-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Eight Trigrams Organisation(1)-

It took twenty minutes for Kenshin to fully recover his battle capabilities. His depleted WIL, his depleted MP as well as Hp, everything had filled to the brim, he was ready for another round with Lily. But same couldn’t be said for Lily. Although she had already recovered her WIL, regarding other things like HP and MP, she was only half way there. The recovery speed of Kenshin really startled her. Generally, those who were melee type hunters had such fast recovery speed. But from what she had observed, all the skills that he had used against her were not purely close range skills, it as if he had modified these skills so that he could use them in a close range.

But she didn’t dare to believe her own thoughts, just how high a level in the skill mastery required to manipulate freely? How can he achieve that so easily and so soon? He just awakened his skills a few months ago! But the truth was before her eyes, she could either choose to believe it or not. A magic skills user fighting close quarters wasn’t a new thing either. There were many hunters who had a magic skill that could only be used in close quarters, while there were also few who needs to touch their target to execute their skills. Seeing Kenshin using his magic in close combat sword techniques didn’t surprise her.

Kenshin waited for her to start talking. He knew for her to go through so much trouble, going as far as revealing her true identity means there was something she had to say. And he was waiting for that.

Taking a few more minutes to recover, Lily sat on the road opposite to Kenshin while glaring at him. It made him very uncomfortable, but he endured. Taking a deep breath, she looked at the night sky as her eyes reflected her emotions that she had hidden deep inside. Tucking a strand of her hair behind her right ear, she started to mumble slowly.

“You know Kenshin, there are a few hunters who could block heavy warheads? With their strength, they could even survive nuclear explosions from moderate distance…the radiation also didn’t have any effect on them. what do you think will happen when one of those people attacks a country?”

“…” Kenshin remained silent as he digested what Lily just told her. His level was yet to reach level 100, and yet his defense had increased so much. He was even confident to walk out of a minefield unharmed…as far hot weapons were considered. After one reaches level 100, every fifty levels a qualitative change would occur to the hunter’s overall power. It wouldn’t be a stretch to think that there would really be a few people who could survive a nuclear explosion.

If such a person attacks a country, unless they had a hunter of equal strength or higher, they would be like sitting ducks, waiting to be slaughtered. It would be like a natural disaster, one can only predict it, not stop it.

“It would be like a natural disaster!” Kenshin summarized his thoughts into just one line and softly answered her question.

“Ha! ha! That’s right. It will be like a natural disastur…no they are natural disasters. But thankfully, maybe it was a coincidence or fate, every country had two or three of them. Now just imagine, if humans with that level of strength are already that horrifying, what would happen a monster appears of the same level or maybe higher? Wouldn’t it be like the world’s end?”

“Might be!!” Kenshin curtly replied before sending a glance at her. Towards the end, her tone became deep and gruff, as if she was forcefully suppressing something. Looking at her, Kenshin understood that something was nothing but her hidden bitterness. It seems she had a firsthand experience of what she was talking about. Kenshin didn’t expose her and kept his silence.

“Sigh! Sometimes I wonder why the world we are living is like a plot straight out of some game or novel. Is it due to someone or it just happened naturally? Ah! Sorry, I am getting sidetracked. So, yeah, to counter these horrifying monsters someone of equal strength is required. That’s why every country made a secret organization whose only motive was to find and kill such monsters and of course, guard the country against other countries attacker. You can think of them as undercover agents.” Lily finished and looked at Kenshin’s face, gauging his reaction. And she wasn’t disappointed.

“What?” It was his first time hearing such matters. He never heard of such a thing ever, well considering it’s a secret organization he shouldn’t have heard before, but what about after becoming a member of DCB? Is that organization that secret? Does Suguro even know about it? Various questions filled his mind while his face mirrored his chaotic inner thoughts. His brows were furrowed while a frown marred his face.

“Why are you making that face? It’s a secret organization for a reason. Even Yuki didn’t know about it…although she had a haunch of it. We can't allow others to have a measure of our strength, a country’s survivability depends upon us. Even the members were remained hidden from the public eye. It would have been weird if you really heard about us!” Lily spoke after seeing Kenshin’s frown. At that moment she couldn’t help but chuckle after remembering her own face when she heard the same thing a few years ago.

‘So that’s how she felt when she laughed that time…!’ Lily couldn’t help but chuckle at that memory. It’s a memory of her time of recruitment. Unlike Kenshin who was silently taking everything, she freaked out loudly that day. Till this day, she was the butt of many jokes around her circle for that matter.

After listening to everything, and looking at her, Kenshin made some conclusions. By now he was sure that this Lily was an agent of the so-called secret organization, and was testing him earlier to measure his potential. But what he couldn’t understand why she was so fixated on his Intent? What's so special about it?

“Okay! I understand. You must be a member of that organization and here for some secret mission, right? The earlier attempt is all for measuring my potential or strength…but I don't understand, why are you so fixated on my Intent?”

“Of course there is a reason for that. Strength can be increased every day and quickly too…but one’s will! Not so much! Increasing one’s willpower is near impossible for some people, while extremely difficult for others. The work we do, unless the person had iron-clad willpower, they couldn’t be of any help. And to measure one’s willpower, what better way is there than directly testing the might of their Intent? You perhaps don’t know this, but there are a few monsters in high-level dungeons, where, unless you have a powerful Intent, you can’t approach them, let alone killing them. In those cases, even if you have enough strength, you will be of no help. The organization didn’t need such people. Do you understand?”