Chapter Text
Next Day
Naruto left for the meeting area first thing in the morning. Many Hunters had gathered before the Gate already by the time he got there.
“Hey, Naruto!” Trevor greeted him first.
“Hey, it’s Naruto.”
“Heyyy, Naruto!”
Other Hunters began greeting him with a slight nod, and some even raised their hands as high as their chest to greet Naruto, which was quite different from yesterday.
The work each of the miners did was important, so they’d wholeheartedly welcome a colleague with great skills any time. From the expressions of the Hunters of the mining team, their delight could clearly be seen.
‘This is a bit… awkward.’ Naruto thought, he hasn't worked for a company since high school, selling dick to rich and powerful women didn't come with coworkers, so the only friends Naruto had were his family and the few he had in high school,
It wasn't bad being greeted kindly by his peers
“One, two, three….” Trevor counted the number of miners present today and jotted it down on the memo.
“Eighteen, Nineteen…. Well, it’s almost everyone.”
This should be more than enough. Well, it was fine for one or two to miss out on a day like today.
‘Because, we have two aces in our midst now.’ Trevor thought as his gaze met those of Leland and Naruto. Trevor grinned like a fool, causing Leland to hurriedly avert his gaze, while Naruto was tilting his head in confusion.
It was then.
“Excuse me, Foreman Trevor.”
“Argh?! You surprised me!” Trevor flinched and shuddered from the voice suddenly coming from his side.
The leader of today’s raid team, Sean Masters.
“What'reyou tryna do, Sean?! Gimme a heart attack!"
“My bad. It’s a bad habit I picked up from working in dungeons for too long.” Sean grinned sheepishly.
"Why would you be here where the mining team is?”
“What do you mean, why? We are here because we’ve got business with you, obviously.” The Foreman of the retrieval teM software
Trevor raised an eyebrow
Meanwhile, Sean was scanning the Hunters of the mining team as he opened his mouth.
“The thing is, our team’s porter decided to not show up today. Looks like I’ll have to borrow someone from the mining team.”
“What? But, why from my team? When you got the retrieval team with lots of strong people who can carry luggage better than us….?”
As if he was waiting for that reply, the foreman of the retrieval team flew off his handle.
“My boys had to work overtime for three more hours just to finish our operation. They even missed dinner, too! But now, you want to use them as a porter, too?” The retrieval Foreman asked
‘Well, it’s true that we finished early which should’ve normally ended around seven in the evening, by around three o’clock all thanks to my new guy.’
When the foreman of the retrieval team glared Sean cleared his throat, “Is there anyone among you who wishes to accompany the raid team? Once the raid is over, we will give you the additional hazard pay immediately.”
“…..”
Sean’s pleading eyes darted from here to there, but no one stepped forward. Either they looked down on the ground, or stared at the heavens, deliberately avoiding meeting his gaze.
‘I ain’t gonna risk my neck for a couple more bucks.’
‘Won’t do it, even if you beat me up….’
"I'll go." Naruto said walking forward
A temp Hunter wanted to enter an uncleared A rank dungeon caused pure pandemonium to break out,
“Upper-rank monsters are waiting with bated breath inside, yet you wanna go in??”
“Naruto, what do you think you’re doing?!”
“You have a daughter so why are you risking it all for a measly few extra bucks?!”
The members of the mining team surrounded Naruto in no time. At the same time, Trevor hurriedly spoke to Sean, "He only started this job yesterday so he probably raised his hand not knowing anything.”
“What’s his rank?”
“That is….”
Trevor sneaked a glance towards Naruto and then, spoke in a hushed voice.
“He's a Temp, so how about going with someone else? It’ll be far too dangerous to take him along with you.”
Sean looked over to Naruto who possessed an aura that… couldn’t be described in simple words, but at the same time, it also felt sharp and utterly under control.
'He isn't normal.’ Sean thought before clearing his throat, "The rank of a porter isn’t all that important."
Later
“Isn’t it heavy?” Sean asked, and Naruto simply shook his head
“No, it’s fine.”
The large bag being carried on Naruto’s back was filled to the brim with extra sets of clothing, weapons, and defensive equipment, etc., for the raid team. Its volume was quite considerable, but honestly speaking, he didn’t find it heavy at all. All thanks to his Strength Stat, an Absolute Strength skill of course.
‘Doesn’t look like he’s straining himself.’
After studying Naruto’s expression for a bit, Sean turned towards the Gate. Naruto also shifted his gaze towards it.
A giant Gate, as big as the one from yesterday, silently floated in the air.
‘Wait. Maybe this one’s a little bit bigger?’
Even then, the detected amount of magic energy was supposedly less than yesterday’s Gate. The raid difficulty was judged by the emitted magic energy and not the size of the Gate; that was probably the main reason why the B team was tasked with clearing this particular dungeon.
"The leaking magic energy is incomparably smaller than yesterday, and yet…" Naruto borrowed his eyes slightly
“Let’s go inside.” Sean said
The raid team waiting in front of the Gate began moving once more with that order. Hunters entered the dungeon one by one.
[You have entered a dungeon.]
The members of this team were plenty good enough to clear a Red Gate, were they to step into one.
11 rank As, and 6 rank Bs.
If it weren’t the Hunters Guild but somebody else, these guys wouldn’t have been assigned to a B team at all.
‘I’m not here as a part of the raid team anyway. Let’s not sweat over stuff like this.’
If he were being honest, he only came here to have fun.
“You don’t have to be that nervous, you know.” A female Hunter, a Healer, said, “You see, every single member present here, not just Sean oops, I mean, the leader of the team, is a distinguished Hunter. Except me, that is.”
The healer lady smiled refreshingly.
Naruto grinned too, and nodded his head, “Ah. Okay.”
The Healer formed a content expression, evidently satisfied by her efforts.
At the same time, the leader confirmed that there were no monsters near the entrance and gave the signal to advance.
“Let’s move.”
Both Naruto and the Healer matched the walking pace of the raid team and slowly advanced forward. They had to watch the surroundings while moving, so naturally, their rate of progress was rather slow.
“Should I help you carry some, if it’s too heavy?”
The Healer glanced at Naruto’s luggage and asked him. Naruto wordlessly pushed forward a huge bottle of water in his left hand to her.
“Kyachk?!” The Healer tottered dangerously on her feet trying to lift it, so he quickly took the bottle back. The raid team came to an abrupt stop and glared at the Healer.
“I’m so sorry. Sorry.”
The Healer continued to bow her head here and there, offering an embarrassed apology. After that, he didn’t get to hear her asking him if he needed help again. Her sharp glares were just an added bonus, really, as he chuckled,
The raid team didn't know if he was crazy or if he just had that much faith in them to protect him, but no one said anything,
Naruto’s steps came to a halt.
A beat later, the Hunters of the raid team also sensed the change in the surroundings.
“They are coming!”
Even before Sean finished giving his order, the Hunters of the raid team got into their battle formation. It happened literally in the blink of an eye. Naruto was inwardly impressed by that.
‘So, this is how the high-ranked Hunters raid….’
They were definitely a world apart compared to the ragtag raid teams his clone had observed over the last decade. Heck, pure and bright lights were already emanating from the hands of the naive-looking female Healer.
‘Looks like I won’t even get a chance to step up here.’ Naruto thought,
Beasts? Canines?
Sean’s eyes narrowed to a slit.
A group of monsters resembling hyenas was rushing towards the raid team. They were as big as a medium-sized car, too.
Sean tilted his head slightly.
‘Dungeon Jackals?’
He became sure of it once they got close enough. They were indeed ‘Dungeon Jackals.’
Sean had been standing with his shield covering his front, but then, he relaxed a bit and didn’t even bother to activate his provocation skill, giving the hyenas a singular target,
And then, he simply used his shield to batter down the Dungeon Jackal aiming for his neck.
Whimper!!
“What’s this?”
“Aren’t they Dungeon Jackals?”
Other team members, deeply tense until then, began tilting their heads and straightened their hunched stances. Soon, the short death throes of the Dungeon Jackals filled the cavern’s interior.
“Whimper?!”
“Kkheng!”
“Kkhekkheng!”
The Jackal monsters were quickly taken care of. Over a dozen Dungeon Jackals were turned into corpses in the blink of an eye. Hunters dusted their hands, still confused by what happened.
“What’s this?”
“I didn’t even have enough time to cast a magic spell before it ended.”
“Why are we fighting Dungeon Jackals inside a A rank dungeon?”
“Yeah, right. What’s happening here?”
“Wait, did the FBH idiots screw up again?!”
Their voices were getting louder.
Now originally, one of the basic rules in raiding was to never make loud noises inside a dungeon.
“Hmm….”
Sean stared at the corpses of the Jackals and scratched the back of his head.
‘But, why are the monsters from C rank dungeons appearing here?’
Sean scanned his surroundings, looking somewhat dumbfounded. Everyone else was forming similar facial expressions.
With the exception of one person.
Only Naruto was staring at the dead Jackals with a grave expression on his face.
‘They are no normal Jackals.’
Naruto’s eyes narrowed. He could definitely see that the fur around the Jackal’s neck had been flattened down by something until recently. It was clear evidence of them being tied to something, somewhere.
‘Meaning, the ones that reared these monsters are somewhere else inside this dungeon….’
Monsters with intellect, in other words.
“What are you thinking about so seriously like that?”
The female Hunter peered at Naruto as if to bore a hole in him, just like how he had been staring at the Jackals.
“Shh!”
Naruto raised his index finger and covered his lips.
Step, step.
Step, step.
From the deeper parts of the cave, he could hear the matched footsteps getting closer.
‘The real enemies are coming.’
Naruto stood back up. Other Hunters also belatedly realized something was wrong.
“Oh my god…”
“Get….. Get ready for battle!” Sean ordered
Finally, the real enemies revealed themselves from the darkness of the cave on the far side. The eyes of the Hunters grew wide from shock.
“High Orcs?!”
“What the hell? Why High Orcs?”
Many well-trained High Orc warriors now stood in rows before the Hunters’ eyes. Their number was twenty-two.
Not just any High Orcs, but they were twenty-two High Orc warriors, which meant they would be very difficult opponents to fight.
“Something… Something’s wrong.”
Someone muttered softly under his breath.
To think, right after the attack of the low-ranked monsters, they now had to battle these high-ranked monsters famed to be the toughest even among the high ranks.
The High Orcs pointed their lengthy spears at the Hunters.
‘Looks like the momentum of the Hunters and the High Orcs are about even.’
Naruto quickly retreated to a corner, so he could quietly observe the unfolding situation and find the right time to step forward.
However, the female Hunter obviously didn’t share his thought process.
“You gotta keep hiding there, okay! You won’t get hurt that way.”
Naruto’s eyebrow twitched
Soon, the battle began.
“Kroooaaar!!”
Towards the attacking High Orcs, Sean activated his provocation skill. However, these Orcs didn’t really fall for his provocation. And soon, High Orcs and melee-type Hunters engaged in a bitter close-quarters battle.
Swiiiish!!
Swish!
Crack!!
Blood splattered everywhere and a scream reverberated out.
“Uwaaahk!!”
Not too long after that, magic spells fired from the mage-type Hunters slammed into the High Orcs.
Boom!! Kaboom!!
The heads of the High Orcs exploded after getting struck by the arrows of brilliant light. Unfortunately, there was no follow-up attack.
The effects of magic spells were good, but there was the distinct disadvantage of the lengthy casting time.
“Uwaaahk?!”
In a close-quarters battle, High Orcs definitely held the upper hand.
“Heal! Heal!!”
“H-hurry!”
The wounded appeared pretty quickly, and Healers were kept very busy.
“….H-Healer!!”
The female Healer was also kept very busy, running here and there non-stop.
“I’m coming!! Coming!”
The female Healer knelt down next to a heavily-groaning Hunter with a missing arm. She then quickly began chanting.
Wuoong….
And then, along with blinding light, the lost arm slowly grew back.
That was the light of regeneration only the Healers ranked A or above could perform.
Just as she concentrated on the injuries of her patient, a tall shadow suddenly loomed over her. The female Healer raised her head.
A High Orc, previously assumed dead, was holding an ax while breathing heavily right beside her.
“Ah…..”
The female Healer’s face was drained of all color, then. Unfortunately, there was no one who could save her nearby.
When the Orc raised its axe up high, the female Healer chose to hug her patient and shield him, instead.
“Noooo!!”
However, she couldn’t feel any pain, no matter how long she waited.
Each passing second felt like a minute or more.
The female Healer sheepishly raised her head up. And she got to witness a rather amazing sight.
“Keu…. Kuehhck…..”
The Orc was actually floating in the air, its entire body trembling quite noticeably.
“But, what…..?”
What was happening here?
The female Healer’s eyes opened even wider.
But then…
Snap!
The head of the High Orc was literally ripped off of its body, and then, even the part of its spine got dragged out, as well.
Plop.
‘……..??’
While staring at the headless body of the High Orc now on the ground, the female Hunter gained a confused expression.
“Uh….?!”
Because, the separated head of the High Orc was still floating in the air, that was why.
‘….Blood got splashed on my clothes.’ Naruto frowned deeply and threw the head of the High Orc
Another High Orc was struck down rather unexpectedly by the head of its comrade and collapsed to the ground. Seeing that the victim’s neck was twisted around in a bizarre angle, it coming back to life didn’t seem very likely.
‘That makes it two.’
Naruto shifted his gaze. Currently, he was in ‘Stealth’. Both the High Orcs and the Hunters couldn’t sense his presence at all.
Naruto had been sitting back quietly, waiting for a right chance to step forward, because he feared being accused of interfering in other Guilds raid. But then, he belatedly recalled that he had the ‘Stealth’ skill.
“Uwaaaah-!!”
Just in time, he spotted the leader of the raid team, Sean, engaged in a life-or-death battle with three High Orcs.
Naruto’s legs moved swiftly.
What happened next was a bit of a strange phenomenon.
As the footsteps from the other side of the cavern grew louder and closer, the Hunters were making less and less sound.
“sh*t….”
“….”
Soon, choking silence enveloped the group.
Naruto’s ears were perked up, though – seizing upon the opening created by his surroundings getting quieter, Naruto began counting the numbers of the enemies via their footsteps.
Step, step.
Thud, thud.
Thanks to his already-enhanced hearing, as well as high Perception Stat, he could separate out each of the footsteps to their original owners.
‘….48, 49, 50, 51.’
There were a total of 51 different footsteps. The steps themselves sounded the same as those of the High Orc warriors.
Naruto took a look around him.
‘…….’
The nervous tension was clearly writ large on the faces of the Hunters. It seemed to him that they also had more or less figured out the size of the enemy from the resounding footsteps.
This raid team managed to eke out a victory against 22 High Orc warriors. But now, 51 of them were coming. That was over twice as many.
‘….There is no hope of victory here.’
The raid team members were thinking of roughly the same opinion.
Naruto suddenly cast his glance down at his shadow. He momentarily thought that it was wavering ever so slightly just then.
He even thought that his shadow soldiers were howling out, their desire to see blood intensifying. Naruto raised his head back up again.
….Now wasn’t the right time yet.
Consoling himself as thus, Naruto silently observed the front.
Eventually, the monsters revealed themselves. The countless marching High Orcs came to a halt just a little bit of distance away from the Hunters.
“Kurururu.”
“Kuruk.”
High Orcs growled as if they’d pounce at any given moment. No words could adequately describe the bloodthirsty aura emitted from over 50 High Orc warriors. The result of a battle was pretty obvious even without actually fighting them.
“This is crazy.”
“How can this be….”
“Euh….”
Hunters spat out long groans. They continued to retreat ever so slightly after feeling the enormous pressure, but too bad, their path was still blocked off.
The Hunters were all ready for battle from a while ago, but no one stepped forward yet and simply waited for Sean’s instructions.
Sean’s lips were shut tight in a straight line.
‘God damn it….’ He thought wishing one of the two S ranks were present, ‘Fighting here will definitely result in our death.’
However, with their path of retreat blocked off, he no longer had any choice in the matter.
Taking a deep breath Sean unsheathed his longsword.
Sean took a look at his comrades, and the Hunters nodded their heads as if they had been waiting for the signal. Sean’s gaze shifted back to his front.
He then brought the shield right up till his chin and glared at the High Orcs, still not showing any signs of movements yet.
‘So, did he finally make his choice, then?’
Naruto also got ready. He hid his right hand behind his back, and ‘Baruka’s Dagger’ appeared there.When Naruto reopened his eyes, a sharp gleaming light was now burning fiercely within them.
Gulp.
Hunters forcibly swallowed down their dried saliva; cold sweat soaked their foreheads. On the other hand, Naruto was itching to fight, ‘How much experience points will these guys give me?’ A thin smile of anticipation spread on his lips.
However, before anything could happen….
….One of the High Orcs stepped forward.
It roughly shoved aside other Orcs and emerged from the group, its wild beast-like eyes looking in the direction of the Hunters.
“Growl….”
This one possessed a far bigger physique than the others, and its fangs were noticeably longer as well.
‘So, is that the leader?’
Naruto narrowed his eyes. If he got rid of that guy now, wouldn’t the fight become so much easier.
Naruto fiddled with the grip of the ‘Baruka’s Dagger’ and pondered; meanwhile, that High Orc opened its mouth.
“Kurerack tu sheena, wekudo araknaka.”
The creature’s voice sure sounded loud. The glare of the High Orc was fixed to the leader of the raid team, Sean.
“Kurerack tu sheena, wekudo araknaka!!”
Rustle, rustle….
Hunters’ gazes busily darted about.
“What the hell?”
“Is that thing trying to talk to us?”
“What is it saying?”
It was then.
The facial muscles of the High Orc began trembling. When that strange tremor subsided, a completely different voice from before came out from the monster’s mouth.
“Humans…..”
It was as if something else had borrowed the monster’s mouth to speak.
“Oh, humans….”
When looking closer, that normal-looking Orc’s eyes were now unfocused and blurry like those of a dead fish that died a long time ago.
Hunters began freaking out
‘How can an Orc speaking to me right now?!’
‘Is this magic? Could it be??’
Hunters couldn’t keep their mouths shut at this utterly unexpected situation. The ‘leader’ High Orc continued to speak.
“I am…. Karugalgan….. I…. want…. to…. meet…. humans…. Follow… this…. one.”
A monster wished to speak to humans?
There never had been any reports of such a case before.
Facing this unprecedented event, not only Sean but everyone in the raid team fell into a state of pure confusion.
“Sean, I hope you ain’t listening to the words of a monster.”
“Please, you gotta ignore it.”
“It’s a trap. Regardless what happens, we gotta try to finish it here.”
“But, still. If it’s an Orc we can talk to, maybe we can….”
“Don’t be an idiot. You’ve been inside so many dungeons already, so don’t you know how they operate by now?”
In less than a second, their opinions had split up.
Sean maintained his silence for a while, before answering the monster’s words.
“….Karugalgan. Did you block the cavern?”
“That’s right….. I am…. the proud…. High Shaman…. of the Orcs…. My spells…. can’t be…. broken…. by the strength of…. humans.”
“Is there anyone stronger than you inside this cave?”
“Who…. dares to…. oppose…. me!!”
An incredibly loud roar exploded out from the High Orc and slammed into the eardrums of the Hunters. Almost everyone frowned deeply and covered their ears, but Sean was simply nodding his head, still looking rather calm.
The existence speaking through that High Orc’s mouth was, without a doubt, the boss of this dungeon.
‘I don’t know why it wants us there, but….’
When Sean’s answer didn’t come right away, the leader High Orc raised its large axe above its head.
“Now, choose…. Die here….. at the…. hands… of my soldiers…. Or…. follow… my… soldiers….”
“We’ll follow.”
Sean’s immediate answer prompted the eyes of the Hunters to grow wider.
“Then, come…. Human.”
With the end of those words, the blurred eyes of the leader High Orc regained its original clarity. And that would be wild beast-like glare of bloodlust. The creature spoke up again.
“Ashue tu reka.”
With that one sentence, the High Orc warriors burning with fierce hostility withdrew as if it was all a lie. The leader High Orc waited without withdrawing, and beckoned to Sean, telling him to follow.
“Let’s get going as well.”
Sean was the first to start walking, and the hesitant Hunters began to follow after him one after the other.
‘What is he thinking?’
Naruto observed
There was little doubt that not only the boss but countless more High Orcs would be waiting for them inside the boss room. Meaning, their odds of victory would be even lower on that side.
So, it was hard to figure out what Sean was thinking of when he chose to follow the monsters.
‘Is he trying to negotiate with the boss? In order to get out of here alive?’ Naruto thought dismissing Baruka’s Dagger and slowly followed after the group, "Oh right, I should also be careful who sees my daggers, since I'll be using them on the names on that list."
There was no doubt in his mind that he would be leaving this dungeon alive,
Just how long did they walk?
Sean slowed down his walking speed gradually and had arrived at Naruto’s side. And then, he called out with a hushed voice, “Aye.”
“Hm?” Naruto continued looking at the front while answering him. Sean, too, continued to stare at the backs of the High Orcs walking further up ahead.
“We… as soon as we meet the boss, we’re going to attack right away. When that happens, regardless of whether our attack was successful or not, the bastard should not be able to maintain the magic spell blocking the exit.”
Didn’t matter whether they succeeded in killing the boss or managed to cancel the magic blocking the exit, they would still meet a dog’s death right away inside the boss room after getting surrounded by the countless High Orcs anyway.
The odds of this raid team returning alive were still pathetically low.
Perhaps to answer Naruto’s curiosity, Sean spoke with a grave expression on his face.
“While their attention is on us, please escape from the boss room. Once you get out of the dungeon, you must alert the main assault force.”
“Are you thinking of dying alongside the boss?”
Naruto sneaked a glance at Sean’s expression. His face remained hardened, but there was no wavering in his eyes.
“Our job isn’t to get out of this dungeon alive, but to close the Gates. Many people outside are paying us a great deal of money for that purpose. We will do our job according to what we’ve been training for. However, you’re different. There’s no reason for you to die here. I hope you can get out of this place alive.”
Naruto simply nodded his head as his reply.
Meanwhile
Estrella finally arrived at the location of the second A rank Gate.
She had her baseball cap pushed down low, and as a result, only a few passersby recognised her.
The first thing she did was to seek out the mining team.
A few Hunters walked past her and sneaked a couple of glances, but they were all working for the Guild anyway and none of them paid her any great attention after that.
Eventually, she could see Trevor in the distance as well as the mining team around him.
Her heart began beating faster. Standing a little bit of distance away from them, she scanned the faces of each miner present.
‘Where is he…?’
She couldn’t see Naruto among them.
‘Did he give up on being a miner? Why don’t I wait for another minute? He could have left the spot for only a moment and is coming back soon.'
….And so, she waited for another 15 minutes, but Naruto didn’t show up in the end.
“Fuu….” Estrella gave a long sigh and turned around to leave. But, only after taking a couple of steps, she turned around again and returned to her original spot.
She yanked her cap off and took in several deep breaths, before walking towards Trevor. The gazes of the mining team members were directed to her now.
Thankfully, the stink wasn’t so bad, perhaps due to the ranks of Hunters in the mining team being low.
Trevor quickly ran over to her, "Vice Guildmaster, I thought you were taking a break today?”
“Hello there.”
Estrella shared a simple greeting with Trevor and after making sure that no one was eavesdropping on her, she cautiously asked him a question, “By any chance… Is there a Hunter named Naruto Uzumaki working for you?”
“Naruto?”
Trevor looked surprised, "If you’re looking for Naruto, he subbed for a porter’s job….”
“A porter?!” Estrella gasped, “Are you saying he actually went inside the Gate?!”
Trevor nodded his head vigorously as if to show that he, too, couldn’t believe it.
“Yes, miss. That’s what happened.”
A temp Hunter volunteered as a porter and entered a A rank dungeon?
‘What was he thinking?’ Estrella thought
Even though she ended up letting go of yesterday’s event as a coincidence, when she really thought about it in detail, it was a rather strange thing for a Hunter with four years of experience getting lost inside a dungeon like that.
‘I need to find out.’
Not only was she the Vice Chairman of the Hunters Guild, but she was also a S rank Hunter as well. No one would try to stop her if she wanted to enter a dungeon where the Hunters Guild was performing a raid.
Estrella lightly bit into her thumb while pondering her choices, before swiftly making her decision, “I’ll have to enter the Gate myself.”
“Was there some kind of an accident? Should we ask the Guild for additional personnel?” Trevor asked
“No, no need. It’s a personal matter. I just wanted to talk to him about something private, so you don’t have to worry.”
“Oh… I see.”
Estrella spun towards the Gate
However, her side felt rather empty, then.
‘Ah. My weapon…..’
She felt around her waist, only to belatedly remember that she had left her sword back home, ‘As a leader, Sean is someone totally trustworthy, and the rest of the team are made up of capable Hunters. But….’
But, it was still unimaginable to enter a dungeon without a weapon in hand. A short deliberation later, she turned around to face Trevor once more.
“Is there something else, Miss….?”
Trevor looked at her with confused eyes, “Mister Foreman, can I borrow a weapon from you?”
“Pardon me?”
Trevor hesitated somewhat, before calling out to a Hunter passing by, “Hey, over here, Brandon. Please bring me an axe.”
“Yes, boss.”
Brandon rapidly brought over a pickaxe, as used by the mining team.
“…….” Estrella’s expression stiffened, “Excuse me…. Don’t you have anything else?”
“Uhm, such as….?”
“For instance, swords or spears.”
“We're the mining team..” Trevor said
“…”
Estrella sighed under her breath.
“I understand.”
She then carefully rejected the pickaxe Trevor tried to hand over and quickly walked towards the Gate. He anxiously asked her as he watched her, “Ms., will it be fine for you to be empty-handed in there?”
Estrella came to an abrupt halt and stood there for a moment, before hurriedly walking back to take the pickaxe from Trevor.
“Well, then….” and she turned around to hurriedly leave,
Dungeon
The looks of determination were clearly visible on the faces of the raid team members. They kept their mouths resolutely shut as if to imply that they knew their fate already. Meanwhile, the female Healer approached Naruto and began rummaging through the luggage.
Naruto turned his head towards her and asked, “What are you doing?”
“Hold on.” What she took out was a small ladies handbag. “I kinda feel a bit uncomfortable if I’m too far away from my bag, you see.”
He didn’t even ask her, yet she provided him with an explanation oh-so-kindly. She took out a memo pad and a pen from the bag and then began jotting something down on said memo pad.
Because she wasn’t looking in front of her, she kept bumping into Naruto’s shoulder with her head. Eventually, though – she closed the memo pad. Her bag, which she slung around her shoulder while writing on the memo, was pushed back inside the luggage again, but that memo remained in her hands.
Naruto observed her with a bit of interest, wondering what she’d do with that, but she simply pushed the memo towards him, instead.
“…..?”
After taking it, Naruto tilted his head,
“I wrote down what I wanted to say to my family. When you get outside, please make sure that they get it. Please.”
Naruto pocketed the memo, “I’ll hold onto this for the time being, but I’m pretty sure I won’t get to deliver this. It’s going to be fine.”
The female Healer nodded her head.
‘With High Orc warriors zealously keeping tabs on us like this, it won’t be easy for him to get out of here unscathed.’ She thought
Soon, their eyes caught the sight of the boss room. The anxiety felt by the Hunters came over the air and could be felt on his skin.
They were greeted by a huge open space.
‘…….’
Naruto scanned the boss room. It was smaller than yesterday’s boss room with the giant in it.
However, quite unlike yesterday, he didn’t get the impression that the boss room was huge at all. And that would be all thanks to countless High Orcs completely filling up the chamber.
As a matter of fact, there were over twice as many Orcs here as those that ‘escorted’ the raid team.
‘At least a hundred… no, maybe it’s a bit more than that?’
While there were no monsters inside the rest of the dungeon, they had been gathered inside the boss room, instead.
Seeing the masses of High Orcs waiting inside, Sean’s complexion paled in an instant.
‘If this many High Orcs manage to escape from the Gate, then….This was a large enough horde to utterly destroy a small city, even before the top Hunters had the chance to do something about them. At the very least, we gotta eliminate the boss.’
The High Orcs of the boss room parted to make way.
“Ah sharkh.”
The leader High Orc beckoned again. The raid team and the escorting High Orcs walked over to an altar located in the corner of the boss room.
“Over there!”
One of the Hunters pointed towards the top of the altar.
And that’s where the High Orc Shaman stood, dressed in all manner of accessories adorning its entire body, including a mask, bone necklace, and earrings.
‘So, that’s the boss….’ Sean’s expression hardened.
He immediately realized that the terrifying magic energy filling up the interior of this dungeon was being emitted from that creature. And then, surrounding that bastard was from the four ‘guards’ possessing an air of alertness standing around the boss, he also sensed a rather ominous aura as well.
‘This isn’t good.’
Could the raid team get past those guards and kill the Shaman in one fell swoop? The Hunters were all thinking roughly the same thing.
The Hunters stopped in front of the Shaman.
A certain intangible tension flowed in between the High Orcs surrounding the human Hunters as they kept a certain distance away.
“Kekeke.” However, the Shaman didn’t seem to care about the mood of the place; it simply opened its rather malformed jaw, visible below the mask, and cackled out, “Oh humans, welcome.”
The Hunters of the raid team exchanged glances.
‘As soon as Sean gives us the signal….’
‘We attack together.’
‘Aim for the Shaman, no matter what.’
It was for the purpose of coordinating their attacks.
However….
Suddenly, the air around them began freezing up.
Hunters of this raid team were some of the very best out there. They all shifted their gazes at the same time at this sudden outpouring of chilling aura. The source was the Shaman.
The creature finally took the mask off. When it did, the magic energy it had been hiding until then exploded forth, unchecked and unhindered.
The freakish magic power spread out in circular waves with the boss as the center.
As if they were normal, powerless civilians that ran into a lion or a tiger, the Hunters froze up on the spot like a bunch of statues.
“O-oh my god….”
“How can a magic power of such magnitude be….?”
“We, we gotta fight against something like this?!”
Despair, lamentation, resentment, even regret. The Shaman formed an ominous grin when facing these varying forms of hopelessness.
“Are you scared of me, humans?”
Sean bit down on his lower lip, hard, and took a difficult step forward before asking a question.
“Why did you summon us here? Your warriors would’ve been enough to kill us back there.”
The Shaman grinned again. Simply looking at the grin chilled the backs of the Hunters.
“Entertainment.”
“What?”
Sean was left utterly speechless.
The Shaman continued on, “While we wait out the remaining time, I will kill you one by one to entertain the soldiers!”
Waaaaaah-!!
High Orc warriors all roared out in frenzy and excitement.
Hunters were ruthlessly forced down by the enormous pressure emitted from the Orcs and couldn’t even breathe properly. One of them even began crying, no less.
“However….” The Shaman briefly stopped talking, then his gaze shifted and stopped at the rear of the human’s group where Naruto was, “…..I see that a strange being is mixed among you, humans.”
It was then, Sean’s eyes gleamed dangerously.
‘With the Shaman looking elsewhere, this is my chance!’
Veins bulge in his neck.
“Now!!”
Sean roared out at the top of his lungs, unsheathed his sword, and rushed out. However, it was eerily quiet behind him. He glanced behind him while running, and discovered his comrades rooted to their spots, not daring to move an inch. They had lost their fighting spirit a long time ago from the display of the boss’s overwhelming might.
Sean’s heart fell to the pit of his stomach.
‘Ah….’ His gaze shifted back to the front.
Perhaps his attack wasn’t expected, the Shaman was still smiling, and its guards weren’t showing any urgent reactions, either.
This could be his one and only chance.
Didn’t matter if it was pure luck. He’d accept a fluke, too. As long as his sword could reach….
Sean fiercely rushed forward and co*cked his sword behind him.
“Euhwaaaaaah-!!”
But, even before he could swing the sword with all his might, he collided with something invisible and was flung away.
Boom!!
At first, it was shield magic.
“Keok!”
Flung away from the rebound, Sean landed on the ground and rolled backwards. But, that lasted only for a short while.
“Looks like we have our first volunteer.”
Along with the Shaman’s mocking words, Sean’s body was lifted up into the air.
Wuuuoooo…
And now, it was the anti-gravity magic.
“….”
The lips of the Shaman were moving up and down non-stop. When Sean was lifted up as high as a two-story building, the Shaman began chanting a different spell.
“…..”
Next to come was gravity acceleration.
Kaboom!!!!
Sean was slammed into the ground.
“Keo-heok!”
He didn’t even have the time to writhe in pain as he was lifted up in the air again.
“Anti-gravity.”
Kekeke….
Not only the Shaman, but the rest of the High Orcs were cackling in derision as well, their fangs fully bared now.
Kaboom!!
“Keo-heok!!”
Wuuooong….
Boom!!
“Keok!”
The Shaman continued to toy with Sean by lifting him up and slamming him down.
When he landed on the ground for the fourth time, Sean vomited out a mouthful of blood. Seeing this scene, the complexions of the Hunters got paler and paler. However, none of them dared to step forward to stop this.
“S-S-Sean….”
They simply stood there trembling while witnessing Sean being broken into pieces.
Plop.
The female Healer collapsed on the floor as if she no longer had any strength left in her legs.
Eventually….
The Shaman raised Sean in the air for the fifth time.
“You sure are a tenacious bastard, aren’t you?”
“Euh, euh…..”
A pained moan leaked out of Sean’s mouth. However, he still didn’t let go of the sword as if he hadn’t given up yet.
Wuuoong!
Slam!
Wuuuonnng!
Slam!!
Wuuuonng!
As he was thrown up and down between the air and ground several times more, Sean finally lost his grip on the sword.
Clang….
It happened then.
Just as Sean was thrown down to the ground once more, he vanished from the view.
“Ng??” The Shaman’s eyes opened wider.
Where did the human disappear to, when all of his bones should be broken by now? The Shaman searched for the whereabouts of Sean.
‘There….?’
In a corner not too far, it discovered Sean, unmoving on the ground. And at the same time, found the strange being crouching nearby.
Naruto carefully laid Sean down and ignored the Shaman, as he tapped Sean's cheek getting his attention, “Hey, I want to ask you something.”
“…..?”
“Will it be okay if I kill all of the monsters in here?”
“You… What are you….?” The Shaman frowned and gestured with its chin, and one of the guards swung about its scimitar and ran to where Naruto was.
Naruto raised a hand. When he did, it was as if a giant, invisible hand grabbed the Orc guard, and the monster was cleanly picked up from the ground.
“Ku, kurua?!” The monster kicked and struggled in the air.
‘What….?!’ The eyes of the Shaman widened
Naruto pointed down
Slam!!
The guard crashed down to the ground. The impact force was so great that deep cracks spread out on the ground. However, Naruto didn’t stop there; just like how the Shaman manipulated Sean’s body, he lifted the guard up in the air again.
Slam!!
Boom!!
Kaboom!!
Like a basketball bouncing between the ground and one’s hand, the Orc guard continuously slammed into the ceiling and the ground non-stop, a helpless cry coming out from its mouth. Eventually, its head pierced into the ceiling.
Kaboom!!
With that, debris from the ceiling fell down.
While staring at the dangling Orc guard with its head buried deep into the ceiling, both groups of the High Orcs and the Hunters couldn’t hide their astonishment.
Sean trembled and questioned Naruto,“You… Just what is your….?”
“I’ll ask you again. This is your Guild’s territory, I'm a temp Hunter so I need your permission to act. Can I hunt in your territory?"
Sean realized now that the identity of the porter or whatever didn’t matter anymore. No, he was just pissed off. He was angry at himself for being toyed around with by the monsters like that. Tears rolled down Sean’s face. “Please…., do something….”
With a smirk Naruto stood up, High Orcs approached him. The Shaman was behind them. The boss began smirking in derision, “For a measly human, you have some interesting skills, don’t you?”
The boss gestured, and the High Orcs quickly surrounded Naruto.
“However, just how far do you think your tricks will get you?”
Naruto looked up, “I’ll play with you last.” he said about to start himself but his shadow shimmered, "Fine.
“Arise."
Meanwhile
A black sedan stopped by the side of the road.
The man climbing out of the driver’s seat, kitted out in a pair of sunglasses and a black business suit, was none other than A rank hunter Jason Curry, the section chief of the Monitoring Division, close friend of David Brennan,
Soon after his exit, three more men climbed out of the car from the passenger and rear seats. All of them were from the Monitoring Division as well.
“Chief, weren’t we on our way back to the base?”
“I just wanted to confirm something, first.”
Jason shifted his gaze over the Gate, some distance away, ‘An A rank Gate still gives me the creeps every time I look at it.’ He said
The giant hole opened up like a door and monsters trapped inside emerged outside, just imagining that made him shudder.
‘However, why did that man apply to become a miner in such a horrifying place? Not only that, for two days in a row, too.'
Even if David hadn’t asked him, Jason would have personally come here to find out, anyway, ‘Investigating behind his back is…. impossible.’
The man in question was a S rank Hunter. A measly A rank like him going undiscovered while secretly investigating a S rank was, realistically speaking, an impossible dream.
That was why he decided to show up in the open like this.
Since he had a matter to attend to nearby anyway, he was thinking of greeting Naruto while saying he was in the neighborhood, and then ask a couple of simple questions.
‘I hope he won’t find me strange or anything.’ Jason thought, Naruto or Kane had been string 10 years ago and it wasn't a stretch to believe he had got stringer, his still youthful appearance would attest to that,
Jason walked over to where the representative of the Hunters Guild was.
“I’m looking for your mining team.”
“Who…. are you?”
Jason showed his badge,
The Guild employee confirmed his identity and pointed in the direction of the waiting mining team.
“Please head over that way.”
Four Hunters from the Monitoring Division were now paying a visit to the mining team. As if he had received a heads-up already, Trevor hurriedly ran to meet them halfway.
“What brings the Hunters from the Monitoring Division to this place?”
The members of the mining team had been relaxing until then tensed The oppressive pressure Hunters felt from the words ‘Monitoring Division’ was rather huge.
The people whose job was to arrest the Awakened that the normal laws couldn’t do anything about, they then either reformed the troublemakers or simply eliminated them.
“What’s going on?”
“Hunters from the Monitoring Division are here.”
“Monitoring Division?”
“Something must’ve happened.”
Feeling curious now, the mining team members began flocking around Trevor as Jason took his sunglasses off.
‘……’
He swept his gaze around the miners to locate Naruto, but in the end, he had to ask for that man’s whereabouts from Trevor
“Do you know by any chance where Naruto Uzumaki is?”
“I bloody knew it!”
Suddenly, a man jumped out from among the miners. It was Leland, who had run into Narutoyesterday.
Leland passionately spat out his complaints, spittle flying freely from his mouth, “When that bastard looked at me, I was terrified that he might eat me alive or something, you know! it’s still so damn scary even when I think about it now….”
Jason raised an eyebrow, ‘Terrifying enough to eat a person….?’
Just what on earth was this man talking about?
The voices of the Hunters rose up higher and higher. Jason ignored the background noise and asked Leland, "“Did something happen?”
“Ah, well, that is….”
Jason was about to answer him, but then, he rapidly realized that he was also at fault and quickly waved his hands around. “Well, that isn’t really important, but the main thing is, his eyes were really scary, man.”
“….”
Jason looked over at Trevor “Where can I find Naruto?”
“Naruto is… He’s inside the Gate right now.”
Jason's eyes widened, “Why did he enter the dungeon?”
“Well, the raid team’s porter hasn’t shown up today, you see. Nobody wanted to go in there, so Naruto volunteered as the porter.”
“….”
“But, it’s a wee bit weird, you know?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s nothing particular, but… Ms. Estrella was also looking for Naruto, so she entered the Gate just now, you know? Isn’t it just too weird…?”
‘The Vice Chairman of the Hunters Guild Estrella was looking for Naruto? Not only that, she even went after him into the dungeon, too?’
Just what was happening here?
He only stopped by to say hello to Naruto, but now, it felt like something big was afoot here.
‘For the time being, I should head over to the Gate.’ That seemed to be the best choice he could make for the time being.
“We’ll stop by at the Gate, and leave afterwards.”
“Oh, sure thing.”
Just as Jason and his subordinates turned around to leave, Leland quickly grabbed his arm.
“Excuse me, Mr. Hunter?” Leland had this expectant face for some reason as he hurriedly asked Jason, “That bastard, Naruto, did he do something bad? Maybe he killed someone? I mean, he looked like someone fully capable of that.”
Jason frowned slightly again. He sort of could understand why Naruto glared at this moron.
Still, there were too many eyes watching. As a Hunter working for the FBH, he couldn’t carelessly display his irritation at a stranger.
This was why working for a public organization sometimes could get rather annoying. Jason spat out a long sigh and did his best to sound as diplomatic as possible, “You’ll find out when you take a look at tomorrow evening’s news broadcast.”
“I told you, didn’t I? I told you that man is too suspicious!” Leland said lookingnto his coworkers
“But, he didn’t look that way….”
“Right. And he worked so diligently, too.”
Not minding the lukewarm responses of his colleagues, Leland went on about how great his discerning eyes were.
‘Tsk.’
Jason stared at that man making a fool of himself, before taking his subordinates towards the Gate.
However….
Jason instinctively stopped a few steps away from the Gate.
“Chief?”
The subordinates began staring in confusion at Jason’s stiff face. ‘This… This can’t be. It makes no sense.’
Jason quickly yanked his phone out. He then accessed the Hunters information hub and checked out the available info on the A rank Gate the Hunters Guild was supposed to raid today and his eyes widened in shock.
‘Why is the measured value of the magic energy so low?! ‘The measurement results are wrong.’
Not all A rank Hunters were equal. For instance, Jason was the top A rank hunter and his instincts were telling him this: The measurement value was all wrong.
Jason quickly issued an order to his subordinate next to him, “Go get the mana energy measuring device.”
The subordinate immediately ran to where their car was parked.
The miniature measuring device used by the Monitoring Division was a world apart in quality from the devices used by the regular Bureau employees. As befitting a device created from a top-grade mana crystal that cost over a million dollars, this piece of equipment very rarely threw up errors or mistakes in its results.
The measurement result quickly came out. ‘I knew it….’
The displayed result showed a clear discrepancy to the previously measured value. If the Guild formed their raid team according to the measured value presented by the Association, then it’d definitely become a serious situation.
‘Well, with two rank S Hunters inside, I’m sure nothing bad would happen, but…’
But, when Jason placed the measuring device on the ground and tried to stand back up…
Wuuuuoooonnng!!
The Gate suddenly began vibrating.
The powerful gushing mana energy wave caused Jason and his three subordinates, with far worse perceptions than him, to flinch grandly on the spot. They began trembling like leaves right away.
“S-Section Chief?!”
“What, what was that, sir??”
Jason shifted his gaze to the youngest of the agents present, the kid’s complexion looking awfully pale now.
“You okay?”
“Y-yes, sir. I’m okay.”
Jason nodded, standing, “We’re going inside.”
“Pardon me?”
“You want to go in there, sir?”
“If you’re scared, it’s okay for you to back out.”
It was his duty to inform the Hunters trapped inside. It was the duty of the Bureau agents to manage other Hunters, and to keep a close watch on them, but also to aid them in time of their needs, “N-no, sir.”
“We’ll go with you.”
Jason nodded his head “Junior. Stay behind and report the new measurement result back to the Bureau.”
“Yes. No, wait. Sir?”
“Can you do it?” Jason lightly tapped the youngest agent here on the shoulder, and the latter nodded his head with some difficulty.
“….Yes, sir. I understand.”
Jason turned to look back at the Gate,
On top of its already nonsensically-high magic energy emission, an even greater storm of magic power rushed out from the Gate just now.
‘What the hell is going on inside this Gate?’
With Jason as the lead, the two agents of the Monitoring Division also threw themselves beyond the Gate’s surface.
Inside
Estrella was following after the traces left behind the raid team.
‘This is so weird. Why can’t I find the traces of monsters?’
In a regular dungeon, it was normal to find the corpses of monsters strewn about here and there, starting from somewhere near the entrance and all the way till the boss room.
But, no matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t see any dead monsters. 'Did the monsters gather in one place or something?'
She thought as she continued to walk forward, until‘…Huh?’
She finally located corpses in the distance.
As befitting a rank S melee-type Hunter, Estrella arrived at the location of the battle in the blink of an eye, ‘How can this be?!’
Her eyes opened up super-wide. All the corpses belonged to the High Orcs. It was easy to identify them, because they featured red skin and their fangs were noticeably longer, too.
‘How did Sean’s team manage to defeat this many High Orcs?!’
And, was that all? There was seemingly not one casualty, too. Of course, if there was a casualty, they would’ve retreated on their own accord, saving her the trouble of having to step foot inside here.
‘…Did I underestimate the A and B rank Hunters too much?’
Surveying the location, she thought that the battle had to be a bit one-sided, as well.
However….
‘Wait, isn’t that….?’
Estrella discovered something odd and crouched down to take a closer look at one of the corpses. And her eyes grew even wider than before. She stood back up and quickly began checking out each of the High Orc corpses.
‘This one, and this one, too….But, how….??’
Almost all the High Orcs were left with injuries inflicted by a short but incredibly sharp weapons.
‘They weren’t blows fatal enough to kill, but….’
But, she thought that these were definitely enough to hinder the movements of the High Orcs. It also meant that one Hunter managed to almost single-handedly massacre all 20 High Orcs.
Only two High Orcs were killed off in a different fashion to everyone else. One had its head ripped off by an incredible force, while the other one had died after something blunt hit it in the head.
‘Excluding those two, one person managed to drive all the other Orcs to the brink of death?!’
She was deeply confident of her own speed, but even then, she couldn’t be sure of achieving the same feat under the same given situation. And also, from what she knew, there was no Assassin-type Hunter wielding daggers or shortswords within Sean’s team.
‘….Shortswords?’
It was then, a certain scene flashed past her brain.
The man who stood near the boss room yesterday.
Naruto was definitely holding short weapons in both of his hands.
‘Could it be–’ Estrella’s head snapped towards the deeper parts of the dungeon. And her expression rapidly hardened. She could sense this incredibly powerful mana energy wave, no, energy tremors, the kind she’d never experienced before, coming from there.
Estrella began running towards the boss room as fast as she could
Boss Room
Everything began with those words.
Whoooosh-!!
A ripple incomparably greater than that of the magic energy wave from the High Orc Shaman spread out everywhere. That wasn’t the only change to take place, however.
Along with him unshackling his magic power, the shadow beneath Naruto’s feet spread out, too. And it covered the entirety of the chamber’s surface at a frightening pace, as if someone had poured a bucket of pitch-black ink onto the floor.
“W-what’s this??”
"What is going on?
This doesn't make any sense! I can't even summon more than two beasts."
The Hunters of Sean’s raid team saw the ‘shadow’ spread beneath their feet and freaked out. How should they even go about describing this situation? Even the most experienced, grizzled Hunters among the group hadn’t heard of anything like this, never mind seeing one.
Tremble…
An unknown fear crept up over them.
Sean, lying on the ground, powerlessly began trembling violently while staring up at Naruto.
‘What…. Just what are you planning to do?’
As if to answer his silent question – when the spreading shadow completely covered the floor of the boss room….
Shururuk…
The surface of the shadow wavered, and soldiers wearing jet-black armour rose up one by one.
[All Stats of the Shadow Soldiers fighting over the Summoner’s shadow will rise up by 50%.]
He sensed the fighting spirit of his enhanced soldiers soaring higher. 50 summoned Shadow Soldiers stood around Naruto in a circle as if to protect him.
“Ku-kururuk??”
“Kuruk!!”
The High Orc Warriors, famed for their bravery, began retreating one step at a time after getting their wits scared off by the dangerous pressure emitted by Naruto and his soldiers.
“O-Orcs are retreating?!”
“Just what is the meaning of this….”
Even though they were trembling like a leaf from this unbelievable situation, the Hunters also began clutching onto a slender thread of renewed hope now.
“D-did you feel that?”
“Yeah.”
“Can… can that even make any sense?”
The mage-type Hunters were sensitive towards the magic energy, to begin with. And they couldn’t control their furiously quickening heartbeat no matter what. Because, an insane amount of magic energy was gushing out from the man who subbed in for their luggage carrier. Someone whom they thought of as a nobody no less.
The sheer pressure from the magic energy thickly filling up the boss room made it difficult to even breathe properly. The fact that this incredible power didn’t belong to an enemy relieved them to no end.
On the other hand, indescribably heavy and taut tension was flowing among the ranks of High Orcs.
With the appearance of the Shadow Soldiers, the difference of 1 to 150 suddenly got reduced to 50 to 150.
Naruto exploded forward without warning, causing the Shaman to yell, “What are you doing!! Kill that human right now!!”
The High Orc warriors all roared out and raised their weapons.
“Kuwaaaaarrr!!”
“Kuwaaahk!!”
“Kuaahh, kuaaah!!”
High Orcs screamed out. Limbs, bits of body parts sliced off by Naruto’s two daggers, and the ensuing trails of blood scattered in all directions. He was so fast that even the elite Hunters could only catch the glimpses of his afterimage.
“That….”
“Right. That’s like seeing our Vice Chairman.”
Estrella’s nickname was the ‘Dancer’.
Normally, she remained a calm, composed figure, but when she jumped into a battle, she swiftly cut down monsters as if she was performing a fast-tempo dance routine. Hence, that nickname was given to her.
The woman in question forbade the use of that nickname because of how embarrassing it sounded, so it wasn’t widely known, but some people still resorted to calling her that every now and then.
And now, their supposed porter was displaying a movement that was on par with Estrella no, even exceeding her speed.
If Estrella danced, then the Porter was a typhoon. He had become the center of the storm to obliterate the surrounding monsters.
Kuoooaaahhh!!
The Shadow Soldiers didn’t lose out, either; destroying the hapless High Orcs quickly before they could mount an descent offense,
The sea of fire shooting out from the upgraded Magic Soldiers would rain down on top of the enemies with no exceptions.
Kaaabbboooom!!
The number of High Orcs decreased substantially in no time at all. The Shaman’s swine-like cheek meat quivered in rage.
‘How an insolent human being dares to…!’
The boss’s glare was firmly fixed on Naruto
The black-armored soldiers were summoned by him! If he died, then the soldiers would disappear, too.
The Shaman began chanting a spell.
"@$%&<[@”
The song of slowness, the song of blindness, the song of crippling fever, the song of intolerable pain, and the song of demonic slumber; five different types of hexes were completed in an instant and flew towards their intended victim.
“It’s done!”
The moment all these hexes were completed, Naruto also sensed the unnatural movement of magic energy.
Hexes were different from normal magic spells and couldn’t be evaded. The moment it was cast, that would be the end.
Naruto cut down another Orc when,
[Abnormal status has occurred.]
[All abnormal status will be removed with the effects of ‘Buff: Immunity’.]
[‘Hex: Slow’ has been dispelled.]
[‘Hex: Blindness’ has been dispelled.]
[The blessing of Sukunabikona]
Continuous effect ‘Good Health and Long Life’: You’ll be immune to all types of diseases, poisonous substances, as well as all forms of status debuffs. During sleep, your recovery rate will increase exponentially.
Thanks to that, he didn’t have to worry about status-altering things like poison, alcohol, magic hexes
“W-what?!”
The Shaman shuddered in shock. Fitting for a boss of the rank A dungeon, the High Orc Shaman had immediately realised that its curses were rendered ineffective by an even greater power than it.
Even before the monster could think about it some more, the Shaman's eyes widened as Naruto was in midair before he went to slash the Shaman
"Hymn of Protection "
A shield appeared and protected the Shaman as Naruto’s dagger shook it, "Hymn of Blazing fire."
Naruto jumped off the shield and flipped back as a blast of flames rushed him but with a swing of his arm a shockwave snuffed the flames out, as he skidded to a stop,
"Hn, Arise."
Horrifying screams that resembled death throes resounded out from somewhere unknown.
Wuuuaaaaahhhh—-
The Shaman’s eyes widened in shock.
“W-what is….?!”
The Shaman didn’t get to finish its sentence. Even before it could, black hands began rising up from the shadows beneath the corpses of the High Orcs, that was why.
Naruto smirked while gazing contently at the newbies joining his Shadow army.
‘My warriors have become undead…!!’
The Shaman began shuddering uncontrollably. About 50 warriors had lost their lives so far. And about the same number had changed into those black-armored soldiers.
‘Which means, those soldiers that the bastard had summoned are…?!’
The Shaman finally realized that the unidentifiable human was not wielding regular summons at all. And at the same time, it also realized how disadvantageous they were against the enemy’s powers.
The fight between 50 and 150 had morphed to 100 versus 100.
High Orc Warriors would bravely jump into a fight against enemies stronger than themselves without fear, but they rapidly lost all their fighting spirit the moment they saw their former comrades being ‘revived’ as Shadow Soldiers.
High Orcs, renowned for never backing down from a chance to shed some blood, were now openly retreating out of terror.
The fact that they wouldn’t be able to ascend to the warrior’s heaven after their death and instead become the puppets of the enemy was the worst possible nightmare for High Orcs.
"Are you afraid?" Naruto asked
While shaking like a leaf, the Shaman kept his shield up before Naruto tossed the Bead to a mage, "Target practice."
The mage raised a hand and a large orb of flames appeared that it tossed at the Shaman, "Hymn of Prote-"
The shield shattered as flames and licked the shoulders of the Shaman as his throne was destroyed, "How dar-"
Naruto kneed the Shaman in the chin, sending it flying into the wall, and it tried to punch Naruto who laughed as he ducked and punched the Shaman in the chest then the jaw knocking off its tusk, sending it to the ground, before he stomped on its elbow shattering it,
"W-wai-" the shaman pleaded before grabbing the Shaman by the head Naruto ripped it off
[You have killed the owner of the dungeon.]
[Level up!]
Earlier
‘Summons??’
The first thing Estrella thought of was summoning when she saw the Shadow Soldiers. However, there were simply too many of them to say that this was the result of summoning magic.
The thing was, the mage-type Hunters specializing in summoning magic could only control one, or two at a push. If one could control two, then the treatment one received improved greatly, and she hadn’t yet heard of anyone capable of controlling three or more summon creatures.
However….
Just how many of them were here?!
‘This makes no sense!’
One man summoned over 100 in one go. And, he didn’t even need a lot of time to summon them, either. No, he only needed a moment to summon dozens and dozens in one go.
‘I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it with my own two eyes.’
She might be one of the top-ten ranked Hunters in America, but another Hunter’s ability had managed to leave her totally speechless.
However….
‘This isn’t the time for me to stand around like this.’
Her gaze immediately shifted past the Shadow Soldiers and locked onto the raid team. Their complexions were not good at all. Some of them were squatting on the ground as if they no longer had any energy left.
Jason was bent over and tried to catch his breath, before raising his torso up only to spot Estrella standing near the entrance of the boss room. He immediately recognised who she was, "Estrella.’
Jason found it strange that she didn’t try to participate in the battle and simply stood by, so he quickly walked up next to her.
And it was at that point he got to see clearly the situation inside the boss room.
“This…. What is this?”
Soldiers wearing jet-black armor were one-sidedly massacring the supposedly-powerful monsters, also known as High Orc warriors.
The pitiful screams of the High Orcs even managed to deafen Jason's hearing.
“Been a while, Chief.”
“Ah, yes, miss. It’s been a while… but, what are they? They don’t seem to be simple monsters….”
“They are summons that man called out.”
Estrella said before pointing at Naruto in the distance as he ripped the Boss head off
Jason quickly took his sunglasses off and stared at Naruto, ‘No matter how I see it, doesn’t he look like a top-ranked melee-type Hunter?’
However, he could even use summoning magic, too?
And, sure enough…
“Oh, my god!” Jason gasped when the shadow of the boss rose at Naruto’s command
“By the way, why are you here, Chief? Was the call made to the Monitoring Division already?”
“No, that’s not it. We were in the neighborhood, just passing by. But, it was a coincidence that we discovered the Gate’s abnormal condition, and we came here to help facilitate the evacuation of the raid team, but well…looks like that won’t be necessary.”
“Do you know who he is?” Estrella asked
Jason was clearly admiring Naruto’s skills, and obviously not worried about his identity, at least not outwardly, “Yes, a little bit.”
“That man… just who is he?”
Jaso put his sunglasses back on and replied “I can’t reveal that information.”
Present
Dismissing his new shadow Tusk, Naruto cracked his neck, before he noticed an egg-sized magic crystal embedded in the dead boss’s necklace, but he decided not to get too greedy.
‘Earning experience points is good enough.’ This was the Hunters Guild’s dungeon, at the end of the day.
With a satisfied grin on his face, Naruto recalled his Shadow Soldiers.
He stepped off from the altar with a big smile on his face, but then, several people rushed over to him. They were – Hunters from the raid team, Estrella, and finally, a group of men wearing matching black business suits.
Naruto recognised one of the faces among the black suits.
‘Since when did that guy show up?’
Seeing the expression on Jason's face, he probably had witnessed the Shadow Soldiers in action in full.
“Mr. Uzumaki.”
“Naruto.”
“Mister Porter?!”
Everyone called out to him at the same time, then they took glances at each other.
Well, it was all fine and dandy that he got to fight to his heart’s content since he no longer had any reason to hide his powers, but…..
‘….How am I supposed to get out of this now?’ Naruto looked at all these people surrounding him and scratched the back of his head.
While everyone else was busy eyeing others around them, Jason quickly walked right up to Naruto’s side, pulled out his identification card and displayed it proudly for all to see.
“We’re from the Bureau Monitoring Division.”
Didn’t matter whether you were a high ranked Hunter or a low ranked one, you’d inevitably tense up after hearing the name of the Monitoring Division. And this tactic was the right one.
It was only for a brief moment, but a hint of nervousness flashed past the expressions of the Hunters Guild members, with the sole exception of Estrella.
Jason seized upon this chance and carried on with what he wanted to say, “The identity of Naruto Uzumaki is being strictly guarded by the Bureau. It is highly classified information that cannot be revealed publicly.”
Naruto raised an eyebrow as Jason looked at him, ‘We will assist you with avoiding unnecessary fuss when exiting from this place.’
Naruto nodded his head.
The quick-witted subordinates of Jason quickly surrounded Naruto like bodyguards.
“If you have any questions, please send them to the Bureau. We shall escort Mr. Naruto now.”
Not-so-subtle implication of ‘We won’t hear any of your objections’ was apparent in his voice.
All thanks to Jason’s hardened attitude, hard enough to shatter a rock, the members of the Hunters Guild had no choice but to rein in their questions and stay silent.
“Shall we go?” While being escorted by the agents of the Monitoring Division, Naruto walked past the Hunters.
‘Well, I am grateful, but….’
Something felt a bit odd, just then. Why did Chief Jason do something no one asked him to do in the first place? Once they got a sufficient distance away from the members of the Hunters Guild, Naruto quietly asked.
“Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”
“By any chance, are you thinking of signing up with the Hunters Guild?”
Naruto shook his head, "I have a contact with Rebecca of the Slayer Guild. Going back before all of these new rules and things started."
“What you did just now was to display the kind of power that exceeds S rank classification in front of the employees working for one of the largest, wealthiest Guilds in America. If you wish to avoid annoying matters in the near future, this method is the best one.”
No one could tell just what lengths the wealthy Hunters Guild might go to secure another S rank Hunter. Other Hunters would raise their hands and welcome that, but Naruto was different.
It was the same story for the Hunter’s Bureau, too.
And so, the interests of both the Bureau, trying to prevent the concentration of too much power to one specific Guild, and Naruto’s, who found the hindrance of the Guilds annoying, lined up rather nicely.
Since this wasn’t one-sided goodwill coming from the other party but something that would help both sides, Naruto didn’t feel uncomfortable by the current situation at all.
‘Well, things have become more convenient thanks to the Bureau.’
Because this matter had been resolved quite nicely in an unexpected manner, Naruto could afford to float a thin, nearly-imperceptible smile on his lips.
But, as they were about to exit from the boss room for good….
“H-hold on!!”
An urgent call came from behind the group.
Glancing back, Naruto spotted Sean approaching them while being supported by his big-framed colleague. All of his external wounds had been healed perfectly, but his complexion remained pale as he had lost a lot of blood.
‘It’d be better for you to not move yet.’ Naruto said
Despite Naruto’s worries, Sean managed to stand before him. He then bowed deeply.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, we are all still alive. On behalf of the raid team, I’d like to thank you.”
According to the Monitoring Division’s Hunters, Naruto seemed to be burdened by some kind of circ*mstances preventing him from revealing himself.
‘With that kind of power, it’d not be too strange if he does have some kind of an unspeakable circ*mstance.’ Sean thought
However He risked his identity being revealed to aid Sean and the rest of the raid team. But, was that all? He didn’t even ask for any compensation, either.
He could’ve easily requested the Hunters Guild for the corpses of the monsters or for the cost of saving the lives of the raid team, but he backed off without saying a thing.
“….Thank you very much!”
The Hunters of the raid team saw their leader bow down to express his gratitude and finally snapped out of their stupor.
‘If it wasn’t for that man….’
‘He’s our savior, isn’t he?’
‘In that case, I shouldn’t be standing around like this in a daze.’
They scrambled to get closer and bowed their heads as well.
“Thank you, Mister Port…. No, I mean, Naruto.”
“If it wasn’t for you, we…..”
“Thanks to you, my wife won’t become a widow now.”
Naruto stared at these Hunters, feeling content inside. He didn’t help them out for their flattery or for their praises, but their genuine thanks did automatically bring about a warm smile to his lips.
“….Ah.”
Naruto walked over to the female Hunter jumping up and down by the corner. When he pushed forward the memo she gave to him earlier, the female Healer blushed and took it,
“T-thank you….”
“Let’s go.”
As soon as Naruto began walking, the agents of the Monitoring Division moved together in one unit as if they had been rehearsing it.
There was one exception, though.
‘Ah…’
Only Estrella had failed to say something to Naruto and she tried to reach out to him, but gave up in the end.
‘I wanted to ask him for his phone number.’
A female Hunter walked over to Estrella.
“Excuse me…. Vice Chair?”
“Yes?”
When Estrella turned around to look, the female Hunter pointed to her hand.
“Why are you carrying a pickaxe?”
Estrella’s gaze drifted towards the head of the pickaxe and her face began blushing rather quickly. She hurriedly lowered the pickaxe and cautiously asked. “You think he found me weird?”
The female Hunter, a mage, tilted her head and asked back “Who did?”
Estrella’s blushed
When they came out of the Gate Jaso. took a look at his wristwatch and asked Naruto.
“We’re planning to return to the Association but, well…. If it’s okay with you, why don’t you ride along with us and join the Association President for dinner?”
“What time is it now?”
“It’s quarter past two.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve already made a prior engagement. See you tomorrow when I get my license." Naruto headed to pick up his daughter
Day Later
In front of the Federal Bureau of Hunters Starling City main building.
The sea of reporters that showed up to cover Tommy Merlyn’s rank assignment test had set up a camp in front of the Bureau.
Rebecca's son had become an arrogant social media star, his best friend Oliver who had casted a large shadow had disappeared
and he had been on a good track to changing his ways before Rebecca resurfaced with a boyfriend a few years older than him. Rebecca tried to get custody of him but he wanted nothing to do with her, so she left it alone. The prolonged exposure of the Towers mana waves had awaked his dormant abilities as well and he Awakened.
Tommy was the first socialite to be so public with this matter and everyone had their eyes on him,
“Excuse me! We already reserved this spot!”
“Hey man! Are you blind? Can’t you see how many people showed up today? Who cares about your spot or mine?! Your spot is where you’re standing.”
“Dang it….”
Meanwhile, a full-blown smile was forming on Tommy’s face as he stared through the window at the sea of reporters extending as far as the access road while standing inside the building.
Deliberately wasting time and attracting the attention of the public definitely paid off today.
“Excuse me, Mr. Merlyn? This will be tomorrow’s headline, but what do you think about it?”
Starling City's’s top newspaper reporter showed him the manuscript for tomorrow’s front page and asked, “Don’t you think using that as the headline is a bit dull?”
“You think so?”
“Hmm…. How about this one? ‘The man who has everything, Tommy Merlyn. He now grasps power transcending humanity!’. Well?”
“But, if we use a strong lead-in like that, don’t you think a portion of the readers will feel uncomfortable?”
“Well, I’m not exaggerating here, and besides, no one in their right minds would talk rubbish about me in this city. I mean, both the media and my fans are watching closely with their eyes wide open, after all.”
“Okay. Got it. We’ll go with that one.”
It was then, two imported luxury sedans arrived at the parking lot of the Association. Two men climbed out of their respective cars almost at the same time – they were none other than Harold Guildmaster from the White Tiger Guild, and Joseph from the Hunters Guild.
The reporters blocking the front entrance of the Bureau building all rushed towards the side of these two men. Harry and Joseph both frowned unhappily.
‘What is up with these reporters?’
‘Why is it so chaotic today?’
The noises of camera flashes going off were ringing out loudly. Countless reporters surrounded these two men and began their barrage of questions.
“Are you two visiting the Bureau to scout Tommy Merlyn?”
“What do you think will be Tommy Merlyn’s rank?”
“Please share your thoughts on Tommy Merlyn.”
The famously short-tempered Harry waved his hands around as if he found all this annoying.
“I’m not here because of him. I’ve nothing else to say.”
“Anyone related to this matter would know by now that Tommy Merlyn has already signed up with the Reapers Guild. I’m visiting the Bureau today on an unrelated matter.”
After hearing answers that didn’t meet their expectations, the reporters inwardly grumbled and turned around.
‘Eii, what the hell.’
‘And I thought I might have a juicy new story.’
‘I got excited for no dang reason.’
Still, none of them dared to express their dissatisfaction in front of a pair of S rank Hunters. Reporters returned to their spots and began their waiting for Tommy’s emergence once more.
Once the reporters left them alone, Harry and Joseph met each other’s glare.
“I heard the story. Hunters Guild almost got into a big tangle yesterday."
“Well, it wasn’t much of a big ‘tangle’, compared to how the White Tiger had to lose their rookie A rank.”
“In any case, both the Hunters and us are in that man’s debt.”
“If he wasn’t there, my second elite team would’ve been wiped out.”
Even though both men knew that person’s name, not mentioning it could be considered the final act to their war of nerves. Joseph took a step closer.
“That is why, on that principle, I’d like to ‘definitely’ bring that man into our Guild.”
“We even had suffered casualties. Looking at the need to replenish our combat force, wouldn’t you agree him joining us makes more sense?”
“Just what are you planning to do by recruiting a S rank to shore up your combat force?"
“What about you? Since when did you worry about principals and the like to talk about your principals here?”
‘….Huh?’ Marcus looked confused as he saw those two growling at one another, a mocking smirk formed on his face
“Oiii, I hope you aren’t acting like that over Tommy?”
"Who the f*ck is that?’
‘I don’t give a rat’s ass about him.’
Martin flinched in surprise and took a step back when two rather terrifying glares landed squarely on him.
‘What is up with these two assholes all of a sudden?!’ Marcus thought
Meanwhile
‘What’s this? Two S-ranks?’ Tommy grinned, his dad didn't like Hunters and remained one of the few corporations that didn't have a Guild under his control so he went with his friend Lex Guild,
‘The best Guilds in America are fighting over me….’ He thought, he wasn't trying to be a big deal in the Hunter world he just needed the views for his YouTube channel
Soon his manager appeared.
“They say they are ready now. Let’s go and do the press conference.”
“Alright.”
The manager took the lead. He opened the front entrance and allowed Tommy to emerge from the Association building; camera flashes exploded in a scary cacophony of endless shutter clicks.
As he would do every day, Tommy formed a fake smile towards hundreds of lenses surrounding him.
Naruto had finally arrived at the front of the Bureau, and looked at the spectacle, today was supposed to be a slow day, shaking his head he walked forward
“Oii, what are you doing??”
“What the hell?”
“What’s wrong with you?!”
This was the physical strength of a rank S Hunter. Reporters were all helplessly pushed away, deep frowns etched on their faces. The path forward was opened up in the blink of an eye, and Naruto could walk up the steps leading to the front entrance of the Bureau.
However, even before he could take another step, a large, muscular dude suddenly blocked Naruto’s path.
“Hey!!” Tommy’s manager yelled “Who the hell are you? You work for-"
Naruto pushed the man away and continued the stairs, Tommy glared at Naruto who stood beside him, "What're you doing here?
Naruto scoffed and walked ahead when David Brennan walked out causing the reporters eyes to widen
The once-chaotic bustling atmosphere immediately cooled down with the entrance of someone completely unexpected. David walked right up to the steps and spoke up.
“This gentleman is my guest.” David looked at Tommy “I hope you haven’t forgotten who gave you the permission to hold a press conference in this place, Mr. Merlyn.”
“O-of course, sir.”
The first day as a Hunter, he falls out of favor with the Association President and loses the location of the press conference Tommy frowned,
“Please, follow me, Naruto.”
"Later Timmy." Naruto smirked causing Tommy to glare as Naruto and David disappeared into the building
“What was that all about?
“Who was that man, and why is the Chairman personally coming out to greet him?”
“Does anyone know who that man is?”
Reporters felt frustrated and raised their voices, but there was no one answering them.
“I hear he canceled everything for the morning.”
“Are you telling me that the Association President cancelled the whole morning’s worth of appointments for that man?”
This place had become too restless and the current situation was no longer suitable for holding a press conference.
Tommy shot a glare at his manager before his eyes widened looking at the reporters only to see them getting ready to leave. They were supposed to broadcast everything live. If this ‘distracted’ spectacle got on the airwaves and was broadcast to the rest of the country, then there was a good chance that all of Tommy’s hard work to increase his brand’s value by becoming an A rank Hunter would go down the drain for good.
However, Davids entrance caused too much of a ripple to calm the mood down and restart the press conference. Just why did someone so big have to appear at such an important time??
‘Isn’t there a way to reverse this situation?’ Tommy thought
Hunters from the Monitoring Division rushed out first and he was pushed back, instead. They stood in a line to block off the front entrance.
‘What the hell is this now?!’ Tommy growled
‘Section Chief Jason, Monitoring Division? What’s the meaning of this? Why are you blocking the entrance?”
“Currently, another User is going through the process of the rank assignment test. No one will be allowed to enter the building until 11 o’clock, when the test is scheduled to end.”
“What did you just say?!”
“Please, don’t be like this and let me in. I have something to discuss with-"
“I’m sorry.” Jason interrupted,
“Look here, mister. Don’t you know who I am? I’m Tommy Merlyn, man!”
"Ok." Jason replied
“You think you can treat the son of Malcolm Merlyn this way in front of these many reporters? You think you can handle the fallout?”
“Yes, we can.”
“What?!”
Meanwhile
The inside of the main building was rather empty.
There was no one waiting to take their rank assignment test inside the hallway, unlike 3 days ago with only a smattering of employees going about their usual business.
“Please, come this way.”
“Alright.”
Naruto was about to follow David’s instructions and enter the measurement room, but then, spotted two somewhat familiar-looking faces. His clone helped one with a red gate and the other he helped his Guild the last two days,
When Harry and Joseph gazes met his, both men stood up from their seats and nodded. Naruto reciprocated the greeting and walked past the hallway. As they walked down the passageway, a soft smile formed on David's ’s lips.
“Those two have been waiting for you for about an hour.”
“A new S rank Hunter has appeared after two long years. And besides, Joseph has heard of your powers so he should be even more anxious at the moment.”
Naruto slowly nodded his head.
“Oh, my!”
The Association employees they met on the way all politely greeted David and stared at Naruto with mystified eyes.
‘Who is that man that's with the Chairman?’
‘Could he be someone really important?’
‘How can someone that young know our President?’
“I heard about what happened yesterday.” David said
'I figured."
This was further proof that Naruto was string, and had a good head on his shoulders, he cleared the gate alone and didn't try to take the loot
If Naruto’s real aim was to fight monsters and protect other people rather than become famous and make lots of money, then the Bureau was fully prepared to support him in every conceivable manner. Because, that goal lined up perfectly with the purpose of the Bureau's existence. They had gave him that check to ensure such a person wouldn't be greedy.
Soon, they arrived at the examination area, located deeper within the building.
“Before the re-evaluation can take place, we must confirm your abilities first and set the new classification for you.”
Naruto nodded.
Hunters were classified as a melee, mage, healing, or even support-type according to their abilities, and performed their roles where they were needed the most.
The Association employee waiting at the examination area greeted David, and took over guiding Naruto from him. “Please, come this way.”
Naruto stepped up to the middle of the examination area. Its interior layout much resembled an indoor gymnasium commonly found everywhere.
If there was one thing different from those gymnasiums, then it’d be the fact that one could sense powerful fluctuations of mana energy coming from the walls as well as from the floor. Magic had been utilized to reinforce the structure in case something went wrong.
The examiner asked Naruto. “What kind of ability can you use?”
David was standing in the far corner, stared at the examination process with a great deal of interest.
“Well, I can do this.” Naruto called out a single Shadow Soldier.
The examiner couldnt breath, breaking out into a cold sweat and falling to his knees when Naruto sent the shadow back, "That was one of the weaker ones." Naruto said seeing the reaction a normal person had
The examiner looked at him in shock, in a cold sweat, "H-how many can you summon?"
"10 million." Naruto said causing the two to look at him in shock
“A m-million?!”
“Yes.”
Naruto said simply
"An army." David smiled
At a glance, that ‘soldier’ possessed around the same amount of magic energy as an A rank Hunter. If that young man could summon 10 millions of those soldiers, then one simply had to concede that his powers had already exceeded a Guild’s combat force.
Truthfully, that was an incredible ability.
Naruto could feel David’s passionate gaze
“In that case…. Mr. Uzumaki, you’re a mage type.”
"Oh right, we couldn't find Uzumaki in our database. Seems the name first showed up with you." David said
"My mother was Martha Kane, and my father was an immigrant from Japan with no family to speak of. Uzumaki is the name I chose." Naruto said getting a nod from David
"Martha Kane?" David thought
The examiner studiously jotted down something on the recording document and raised his head up, while looking rather satisfied.
“We can now head to the measurement room.”
Later
Naruto held the newly-issued Hunter license in his hand.
Naruto Uzumaki, S rank, Mage-type,
"This'll throw people off." Naruto said
Naruto quickly shoved his new Hunter license inside his wallet. When he got to the end of the corridor, the waiting duo of Harry and Joseph approached him.
“Mr. Uzumaki, can we have a chat?”
“Mr. Uzumaki, I…..”
“I’m sorry. I’m pressed for time at the moment.”
Naruto ignored them both and quickly walked towards the glass door.
Naruto opened the door and blinked
Click, click, click, click, click, click….!!
The reporters that had managed to climb up the steps to push and shove against the Monitoring Division’s agents, began clicking their cameras non-stop, with flashes exploding brightly all around him.
‘What the heck is this?’
Gotham City, Wayne Manor
Bruce was weight training, just like when they were kids, Naruto slung him around without difficulty, and killed the man Bruce had been protecting, while holding back to not kill Bruce,
Hunters didn't live in Gotham, there was no money to make here, the FBH raided the Gates and closed them to prevent dungeon breaks. Bruce never expected Naruto to be one, he hadn't bothered keeping tabs on his brother and that proved to be a mistake, Naruto was strong he didn't know by how much because from his research he couldn't find Naruto’s rank in the database,
“Master Bruce!”
“What?”
“It’s your brother, sir! He’s on TV.” Alfred said turning on the Bat computer
Bruce dropped the dumbbell, as his eyes immediately shifted over to the large screen
First born son of Martha Wayne: Naruto Uzumaki, 10th S Rank of United States
It was now lunch time.
The Hunters of the mining team had ended the morning’s operation and were sitting around to enjoy their lunch.
Mining might have been their main role, but, since there was no threat of rockfall or cave-in, the mood of the team was rather carefree.
Some Hunters were lying on the floor resting, having gobbled up their meals in the blink; some Hunters were busy giggling to themselves while checking out their phones; a few Hunters were even enjoying cold alcoholic beverages while sharing snacks among themselves.
“Huh??”
One of the Hunters playing with his phone cried out in surprise and hurriedly raised his upper body up.
“Hey, isn’t that Naruto??”
Leland's ears perked up.
“Hey, it is him!”
“Naruto’s on the news.”
“I knew it.” Leland smirked before he ran to where his colleagues were as if he had been waiting for this. Even while he was doing that, his mouth continued to operate without rest, “I knew it from the moment that bastard glared at me! Let me see for myself what horrible things that insolent bastard did!”
Including Trevor, all of the mining team’s Hunters in the near vicinity gathered in one spot.
Naruto’s face filled up the palm-sized screen of the mobile phone, and just below that, large subtitles flashed by.
[….Following after Estrella Rodriguez, America's tenth S rank Hunter, Naruto Uzumaki, has just now…]
“Heok?!”
Having ‘discovered’ Naruto, Leland began shaking
London
Slade Wilson shattered the glass in his hand glaring at Naruto’s face on his screen, his brother kept a list of names of each Hunter he reached out and got to work with him and his friends on a raid, he still remembered his brothers corpse being dumped in front of him, the last name his brother had written was, Naruto Uzumaki
With Naruto
Naruto looked at all the cameras and with a sigh vanished in a blur of speed, reappearing behind the reporters before he walked to his car and drove away, "Should I go to the tower or finish the Demon castle?" He asked himself, "Tonight I'll finish the castle then I'll go to the tower."
Finished
