Chapter 89: Hunter Class.

 

Inside a large room at the podium, a middle-aged man who looks like he is from the military is talking about the M.O.D. in the dark territory.

 

“Rank 1 M.O.D. Although you can be killed with firearms, you need to be careful. There was once a hunter who made a rookie mistake by moving alone, leaving his team behind. Unfortunately for him, he gets surrounded and dies.”

 

In the back row, Michael is recording the lecture. Most of the lecture is about basic information that he can get on the internet. What he found out is that they rarely use swords, and most melee weapons can’t handle the hunter's strength when activating their M.O.D. core power.

 

Nevertheless, he understands why, after seeing a video of a group of M.O.D. getting killed by a barrage of bullets, But in a critical situation, the sword might save their lives. He needs to find a blacksmith shop to order a custom sword that can kill M.O.D. The problem is, does he have enough money?

 

Michael gazes at the lecturer and other students. Most of them look desperate and can’t wait to enter this dark territory. While the rest look sacred and hesitate.

 

“Okay, most of the M.O.D. body parts can be used, but the highest-demand good in the dark territory is the M.O.D. core energy.”

 

The students hear that and become excited. Because the price of just rank 1 M.O.D. core is high, even if people had money, there would be no supply. Because not all rank 1 M.O.D.s had core energy.

 

“I will not say much; other than M.O.D., you need to be wary of other humans. In the dark territory, anything can happen because of profit.”

 

The excited students hear that and become anxious. They had heard it a lot from their friends and the internet. Even friends can backstab you if you are not careful.

 

"Okay, that’s all for today. Remember, for the shooting class, we only provide a limited amount of bullets for each student. If you want to train more, you can purchase the bullets.”

 

Michael, after leaving, begins to search for a blacksmith shop on his phone, but there is none in the city. To be precise, there are no blacksmith shops in Sweden. He can only try to order it online, but there might be a problem with the customs.

 

'Wait, I can ask Nicole for help.’ Michael thought. Suddenly, he stops walking because he is near a burger shop, and he has already salivated. “Be patient; I will buy it after the gym.” After wiping his drool, he left.

 

-

 

Dark territory.

 

A few weeks later, the expedition went smoothly. Except for the attack by the M.O.D., fortunately, there are no casualties.

 

Professor Ken and his students are excited, while the hunters and porters are nervous the deeper they go. They can move faster, but they keep stopping to gather material and plants in dark territory to record.

 

The expedition team also sent back videos using the new communication device. Thanks to that, people outside can know what is happening live. Although there is a delay from the actual time, people don’t care.

 

The majority of dark territory is still a mystery. Each country tried to expand its territory but failed miserably and cost a lot of money. As long as they can’t remove the darkness, humans will have a problem occupying that land.

 

A certain country had developed an artificial sun, but it required an enormous amount of energy to activate. In the end, the project failed because the darkness consumed the artificial sun.

 

Kate walks without any worry since rank 2 hunters protect the expedition team. After Levi left, Maggie and Kate decided to join stock investing. Because of that, they lost almost half of the money they had gathered. After some discussion, both of them opened a café, and since Kate had nothing to do, she decided to join the expedition. Maybe she can meet Levi again.

 

She still doesn’t know if Levi was raised by humans. Because his behavior is more similar to that of a human than M.O.D.

 

“Stop.” The leader of the hunter is a middle-aged man with white hair. He takes off his night vision goggles. “Activate Stage 1” A black tattoo pattern appears on his body. He can finally see in the dark more clearly. The environment here is too quiet without other creature noise.

 

“Leader, we should retreat.” Said one of the hunters.

 

“Why?”

 

“I suspected this was a territory of grinder worms."

 

“How sure are you?”

 

“The trees and plants are showing signs of being uprooted, which means something big is moving underground.”

 

“Everyone move back slowly; don’t make any loud noise.” The hunter leader orders.

 

However, before they can retreat, the ground begins to tremble, and the ground bursts open. Coming out of the ground is a large worm. Inside the worm's mouth are several rows of sharp teeth.

 

“Run, team A, join me and distract the M.O.D. Team B, protect the expedition team!”

 

Without wasting time, the team activated stages one and two. Although they are ranked as two hunters, it will take some time to take down one with half of the team protecting retreating people.

 

“Open fire!”

 

Multiple bullets come out of their assault rifles. However, because of the grinder worm's hard and slimy body, the bullets move past the worm's body.

 

Seeing that the hunters are not panicking, instead, they move closer and punch the grinder worm together.

 

The punch is like a shockwave, causing the whole large worm body to fly out of the hole. While the grinder worm struggles to get up. The hunters keep pummeling until the worm is dead.

 

“Search for the core; after that, we will follow them." The hunter leader is not worried; they only retreated not far from their location, and the hunter is protecting them.

 

A few hunters take out a military knife and try to open the grinder worm's stomach, but the process is slow using the military knife.

 

“Don’t we have the large vibrating knife?”

 

“That thing is with the porter.”

 

They begin to tremble again, but this time is much larger.

 

“Leave the carcass and retreat!”

 

Several grinder worms burst out of the ground. One of the hunters, not so lucky, gets swallowed alive.

 

A similar thing happened to the fleeing expedition team. Because of the chaos, they all get separated into smaller teams.

 

Hours later, the humans finally see the video of what is happening to the Professor Ken expedition team. Their faces were pale after seeing the large worm consume the human alive. In the end, the broadcast suddenly stops without a warning.

 

While the outside world is in panic and doesn’t know what to do, Professor Ken and a few people are running for their lives, including Kate.

 

“Professor, where should we go?” Kate asked.

 

“We are separated from the hunters; first, we need to find a safe place to rest and ready your weapon.” Professor Ken is still calm; this is not the first time he has experienced something unexpected.

 

On top of a tree branch, a bird with a hole in its chest is observing the scene and following the human.

 

-

 

Edric, after entering the dark territory, decided to return to the human world. However, there is one problem. He can’t find his way back; instead, he goes deeper into the dark territory. Since there is a dark membrane preventing sunlight from entering, he even can’t judge the way, and he also doesn’t bring any tools to find his way back.

 

“If I don’t get out of here soon, I will die here.” Fortunately for Edric, there is a river nearby for water and fish.

 

Edric soon sees a light in the dark woods and thinks they might be hunters.

 

When he arrives, Edric sees a place with bioluminescent plants and quickly retreats. He knows an M.O.D. is hiding and waiting for an ambush.

 

However, when Edric turns around, multiple spider webs coming from different directions wrap around his body. Several human-sized pincer spiders come down from the large tree and begin to turn him into a cocoon and carry him.

 

"No, I don’t want to die; activate all stages!” However, nothing happens. “Damn it, where's my activation bracelet?

 

One of the pincer spiders is holding the bracelet.

 

“Does the spider take off my bracelet? How?" Normally, M.O.D. never touches the hunter activation device and just attacks or eats the human. That’s why the bracelet is used as an identity device to determine the corpse's identity.

 

There is another way to activate his power by using his brain. But he doesn’t know how.

 

The pincer spiders move fast, jumping from tree to tree. A few hours later, their bodies suddenly disappear once they enter a certain location.

 

Once arrive, various M.O.D.s are working on a building that resembles a large termite nest.

 

Guarding the area is a huge pincer spider.

 

The human-sized pincer spider communicates with the huge pincer spider. After that, they enter the termite nest and put the cocoon inside a prison cell.

 

Half an hour later, a hand holding a military knife comes out of the cocoon. “Fuwah, the web is tough.” Edric tries to see, but he can only see darkness. Without activating his power, it will be impossible for him to escape.