NOVEL NEXT B2 | Chapter 1
The Hunter’s Bay on Planet Eternus
Two and a half years later
Akihiko Nakajima, a brand new hunter to join the Hunter’s Bay – the association on Eternus meant for combat specialists to hunt down the stronger sea creatures dwelling in the endless oceans of Eternus – finds himself more than a little excited as he rides a hover car down the streets of the Capital City towards the bay. It’s his first day on the job and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get to sleep last night.
Whether it was out of his excitement, or the nerves he’s been feeling over this, he’s not sure.
The Hunter’s Bay, while being one of the most lucrative places in the capital to earn a buck, is not the safest of places. But Nakajima is certain that his own fighting prowess is up to snuff. That he won’t have any issue surviving the harsh waters down below.
Just like many of the other Alpha Tier worlds in the universe, Eternus’s Hunter’s Bay settles as one of the many Hunter Spots in the world. Locations where stronger creatures tend to live, and where rare materials often desired by crafters of all kinds can be found.
Lucrative goldmines for the hunters who go there.
None of the creatures living in these Hunter Spots ever generally go anywhere else on the planet because of the large amounts of mana concentrated in the Hunter Spots. So hunters are generally considered rare anywhere that doesn’t have a Hunter Spot.
But they’re all one of two things.
Either a hunter is rich, or a hunter is dead.
A famous saying amongst the hunter trainees.
Nakajima continues tapping his foot restlessly as the hover car drives through the streets until it makes it out of the tall buildings and into the docks sector of the capital. At which point the vehicle begins to speed up, the speed limit rising with the lack of tall buildings to potentially hit.
The new trainee hunter feels his excitement growing stronger and stronger as he gets closer to the Hunter’s Bay, and the moment it enters his vision, stars immediately fill his gaze. Stars of awe and wonder.
On Eternus, the Hunter Spots are deep trenches in the ocean floor, leading deep down into the planet. And they’re recognizable by a part of the ocean whose color is far deeper than the ocean around it. Meanwhile some mana creatures can be seen swimming around the deeper colored water. Creatures whose nests are close to the surface of the Hunter’s Spot.
The hover car floats down lower and lower to the ground until the driver parks in the designated parking area, letting Nakajima off of the vehicle before the driver drives away again.
Nakajima looks around at the many hunters walking through the parking area, which has one large parking lot along with the drop-off zone he had just left, and one large building in front of it blocking the docks themselves. A building where the hunters are meant to show their ID and sign in so that non-hunters don’t go near the Hunter’s Spot.
Meanwhile hover cars and other vehicles aren’t allowed to pass by over the spot itself. Since there have been more than a few accidents over the Hunter Spot’s where a tentacle or some other part of a creature reached out and attacked the vehicle, pulling it down into the waters below.
Nakajima quickly enters the building before waiting in the line for a little bit, keeping his entertainment occupied as he waits by looking at the exiting hunters. Each of whom pull out creature corpses and various other resources like minerals and crystals and even mana gems from their trek into the deep.
From what Nakajima has learned in his time at the hunter academy, the creatures and resources down in the Hunter Spots are each assigned a ranking. And these ranks vary all the way from Tier 1 through Tier 10, with Tier 1 being the lowest amongst the creatures and resources.
Most of the creatures and resources grow more powerful and valuable the deeper down in the Hunter’s Spot a hunter goes, with the Tier 10 creatures and resources being all the way at the bottom of the trench. But the only two people known to have been down that deep are the Emperor himself and his right hand man, the Ten Star Merchant.
And when even just a single Tier seven mana creature carcass can net someone enough to live comfortably for their entire lifetime, Nakajima has to wonder just how difficult it is to get down that deep in the trench. Or how difficult it is to kill a Tier 10 rated creature.
Most of the resources Nakajima sees the other hunters bringing in are all Tier 1, with some Tier 2s and a few Tier 3s. Likely because no one currently here is above level one hundred yet. Other than the security guards for the building itself.
But amongst the resources, Nakajima spots various creature parts such as tentacles, crab shells, hearts of what are most likely lesser krakens, and various different types of minerals and some mana gems. And just the sight of it makes his hunter spirit soar.
Once he reaches the gate where the staff are checking IDs, Nakajima quickly fishes his own out of his pocket and hands it to the clerk.
“New Hunter, twenty years old, level thirty-five, clearance for Tier 1 and Tier 2 sectors of the Hunter’s Bay,” the clerk says, following which the gate in front of him – an empty doorway with a forcefield of energy within it – suddenly deactivates while a light turns green and the clerk hands his ID back. “Welcome to Hunter’s Bay. Stop at the store to your left outside of the building for water-breathing potions if you need them. Please come back alive.”
Nakajima bows his head to her in appreciation before crossing through the gate, pausing for a second to take a deep breath, and continuing on out of the building and onto the dock. Then he continues walking towards the docks, ignoring the store as he already has plenty of water-breathing potions.
From what he learned in the academy, the Hunter’s Bay works in a simple manner. Find a tether that is unoccupied and activate the barrier around it meant to block anyone from interfering with the tether. Put on the harness there. Clip the tether to your harness. And jump into the water. Preferably after drinking a water-breathing potion unless you have a skill or ability that lets you breathe underwater.
Of course, some people simply ignore the tether and jump into the water, but those are generally only the more skilled and experienced hunters. Hunters who already know their way through the Hunter’s Spot by heart.
The tether itself is a spiritual one and will teleport the one tethered to it back to the surface, and it won’t be an actual obstacle or physical object attached to the hunter. So it won’t get in the way of the hunt.
Nakajima slowly crosses the bridge while searching for an unused tether, but time passes, and it ends up taking him longer than he expected. Along the way he repeatedly stops to look at hunters more experienced and higher level than him who rise from the surface of the water, some with a tether and some without. But the ones with a tether already tend to have someone waiting at their tether for them to surface. So they’re taken immediately.
The rookie hunter begins to feel nervous that he won’t find a tether, but then his attention is taken away by something… unusual. A beautiful woman casually sunbathing in a two-piece swimsuit on a faraway portion of the dock. The woman has long silky white hair with sunglasses on over her eyes. Eyes that appear to let out an ethereal and eerie red glow even when shut and covered by the sunglasses.
And Nakajima can’t help but stare at her for a few seconds even though her swimsuit isn’t all that revealing before shaking his head and continuing his search for a tether, mildly feeling rather confused about why a hunter would choose to sunbathe at Hunter’s Bay.
It’s not exactly the safest place for that sort of thing after all.
Nakajima continues searching for a tether, but no matter what, he can’t seem to find one. Until he looks up at the sunbathing woman again and realizes there’s an open tether right next to her.
So he quickly makes his way over there, only stopping when he gets close to the woman.
Then the woman finally sits up and takes off her sunglasses, following which her clothes suddenly change out of nowhere from the two-piece swimsuit to a set of red and black military-style armor from the Eternal Dynasty. Except with a unique design to it with a long flowing skirt, made specifically so that it doesn’t get in the way of combat, pants beneath the skirt, a long red cloak, some crimson fabric going down from the belt, a buttoned top with just a couple buttons and a smooth looking fabric. Lastly, the woman has a rose in her hair on one side and some sort of amulet on her chest with a red diamond-shaped jewel inside.
And now that her eyes are open, Nakajima finds himself staring into crimson jewels calling themselves eyes. Eyes that for some reason send a shiver down his spine.
He quickly glances up above her head to where her level appears, only to freeze stiffly in place.
The woman glances at him before choosing to ignore him as ripples begin rising from the water around their spot on the dock. And under Nakajima’s terrified gaze, a few dozen skeletons wearing black and brown cloaks surface from the water before floating into the air and onto the dock, each carrying resources ranging from mana creature corpses to crystals to minerals.
Skeletons who have nothing but glowing red light filling their eye sockets. Just circular spheres of pure crimson.
But that’s not what frightens Nakajima’s the most. Not even the sight of their cloaks not even being wet despite having just been underwater.
What frightens Nakajima the most is the sight of the black number ten above the woman’s – who he’s pretty sure is younger than he is – head.
After a person reaches level ten, they can see the general danger of a person just by looking at the color of their number. Except for during the three year restriction planets, where the number isn’t visible during the restriction time.
A green number means they are not a threat to you, while a yellow number means they would be a challenge. A red number means danger and to run away.
But a black number means to drop everything and run as fast as you can.
That you stand no chance to kill them.
And for a level ten to have a black number…
Nakajima watches the woman collect all of the corpses and resources into her storage ring before she glances at him for a second and walks away without another word.
Leaving him staring in frightened silence as the skeletons all vanish into rifts that lead to who knows where.
And to make matters worse? He sees the woman casually stretching her arms as she walks, blissfully unaware of the man she just terrified.
“First time seeing her?” a voice suddenly asks, startling Nakajima so badly he jumps as he turns around to find a large-built man standing behind him. “Yeah, a lot of people have similar reactions to that lass. Hard not to though.”
“W-who is she?!” Nakajima finds himself asking without even meaning to.
The gruff man looks up at the woman as he answers, “No one’s really sure. She doesn’t talk much, and she neva’ actually goes into tha water. All we know is that she has black numbers above ‘er head no matter who’s lookin’, she has special permission to be here from tha Emperor himself, and she summons those strange skeletons from some sort of rift every time she arrives.” He shrugs. “Tha lass never bothers anyone, and she responds politely when someone talks to her, so everyone’s just been ignorin’ ‘er. Other than the few people who try to sneak a peek.”
The man glances at Nakajima, “Name’s O’Riley, by the way. But just call me Riley.”
Nakajima finally calms down again after taking a deep breath. Then he responds with, “I’m Akihiko Nakajima. Pleasure to meet you.” And after taking a second to look Riley over, Nakajima asks, “From Luk’tar?”
Riley nods his head.
Nakajima hasn’t met many foreigners. Most of the foreigners who come to Eternus either don’t live in the capital or all live near the Hunter’s Bay so that they can be close to the Hunter’s Spot.
He puts that aside as he turns back around to look at the woman as she continues to walk away with her hands in her skirt pockets. Then Nakajima turns around to go grab the tether he originally came over here for.
Only to find Riley already tethering himself to it as the man waves and says, “Nice meetin’ ya, Akihiko. Maybe we can meet again soon!”
Then the man jumps into the water, the barrier activating after he leaves Nakajima’s sight.
But that was supposed to be my tether…