The Lonely Hunter

Chapter 11: Trauma and Reawakening

After Jennifer left the shelter, Kal and Dante went to the office. Dante had a grim look on his face, Kal who just realized the seriousness of the situation bit his lip and sat silently on the sofa. There was a short silence between the two.

"Uhmm-" Before Kal could muster up the words to say, Dante cut him off.

"Does Dontrelle know that you're an assassin and not a marksman?" Dontrelle asked Kal in a serious tone.

"At the moment...he doesn't know." Kal replied. Dante stood of from his chair and walked to the window as he watch busy streets of the shelter lighting up in the night sky.

"I have trained and watch Dontrelle grow up and even as a golden spooned kid, he lived a harsher than most children his age. Because of the conflicts between his two elder siblings and Mr. Peter, their relationship with each other turned distant. When I first met Dontrelle, his eyes were as dark as the abyss, he had cold complexion in his face and he never talked nor looked at me for a few weeks. I asked his father in why was such a young child bore such a cold expression and what he told me was a quite a shock. There's  a bloody rivalry between the 3 siblings for power. Their age gap was just a year from each other so they had always want compete to please the chairman. Their father had two wives and a concubine, the concubine bore his first child, and that was Peter Lincoln. This cause a distraught among the wives so he was already hated from birth just because he was born. The next following year, one of the two wives bore a baby boy, named Abe Lincoln, and was followed by Jennifer Lincoln in the next three months. Since Peter was an illegitimate son of the chairman, the other two siblings were told to treat him not as their elder brother but as someone they should hate. Although they were only forced to do so, after finding out that Peter was a child prodigy, their jealousy to his unrivaled talent turned to genuine hatred. Though the two were also geniuses, they could not be compared to what feats Peter could do. Due to his talents, he was befitted to become a hunter and when he went in an awakening, he manage to jump a level instantly making him an E-rank hunter proving that his potential as a hunter was very high. His talent in martial arts regarding the sword and shield was unrivaled among his fellow hunters and his rapid growth had granted him the possibility to become an S-rank hunter in just 10 years of reawakening. He had become a powerhouse that could not be touched, he was the pride of the chairman. Abe reached A-rank and Jennifer was able to reach B-rank, even if they were just few levels apart, the margin is still considerably high especially for Peter, an S-rank who's power is equivalent of 10 elite A-rank hunters.  From those years, they were left hopeless of defeat but when the chairman had impregnate another concubine bearing another illegitimate child, Dontrelle Lincoln, he became a toy to appease their anger. Since he was also born from a concubine, Peter had a favorability to Dontrelle so the siblings couldn't carelessly touch him. But this doesn't stop them from trying wicked ways just to watch him despair." Dante explained.

"No wonder he looks so dead, but what does it connect to me hiding my real role?" Kal asked.

"The reason why I'm telling you this because what the siblings had done to Dontrelle stopped him from getting to know anyone. Anyone that may come across him would be planned with unfortunate events or anyone his peer that comes close to him would be mercilessly killed by the siblings right in front of his eyes and he would hear their screams and regret of knowing him. The fear caused by this stopped him from having friends, he was always isolated by himself and he had never talked to anyone other than those connected to his family. When he awakened as hunter, he was already at a peak stage of an F-rank and with the advanced training he had as a kid from Peter, he easily reached E-rank the following year. When he decided to go to the Philippines, I was assigned as his personal trainer until he reach D-rank and a year of training the kid was able to reach the bottleneck of an E-rank. That year we spent training, he became closer to me, he was able to hold short conversations and it didn't take long for us to speak casually. I was not only his teacher but also his friend, he was now more confident to himself and he was now free from the shackles of doubt, the only thing left was to find a friend his age. When he decided to secretly find one, he came across a young man in the brink of death, he was about to turn into bird food but Dontrelle stepped up to save him, he manage to draw away the giant bird and carry the dying man to the nearest hospital. He wanted to be friends with that man but seeing his worry state, he decided to leave him for the time being and pay for all the medical bills before he left." Dante said.

"The person he save was me right?" Kal asked.

"Yes, he told me the story and it made him happy that he was able to help other people in need. I told him that if ever he was put in a dire situation where he was the one going to need help, if someone step up for him, he would have to cherish that person and fate made it happen. When he was surrounded by a pack of wolves, you stepped up to save him and you did it purely to return the favor for saving you. He thought that you might try to leech him off because he came from a rich family but you did not that's why he decided to make a contract with you since he was confident that you'll be his first friend that he wanted to treat as an equal and as a brother he could depend on." Dante said to Kal.

"So you are telling me that I should be more honest to him because he is someone who wants a friend who doesn't keep secrets?" Kal said.

"I understand that your friendship was a bit sudden but please trust him. If you can't trust anyone in this world, at the very least, trust Dontrelle." Dante spoke to Kal with a dreary voice.

"Fine, but there are secrets that are meant to be hidden for my own protection. But I will keep my promise to be more open-minded to Dontrelle since I owe him a lot." Kal said.

"Good. And since Jennifer doesn't suspect you anymore, you can now be free on your own but at the time being, don't use your bow because she still has eyes watching all over the country."

*******

The next day, Dante guided Kal to a private reawakening pool exclusively owned by Iron shelter.

"This is the reawakening pool, this guy, Joe Starl will be the one who'll assist you in the reawakening process." Dante patted Joe Starl's back.

"Goodmorning Mr. Kal, my name is Joe Starl and I'll be helping you in your reawakening." Joe Starl shook Kal's hand.

"I'll be in your care Mr. Joe." Both exhale greetings and went to the reawakening room. Since only two people were allowed inside the room, Dante had to wait in the waiting room until the reawakening tests would be finished.

"The papers had already been dealt in advance so you don't need to do that, only thing you need to do is undergo specific test to determine the exact level of your power." Joe said to Kal and taught him the things he had to do.

The first test was strength test, Kal had reserved the status points he gained from leveling up a couple of times for this reason.

"Your first test will be a strength test, put all of your strength into your fist and punch this machine as hard as you could so we can determine your raw strength. Do this three times so we can gauge the exact amount of your current strength." Joe explained to Kal. The punching machine was a huge block of metal. There was a soft cushion in the middle and above it was a screen that indicates a hunter's strength.

'I still haven't distributed points to my status strength but I'm pretty sure I have the raw power of a E-rank hunter. If I punch it with full force, Joe might be suspicious of me if I display too much power so I should just use half of what I can do.' Kal though to himself. It was hard to control one's power and to do that, you'd need to have full control of your body parts. Only experts that reached B-rank and above could fully control their power and since Kal had the power of an E-rank, to make use of only half of his power while making it look like he's going all out was almost an impossible task. Well it would've been an impossible task if Kal hadn't use the time to read books. In the time where he was training with his bow back in Mabundok shelter, the books he had read contained valuable knowledge that could help him improve not only mentally but also physically. Because of [ANALYSIS], he could masterfully make use of the knowledge he obtained from learning books. One example was having to stand still from a B-rank hunter's powerful aura without breaking was also the result of using what he learned. By learning books regarding the mind and will, and also the mentally frustrating experience he had when he was still the weakest hunter, his mental fortitude was enhanced by almost ten folds. He had a powerful will that not even an A-rank hunter could shake. This also affects the same to his physicality, he studied and learned about the body of a man and how to make use of every muscle in his body. The result of obtaining such knowledge mad eh is senses and every part of his body hypersensitive. The result of this was when his body quickly reacted to the flying dagger. Having a great mind was a waste if your body couldn't keep up with the change so it was important to improve both.

"Haaap!" Kal furiously punch the soft cushion on the machine and the indicator on the screen move and stopped shortly showing the numbers 025.

"25 points! That's a great improvement! Awakeners start of with 10 or 15 points of strength, you on the other hand had 8 points but because of your great improvement, your points tripled!" Joe congratulated Kal.

"Thanks...I'll do it again..haap!" Kal was panted a bit after the first punch and sweat course through his forehead, he punched the machine again and this time it showed the numbers 024, after that, he punched it for the third time showing the numbers 025.

"Your average raw strength, is 24.7! That's better than 95% of the hunters I've seen!" Joe again congratulated Kal which Kal just replied with delighted look. Next, they went to the agility test, the test consist of running in a mana powered treadmill. All the hunter had to do was to run as fast he could in the treadmill to gauge the maximum speed of the hunter.

"All you need to do is to run in the treadmill as fast as you could, the numbers will show how high your speed is. The hunter who had the highest speed got 30 points, if you can top that off then that would be amazing!" Joe said to Kal to try and give him something to compete but Kal just smiled at him. Just as what he did at the strength test, he also used only half of his agility and a ran at the treadmill. As he was running, the numbers in the screen rose up and when Kal ran as fast as he could, the numbers stopped at 034 giving Joe quite as shock.

"Holy crap! You actually broke the record! Your speed right now is comparable to a newly reawakened E-rank and it'll probably double when you go the reawakening pool! Congratulations!" Yet again, Joe congratulated Kal and they proceed to the third step which was a mana test.

"This third and last test is to accurately gauge how much unrefined mana you have absorbed from killing monsters, to have a good chance that you'll jump to the next rank, you need to get 20 points and considering the current power you own, you'd only need 10 points, place your hand on that glass orb for 10 seconds and it'll calculate how much unrefined mana is inside you." Joe explained to Kal.

'Unrefined mana is not something my body could control since it's considered a foreign essence but if I can't control it and go all out, the points might go out of range!' Kal said to himself as he exclude in thought. There was nothing else he could so he just though of good explanation if this may occur. His hands were trembling as he slowly move his palm to the orb, Joe couldn't help but sigh and tell Kal he shouldn't worry too much.

"Don't be afraid, the process won't harm your body, you'll just feel a tingling sensation in your arm for 10 seconds and after that, you can remove your hand away." Joe said to reassure Kal.

Kal then placed his right hand to the orb and when it made contact with his skin, just as Joe said, there was a tingling sensation going through his palm. Gray essence then flow and went through the orb, this essence was an indication that the unrefined mana came from F-rank monsters, but this put Kal in a state of confusion.

'What!? Shouldn't there be some strands of orange essence since I had killed 5 E-rank monsters but why is it all gray?' Kal was in deep question, it only took him a matter of seconds to answer his question.

'Oh wait! Now that I think of it, I had killed E-rank monsters after I obtained the power of the system. Whenever I kill monsters, I would get experience points in return so does that mean that the experience points are actually the unrefined mana I absorbed and when I level up, the unrefined mana that's been build up is refined directly by the system giving me instantaneous power? Since the monsters I killed before gaining the power of the system were all F-ranks, this should answer why the orb could gather gray essence since the orange essence had already been refined into my mana core!' This was the most plausible explanation he could make. After the orb gathered all the unrefined mana it need, numbers showed up from a screen with the numbers, 015.

"A good 15 points! Well, that's lower than I expected but this shows that you are capable of reaching E-rank! " Joe said as he congratulate Kal. Kal was simply delighted by the number, if he was to go above that, he might reach D-rank as a result and he would be far ahead of Dontrelle and they wouldn't be able to hunt together because of the rank gap.

"We will now go to the reawakening pool, are you ready to improve?"

"I'm ready."