The Discarded Son's Skill Market

Gulp! Zaid swallowed several times over the course of about 30 minutes, during which he turned over and over, wondering what to do...

Thanks to his keen senses, he could tell when Alice and the others had fallen asleep.

This was his chance.

He got up and slipped out of the tent as quietly as possible; Khan and Martin weren’t nearby, so he was able to sneak quickly into the fortress.

’I remember that the exit from the fortress was guarded, but getting out through the walls is impossible with all those security measures in place. It would be easier to try to distract whoever is watching the gate,’ he thought as he took a few steps out of the tent and walked away from it.

As he crossed a hallway, he quickly hid when he noticed two figures nearby, talking on the other side.

’Martin and Khan.’ He tried to listen carefully...

"Mr. Khan, Lawrence’s door is always open to you. The same goes for the guild. If you’re so concerned about the current situation regarding the order’s advance, why not join us—the leading defenders of this country?"

Martin seemed to be trying to convince Khan, but Khan still shook his head.

"The Lawrences have only two, Martin. It’s you and the Lord. How do you think I’d join you? The Zacharys also covet my power. They have the upper hand, and they have Lord Roger."

"Roger’s a good guy." Martin shrugged. "No one can deny that the Zacharys are our main force. But Lawrence can offer you a status and power that Zachary can’t."

"I know. In Zachary, I’d just be another subordinate."

Martin nodded. "And in Lawrence, you’d be third in line. You’ll be able to carry on the family name. You have a strong bloodline."

"Even so, I won’t do it. I am Khan the mercenary, Young Lord Martin. Lawrence, Zachary, and Larsen aren’t worthy of me."

"Tsk, so you’re still holding a grudge." Martin gave an annoyed grimace.

Khan simply shrugged.

"Then join us in the guild. There are many families here—you get along with some of them, don’t you?"

"When they get a new leader, then we can talk about it," he replied immediately.

"You’re asking for too much... You know the army can’t give you anything, right?"

"I’m not asking for much, honestly."

"Whatever you’re looking for, Celestial Lance can give you plenty of it."

"What part of ’I’m not looking for much’ don’t you get?" Khan laughed mockingly.

Martin let out a long sigh. "You’re such a bad negotiator."

Khan burst out laughing. "Why are you so set on a measly Rank B? You guys have plenty like me."

"Don’t you know that I know you’re a Rank B because you started leveling up late, Mr. Khan? You’re not like the others," Martin said, and just then he saw someone running down the hallway.

Carl. He was heading toward them.

Martin lowered his voice. "If you’d started earlier, who knows if Khan would be the youngest A-Rank to date?" He laughed, turned around, and walked away before Carl reached them.

Khan watched him walk away thoughtfully.

Carl approached him. "Anything new?"

"Same, same," Khan replied...

Zaid watched the exchange carefully. He found the information strange... but somehow valuable.

Lawrence is a large family, isn’t it? Why do they say it only has two members? And that animosity between Khan and the big families...

Zaid shook his head quickly when he realized he’d wasted too much time. However, seeing that Carl was here gave him an important opportunity to leave the fortress and circle around it.

He immediately ran through the well-lit hallways, seeking out the darkest areas, and then stepped out into the courtyard. He noticed that the gate was guarded, but only by security mechanisms. Carl wasn’t at his post; it must have been someone else’s turn.

He wasn’t there.

’Did he go to the bathroom?’

He’d hit the nail on the head. He looked out at the courtyard, and his gaze wandered over to the bathroom. He noticed someone coming out.

It was probably the guard in charge of watching the door—a Rank B.

He didn’t think twice before quickly slipping toward the door. He was wearing a black cloak that blended in perfectly with the night, and with his powerful S-Rank senses, he made his way through the door, avoiding the security mechanisms that an ordinary beast would never have been able to evade.

A strong, cold breeze hit him, but he didn’t have time to enjoy it. He leaped to the side and hid behind the fortress wall.

"Hm?" The guard frowned.

He thought he’d seen and felt something a moment earlier...

He drew his sword and held it in front of his chest. Was some beast trying to sneak in again?

It was strange, but not impossible.

However, as he stepped outside, he felt the sharp sting of a cold breeze coming from the depths of the nearby forests. He could almost feel the breath of the beasts, which, though they did not dare attack the fortress, were waiting for a misstep to tear apart the first one to make a mistake.

The guard took a deep breath and turned to return to his post. He must have seen a leaf from a tree...

Zaid, who was leaning against the wall, breathed a sigh of relief. Although he could sense the danger in the nearby forests, he wouldn’t back down. He didn’t intend to go too deep; it was enough to see the Rank C beasts they had killed before.

He didn’t intend to kill himself over a few ME; he knew his limits.

He ran along the base of the wall and reached the designated area in a few minutes. He recognized it immediately because right in front of him, where the forest began, there were a few beast carcasses... being consumed by the fire.

By the time he arrived, 45 minutes had passed since those things had died, and the fire had already consumed so much of the body that there wasn’t even a trace left to obtain the remaining ME.

He frowned, but made a quick decision when he saw that there were no beasts nearby: he approached, passed through the first few trees, and the dense, humid forest swallowed him up.

’Valia, I’m going to need your help,’ he called out to her.

With the fire raging all around him, he hid among the trees as he waited for Valia’s reply. His senses were on high alert.

...Seconds later, Valia replied.

’Where are you?’ she asked.

’Go out and move carefully among the trees. I need you to keep a close watch on the surroundings using your senses.’ Zaid replied immediately in a whisper. As soon as he finished, he had to jump onto one of the nearby trees for cover, as he noticed movement.

In front of him lay a few corpses of Rank C beasts. Normally, this would have been a cause for celebration, but those beasts weren’t alone.

’Shit... there are hundreds of them.’ Zaid swallowed hard.

There were hundreds of giant scavenger ants devouring each of the beasts!

At the very end lay the enormous body of a Rank B beast, but it was swarming with over 200 scavenger ants.

’You... where did you go?’ Valia asked, feeling fear run down her spine the moment she sensed the breath of powerful beasts hiding in this place.

’I went out hunting for a bit... Look, they’re all Rank D.’

’I know that, you idiot!’ Valia hid behind the tree as well. ’More than 400 Rank D scavengers... this must be one of those big forests...’

RUMBLE!

RUMBLE!

A strong tremor suddenly shook the ground.

Zaid felt his heart leap into his throat as he looked into the depths of the forest... The sound of trees parting and logs snapping under powerful footsteps left him completely stunned.

What on earth was coming toward them?

’Run away from here! T-t-that’s at least Rank A!’ Valia exclaimed, trying to pull Zaid away, but he managed to slip away before she could react... and he wasn’t running away!

In fact, Zaid leaped into the trees in front of him because he noticed that the scavengers had started running the moment they felt that tremor. He sensed the danger too—it wasn’t as if he lacked a sense of self-preservation.

His body and mind were screaming at him to run, but there were two Rank C beasts very close to him that had been left completely alone.

He could only convince himself...

’No risk, no glory!’

Even if those were just words he told himself whenever he was about to do something stupid, they were the only thing that gave him the willpower to approach.

He was sure that, in the eyes of the fleeing scavengers, he had become a madman, a suicide, or something like that.

In fact, as far as Valia was concerned, it was.

She started yelling at him, but he didn’t hear her.

In a matter of seconds, he reached the two bodies of those C-Rank beasts...

+2,000 ME were instantly added to his already substantial ME total.

It wasn’t 10,000 yet, but he was getting dangerously close.

RUMBLE!

The sound was no longer faint, and the tremors were growing more intense. Clearly, this enormous beast was coming to feed... Perhaps it was after that Rank B corpse nearby, but it would certainly devour these ones here as well.

He needed to get out of there as soon as possible.

Just when he thought his journey wouldn’t bring him the reward he wanted, a new system message appeared before his eyes.

[The Scavenger is hungry...]

[The Scavenger has found prey to eat.]

[Do you want to feed the Scavenger?]

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!