1 Power

"Power solves everything.

Power will let you sleep like a baby at night without having to worry about.

Power makes a person a dragon among men.

Power will get you any woman you like without even trying so hard. Hell, they will dive to you like there is no tomorrow.

Power will safeguard me for the rest of my life.

Power is peace!

However, ...

Power is what I lack the most."

Arthur kept on talking to himself while butchering his fourth D-class beast that he killed this month.

It's been four years after he was thrown here by the bastards who kidnapped him and ten other youths from every influential family living on Sunstone City.

It's seems like yesterday that he can't but recall that unlucky day. When those bastards kidnapped them, he was the only one who has been beaten half to death. When they were leaving the city after their plan was a success, they took him with them and let go the other ten youths.

That's not even the worst part yet. The Zell family tried to rescue him and they almost did. The kidnappers were backed into a corner and tried to escape by making their way into the boundary of a red region.

The kidnappers finally went to a dead end and chose to fight their way to the end. Out of rage because of his comrades dying, the leader threw the six-year-old Arthur into an unstable spatial tunnel.

Out of this bad luck, before he entered the spatial tunnel, Arthur saw his uncle stabbing the leader dead.

When Arthur woke up, what he saw terrified the shit out of him.

There were many huge monsters standing in front of him. Arthur was so weak from all the beatings he received but he still tried to crawl away from the monsters.

He knew that this was wishful thinking on his part but he still tried to buy some time to live. He looked back to see what the monsters would do and he was surprised.

They were still standing there looking at him. There is no violence in their eyes, just that their expression was of confused beings.

'Are they mocking me or something?' Arthur was confused too and he tried with all of his strength to sit and look back at them.

The staring contest gradually took the fear out of him. He finally realized that the monsters were standing outside of a boundary of small rocks lined up perfectly at their feet.

'So that's why they were not trying to come in, it was a territory of some sort. But then again, if they were afraid, then the owner of this zone must overwhelmingly powerful than them'. Arthur gulped so hard at this realization and fear instantly came back.

Suddenly, he saw a towering shadow in front of him, signaling that there is something behind him. He slowly turned his head and what he saw was out of his imagination. Tears finally run down his face uncontrollably.

'So the monsters were just waiting for the show of me dying, huh'.

It was 8ft tall vampire titan. And by the looks of it, it was a hybrid one.

He laid down and surrendered. There was a saying back in his home that if you ever face a vampire titan, then just pray you are not alone, because if you are, then without a doubt, you will be dead.

The vampire titan look menacingly at the monsters outside the boundary and made a snort. It finally noticed the human inside it's territory and picked Arthur like a log. The vampire titan finally walked towards the center of the zone.

Arthur didn't do anything. He was just peacefully still and observing the way deeper into forest zone where the vampire titan resides. The vampire titan finally stopped walking after two hours. Arthur saw that vampire titan lived beside a huge clean pond and there was a cave near it.

The titan threw Arthur into the pond and left him there.

Arthur felt something very soothing once he was thrown in. Arthur fell asleep just floating there and he felt safe.

Arthur woke up feeling fresh and strong all over. He noticed that the injuries on his body was healed.

He observed his surroundings and found the vampire titan sitting beside the opening of the cave and roasting meat.

Without facing the dumbstruck Arthur in the pond, the vampire titan gestured for him to come over. Arthur hesitated for a while before getting out of the pond and heading opposite the vampire titan. He sat down and didn't say a word.

"Eat". Finally, after some time, the vampire titan spoke to him which greatly surprised Arthur. He was a son of a prominent family, so he has basic knowledge of monsters. When a monster has the ability to talk like a human, then at the very least, it is classified as a C-class monster or above.

As he was also very hungry at the moment, so without saying anything,he ate his fill. The vampire titan just stared at him with indifference and cut some meat to eat too. It was a quiet meal.

After the meal was over, Arthur just sat down quietly waiting and thinking what to do next.

The vampire titan stood up and pointed his finger towards the cave.

"Sleep. Talk. Morning. Run. Then Die." Without waiting for Arthur to reply, the vampire titan quickly went towards the pond and laid there to rest.

Arthur decided to obey the monster and slowly went in the cave.