32 A day before the Karaoke Bar Scheme: Chapter 31
As the moon envelopes the forest with its light, the mother wolf stood tall and overshadowed the body of a boy who was slowly salvaging the carcasses of its dead children.
She's seen the actions of that boy, she knows his strength yet as she continues to watch over his slaughter, she could not do anything. The ability of this boy to easily kill her children off one by one, made her instinctively stop her tracks.
She could have joined her children on their attack yet as the first move was set and seen by her own eyes, she knew she would die.
As the slaughter was over, there she stood on the verge of both anger and fear.
Yet one emotion overcame the other.
One true emotion was only shown at that moment for the mother wolf.
The emotion of a Silent Overbearing Anger.
She watched as her faceless children lay helplessly in the cold floor, as each chest was ripped open to reveal the only source of their life.
"..."
Slowly and surely the Mother made her decision.
Even if it killed her, even if it would end her chance to run away and survive.
She couldn't…her anger was the one thing she could only feel at that moment.
She wanted to kill this boy.
She wanted to avenge her children.
Even if she did saw how her children was massacred at a blink of an eye…
Even if she knew it was futile.
'My Children….I am sorry you were allured by your instincts…I'm sorry you had come across a danger you had no chance of surviving…I'm sorry I couldn't save you…'
Her inner thoughts were filled with remorse as she glares towards the boy.
I will kill you.
"Looks like mama wolf is angry." said the boy as he looked towards the only wolf that looked bigger than the others.
Face to face, the boy confronted the mother wolf. She, with her oversized body that could easily swallow a man whole, began its march. With every step she made, it was clear she still fears this boy.
Her eyes envelope with only fear but was instantly conquered with anger, reminded of this boy's act.
She rushed at him.
She charged with only the thoughts of her children by her side.
Until.
"Hnn!" at a single second, the boy releases his new found power.
Out comes a blue blade out of nowhere.
He then positions himself to face the beast, with the sword upfront and his body in complete focus, the motion of a perfect swing was in place. Ready to be triggered by the self action of defense.
Kill or be killed.
~Growl!!~
Her pace became faster and faster as she came closer at each step.
Her Jaw opens, ready to gnaw down the face of the indifferent looking boy.
Yet as she came closer, she met the eyes of the boy.
A look of indifference was shown.
~Swish!~
Like a blade cutting through air, it swung along its four legs. Completely incapacitating the Mother Wolf.
the mother notices that instead of focusing on the boy, her line of sight was on the ground in front of the body of one of her children.
There she notices her defeat.
Her legs rolling to the side, the potent smell of her own blood made her realize that there was nothing she could do.
It was a futile attempt to revenge.
"oooooohhhwwwwwww….ooohhh" she whimpers and tries to come closer to her children.
Howling her last voice to the moon.
Even with her injuries, she overcame the pain and finally reached one of her children.
There, her tears finally lets go.
Silently weeping, as her head lay on the stomach of one of her dead children.
"..." the boy, in turn looks to the mother and gave her a different expression.
"..."
"...I'm sorry."
As she heard these words, she couldn't do nothing but close her eyes.
She didn't know what the boy said since she couldn't understand him but she could feel the sympathy.
It still didn't change anything though.
In the end of the day, it was still one of the conflicts for man to face. it was just a man vs nature scenario, were the livability of one side mattered on who was stronger.
There, it was obvious that the beast here wasn't the wolf but instead was the boy.
He could only put his arms together and pray for the dying beast as it lay by her own kind. In the end, he finished his job and killed the beast.
***COUNTER POV:
As the receptionist for the night shift waits in the counter for a customer, she enjoyed watching over the Hunters who came out and came in the Gates. Their Expressions were different, each one that came out the gate.
One was monotonous and indifferent while holding on to a bloodied axe, was sheepishly yawning over the night, one looked terrified as she carried a bloody sword and another that just newly came out of an F ranked Gate, filled with injuries that was fairly common from a blade and a bite mark.
"...man, being a hunter really must suck." said the Receptionist over the counter.
As she continued to watch over the counter, another hunter came out of the gate. This one certain fellow was sluggishly carrying a backpack that looked like it was been through war, a chain mail that was barely hanging on his upper body and a shoe was dragging along his feet. His face was rather pale from the clearly bloody arm that had indications of being gnawed down by a dog's bite.
"!!"
Without notice, A nurse then rushingly came to the boy and puts him in a wheelchair. They both rushed off to the emergency center before the boy had a say to this event.
This was a normal scenario that would happen inside the Hunter's association. With nurses in line, ready to take action for injured Hunters, they themselves would always carry out the fastest treatment to the injured Hunter. An response to this, Hunters would just let the nurses take care of them since it'll only take a matter of minutes before they got treated well.
Moments later, the boy came back with a cast around his arm along with his belongings. With him was a piece of paper that had the words 'Medical Bill' in it.
The boy sluggishly approached the receptionist and showed her the paper, in response the receptionist formally receives the paper and began to read through it.
"...I see, the medical bill is around 10,985 ence. With the Hunter's Discount, I can give you 50 percent off." said the receptionist.
"Okay." said the boy as he proceeded to give the lady his Hunter's card as well as a bag.
"...Whats this?" said the lady, questioning why he puts a bag over the counter.
"I'm also exchanging the mana cores I hunted today." said the boy.
"Oh, I see." the Receptionist understands and begins to open the bag.
As she opened through them, she was amazed to find a stack of mana cores that were mostly slightly light pink. This indicated that the monsters he hunted from an F-rank Gate was Robin Wolves. As she dug through them one by one, she noticed another peculiar mana core that was more pink than the others.
"...This is pure pink, a core corroded from a monster that's almost equivalent to that of a boss monster." she said as she was amazed by this core.
Curious to find this core in the stack, she then looked to the hunters card and found that he was just an F-rank.
"Wha- you're an F-rank?!" she was amazed to find that this boy was just an F-rank and was able to hunt a monster of this level.
"...P-Peak F-rank." said the boy as he was surprise to see the reaction the girl gave.
"I see, usually monsters of this pure of a colored core are strong. You were able to hunt one and that feat itself is amazing." she said as she praised the boy in front of her.
"Well, it did gnaw my arm off like it was a snack…its was quite the hassle fighting that thing." said the boy as he humbled himself to the receptionist.
"Well, if we calculate everything you've hunted so far...your profit for today is around 50,000 ence."
"...that's great."
As the receptionist starts to put in the profits of the boy's hunt into his card, along with the negation of the Medical Bill, the boy then left the counter and went straight to the store that manages the potions.
As he approached the store, he was greeted by a lady who was managing the counter.
"Hello, what could I get you today?"
"...16 mana potions." said Hamil as he looked over the shelves that had a variety of potions displayed on them.
"Hmm, that's seem a lot for one person to use by yourself isn't it?" the girl seemed a bit suspicious from Hamil's request.
"...Yeah, it is. I'm trying to get pass one circle and reach the second one by the end of the week." but he had a excuse fir his purchase.
"hmm, that seems legit." the girl in response did not question it since it was natural for people to usually take this method and surpass the one circle dilemma.
"Do I get a discount for this?" ask Hamil, as he tries to plead for a discount.
"hahaha, sorry but discounts are only applicable to members of the Hunter's association."
"ah, that's a bummer."
"Well anyway, here's your potion. I've put it in a bag so that it'll be easier to carry." said the girl as she freely gave Hamil a bag in return of not getting a discount.
"Thanks, just deduct it here in my card." said Hamil as he passes over his card.
*Beep*
The register then reads through the counter and deducted the 16 potions he purchased.
As he waves goodbye from the potion lady, he went outside the Hunter's Association and decided to go home. It would have been suspicious for a person to go back immediately in a gate while he was recently treated in the medical bay.
The reason why he came out filled with bruises was to assure that his hunt wouldn't add suspicion from hunting something as dangerous as a mother wolf all on his own without any casualties.
So he added some scratches from a wolf's claw throughout his body and placed his arm around the jaws of a dead mother wolf and stomped on it to add the detail of a freshly gnawed arm.
Although it may seem painful to others, to him it seemed as if it was nothing more than a scrape to the knee. Because he was already accustomed to pain, that it felt nothing but a simple scratch.
Nearly two years of fighting a hellish brawl can give some merits sometimes.
As he got on a taxi and is making his way home, he tried to think of what next step of the plan was.
Going to a Blacksmith.
"...I know only one person who already has the item I need."
A certain item was needed so that he could properly handle the situation regarding the Karaoke Bar scheme without things turning to a point where he would have to resort to a bloodbath.
"...it has to be tonight."
As time passes, the taxi finally arrives at his apartment. As he got off, it was already 9:30 PM. It was way pass the curfew for his apartment.
"...I just gotta have to make sure I don't get caught or else the old lady well yell at me all night again."
He slowly made his way up the stairs by crouching and sneaked passed through each and every door as if he was like a ninja. The floor was concrete, so had no worries of it creaking in the night. And since no animals were allowed in this apartment, he didn't worry for a single bark at some neighbors dog.
Finally as he reached his floor, he stood from his crouching position and faced his door. Slowly, he reached for his key under his plant and slowly unlocked the door. Making sure that no sound would creak when he opened the door, he slowly but surely swung the door as if it was pushed by a slight breeze.
"Whew…looks like the old lady is asleep for the night. Better start this training now and be done with it."
Since he founded a new power to manifest a mana sword out of thin air, he no longer needed a normal sword for his training.
"Okay…lets start."
"Hnn!" in just a second, his mana sword appeared and then he quickly dispelled it.
Like a glass breaking, the sound of his power echoed on his room the moment he dispelled it.
*Clink*
"…"
"...I'm sure that won't alert the neighbors…lets continue."
"Hnn!"
*Clink*
"Hnn!"
*Clink*
"Hnn!"
*Clink*
"Hnn!"
*Clink*
"Hnn!"
*Clink*
"Hnn!"
*Clink*
For thirty-one times of repetitive process.
Spelling and Dispelling.
He continued this process for thirty minutes.
As he did more and more, he felt something.
And finally after the last, after the 100th process…the moment he dispelled the sword, everything formed.
*Cllllllllllllllllllllllllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnkkkkkkkkkkk----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As the sound of glass shattering echoed throughout his room, everything stopped. The continues sound of a clinking glass was forever put on a slow process…as if it was slowed down to a 100th of a second.
*Crack*
Then a crack appeared.
*Swing*
Then a swing.
All sound of swords clashing against one another echoed in the ears of the boy, while forever stuck to the slow sounding echo of one clinking glass.
"..."
Until…
-------iiiiinnnnnnnnnnnkkkkkkkk!
At the sound of the sword finally releasing itself, the system emerged.
[Objective Complete!]
[Swordsman's Apparel]
==Swordsmanship Owned: 1/100
-Basic Swordsmanship - 100% Complete [SELECTED]
Objective of Mastery:
-Swing a sword perfectly [10,000/10,000] -[completed]
-Completely coat your sword in your mana at a full state [100/100]
-Master your Intuition [100/100] -[completed]
[YOU HAVE ATTAINED BASIC ENLIGHTENMENT]
"C-Character Profile"
[CHARACTER PROFILE]
:Stats:
Name: Hamil Crux
Occupation: Trained Warrior
Age:17
God's followed: The Rulers (4/4)
Mana: 10
Strength: 92
Luck: 1.0
Agility: 92
Stamina: 82
Intelligence: 55
+++++++++++++++
Bow Proficiency: 50%
Spear Proficiency: 55%
Sword Proficiency: 100%
Shield Proficiency: 0%
+++++++++++++++
SKILL-ARTS:
*Sword Ability - Swordsman's Apparel (F)
==Swordsmanship Owned: 1/100
-Basic Swordsmanship - Enlightened
*My Bow Ability - Light Reflection (F)
*Spear Ability - Impossible Accuracy (C)
*Shield Ability - Shield's Copy (F)
As he looks over his profile, he was amazed to see the change in it.
"...I became enlightened…my basic swordsmanship is now enlightened. What does this mean though?"
He didn't feel any different from how he was originally. His breathing was fine, his body was fine and his mind was fine. Nothing was out of the ordinary.
"...Maybe it has something to do with my skill." curious as to what changed, he tried to test it out on his skill.
"Hnn!"
He tried observing the changes of the sword, and tried feeling it if its weight change or that its material was more durable than the last time.
And right on point, something did change to the sword.
"...its lighter. Its like I'm holding a piece of twig and yet…the hardness of this material is the same as that of a normal steel sword. Its nothing like glass at all."
"But what else?" he still was curious to its changes. So to test it out, he grabs the handle at the right position then positions his body to do the right form.
'...okay, its just a simple perfect swing like any. Lets see whats change.'
With the sword above in his right position, it nearly scratched the ceiling of his apartment but that didn't bother him.
'Okay…lets do this.'
'!!' at that moment he swung, with how his arm slowly swung down to an empty area and with his body fully in sync with the thought of a perfect swing…yet something was different.
everything was slow…
His mind was shocked to see the slow world that was before him.
He could swallow the events of what was happening.
'Is this enlightenment?'
Everything could be grasp
