Another World Mall

"Alright. Seven super injections in total: three for Mr. Clovis and two for Mr. Jay and Miss Kanaria. We will prepare for the super injections tomorrow morning at nine. Please come thirty minutes before that."

"Thank you." Clovis nodded with a serious expression.

The manager who handled the super injections gave him seven digital certificates and sent them to Clovis. "Once you arrive tomorrow, you can immediately head to this room and just show these certificates. They will guide you to the room for the super injections."

"Understood."

Clovis and the manager shook their hands as the manager led Clovis out.

When they reached the main lobby, Kanaria couldn't help but say, "By the way, Clovis. We have something to do after this. Can you sell all our portions? Just send the money tomorrow. We'll be evolving to Tier 1 Explorer soon, so we will buy the essence that will be required for our evolution."

"Alright." Clovis nodded in understanding. "I will also check about the beast soul."

"Yep. We'll be off then. See you tomorrow." Kanaria waved her hand before dragging Jay out.

Clovis tilted his head in confusion, not knowing what they were planning to do.

Since they were done, he immediately went to the receptionist to handle the essence.

Clovis looked at his evolution progress before making his decision.

Name: Clovis Hacfield

Tier: 0

Evolution Rate: 15%

Brain: 17.1%

Heart: 16.9%

Blood: 19.3%

Muscle: 30.4%

Bones: 18.2%

'With three super injections, all of these attributes will increase by 60%, with the highest being my muscle with over 90% evolution progress.

'Since Kanaria and Jay handed over their portion for me to sell, I could probably register the money in the Another World Mall first. If that's the case, I might not need to sell as much as I originally intended.

'This way, I could reach a certain level with my muscle progress, which should be close to 100%. The rest should also be above 80% after this. Tonight, I can also increase another 24% through the Another World Mall. No, with all that money, I could probably increase the purchase limit.

'In that case, should I just be satisfied with only sixty thousand… No, I will just sell everything up to seventy thousand. This should be enough to last for a while. And with this, I should be able to evolve to Tier 1 Explorer the day after tomorrow, hopefully.'

With this thought in mind, Clovis began taking out the essence he wanted to sell to the receptionist. Unlike Jay and Kanaria, he didn't have to buy specific beast essences to match his progress since the Another World Mall has a lot of priority.

Then again, it would be weird if they found Clovis being able to become a Tier 1 Explorer just one day after them. They would definitely question him.

Clovis was wondering what kind of thing he should say and how he should utilize the Hacfield family to his advantage.

Ultimately, he planned to share what he could get from the Another World Mall with his teammates so that the entire group would grow along with him.

It would definitely slow down his progress a bit, but they could definitely help him a lot more if they became stronger.

Hence, Clovis had to prepare a few things.

…

Meanwhile, Vina had gone back to the hotel, as she couldn't help but remember what Clovis said to her.

"You are strong. From your reaction alone, I know that you have the ability to keep up with us. However, being strong doesn't mean that you suit our group. It's as simple as that."

Vina couldn't help but grit her teeth. She was mostly silent whenever she went outside, but the moment she returned to her room, she couldn't help but release all her frustration.

"What do you mean that I'm not suitable for your group? Am I truly strong enough? It's clear that I can't do much, let alone kill a Tier 2 snake.

"This was because of Ivan. What did even Master see in him? Was it simply because he had a 99% evolution rate? While he was talented at learning all kinds of techniques, it didn't change the fact that he was too rash.

"Even when I tried to suggest something, he didn't even bother to listen and kept doing rash things. He was lucky most of the time, but that luck would run out sooner or later."

Vina slammed her fists on the bed a few times, releasing her frustration.

Vina couldn't help but recall how Clovis behaved most of the time. While Kanaria was the one in charge of that bet, it didn't change the fact that Clovis trusted his people and would listen to them. When necessary, he would be the one leading them and making the decision.

That was what differentiated between a genius and a leader. Clovis was a born leader, while Ivan was a born genius. The genius might reach the peak, but they would end up becoming someone's subordinate without a good quality as a leader.

Vina couldn't help but look at the bed before muttering, "I wonder what kind of man this Clovis is? Then again, what can I do now? I can't even go out because of that stupid bet."

Despite having the ability to ignore that bet, Vina never thought about it as if that way of thinking had been ingrained in her.

"Whatever. I'm going to stay here for two weeks. In the meantime, I am going to see what kind of surprise they could bring. I might have to ask my master to reconsider her judgment."

…

Unlike Vina, this pair of childhood friends was actually in a happy mood.

"How's that? I think he will be selling a little of his portion. If this works, what do you think about continuing this way?" Kanaria asked.

"If this does work, then I don't mind. We just have to find one excuse after another." Jay nodded in agreement. "But won't he be angry if he finds out about this?"

"I'm thinking about doing this a few more times before breaking the news. Getting angry is understandable, and I will take full responsibility for it. After all, this is my plan."

"Hmm…" Jay thought for a moment. "I am not sure. It's just that whenever he talks about his evolution rate, he doesn't seem to care. It's not that he doesn't know what a low evolution rate means. It's like he seems to have a way to get stronger fast."

"What do you mean?"

"During the competition, I could finally see him from afar, observing his improvement. And I could see that he had gotten stronger much faster than I originally thought. You said that he often sold a lot of his essence, right?"

"Yeah." Kanaria nodded while furrowing her eyebrows.

"In that case, how is he able to become that strong? The progress is simply too much, to the point that I believe his evolution attributes are much higher than what I originally saw."

"Do you mean he has a way to hide his evolution attributes?"

"Probably." Jay closed his eyes for a moment. "Or maybe his evolution is much higher than what we know."

"Huh? Are you serious? Then again, if that's true, how high is his evolution rate? But the evolution rate is controlled by the chip." Kanaria fell into deep thought, remembering one thing. "His family?"

"I believe they are related to this. His grandfather is one of the top explorers in the world. Even his parents are quite strong… stronger than our parents."

"That's…" Kanaria couldn't deny it.

"Well, I won't think much about it. If he is going to reveal it to us, then it's good. If it's not, I won't talk about it. We all have a secret that we don't want others to know, so I can understand it. However, I still don't have any intention of losing to him. I will still be aiming for the captain position."

Kanaria nodded with a serious expression. It seemed that Clovis was a greater man than she originally thought. If that was the case, she might have to make another plan for the group.

"By the way, how many people do you think our group will have?" Jay asked.

"I am not sure. He wants an elite group, so six? But I don't think that's enough." Kanaria doubled that number to create two groups. "How about twelve?"

"Twelve, huh? That sounds good enough. Even if I can't become a captain, as a vice captain, I will be leading the second group." Jay smiled. "Though, what do you think we need the most right now?"

"Do you mean a member?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm… If it's my group, I will definitely need three types of people. A cook, an operator, and a scout. While I am acting as an operator and a scout right now, I can't unleash their true potential. In fact, I'm more like a sniper or support."

"An operator and a cook, huh? It's true that it will be much better if we have a cook in our party since we don't need to endure canned food. An operator sounds more reasonable to me, but what do you think about a doctor?"

"A doctor? Now that I think about it, Clovis is injured a lot because of the way he fights. If we have a doctor, we can be more assured if we want to handle a bigger exploration."

Jay nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I'm thinking about suggesting this to Clovis. Well, how he wants to recruit them will depend on him though."

"Fair enough. You can leave this to me. I'll give him some proposals regarding this matter."

"Sounds good. In that case, see you tomorrow."

"Yep, see you tomorrow."