Chapter 460 The one star hunter
It wasn't too long ago that Blake had become a one-star Hunter, thus officially joining the Altered Hunters. Of course, now that he was officially recognised as one of their members, there were certain responsibilities on his shoulders.
No longer was he able to just travel and piggyback with his father doing hunts in the local area. In the first place, Ozacas Hunt was away more often, being called by the organisation for important tasks involving the mysterious black liquid.
This was one of the responsibilities of being an Altered Hunter, to always answer when they call you, and it was why Blake was where he was now.
Of course, hunters could choose where they wished to live, and they could also act as they saw fit, as long as they followed certain guidelines that were given out, but the guidelines weren't the set law.
However, now as a one-star Hunter, Blake could be called out for tasks that were planned by the leader and the other five-star Hunters, and that's why he was currently in the Dark Guild’s auction house in Morfran City.
Currently standing on stage waiting for the items they had bought, was himself, another one-star Hunter and a three-star Hunter. This was the first time he was working with these people. They had only been told about the great task that they would have to accomplish today.
The other one-star Hunter was a university student that was a little older than Blake. He was taller than him, at a height of around 6 foot 4, with black hair and always a serious look on his face even now. The young adult had introduced himself as Kane, and unlike him, his promotion wasn’t as recent, making him his senior, despite sharing the same number of stars.
Then there was Josh, the three-star Hunter in his mid-twenties. Unlike the serious Kane, he seemed to be far more amiable, always having a smile on his face, and coupled with his light brown hair that was split down the middle he had the appearance of a charming gentleman.
As for the reason why these people were selected for the auction, It was due to them being relatively new members of the Altered Hunter Association. Although all Altered Hunters were required to wear masks during their nightly outing, it was impossible to guarantee that they would stay on during fights.
The more senior members knew for a fact their faces had been passed around to the higher tier gangs. This made it impossible for them to attend the auction, though they didn't want to cause trouble during it in the first place. So, who better than to send a few harmless looking young members to buy a few new weapons.
So far they had achieved their task, the first part had gone smooth, but while standing on stage, Blake’s hands were starting to sweat a little.
‘This is my first time going on a group outing. I have to do well. No doubt my father will hear about this outing as well.’ Blake thought.
Focused on the task ahead, he was only now really looking at the people around them. With the crowd clearing out, he saw the familiar black and gold uniform of the people who were on the stage with them.
‘That's the same colours that Gary would always wear and his gang.’
Looking at the mask on their faces, Blake couldn’t help but gulp. He and the fox masked leader made eye contact with each other. It lasted for just a moment, but the young Altered Hunter was sure that they knew each other.
‘Why…why did you guys have to come here? Why now of all times? Is Gary with you?’ Blake wondered. ‘Without him, you guys might will be in a lot of trouble and I can’t help you.’
Seeing them, it made Blake think back to the meeting before entering Morfran.
——
Back in Slough, Blake had been called upon, and he was to wait in his home at his father's dojo. He was pacing back and forth after he had prepared a table along with a few chairs out.
The reason for him being nervous was because he was meant to be meeting quite a few people from the Altered Hunter Association today, and they had chosen his place as the meeting area.
Blake had been given a few details and the reason why they were all meeting up in Slough was because it was on the way to their actual destination, Morfran City. Eventually, the speaker in the dojo sounded off, indicating that someone was at the door.
Walking through his relatively large front garden, Blake checked the camera on the door, and could see five people present. Immediately he opened the door, and bowed down to them all.
“It is my pleasure to meet all of you, seniors. I will do my best to make your stay here as comfortable as possible.” Blake greeted them.
“You can raise your head, for starters.” John the three-star Hunter replied with a friendly smile. “There’s no need for all that formality. We’re all friends here, so you can relax a bit.”
Blake was happy to see that there were those close to his age. In fact, everyone looked quite young on the team that would be sent out. While leading the group out to the dojo they all started to introduce themselves.
Aside from Kane and Josh who was the leader of the group, there were three two-star Hunters. It was a little strange as Josh looked younger than one of the two-star Hunters.
But it reminded Blake that not everything was about age, it was skill and talent, and the stars just indicated that Josh had the talent to kill a number of different Altered. After the introductions were done, each of them sat down and Josh’s smiley face had gone to quite a serious tone.
“Now, all of you have been briefed on the task, we are to head to Morfran City and buy supplies for the Altered Hunter Association. They have given me a budget and a set of requirements so you guys can let me deal with that.
“The only thing you need to keep in mind, is to avoid trouble. The best thing to do that is by staying at my side and to stay silent.”
This was part of the task that Blake already knew, but he was no idiot. If that was the only thing they were attempting to do, then there would be no need for six Altered Hunters to be sent on this task.
“The association wants to test the waters a bit. Due to how big this event will be, they’re sure that quite a few new gangs will be turning up. We’ll be ignoring the established gangs and will be keeping an eye on the up-and-comers. They’ll be the ones to improve their strength the most by buying supplies, and of course Altered solutions.
“Our main goal is to do our best to get rid of these new gangs by eliminating at least their leaders and if possible the entire gang. However, there is a good chance that we might be unable to do so with our current strength.
In the case it proves to be too much of a hassle to take them out, Plan B will be to focus on stealing their Altered Solutions, so we can at least cripple their growth. After we’ve achieved that goal, we’ll flee and meet at the predetermined location later.”
Looking towards Kane, Blake wanted to see if the other one-star Hunter was nervous about the situation. Judging on what Josh had said, there was a chance they could be going up against more than one Altered Hunter together.
On top of that, they would be in Morfan City.
“We will only target those that buy Altered solutions from the event. We also will only target the new groups since for a lot of you, this will be a first experience. If there are no groups that I think we are capable of taking out, then we will not proceed with the task, understand?”
Everyone gave a nod, and after that, Josh pulled out a few thick pieces of paper. It was information on the new gangs that were rising, and handed it out to each of them so they could be updated on the situation.
“Now there is a chance that some of these gangs will not even appear at the auction itself. Or perhaps they’ll be unable to buy the Altered solution, but I want you to go over the proposed plan of what we are to do, and keep up to date with all the possibilities.”
Everyone was silent as they worked through the thick book, looking at all the information.
‘The No Land Gang are a Tier-4 gang, there is a star stating that this is most likely one of our targets… it looks like there is another star on another gang.’ Blake noticed.
Looking at the name, and the descriptions that were given. It stated at the top, that one of their targets was a gang who called themselves the Howlers.
*****
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