-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Approaching Danger-

Kenshin was so absorbed in his system that he forgot about the flow of time around him. It's only after Isabella’s reminder did he found that they were already at their destination. Kenshin couldn’t believe it, to him, it was like only half an hour passed. Bringing his phone from pocket, he checked the time to compare how long was he out.

“Two hours. That’s how long we sat on that uncomfortable bus.” Isabella understood what Kenshin as trying to do and supplied her input. Then looking at him strangely, she continued, “But I am surprised. You can sleep even with all the commotion around!”

“Commotion? What, commotion?” Kenshin, who was too absorbed in his system really didn’t know what happened around him. His confusion was a given!

“Yeah well, this hunter started to tell each other about their exploits, and one hunter by mistake cursed another with the other doing same. One thing leads to other, and the whole compartment suddenly turned chaotic with everyone screaming and shouting…truly hectic, you know!” shaking her head, Isabella lamented about her damaged ears. Kenshin didn’t know how he should react when such a thing had occurred while he was powering up himself. He could only shake his head with a bitter smile.

“Yeah! I am a deep sleeper.” He could only come up with this.

“You don’t say! Anyway, let's go. Captain has ordered everyone to gather near the port. A fishing vessel is already there, waiting for our arrival. It's about to be 7 PM, according to locals, this should be the time when the monsters were active. Let's go!” Isabella provided him with everything that he had failed to listen. Nodding to her, he just followed while silently trying to get used to his newly acquired AGI. He had already gone through this process once before, so there was no mistake this time around. With calculate steps, it didn’t take him even a few seconds to get used to his AGI, all he did was walk a few steps.

Kenshin followed Isabella until they all arrived near a huge fishing boat. This boat was no smaller than a normal container carriage boat, thus having the capacity to easily carry them all. Kenshin found, including the hunters that came from Mito, there were a few more hunters who were recruited from Orai too. The total number of hunters increased to 247. Of course, he didn’t count them, the captain told them all while they were boarding the boat.

When everyone boarded the boat, Kenshin started to look around to find the girl Suguro told him to have a look out for. The surrounding was still a mess with hundreds of hunters going around causing even more mess. He couldn’t find her in this situation, so he could only give up now and wait till everything settles down before finding her.

The gathered hunters didn’t care about discipline at all, casually selecting a place they all sat down. If any place liked by someone else, a fight broke outs immediately…this behavior of hunters gave an enormous headache to the captain. In the first place, as long as they paid their taxes in time and didn’t commit any offense like mass murder, rape or being a traitor to the country, the government usually cares less about them. Even if they go sideways on a public place, the police would only spare them a glance before going his way. They were even excused from destroying public properties.

Of course, low-level hunters like the past him wasn’t able to enjoy this rule. After all, he was only a hunter below level 5 at that time. He was no different than a civilian with a bit of ability and a lot a fighting experience.

The captain of this expedition, the middle-aged man, didn’t show himself until much later. Kenshin and Isabella casually chose a spot on the fishing boat and sat down, holding their respective weapons in hand. They both had experienced powerful monsters, so they knew, when that attack it would be sudden. That’s why they sat down in battle ready posture.

“Okay, everyone. Here is the last warning to all of you, kindly cooperate with me until this mission is over. This way, I can keep the casualty into a minimum. This sea monster was nothing like what you faced in dungeons or fields, they are all powerful ones with a few having basic intelligence. Moreover, we are going to fight them in their home ground.” The middle-aged man who was the captain of this mission showed his face again, this time, all his previous pretense of a dignified officer was gone, replaced with anger and a lot of them. He never thought of dealing with these independent hunters will be this troublesome. Until now, he had always dealt with government soldiers who were trained to be disciplined, so he just assumed that these group of hunter would be the same too.

Before he could finish his speech, he was greeted with jeers and mockery by these hunters again. They knew that sea monsters would be very troublesome to deal with, they also knew that many of them die in this very place…maybe that’s why they don’t care about anything else.

“Go back, you old man! Who told you to lord over us?” a hunter shouted loudly. He had a long beard and bald head which he painted with some tribal tattoos. In his hand was a long and sturdy looking iron rod. Wearing a short pant and sleeveless shirt, he sat near to the end of the boat, looking at the captain’s room in disdain.

“Yeah! Yeah! Go back! All we have to do is to kill the sea monsters, right? What need we have to listen to your orders. What can you do anyway? We are in the middle of the sea as we speak…it can be our burial ground as far as we are concerned.” Another hunter, a lady with long hair tied in a bun, wearing old looking leather armor. Underneath the armor, she was wearing a skin fitting dress made of some unknown material. Behind her was two short swords strapped vertically. She was standing near the man that just mocked the middle-aged man.

Followed by her, many hunters also started to voice their opinions. Some even cracked jokes on the middle-aged man. The jokes were all dirty, targetting his manhood every time. These jokes were especially hurtful and funny whenever a lady cracked it.

The boat had already started moving long ago, they were already a long distance away from the shore. Kenshin had switched off his phone, knowing Yuki and others would call him and distract him from doing his task, staying alive. Of course, he had left a message to all of them, explaining his situation.

While sitting, he opened his map and scanned the surrounding. Every now and then he would chuckle at the hunters poking fun at the captain of the mission. This time that captain could only blame himself to come out and deal with these hunters that cared about no rank or discipline. Up in the captain’s chamber, the captain's face resembled a bitter gourd. Turning purple and red whenever his subordinates also chuckle at a joke cracked by the hunters outside.

Kenshin who was sitting leisurely suddenly stiffened and stood up when he saw a green blinking think coming very quickly at his spot. The dot was in the edge of the map, meaning it could be at least 50 km away from him. But the speed was coming, it should be here within ten to fifteen minutes. Walking slowly, he reached the edge of the boat and looked at the far ahead ocean in front of him.

“What happened?” Isabella, who was sitting near him also followed him and asked with furrowed brows. She seemed to have slept for a second there.

“Something is coming…it's very fast…” Kenshin’s voice was grave. His seriousness affected Isabella, who was about to let out a yawn.