"This is it. The Blood Hunter runes indicate that the target is running in this direction..."

Following the sound, Evan saw a squad of homeguards, with blood dripping from the bottom of their armor, clearly indicating that they had just finished a battle.

The leader was holding a compass, and both his hand and the tip of the compass were emitting a blue light.

He saw these people, and the Homeguards naturally saw Evan as well, and the corpse of the Dark Erosion Lizard.

"Young man, what is this Dark Erosion Beast?"

“I killed him. I was a full-fledged craftsman in the forging workshop.”

Because he used his coat as a decoy to attract the attention of the giant lizard, Evan's chainmail and bracers are now exposed, and with the still-dripping dagger, he does seem quite believable.

"That's impressive. Have you ever faced these monsters before?"

"No, it was just the first time. This guy happened to be injured, so I just aimed for his vital points."

Faced with Evan's modest words, the guard leading the team shook his head.

"You can't say that. Even an injured Dark Erosion Beast wouldn't have a hard time killing a few ordinary people without professional training."

The monster's death is your fault. We'll register it at the central office later. Oh, and this too..."

He handed Evan a perfectly intact longsword and a shield with only slight corrosion at the top.

"The guy in my team was careless and got spit in the face with acid, which is why you ended up in this mess today."

He's already dead. This set of equipment, plus my extra subsidies for the next two months, is your compensation.

"I'm so sorry, this was truly our mistake, causing you to face a danger you didn't need to face."

"That's fine then."

Evan's father, Rock Kyle, was also a Homeguard. He had heard his father tell stories of the Homeguards fighting against the Dark Beasts. Death accompanied these warriors, and being with the Dark Beasts made them the furthest from hope.

That person is now dead, and the compensation for guarding the home is quite generous.

He now wants to go back and investigate whether there is more room for development in the fire within him.

The group of homeguards that left in other directions were on their way to the forge.

Faced with three times their number of Dark Erosion Beasts, two of the ten guards died, and the equipment of the others, especially their protective gear, was severely damaged. After repairing their equipment, the central command had to assign new recruits.

"Creak..."

When Evan returned home, no one was home at that time. His father was still on guard duty at his patrol route, and his mother should be working at the textile factory in the settlement with his younger sister.

Yes, around the time Evan was five years old, the Kyle family had a new member. The little girl is now three years old, and since she's afraid of running around alone at home, her mother continues to take care of her.

"Hoo... According to the instructions above, I need to temporarily enhance my mental strength through meditation, sense the energy floating in the air, absorb it into my body, gather it to a certain level, and complete the 'ignition' operation."

He opened the Chain Repair Manual, sat on the bed according to the descriptions, and sensed the flames within his body.

According to "The Forge of the Body," the heart, one of the body's organs, carries a fire-attribute energy tendency. Energy gathers in the heart, making it the easiest place to ignite.

Since he already has flames, why not just use them to repair the chain, thus saving the effort of accumulating energy and fuel in the beginning?

Following the instructions in the book, he attempted to guide the flames.

"Whoosh..."

The flame in his heart was very easy to control, slowly traveling along a fixed route within his body according to Evan's ideas.

Evan: Huh?