A single drop of rain was felt by Ichiroku.

Ichiroku who felt the cold sensation touching his cheek moved his trembling hand, he rub his cheek with his palm in attempt to see what had caused the chilly sensation that he felt. But he failed to do so, as his eyes were fixated at the sight of Mermen King that was in front of him.

The Mermen King’s wrath had brought upon them a stormy weather. As the dark grey sky roared, bluish light of electricity was connected from one to another as the sky roar again and again. It was such a frightening weather that Ichiroku's leg trembled.

He was unable to unable to say anything, his lips moved. But it was only due to the sight of the giant mermen in front of him, for his lips were shaking out of fear.

Ichiroku tried to activate his Invisibility. He calmed himself down, slowed down his breathing and tried to become one with his surroundings. Unfortunately his stature was in plain view. He began cursing at himself at his failure.

“Well… Shi-.” Unable to finish his word, Ichiroku jumped a few meters backward.

The breath of fire that The Mermen King expelled from his mouth sprayed over the ground. Sizzling sound could be heard as the water vaporized at the contact of the Mermen King’s fire breath. Some part of the ground was dried off, and some was still wet, while the ground that was directly hit by the Mermen King’s fire breath had it grass shaved off.

“No Hair Captain!!!” Ichiroku screamed to his throat.

“I got it covered lad!” No Hair screamed. No Hair who was barely keeping his feet planted onto the ground move forward to Ichiroku aid. With Ichiroku behind his back he activated his Silver Palm. “Silver Palm! Second phase ” he added.

Silver Palm is a technique where a player manipulates his mana and turned it into a form wall. He used this technique before during their quest to weaken the mermen army. The effect of it was the mermen who were by far weaker in level and power were brushed away easily and killed when the ‘palm’ hit them.

But this time, the Mermen King was far superior compared to the Mermen that they had fought before. It was not an exaggeration if one were to say that the Mermen King has the same strength as No Hair, or even far superior than No Hair. No Hair had no other choice but to activate the next level of his Silver Palm. The Second Phase

The breath of fire directly hits No Hair’s [Silver Palm Shield]. No Hair was pushed a few centimeters away from due to the fire breath pressure. Trace of No Hair’s foot being pushed away was visible on the ground.

Even though the fire didn’t reach where No Hair was, by the pure heat of the fire No Hair’s HP had started to slowly declining.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!” No Hair screamed. “Lad, I might sound selfish but… Mind giving me some of your Great HP Potion that you have left? I don’t think I call last longer while without those potions!” he added.

“Take it take it take it! Take all of it!!” Ichiroku said frantically.

Ichiroku took out the potions from his inventory and hold the potion for No Hair to drink. He could feel the intense heat as he moved his hand closer near No Hair’s beard. No Hair took it by his teeth and gulped down the whole potion content in on shot. “Puu haaaaaa…” He exhaled.

The Mermen King stopped its attack.

“Human… Your resistance is nothing but futile. Drop your weapon and wash your neck, it is not too late to atone for your sins that you had done to us Mermen.” Mermen King spoke. He raised his staff high into the air. “Come to my aid my loyal servants!”

The sky roared again.

From the drops of rains formed creatures that had never been seen by No Hair nor Eden before. The Mermen King had summoned the Mermen that had died in the war back into life in a water form.

Their body was bluish but transparent. However they emit a purplish dark aura with red menacing eyes. They were the same size as the Mermen King. It was the Mermen Titans, Mermen who was summoned using the dead Mermen souls as catalyst.

“The Mermen King had just summoned the titans!” Ichiroku exclaimed in a terrified voice. His hand, his legs, his entire body was shaking violently. His eyes were bewildered by the sight that he was seeing. If it were not for the rain, long would have No Hair and Eden found out that Ichiroku had wet his pant.

“>!” Eden screamed from afar.

Discerning eyes was a skill that is exclusive for Eden profession, a chef. It was a skill that allowed a player to view the details of an item such ingredients, utensil and monsters. It was a skill that is highly sought by players with Chef Profession for the skill itself is rare and hard to obtain.

“The Mermen King has a total HP of 1 million! I don’t know what his defense is at but his mana had been halved. His hp went down from 1 million to 700 000. I guess that his HP had been distributed to Titans that he had summoned.” Eden screamed out loud. The stormy weather had washed Eden’s voice away and he was forced to repeat the sentence again.

“WHAT THE HELL!” Ichiroku said in disbelief. “Wait… what… wa..” He was lost for word because he deemed the Mermen King was way too strong for his first Main quest.

It was understandable.

For starter, Ichiroku had only spent 2 days inside the game, which is 2/3 day in real time. He was only playing around at the Game Centre and gamble at his first day at Einstel world. His first experience fighting in Einstel Online was against a Mangdora Creep, which had almost killed him if it were not for the cheat like ability that he had.

No Matter how hard he tried, he still cannot get used to the bizarre sight that was in front of him. Surely he had seen such unbelievably strong monsters in movies and games, but to actually see the monster in person is a whole different story.

The Mermen Titans came at Ichiroku party at once.

They executed a straight punch onto No Hair’s Silver Palm. The sound of water splashed on a hard wall reverberating throughout the static air was heard. No Hair fall on his knees, pushed down by the pressure.

Ichiroku on the other hand use No Hair’s back as a stepping stone and jumped high into the mid-air. He chopped off one the Titan’s head. Or that was what he thought. The Titan, who lost its head, was slowly regenerating it back using the rain water that fall on its body.

“How the hell do we even defeat these monsters…” Ichiroku said.

“I’m still waiting for the Subjugation Force to come!” No Hair added.

“You said they are going to come by any minutes now, but I don’t even see their shadow… Are you sure they are coming?!” Eden screamed from afar.

“God I hate this!” Ichiroku said. “Every single damn time the monster’s effect had been getting repetitive. The effect is definitely going to be stun or either skill disabling. Does every single monster in this game have stun effect?!

I know that logically thinking, when you felt pain you will be stun, disable or whatever name it was that made you stopped your movement for a while as you can’t focus on doing anything but to endure the pain. But turning it into a damn stun or confusion effect is damn annoying!

Why can’t they let me learn some damn technique! I’m already level 38 for God sake! Even in the game that I played before by level 30 You already have like three or four attacking skill!” he continued, cursing on his bad luck.

Ichiroku knew this deep inside his heart that his class was not an offence class. This is a reality that was re-created in a virtual world. As gambler, all stat and skills that he got are from his profession change are skill that were closely related to his profession.

Surely as a Gambler he cannot execute a technique that a Warrior can use. He can only use the technique that was difference in essence from his profession by having learning it manually, which are by reading the book or have someone to teach him the technique.

Being able to execute a skill that was not related to his profession without having to learn it manually is like No. 16 who can give birth to a child without having to undergo a surgery to make her human.

In its own essence, Ichiroku profession was almost the same as a Merchant.

His whole experience in the game was only amounted to 2 days of gaming. He had no other skills but his passive skill and two ability skills.

“Dammit! I wonder if this had something to do with being a human race! The woman from the character setting asked me if I really wanted to have Human as my race. I should’ve asked what the hell is wrong being a human… Is this some kind of drawback that human have? ” Ichiroku continued.

“What are you talking about lad…? If you have time for monologue then you have time to back me up!”

“I am trying! I’m just pissed off at these monsters skills. I mean, every time a new monster appears it has different move but the same effect. I mean seriously! War Cry, Shriek, Lightening Whip, the Defender’s Charge all of those thing have damn stun and confusion effect!”

“Eden!!! Can’t you do something about those Titans!?” No Hair raised his voice so Eden could hear his voice.

“I’m sorry captain but I got my hand full against the Mermen!” Eden replied in the same manner.

Even though Eden was not able to see No Hair who was far away from him, No Hair nodded at Eden’s word. He then diverted his attention to Ichiroku.

“Look lad, I don’t really have the time to explain things for you as we are in a very peril situation right now. I don’t know about Mangdora Creep. But every monster race has its own specialties.

Mermen technique is all based on stun effect. How the hell do you even think the villagers can lose in the first place if it weren’t for the Mermen stun effects? I do admit that the Mermen had already overpowered the human by sheer number alone.” No Hair explained.

“… …” Ichiroku said nothing. He was jumping from one side to another as the Mermen King made him run for his life. On the other hand, No Hair was still defending himself using his Silver Palm's Shield.

“But the level difference between the Mermen and the villagers are huge. When the Mermen were still level one, the villagers’ levels are mostly level 12.

The Mermen now are probably level 25 but our villagers are mostly level 35! If it weren’t for the Mermen Stun effect that was spammed over and over again by the huge numbers of Mermen against the villagers, we won’t even be fighting this war right now.”No Hair paused and took a breath. “Behind you lad, 3 o’clock!” he warned Ichiroku as another Titan punch was thrown.

“B-But the Mangdora Creeps are not Mermen!” Ichiroku jumped sideways again, narrowly escaped the Titan fist.

“Why were you even wondering why does Mangdora Creep have the same stun effect, they are summoned by Mermen Mages, of course it have the same stun effect as it followed the will of their summoner! Now, on your left side!”

One of the Titans punches land perfectly on Ichiroku side. Ichiroku fell on four. He was too engrossed listening to No Hair explanation that he had let down his guard for a mere second.

“Think! Think! Think! There must be something that we can do against this situation. In manga and anime there will be always a situation where the author made the enemy too strong that it was almost there is no way for the main character to win the battle. But the main character always win because there will be always some kind of twist!” Ichiroku said to himself and slapped his own cheek a few times.

5 titans cornered him when he was too busy thinking about what he was going to do. The Titans launched their attack at the same time, Ichiroku on the other hand evade the attack by jumping straight against the Titan in front of him.

Shinnnngg!

The Titan was split into two, only to regenerate later.

Ichiroku landed right in front of the Mermen King. The Mermen King opened its mouth and breathed fire once again. Ichiroku managed to evade the attack by a hair breadth. Although he had some part of his hair burnt away, he was okay.

Looking at his burnt hair, while his head was closely pressed onto the ground, Ichiroku said “… Great! Now I look as if I had an afro for a hairstyle.”

“That’s it lad!” No Hair screamed.

“What?” Ichiroku replied with a question and turned his look back to where No Hair was.

“The Mermen's King fire breath! Mermen King’s fire against water Titans!”

Ichiroku was unable to grasp what No Hair was trying to say until he saw the Titans that was cornering him before was no more.

The Titans that was on his back before were nothing more than a vaporized water which had turned into steam.

“I knew it!!” Ichiroku screamed out in joy. “I knew it there was something wrong when a magic fish used ember instead of splash!” he exclaimed, delighted.

***

Far from them was Eden who had been fighting against the mermen. All by himself, he had ended the existence of the Mermen Spell Casters, Defenders, Mages and Warrior. Eden himself was level 102. It was not weird when he had a higher level than No Hair.

Eden was the one who had always out hunting for food ingredients under the sea. Many had died upon his trusted knives. Many had fallen prey into his technique. Using the two knives that he had always brought with him, he had fed all kind of monsters blood to his knives.

If No Hair was all about power and vitality, Eden was all about speed and accuracy.

With his trusted knives on both of his hand, he danced under the rain with his twin sharp knives moving beautifully cutting through the wind. The Spell Casters fireball and lightening whip was beautifully evaded by Eden.

The Defenders offence with their shield was easily parried by Eden. While Mermen Warrior and normal henchmen who were not even worth mentioning for Eden, were exterminated at where they were standing.

Eden was on an entirely different level than Ichiroku. When Ichiroku had a great difficulty and even experienced his first death fighting against the Spell Caster, Eden easily killed numerous of the Mermen Spell Casters, Defenders, Warrior and normal henchmen.

With movement that was as smooth as butter on a hot frying pan, Eden killed the last Defender by stabbing his knives on its nape. His attack damage that was already higher than the Defender defenses, along with the critical hit for hitting the monster right at it vital point, all he needed was 1 attack to end the Mermen life.

The Spell Casters that was in front of him that were frantically spamming fireballs and lightning whip at Eden when they saw the Defenders that were protecting them was nothing more but corpses.

He cut through the consecutive ball of fires that was hurdled at him with no difficulty.

“This is nothing compared to those Titans…” Eden thought to himself.

The balls of fire that easily killed Ichiroku before was brushed off easily.

Eden silver hair was painted red, his white chef clothes was dyed with darkish blood color. At the end of his lips were smile that was never shown to his Captain or Sheldon. It was the same smile that No Hair had on his face when he was exterminating the Mermen back at the Mermen base.

Unbeknownst to Eden himself, he felt joy when his knives passed through the meat that touched the tip of its blade smoothly. The joy of killing his ‘ingredients’ had never ceased his amusement. He looked like a clown who was on a night underground subway, randomly swinging his knife around.

“” Eden said in a barely audible voice.

His knives that were only as long as his arm before turned into a gigantic knives. It was almost like a katana as the knives from were completely different from before. A long slender body, slightly curved as the blade reaches the tip.

Eden then proceed by holds the knives in on hand.

“<> Second Phase!”

Both of the gigantic knives began to emit a dazzling light, and were engulfed in a pure bluish light. By the time the light had gone, the knives had completely changed it shape. It was no longer knives that resemble a katana. Instead, it was a genuine Katana.

Eden readied himself in a ‘quick draw’ stance.

He put forth his strength in his legs and arms. As he was chanting something, a dark purplish aura began to accumulate around him. The Mermen Spell Casters were spamming their skill against Eden. But the fireballs and lightning whip were all deflected by Eden’s aura.

“Iiai Namikiri!” Eden shouted out loud.

It was a quick draw technique, what was left of Eden when he execute the technique are the blurred image of his silhouette.

Sssap… The sound of katana being put back into its scabbard was heard.

The aura that Eden emits was completely different from before. He wore a triumph smile on his looks.

Ppak… The sounds of the Spell Casters head fall onto the ground were heard afterward.

Eden was already moving on his way to aid Ichiroku, but he stopped when he heard voices behind him.

“Hei look at that… The noob human are going frenzy against the weak mermen. A small victory with a triumph smile like that, what a joke.” The monster had bark as its skin.

“kekekekeke! Brodah, it can’t be help… He is a human after all. They always become ecstatic over every single win that they had.”

“Well that little shit is already running away from us, whaddaya say my brodah! Should we play tag, seeing who can catch him first?”

“Kekekeke… I agree.”

The Mangdora Creeps were talking amongst themselves.

“What the fuck did you just fucking said about me, you little shit? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Pirate Hideout, and I have over 100 000 confirmed kills. I am trained in and I’m the top chef in the entire Gourmet Association.

You are nothing to me but just another ingredient. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this fucking world, mark my word you dip-shit!” Eden said with words that were even sharper than his knives.

“Huuuuhhhh??!!”

“What fuck are you giving out human?”

“My brodah! This little shit is underestimating us brodah!”

“I’ll have his legs.”

“I’ll take his arms.”

“My brodah! You can take whatever you want, but leave his head to me. I want to hang a new head on my tree… kekkeke”

“kekekekekekekeke”

“kekekekekekekeke”

“I heard human eats bull’s balls.”

“Then let us try eating this little shit balls. Kekekeke.”

The Creeps were talking among themselves, they were 10 in total.

Eden began to give out an even menacing aura than before. His eyes were slant, and he was looking at the creep with utter disgusted expression. This had incurred the Mangdora Creep anger as they were being underestimated.

“Brodah!!” one of the Mangdora Creeps cried out loud.

“Yahhhhhhh!!!” The rest of them replied with the same intensity.

“I say, we kill this sonuva bitch first and split his body part between us later for souvenir!”

“Ruuaaahh!! Ruuuaaahh!! Ruuuaaahh!! Ruuaaahh!! Ruuuaaahh!! Ruuuaaahh!! Ruuaaahh!! Raaahh!!” The Mangdora Creep was chanting in unison. Their hoarse voice, their bulky body, and their red eyes, they had such appearance that it would not be weird if one of the Mangdora Creeps suddenly screams “I am Gruutt.”

“Captain seemed to have a hard time dealing with you because of your shitty numbers. You shitty monsters were so many before, but now you creeps number is not even a quarter of what you creeps were originally was.” Eden said.

He was already on attack when he was uttering those words. Nevertheless, he evaded all of the incoming attack by doing a basic sidestep. He was moving so fast that he almost seems like he was using instantaneous step.

The Mangdora Creep attacks stopped.

“My blood is my blade, my blade is my cage. It has been your fate, to die upon my rage. Third Phase, Izanagi!”

The katana that he had before was no longer on his hold. At his left side was an enormous sword colored in red. But soon after the enormous sword disappeared into the thin air, re-appearing on his hold was the katana.

Tang!

As if the sound of metal bars hit each other. The sound reverberated and shook the surrounding air. The sound came from the direction of the Mermen King who had one of its hand cut off by Eden skill. Izanagi!

The Mermen King who was too occupied breathing fire at Ichiroku had lost sight of Eden. He let his guard down; Eden who had been monitoring every monster using his skill had already found a loop hole in the Mermen King defense.

On the other hand, the Mermen King had yet to realize that he lost one of his arms. He kept of spamming his fire breath at Ichiroku and No Hair.

Eden was almost like the legendary chef in Classic China Era that cooked a living fish, without the fish knowing that it had been cooked.

The Mangdora Creep who had seen the swift feat by Eden had fall into silence.

“Do you really think that I would waste my strongest attack on you plebeians’ level of mob? Truth to be told, you’re not even worth my time. My stats and total HP had been halved by this rain. But you know, stats had nothing to do with the fighting style and forms that the person himself had. ” Eden added.

His katana reverted back to two normal knives.

“I ran out of mana…” He thought to himself. Activating Discerning Eyes and executing his strongest attack had surely drained his mana away. Nevertheless, the light in his eyes was not changed. It was still filled with firm spirit and confidence. “Now let me ask you bitches… Who the fuck amongst you that put my little brother onto his sick bed…?” Eden spoke out.

The hate is real!

The Mangdora Creep said nothing, but their roots were already pointing on a certain Creep. It was the Creep who called his brethren as ‘brodah’.

***

Hey, Ichiroku here... I got a few announcement to make.

As I ran out of holidays, the updates are probably going to be delayed by 3 days a chapter or maybe 4 days a chapter. I'm working 10 hours a day and sometime takes Overtime and usually hit the bed afterwards after work so I might not get a lot of chance to write.

Also, as you guys had notice I use past-tense for almost all chapter that I wrote. I originally wrote the chapters in Japanese and translated it later on into English. There might be inconsistency in my usage of past-present tense so I hope you guys can put out my mistakes when you found some.

Thank you to for pointing out something which I myself didn't realized before. Your comment remind me that I need a review for my story. I only have 10 chapters posted but, I hope you guys can give a review so that I can improve further, and enhance my writing style and story progress. Your feedback are mostly welcomed.

Sorry for my Grammar and thank you for reading. ^^

P.S The war against Mermen might be long so I will try my best to drag the war and just go on with the story.