-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Setting Out-

Taking note to keep an eye out for her, Kenshin continued his observation. He would have liked to distance himself from her, but, to not make her suspicious about anything, he reluctantly stayed silent about it. At the same time, he used his [Replication] repeatedly on her skills. Currently, his replication was level 12, enabling him to copy any skill that’s below that level. For him to fail at replicating any one of her skills means her skill level wasn’t low, at least they were higher than his [Replication].

“Kenshin, are you a long ranged or a melee fighter?” suddenly Isabella asked as she looked at him with her big wondrous eyes. She was babbling nonstop since they met, either matter regarding her childhood or some of her skills and power. He came to know that she was a hunter emphasizing heavily on agility and powerful strikes. According to her, the skills she awakened were what forced her to train that way. Nobody had any control over what skill they awakened so the most hunter would start training after awakening their skills.

If it’s a magic skill, then that’s excellent. If not, depending on what skill they awaken, they need to train that way. Magic skill uses magic in one’s body, whose quantized value depends upon intelligence and wisdom.

How that works?

According to scientists, by repeated usage of magic, a special part of the brain which was responsible for a person’s intelligence would strengthen. Coincidentally, the source of all magic in the body was also there. If one’s magic increases, alternatively their intelligence also increases. For Kenshin, it's backward. By increasing intelligence, his magic increases. As for wisdom, by knowing more about magic, their control over them increases and becomes refined. All these things were the same for Kenshin too.

Hunters awaken skills. That process never hinders, even if they were at their death bed, they could still awaken one. But, most of the time they don’t have any control over what skill they awaken. In rare cases, skill books drop in high-level dungeons, but they couldn’t be affordable by these low-level hunters. The drop rate of these skill books was so low that, even by a country’s standard, less than 2 books would drop in every 6 months. One can only imagine what would be their cost.

“I am a close-range fighter like you. I use fire magic. Although it should categorize me as a long range hunter, I have trained my self to use’em in close quarters too.” Hiding his true intention, Kenshin answered her questions with half-truths. Like this, they both started to chat and pass their time. Kenshin also found that this girl was withholding quite a few information from him. Of course, no true hunter would reveal anything about their powers or anything that could relate to their powers, this girl was even lying about normal stuff like where she belongs, or who were her parents…things like that.

Another oddity Kenshin found was her repeated inquiry about how he spent his day after they parted ways yesterday. For a second Kenshin thought that she perhaps knew something about his actions of yesterday. Later he discovered that she was simply curious.

“Okay, everyone. The ride is here. Please follow me to your respective buses. We will depart in twenty minutes.” A middle-aged man wearing military uniform came in and shouted some orders to everyone. After he left the room, the hunters standing closer to the door followed him immediately.

“Hey, what are you rushing for?”

“Stop pushing me…ahh! You pervert, where are you touching?”

The door to the conference room was small in the first place; when so many people tried to get out at once, problems would arise. Kenshin became speechless at how childish these hunters were. A few even took the chance of this situation and deed a few lewd acts to any females before them, eliciting furious shouts from them. It became even more chaotic at the front.

Kenshin noticed the woman with the bow, and a few men stayed behind, waiting for the group in the front to clear out first. They were the intelligent ones, knowing this would happen from the beginning, they remained in the last. Isabella also stayed behind with Kenshin, opting to wait until the crowd was cleared before going herself.

“These people remind me of kindergarten children.” Placing her hand in front of her mouth, Isabella giggled and said in Kenshin’s ears. Kenshin also couldn’t resist from a smile tugging his lips. It was really funny if you imagine how kindergarten children behaved when they were about to enter the class in a queue.

The crowd in the front didn’t clear until a few strong hunters from the DCB came and meddle with them. They forced these unruly men and women to follow in a straight queue. The situation finally calmed down and settled. Again Kenshin and Isabella laughed when they saw it. It was really funny, Kenshin was never to such a large gathering of independent hunters. Back in DCB tent during north pole mission, everyone belonged to DCB, so they were well trained and maintained discipline on their own. They weren't like these people, unruly and childish.

After going outside, Kenshin discovered that their mode of transportation was actually a military grade armored bus. This bus was huge, like a tank huge. 70% of its body was made from strong metals found in dungeons. Its fuel was a monster core. The engine was powerful enough to pull through a monster hoard. These buses were expensive, but they were very useful. Germany was the first to invent this type of truck, followed by the USA and other countries. Even missile launchers can be mount safely on these trucks, without hindering its overall mobility.

The bus was huge enough to accommodate every hunter present. Inside the bus was very spacious, the seats were long and arranged on both sides, facing each other. Kenshin took his seat at the middle of the long row, Isabella followed and sat beside him. Before long, the middle-aged man in military uniform came in again.

“Hello everyone. I am Tanaka Kuromatsu. I am level 108, a magic skill user. For this mission, I am going to be your captain and in charge. I won't force you to obey any rules, but during the mission period, I do hope you guys won't repeat what you did just now. It would be counterproductive, many lives are at stake here.” The middle-aged man then continued to brief on what the mission was about. Basically, it was the same as what Yuki told him yesterday, of course, some details were omitted.

“Now we come to rewards, everyone here will have their taxes for this year waived. Yes, I am talking about overall taxes. Aside from that, with every monster you kill, DCB will give you 500 gold coins, or you can also take the dollar equivalent. We will also buy all the drops and monster parts at 5% higher value than the market value, you can also bring them and sell them outside, we will not force you. That’s it, please stay alive. Don’t needless risk your life. If you feel like you can't kill a certain monster, then I will recommend you to back away as soon as possible. That’s all.” With his speech over with, the middle aged man sat beside the driver, holding a walkie-talkie in his hands and communicating with someone.

The bus started soon after.