Renji Takahashi had spent the last month completing missions.
He only participated in two missions during that time, but each one took nearly two weeks to complete.
Both missions required collaboration with other teams—or even groups from different cities—to surround and eliminate rebel factions.
Compared to monsters, rebels posed an even greater threat to the city. Although they weren't as powerful, they were far more dangerous.
That's because these rebels, often expelled from or voluntarily defecting from academies, were intimately familiar with the internal structure of both the cities and the academies.
If they chose to sell information to monsters, the monsters could launch highly targeted attacks, exploiting city weaknesses. There had been cases in history where one traitor's betrayal led to an entire city being overrun by monsters.
As a result, academies across the country took an uncompromising stance against rebels—especially those who knew sensitive information. They would never allow such individuals to ally with monster forces.
Over the past month, Renji cooperated with multiple nearby academies and helped subdue over a dozen rebels.
During these operations, he purposely kept his powers under wraps. Most of the time, he mimicked the abilities of others instead.
As the whereabouts of the Burning Fire Clan still hadn't been uncovered, he remained cautious.
Because of this strategy, Renji earned a new nickname—"Master of Mimicry"—which began to spread across several cities.
Many now knew that Azure Dragon Academy had a new enforcer codenamed "Blood Moon," a mimic-type wielder who could copy supernatural abilities.
These two missions had rewarded Renji with six mid-grade spirit stones and twenty Tier 3 low-grade demon cores.
He stored the spirit stones for future use and converted the demon cores into 6,000 energy points. Combined with his remaining 1,030 points, he now had a total of 7,030.
Renji originally considered spending some of his spirit stones to push toward 8,000 points in order to exchange for an advanced ability like Kamui.
But then he noticed that the contract with the mysterious shop was due to expire in half a month.
So he waited.
A new cycle of mysterious shop items soon rolled out. Renji spent 500 points to unlock it—and was offered just a 10% discount.
A mere 10% off!
The prices were all still over ten thousand. He couldn't afford anything even if he squeezed out every last point.
Rather than making an impulsive purchase, he decided to wait for a deeper discount.
"You've got to be patient if you want to achieve something great," he muttered to himself.
"New mission! All hands, assemble!"
Captain Kanji clapped his hands, stirring everyone in the lounge.
"What's the task this time?" asked Black Serpent as he got up first.
"Are we joining another academy for an assassination operation?" said Huang Rō (Japanese for Huang Lang).
"This time, we're not working with outsiders," Kanji said as he unfolded a map and pinned it to the wall. "We'll be backing up one of our squads."
He pointed at a location east of Azure City. "About 25 miles out, in the ruins of what's left of Shattered Rock City, two of our academy's teams have discovered potential traces of the Burning Fire Clan. The higher-ups want us to reinforce them."
The moment those two words—Burning Fire Clan—were mentioned, Renji's drowsiness vanished instantly.
He hadn't heard anything about them since the events in the City of Sin. Now, they were reappearing.
"The Burning Fire Clan again?" asked Red Wind.
Everyone looked toward Renji.
Apart from Renji and Yuna Hoshizaki, no one else at the academy had clashed with the Burning Fire Clan as often.
"I thought we wiped them out back in the City of Sin," muttered Black Serpent. "Why are they showing up again?"
"No more questions," Kanji said. "Everyone, gear up. We roll out in one minute."
"Yes, Captain!"
Exactly one minute later, the team gathered outside and loaded into Kanji's custom wooden transport cart—now their official mission vehicle.
"According to intel," Kanji warned while driving, "the Burning Fire Clan members spotted this time are stronger than the ones we encountered at the City of Sin. Stay sharp."
Then he turned to Renji. "Blood Moon, if you sense you're being specifically targeted, don't hesitate to retreat and regroup."
They already knew from previous intel that the Burning Fire Clan had specifically marked Renji and Yuna as key targets.
"Don't worry, Captain," Renji replied quietly. "If they've come for me… then I'll make sure they regret it."
After all, this was the same group that had twice tried to kill him. He had long since decided they were enemies who had to be erased.
If he didn't eliminate them, they'd continue to threaten him from the shadows.
Now that he had grown stronger, Renji intended to meet them head-on—and finally uncover the true identity of their mysterious leader.
Rubble Ruins — formerly Shattered Rock City
The ruins were once known as Shattered Rock City, a bustling hub for iron mining and weapon forging before the collapse of the Holy Empire.
After the empire's fall, the city was abandoned, but the surrounding mountains remained rich in iron ore.
Now, major cities still relied on these ruins as a source of weapon-grade ore.
That day, Azure Dragon Academy had dispatched two squads to assist with mining efforts.
One team, led by Shun Hayashi and Honoka, included four freshmen and four members from the executive division.
The other team was led by Yuna Hoshizaki, also composed of four freshmen and four executive agents.
"I still can't believe Renji joined the executive division," Honoka said to Yuna while swinging a pickaxe. "Now it's just you left from our group."
"I'll be joining soon," Yuna said without hesitation. "Once I meet the requirements."
"You've got clear goals. Unlike Shun Hayashi and me—we just wanna slack off," Honoka giggled and stuck out her tongue.
Shun Hayashi chuckled, agreeing with her assessment.
Together, the group mined the iron ore and stored it in their spatial rings.
Suddenly—
The mountain trembled violently.
Cracks split through the rocky slope, and with a loud rumble—
BOOM!
A massive silver pangolin burst out from the mountain.
A Tier 4, low-level Rampaging Pangolin!
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