Who Says I’m Not a Legitimate Adventurer?

“Lance… you’re so annoying.”

“You made me cry again.”

Nia sniffed, laughing softly as she wiped the tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand.

This was wonderful.

So she really hadn’t been left behind.

The girl’s smile was radiant, as if all the gloom in her heart had been completely dispelled by this letter.

However.

Lance, you got one thing wrong.

Everyone moves forward.

This time, when I went out, I also found scenery I want to see with my own eyes.Nia tried hard to stop her tears while eagerly pulling out a thin crystal sheet from the inner layer, gently placing it into the groove on the album’s cover.

As a faint surge of mana flowed, the light and shadow were indeed projected.

In the image—

Lance wore a hood and smiled at the “camera” as he introduced the surrounding scenery.

“Nia, this is Copper Creek Forest. You haven’t been here before, right?”

“Up here, it’s nothing but towering trees as far as the eye can see. If you go deeper, you won’t even see the sun during the day.”

The brief five-second footage ended quickly.

Nia found it incredibly novel and excitedly took out another crystal sheet, playing them one after another.

These were all the different sceneries Lance had recorded in Copper Creek Forest during this period.

There was golden sunset light filtering through gaps in the leaves, a clear riverbank covered with pebbles, and the deep, quiet darkness of the forest interior.

Nia watched with great enjoyment.

Until she took out the final crystal sheet.

The image lit up.

This time, the scene was a muddy swamp, looking dirty and unpleasant.

The Lance in the image was no longer as composed as before—his cheeks were smeared with obvious patches of mud, like a little dirty kitten.

“Look here, the glowing thing on the ground is Moonlight Moss.”

Seeing Lance in such a disheveled state, Nia couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

However—

Just in the final two seconds before the image ended—

A crisp and pleasant voice, clearly not belonging to Lance, suddenly came from a blind spot in the frame.

“Senior, I’ve placed it. Let’s go to the next location.”

As soon as the words fell—

The projection light dissipated, and the image was completely cut off.

The smile on Nia’s face instantly froze.

Her expression visibly stiffened, as if her brain had stopped functioning at that moment.

Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she hurriedly replayed the crystal sheet.

The image replayed.

“Senior, I’ve placed it. Let’s go to the next location.”

This time, she heard it clearly.

There really was another voice!

And it was a young girl’s voice!

Who exactly was that girl who called him “Senior”?

Nia subconsciously clutched the collar of her clothes. The heart that had just been filled with warmth was suddenly overtaken by an uncontrollable, heavy, sour feeling.

……

“Nia should be very happy right now.”

After returning home, Lance removed his coat while happily guessing in his heart.

In his view, a girl’s thoughts were actually quite easy to understand.

With that carefully prepared gift and the heartfelt letter, Nia’s anger must have completely disappeared by now.

Maybe when he went to the Adventurers’ Guild tomorrow morning, she would even give him a bright smile.

With peace of mind, Lance refocused his attention on the important matter of becoming stronger.

He glanced up at the clock on the wall.

There was still time.

Tonight’s goal was very clear—to grind the two skills that were on the verge of breakthrough to Level 4 and force out new specialties.

Then tomorrow at dawn, he would go to the Veterans’ Guild or somewhere else to find a suitable weapon skill to practice.

At that point, the harsh skill requirements for his class advancement would basically be met.

Thinking of this, Lance removed his extra clothing and began a new round of brutal training for the day.

However, over the past few days, in order to further squeeze out his body’s potential, he had started trying to add weight to himself.

For example—

Right now.

Both his hands and feet were strapped with heavy weighted bags.

Each wrist carried 8 kilograms, each leg had 12 kilograms tied to it, and along with the specially made vest filled with metal strips, it totaled nearly 50 kilograms.

The total weight across his entire body had reached a terrifying 90 kilograms.

If it were his original physical attributes before activating the Dragon-Hunting Breathing Technique, he wouldn’t need such exaggerated weight—just a few weighted bags would already yield excellent training results.

But now, his standard training state involved keeping the Dragon-Hunting Breathing Technique active the entire time.

Under that Aether Resonance State, his strength and agility had already surpassed the limits of ordinary humans.

Only with even more extreme weight could his muscles feel that tearing pressure.

And the increase in weight did not merely bring faster skill proficiency gains.

More importantly, it pushed his base attributes to their limits.

After just two days of additional training, his previously stagnant agility had forcibly increased by 1 point, reaching 7 points.

And he had a strong premonition—

As long as that core skill broke through to Level 4 today, it would definitely bring him a huge surprise.

Hoo…

As the breathing technique ran wildly, bursts of scorching hot air poured out from his nostrils.

Weighted training consumed an enormous amount of stamina and nutrition.

Sweat slid down along the lines of his muscles like broken beads, only to be quickly dried by his rapidly rising body temperature, leaving behind white traces on his skin.

But Lance didn’t care at all.

At this moment, the entire courtyard was filled with explosive sounds of whistling fists.

Like a tireless pile driver, he frantically drilled the techniques of the Azure Dragon Ultimate Flow.

From time to time, one or two fierce Magic-Body Techniques were mixed in.

Especially that move—Blazing Rending Claw—the crimson flame trail it left behind when swung was particularly dazzling in the night.

Lance now loved, during training, to recklessly drain his internal Aether Energy pool completely dry.

Then rely on the high-intensity breathing technique to refill the depleted pool.

Consume. Recover.

Consume again. Recover again.

Over and over.

Through this nearly self-abusive method, he forcibly trained his body’s adaptability to violent Aether.

At first, when using Magic-Body Techniques so recklessly, he would still feel stabbing pain in his body.

But now, he could smoothly chain moves together like flowing water, with no longer any sense of obstruction in the flow of energy.

And that small Aether Energy pool, under his desperate expansion over the past few days, had been forcefully stretched to 20.5 units.

Now, even if he used the Cleanse attached to his ring without restraint—

That negligible consumption wasn’t even a drop in the ocean for him.

“Hah!”

At that moment, Lance let out a low shout.

His right claw swung forward with unstoppable momentum, and that crimson flame trail actually burst into a dazzling cluster of sparks in the air.

At the same time, the familiar system notification sounded in his mind.

【Azure Dragon Ultimate Flow Proficiency +1, LV3 → LV4】

【Agility +1, Strength +1】