The Lonely Hunter

Chapter 10: Luck In Misfortune

Dante Gulapa, a.k.a "The Eagle Dancer" is renound in the whole nation for his delicate yet swift technique when using his ego weapon "Eagle Rapier". He was born with a mysterious illness in which every time his hand touches any hard objects would leave rashes on his whole hand that itched so badly that made him want to cut off his hand to stop the irritation. He was a silver spooned child and had a decent life but with due to his illness, it made it hard for him to live. Even with the huge leap of scientific advancements, there was no certain cure for his illness. There were medicines that temporarily cured it but the after-effects of the medicine was too much for him to bear that he had almost want to kill himself just to stop the suffering. 

He had lost all hope of finding a cure but his parents wasn't in vain, they never stopped searching for ways to ease their son's pain. When the Lincoln's arrived at the Philippines, they were fortunate enough to get a sponsorship from them and when the chairman heard the circumstances of Dante, he was willing enough to help and gave him white gloves that stopped his illness from working even after holding a solid item for a very long time. Dante was now finally able to live comfortably but it didn't take long for his illness startd to return, they had found out that the silk gloves needed mana for is effects to activate so to give solution to this problem, Dante had to become a hunter to activate his mana core. 

Though at the start, his life as a hunter whom had a complicated illness lead him to face trials and obstacles but his will to live made it posing for him to win over these challenges. He had then learned that he had the talent on the sword, over the course of the years, he became a hunter worthy of respect and had the full support from the Lincolns, he became the personal teacher for the young Dontrelle for a few years and got to hunt along with Jennifer a couple of times but got left out after getting stuck in the bottleneck of reaching B-rank. Fortunately,he was chosen to be it's owner from the ego weapon "Eagle Rapier" and as result, he was able to climb up to B-rank and became a powerful hunter that could stood his ground along A-ranks. It would only take him a few years to reach A-rank and if he was given a chance, he might reach S-rank.

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"Oh, isn't it the young miss? What could be your business that I may serve of assistance?" Dante greeted heartwarmingly as a sign of respect to Jennifer.

"I heard you've gotten stronger over the past years after gaining the trust of an ego weapon, I congratulate you for that." Jennifer said to Dante in a causal manner.

"I'm not worthy of your praise young miss, I was just fortunate." Dante replied.

"You don't need to be humble. Well let's cut to the chase, I'm here to find a certain hunter who might be hiding in this city and the best way for him to hide would probably be in sanctums where no tracker can find him." Jennifer said to Dante.

"Who could that person be that you'd have to personally find? Did he do something terrible that might have angered you?" Dante asked with a confused look.

"Not that he angers me but what he did is something worthy of death." She said in a cold tone. One of her men then gave him a tablet that showed pictures of Kal walking in the streets of a shelter. Even though it's a cropped picture, it was obvious that this picture was captured in the time when Kal and Dontrelle left the sanctum to give him the proposal.

"This is the person that angered the young miss? Since he's wearing a face mask, we can't exactly tell who he is from the picture but it seeing that he's using a bow, he must be a marksman class hunter." Dante said. Kal who saw the picture almost flinched in shock. He had already shuddered in fear after seeing Jennifer personally but the feeling of being in front of the danger was something he had never felt even after all the life-threatening situations he experienced.

'Even if she masks her powerful aura, my gut is telling me she's a very dangerous person!' Kal said in thought as he tried to avoid any eye-to-eye contact from her.

"We've already looked into hunters that could fit this person's description and it lead us to here, if possible, can you give us these people's recent location?" Jennifer said Dante an gave him a list of hunters' names. Fortunately, Kal's name wasn't in the list giving him a breathe of relief. He was glad that Jennifer had yet to know that the person she was looking for was already in front but Jennifer suddenly spoke to Kal who was immediately terrified from the call of her voice.

"Young man, can I ask what is your name?" She spoke in a cold voice.

"Ah, young miss, this person is-" Dante wanted to clear up by giving an explanation but his words were cut off from his mouth from the murderous cry of her voice.

"Shut up." Her voice resonated throughout the hall that caused everyone in the scene to tremble in fear and those weak-willed fell on the ground.

"I'll ask you again, who are you?" She said directing her murderous gaze to Kal's eyes. Kal felt a shiver crawling down his spine after her eyes stared at his own because her blue eyes that was glowing with purple hue seemed to look directly at his soul. But he didn't want to fall on her deathly stare so he bit his lip and spoke.

"My name is Kal, I'm an F-rank hunter, my role is assassin and my business with the shelter master is so I could be authorized to use the reawakening pool." He spoke this words without stuttering a word as if he was unshaken by her murderous aura. This dumfounded Dante who looked at Kal with mixed emotions. 

'How is he able to withstand such powerful aura that even I who's the same level as the young miss can fully defend her murderous stares and an assassin? Dontrelle told me he's a master in a bow so he should be a marksman but for him to boldly lie in front of a true assassin is quite an amazing feat!' Dante said to himself as he looked at Kal in shock and awe.

"Oh really? Hearing from the tone of your voice and cold expression, you must be telling the truth, then show it to me! If you can predict where this attack will hit, I'll believe your words but if you can't, I can only suspect you more as since you depict that perpetrator's description!" Jennifer pulled out a throwing knife from his pocket and threw it away, the knife flew at an alarming speed and vanished in thin air.

'Ripple Strike!? There's no way Kal can predict that! He's only an F-rank! He'd be struck by the knife before he could even react! This is just Russian roulette except the gun used is an automatic pistol! It's suicide!' Dante exclaimed in thought but he couldn't do anything so he just gritted his teeth and watch how things will happen.

'Ripple Strike, It's a long-ranged skill that's commonly used by assassins as a decoy attack to disrupt the target's attention. It's not a powerful attack but can still deal some damage and considering that the attack came from a B-rank hunter, it may prove fatal for any low rank hunters that may come to deal with it. But I'm confident I can successfully evade it,' Kal said to himself as he focus in thought.

"Don't worry, this attack won't kill you but lying to me will so remember that." Jennifer said with a grin in her face. She watch Kal intently. She already had suspicion in Kal after encountering him since he accurately depict the description  of the person in the picture, she just wanted to prove that validation by doing this test.

'It's there!' Kal quickly react to the incoming as it reappear in the direction of his head. He took a fast step back and the knife flew under his nose evading the attack by a breadth of a hair. 

Tak! 

The knife struck to the ground cracking the marble tiles as a result. This shock everyone when they saw that Kal managed to avoid the attack that they themselves thought was an inevitable hit, especially Jennifer who had her eyes widened in surprised as she couldn't believe that Kal had evaded it and it wasn't just simple evasion, he had noticed that Kal already stepped backwards even before the knife could reappear.

'To think that he already predicted the projectile's movement, gives me the conclusion that he is not lying that he's an assassin and even better than most hunters his level!' Jennifer exhilarated in thought showing a wide smile in her face.

"For you to completely dodge my attack is far from what I expected. To evade that, you'd need high agility and fast reactions that only a true assassin has, for someone of your level, I thought at best you could simply react to it and not evade it, but you completely blew me away. Well then, since you have proved to me that you are not lying, this is my reward for you!" Jennifer gestured her hand and one of her men moved in front of Kal to give him an item wrapped in silk. Kal removed the bandage that covered the item revealing a dagger that had a very intricate details and was crafted to look like a shredded fang of a venomous snake, what made it look powerful is the toxic energy that is seeping out of the blade of the dagger and when Kal inhaled the energy, it caused a sting to his nostril dealing quite a damage to his health.

-22 HP

A red number popped out of his head indicating that he lost a bit of health, he immediately push away the dagger from his face to avoid inhaling the toxic energy and a window panel appeared in his view.

Ting~

POISON BLOOD FANG

Rank: C++

Damage: 190

Durability: 600/600

Passive- Poison Smoke: The dagger is coated with a poisonous energy that releases poisonous energy. Any wound inflicted from the target leaves poisonous energy to the wound inflicting a burning sensation that deals 10-30 damage every second that lasts 8 seconds. 

-the poison energy can affect anyone even the wearer the weapon so avoid inhaling any enemy that the weapon releases.

Active- Blood Poison: Piercing the target's body injects a poisonous substance that'll circulate through the blood vessels rapidly dealing 10 damage that lasts for 40 seconds. If the health of the target drops below 10%, the target's defense is sharply decreased by 80% and movement by 70%.

Skill cost- 100 MP

Cooldown- 1 hour

Requirements: Level 20, 120 agility

"This...is...crazy!" Kal exclaimed in shock after reading the description of the weapon. Jennifer who saw his reaction chucked and spoke,

"It's normal to be surprised since what your holding now is one of the best C-rank dagger that is ever made, I was supposed to give this to Dante as a token of apology if ever I just waste his time helping me in my chase but after what you showed to me as your capabilities of an assassin is worthy for such a reward. With your high potential, a few years from now, I'll be waiting for that time where you'll be using that dagger and be sure to give me the expectation I want or else my gift would be a waste." Jennifer said to Kal.

"Thank you! I'll make sure to treasure this gift and live up to your expectations!" Kal said with confidence in his voice.

"Good!" Jennifer responded to Kal with delight. After that misfortune encounter that lead to quite a luck, Jennifer and her men left the shelter. Dante who wore a stupefied look on his face was left dumbfounded at what had just transpired.

"What the hell just happened?" He muttered to the air as he looked at Kal who was busy admiring the powerful weapon he just obtained.