After walking for ten minutes, both Kai and Alex arrived at the town gates.
The entire town was surrounded by walls, and the only way to leave was through the two gates located at opposite ends of the town.
The entrance was packed with people. Some were preparing equipment, others were trying to form parties, some were making plans to hunt monsters, while others waited for their party members to arrive.
All in all, the town gate was bustling with activity.
"Hi, Marco, have you seen Luca? No? Okay, thanks."
As they arrived at the gate, Alex began asking around for a guy named Luca.
"I saw Luca a few moments ago when he was heading out with his party," soon they found a guy who had seen Luca leave.
"Thanks. Kai, let's hurry then."
Knowing that Luca had already left town, Alex urged Kai to pick up the pace.
As they both walked through the town gates, Kai looked around curiously. This was the first time he had ever set foot outside the town.
Just to be safe, he activated both his Gifts: [Clear Mind] and [Heightened Senses].
However, the thing he had always imagined didn't happen. No monster came out of nowhere to ambush him.
After leaving the town, Alex quickened his pace—he didn't want to lose track of Luca and his party.
As Alex sped up, Kai closely followed behind. Soon, they came across a party fighting a group of goblins.
Seeing this, Alex kept his distance. In the early days, most humans didn't die at the hands of monsters; instead, they died because of their fellow humans.
Since then, every experienced hunter knew that when encountering another person or party fighting monsters, it was best to keep your distance.
There were two reasons behind this. First, so the hunters fighting wouldn't get distracted and end up dying to the monsters. Second—and for the same basic reason—because no one could be sure of another's intentions when approached during a fight.
Soon, the battle ended. Many goblins had been killed, while a few managed to escape.
Seeing this, Alex, along with Kai, approached the group.
"Hi, guys. Where's Luca?" Alex asked Luca's party members.
"Luca? He's out scouting. We're trying to find the goblin tribe's location, so we had him hide and follow the ones we let go," the leader of Goblin Destroyers replied. They were working to locate the tribe and completely eradicate the goblins in the area.
"He'll be back in a while. But why are you looking for him?" the leader asked.
"My friend here is an Alchemist. Recently, he ran into a problem, and I think Luca's D-rank Gift [Ki Control] can help him," Alex said, introducing Kai and explaining the reason for their visit.
"Oh, then let's head to our usual meeting spot."
Knowing their purpose, the leader of Goblin Destroyers led his party—and the two visitors—to the rendezvous point.
By the time they arrived, Luca was already waiting.
"Did you find anything?" the leader asked as he approached Luca.
"Max, it's the same as always. This time, their gathering point was Tu Lake. But I noticed something unusual—there were only two goblin priests guarding the site instead of three," Luca reported.
Then, noticing Alex and Kai, he added,
"Oh, hi Alex. What are you doing here?"
"They're here looking for you. It seems the guy next to Alex is an Alchemist, and he needs your help with something," Max told Luca.
"An Alchemist? That's rare," Luca commented as he walked toward Alex and Kai.
"Luca, this is my friend Kai. He has some questions about your D-rank Gift [Ki Control]," Alex said, introducing Kai and explaining their purpose.
"Nice to meet you, Kai. So, what do you want to ask?" This wasn't the first time someone had approached Luca with questions about his Gift.
The descriptions of Gifts bestowed by the Heavens are very vague. Before selecting a talent, many people try to find someone who already possesses it to gain some hands-on experience and knowledge before choosing a Gift and undergoing the Heavenly Trial.
"Likewise. I need to mobilize my Ki outside my body to use a certain Alchemy skill. What I wanted to know is—can you do that?" After returning the greeting, Kai got straight to the point.
"You mean this?" As Luca spoke, a bright red energy appeared in the palm of his hand.
"Yes, this. Can you…" Seeing Luca's Ki appear outside his body without showing any signs of dissipating into the air, Kai's eyes lit up.
"Can you manipulate it?" Before Kai could even finish asking, Luca began demonstrating.
Before Kai's eyes, the ball of Ki in Luca's palm turned into a thread as thin as a human hair.
"I can basically do anything by mobilizing my Source Ki outside the body. However, once it moves beyond a one-foot radius from my body, it starts to dissipate," Luca explained. He demonstrated by shaping his Ki into a stone and then throwing it. As the stone moved one foot away from him, it began to disappear.
However, before the stone vanished, Luca stepped forward and caught it by turning his Ki into a thread and attaching it to the stone.
"There are a few things you should take note of. Using Ki inside the body and using it outside are completely different. Once you lose a portion of your Ki, you can never recover it. The only way to restore your Ki reserves is by hunting monsters and increasing your Ki again.
Aside from the ability to manipulate Ki outside the body—which comes with a huge downside—the other perks of the Gift are great," Luca began explaining the perks of the D-rank Gift [Ki Control].
"For example, Ki recovery. With the Gift [Ki Control], my Ki recovers ten times faster than others, and the best part is that it's passive. I can even recover Ki while in combat.
There's one more thing—although it isn't of much use to us hunters, it will be very useful for an Alchemist like you—and that is, the speed of Ki absorption is much faster."
Luca didn't hold anything back and told Kai everything about the D-rank Gift [Ki Control].