he had worked out.

"The most pressing matter right now is breaking through to the Commander level. The Assassin's Guild doesn't accept anyone under that level, I should sell some of my Life Cores to buy what I need for the breakthrough."

After reading the diary Dante understood the value of planning, without plans one would be like a leaf who doesn't know where it will land.

"Joseph told me about a secret cave which his grandpa found years ago, apparently it was the den of a terrifying Werebeast in the past. Even after the passage of countless years, no Werebeast dared to enter it even though it has extremely rich mana.

I had thought of entering the Death Mark to breakthrough, but this cave should do."

Even if he found a place to breakthrough, Dante still felt really vexed.

"By the time they are about to breakthrough to the Commander level other demons have long since done a complete research on their ancestors and already know their path, while I don't even know who are my real parents..."

Dante had been adopted when he was still a child because his biological parents had been killed, being adopted and with his biological parents dead... It could be said that Dante's path had long since been cut off.

For the Demon Race adoption was a taboo, the woman who took care of him also died after a few years due to an illness.

A flaming rage appeared in Dante's eyes but he quickly suppressed it as he knew it wouldn't give him a solution.

He knew it because he had experienced that same rage too many times.

"Our Demon race walks the path of bloodline manifestation, awakening the bloodline abilities of our ancestors we combine them in a brand new path which can lead us higher than ever...

Do I really have to randomly choose on my first awakening?"

Dante resigned himself to his fate, at the end he couldn't do anything about it.

He could only hope for some sort of miracle.