Sitting on one of the side tables, Patrick was looking down at the fish porridge he was given. The portion of the fish he got can't be considered big, but it was way beyond the amount of what others got.
In the center of the room was a large oblong table filled with a dozen kids helping themselves. The older couple was taking a rest from cooking. While the one entertaining him from across the table was the young man named Owen.
Patrick was the one who initiated the conversation.
"So, you're a hunter?"
"Ah, yes." Owen seemed embarrassed at the question. "I'm only a rank F though, the orphanage would've been doing much better if my parents didn't have to retire. They were both at rank D in their prime." One could hear the disappointed tone in his voice.
"One day, a beast tide happened, my father got poisoned in the lower half by a jellyfish monster, the medical hunters back then weren't able to cure him, so my mother gathered up all their savings and built this orphanage so that he doesn't get lonely in his later years."
Beast tide, It was the result of the overpopulation of monsters in an ecosystem. It meant that the population of prey or small sized monsters was nearly wiped out; the larger monsters had no choice but to widen their territory, and that would inevitably result in a clash with the human territories.
Faking turning to take a look at the center table, Patrick carefully probed while sneaking glances at Owen.
"Well, how was your hunt today?" The young man paled.
"We-e were a-able to get a permit for a lobster hunt, so...yeah, there...was...that."
Patrick tried to investigate further.
"Lobster huh, hmm, spoils pretty quickly, were you able to sell them all? I didn't see them in today's porridge ha ha ha." He forced out some laughs.
The young man was on the verge of tears.
"I- please don't joke *sniff* You sir are a hunter too. You should know how hard it is to *sniff* h-how hard it is for us F-ranks to get a part of the loot with the new regulations." He forced out a smile.
'New regulations?' Patrick's heart dropped.
Not daring enough to push the poor guy any further, he fully turned his attention to the kids' table.
No one bothered to check on the two adults at the side table, all of the kids were either chatting or busy cramming food down their throat.
"This is what hunters get to eat everyday?!" One boy was screaming in delight.
"I've decided, I'm going to be a hunter in the future!"
"Well I'm going to be like The Five Divine Huntsmen!"
"No, I will!"
The Five Divine Huntsmen? It seems that the younger generations still know about us.' Patrick was a little nostalgic hearing the name. He even smirked a tiny bit.
One of the older girls asked the boy "Who do you want to be like?"
"Of course it's the Indomitable!" Patrick's ear perked up.
"He's so big, like that guy over there."
"Right, more muscle means more fish."
"Yeah yeah." The other boys nodded.
One of the girls suddenly turned smug.
"Hmph, I wanna be like the Inderminable!"
"Err… which one was that?"
The girl looked at the boy who asked. "The Dragonslayer!" she rebuked.
"Ohh, wasn't he an orphan like us?" Some of the kids' eyes brighten up.
As they continued to chatter, the old woman was already helping the old man going down the stairs.
"Come on kids, clean up and go bath."
"Awww, okayy grandma." They harmonized.
The old lady turned to Owen and her husband "Look after them for me, will you?" She then turned back to Patrick "Why don't we go up stairs for a chat, ha? Mr.Hunter?"
Following her up the wooden stairs, Patrick listened as she talked.
"Do you know Mr.Hunter, eighty percent of all children in orphanages aren't actually orphans, they're kids who are taken from their families so their 'carers' can make a profit; running an orphanage can be a lucrative enterprise."
Patrick grew solemn, his thoughts racing as they collided with each other.
She pointed at one of the girls down below.
"Titi was one of these children. Believing that she was going to Bangkok to receive an education, her parents paid a recruiter a large sum of money to take care of her. Instead, she was taken to an orphanage around here where she was abused and exploited." She continued.
Reaching the second floor, it was where they store all their food and supplies. Sitting down on one of the boxes, she gestured him to a stool.
"Please, Mr.Hunter, or should I say....Mr.Indomitable?"
Patrick frozed.
"You...knew? Then why did you tell me all of this?" He questioned hurriedly.
The old woman laughed. "Isn't this what you came here for? To look at how people like us down here were doing?" She retorted.
"Since when?" He fired back.
Manaless or not, [Sunglasses of dissimilarity] was still a S+grade equipment, and [Cloak of dissimilarity] should only be seen through by a B-class hunter and above.
"Ahaha, it seems you have forgotten your bulky size sir. Just a pair of sunglasses and a little change of face isn't gonna confuse us old folks." She pointed out.
"Furthermore, there has always been a rumor of you selling your catch down at the fish market after the announcement of you going into hiding. All the locals know of it, we just didn't say anything."
His face was getting hot.
It's true that he said that to avoid getting attention, he just thought the glasses were doing well and didn't think much of it.
Patrick looked up at the ceiling and breathed out. "Ha..."
"It seemed I had just made a fool of myself then." He admitted.
"It's fine sir, I just wanted to take this time to thank you." she slowly spoke.
"Hm?"
"Do you remember the beast tide of 2004? Us couple was on the frontlines trying to defend our home, my husband was poisoned by a box jellyfish monster, it was you who lured all the monsters away while we retreated. We wouldn't have survived if not for you sir."
...
The bright full Moon floating in the sky was soothing to the soul, but the raging waves down on earth indicated otherwise.
"We can't keep this up!" One A-class hunter shouted. The sound of crashing waves plugged his ears.
"Shit, Shit!" Another cursed.
The frontlines were collapsing; they were too close to shore, the ranged unit wasn't able to shoot down the sea monsters before risking friendly fire, it being night-time also didn't help.
From the medical bay, a blood-soaked Patrick in a sitting position was able to see the situation taking a turn for the worse. A team of healers was rapidly trying to heal him, but the profession at the time wasn't that advanced, they could only delay his bleeding and heal some minor wounds.
After a moment of hesitation, he grabbed a torso-sized high-grade blood pack and wrapped it in front of him with some bandages. He then stood up, and ran off.
"Sir?!"
"He's not in any shape to fight! Someone bring him back!" A medical crew shouted.
Flinging himself into the ocean, Patrick poked a hole into the blood pack and subsequently depended on nothing but the Butterfly stroke to haul-ass out of there. A wide trail of blood followed him as his nutritious blood lured away the surrounding sea monsters.
More and more monsters started to chase after him, until it formed into a miniature beast tide directed at a single man.
The lone figure was paddling frantically above the sea. One meter behind him was a tsunami wave of sharks, sea snakes, lionfish, stonefish and countless other sea monsters the size of elephants rushing to devour him the instant he let up. In front of him was the endless dark sea with no island in sight.
Any other Tanks placed in the same situation would have perished before they could even cry out their last words.
But he?
He was {The Indomitable}.
...
The sound of drizzling rain hitting against the roof was filling his ears.
Closing the door behind him, Patrick slowly walked into his dimly lit home. The first thing he did was to look at his smartphone.
'No jobs today too.' He quickly found out from his personal mailbox on the hunter recruitment website. Normally, he would be disheartened, but today he had a task to do.
Not caring about being drenched, he sat down on his desk.
Opening up a news website from his computer, he slowly typed out a word in the search bar.
[The Five Divine Huntsmen]
Enter.
Lists of headlines instantly came up.
[Peng Tian Inc. funded 35 billion USD to the rebuilding of houses destroyed by monsters in Africa]
[Vertex guild opening up 150 medical hunter institutions for low-income individuals across the globe]
...
[Romanov family announces it "Doesn't give a Fu*k" about the rigid restrictions on Nuclear Energy]
[Brazilian government retracts its plans to scrap the Department for International Development by Dragonslayer's appeal]
…
Some made him smile, some made him somber, but none of them was related to him.
He continued to survey the headlines until by the time he realized it, the headlines had already dated back to five years ago.
[Indomitable into hiding]
[Disbandment of Five Divine Huntsmen]
His face was downcast.
When they disbanded, he was the one who opposed it the most. He couldn't believe it. What if a new calamity was right around the corner? Who's gonna protect humanity then?
So with the excuse of the greater good, for five whole years, he trained alone in the bottom of the deepest darkest place he could find to hide away from reality.
Only now did he get it.
'We've made it too easy.'
The effect was still showing, for the past five years, no hunter has ever broken past the S-rank mark. Although the number of monsters was on the rise, it was still minuscule to the truly daunting amount of ten years ago. Even all of the so-called forbidden zones were barren without any signs of life. In fact, hunters of today have to fight with a growing number of competitors per monster ratio.
So instead, the other four opted to take the backseat and tried to defend humanity from within the system. Sacrificing their own growth for the sake of future generations.
So what if a new calamity comes? They could just join back together, no harm done.
In the end, he was just afraid of changes. He didn't have anything else but his fighting skills. He didn't have a good head above his shoulders like the other four. He couldn't make a meaningful contribution to this peaceful world with just his fists anymore.
Patrick reflected.
'But, there is something today.'
The picture of a young man on the verge of tears filled his mind.
Searching for one of the only contacts he remembered to put on his phone, Patrick pressed call.
...
Thailand's Hunter Association Headquarter.
The association's president was sitting in his office sipping Thai iced tea while looking outside at the rain. The sixty year old man was immersed in the weather.
Suddenly, his secretary barged into the room.
"I said never to-"
"S-sir! It's the Indomi..table." Her voice subconsciously lowered down to a whisper.
He spat out his tea. "What?!"
Shakingly receiving the phone, he held it to his left ear.
"H-hello?"
A booming voice came out of the phone.
"Hey, I just have a question."
"Yes-?"
"How many bribes have you taken in recently?"
Gulp.