Zarek's foot impeded the boy-man's breath, but he didn't let up—not until he heard the full story.
When he finally managed to squeeze out the rest of the information he needed from the sniveling coward, he paused, falling into his thoughts.
He had learned more in the last few minutes than he had from an entire day of following after this boy-man.
This "key" wasn't really a key, but instead access to a certain region. It didn't open a door, but would instead allow one to pass through a barrier that would otherwise block you.
According to the boy-man, it could be used to slip through the Matrices blocking the powerful beasts and Turned from this world and keeping them in a deep sleep.
As Zarek had expected, proximity was one of the factors that would unleash those monsters, but time was another.
This badge would allow you to avoid the proximity problem, but only a single time. Once you got into range, the essence that powered it would begin to burn away, and then by that point, you'd have a limited time remaining to take advantage.
Essentially, you could use it to kill a creature while it was asleep and couldn't fight back.
The obvious choice for using something like this would be to target the S Class. There wouldn't be enough time to use it to target ten different A Classes because there would only be a single A Class to a territory anyway.
So, unless you had the speed to instantly appear across the equivalent of ten different states or provinces before the badge ran out of fuel—and still have enough power left over to actually succeed in killing the sleeping A Classes—then you could forget about using it that way.
However, if you managed to find the location of the slumbering S Class and geared up an attack that gave everything you had, then you could come out the victor.
For obvious reasons, this path was highly dangerous. If you didn't manage to kill the sleeping S Class, you'd be finished—unless, of course, you had an escape method.
But even then, Zarek was well aware of how broken S Classes could be. There would also be many other problems related to this as well.
For example, you would certainly be letting the S Class out before the trial designated that it would be alright, and that would cause trouble for everyone else.
There would be people, then, that targeted the boy-man purely for the sake of stopping him from even trying to use the "key" in the first place. Then there would be people who targeted the boy-man for the sake of taking this "key" for themselves.
However, that still wasn't the end of this story.
According to the man in a boy's body, this wasn't the only "key" there was.
The reason he had so many enemies was, indeed, because he was carrying this key. The method in which he got it, though, was quite curious.
The Imperial Wind Lineage had passed down this key through the generations. However, they had never used it.
This "key" was actually a gift from the Hero Association for the valiant service of one of their ancestors. It was meant to be an easy path toward one of the descendants of the Imperial Wind Lineage becoming a member of the Association.
However, this "key" was meant to be more of an act of symbolism than anything else. With the pride of the Imperial Wind Lineage, gaining themselves a Hero through this method wasn't exactly the best.
Unfortunately, in recent years they had been declining a great deal and had no choice but to take it out this time.
The other families that had earned such a badge still hadn't used theirs, and the fact that the Imperial Wind Lineage was planning on being the first to break the unspoken rule had spread when they didn't mean it to.
For Zarek, it was obvious that this family was already crumbling from the inside out. How could something so important possibly leak by accident?
There was definitely a spy. And it was a spy in a high enough place to know about the movement of such an important item.
Now, that item was actually in Zarek's palms of all things.
In summary… it was a cheat. A sanctioned cheat.
According to the boy-man, the S Class was meant to awaken naturally in six months. His original plan was to go to the Hub he had been targeting in the first place, gain a great boost in power, meditate until he could successfully ingest the A Class Godsfall Intent Elixir, before finally training until he could complete a one-strike kill of the S Class.
The gap between the S Class and even the A Class was enormous. Even if it just lay there and let a person attack, there was no guarantee of success.
With these six months, the boy-man planned to pour all of his focus into gearing up a singular strike that could win him this trial.
It wasn't just this either. Killing the S Class would net the best rewards from this Hero Trial as well, and the Association would have no choice but to adequately reward the shameless tactic.
It was no wonder, then, that so many wanted the boy-man dead.
But now, this opportunity… it was in Zarek's hands.
After some thought, Zarek put the "key" back into the tent and stored away the other items, aside from the lance he kept on his person.
The Godsfall Crystals and Droplets were enticing, but they were all laden with Wind Godsfall Intent. It unfortunately wouldn't be that useful to Zarek right now unless he could manage to digest the Elixir.
It seemed that his first goal would have to be that.
But this… this would make things much easier on him.
Picking up the boy-man by his hair, Zarek threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
For now, he wouldn't give this guy the boot. He was a nice well of information.
Zarek looked up into the skies for a moment, sighing inwardly.
After listening to the boy-man's story, he was sure that there was one other problem here as well.
All of this had certainly had an audience.