Chapter 108: The Grind Begins

The group, led by Auren, quickly but silently approaches the mercenaries' camp, getting closer and closer.This isn’t anything too difficult. This situation is fairly simple. I could do this alone, but that isn’t why we are doing this. If I deal with most of them and leave a few for the others, they won’t learn a thing or get any experience. I need to hold back, but still make sure nobody gets hurt. What Vanessa said earlier is right, they are murderers who even killed engineers and civil workers, we can just finish them off. We just need a few of them alive.

Auren gestures for Eren to follow him, and the two approach from behind, heading straight for the camper.

To get a feel for the situation inside, Auren quickly uses En again, extending his Aura just enough to cover the camper.

“They’re asleep,” Auren whispers. “Follow me inside.”

The two silently enter the vehicle and move towards the sleeping mercenaries.

Eren, who also fights with knives—though not Ben’s Knives—draws his two blades, while Auren takes out his Ben’s Knife, walks up to one of the saboteurs, and gives Eren a quick gesture to do the same. They both take out their knives, ready to attack.

Both, in one swift movement, use Ko to coat their weapons in Aura and drive the knives directly into the sleeping men’s skulls.

Thanks to the Aura reinforcement, the attack is instantly lethal. Their victims don’t even get the chance to wake, dying on the spot.

Back outside, Auren sees Vanessa, Konrad, and Goreinu waiting next to the other four mercenaries.

Without hesitation, Auren steps out, conjures and draws Eternity, and unleashes a long-ranged slash with Limitless Waters, cutting one mercenary in half in less than a second.

“What?!”

“What is going on?!”

“He’s dead—ENEMIES!”

The remaining three mercenaries panic, staring at Auren in fear as they try to draw their weapons, only to be ambushed and knocked out by the others. Vanessa puts so much force into her strike that her target’s neck twists at a grotesque angle, killing him instantly.

“Good job,” Auren says. “See, it’s really not a challenge at all. Despite that, you did quite well. Your Zetsu was perfect, even yours was decent, Vanessa. We can interrogate the two of them later. I think one of them just got unlucky. You need to hold back, Vanessa—that looked unintentional.”

“I’m not sure if I should feel good or bad about that,” Vanessa mutters, her arms crossed tightly.

“No need to get defensive. You did fine,” Auren calms her.

“Let’s check on top of the cliff. There should be more enemies around,” Auren orders, looking towards the cliff. “Be careful. Vanessa, you’re coming with me. Goreinu, can you cover Konrad and Eren?”

“No problem,” Goreinu replies.

The group climbs the hill, and exactly as Auren suspected, they come across two more soldiers lying in wait, looking down towards the facility—one aiming with a large sniper rifle, the other gripping a semi-automatic.

Auren kicks both of them with such force that they drop instantly, knocked unconscious before they even register what happened.

“Let’s tie them up. There should be enough supplies in their camp,” Auren suggests. “Then we’ll check the small facility for any damage and report to our contact.”

“Shouldn’t we contact that Jasoof guy?” Vanessa says.

“No,” Auren answers flatly. “He’s a busy man, and this mission isn’t even worth his time. We’re doing things through the proper channels. I’ll report to the Association and the client by submitting a small report.”

“Boring...” Vanessa says, clearly unimpressed.

“This is serious work—grow up!” Konrad snaps, which only earns him a shrug from his sister.

After tying up the four saboteurs, the group checks out the facility.

Even after going through everything twice, they don’t notice any obvious damage.

“Looks like they just cleared out personnel and shut everything down,” Konrad says. “This facility should be fairly easy to get online. The only thing I noticed is that the pipe is blocked somewhere. They’ll need to send out engineers to analyze and fix the problem.”

“Well...” Auren begins to say, thinking for a moment, “it’s not our job to fix this facility. We’re done here. Let me report things.”

Auren quickly prepares a short and concise email, briefly detailing the situation and, of course, including the mission number so everyone knows what Auren is talking about. He sends it to both the official Hunter mail and the client email provided by the Glam Clan.

Afterwards, he dials the number given by the client.

“Glam Clan, this is Badawi speaking,” a friendly yet professional male voice immediately answers.

“This is Hunter Auren, ongoing Mission H-60451. I’ve already sent you a mail with the details, but since we’ve taken four hostages, I figured I’d give you a call and ask for instructions,” Auren explains.

“Please stand by for a second, sir,” Badawi replies.

Twenty seconds later, the man speaks again:

“If it’s possible, please deliver them to us. You will be compensated fairly for your efforts. We have a station at the northern end of the city. Just drive in, and we’ll guide you to our location or pick up the prisoners.”

“Understood,” Auren says, ending the call.

“Looks like we’re done. Let’s get back and enjoy our hotel. I’d say that pays the bills for quite a while,” Auren notes.

“Wait a minute!” Vanessa cuts in. “If this is how these missions go, we might as well take more than a few ropes and handcuffs! I want their equipment! Their weapons!”

Auren shrugs. “Not a bad idea. As a Hunter, you’re legally allowed to possess these weapons. If you’re interested, go ahead. Certainly worth learning how they shoot, it will give you an easier time learning to fight against people who use them. I’ll help you collect the rest.”

“I don’t like firearms,” Konrad says simply, while Eren wordlessly follows Vanessa, gathering up the weapons from both the unconscious and the dead soldiers.

A short while later, their SUV—with four unconscious and tied-up bodies in the back—drives back into the city, entering through the same northern road they had used earlier.

Exactly as told, Auren spots half a dozen officers in uniform waiting by the roadside, their cars parked nearby.

That should be them...

Vanessa slows the vehicle and stops next to them, allowing Auren to step out.

“Hunter... Auren?” one of the officers asks.

Auren takes out his license and flashes it briefly. “Baggage is in the back. Four corpses were left at the site.”

He gestures for them to follow and walks to the back of the SUV, opening it to reveal the four hostages.

The officers glance at each other, then move in to grab them. A few of the captives are already awake, but with their mouths tightly muffled, they can’t say a word and have given up any attempt to fight back.

“We’ll notify the Clan later,” one of the officers says. “Thank you for your assistance.”

With the handover complete, Vanessa drives them back towards the hotel.

“This was a little too easy,” Goreinu comments with a relaxed expression, leaning back in his seat. “But it’s always nice when things go smoothly.”

“These are easy missions,” Auren says, shrugging. “It was a good start, wasn’t it?”

“I could get used to this,” Eren admits. “It’s tough work, and I need to get used to the violence... but this is the kind of job I expected from a Hunter.”

“You’re way too pessimistic, Eren! A Hunter should hunt for treasures or find rare animals, rare valuables, stuff like that!” Vanessa argues. “Dream bigger!”

“Shut up!” Konrad says.

I actually agree with her!

“No...” Auren says, “She isn’t wrong. This is just part of the training. I owe you guys to teach you about Nen, and this part is really just a little extra to teach you how to use the Nen abilities in actual combat. You don’t need to do this if you don’t want to. However, it’s certainly worth the experience; a few months of missions will surely help you. Of course, you should aim for nobler and loftier goals afterwards. Even I have found something I’m interested in, so there is really no reason to be a Temp Hunter forever.”

“See!” Vanessa says, turning around and smiling at her brother. “Anyway, I’m grateful, Auren. Don’t take my complaints too seriously.”

“Look at the damn street, I don’t want to crash, and I am very serious!” Konrad retorts angrily.

Maybe I should rent another car, they drive me crazy.

When they finally arrive at the hotel, they retreat to their rooms to freshen up before regrouping for dinner and heading to the large showroom of the Royal Glam Hotel to watch a performance together.

“I missed out! Unfair!” Neffi complains loudly as soon as they meet, and Vanessa narrates the story.

“Look, we’re here for a while. Calm down,” Auren says. “There will be more missions.”

“That sounds rather dangerous,” Marsha comments, with the others seeming to agree.

As the group eats, Auren’s phone buzzes with a notification. It’s a brief confirmation of their mission’s completion.

“They paid well,” Auren says after checking it. “Instead of the 3 million, they paid a full 13. One million for every dead mercenary and 1.5 million for each one we took alive. That’s actually way more than our stay here costs. I guess even temp Hunters earn a lot of money... and that’s after Pariston’s greedy fingers take their cut. The full reward would probably be close to 20 million. I know how he operates, and I’ve read through the contracts. The association, under his leadership, takes around 30 to 40% of the mission reward as a cut.”

After finishing their dinner, the group experiences a fairly interesting magic show, which pleases the kids. Even Neffi and Vanessa look quite entertained as they stuff their faces with Popcorn and all sorts of snacks they bought before the show.

Today went okay. Things will get serious, pretty fast, however. This is just the start.