Chapter 8 - Reunion and an Offer

After Edward cleans up the pests in front of him, he notices that the other hunters have their weapons pointed at him. Instead of speaking, he reaches up and takes off his helmet, revealing that he is in fact human. Everyone seems to be slightly less on edge after he takes off the helmet, but some of them still have their weapons pointed at him.

'Hey Ellie, is there a skill that can get me out of this situation?'

[ Yes, you could coat yourself with wind magic to increase your speed ]

Edward does exactly that. A thin veil of wind magic covers him, making him move faster than the speed of sound. In the blink of an eye he disappears from in front of the hunters and jumps onto the top of a building nearby.

'Ellie, can you tell me where Ruby is?'

[ No, I cannot track hunters without the required skills being unlocked for you ]

'Buy the skills that are required, I don't care what they cost."

[ Confirmed, purchasing skills ]

[ Active Skills gained: Tracking, Mapping, Marking ]

'I can guess what those do. Put a mark on Ruby Knight and use tracking and mapping to show me where she is.'

A map shows up in front of him with a bright white mark in the center, which is him. Another mark appears in the bottom left corner of his map. He starts to move toward the mark at an amazing speed. He jumps over buildings in a straight line to the point. The point leads him into a hotel. He stops suddenly at the front door, causing many people inside to jump and some to scream. Hunters rush to the front with weapons drawn, even a few gold-ranks are in the mix. Edward cast gravity magic on all of them, making them fall down to their knees in front of him. He walks up to a person who seems to have a general sense of what was going on at this hosp-tel, and asks them in a low voice, not meant to be threatening,

"Where is a woman named Ruby Knight?"

However to this young woman it was as though an apex predator were looking at an injured rabbit. The young woman falls to her knees with tears in her eyes, unable to speak. Frustrated, Edward removes his helmet and throws it to the ground, which causes the helmet to embed itself into the tile floor. The woman feels slightly less scared at first, having realized the being in front of her is indeed a human, however the subsequent helmet toss did not help him as she thinks he is angry at her.

"P-p-please s-sir, d-don't k-k-kill me please…"

She says in a quiet and shaky voice.

"What? Why would I kill you?"

Edward notices her fear instinctively, having calmed down, and stores all his armor and weapons. Revealing a well built, tall, and quite handsome man. However, the clothes that currently made him look like a fully grown man wearing his ten year old son's clothes made him look quite comical.

"I'm sorry, it's been a long time since I've seen her. Can you tell me which room Ruby Knight is in."

The woman, having calmed down a bit after seeing the more human aspects of Edward, leads him to the person who was running the makeshift hospital. A man about 30 years old looks through a clipboard and points out a room with a Ruby and Penelope Knight inside. Edward tells the man to add an Edward Knight with their names, to which the man asks for his hunter's license.

"Hunter's license? I don't even own a gun, why would i need that?"

"No, sir, not a huntING license a huntER'S license. You know, for the superhumans?"

"Uhm, yeah I don't have one."

"YOU'RE NOT EVEN REGISTERED?!"

The man yells so loud that the hunters out front can hear and begin reaching for their weapons, to which they receive a quick glare from Edward and promptly drop their weapons.

"I'd say it's more accurate that I haven't had a chance to be registered considering the tutorial."

"Tutorial? Wait… ARE YOU TH-"

The man looks up, only to realize that Edward had disappeared from his sight. The man looks over at the young woman beside him and says,

"Call the association! The Ornaum hunter is here in Seattle! His name is Edward Knight!"

Edward arrives in front of the room where Ruby and Peppy are. He knocks on the door, and within seconds a young woman opens the door and says:

"Can I help yo…"

She pauses for a second, as something about this man feels very familiar. It's then that he speaks up,

"R-Ruby… I'm home."

He says with tears in his eyes. His body may have changed, but his voice stayed the same. Ruby's mouth starts to quiver as her eyes well up. She starts crying out loud for the first time in a while. Peppy comes out from behind the beds wearing a kids set of play armor and a sword. Peppy yells out,

"BUBBYYYYY!"

And runs toward Edward and Ruby. She then jumps up onto him while crying her eyes out. She then yells at him,

"DID PEPPY DO SOMETHING WRONG? TELL ME AND I WONT DO IT AGAIN! JUST DONT LEAVE US AGAIN!"

Edward has been bitten by a red wolf, stabbed by a minotaurs horn, and burned by a dragons breath, but this blow hurt him the most.

So many cries were heard coming from their room that night, that when they woke up the next morning, they found a card saying "sorry for your loss" with a sad giraffe on the front.

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A few days later.

Edward had just finished telling Ruby where he had disappeared to, with Peppy cuddling his arm not willing to let him go. After he recounts his story, he picks her up and lays her on his chest, forgetting that his chest is no longer soft like a pillow, and is instead as hard as rock.

"So you're saying that you're the Ornaum hunter, and that you've been stuck in the tutorial this entire time. You're also saying that you have evolved twice which is the reason why it took so long for you to get out? Did I miss anything?"

Ruby speaks to him with an almost unbelieving tone, although she does trust him. She feels kind of happy that he is back yet is also angry at him, but she doesn't know why.

"Yep. That's what happened basically. For me, these two years felt like they only lasted a month. Most of my time in the tutorial was spent evolving, which is apparently going to be the same for most humans who evolve. I have a passive skill called Ornaum Privilege that grants me faster everything pretty much. Hell, I could probably gain a skill by punching the air once."

As he says that, he mocks punching the air. After he does that a message window pops up.

[ Skill gained: Jab ]

"Yep, I just got a skill called jab."

She looks at him with a bit of envy in her eyes, but sighs as she realizes even if she found that pod, she wouldn't be able to use it because she is already a hunter.

Ruby starts to wake up, looking up at her brother with a big smile and hugging him before getting out of bed. Edward ruffles her hair a little bit and says:

"You're finally up huh dork!"

"You're the dork! Just cuz you're a hunter now doesn't mean you're cool!"

Edward roars at her and picks her up upside down, and then swings her back and forth. All during this Peppy is laughing like a hyena, overwhelmed with joy that her big brother is still like he used to be.

*Knock knock knock*

Edward barely even reacts to this, as he had noticed these people and their magic power before they even entered the building. Ruby goes to open the door, but Edward stops her and says,

"No, no. Let me get it. I think these people are here for me."

Edward walks toward the door and opens it and steps out. The people in front of him are shocked by this and are forced to step back.

"Edward Knight?"

"Yes?"

In a low threatening tone. The person in front of him is a woman with several other people around her who seem to have quite a bit of magic power.

"Hello. I'm with the United States Hunter's Association."

She hands him a card that has U.S.H.A on it with a crest that he's never seen before.

"And what exactly does the association want with me?"

"First is the fact that you attacked other hunters. Second, you randomly appeared out of a dungeon. And lastly, you're an unregistered hunter, which technically makes you a criminal. In other words, you need to come with us."

The woman, feeling emboldened by the fact she has multiple people with her, begins to flaunt her aura to try to intimidate Edward. Edward notices she seems to have a power that's slightly more powerful than a Minotaur. Edward scoffs inwardly and releases his own aura. The woman is immediately hit by a wave of fear.

[ Skill gained: Bloodlust - you release a fearsome aura that beings less than 20 levels under you will run away ]

"A-anyways, we need you to come with us or the association will declare you an illegal hunter and a team will be sent to arrest you!"

Edward keeps this aura up for another couple of seconds before pulling it back in, he thinks about using bloodlust but figures not signing up with the association will probably be more trouble than it's worth.

"Fine, when should I come and where do I go. I'd rather not travel with you."

The woman, after regaining her composure, says to him,

"I'm afraid you'll have to come with us otherwise they won't let you in."

Edward sighs and says,

"Alright, just let me tell them"

He points at the door and the woman nods her head.

Edward walks in, and Ruby and Peppy are sitting on the bed playing with Peppy's hunter figurines. Seeing this, he smiles and says,

"Alrighty Hunter Peppy, can I count on you to keep the healer safe while I scout up ahead?"

"YES SIR!"

She stands up and puts her fist over her heart with a big grin. Edward picks her up and throws her in the air and catches her into a hug. He goes over to Ruby, kisses her on the cheek and tells her he's got to go to the association. He leaves the room and is escorted by two men in suits out and into a type of car he's never seen before. The car has magic power coming out of it.

"Is this car magic powered?"

"Yes it is, have you never seen one before?"

"No, I've been… Away for a long time. Somewhere there's not much civilization.''

"Ah I see, well this car runs on magic stones. Where the gas tank used to be there's an artificial magic stone that stores magic power. Of course, only families with hunters in them can really use these so they're quite expensive."

"Ah I see, how much do they usually cost?"

"This one in particular is around 20 million dollars."

"Damn, that's a steep price!"

"True, but they never really run out of fuel, and they utilize parts of various low-gold rank monsters. Some pretty expensive components go into these."

Edward cringes inwardly at the thought of low-gold being considered tough to hunters that have had two years to hunt. However, he isn't able to think about that for long as they arrive in front of a fancy looking building with the USHA logo on the front. The man gets out and opens the door for Edward, who steps out. Edward realizes that he maybe should've gone shopping to get a new set of clothes.

The man leads Edward to the front desk and gets him to sign in. Edward waits a couple minutes as people with varying magic power come and sign in as well. Some people seem to have been here for hours waiting, but Edward was called back within a few minutes. Some of the people let out groans out loud while some just shoot him a dirty look.

Edward is led through a corridor past a room that says "Rank Assessment" which is where he thought he was supposed to go. He keeps following this person regardless but he's got his guard up now. The person leads him to an elevator.

The ride continues on without anything major as is usually the case inside of elevators. When they get off, the person says to him,

"If you follow the hallway to the right you should get to a set of double wooden doors, that's where you have to go."

And then that person gets back on the elevator and goes down.

'That's pretty weird…'

Edward senses that there's someone quite powerful behind those double doors. He walks up to them and before he can knock he hears

"Come in."

In a low voice. Edward opens the door up and walks in and sees a muscular man with short brown hair and a well kept beard sitting on a leather chair behind a dark wooden desk. The man stands up and leans toward him with his hand out. Edward walks up to the desk and shakes the man's hand and sits down crossing his left leg over his right. The man says

"It's an honor to meet the worlds greatest hunter in person."

To which Edward gets visibly agitated.

'How the fuck does he know who I am?

[ Answer: the man who you asked to put your name down with Hunter Ruby carried the same coat-of-arms as this man does on his suit ]

'Dammit. I should've been more careful. Well, it's better to not hide my strength so that I can deal with monsters more easily. I just need to get my license and get out of here.'

"I'm the branch manager of USHA here in Seattle. I've gotten approval from the higher-ups for what I'm about to offer you."

The man hands Edward an envelope. Edward opens it and reads the paper inside.

"You're kidding me, really?"

The man smirks, and leans forward onto his desk.

"We want to make a deal with you."