Rueben sat down and took a short break; he didn't mind that it reeked of blood and closed his eyes to relax. He guided his consciousness into his deep subconsciousness and relaxed his mind. He placed countless walls of protection and safely guarded his mind; he had felt that he had already gone mad but he did not feel any changes in his mind.
Except for the fact that he could feel emotions more clearly tells him that something had changed but Rueben didn't know what changed.
Placing walls, suggestions or even hypnotizing oneself is a skill that strong Hunters should be equipped with. This would help them lessen the burden on their mind as well as a means of delay for the inevitable madness that awaits them.
Hunters, since training, had been warned that Hunters will always suffer the consequences of gaining strength.
A rule was made by veteran Hunters, the rule states that each and every Hunter must go to a therapist or a psychiatrist once a month, it was better if they visited them once a week.
Each session can clear the Hunter's mind and push back the madness within, delaying it for as long as possible.
Rueben was taught how to hypnotize or even place suggestions inside his mind by his teacher. The old man wanted him to survive in the Hunter world and not be like most of the newbie Hunters. Rueben did an excellent job at surviving the cruel Hunter world all on his own.
He slowly opened his eyes and could feel that his head was clear of any thoughts, the voices that sounded exactly the same as his in the past were constantly screaming and muttering inside his head.
Now, it felt quiet and peaceful.
As if he was standing in a field of grass, flowers blooming around him, birds flew above his head and rocketed through the skies, herbivores eating and playing around, the soothing sound of the flowing river. It was peaceful.
Until it wasn't.
Swords bathed in blood stabbed through the neck of every insect, every bird and every animal in the surroundings, the river slowly turned blood red as cries and grunts of people could be heard from within its flowing current.
The area around him turned bloody as corpses piled atop each other, their wounds draining them of their blood and helping it flow towards the river.
A blood moon could be seen above the skies, large hands holding swords that could rival the size of a castle fell down from the crack of the skies, it lined up perfectly and stretched to infinity, to which Rueben could not see the end of.
A man appeared behind him, his face, looks and appearance were the same as him.
Rueben looked at him and prepared a fighting stance, he wanted to take out Eve or Adam, or even his Caneswordwhipumbrella but they all disappeared into nothingness.
As if someone took them away.
The doppelganger looked at him in the eyes, emotionless as he did so. He then pointed at Rueben.
Rueben looked at him then looked back and his eyes narrowed.
He opened his eyes and sighed in aggression, his eyes threatening anyone who would stand in his way.
He clenched his fists and got up.
Inside his mind, the man that looked exactly like him only looked at the sky as the mental world slowly collapsed without the presence of the owner, he looked at the indescribable mess infront of him and narrowed his eyes.
"The future is not too far, Rueben."
In the center of the mess, way past the countless corpses of beasts, people and even some other unknown species, lies a wall. Within that wall was a painting of a man with a body of pure darkness, his eyes red resembling supernovas, around him were countless dead corpses and others of the same kind.
The man softly sighed and closed his eyes, disappearing into slumber until Rueben decides to enter his mental world once more. Leaving these words behind.
"The future is not too far…"
Rueben fought a beast bare handed and tore off the most vital part of its body, its spine. He then threw away the spine and looked at his clothes that were already drenched in blood and dust.
He then scooped up some blood from the beast and drank it, quenching his thirst. He wanted to eat the flesh of the beast but he didn't think that it would taste that good.
Rueben had eaten a flesh of a beast once; it was uncooked too. It was disgusting, like, imagine eating an expired pie that were mixed with vinegar, rotten fish, chalk, ink, and a human flesh.
Disgusting, right? That was what Rueben had to eat that time because he ran out of rations and was too far away from the city. He was exploring the outskirts of the city because he heard rumors that an ancient city was found here filled with blood drunk beasts and hunters for him to end their life.
He failed to find the city and had to ultimately give up but he made it one of his goals to locate the city and purge the beings suffering there.
Rueben heard a screech and rolled forward, dodging a sneak attack from a beast that seemed like a combination of a cat and a human but twisted and malformed, before jumping up and slashed his sword down.
The beast dodged with ease and hurriedly screeched, it then jumped to a wall and started clawing its way out but Rueben had already turned his weapon into whip mode and pulled it back. It flew to hit another wall as Rueben jumped and span around in the air before slicing the neck of the beast with ease.
He then got up and looked at his weapon before turning it into a cane.
This was a skill that Rueben had been practicing since he came here. He wanted to use the centrifugal force to cut more cleanly and deal more damage. He wanted to master the art of using momentum to fight.
He had once seen a Hunter that used only momentum in fights and it had dealt quite a large amount of damage. It had made him an A rank Hunter and had killed quite a lot of beasts and monsters, though he was already dead 5 years ago.
He went crazy and started killing everyone before Rueben managed to kill him off successfully.
The downside to the technique was that you had to create so much movements to control and guide the momentum of your weapon in order for it to work efficiently. The Hunter that used this technique had discovered this weakness and made adjustments to the technique and spread it around, hoping that it could help his fellow Hunters.
Though the technique was not widespread, some hunters had been using the technique to boost their attack power and kill more beasts faster and more efficiently than before.
Rueben opened a door and revealed a hallway, it was the same as all the other hallway he had seen since coming her but he felt that this one was different. The tone of it was more child friendly than the ones outside.