Hunters were a group of supernatural beings who hunted darkness. Actually, aside from some hunters in the Church, other hunters didn't reject the power of darkness...
To defeat evil, they dared to use any means. That's how the first batch of hunters came to be.
Without realizing it, Veronica's impression of David Frank had changed. This noble young master with an extremely bad reputation among the locals had now saved her twice...
She suddenly felt that the seemingly cold David wasn't the kind of villain from the rumors.
...
"The frontier hunters' guild doesn't reject hunters using some special methods to fight darkness... huh?"
David watched Veronica's hurriedly departing figure and dismissed the idea of killing her.
Not because of the female hunter's sincere gratitude to him, but because he suddenly realized the hunters' guild's attitude and position on certain matters.
He seemed to have gotten something wrong before. As someone who'd just transmigrated into David Frank's body, his perspective hadn't opened up.
Maybe that guy who wanted to kill David Frank's target wasn't as simple as the young master's life.
...
Time passed day by day. The dark tide's arrival didn't have too much impact on David's monster hunting life.
On the contrary, thanks to more dark creatures appearing, finding targets became even easier.
David continued going deep into the border's Klan Mountains daily, returning to the relatively safe fortress after nightfall.
Doug would help him take materials like dark creature blood, organs, and eyeballs from the hunt to the black market to sell and exchange for things he needed.
The twin maids would prepare food for him. Their cooking skills were terrible at first, but David didn't blame them for it. He didn't care about these things. As long as the stuff was edible and could satisfy his ravenous appetite, that was enough.
Doug, who worked as a workhorse daily, couldn't voice his suffering. These days were even harder than an ascetic monk's life. The young master had beautiful twin maids serving him, while he couldn't taste any meat...
But who could he complain to?
The young master seemed like a different person, no longer willing to take him out to have fun. Facing the terrifying David Frank, forget doing anything—just getting glared at made his legs weak.
David's aura was getting more and more frightening.
In hunt after hunt, he kept getting stronger. His life energy had also grown to an incredible level.
But the reason ordinary people like Doug felt afraid ultimately came down to David's increasingly gloomy face.
Over this nearly year-long period, David had been constantly tormented by those three evil spirits.
His ravaged nerves kept him in a state close to collapse at all times. Naturally, this David had no good face for anyone.
His pale face even developed thick dark circles. The evil spirits wouldn't even spare him a peaceful sleep.
Besides hunger, cold, and uncontrollable vision, he gradually realized the trouble with that "Heretic's Shadow" evil spirit.
Sleepwalking...
Uncontrollable sleepwalking...
Ever since David woke up one night to find himself inexplicably in the wilderness, he never dared let himself fall into deep sleep again.
That evil spirit wanted to seize control of his body!
This was David's greatest fear.
For this, he could only have the twin maids take turns watching him at night. Whenever he couldn't help falling into deep sleep, the maids would wake him...
Actually, facing those beautiful twins daily, David wasn't without other thoughts. But the more he spent time with the two sisters, the less he dared indulge his behavior.
He was afraid he'd tear them to shreds while unconscious!
Maybe only after finding a way to clear out the evil spirits in his body could he relax.
In the light sleep between waking and sleeping, David was constantly troubled by the same dream.
Those endless dark red arms like stars filling the sky appeared in his dreams again and again, crushing that azure blue planet again and again.
Whenever this happened, the Hand of Divine Corpse would constantly grow restless. It seemed to be craving something, urging David to action in this way...
Torment. Seemingly endless torment.
Only when in the fortress's small chapel to the Sun Goddess could he obtain a brief moment of peace.
Therefore, he became a regular at the Sun Goddess chapel. Even the church's clergy felt quite surprised—they never imagined David Frank would be such a devout follower of the goddess...
...
This night, David sat alone in the front row of the small chapel as usual, staring blankly at the not-so-tall goddess statue before him, enjoying the rare comfort.
The chapel's main door was suddenly opened. An old man in a thick black coat walked in, then closed the door behind him.
This shouldn't have happened. When David was in the chapel, he generally kicked everyone out.
Clearly, this "uninvited guest" didn't care about David Frank's evil reputation.
He was a hunter, a powerful old hunter—a third-tier hunter from the frontier hunters' guild Green City headquarters, McKinley Owl.
When this white-bearded old man took off his round hat and looked at David's back with sharp eyes, David immediately felt the other's gaze.
"Finally here, huh."
He stood up and slowly turned around, a trace of blood energy slowly creeping up his gloomy face—a manifestation of the massive life force surging within his body.
What surprised him a bit was that his eyes didn't display the other's "health bar."
David felt the Watcher evil spirit in his eyes roaring. It wanted to see through the opponent but was blocked by another invisible force, only able to rage helplessly.
Looked like the other had anti-detection abilities, or rather... this hunter also possessed power similar to the Watcher evil spirit, and stronger than David's Watcher that had never been enhanced.
"So... I'm the one with a health bar showing?"
David grinned. Looked like the hunter was here to challenge him as the boss, huh.
Though with his current life energy, he could absolutely live up to being that boss.
He saw the old man's pupils contracting. He saw the other's hand reaching for his waist. He saw the old hunter's sidearm at his waist.
A double-barreled short hunting rifle so exquisite it looked like a work of art, seemingly carved from crystal gems, completely unlike a dangerous hunting weapon.
David tugged at his collar and let his hands drop, ready to start fighting.
But then the other's hand reaching for his waist stopped...
The old man suddenly stopped. He lowered his sharp gaze and backed up half a step.
He backed down.
David's brow furrowed slightly as he withdrew his about-to-step-forward foot.
"Lord David Frank."
McKinley calmly greeted David and spread his hands to show he had no ill intent... or rather, he had to abandon his ill intent toward this noble young master.
Because he was very clear—he couldn't possibly defeat the opponent.
The old man's pupils trembled slightly. Under his "Scout" apostle's observation, David Frank before him radiated life energy as thick as mountains!
Like a flame giant standing upon the earth, his blazingly burning flame of life was enough to ignite the sky...
Unless his old eyes were failing, unless the information given by the Scout was wrong, he had to stop.
[Life Energy: 316384/316384]
Over three hundred thousand!
What kind of concept was that for life energy? Was this even human?
What kind of ritual could create such an existence?
Fourth-tier? Fifth-tier???
McKinley couldn't imagine. Anyway, no matter what, he couldn't possibly kill such an existence...
No match.
So the old man withdrew. In a very short time, he reconsidered the relationship between both sides, then decided to change his attitude when dealing with the other.
"Esteemed Lord David..."
"I'm listening." David Frank waited coldly for what came next.
The old hunter nodded. "Let me introduce myself. My name is McKinley. I'm a regional agent dispatched by the frontier hunters' guild Green City headquarters."
"Nice to meet you, Hunter McKinley." David nodded expressionlessly, his face showing no sign of being pleased at all.
"The purpose of my visit is to confirm something with you..." McKinley put his round hat back on slowly. "About the death of Hunter Videns... I'll be direct. You killed him, didn't you?"
David was silent for a while, then suddenly curled his lips. "You got a problem with that?"
"I don't have any problem with it..." The old hunter's expression remained calm, as if just discussing a dead rat on the street...