Kill The Old Ones!

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Ren’s recent discoveries were surprising. So much so that it reminded him to finally search for public information about this teammate—something he had delayed since he initially thought it was inappropriate.

The GMU had profiles for every martial artist registered, the ones with dungeon licenses. They don’t reveal all the information they gathered, just those that are publicly known at least.

He first started with Jules, and the information checks out.

Jules was the youngest child of the Roottree family’s main line. His full name is Julius Regulus Roottree. Cool name for somebody so shy and humble.

The Roottree family were indeed defense specialists. It’s practically the main thing they’re known for in Q-City. They amassed wealth, reputation, and legacy through this role, and the family has been well known to produce reliable defense specialists since their establishment.

According to the special comments Ren found on the file, the Roottrees were showing some strong signs of rising because of the nine children of the main line. Well...there are only eight of them now, but that’s something at least.

The firstborn, Elias Roottree, was originally supposed to become the next family head. Alas, he failed in his Inhuman Realm breakthrough and died. Carlsen, the second, inherited the position and had been working hard to stabilize the family. The rest of the brothers were also helping in any way that they could. Even Jules was noted in here because he was part of a promising young party who’s been active in the dungeons lately.

These are all public knowledge that Ren already knew. He even had tidbits of information that weren’t mentioned here.

Derek was next, and his entry was interesting.

Because of his rare grade martial physique, he had been included in some kind of local prodigy list of Q-City. It’s not the honor roll, but it’s certainly inspiring.

The comments talked about how ’lucky’ Derek’s family was for having him, for giving birth to such a fine young man with a rare grade martial physique. He also discovered that Derek apparently receives multiple love letters and is constantly approached for marriage.

He was being courted by the many families and young ladies of Q-City because of his martial physique.

Actually, this was normal. It’s a common belief that talent can be inherited—passed down to descendants, and for the sake of humanity’s continued prosperity and survival, marriage alliances became normal.

Marrying someone, not out of love, but out of duty to their clan and race, was a legitimate reason here. Of course, it can lead to some complications, but such a law wouldn’t be abolished because of that since, whether everybody likes it or not, the law produces results. Good results, at that.

Jen was also here, but aside from her foul temper and unapproachable attitude, there’s nothing much here that Ren doesn’t know already.

And finally, there’s Kaycee.

She surprised him. Ren knew that Kaycee came from an impressive background, but somehow, he still underestimated that.

Kaycee’s a descendant of a clan called the ’Stargazing Eye ’Clan’—the Stargazing Eyes is what they call their bloodline ability, and in Ren’s opinion it’s quite fitting.

The Stargazing Eye Clan is one of the top clans of Q-City; they are considered an ancient martial arts clan because they’ve been around for about 3000 years and have persisted since.

Their current clan leader was someone at the 7th Inhuman Realm Transformation, probably one of the strongest there was in the entire Letter Kingdom. Even the King had to watch himself when talking to that elder.

Kaycee didn’t have tales or myths surrounding her. She wasn’t even a notable member of her clan because she’s not of the main line. If she were, then her vision wouldn’t experience side effects after using her bloodline ability.

But it did say here that Kaycee’s engaged already. She has a fiancé through a marriage alliance, something that Ren didn’t know. The name of the other person isn’t revealed here.

’Once she turns 18, she’ll be married off,’ Ren thought to himself, because that’s how marriage alliances work.

At the very least, they wait until both parties are 18 before forcing them to marry and start a family.

’I never hear Kaycee complaining about it, so she must be fine. If she wasn’t, there’s no way Sir Justin will stay put and silent about it.’

She probably consented, which would mean that she wasn’t opposed to the decision. It’s hard to tell if she’s really willing since Kaycee guards her real thoughts and keeps her emotions on a leash. Even Ren couldn’t get an accurate read of her most of the time.

And then, just because he got curious, he also searched about Travis, the previous party leader and founder of the Green Tea Party.

Travis Clancy is his full name. And it is said here on the public profile that he died from the Genetic Chakra Imbalance Disease (GCID).

The Genetic Chakra Imbalance Disease is a deadly condition that develops through a series of unfortunate events that happened to the child’s carrier. Excessive trauma, abuse of substances or supplements, and thorough neglectful acts of letting chakra pass through the fetus before it’s ready.

Simply put, either Travis’ mother was incredibly neglectful when she was pregnant with him, or she genuinely had no idea of what she was supposed to do.

The fact it’s more likely the former isn’t particularly comforting, to be honest. It doesn’t help that Travis’ profile was empty at the ’parent information’ part.

It’s unknown what happened to Travis’ mother for him to be born with this disease, but one thing’s for sure. The moment he was conceived, his days were already numbered.

Typically, those with GCID won’t live past 13 years old. Travis living up to 18 was a miracle already.

Furthermore, those who had this disease will frequently have to endure the incredible torment of pain and suffering throughout their entire lives.

There is no known cure for it. It’s practically a death sentence once the diagnosis is confirmed.

Ren couldn’t imagine how despairing this could be for the man. To think that he lived knowing that he would die soon and that he’d be experiencing all this pain for no guarantee must’ve been devastating.

Yet despite the man’s circumstances, Travis sounded like he was a saint from what he heard from his party. He’s the one that brought them together and built this whole thing. He left something real and tangible, something that he’d be remembered for long after he was gone.

He made good use of his limited time—something that not many people could say they ever did.

’Admirable, dude, really,’ Ren thought to himself as he closed the public profiles.

Well, he learned some new things at least. But if he really wants to hear the full story, he’s going to have to hear it directly from the people involved.

That will come in time; Ren wasn’t in a hurry to know about his party members.

And just because he’s curious and he couldn’t help it, Ren searched his name on the public profile too. And wouldn’t you know it, he found his own profile.

It felt weird to see it right there. Even weirder for him to take a look because it makes him feel like he’s self-obsessed, but he did anyway since his curiosity won at the end.

He read everything and somehow felt relieved. Well, it didn’t contain anything that Ren wasn’t comfortable sharing, which makes sense since this is his public profile.

It stated common information about his name, age, height, weight, and affiliations. His feat of whooping the ass of the White Haven Clan’s youth wasn’t included here, just those that are readily available.

Everything was fine, and he felt relieved. At least his secrets hadn’t been exposed to the public.

In private, however, well...that’s something to look out for, just in case.

Done with his little homework, Ren closed the public domain entirely and stared out of the window.

He cleared stages 9 and 10 today with the party. This also meant that he was through the first archstone. Next time, he’ll go to the second archstone for stages 11 to 20.

Ren was making swift progress thanks to him borrowing the momentum of the team. Next on their chopping block were the Orcs and their swamps, something that Jen certainly wasn’t looking forward to.

To be honest, Ren wasn’t looking forward to it either, but they have no choice.

Stage 15 is the farthest the Green Tea Party had gone, and it’s stated in Ren’s contract that they’d have to take him there and help him clear it too. Only then could he decide if he would continue with the party moving forward up to stage 30 or not.

Well, Ren had no plans on leaving them in the air. He’s not that ungrateful.

He’s on another three-day leave to clear stages 11 to 13 on his own. Then, he’d reconvene with the party so that they could clear stages 14 and 15 together again.

After that, he’d officially be up to date with others. What comes after is their next goal.

But that’s a matter for the near future. Right now, [Cherry Anne] must be waiting for him to go online so that they can spar again.