Sirius was now a mercenary at the C grade, the second lowest, yet it was not that bad.
At the D rank, one only had to do boring tasks, like protecting a mundane person for weeks and weeks, stopping conflicts—nothing that interested Sirius.
At the C rank, one started to fight monsters and protect more important people. There were also kill missions, be it for criminals or influential beings that someone wanted dead. A lot of missions of that kind existed, yet Sirius didn't want to kill, so he wouldn't take them.
Still, the C rank was far from ideal—just minor monsters to kill or unimportant people to protect. Interesting missions started at the B rank onward.
After all, the Completion realm was the first where one started to be strong and respected. Self Vision martial artists were everywhere.
But to take B rank missions, one had to have at least B rank strength—meaning, as strong as a Completion realm martial artist. Sirius wasn't close to that.
While he could fight one stage above his current level, he wasn't confident at all that he had the power of an Early stage Completion martial artist while only being at the Peak of Self Vision. Major realm differences were too much.
Very few people were able to fight someone a whole major realm above them, and no one had ever won as an Echo of Resolve against a Crimson Step. The gap was simply too big.
Sirius walked toward the quest panel. A lot of people were here too, proudly wearing their rank crests. D grade mercenaries were getting bullied while B grade mercenaries were acclaimed.
No one here was above the B grade. It seemed A grade and higher didn't take quests from here—maybe from a higher floor, or a basement if one existed.
Quests were separated into four categories: killing people, killing monsters, protecting someone, or finding clues about someone we didn't have much information on. Mysterious deaths or odd temples were included in this last category, for example.
Sirius was not interested in protecting people nor killing humans, so he headed toward the monster-killing quests.
There were plenty of them. Sirius chose to look only at C grade ones—after all, B ones were inaccessible and D ones didn't exist.
There were currently six C rank quests involving monsters:
One was about killing a king bee who had killed several people in the south of the country. She was at the Late stage in terms of power and had a swarm of novice-level bees under her command.
A giant bison was located in the southwest. He was at the Peak stage and slowly approaching the city.
In the east, two mid-stage centaurs had destroyed a village while the local Completion realm martial artist was away.
In the northwest, plenty of lizardmen were destroying forests and rivers. They all seemed to be at the Low stage.
In the west, a T-rex was rampaging through roads after humans killed its children. It was at the Late stage.
And in the southeast, a unicorn had appeared. She wasn't doing anything dangerous for now, but she was at the Peak stage.
Sirius didn't want to move too far, so he wouldn't choose any quest too far from the south of the city. And he couldn't kill anything at the Peak stage alone, so he was going to choose the bee quest.
But someone called out to him.
"Hey, young man, do you want to join us? We're going to kill the bison, and it'd be helpful to have one more person with us!"
Sirius turned around and looked at the man. He was a well-built man in his late twenties, with long black moustache and dark hair. He was tall—around two meters—and carried a large sword and shield.
There were three people behind him as well—one man and two women. The man was blond with sapphire eyes, wielding a double axe, and two daggers slightly hidden in his hanfu.
The first woman was rather small, with ash-grey hair and emerald eyes. She carried a long spear and a crossbow. Arrows were probably hidden in her clothes.
The last woman was tall, around one meter eighty-five, with slightly dark brown hair. Her eyes were hidden by a headband, and she wielded a long Zhanmadao.
The well-built man continued.
"What stage are you? We're all at the Late stage here."
"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Corin."
"Sirius."
Sirius then showed his mercenary crest: Mid stage, but with Late stage power.
Corin nodded.
"Perfect. You're strong enough. Do you want to come with us?"
"Why not? I was aiming for the bee because I was alone, but the bison's a possibility too."
"What's your weapon?"
"A long Hendirun saber."
"Perfect. Then come with us. We're going to kill him now… unless you have something else to do?"
"No, it's fine. I'm following you."
Corin jumped onto the nearest rooftop. The other three followed, and so did Sirius. They began running toward the south gate of the city.
"How many miles away is the bison?"
"Around fifty past the gate."
The ash-haired woman started to talk to Sirius, visibly curious.
"How can you have the power of a stage above yours? I always thought the strength shown on the crest was useless since everyone had the same strength at their stage."
"The will is the most important thing, from what I've experienced. If you have the will to cut something, you'll be able to do it—as long as it's not too far above your actual power."
"And is that will also the reason why you can keep up with us so easily, even while we're at our fastest?"
"I'm just fast."
The woman laughed.
"My name is Rosie. His name is Charle, and her name is Zoe. Good to have you with us, boys."
"I'm glad to be with you too, elder."
Sirius smiled at his own answer. He loved joking.
They ran at around forty-five to fifty kilometers per hour, which was the normal speed for a Late stage martial artist on a short run. At their best, they could reach at least eighty kilometers per hour.
The limit of the Self Vision realm seemed to be around one hundred kilometers per hour—whether running or swinging a weapon. Zoe said that most Late and Peak stage Self Vision martial artists were around eighty-five to ninety. Some were at ninety-five or even one hundred, but almost no one was faster.
Completion realm martial artists, on the other hand, surpassed those limits easily.
Sirius, who had quickly found a group, was now about to attempt his first quest.