[Talent [Flame(D-)] upgraded to [Flame(D+). Trait [Adventurer] changed to [Rookie]
Along with two new soul orbs appearing in his inventory, it seemed his talent had somehow upgraded as well. He cast aside his questions about his new trait though as he was still in the midst of a battle. He could check these changes out later.
Unfortunately he hadn't received anything like that mysterious flame he obtained from the flaming lion. But he suspected those were rare enough already.
At the same time he concluded his battle with the two F+ rank beasts, a few of his stronger teammates had managed to slay their beasts too.
'Only one thing left for us to do now then!'
Naturally with no opponents left on the same rank as them, they went over and took care of the weaker F and F- rank beasts before dashing over to their team leader who had been holding the two E- rank beasts at bay this whole time.
They looked like two raccoons, but at the size of a human adult.
'Probably a beast couple.' Alex thought to himself. He wasn't too worried about facing these two beasts, as not only did he have Rowan, the E rank team leader to rely on, but his own strength was around average in the E- rank—if he used his Flame talent to his advantage he even had a chance to kill a relatively powerful E- rank beast in a one on one fight.
Of course the world was not fair or at all equal, so the strength and power people could exert at the same rank could vary largely.
The most common example of this is that someone with a Talent, even a weak one will almost always be stronger than someone without.
Alex, with his F+ tier soul core, had strength rivalling those at E- rank.
If any recruiters from the federation knew of his strength, they would probably think he was a prospective talent worth recruiting. If they knew of his Flame talent as well, they would think of him as a genius worth investing a lot of resources into.
So it was to be expected that when he entered the fight against the two E- rank raccoons, it was over very quickly. The other F+ and F ranks didn't even have a chance to contribute as Alex and Rowan completely dominated them in the fight, with Alex drawing the attention of one raccoon away from Rowan, releasing the pressure he had to defend from two different opponents at once.
With his E rank strength, Rowan's fight was over in less than a minute. While Alex had managed to deliver some serious injuries to the raccoon he was fighting, only sustaining some light injuries himself.
These raccoons were clearly some of the weaker E- rank beasts one could come across.
It had to be noted that Alex didn't even need to use his Flame talent during his fight. This raccoon was only a little stronger than the two F+ rank beasts he had killed just minutes earlier.
'Who knew hunting beasts could be so fun when your life isn't constantly at stake!'
Naturally Alex was having a much better time than all his other times fighting beasts during his time in the Primordial Expanse.
If he wanted to finish off the raccoon then he would have to utilise his Flame talent, but he didn't want to waste his energy as he knew that Rowan would come over and finish the job for him when he was done with his own.
And he did just that.
'Man it feels good when you don't have to constantly be wary of not only beasts, but your teammates too.'
With the pressure from the beasts and the barrier blocking entry into the city weighing down on all the humans outside the city, no matter their strength, there was little to no discord or infighting as everyone there had one common goal.
Kill all beasts!
'If only everyone could think this way during normal, peaceful times.' Alex sighed as he realised that this unity was only temporary, and everything would go back to normal when this beast tide was over and the B rank higher life form fight had been concluded.
'Ah whatever, that's something for future Alex to worry about. Right now our job isn't finished!'
The team may have just finished killing the small group of beasts that attacked them, with no casualties on their own side to boot, but there were still thousands more still alive and rushing towards them, giving them no time to recover.
"Follow me, this team looks like they are having a tough time!" Rowan, upon seeing how coordinated and powerful his team was, in particular how powerful Alex was, was reinvigorated and started to become more active in his role as their leader.
The team he pointed to consisted of 1 E- rank team leader 1 F+ rank and the rest being F rank weaklings.
The beasts besieging them were led by an E rank beast, with some F+ and F ranks making up the ranks. There were only 7 beasts compared to the 10 humans, but the rank disparity made up for that difference.
Beasts at D- rank and below had no intelligence or mind to call their own, so they just move towards the first living thing they see and prey upon them. So this team was just unlucky that these beasts saw them first.
"Me and Alex will help their leader deal with the E rank beast, while the rest of you go and kill those F+ rank weaklings and below!" Rowan knew everyone in his team's names but this was the first time he was addressing one of them by name.
It wasn't that he saw himself as above them out of arrogance or anything like that. It was just that this whole arrangement was just temporary and would all be over once the beast tide was dealt with. So he didn't see any worth in remembering the names of people he would never see again.
That was until he made an exception for Alex though.
'No one else may have noticed him use the flame element to kill those two beasts, but I did. I must recruit him to the university! Just thinking of the rewards I'll receive is already making me drool…'