Chapter 95: This Meeting Doesn’t Look Good

Several S-rank hunters I had only ever seen on TV, never in person. And as far as I knew, it was the first time they had gathered this many in the same room.

Even Lion Heart was surprised. I could tell by the look on his face, which could only mean they hadn’t invited him to this meeting.

“Can I ask what’s going on here?” Lion Heart said, frowning, a vein popping out.

He was visibly pissed about the situation.

One of the S-rank hunters, a thin, pale man who looked almost like a corpse, walked up to Lion Heart and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Poor Lion Heart. Weren’t you invited? So what are we going to do without the hero most loved by the people?”

Lion Heart got even angrier and activated his ability. His size increased instantly, his body bulked up with muscle, and a golden yellow energy wrapped around him. It was truly terrifying.

But the other S-rank hunter, the one who looked like a corpse, didn’t seem all that scared. A little, of course.

He backed off a few steps and returned to the chair where he had been sitting.

“Easy, Lion Heart. We’re not going to make a scene here at the meeting, right? You’ve always been so touchy.”

Lion Heart stared down every hunter in the room, and from their body language, he knew they would all side against him if a fight broke out. So he shut off his ability and returned to his normal form.

The 5 at the top of the Hunter Society stepped in to prevent a disaster. One of them spoke. He was an older man with white hair.

“The meeting is about the new continent you’ll be exploring, along with discussions about our country’s public safety. Since you’re leaving on an important mission, and you already know a lot about this, we didn’t call you to the meeting.”

I had no idea what any of these people were like, but that guy’s answer sounded like a lame excuse. Lion Heart surely thought the same, knowing him, but he didn’t say anything.

Going against the Hunter Society would be insane.

“I see. Is it a problem if I sit in on the meeting? I brought a friend of mine who came to take the rank A hunter test.”

As soon as he said that, all eyes fell on me. Lion Heart was a guy who drew a lot of attention, and since he was so strong, with power similar to or even greater than most S-rank hunters, everyone had only been looking at him, not at me, who was much weaker compared to them.

But when he spoke, that changed.

That same pale guy who had provoked Lion Heart seconds earlier spoke again.

“Rank A, what a joke. I was already a rank A hunter at 11 years old.”

And he wasn’t lying. The vast majority of S-rank hunters were born with powerful abilities from the start, and they managed to grow their power quickly. It was a different world from mine.

But while they were more limited, I knew that in the future I would surpass all of them.

I didn’t answer. I stayed quiet. That was better than making more enemies. My situation wasn’t good enough already.

“Is this the young Vincent you mentioned? He’s going to the new continent with you, right?”

Lion Heart nodded.

“Yes, that’s him.”

“Great. We need you two to leave as soon as possible, so a test won’t be necessary. By tomorrow he will officially be a rank A hunter.”

I wasn’t expecting that. They were skipping the test, which had always been mandatory for everyone? Even the S-rank hunters were surprised.

“Do you think it’s wise to turn him into a rank A hunter without testing him? Isn’t that irresponsible?”

The one who spoke was a guy with glasses who had a katana on the table in front of him.

He was considered the strongest hunter. Nobody even knew his name. He was simply called The Swordsman.

The white-haired man in the suit spoke again.

“He’s going on this dangerous mission with Lion Heart. If he comes back alive, we can say he passed the test.”

Nobody else asked any questions about it. In fact, it wasn’t a risk for them to give me the rank A hunter badge without a test. If I died, nobody would even know about it.

And if I came back alive, it was proof of my ability.

In the end, things were even better than I expected, since now I didn’t have a test to take. But on the other hand, something felt off about that meeting, about those men in suits, and especially about this expedition Lion Heart and I were about to go on.

Lion Heart was one of the only S-rank hunters going to this new continent. The reason? Tom’s brother, who was also an S-rank hunter, had disappeared there, and nobody wanted to risk sending more S-rank hunters.

Out of everyone, Lion Heart was the one who wanted to go after his missing friend. The others didn’t care much, and nobody bothered to go along.

Anyway, we left the Hunter Society building and went to Lion Heart’s house on Mercer Island.

A HUGE mansion, with at least 15 bedrooms, which seemed excessive considering Lion Heart lived alone, with only a few staff members staying in the house with him.

In the living room, we sat near a fireplace to talk. Lion Heart had to grab some wine to calm his mind. He offered me some too.

“This whole thing is really weird,” he said, taking a sip from his glass, “I’m sure those bastards are planning something. Do they want to get rid of me too?”

The theory that made the most sense in Lion Heart’s mind wasn’t that Tom’s brother had disappeared because he went to this dangerous new continent, but because other S-rank hunters got involved and betrayed him.

Of course, it was only a hypothesis, but considering how S-rank hunters weren’t trustworthy, I was inclined to believe it.

“We’ll have to leave tomorrow. We’ll take a plane to the boat, and then continue by boat.”

“By boat?” I asked.

“Yes. It’s impossible to fly there. Only by boat. Don’t ask me why, but that’s how it works. Any plane that gets close to that place is attacked by magic lasers and explodes on the spot.”

Peculiar. Not that I hated the idea of traveling by boat, it actually sounded pretty interesting, but it would definitely make the trip take longer than it should.

“Ethan and Tom, my friends from the academy, wanted to come along with us. Could they? Ethan is stronger than he looks, and Tom, I don’t know. What do you think?”

“Better not. Not now, at least. I’ll talk to them. Once they manage to reach rank A, they can come meet us there. Before that, it’s better to keep them here. I don’t want them to die, and I believe you don’t either.”

In fact, that was the ideal scenario. I wasn’t sure either of them was ready to go on this expedition with us.

Alone in the room, Lion Heart finally asked a few things he had noticed.

“Your strength has grown a lot in a short time, really impressive. I guess I wasn’t wrong when I said you would become an S-rank hunter one day.”

He had believed in my potential the first time we met, back at the shop he managed.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I said, “but I still have a long way to go before I reach that level.”

“I think you’re closer than you imagine.”

Lion Heart stood up and set his now empty glass on the counter in front of him.

“I’ll get everything ready so we can leave tomorrow. Pick a room and get a good night’s sleep. We leave early tomorrow morning.”

I did what he said. I went into my pocket dimension to check on how things were going and to fill Gary in on the situation.

Ever since he told me he could hear things from the outside, I had made a point of controlling my ability better and making sure he couldn’t hear anything. Now he would only know about the things I told him.

“Tomorrow we’ll be heading to this so-called new continent, which isn’t new at all… Anyway, how are things here?”

Gary was sitting outside with his legs crossed near the lake, almost like he was meditating.

“All quiet. Tomorrow I’ll let them start planting the crops, and maybe catch some fish in the lake for them to eat. It’ll be the beginning of your village, master.”

I smiled.

I was eager to start growing that place and truly turn it into my own private world.

I went to my cabin, grabbed some monster crystals, and absorbed them. After about 3 hours of doing that, I decided to just sleep in there.

The next morning, Lion Heart came to my room and saw that it was empty. Not only that, he saw that the bed hadn’t even been messed up.

“Where is he?”

I stepped out of my pocket dimension right then, surprising him, almost scaring him.

“You’re getting good at hiding, I admit,” he said, “but I knew you were in there. I was just tricking you. Come on, we have to go.”

He had already prepared everything. I went with him to a warehouse packed with boxes of supplies. Food and water, plus health and mental recovery potions in case anyone needed them after using their ability too much.

“Can you store all of this? It’ll be our provisions for a few months on this expedition.”

There were a lot of boxes, of course, and in the past I wouldn’t have been able to. But with my current strength, it was easy.

I touched the boxes one by one, absorbing them. Lion Heart was in shock as he watched.