10.

Summer Expedition is an annual event wherein selected adventurers from different guilds will be participating to grind up on this island. It’s a week-long event and afterwards they need to head back so that the isle can replenish its lost during the expedition, thus the day of the Summer Expedition starts. Huge steamships were docked at the harbor, it is way different than the regular ships in Mashira and other places. Steamships are specially designed to travel to the Summer isle (the place where Summer Expedition takes place). It is why it is not commercially used because of its lack of speed but its endurance is remarkable. It can go against the wind current and tidal waves but will surely take time if it will travel a long distance. Luckily, Summer Isle is near proximity to Mechtown. The island itself is covered with strong wind, wild waves and swirling currents. Steamships are the only ship that can go through it with ease.

“WOAAHH! THOSE SHIPS LOOKS LIKE A GOLEM BUT IN A FORM OF A BOAT!” Ryuu shouted.

“HAHA! Amazing right? It is the pride of Mechtown! The toughest ship out there!” Kyap bragged.

“And who are you?” Reiko asked.

“HAHA! I’m Kyap! The overall incharge of this expedition, basically the captain” Kyap answered.

“WOOAAAH! YOU HAVE A METAL ARM!” Ryuu said.

“HAHA! It’s a long story but I can proudly say that I made this on my own! HAHA! Anyway, I have to go, see you there kiddos!” Kyap responded.

“Hmmm.. Hokori-kun is late” Akari said.

“Worried for him not showing up?” Reiko teased.

“No, I am sure that he will come here” Akari answered.

“Yeah! Captain will be here soon” Ryuu added.

“Then why are you worried? Perhaps you miss him? It was only for a day Hinata-chan” Reiko continually teased.

“Stop it Reiko-chan! Speaking of which, there’s Hokori-kun” Akari said.

“YOW! CAPTAIN! I made it to the finals yesterday but I got beaten up hehehe” Ryuu proudly said.

“Told you, you lacked instincts” Kane replied.

“I wish you were there yesterday! You were right, instincts were a huge advantage in combat, he closed his eyes and dodged my attacks! Though I still think that he is no match to you, captain!” Ryuu said.

“I do think you should be there too, someone missed you while you were gone, Hokori-kun,” Reiko teased.

“REIKO-CHAN!” Akari shouted.

*Akari pushed Reiko away from Kane*

“Let’s keep moving!” Akari said while blushing.

The party boarded the steamship. After some time, the sail to the Summer isle started. Numerous adventurers participated and there are 5 Steamships setting a course.

In Summer isle there is a dungeon named Nethercave. It is rich in minerals which will be the best place to gather recipes to be forged at Mechtown. Every floor has its own environment where different beasts reside. On the final floor, an Elder dragon is waiting, it is incredibly tough and its skin is made out of Obsidian, which can be crafted as the sharpest metal or the toughest armor. Entering the Nethercave is a gamble, adventurers can still grind more experience on the island alone but if it’s the loot that they are looking for, they should be ready for what they came for.

The Steamship finally reached its destination, everybody was eager to grind up and they sprinted out as soon as the ship docked. The Summer expedition starts but Kane is still in his room.

“YOW CAPTAIN! What are we waiting for? We’ll run out of loot if we stay here all day!” Ryuu complained.

“That’s the plan, we’ll stay here all day” Kane replied.

“We are going to be left behind if we don’t start soon Hokori-kun” Akari said.

“Is there any tactical reason behind this?” Reiko asked.

“Relaxed, we’ll head out at noon, for now rest or prepare yourselves” Kane answered.

“But everyone is running to the dungeon! We need those Obsidian” Ryuu added.

“Exactly, let them clear the dungeon, it will take the same effort from ground floor down to 30th floor since the mobs from those levels have the same strength” Kane replied.

“So we are going to start our grind at the 31st floor?” Akari asked.

“Not to mention, they are probably exhausted and will camp at night…” Reiko responded.

“Will the respawn time of those mobs be a problem?” Ryuu added.

“The monsters at 1st floor up to the 30th respawns at sunrise. Things get a little random onwards” Kane explained.

“You surprisingly know a lot of things about the dungeon Hokori-kun” Akari praised.

“Because I’ve been there” Kane replied.

The party is conditioning themselves individually, they are warming up and arranging things that they should bring along the quest. With the experience advantage from Kane, they eventually went out of the ship as the sun settled.

“Yow kiddos! you are all looking sharp! Come back to the ship after a week! We won’t leave as long as you are not yet here.” Kyap said.

“Thanks Kyap!” Ryuu replied.

“Good to see you with Kane, please understand his behavior later on, that guy has it rough on this island. I couldn’t even believe how tough he was.” Kyap whispered to Akari.

Kyap waves his hand from the shore while the rest of them went down and entered the dungeon. The party goes straight down to the 31st floor, along the way, they saw some adventurers camping due to the exhaustion after clearing the levels per floor on the dungeon. As Kane expected, the furthest place that the adventurers will clear is the 30th floor, upon arrival, they saw another party of adventurers resting on a corner.

“Yow! What’s your name?” Ryuu asked.

“My name is Byoko, this is Mista, and this is Trundle.” Broko, the party leader answered.

“OY CAPTAIN! STOP WALKING FOR A SECOND! I have to go, Captain does not like talking” Ryuu said.

“Wait! Our party is a bit weak, can we tag along?” Broko asked.

*Kane stopped walking*

“No” Kane firmly answered.

“Yow, but captain? They look like beginners! We can talk about the shared loot later, just let them tag along” Ryuu requested.

“We barely made it here, even the minimal loot share will be fine with us” Broko added.

“Reiko, heal them” Kane said.

*Reiko healed Broko and his party*

“That’s enough help, go back to the surface, you’ll slow us down” Kane added.

“Sorry for that, Captain is a bit distant with everyone, I hope for your success” Ryuu explained.

“It’s fine, We’ll see you again, thank you for your help” Broko replied.

Kane led the way and the party followed, Akari then slowed her movement a bit to talk with Reiko and Ryuu.

“Kyap-san said that we should understand the behavior of Kane, he also mentioned that Kane had a bad experience here.” Akari whispered.

“Hokori’s eyes are a bit different this time, looks like he is mad...” Reiko replied.

“I wonder what happened to Captain here” Ryuu added.

“Don’t fully clear the mobs, we will only kill those in our way, reserve your energy” Kane ordered.

11.

The party rushed their way down to the 45th floor killing only the minimal amount of monster. On the 45th floor, Kane noticed something unusual in the area. Some of the monsters recently respawned but he doesn't remember a beast eating its own herd. His initial hypothesis is some of the monsters climb up to feast the weaker ones, but he is still skeptical. On the 50th floor, Kane immediately cast a dark shroud on the whole level.

“YOW CAPTAIN! What’s your deal?” Ryuu complained.

“Don’t make a sound. Akari light up our perimeter, I’ll lessen the shroud on our side.” Kane ordered.

“Okay, but why?” Akari asked.

“We are being followed, they are about to ambush us here” Kane replied.

Akari, Reiko, and Ryuu were shocked and immediately followed Kane’s order. From out of nowhere, a loud scream echoed on the area.

“HELP US!”

Kane immediately removed the shroud and that instant, they saw a group of bandits, disguised as adventurers, holding Broko, Mista, and Trundle as a hostage.

“Yow! Shocked ey?” said by the boss of the bandits.

“OY! Unhand them right now!” Ryuu shouted.

“What if I don’t?” The bandit replied.

*The bandits laughed*

“To be honest, you guys are hard to trap, we couldn’t pin you guys down, luckily we saw these stupid ones tailing you, You, wouldn’t leave this cute adventurers aren’t you?” The leader sarcastically said.

“What do you want?” Akari asked.

“Hmm… What do we want? Can I have that sweet smile blondie?” The leader mocked.

*The bandits continued laughing*

“I WANT THE ONE WITH GLASSES, MAKE THEM BOUNCE!” one of the bandits shouted.

“YOU GUYS DISGUSTS ME!” Ryuu furiously shouted.

“Oy? Know your place, You guys are definitely outnumbered here” The boss said.

“You are a perverted coward!” Reiko shouted.

“Really? Teach them their lesson” the boss ordered.

A bandit puts out his sword and beheads Trundle. Akari, Reiko, and Ryuu screamed intensely while Broko and Mista mourned loudly. Kane’s trauma from his past experience on Summer isle unleashes.

“Now Kneel! We will be taking your loot here, as well as your lives. Well you can beg for it if you want” The boss said.

*The bandits continued laughing*

“This will be the grave for all of you” Kane whispered.

“EE?? What are you saying tough guy?” the boss asked.

Kane disappeared in an instant, the moment they saw Kane, 5 heads from their troops were already on his hands.

“I SAID THIS WILL BE YOUR GRAVE” Kane shouted.

Akari, Reiko, and Ryuu felt the tremor in Kane's voice, it was the first time that they heard him scream with all anger.

“STOP THAT GUY!” the boss ordered.

The shroud covers the whole battlefield, one by one they can hear the bandits screaming pain.

“Boss this is bad! He is the infamous Nightreaper that kills some of our allies in Bysstal! Let’s run!” one of the bandits said.

“NO! It’s time to avenge our troops, Charged!” the boss shouted.

“Hahaha… So you were the boss of those punks who prey on the weak at an alley” Kane said.

“SHOW YOURSELF! Y..you… COWARD!” the boss nervously said.

“Fine, but this is the last thing that you will ever see” Kane responded.

The shroud fades but the pitch black shroud was replaced by a pure red pool of blood. A total of a hundred bandits lying on the floor and all of its head were placed around Kane and the boss of the bandits.

“Y..y..you are a monster! You’re a psychopath!” The boss shouted while trembling in fear.

“Psychopath? HAHAHAHA! Don’t make me laugh, okay I’ll count to 10, If you outrun me, you can live. 1...2...3...” Kane started counting.

The boss ran as fast as he could.

“Please… stop this Kane…” Akari said while in tears.

“4...5...6..” Kane continued counting.

“Don’t corrupt yourself… we are here for you…” Akari then hugged Kane.

“7...8...9..”

“PLEASE STOP! I’M BEGGING YOU!” Akari shouted.

“If I scare you, You can all leave me here, I won’t hold any grudge on you, I’ll be at the Elder dragon’s lair…. Besides… I’m already corrupted..10...” Kane blinks from his position and continues his pursuit.

Meanwhile Reiko and Ryuu were giving comfort to Broko and Mista. The fast paced series of events blows everyone’s mind. While mourning at someone’s death, they were surrounded by dead bodies and a hundred of heads formed in a circle stunned them for almost an hour. Eventually they decided to follow Kane at the 52nd floor, The Elder dragon’s lair, there are no monsters along the way, they thought that Kane killed everyone on his way. After a while, they reached the lair’s entrance, it was slightly opened. They entered and saw Kane sitting on top of the dragon’s corpse. It will only vanish if the obsidian is harvested. Once it is harvested, it will take 6 more hours before the Dragon respawns. Killing a hundred bandits in 10 minutes is an incredible feat but solo killing an Elder dragon is way more insane.

“Where is the bandit’s boss?” Akari softly asked.

“I feed him to this dragon” Kane answered.

“Nee-san, Captain is bleeding a lot, please heal him” Ryuu requested.

“I will help too” Mista added.

“Are you sure about this? You aren’t afraid of me?” Kane asked.

“I admit that when I looked around, it scared me to death, but I realized that I could have been in their position if it wasn’t for you, I’m sorry that we tag on your back…” Broko explained.

“We wouldn’t be in this situation if only our party is stronger… I owe you my life and my friend’s vengeance” Mista added.

“We will never leave you Kane… It hurts to see you this way… I hope we can take some of your burdens that you were going through…” Akari said.

-I’m sorry…

Kane cried for the first time after holding it for years. That moment, Kane snapped out.

12.

The party collected the Obsidian from the Elder dragon, since it will take some hours before it respawns, they decided to camp in the lair alongside Broko and Mista. They gave Kane some space. Broko, Ryuu and Mista headed out to gather some meat at the 51st floor while Reiko and Akari stayed to set up a fire. The long silent hours continues, Kane just staring blindly, emotionally drained from what had happened. Broko, Ryuu and Mista returned after hunting. They skewed the meat on a stick and cooked it at the blazing fire. After 3 straight hours of silence, Kane spoke.

“Do you want to know who I am?” Kane asked.

“No need to force it if you don’t want to, but we will listen to your story if it will make you feel better.” Akari replied.

*Kane started to tell them the tale*

Long time ago I was an aspiring adventurer. My parents died when we were still young. That's why me and my older brother were forced to work and do numerous tasks at our young age. It is definitely hard to live with a limited amount of money, most of the time we only eat once in a day, twice if we get lucky. Simple tasks get us by. Helping during harvest season on farms, lifting logs, helping the forging shops, those were the tasks that saved us from hunger. I would have given up but my brother pushes me forward and we both strive to still exist in this world.

One day the guildmaster showed up, I was curious back then because I can sense him every single day, feels like he’s following us and that day, he decided to confront us. I immediately defended myself and I asked him what do he want from us. I thought we were about to get framed on something we did not do. That was the time he offered us to be an adventurer. He said that we both have a potential and he is willing to buy us starting items and also feed us once a day until we can stand on our own, the only exchange was serving the guild for 5 years. Since our lives are on the line, we agreed to his deal due to desperation.

Our lives started to change. I admit that being an adventurer is easier to earn money rather than being a servant to random shops. We can focus more on training while earning money at the same time. Quests on the guilds put spice on our lives, even though our lives were in danger every time we encountered different monsters, it was all worth it back then, for once, I enjoyed living in this world.

After getting accustomed in the guild for 2 years, we eventually reached the limit. A party of two will only be good at beating slimes, goblins, a single golem at best. We needed more members at our party. One faithfull morning, a group of adventurers invited us to join them. They said that they were going to take part in the Summer expedition and they wanted us to be part of their party. Due to the lack of experience, we immediately said yes without thinking about it.

For the first time ever, we are leaving Bysstal. I’m excited back then, I thought that maybe life isn’t so bad after all. I was actually glad that we managed to hold on up until that moment. After 3 days, we’ve reached Mechtown, we traveled quicker since they have 4 ground dragons pulling our wagon. We met Kyap at Mechtown, he was the captain of that expedition. A few moments, we traveled here to Summer Isle.

Upon arrival, our party goes straight down to the 51st floor. We continued fighting monsters without camping, I requested that we should rest up a bit because I’m already exhausted but they said we are almost there. I don’t know why they are in such a hurry but I trusted them, maybe there is something important that they need to accomplish early.

When we reached our destination, there’s 6 other adventurers waiting there. I started to become skeptical, especially when one of them approached our party, feels like they knew each other. I asked them if who were those people, but then, they all started laughing. My brother whispered that we should run, I don’t know what’s going on but I felt the same way. Slowly, we tried walking backwards but 2 of them stopped us.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He said.

“We forgot something on the boat, we will be right back” My brother answered.

“Don’t leave yet, we need you here, specially you big bro” He replied.

They grabbed us and tried to wrap us on a rope. I asked them what was happening. What did we do wrong?

“The professor said he needs a fit male body for his experiment. It doesn’t matter if it's dead or alive and the payment is too good so sorry about this” one of our party members explained.

“Then why bring us here if you can kill us back then?” my brother asked.

“To be fair, at first we really wanted to be friends with you but when we met the professor at Mechtown, we realized that this is also a golden opportunity because the guild cannot trace you here at summer isle, high payment, low risk. It’s a win-win situation for us, he also said that his troops are waiting here. If we do not give your bodies into these fellas, they might take ours, you understand now?” He said.

That moment I realized that this world is definitely fucked up. They are willing to sell other people just to save their own lives. My brother was furious about it, he was desperately resisting, one of them got pissed off and decided to behead him.

“Oy? We are still getting paid here right?” one of them asked.

“Don’t worry, we will freeze his body to retain its freshness, here’s the payment” one of them answered.

Everything happened too quickly, I can’t comprehend the current situation, I cannot scream, I cannot move, I’m impaled. I was just staring at my brother’s head on the floor. All those times that we’ve been through, I only managed to get that far because of him. I was so angry. That was the time I discovered I can use dark magic. I unconsciously cast an extreme layer of shroud, even the monsters freaked out, it caused immense chaos, monsters were attacking from unknown direction but because of that I managed to escape and hide.

Eventually they all went up. I was left there, shivering, covered in fear, nothing but sticks and stones in my surroundings. I don't know how am I going to survive, either I starve to death or be eaten by monsters on the 51st floor. But those emotions were just shallow compared to the immense anger flowing through my veins. If I die there, I won’t be able to serve vengeance for my brother.

I picked up the stones on the ground and tried to chip away the monster’s health. Luckily, they do not regenerate. It took me half of a day just running while throwing rocks on a single monster. With my Dark magic, I use the shroud to hide whenever they are near. Due to its unavailability to regenerate, I can rest up while I’m chipping its health. A single hit would have killed me back then. It was definitely exhausting but it was all worth it. When I finally killed the white gorilla, its flesh saved me from starvation and I leveled up 5 times. I repeated that technique for a whole month I think. Every monster that I took down gives me more survivability percentage.

Every time I want to give up or at the peak of dying, my brother’s head pops up in my mind and I just couldn’t help it. That trauma pushes me forward, all the way out of the dungeon. Eventually, I reached the outside, I sprinted out to ask for help but then I realized, the expedition is only a week-long event. I have to survive the whole year on this island before I can get back to Bysstal. That moment I swore that I’ll do whatever it takes until I take my revenge. I guess my humanity also leaves me that time.

I spend my time training here on this island alone. I studied every corner of this island and using that knowledge, I survived for a whole year. Learning how mana flows, how to use magic alongside a sword made from the item drops. I learned how to be a skillful mage and a cunning swordsman both at the same time. Kyap was surprised when he saw me. We both agreed that we will keep this incident a secret since it will ruin his reputation as a captain and I want to keep my identity as secret as possible.

When I got back to Bysstal, the guildmaster thought that he was seeing an undead. Rumors were scattered, they said that I’m already dead. I prefer it that way and we keep it that way. I don’t enter the guild’s main entrance, I usually climb up directly to the guildmaster’s office. Hiding my identity is easier because we don’t actually shined before. Using that as an advantage, the guildmaster helps me to figure out where those adventurers are, especially the so-called professor. I swore that I will get stronger and eventually serve them vengeance.