-Vol 6: Dusk Of An Era-

-Renewing The Contract(2)-

Getting useless information that young people often come here in search of treasures, Kenshin shook his head and didn’t say anything. He didn’t explain himself to the man feeling there no need for that and continued to stand at the deck to look at the mass of dark fog that gradually getting nearer.

The dark fog pretty much reminded him of the one that covered the whole of the north pole, only it was clear fog, not pitch black. Also, there was another difference, the fog back at the North Pole made the whole place a pseudo-dungeon. But the pitch-black fog was just a side effect of unholy ‘dead’ magic coinciding with the ‘life’ nature of the earth and its magic. Also, this island, Kurogiri, not only had only undead dungeons, the whole island could be said a sanctuary for the undead.

If not for DCB’s regular large scale clean-ups that happened every third month, the undeads would have long since reached the mainland. The crew with whom Kenshin was traveling was also meant for one of such large scale clean ups, as it was the third month since last clean up. Although he was here for his own business, he wouldn’t mind cleaning up all the undeads he comes across. Moreover, its been too long since he had last used his ‘Bane of Specters’ title effect.

“Say, Kenshin. You said you were from Mito, right?” Satoru came and sat on the edge of the deck, looking at Kenshin.

“Yes, I am.” Kenshin nodded since he had told him his origin.

“Then, you must have seen the situation of Yonezawa, right? Can I ask if you have seen the thing that caused a whole town into that?” Satoru asked with furrowed brows. The Government just glossed over the true facts, saying that a monster’s rampage caused this while not specifying exactly what monster. They announced that there were many casualties, but never disclosing the actual number.

‘Even the officials of DCB weren’t aware of such facts save for a few key figures. No wonder this guy would want to know’ thinking of this Kenshin sighed and looked at the horizon with a complicated gaze. Satoru looked expectantly, waiting patiently for Kenshin to reveal the truth he had been dying to know since that day.

Taking a deep breath, Kenshin forcefully suppressed the emotion that surged suddenly.

“It was a tiger variant. A tiger which can freely change its size but strength-wise, it was overwhelming.” He hadn’t fought with it, but from what he heard from Joy, that tiger had made short work out of Aoi’s party and even caused a casualty. If not for the timely arrival of him, another would have been added to the list. That Aoi, who had the world record of not letting a single party member die even when fighting against a powerful foe, nearly lost two in a single fight and against a single monster.

It was the testament to the strength of the monster and of course, the kid that summoned it even when at a weakened state.

‘It's as Core said, each and every individual that escapes from those dungeons could wipe out a country even while being weakened heavily… that’s how strong they are. Unless earth could have someone on the same level as them, nothing could be done except waiting for their deaths.’ Kenshin became even more depressed while thinking of this. He really envied his past self that only worried about how to make his ends meet while struggling in a level 2 dungeon.

Although those were troubling times, at least he didn’t have to worry about dangers on a cosmic scale. Ignorance was bliss, and Kenshin would have preferred to stay in that ignorance for a few more years had he know such a thing would happen in the future.

“A tiger variant, I see. Haha… haha… we, humans… it seems the throne of being the top of the food chain no longer belongs to us. Sigh! Depressing indeed.” Satoru laughed mockingly, shaking his head while at it.

“It’s been like that since the beginning of the new era… it's just that people have yet to realize it fully. Ah, sorry. I was sitting there eavesdropping to you guys conversation and decided to butt in since the topic was so interesting. I am Hack, nice to meet you.” Suddenly a new voice came from their behind as a man around the same age as Kenshin with extremely short black hair holding a sheathed katana in his left hand introduced himself.

“I am Satoru, nice to meet you too.”

“Kenshin. Nice to meet you… that katana… I feel a unique will from it. Is that a holy weapon?” Kenshin looked sharply at the sheathed sword as his WIL and Dragon Senses tingled nonstop by just a mere glance at it.

Even while using his system to scan, the following message popped up;

[Item is too high leveled for the current host to scan.]

“Oh! You can tell? Then your WIL must be strong, or it might have already transformed into Intent. Yeah, well you are partially right. This sword is, although not a holy weapon, was reforged from the remains of a holy shield. Its called Shokan-Gatana or Redemption Sword.” The young man named Hack introduced his weapon happily. He was very proud and happy to receive such a good partner that every swordsman in his line of work’s dream.

“Sword of Redemption? Isn’t that… then you must be the rumored Swordsman of light!” Satoru was flabbergasted to see such a celebrity in person.

“Please don’t call me with that embarrassing name that only a 4th-grade syndrome sufferer could come up with. I still couldn’t find the one who gave me that name. It's so embarrassing. God!! I don’t even believe in light or anything related to it aesthetically.” Hack stamped his feet on the boat angrily with enough strength to rock it slightly while complaining.

‘That’s a pretty embarrassing name, alright!’ even Kenshin agreed, and he was someone who had a few titles and skills that would make people cringe… take dragon sense, for example. A name befitting of an 8th-grade syndrome sufferers daydreams. Thankfully he didn’t have anything sealed in his right arm of the left eye, or he would really be too embarrassed to even use the skill in public.

“Ah! Sorry… now that I think of it, that title is pretty cheesy and cringy.” Satoru agreed too.

“See! Anyway, back to our conversation, can I ask the exact number of casualties Mr.Kenshin?” Hack asked, taking a seat near Satoru while leaning his sword to his shoulders.

“Sorry, bro, but I am not allowed to reveal it. But it's pretty bad… can easily be considered the biggest tragedy of Japan if DCB and the government didn’t keep a mum about it. You can run your imagination now, right?”

“I see… so it’s that bad…” while muttering in a grave tone, Hack slowly unsheathed his sword while Kenshin conjured a shiny star on his index finger.

“Oi! What are you guys doing?” Satoru, who found their actions weird thought the worst and backed away while shouting loudly.

But contrary to what he thought, Kenshin and Hack didn’t attack each other, rather aimed their respective weapons towards the sea and initiated the attack.

{Kuooooooo!!} a bone shivering sound was heard as soon as their attacks were made, two huge fish like things, with human-like arms slowly floated up before dispersing into nothingness.

“Monsters!” Satoru realized finally, coincidentally, the one Keshin shot down appeared the same place where he sat before. Meaning, if he hadn’t backed away; by now he might have been a corpse floating in the vast sea, and if he was unlucky, he might have transformed into an undead, forever destined to roam the lands until someone kills him. Thinking of this, a shiver ran down his spine as he cursed loudly with a “Shit!!”

And then, the alarm warning blazed, alerting every single hunter that boarded the boat.