The World's Development

"Tell us exactly what happened!"

The vice president's expression grew grave.

Tornado took a deep breath.

"Vice president, the Adventurers' Guild was formed by powerful people from across the Empire. Besides exploring the world, it has a duty much like ours: accepting requests from ordinary citizens.

"Those requests cover almost every field. During the Empire's current campaign to clear the Monsters from No-Man's Land, it posted many extermination requests through the Adventurers' Guild, and large numbers of adventurers answered the call.

"A day ago, while hunting a Demon-level Monster, I ran into an A-rank Adventurer team. I watched them take it down with incredibly precise teamwork. They made it look easy, and they did it in under a minute!"

Several heroes who had seen similar things nodded as Tornado spoke.

"I ran into a team too, though they weren't as strong as the one Tornado described. Their badges marked them as a C-rank Adventurer Group. Individually, they were probably somewhere between C-Class and B-rank Heroes, but their teamwork was remarkable. A Tiger-level Monster barely lasted a few moves against them.

"Unlike the Hero Association, which focuses on developing individual heroes, adventurers put more stock in a team's fighting strength. You rarely see one on their own. Most travel in groups of seven!"

The vice president nodded to everyone. "I understand the situation. It looks like our Hero Association faces a new challenge in this new era. If we want to hold our place in the years ahead, we'll all have to show what we can do!"

The S-Class Heroes nodded.

After meeting Hane, the Hero Association's vice president finally put his worries to rest and concentrated on building up its branch in the Empire.

His strategy was to quietly poach members from the Adventurers' Guild. After all, the strength those