My childhood friend died yesterday, his limbs torn to pieces.
I had so many regrets at that moment.
Only If I hadn't been awakened.
Only if I haven't been selected as a hunter.
Only if I hadn't been given such a lame gift.
Only if I was a higher grade, only if I was just a little stronger, just enough to protect my friend.
Yeah. It all comes down to that last regret. If only I was stronger.
But life doesn't work life that. Just because I want to be strong, doesn't mean I get to be. I can still remember the last moments. The roars of the creature, the screams of agony, the fear in his eyes, his hands reaching for me, and his last words.
"Please help…"
I cried too many times to the point where my tears have dried up. I couldn't for the life of me find a balance in my heart and I was lost.
"Let's quickly get this over with, and have a beer in the Exchange Center afterwards!"
Those words before the disaster struck stayed with me, and after finally taking down the damn monster and receiving the credits, I stared at that notification for a while.
[Congratulations! You can now redeem 50 credit(s)!]
"50 creds huh."
I murmured to myself.
50 cred can rarely pay for a month's rent even in the Shield District. As a matter of fact, it's barely enough to scrape by when it comes to food costs, let alone to cover the cost of armour and weapons.
Yet, it was all I could get. It was as if the world was telling me that my friend's life was worth only that much. I didn't even cry as I was out of tears. As a matter of fact I laughed. People were looking at me, annoyed and distressed, but I didn't care.
It was a pure comedy that after the trial of risking our lives, and in the end sacrificing my friend, the price of it all was not even a 15 days' worth of living cost on the streets.
"50 creds, ey?"
A drunkard that reeks of alcohol, slouched on the bar with bottles of cheap beer, looked at me with a smile. He was missing a few teeth, and the ones that existed were yellowing, and the scrappy white beard and hair covering his face flushed up with red.
"That's a night at a…a brothel. Hahahaha. Although you won't - *hick* - you won't be able to buy a night with a high-end one. If you catch my drift."
Drunkard was talking like a broken record and it was quite uncanny how he would wave back and forth while talking. I looked at the man's eyes, the man looked at me, and a sudden wave of fear went through me.
'I could become someone like that in a few years, if this continues.'
My vision was shaking, and my heart was thumping. In my eyes I didn't see an evil drunkard, I saw a broken man unable to keep himself together.
"One pint. Lager please."
"Well of course, Mr. Mikel! You can ask at the bar next time, but since this is your first quest completion, I'll bring it myself!"
Dorian, unphased, instantly handed me a pint of cheap lager after visiting the bar.
I carefully cupped it in my hands, and walked away from the receptionist, and from the drunkard. He went silent, and I did too.
I sat down near the door of the bar and started sipping.
The taste was cheap, and I hated it. But I couldn't throw it away.
It was bitter. Blood of my friend, the price for his sacrifice. His wish before his death.
So I must finish it. I cannot waste every drop.
I was staring blankly and I forgot to think. I was just an automation, routinely sipping through the lager.
It was around then that I smelt a pleasant scent that pierced through the air of alcohol.
I heard the heels that tapped through the marble floor, and my eyes momentarily fixated on the lady.
She was tall, with long blonde hair, a suit in all white and a pale skin to accommodate. Tip to toe I can tell she was rich, and even though I wasn't exactly good at reading someone's manaflow, I can tell that she was a higher grade than I was.
Perhaps an elf, or another mystical being. Someone from another dimension maybe.
She was handing in the Nether crystals - extractions from the monsters - in exchange for the credits. She was probably there after her hunt, although unlike me, no fabric was tainted with blood.
A mixture of envy and anger filled me up, and I immediately looked away, staring into the atmosphere again.
In the corner of my eye she was standing at the counter talking with Dorian before turning towards the door and starting to walk out.
'If I was as strong as she was,' I thought to myself, 'I wonder if my friend would still be alive.'
The fluorescent scent was strong, and although we were in the same room, I could feel a strong divide, as if we were in the same place yet in a different fabric of reality.
What broke that thought was, ironically, her provocation.
"Are you interested in getting stronger?"
Sharp, blue eyes that looked down on me, and pink lips that were smirking down.
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. You're a C-gradie aren't you?"
"H-how do you know my grade?"
"Just answer my question."
I went silent as she creased her brows a little in annoyance.
Stronger, eh?
"Of course I do." I answered as I looked away from her intense gaze, sipped on my lager again. "But life doesn't work like that."
"Ah, is that so? How does life work then?"
"Some people are destined to be strong. Some aren't."
It was a fact of life. It wasn't like I went into hunting without training. As a matter of fact, I trained so hard to the point where I could no longer feel my palms as they were layered with scars and dead, hardened skin.
Spending the whole day trying to master different weapons, going on a long streak of running to increase stamina. I trained night and day, in order to survive.
Yet, I lost a friend to a mere C-grade Nether creature.
"Pathetic, aren't you?"
This woman is starting to piss me off.
"....What are you saying?"
I looked at her face again, when I realised that I wasn't talking to a human being, but a monster similar to one.
Pure sadism. A smirk not unlike a predator that found a prey. It was almost as if she was enjoying my sulking. I wondered if she was drunk, but her posture and diction was so perfect that I knew that she wasn't, yet her cheeks were flourishing pink.
She was getting enjoyment out of me dangling in my failure.
"Can you leave? I want to be left…alone."
"No, we can talk a little more."
"Please. I'm not in the mood."
"I said, we'll talk a little more."
"Go away. I'm seriously not in the—"
Bang!
The air became heavy and the gravity suddenly pulled me down to the floor.
Crash!
I heard everything crashing down, the table I was sitting in breaking to pieces, the pint of glass that held the lager cracked to bits.
I couldn't move. I couldn't even breathe properly.
"Hey, C-gradie."
I heard a stern voice above me, filled with hostility and a certain degree of morbid excitement.
I felt a shot of pain, and before I knew it half of my face was greeted with a flat part of the heel, and I was forced by her feet to look at her in the eyes.
She's still smirking. Even harder than before.
It was only her voice that was echoing in the room, and not a single soul was jumping into help or trying to get her to stop. It was as if only she and I existed, and I was isolated in that situation, stuck with her. She commanded to me:
"Rule number one of the hunter's world. This will be the first thing I'll teach you:
Strength is everything. You obey the higher grades."
"Even if they…treat you like this?"
"Yes." She licked her lips, and although I tried to struggle for dignity, she simply wouldn't let me, as every part of my body felt stiff and I wasn't able to move at all. The mocking smile etched into my brain and what angered me more than the humiliation was the fact that I couldn't stand up to it.
"I'll repeat myself once more." She said, "Strength is everything, and you obey me."
I didn't know why she had to pick me as a target, nor did I know how to break free from it. But one thing was for sure.
At that moment, a 'bond' was established, one that I cannot break.