Chapter 5: The Dark Hunter
Axel sat up as he studied his system...
He was eager to know what this ’new skill’ would give him.
[Name: Axel]
[Age: 18]
[Race: Hybrid human]
[Level 2: 1800/2000 Exp]
[Points in possession: 2100pts]
[Available Skills: Hunter’s Eye LV 1. Upgradable]
[Devil’s Veil Lv 2. Upgradable]
[Transformations]
Seeing the new attribute on his window, a smile found its way to his lips.
He clicked on it.
[Scarion phase one tier 1]
[Description: A transformation that boosts speed, best adaptable for evasion.]
[Mastery: 0/100]
[Weakness: Enhanced speed but lower attack power. No to be used in direct combat]
[Scarion phase two tier 1]
[Description: A transformation for enhanced strength and durability. Adaptable for direct combat]
[Mastery: 0/100]
[Weakness: Trades speed for power. Not to be used to for evasion.]
[Scarion phase three: Locked.]
[Bane: Locked.]
"Huh..."
The last two were in a dimmer color than the rest.
Curious, he clicked.
[Scarion phase three: Locked.]
[Requirement: Must reach a mastery level of 30 in previous stages]
[Transformations cannot be upgradable with points. You must achieve the required mastery level of each tier]
Axel frowned. If he had any plans to increase his strengths using points, they had gone down the drain...
’It’s not that bad though, if I want to get stronger, I gotta put in the effort anyway...’
He looked towards the sky. The sun had set hours ago. He had fought the Griffin late into the night...
"Well then, time to head out."
~~~~~
Over the next week, Axel spent it grinding— Exp farming as much as he could.
He even spent time using his new transformation skills so he could get used to it sooner.
He’d travel around the city, hunting devils where he could.
Since he didn’t have a place to live yet, he took this as a chance to explain his adventurous side.
"Hey, did you hear?"
"About what?"
Axel turned slightly. The voices were coming from two people behind him.
"Someone killed the Griffin."
"What?! No way! Are you serious??" The second person exclaimed.
The first man nodded. "It was confirmed a week ago "
"The hunters finally decided to get rid of that thing..."
"Oh no." The first man shook his head, correcting his friend. "They said the devil energy residue didn’t match any of the licenced hunters."
"Really? Damn! We got a rouge hunter on our hands"
Axel bit his lip. He didn’t know what he did would gather this much attention. He thought the beast was long forgotten...
However, one question came to him and as if answering him, the first man spoke again.
"So far no one’s been able to spot him. No one knows how he looks like nor do they know where he is..."
Axel sighed. That’s a relief...
Standing up, he left the place to continue Exp farming. He only had one goal in mind so whether they kept talking about it or changed the topic, he didn’t care.
.
.
.
.
.
As Axel walked the streets, he kept hearing more and more of the death of the Crimson Griffin.
It was as if it was all anyone talked about.
He had even come to know that people had started calling him ’The Dark Hunter’ since someone claimed he was spotted wearing a black cloak that concealed himself.
"So what? He’s some kind of vigilante?"
"I don’t know but it’s all over the internet..."
Of course, with every trending story, there was also a certain amount of people who believed it was a hoax.
He took out his phone— a new one he had bought when he realised that his system could convert his points to money.
He had lost his old one on the day of the attack so he knew that sooner or later, he’d need a new phone.
Open his browser, he clicked on the search bar and typed:
"The Dark Hunter"
A few seconds later, dozens of results appeared on the screen with numerous headlines.
"Dark Hunter eliminates devil breeding ground."
In truth, he had an object to clear an area which was over run by devils not long after he beat the Griffin. It wasn’t exactly a breeding ground but that was what the locals called it.
He scrolled...
"Dark Hunter takes down Boulder."
He remembered this one very clearly because he cleared this objective just two days ago. It was just a devil that threw rocks from the hill it stayed.
What made it difficult was getting to the top while avoiding the rocks occasionally through down.
Giant, heavy rocks.
Locals just nicknamed it boulder for obvious reasons...
He scrolled again.
Then came the most talked about news on the site...
"Dark Hunter Kills The Crimson Griffin"
There under the headline, a picture of the cathedral was posted.
Whoever took that photograph did a very good job. The shattered walls and destroyed terrain from their fight were excellently taken at the perfect angles...
The post was just a four paragraph article, describing the Griffin, where it came from, how long it had been there and the people it’s killed.
Scrolling to the last paragraph, the author spoke of how the locals reported hearing horrifying screams coming from the cathedral that night, closing the post with a line that read:
"And it went dead silent."
Glancing towards the comment section, his eyes widened as he saw the numbers.
"Over 25 thousand comments? Damn bro must’ve been popular ."
It made sense since even he had heard of the beast. Rumors spread far and wide of the devil. Specifically around the fact that the beast had not been hunted.
He opened the comments...
Lover_boy223: Incredible! It must’ve been a tough one to beat.
I.goonedyesterday: We have our very own Batman now LoL.
Charmingcat_: Come on. Are we really going to believe whatever the internet cookes up these days?
Think about it guys? This devil hadn’t been hunted by the licenced hunters themselves, living for a good 50 years.
50 YEARS!
Do they really expected us to believe some Batman wannabe spawns from nowhere and just kills it? Yeah, right.
Partyhorse_999: replying to Charmingcat_: Yeah, you’re right. Some people just love creating stories to gain attention.
Take a look at the pic. It’s probably Ai Lol.
From there all there was were comments questioning the nature of the post, either calling it fake, made up or calling out The Dark Hunter himself, arguing that the beast had probably died from old age.
Sighing, Axel slid his phone back into his pocket and proceeded to find a place to spend the night.
After walking around for a while, he came to a stop in a secluded part of the park.
Laying on the grass, he took off his jacket, folded it and use it as a pillow.
As he lay, he thought about everything that had happened in his life up to this point and sighed.
He really was all alone now...
.
.
.
.
.
Not too long after he slept, he heard footsteps—something was approaching.
His eyes shot open. His instincts were on high alert.
As he saw a shadow approaching, he instinctively climbed the closest tree he could find, hiding himself within it’s branches.
"Finally. Now I can proceed..."
Axel raised his eyebrow. That voice.... He had heard it before.
Looking past the leav
es, his eyes landed on whoever stood below him.
He squinted his eyes, trying to adjust his gaze.
After doing this, he was finally able to see whoever stood there.
And when he did, his eyes widened...
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