-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Tiger Faced Sharks-

“Ah! Thank you for your help!” the young hunter bowed to Kenshin and thanked him for saving his life. To him, Kenshin just patted his shoulder in response and gave him a smile, before walking towards the mermaid in the net which was still flailing like a fish out of water.

“Here” the old man walked at him and handed him the sword.

“Thank you.” Kenshin thanked him and looked the mermaid that’s yet to change its appearance. Its appearance was a little weird. From face to its chest, everything resembles a human female, but from there to down, everything is red and fleshy and scaley. It also had a fish like tail, which was the reason why people call it mermaid, despite it destroyed the typical image of a mermaid in people’s hearts.

“What would happen of it?” Kenshin asked as he checked out the thing and the murderous intent on the eyes of every hunter around. Shaking his head, he went away from there. He had already seen what is to be seen of this mermaid. They only had an HP of 300, so even if it’s a normal hunter, they can kill it with a few blows using their skills. Although none of the hunters gathered here could one shot her like how he had been doing earlier.

Walking around the deck, he found the marker of Isabella had moved. Looking closer, he found her standing among the crowd. Her eyes though, for some reason it made him very sad. She looked so lost and sad, its as if she had given of on her life. Looking a such an Isabella, he couldn’t help but wonder if this Isabella the real one?

‘She looks so sad and empty! That cheerful persona, is that a façade?’ Kenshin wondered. But he didn’t go to comfort her. He had seen many such cases, in fact, he, himself was a victim of a hard life. After his parents passed away, how hard he tried to take care of him and Akari, only he knew it. From the dawn of this new age, things like that had become common. With so many powers fighting for dominance, no one cares if someone gets hurt or not. Kenshin had a hunch that this Isabella must be a victim, and things that happened with her must be quite serious. After all, surpassing level 100 so young without having a system like his, just shows how hard she had tried to get strong.

If he had not sensed her KI, he would have asked about her pain. But currently he viewed her as an enemy, and he had already learned a hard lesson on being kind to an enemy. Sparing her one last glance, he walked out of the crowd and sat on the edge of the boat, the place where he was sitting earlier. This mission was starting to bore him. Not only he had yet to meet a powerful monster, but he had also made an enemy out of some unknown girl. He didn’t even know what mistakes he had committed.

“Hmm! Why the long face?” an aged but vibrant voice was heard. It was none other than Hachiouji Daisuke, the old man who have more than 10 skills with unknown levels. Startled, he turned around only to find no one else. He successfully recognized the man’s voice, but he couldn't see his figure. Opening his map, he found his marker was still at the front of the boat. So that means he was talking to him in mind?

Kenshin showed an uneasy expression.

“haha! Don’t worry, I am not talking into your mind. It's just a normal voice transmission, I am using one of my skills to hack a voice spectrum and relay it directly to you. Aside from you, no one else can listen to it.” The voice came again, this time it explained what was going on, making Kenshin relax a little.

“So it’s a skill. There sure a lot of types around.” Kenshin muttered in a low voice. Although this old man had the ability, he didn’t. He also wanted to copy his skills, but he was yet to face him. To use his [Replication], he needs to be at a place where he can at least see him.

“You would be surprised to find how many types of skill there are. Excluding all the battle type ones, at least five hundred thousand different skills were recorded to date. Among them, there are no less than 3 thousand skills that are useless in all aspects other than being a skill. We have yet to find the trigger and condition behind the awakening of the skills though.” The old man sighed as he answered Kenshin’s question.

“Yet to find the trigger?” suddenly Kenshin remembered his [Earthen Slicer] skill. Wasn’t that his self created skill, something he made himself? Didn’t that mean he had already found the trigger? ‘Should I reveal this fact to others or not? No, I shouldn’t do that. The matter can easily go out of hand. If the government or some shady organization investigate it, I would be exposed. I better not take this risk, for now.’

In the end, Kenshin decided against it to expose his understanding of triggering a skill awakening. He decided to teach Akari on how to create her own skills. He also wants to confirm if it was possible without having a system or not. If it's possible, then that’s okay. If it's not, then that's too bad.

“That’s right. Hunters, as well as researchers, had yet to figure out how to awaken a skill. It just happens at random intervals, so no one is sure about it. There was even news about someone awakening a skill while taking a dump in a public toilet. As for me, I had awakened it when I was on a dungeon and facing a powerful monster. That time, I wanted to relay my strategy to others without actually shouting and alerting the monster, and then a flash of light later, suddenly I awakened this skill. Sigh, even if I tried to simulate it later, nothing happened. I wonder how it happened? Okay, leaving that aside. Why are you making a long face like that?” the old man asked as he changed the topic.

“About that, I wanted to hunt some powerful sea monster. But except for these pocket change monsters, I have yet to find a truly strong one that could make go all out. I am starting to think this whole expedition was just meant for these low leveled hunters. There were no monsters like what mentioned in reports yet.” Kenshin didn’t mind complaining to the old man. From his bearing until now he had somewhat guessed that this old man must be very knowledgeable about this expedition.

“of course you won't find any since we are purposefully avoiding such places. The second boat that contained all the high leveled official hunters. They are supposed to go to those high leveled zones to hunt the powerful sea monsters there. If you want to hunt those monsters, you can directly run towards north-east from where you are sitting. They must be there right now.”

“I see, so that’s why I have yet to find something powerful. We are purposefully avoiding them all this time. Okay, thanks old man for the advice. I am going to that place then. See ya!” muttering his thanks, he directly jumped into the ocean and vanished into the seas.