Chapter 573: I’m Not Interested In A Hero Wannabe

"Don't get too close to their leader," the Sage of the Hero party, Joshua, shouted. "All of you focus on the small fries. Roland will handle the rest!"

Screams, roars, and shouts reverberated in the surroundings as the group of Wanderers fought against a pack of Monsters that had tried to raid their camp in the middle of the night.

A shining white banner illuminated the surroundings, allowing the Wanderers to keep their calm and see the monsters that had encircled their camp.

"Shana, focus on supporting just Roland and Derek," Joshua stated, briefly glancing in the direction where Shana was looking. "That girl can handle things on her own."

Shana nodded, but still glanced one last time at the young lady with long blue hair, who seemed to be enjoying her solo battle against the Three-Eyed Wolf, which was a Rank 5 Sovereign.

'Is she still human?' Shana thought before shifting her gaze at her party members who were fighting another Three-Eyed Wolf of the same Rank.

Their group of Wanderers consisted of a hundred people, and most of them were First Time Wanderers, who hadn't even stepped into the Rookie Rank.

However, there was one teenage girl who was simply an abnormality.

Unlike the rest, she was already a Rookie, but the strength she showed surpassed what an ordinary Rookie could do.

'Unlike Zion, this girl is more brutal in her way of fighting,' the Archer of the Hero Party, Mildred, was helping Derek to protect the First Timers who didn't have a lot of combat experience.

'Damn!' Derek cursed internally as he killed a Rank 2 Wolf, who had almost sank its jaws on the teenage boy who had come to help protect his comrades as a Vanguard. 'If only Erica or Diana were here, controlling these small fries would be easier.'

Derek was quite familiar with fighting in the front lines, but his main role was an offensive fighter.

But right now, he was also acting as a defender, preventing the lower-ranked Three-Eyed Wolves from attacking the helpless Wanderers.

Of course, there were some Wanderers who had been trained as warriors from a young age, helping Derek kill the weaker monsters with everything they had.

If not for Shana's support, things would have ended badly for the group of Wanderers.

The White Banner, Clemence, had the ability to help people recover their fatigue and stamina. It also has a healing effect, allowing minor injuries like shallow wounds, and bruises to recover over time.

Lastly, if Shana channeled her Aether on the flag, it could create a barrier, protecting people inside a dome of light.

However, Shana couldn't keep the barrier up for a long time, so all combatants were doing their best to finish the battle as fast as they could.

Half an hour later, Roland finally killed the Rank 5 Sovereign that he was fighting.

Before leaving to see his parents after their training ended, he requested a sparring match against Thirteen to see how much he had improved.

Thirteen agreed on the condition that he would only fight Roland using one hand.

But even with that handicap, Thirteen still won, which made Roland feel that he needed to train more in order to surpass the teenage boy, who was younger than him by a few years.

"I wonder, how long do we need to travel to reach that Temple of Courage?" Derek said as Shana healed his injuries. "It's been two months since we finished our second mission and entered Absolute Heaven.

"The farther we go, the stronger the monsters are. Right now, we're only fighting packs of monsters. But if we happen to meet a horde, all of us can only run away if we want to survive."

"Stop complaining," Shana replied after she finished healing Derek's injury. "If Zion is here, he will probably say something along the lines of... 'You're only fighting against small fries, and you're getting injured? Why don't you just bang your head to the wall you useless piece of sh*t!'"

Derek shuddered because Shana had perfectly imitated Thirteen's scolding to a certain extent, making him relieve his past traumas.

"I-If Master is here, I will definitely be treated as a slave," Derek stuttered. "Please don't raise a death flag, Shana."

The Saintess smiled faintly, having achieved the intended effect that she wanted.

Derek only snapped into attention whenever Zion's name was mentioned as if he was programmed to do it.

Siri always mocked Derek and doubted that he was Zion's disciple.

The arrogant girl would even say, "Why would Zion Leventis choose to have a stupid disciple like you?"

Naturally, Derek didn't let it pass, so he challenged Siri.

Unfortunately, he was defeated in less than five minutes, making him regret his decision.

But Derek was a spiteful person, so he started calling Siri Little Miss Zion.

Because six out of ten words that came out from her lips always had Zion in it.

The Hero Party could tell that Siri seemed to treat Zion as her rival.

However, all of them were certain that if the two really fought, the one who would win was none other than the teenage boy, who had made them go through a hellish training back in his residence, making them stronger than their former selves.

And the funny thing was that he only trained them for a short period of time.

If Thirteen had trained them longer, Roland had a feeling that he would be able to defeat Siri easily and no longer have to settle for a draw each time the two of them crossed blades with each other.