-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Sea monster rampage(2)-

“What? But sea monsters never attacked humans, that too so close to the coast. What's happening here?”

“Sea monsters? Didn’t hear that for a long time.!”

“Sea monsters? Wonder how much they would sell for.”

Various discussions broke out after Yuki’s declaration went through everyone’s ears. Some are surprised while some are kind of expectant of this. Sea monsters rarely come close to human settlement. They always stay as far as possible from the coast, for them to appear in the coastline mean some serious changes might have occurred deep inside the sea.

More than 71 percent of earth was covered in water, after the great disaster, that percentage went down a bit. It was still 67%, there might many dungeons inside the water that humans didn’t know about. There might be a dungeon break happening every week in water to which humans remain unknown. But they knew the sea world was many more times cruel than terrain. Weak being eaten by strong happens literally there. There was also another thing, the sea monsters ferocity was many times more than those found in land or dungeons. It takes two or three hunters to work together to kill a single sea monster of the same level as them.

Kenshin also frowned. He had never seen a sea monster ever in his life. Before obtaining a system, he only moved around that undead dungeon. Even after obtaining a system, he only went to land dungeons. He faced remotely no sea monsters in his life till now. But, one never ate pork didn’t mean they had never seen a pig running. Although Kenshin had never seen a sea monster, he had seen it on the internet. He had also seen many videos of how they attack and their hunting patterns. He had even seen a few articles on how to safely hunt these monsters.

But knowing and experiencing were two different things altogether. he had more than 3+ lives, but who isn’t afraid of death? He had already died and went to limbo once. Kenshin felt that one experience of death was more than enough for him. The words of that reaper also bothered him a bit, who was so powerful to not even let a reaper to not be able to claim his soul when he was in limbo. The system wasn’t that simple after all.

In the end, he threw all these things into the back of his head. He had too little information to actually make any judgements over it. For now, he would be going by system’s rules and laws, after that he would see what happens then.

Kenshin wasn’t 100% wary of these sea monsters, he was also very much anticipating the eventual clash with them. With the increment of his powers, the desire to test his limits grew within him. Since he couldn’t go to any high-level dungeons without a formal party or permits, Mito and its neighbouring cities also didn’t have any in the first place, this open water challenge was his chance to have bouts with powerful monsters and sharpen his skills and powers.

During the north mission, he had gained many things, among them was a new title and his [Divine Skill]. Though he had already tried out divine skill once, he had yet to try out the title. The monsters weren't that strong to force him to use that title, and he also didn’t know anyone strong to spar against. When he had gotten this opportunity, how can he not be giddy about it?

But there was another problem, a troublesome enemy was lurking in the dark. Like a malignant tumour, it was giving Kenshin headache for the past few days. The facts which the manager had revealed also didn’t make his mood light either. If there was really a child porn racket was involved in all this, then Kenshin suspected that the Kawakuchi family might have a stronger backing than he had thought.

The problem was that this backing might not be a legal one. It might be one of those dark underworld guilds. Currently, Kenshin neither had the financial ability nor had the authority to deal with them. Although he had more than enough fighting power to against a whole guild alone. This thing was making Kenshin miserable.

Yuki discreetly noticed Kenshin’s troubled face and make a note to ask him after these group of hooligans left the place. Dealing with them was really tiring. Thankfully she had brought a few people from her office and even asked for Kenshin to come.

The meeting was continued for another half an hour before the private hunters left the premise. After they left, Yuki sighed in relief and leaned back on the sofa with closed eyes while massaging her shoulders.

“These hunters are not professionals at all, they look more like hooligans. What’s wrong with them?” she complained.

“Well, they are private hunters, a group of uncultured individuals. You couldn’t expect more from them.” The one who spoke this was a nicely dressed young man, one of the hunters brought by her from her office. When she was back in the capital, this young man had proposed to her many times, but she never accepted it under the guise of following her carrier. Later when she became the DCB’s foreign affairs chief, her rank became many times higher than even his father. Although he no longer dared to trouble her face to face, he used this kind of soft tactic like following her and protecting her from shadows.

He even followed her all the way to here for this boring mission. He believes that by doing this, he would make her see his sincereness and would eventually accept his proposal. The man painted a beautiful picture inside his heart, but he was unaware of Yuki’s true character.

Yuki wasn’t a vain woman like many out there. Although she pursued a higher position, it wasn’t for money or power, it was because she liked hunters and their line of work.

Why? There was a reason behind that.

When she was little, there was a monster that attacked her neighbourhood park. That time she was also there, playing with other kids. When they were all about to be killed by the monster, a nearby hunter came and saved them all. That hunter wasn’t powerful, he also couldn’t beat the monster and was instead beaten up by it to a bloody pulp. But he bought enough time for other strong hunters to appear and clean it.

That hunter’s one sentence struck her heart,

“We are hunters because we hunt these monsters and keep the public safe…if we don’t do our job then who will?”

Later she found the hospital where he was admitted and wanted to head over there to personally thank him. What she didn’t expect was that the hunter died that very night only due to excessive radiation poisoning, that monster had poisoned him, and the doctors found it after its too late.

The matter was covered up by higher-ups to not make them look bad as such a good person, and hero like him never came into public light. She always remembered his words and that desperate fight where he couldn’t win but still fought bravely against the monster to save them.

Her desire only strengthened after meeting Kenshin that fateful afternoon.