Adventurer of Many Professions

Suddenly, the decoy queen let out a sharp, guttural cry. "Gululu! Gululu!"

The sound was desperate, panicked. The stinger wasps, hearing their queen's cry, vibrated their wings even faster, trying to drag her to safety. But their pace was agonizingly slow.

"Too late," Raymond growled, his eyes narrowing.

With a burst of speed, he sprinted toward them, his bare hands at the ready. The decoy queen twisted her head to see him charging, and her cries shifted to a higher, more frantic pitch. "Ga-gu! Ga-gu!"

At her command, the three stinger wasps stopped. They gently lowered the decoy queen to the ground before turning as one, their wings buzzing with a single purpose.

They charged Raymond.

Unlike before, there was no hesitation, no strategy. They flew straight at him like kamikaze fighters, fueled by blind rage and loyalty to their queen.

The first wasp reached him almost instantly, its mandibles snapping wildly. Raymond didn't flinch. With a swift motion, he pivoted and lashed out with a devastating whip kick. His boot connected with the wasp's abdomen, sending it hurtling backward into a nearby tree with a sickening CRUNCH.

The other two wasted no time. They aimed their venomous stingers directly at him, firing sharp, black needles in unison.

But Raymond's agility without his sword was unmatched. He ducked and twisted, flipping into the air with a smooth backflip, dodging both projectiles with ease. The needles struck the dirt behind him, useless.

As he landed, Raymond's grin widened. His body was moving on pure instinct now, his mind sharp and focused. "You're gonna have to do better than that," he said, cracking his knuckles as the remaining wasps regrouped for another attack.

This fight wasn't over yet. But with each passing second, Raymond felt the balance of power tipping further in his favor. And he was ready to finish it.

The two stinger wasps, now without their poisonous stingers, relied on their only remaining weapon; their powerful jaws. With nothing to lose, they lunged directly at Raymond, their mandibles snapping with deadly intent.

Raymond, however, didn't waste time with elaborate movements. As the first wasp charged at him from the right, he delivered a straight punch, clean and devastating. His fist, glowing faintly with residual energy, smashed into the wasp's chest with a sickening crunch, leaving a gaping hole where its exoskeleton had once been.

An ordinary fighter couldn't hope to achieve such raw power, but Raymond was far from ordinary.

Even as the first wasp fell lifelessly to the ground, the second was already upon him. Raymond's left hand shot out with precision, gripping the creature by its neck mid-air. The wasp flailed its limbs and flapped its wings desperately, but Raymond's grip was like iron. It had no hope of escape.

With a quick twist of his body, Raymond swung the struggling wasp and slammed it into the first, their bodies colliding with a brutal snap. Chitin shattered on impact, and the two wasps crumpled into a single, motionless heap.

But one remained, the first wasp he had struck, its abdomen mangled from his kick earlier. Unable to fly, it crawled toward him on its spindly legs, its mandibles clacking angrily as it tried to mount a final attack.

Raymond didn't give it the chance. With a swift kick, he sent its head flying, and another kick to its body sent it skidding across the ground like a broken toy.

The clearing fell silent.

Raymond dusted off his hands, his breath steady, and looked toward the decoy queen bee. With the last of the stinger wasps dead, there was nothing left to stand in his way. He strode forward, his movements calm but deliberate.

"Gululu! Gululu!"

The decoy queen let out frantic cries, her bloated white body squirming helplessly as she twisted on the ground. There was an almost pathetic, pleading tone in her voice, but Raymond wasn't moved.

As he approached, her six tiny legs flailed wildly, and her gurgling cries grew louder. She seemed to beg for mercy, her body shaking uncontrollably. But as Raymond raised his foot, she suddenly lunged, her jaws snapping open in a desperate attempt to bite him.

Raymond anticipated it. With a quick step to the side, he dodged her attack effortlessly. Then, with a decisive stomp, he crushed her underfoot.

The decoy queen twitched once, her legs curling inward, before falling completely still. It was over.

"Raymond!"

Sylph and Lorene emerged from the edge of the clearing, running toward him. They had stayed hidden until now, watching from a distance as Raymond took on the wasps and the queens. But now, with no danger left, they approached with relieved smiles.

Seeing the lifeless body of the decoy queen at Raymond's feet, Sylph couldn't help but gasp. "I never imagined... A queen bee that powerful, and you managed to kill it!" She crouched to examine the creature's grotesque form, her voice filled with awe. "Raymond, you're incredible!"

"Yeah!" Lorene chimed in, nodding enthusiastically. "When the queen came out and you ran to face her, we were terrified. Especially when she took your sword, we thought you were done for!"

Sylph shuddered at the memory. "We almost ran out to help, but... you didn't need us. You actually did it. You killed them all!"

Raymond smiled faintly, his breathing now calm. "It wasn't easy," he admitted, though his tone betrayed none of the strain.

Sylph's curiosity soon got the better of her. She tilted her head, her brow furrowed slightly. "But wait," she said. "How did you still have enough mana for all that? You used Taunt, and you used that fighter skill too. Isn't your mana supposed to be low? I thought you only awakened a month ago!"

Raymond raised an eyebrow, surprised at the question. He folded his arms and replied matter-of-factly, "Don't you know? When a dual-class player awakens their second class, their magic capacity increases significantly."

Sylph blinked, clearly caught off guard by the explanation. She turned to Lorene for confirmation, her expression slightly flustered. "Is that true?"

Lorene nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, that's right. It's part of the awakening process."

Realizing she should've known, Sylph's face flushed red. She quickly straightened up, crossing her arms as if trying to save face. "I-I knew that! I just forgot for a second!" she said defensively, her voice a little too loud.

Raymond chuckled softly at her reaction, shaking his head in amusement. For a moment, he felt a sense of relief wash over him.

Good. They don't suspect anything.

The truth was, the temple's books only mentioned a modest increase in magic capacity during a dual-class awakening, nothing like the reserves Raymond had displayed today. Lorene didn't know this because the books didn't elaborate, and Raymond had taken full advantage of that oversight.

He wasn't just a dual-class warrior and fighter. He was something much more; something far rarer.
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But for now, he kept that secret to himself.

"Let's head back," Raymond said, glancing at the mangled remains of the decoy queen. "The mission's done, and I think we all deserve a rest."

Sylph and Lorene nodded eagerly, following him as they made their way out of the clearing. But as they walked, Raymond couldn't help but glance back at the battlefield one last time, his mind already calculating his next move.

This fight was over. But his journey was only beginning.

"This queen bee is realy huge!"

Sylph stared at the massive body of the queen bee sprawled on the ground, her eyes wide with astonishment. Even lying there motionless, the creature's enormous size made it nearly as tall as she was.

Still marveling at the sight, Sylph's mood quickly shifted to excitement. "Raymond, with the queen bee dead, does this mean we've completed the promotion commission?"

Raymond shook his head. Seeing the confusion on both women's faces, he explained, "Not yet. We still have to deal with the larvae inside the hive."

Both Sylph and Lorene looked puzzled.

Raymond continued, his voice calm but resolute, "The explosion didn't kill all the stinger wasps, which means some of the larvae must have survived. If we leave them behind, they could grow into another swarm. The job won't be complete until everything is destroyed."

"Let's go check the hive," Raymond said, already turning toward the smoldering pit left by the explosion.

Sylph and Lorene exchanged nervous glances before hurrying to follow him. On the way, Raymond bent down to pick up the white stone from the ground, its soft glow illuminating the surrounding area as they walked.

When the trio reached the edge of the deep pit, the gruesome scene inside came into view under the light of the stone.

The crater was littered with shattered remains of stinger wasps, their severed limbs and bodies twisted in grotesque piles. Pools of viscous white liquid glistened, evidence of larvae that had been obliterated by the explosion. But not everything was destroyed.

A section of the hive had survived the blast, and in its honeycomb-like holes, wriggling white larvae of various sizes squirmed grotesquely. Two severely injured stinger wasps lay at the bottom of the pit, their wings bent and bodies twitching feebly as they clung to life.