Chapter 99: Leading Idiots

Lion Heart had a long chat with them, trying to calm their nerves. It wouldn’t be easy considering they had been shitting in buckets and eating leftovers for three days.

But I didn’t care about them. I took off my shoes and jumped off the boat, feeling the warm sand between my toes. The cool breeze hit my face. I took a deep breath.

I was at a beautiful beach with crystal clear water, its waves hitting the shore, a familiar sound echoing around me.

I always loved the beach, but I barely visited it with my past financial situation. But now, I wasn’t just on a regular beach, but one on a different continent that humans had yet to fully explore. How impressive was that?

Mathias and Brenda also jumped off the ship. They stood next to me.

"Such a beautiful and peaceful place," Brenda said.

"For now," I said.

They knew what I meant. The beach looked lovely at first sight, but this continent was packed with dimensional rifts, monsters lurking around every corner, not to mention the demons. Peaceful was the last thing that place was.

"Do you think they will try anything against you?" Mathias asked me.

I turned to stare at the hunters on the ship. Despite having Lion Heart right in front of them, most were still glaring at me.

"Maybe, but we have enough problems around here. When monsters show up and Lion Heart gives them their tasks, they’ll have something to focus on and forget about me."

Mathias nodded.

"I still think you should be careful. You can count on us to help you out."

It was nice having a few friends. Not that I trusted them.

We waited until Lion Heart was done talking. He left the ship with all the other hunters following him.

"Our settlement is just down that path," he said, pointing at a small path through the forest. "Follow me."

I stood next to him, always paying close attention to the other hunters. They still gazed at me with pure anger and killing intent, but no one moved. And if they did, I was ready to fight back and kill them.

The path we took had been cut open by some of the hunters who had explored the area. They cleared the forest and created a rough path for us to follow.

We walked for just 5 minutes before reaching an open area with a few houses. These houses were made of wood, using raw logs, but they were quite nice. I was surprised to see it.

I saw a few farms and cattle being taken care of. Not a lot, but enough to keep people fed. The ocean was really close, so fishing was also a possibility if they needed more food.

Everyone looked at us when we arrived at the settlement. A crowd that big was uncommon.

Lion Heart, famous as he was, was known to all of those hunters. When they saw him, they cheered and thanked the heavens.

"Finally, a rank S Hunter to help us. Life has been so fucking hard in this place," one hunter said.

All of them came to talk with Lion Heart, and with us as well. They wanted to know more about the new batch of hunters that had come to the new continent.

They were all friendly, smiling, and happy to have us there. It was hard to live in that dangerous continent, so every time backup arrived, they rejoiced.

Lion Heart frowned as he scanned the settlement.

"There are people missing, right?" he said. "How many people died?"

The settlement had a leader. A man wearing fur clothing with scars on his arms and face. It looked like he had been there for a long time.

"Twenty people died recently," he said. "In the past two months."

That was a lot. Not that shocking considering where we were, but still hard to hear. The hunters who had been focused only on me now changed their expressions. Maybe they finally understood how dangerous this place was.

"How? A monster?"

The man nodded.

"Yes. A powerful monster escaped one of the rifts and killed a whole team of 12 people who were exploring the forest. The remaining deaths happened during other explorations."

Lion Heart turned to look at us and said, "All of you, rest and find houses to settle in. I’ll talk with the leader about these deaths."

He then looked at me and gestured for me to follow him. Apparently, I would be taking part in the conversation.

The other hunters saw it, which made them even angrier toward me. Was Lion Heart doing this on purpose? I had no idea.

We entered the main hall, a massive wooden house where they held their meetings and ate dinner together.

Inside were many wooden benches, a long horizontal table, and a stone fireplace for cooking, with an iron pot hanging over it.

No one was inside. The hall usually only had people in it during the night.

We sat together to discuss things.

"I’ll start by clearing the rifts around our settlement to make sure no monsters escape and kill our men," Lion Heart said.

The leader — or rather, the ex-leader, since Lion Heart was the one in charge now — agreed.

"With your power, clearing these rifts should be fairly easy. That will make the settlement a lot safer. But we’ll still have to keep exploring and go deeper into this continent. How are we going to do that?"

This was the problem. A place so dangerous that leaving the shore wasn’t exactly easy. They all knew exploring the forest was no simple task. It would take time and effort.

"I’m here now to help, and I brought some skilled hunters with me, like this guy over here."

I smiled awkwardly, not knowing what to do with the sudden praise.

"How skilled is he?"

Lion Heart looked proud when answering.

"Rank AA level, or maybe stronger."

The man’s eyes went wide, barely believing what Lion Heart had said.

"Really? That powerful?"

"Yes. And not just him — I have five more skilled hunters, not to mention the others who are rank A as well. With this, we’ll have a much better time exploring this continent."

"But why the sudden change? Not that I’m complaining about having more people here, but we’ve been waiting for backup for months."

The exploration of the new continent had started a few months back, even before I began my hunter journey. But back then, the resources allocated were thin, and the only people brave enough to take that mission were just in it for the rewards.

But with the sudden disappearance of Tom’s brother — the S rank Hunter who had gone to that continent — things changed.

"One of our S rank hunters went missing on this land. The Hunter Society is demanding we find out what happened to him. That’s why they’re giving more importance to exploring this place now."

"What? A rank S Hunter? No way..."

The man had no idea that had happened. Not just him — all the others in the settlement were in the dark about it. The reason was simple: there was no internet on that continent. It was blocked. So any new information was hard to spread.

We talked about our next steps. The first priorities were clearing some of the nearby rifts, expanding the settlement, and building more roads leading deeper into the continent.

Not just building roads, but making sure they were safe. To do that, we basically had to kill A LOT of monsters over the next few days. Like, a lot of them. Barely any rest.

Lion Heart gathered everyone in the middle of the settlement, sharing everything we had discussed and dividing people into teams that would take on missions in the coming days.

The other 5 stronger hunters weren’t placed with me. Lion Heart preferred to have one in each team, acting as leaders. So I was the leader of a team that disliked me and wanted to kill me.

I had no idea what to expect. Clearing a rift was hard enough alone — imagine doing it with teammates like that.

"Lion Heart, are you really allowing this guy to be a leader?" one of the hunters complained.

"He trapped us for days. What kind of hunter does that? I don’t trust being around him. What if he tries to end my life? Or torture me?"

"Yeah, what if he does? You saw what he did to us! He might be your friend, but that’s no way for a hunter to treat their equals."

Just like that, everyone was complaining about me again.

The hunters who were already at the settlement thought I was a monster. They didn’t know how the situation had unfolded, and hearing all those insults made them wonder what kind of monster I really was.

I sighed. These bastards were driving me insane, and I didn’t even start clearing rifts with them.

What the fuck should I do to change that?