The Cinch

'Wait ! Even if the single element users will be most powerful by logic, there must be more than one multi element users. Why ?! '

Claire paused. 

She understood now. 

The multi element wielders will become oppressors. 

The single element users will become oppressed. 

Given the nature of Reapers, it wouldn't be anything good either. 

" They treat you as consumables ? " Claire asked, hoping Caspian would deny such an outrageous claim. 

Caspian becomes even more morose. 

After some time, he nodded almost imperceptibly.

What Caspian did not tell her was that they are literally used as consumables, with all the injured children's mana core's extracted while they are alive, and then given over to the upper brass. Even the children with multiple elements are not spared from this torture. 

" Do you want to rescue those children ? " she asked. 

Caspian shook his head. Then gestured to the land around them. 

' Indeed ! What are they rescuing the kids for ? To feed them to fish ? First, we need to have enough power and resources to look after them. " 

' Katuk ' 

' Craktuk ' 

The egg Caspian held in his lap was breaking. 

He picked up the slave bracelet in front of him, then threw it to Claire. 

" Leave. " Caspain said coldly. 

She also thought he needed some alone time. The information he just gave her spoke of a dark story. Had Claire been the naive sixteen year old that she was, who believed in heroes and villains, she would have been overflowing with affection for Caspian. 

However, Claire, the regressor, knew better. 

There are far too many gaps in the story Caspian told. 

The Disappearance of these many children would not have gone unnoticed…

No matter whether they succeed or fail, all these children possess a good amount of mana. As such, they are valuable resources, even at the tender age of five. To kill them for no reason ? An organization can not be wasteful like that. Especially in times like these, when the population was reduced by the apocalypse. 

Claire paused. 

…

..

.

If it were her who is the owner of such an organization, she would sell the failed children… The thought came into her head, and buzzed around like a bee. 

' Sell the children ?... ' 

Then it struck her. 

Her parent's disregard for her. Their subtle exploitative behavior ! Her overflowing mana, her seemingly biological brother's underwhelming magical core…

Her unmarried uncle. 

His suddenly acquired son ! 

Base has preferential policies for people with children, ten years ago, these policies were even more attractive. 

She was probably bought, to get a home or a job in the factory. 

Just as she entered the slime dungeon, she paused. 

What does it matter if she was bought ? What does it matter if her brother had been bought ? Their life would be the same. She reminisced about the seemingly useless history which was suddenly unfolding in her head. 

The beginning ten years of apocalypse was the time when maximum loss of life happened. Governments collapsed. Bases rose and fell. The next ten years were the formative years. During this time, not many people died. Bases were built, each with their own values and laws. It must be during this time such a crazy program emerged. If a base leader had the ability to absorb the power of other people, and ordered for forced breeding of talented children ~ there's not much any one could do, even the best of the hunters, other than leaving the base. 

However, if the base leader only ordered collection of biological material from the hunters, then used a third party ordinary woman to bear the child ? … then they can totally have complete control of the children. Such an operation, even when mandatory, would not cause much stir among hunters. It takes little time, and they will not think much of it, even the female hunters. Hells.. These are the times when the United Bases Operation has started increasing its power. Thus, under the guise of incentives, they could have continued this operation in the foreign bases as well. 

This is the fortieth year since the apocalypse. This inhumane base's operations would have matured. It would have the strongest hunters as its military, and a tight protective layer of allies. 

Wait ! 

Talking about UBO, she remembered even more. 

This year, their base is considering joining UBO. They are getting evaluated this month. They were evaluated as non-compliant this year, which has become a major news everywhere. That was when the rules about hunter protection, free awakening and all the others came about. Next year, they finally got the UBO certification. 

The next year, there were guild-wide events in black bulls guild, which encouraged specific hunters to donate to the revival of their species. They packaged in very nice words, but … looking back, Claire could not help but wonder. Moreover, these agents were particularly clingy to people with singular element holders. 

Just how many loopholes were involved in the transportation to realization ? Were the donors informed after they had children they did not know about ? 

She had no idea. The news never came out. 

Even with such news, she did not think revenge seeking like Caspian Orca was the right thing to do. If the sea beast invasion is really what he did, then she needs to re-evaluate him. No matter how many tragedies he suffered, she did not want to raise a person who hated humanity as a whole. 

Claire returned to the Ifrit's Altar. Zayne is still slumped. 

She was buzzing with restlessness at her own discovery, and she desperately needed someone to talk it out at the moment. Claire paced around the altar, checking up on her fire crystals. 

They have gone from level 1 to level 5 now, at which point, they would be considered strong enough to power an industrial smelter. 

After pacing for two minutes, she decided to talk to Zayne anyway. 

She propped him up against her once more, raising the soup she made drop after drop. 

" Zayne ! Today, I made the darndest discovery yet. I think I might be a farmed child … " She explained her doubts, the seemingly strange behaviors she could not make sense of … 

Then she remembered. 

Zayne went missing for a month in the future, when he was second in the ranking list. Details of his kidnapping were kept silent, but there were internal rumors that it was done by a crazy fan who tied him to a bed to be her boytoy. Now that she thinks back, it might not be a stalker fan at all ! 

She started to feel the burn of the Ifrit's dungeon. She returned to Caspian. After thinking through the issue, and talking through with Zayne, she decided Caspian needed supervision. She can not leave him on the island alone. When she returned, Caspian was sitting in the same place, watching the emperor turtle swim leisurely in the shallow waters attached to the beach. 

D island is made of two gigantic underwater mountains, which was in the shape of a peanut or infinite symbol depending on whom you asked. The slime dungeon is where peanut's stem would be, on the larger island, facing the deep sea. It was a sharp vertical cliff, like a standing stick, with a sharp incline on otherside, which leads to this thin strip of beach attached to the ten kilometer wide lagoon. At the end of the lagoon is the smaller island, which was more of a sloppy hill, which was quarter the height of the cliff, and full of sand and shrubs. As such, it had far too many birds on it. Some of them, big enough to kill humans. 

The land in between two mountains forms a shallow lagoon, which gets exposed in low tide. In the center of this low tide area is the dark blue round gate, shimmering like no one's business. This was the underwater dungeon entrance. 

She was floating gently on the beach, watching the turtle. Then, all of a sudden, it was like there was a silver rain in the undersea portal. Caspian rushed to the portal, jumping straight into it. 

A minute later, he struggled out of the portal, pulling water with him through the portal. Then, the portal spewed out fish, like there's no tomorrow. 

Caspian reached the thigh deep water, then, he raised his hand. 

All the fish were gathered into a ball, a gigantic hot air balloon sized water drop full of arm length fish floating in the air. He floated the ball to the turtle. Claire, raised her hand, forming a smaller arm sized water ball, raising the turtle to the bait ball of fish. 

Caspian turned to her then. He nodded his head, gesturing to Claire to take as many fish as she wanted from the ball. She bristled at the action, but did not reject it. She did not realize fishing could be done like this. All the same, she decided to flex her agility stat gained by flash skill, as well as her flying skill. 

She slapped a fish out of water, then chopped it in the air, blinking around the bait ball at a speed eyes could not follow. Even so, it took her an entirety of fifteen minutes to remove half the fish from the catch. 

Her body feels like she has run a marathon, her mana is almost depleted.

Caspian smirked at her worn out appearance, looking down on her poor endurance. 

' Next time ! Next time, I will slap that smile off his face ! ' she decided, as she went to meditate atop the cliff.