Ch. 17 Family bonding

"the men have just applied for a matching, tomorrow you'll be matched in the same party as them."

John recalled his conversation he had at the Bureau while walking to a training ground.

The man named Tyler Whitney had a 94% chance of being a PKers, as 6 of his dungeon runs resulted in his entire team being wiped except for him.

John was less nervous and more guilty at the fact he was do excited, he knew his Mana capacity was going to grow larger after absorbing the PKers mana and cared more about his personal strength than human life.

Walking into the training ground, John's goal was to gauge his limits precisely before he started his PK hunting. He needed to assess how far his limits were to properly utilize his past life's skills.

Traveling to an empty spot in the outdoor training ground, John pulled out Roel and started following Roukels fatal Swordmanship.

The blade turned into am insane blur that shouldn't have been possible for a B ranked hunter, only for for him to start swinging it a snails pace.

John had increase the weight of Roel To over a thousands pounds, causing John to focus everything in his body to swing his sword lest he drops Roel.

After ten minutes of practicing his swordmanship, John was forced to take a break and catch his breath as his body felt incredibly sore.

Lowering his weight of Roel, John lifted it up in the air and manipulated the mana in his body to how he remembered it, and took a step forward.

"Flash Step!"

Whizing forth at extreme speed, John simultaneously slashed his blade, resulting in a large amount of wind erupt from the blade as it carries all of John's strength and momentum from the flash step.

The air slash moved forth and quickly disappeared after five feet, much to John's disappointment

'I bet that sword smash could've harmed a normal person, but I doubt it would even do fatal damage to a D ranked goblin!Whatever...While it's a lot slower since I'm not going full power, I'm no longer breaking any bones or tendons using flash step. Though the mana cost forces me to leave it as a trump card.'

Finishing up with testing the limits of his ability, John once against started practicing his swordmanship as he increased the weight of Roel.

He performed his sword technique as large amounts of winds were hurled off with each swing of the heavy blade.

'I hope the PKers are actually good fighter and don't just rely on jumping people, I need some sparring partners to get better!'

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The next day, John left his house and got into his Jeep to meet his brother before he went off into the dungeon.

The treatment for his brother was going to start today, and John wanted to talk to him before he went through with it.

John had already spoken to the doctor and learned that the first few weeks of this treatment is completely safe, but it was the fourth week of treatment when they began to introduce mana crystals into the body that fatalities can occur.

Walking into the hospital room, John saw his usually listless brother tapping away on his phone with a focuses look in his eye. When John gently knocked on the door, Walter briefly looked up and saw him standing there as a smile grew on his emotionless face.

Giving his phone one last look, Walter begrudgingly put it away as John walked into the Room.

"What you up to? Texting a girl I don't know about?" John said jokingly, causing a blush or embarrassment to litter Walters face.

"Of course not! I was playing Clash Royale, I was mid battle when I put it don't, so you should feel honored!"

Seeing his brother so embarrassed at being accused of talking to a girl made John bitterly smile.

Walter has had Acute Myeloid Leukemia for four years since he was twelve, the chances of him surviving longer than five years was slightly higher compared to older people, but the chances of him surviving 10 years was nearly zero.

When he first got admitted to the hospital his friends would occasionally visit him, but as weeks turned to month, and months to years, his friends no longer showed and the only real life contact he had was with nurses and John.

It had been so long since he actually experienced the real world that the idea of talking to a stranger made him extremely anxious, let alone a girl.

"I am the honored one" John jokingly said as he pulled up a chair, Walters eyes lit up.

"So you listened to my recommendation and watched Jujutsu Kaisen? Did you like it? What about Durarara?" Walter said in anticipation.

Walter was obsessed with anime and Manga since young, and wanting him to have someone to converse John had begun watching them as well.

"Yup, but first I want to talk about the procedure that is going to happen in a month."

The excitement died in Walters as a John could see fear and anxiety welling up in his younger brothers eyes.

"I looked it up... It said that those that undergo it have a 47% of surviving and those that don't survive, die painfully as they slowly turn into a monster....."

"...I know... But you have to trust me as your brother, this is the only option available for you to have a chance at surviving...Once you get out of here, I'll show you all of the places you wanted to go to!"

The idea of visiting the places he could only see about on his phone, fanned the embers of hope in Walters eyes.

"Ok! Once I get done with the treatment, I want to visit the Grande canyon! I heard you can occasionally see Minotaurs at the bottom of it from a dungeon break. And Japan, I heard that a Zoo in Tokyo has captured an A ranked dragon! And maybe even a dungeon! You said you were a b ranked Hunter right? Maybe you can sneak me into an F ranked dungeon, they are like something from a manga brought to real life."

John could see the anxiety slightly disappearing in Walters eyes as he thought about all of the possibilities that could happen if he survives.

"Of course we can go to those places, although the dungeon one might be a little tricky... I actually own a new dungeon of my choosing from breaking a solo American clear record, but I don't know about bringing you with me to them as I plan on choosing a powerful Dungeon."

"Wait you broke a clear record, solo!? As a healer?! Tell me how you did it!" Seeing the pride and respect in Walters eyes made John feel happy as a big brother.

"Well after going through my second awakening, I was beginning to feel incredibly annoyed at being called the Legendary Healer sarcastically, so I decided to change that and make them mean it! The moment the gate opened I immediately sprinted forth into the dark and dreary dungeon....."

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"So your saying that clash royal implements overpowered cards and evolutions in the game, making it impossible to compete against others without them, forcing the players to spend money if they want to advance in the game. Only for when the average free to play player can finally obtain these card, they nerf it into oblivion to make way for a new overpowered card to use and buy?!"

Having spent hours talking, John and Walter were eating chocolate pudding, watching TV and talking.

"Yes! Top level player have to buy the new cards and evolutions if they want to compete, making the average free to play players completely helpless against those spending money even if they are much more skilled!"

"That's shitty, why would players continue playing such a to-" *Ring Ring*

looking down at his phone with a grimace, John was about to put it away only for his brother to speak.

"Its alright if you need to go John, I know you have a busy life and I don't want to get you in trouble." Seeing the false smile on Walters face, John guiltily said his goodbye before leaving and picking up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello Hunter, this is the Dungeon Bureau. You've been matched in a B-rank dungeon with five members including you, would you like to proceed?" The women on the other end of the phone didn't know that the marching had been rigged, and was just following her orders like usual.

"Yes, I'll proceed" John said unhesitantly.

If John had to say the biggest difference between this life and his past life, the it would be danger.

Unlike in his past life where dangerous beast roamed the world and could appear out of nowhere, the only way monsters can roam Earth is by a dungeon break.

On Earth the average man could easily live a safe life, but safety is a poison for those with ambition to becoming the strongest. John wanted to face actual danger, so that he can overcome it and grow stronger!

Giving the files he received another once over, John memorized the pictures of the suspected PKers and prepared himself for battle.

It appeared that the suspected PKers that John would be facing are a Trio that regularly hunted together, and the chances were a resounding 99.21% of being PKers.

'With three PKers, my mana capacity is bound to grow considerably!' unbeknownst to the world and even John to an extent, his mana absorption technique isn't the same ability that they used, it was much more powerful!

While other can only absorb 5% of a fallen monster's mana, John could absorbs 10%! While others could only absorb 5% of human mana, John absorbs 90% of their remaining mana!

To others, the mana absorption technique helps offset the cost of spells but to John, the technique regains all of his mana back, and forces his Mana capacity to grow!