-Vol 3: Enemies in The dark-

-A picnic at Dungeon!?-

After the episode with Doi was over with, Kenshin and others returned to their usual lives. Akari and her friends applied for three days leave. Since now everything was okay, and there was no urgency to leave, they decided to just chill for three days.

Kenshin tried Maria’s number several times, but it's always switched off. After that, he tried her number for a few more times before giving up. What can he do if her phone comes off?

It was in the afternoon when suddenly Kenshin decided to take the girls to a picnic. The location? It’s a level 2 dungeon.

“Ehh!! Big brother, are you serious?” Akari couldn’t help but ask after hearing her brother’s plan.

“Of course I am. This way we will spend a quality time with each other, at the same time, I will know how much you have improved. And yes, your friends are also coming.” Kenshin was firm in his decision.

Akari’s friends couldn’t help but show a shred of apprehension. Although they were extensively trained in the academy, they were still heavily sheltered. They are not like Kenshin and other private hunters, who had to learn everything from experience.

Their theoretical knowledge might be higher than Kenshin, but when it comes to real life application, they were complete noobs. Besides, it wasn’t a game where if you die, you will respawn. It was the reality where if you die then you die.

No second chances.

They always knew that one day, they have to go to a dungeon and experience killing a monster with their own hands. But they had never thought that it would happen while they were visiting their friend’s home. The three girls looked at each other speechlessly.

“Hmm! Are you afraid of an accident? Please don’t be, because I will be with you. Besides, we are going to a low-level dungeon. No unfortunate accident will happen to you guys. You can trust me on this.” Kenshin said after guessing what they were thinking.

His thinking was straightforward, after experiencing a dungeon break, he realized one thing. The monster’s greatest strength was their high numbers. Nobody knew how they formed or what is their maximum lifespan, but they are like every other living being except for their unique abilities.

The researchers had also claimed that monsters could also reproduce normally like any other living beings. And their reproduction ability was way higher than rabbits, the mammal with the highest breeding rate.

A survey conducted by some famous hunters and researchers. They claimed that in a year, the number of monsters nearly triples of their initial amount. If every year so many monsters had to spawn, then in few hundred years, they would overpopulate the earth.

But nature is such a wonderful thing. She had a counter for everything. Even if the numbers increased by some many, the death rates are also that high. There are many factors, like the presence of predators or some natural disasters. If not for this, humans would have gone extinct long ago.

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The second protection came in the form of dungeons. It was like a pen for monsters. Here their growth was controlled. It also provided humans a location to slay them and grow strong. Although one couldn’t say it was safe heaven, compared to open air dungeons, it was many times safe. The main point was since humans were helped by nature and some mysterious power, so they have to make the most of it.

After realizing this, Kenshin decided to train even more intensively. The Ekla’s Garden was a low-level dungeon, and the monsters were all weak in there. With the help of Core, they had managed to suppress all the strong ones from leaving. Due to this the disaster didn’t spread much. But what if it was high leveled dungeon? What if there was no Core to suppress the flow of break? What if all the powerful monsters came out of it?

It would be a complete disaster.

Forget about a thousand hunters, even if a hundred thousands gathered, they would still bite the dust in the face of an actual high leveled dungeon break. It hadn’t happened for a few years, but that didn’t mean that it won’t happen.

After encountering Roxe, he realized that there were a group of people with unknown intentions going around causing dungeon breaks. Although there was no recent news on any dungeon breaks, who knows how many dungeons are there in the world!? Nobody had seen all of it!

Although he didn’t think that it was his responsibility to stop those lunatics, he still didn’t want them to cause havoc for humans. After all, he was also a human.

“Big brother, can we not go!? I am here after so many years, we should spend time with each other relaxing. Not going into some dungeons! Besides, out of all the places, why are you taking us to a dungeon? Don’t you love me? Why do you want to hurt me?” Akari didn’t want to go to a dungeon and waste her vacation. Hence, she played the emotional card. She knew her brother very well and knew the right ways to manipulate him into doing something.

So evil of her!

But how could Kenshin be easily swayed? What he was doing now, was for her future anyway.

“Of course I love you. That’s why I am taking you to a dungeon. I will only feel relieved if I know that my sister has the ability to protect herself. I won’t be there every time to protect you! All your theoretical knowledge will of no use once you are standing in front of a monster. For that you need courage. And trust me, nothing will give you more courage than your experience. Be prepared because today I will help you take your first step towards a true hunter.”

Suddenly Kenshin’s figure began to shine in the eyes of three girls. His speech struck a chord in the hearts of the girls.

That’s true, although they had seen the videos and read about experiences. They still hadn’t experienced it themselves. When the time comes and they have to face a real monster; maybe they will freeze for some time! That ‘sometime’ was enough for that monster to cause a fatal damage to them. Their life might be also forfeit due to that. They were all intelligent girls, they instantly understood what Kenshin was trying to do.

With a resolute look, they nodded at each other.

“Okay.”

“I knew you will understand me. Go and prepare, we will leave in fifteen minutes.” Kenshin said and went to his room to bring some weapons for the girls. Right now, in his inventory, there were a huge collection of weapons, shields, skill books and armors. But he couldn’t show them to the girls, as such he decided to spin some lies and bring them the weapons from his room.

Besides, which hunter doesn’t put some weapons in his closet? It was completely normal for him to have some hidden. This way, Akari also won’t suspect anything. It’s not that he wanted to hide it from her, but he simply decided to keep it a secret for now, until he was clear of the origin of this system.

If it was from an existence higher than them, and he had some ulterior motives, then he might harm her because she knew the secret. As a concerned brother, he felt it would be a good idea to keep it hidden for the time being.