The answer was simple, since they weren’t supposed to protect them. Once the grannies picked a Basic Class, they had to work hard to improve their Rank. That was not only crucial to advancing their Class, acquiring more Skills, and growing stronger, but also to extending their lifespan. Their lives may be in danger and some would certainly die, but a Class would give them everything they needed to have a choice—to find a way out of misery when nobody was there to help.

“Nosy brats. All of them!” the second granny grumbled once they stepped out into the wild.

“They mean well. They want to protect us,” the third hag muttered, her voice laced with defiance.

David toned down the volume from behind as the grannies started to fight, but he couldn’t help the irritation rising within him. When they didn’t stop even after they’d distanced themselves from Orhain’s fortifications, he swung around, releasing a trickle of Bloodlust.

“Do you think this is a joke?” he bellowed. “We’re in the wild and could be attacked at any moment. Why in the Earthen Union’s name can any of you be so arrogant as to walk around nonchalantly, fighting in the open, shouting like this? If you want to die, don’t use me as an excuse—just run straight into the first monster you see!”

The hags looked like they had something to say, but they broke into a cold sweat and kept their mouths shut as the minuscule portion of Bloodlust’s potency enveloped them.

They were finally silent, but that was hardly helpful. The way he felt the bonds shift was frustrating.

“First of all, I won’t always be there to protect you guys. If anything, I won’t intervene in your fights even when I’m present. I will push every single one of you as far as I can while ensuring none of you will die,” David chose to double down rather than backtrack. “Sure, I will help you pick your Class with ease, but did you really think I would babysit everyone for weeks—maybe even months—making sure my little baby Classers never get injured, only to leave the town to be protected by babied Classers who’ve never been injured? It looks like you guys need to be pushed to the brink of death a few more times to rekindle the fear you felt in the three wars you’ve participated in.”

He felt like saying a lot more but decided against thrashing the grannies any further when one of the sparrow Echos informed him of an incoming threat. Two dozen Gnolls—hyenas in humanoid shape, wielding makeshift weapons and armor—were headed their way.

“Look over there,” David pointed to the right. “This is what your chatter attracted. Twenty Gnolls, each stronger than ninety percent of Orhain’s Classers, and four elite Gnolls who’d bash Frey and Lilia’s heads in within a minute.”

The grannies didn’t say anything, but they blanched as the monsters came into view. That took a good moment, but their response was instinctive. They clutched their walking sticks tightly with one hand and retrieved guns from their belts. Even though they were clearly afraid of the incoming enemies, the grannies were willing to fight. That was good. Much better than the teenagers had been.

“Not too bad, but the Glock-19 will be useless. If you hit the eye and pierce it a few times to reach their brain, it may work—but they’re too fast to hit the bullseye several times in a row. Even if you hit the mark every time, you won’t have enough bullets. The Desert Eagle will work a bit better here, but I don’t know if you’ll get a Class by killing a monster with a gun.”

“We don’t want to rely on anyone!” the first granny remarked snarkily.

“But you have to. Especially after you made enough noise to attract so many enemies. If you hadn’t fought so loudly, we could have searched for more suitable prey. That way, you wouldn’t have to rely on my protection to acquire your Basic Class.” David shrugged, ignoring the possible backlash. “You need me because you messed up. Because you instinctively relied on me. It looks like my presence was enough to make you forget the danger of the situation ahead.”

They had something to say, but David didn’t mind their attention. He cast [Blood Burst] and conjured one basketball-sized projectile. It shrank to the size of a tennis ball with a single Word of Power. David altered the projectile with [Blood Manipulation] until the enemies were close enough.

While the distance didn’t matter to the bloody projectile, he needed the Gnolls to be close. He wanted the grannies to see everything clearly. The Gnolls cackled and closed in, less than ten meters separating the fastest of them from the grannies, when the bloody projectile whistled through the air. One moment it was there, and then it reappeared amidst the Gnolls and erupted.

The projectile exploded into countless shrapnel fragments hurled in all directions, piercing fur, flesh, bones, and brains at once. More than a dozen Gnolls collapsed lifelessly to the ground as the shrapnel dug into their flesh only to explode once again, drenching the area in monster blood and intestines. Only a few survived, but even they were severely wounded. The strongest Gnolls looked the best, yet one missed a leg while a portion of a second Gnoll’s skull was gone.

David protected the grannies from the exploding shrapnel with a large, semi-translucent barrier of [Bloodbound Bastion]. He ensured they could see everything.

“Take your pick and kill it. Try with your guns first. I want to know if a pistol kill is enough to pick a Class.” David commanded, with [Archaic Shackles] and [Bloodbound Bastion] at the ready in case something unexpected occurred.

He expected them to hesitate. The war before the integration had been terrifying. It was even worse to know that anyone had been forced to participate in three different wars. It didn’t matter where they were at the time or whether they were in the military. Soldiers and civilians alike had suffered from war.

However, the wars before the integration were different from the terrors that had befallen the Earthen Union. The scale of everything was different. While not all humans were allies, most of the Earthen Union’s natives had to fight monsters and extraterrestrial forces instead—forces that wielded supernatural powers.

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While the integration had been a while ago, Orhain was still oblivious to most information. They’d been isolated from the rest of the Earthen Union. Interestingly enough, there was no System Sanctuary in Kamia either. Even the Pantheon had given up on the country, which was sad to know. It may have been a small country that expanded to three times its size through integration, but it was as deserving of help as any other.

I will claim all bonds and make them mine, he thought, but his daydreams were interrupted as the sound of a gunshot resounded.

“Tough fucker!” the first granny grumbled, pulling the trigger of her Glock-19 again. She approached the nearest survivor of the Gnoll unit vigilantly while shooting it a few more times. She pulled the trigger until the magazine was empty. Rather than waiting for the monster to die of blood loss, she reloaded the magazine with what appeared to be decades of practice and emptied it again, draining the last bits of the Gnoll’s life.

She turned grimly to David and nodded. “It counts.”

He knew instinctively when she picked a Class, as the power provided by her bond increased. Yet that wasn’t all. Her bond grew firmer as her debt toward David deepened.

The terminology used by the System was a little bit confusing—and probably a bit misleading. While the first Path revolved around the term ‘Favor’, it seemed like debts and favors that had to be repaid played a bigger role than expected. Yet, it was not crucial.

It appeared the Path of Favor was more of a mixture that encompassed acts of kindness, good deeds, and a sense of approval. As far as David could tell, it was not an incredibly powerful Path, but it was exotic—hard to create. Or so he guessed, given that he hadn’t found any information about the Path of Favor in the Ascendant’s information package.

One way or another, the snarky elder’s bond grew firmer. She was still labeled as a ‘Favorable’, but even a weak ‘Trusting’ bond wasn’t much more potent than hers.

But even if her bond hadn’t changed, David would be satisfied. Learning more about Classes was always helpful. It was especially helpful as it might assist the other older residents of Orhain if they desired to acquire a Class. Since most were unlikely to be strong enough to lift a sword and kill a Bronze-ranked monster, picking up a gun and pulling the trigger a dozen times seemed like a simpler and safer option.

A familiar wooden staff manifested in the elderly woman’s hands, and he nodded subtly. It was always good to have a mage.

David watched her for a moment, surprised when she conjured a magical projectile—[Mana Bullet]—at the tip of her staff after a few seconds. Beads of sweat poured down her temples, and her breathing grew heavier, yet the mana-condensed bullet sizzled through the air and struck with force, reopening the severe wound of another dying Gnoll.

Despite her exhaustion, she looked like a giddy, impatient child and released two more [Mana Bullet]s before her legs caved in. Although mentally exhausted and clearly void of mana after releasing three magical projectiles as an Iron I, she managed to kill one of the dying Gnolls. Her Rank didn’t change, as mages required more than combat to rank up, but she was bound to advance quickly in this kind of environment—especially if her Skill Runes earned a large amount of proficiency from hunting severely wounded Bronze-ranked monsters.

More gunshots rang out, and it didn’t take long before the next monster fell victim to mankind’s technology. A bow and a quiver containing a dozen arrows materialized beside the old woman, and she grasped both without hesitation. She pulled lightly on the bowstring, grimaced in displeasure, and retrieved an arrow to nock it smoothly. Gritting her teeth, she tried to pull the bowstring back, but she didn’t have the strength.

David shook his head, uncertain whether that had been the best choice, and applied [Herald’s Blessing] on her. He’d known one of the elderly women would pick a melee class, though he couldn’t remember whose decision it had been. One way or another, the huntress gained enough strength to pull the bow to its fullest. He studied her for a moment, his lips pressed together, and sent a trace of Vitae to coat the arrow’s tip.

A mage’s [Mana Bullet] was far more powerful than a normal arrow. Sure, a hunter acquired [Eagle Eyes] and [Archer Mastery], but they lacked immediate access to their energy reservoir, nor did they have any Skills to enhance their arrows’ piercing force—not at first, at least. Plus, the hunter’s physical prowess played a crucial role in the System’s bow selection. Thus, as unfortunate as it was, the huntress’s starting gear was worse than the mage’s. Not that it mattered with [Herald’s Blessing] or the arrow tip coated in Vitae. She released the first arrow, driving it into a Gnoll’s eye, piercing the eyeball with ease—courtesy of Vitae and the hunter’s combo of [Archer Mastery] and [Eagle Eyes].

The old woman didn’t appear to rank up immediately, but that didn’t seem to bother her. She lifted her trembling arms again and attacked another Gnoll, empowered by David’s abilities. Only then did she rank up, strengthening her Body stat with the Attribute Point earned from reaching Iron II.

Meanwhile, her bond advanced from Favorable to Trusting.

When it came to the last Class, David had suspected the granny might become a cleric or pick mage if she wanted to focus on fighting. However, to his great surprise and displeasure, a longsword materialized moments after the last elderly woman blasted a Gnoll’s brain with her Desert Eagle. It hovered in the air for a moment, only for gravity to take over as she grasped it.

David heard something creak and crack as the woman tumbled to the ground.

“Seriously?” he grunted, casting [True Restoration] on the old woman before adding [Unyielding Vitality] and [Herald’s Blessing]. Only when her back was ‘fine’ again did she get up, holding the longsword in the air with shaking arms. He applied [Herald’s Blessing] on the sword and coated it in Vitae, but let her be thereafter.

“You two can go kill the rest. See if you can improve your Skill Runes or rank up,” he said to the warrior and hunter before turning to the old mage. “In the meantime, I will teach you how to meditate. You need to train your magical abilities to rank up. [Mana Manipulation] will be crucial to you, but so will improving [Mana Bullet]’s ranking. However, you should be careful. Once you’re out of mana, you’ll be as weak as those without a Class.”

Unless she invested heavily in Body and acquired Skills that allowed her to wield ambient Aether, though the latter would be a challenge.

Even if it was useless to go into detail and explain everything about Sparks to the old woman—or how he’d created a Spark for [Meditation] or [Aether Breath]—he could still share his experiences from the first few days of the integration. Along with everything he’d experienced since then, of course.

His earlier days in the integration had been a mess. His meditation had been lackluster and… David shook his head, thinking about it. He was no longer the same man. If anything, he was far from the man he had been before the integration arrived.

The integration had not only changed the Earthen Union, it had changed him—entirely and forever.