Brr~
The gentle sound of the hover bus moving was so unlike his old world, Dante thought as he gazed at the roadside.
He took in the sight of buildings in various colors as the hover bus moved. People were living their lives. He smiled faintly as the hover bus came to a stop at his destination:
Warmwood City.
With the same brown backpack on his back, he swiftly rose and walked toward the exit. With a stretch of his numb muscles from sitting for two days, he quickly quickened his pace along the roadside.
"First of all, gathering information it is," he muttered as he looked up. Today's sky was gray, darkening with the sight of rain. Something he wasn't really fond of.
'Sigh.' With a sigh, he opened his GPS to check if, by any chance, it differed from the game.
"Yep, same one."
He noticed that his existence had already started to change the fate of this world.
For example, Carl Bruce, a character a player would control, now seemed to be acting on his own. With the most efficient route a player could take, he guessed from how quickly Carl reached the Farrarish Citadel, which meant he should pace his own plans now.
"Can't be left behind, can we?"
Dante looked around again, searching for a place he came to often in the game, specifically, a game hub. It was a place where you could only interact with other players through a world chat to trade information about lore or... stuff.
He grimaced as he recalled where he had coincidentally seen some players talk about Raphael, a soon-to-be Saintess, who actually often wore black lacy panties.
'Why would anyone be interested in that in the first place?'
He shook his head as he found himself in the town's plaza, where he could feel heat emitting from the fountain.
That's right, Warmwood City is famous for its natural hot springs, a popular tourist destination in the Bacia Kingdom, founded by the sacred Shield hero, Balon Bacia, one of the Seven Blades.
'Players, myself included, often brought Carl here to relax and maintain his mood throughout the playthrough.'
Dante walked to the plaza and dipped his hand in the fountain. Warm, mineral water enveloped his hand as his muscles relaxed slightly.
"Ha~ I should come back later. For now, I better hurry."
With that, he started walking again toward the southwest of the town, where the hub was located.
---
Di di ding~
Dante opened the stylish, wooden door as he quickly looked inside. The interior of the hub was a night bar, to state it simply. It was a place where you could drink alcohol and other stuff.
Decorated with dark wood, it gave a warm and exotic vibe. People drank happily, and weapons were forgotten on the floor—a sight of a true hunter's respite.
From a quick look from Dante, most people here were Beastmen. He thought, 'It's not so strange; this town is quite near the Great Meadow border, where various Beastmen make their home.'
Dante sat down on an empty seat and took out his smartphone. His dimension watch reflected the warm, orange light from above.
"Uncle, milk, please," he said as he plopped his elbow on the table. His voice was calm and composed.
The hub owner, Ben Wick, was a middle-aged man in his classic black collared shirt paired with red trousers. His black hair was streaked with gray, and with his signature goatee, he arched an eyebrow at Dante, finding it amusing that a kid like him had stepped in here.
With a moment of silence and the efficiency of someone who had done this for ages, he swiftly served him a milk, white tinged with caramel color. Dante's eyes closed as he took a sip.
'Sweet.'
For a while, all he did was savor the caramel milk. Uncle Ben had long since gone back to his cleaning.
"Hey hey! This isn't a place where a brat like you can come here and order milk, you know, kiddo."
'Gotcha.'
Dante looked up at the talker—a bulky, rough-looking man. A beer was in his right hand as he swayed toward him. He had felt it a long time ago, when he stepped in here—someone was looking his way. The feeling bored into his back and his senses tingled all the time.
What could he say? A rich-looking kid walks in here alone and orders milk? No wonder they took him for a spoiled kid, trying to look cool by coming here. It was just as he had predicted.
"And do tell me, is there a sign written that a good-looking kid like me can't come inside?"
Dante swirled the glass in his hand as he continued. "And what are you? Some kind of boss around here? Oh, I bet not. Looking at your ugly face makes me wonder, have you ever had any friends in the first place?"
A sudden silence descended upon the bar. The lively atmosphere was gone, replaced by a tense quiet as Dante's pink eyes locked onto the brown eyes of the rough-looking man.
The silence was broken by the sound of a stifled laugh, and then everyone in the bar laughed—a loud, mocking sound.
"AHAHAHAAHAHA Filip! Say something! AHAHAH"
"Look at that guy's face! It's priceless!"
The guy—named Filip, apparently—had his face twist into an ugly, angry expression.
"You've got some guts, kid." Filip said as he looked down at Dante, trembling with rage as he swung the cup of beer in his hand toward Dante's face.
"Let's see if your face is going to be as ugly as mine after this, huh!?"
'Fast.'
Dante sat still. The cup swung toward him at an alarming speed. He knew that by any means, his stats as they were now couldn't really beat a proper hunter.
That thief at the Citadel? He hadn't seen it coming. If he fought head-on, he would be having a hard time. Right now, all he had was speed and his Battle IQ and the fact that this guy was drunk. One hit from this Filip guy and he would be knocked out cold.
Dante leaned back, dangerously close to falling off his chair, as he dodged the swing, but the guy's foot came next, aimed at his face. Dante grimaced and rolled out of his chair.
THUD!! The guy's kick connected with the empty chair,shattered it as Dante sprang to his feet.
'As drunk as he seems, a hunter is still a hunter, huh?'
Sweat trickled down his face as he readied himself.
'As risky as it may be, this is the shortest and fastest plan I could think of.'
"What? Say something, kid, cat got your tongue?" Filip taunted as he stepped forward.
Dante's eyebrow twitched as he lunged. Filip curled into a grin as his taunt succeeded.
'Kid's ego.'
He chuckled as Dante came swinging his right hand toward his face. Filip sidestepped to the left.
'Your stomach is left open~'
His other hand curled into a fist as he swung toward Dante's open stomach.
The fist connected with a 'Thunk!' sound as
Dante's toes lifted off the ground, his body curled like a bow from the impact of the mana-enchanted punch.
"Kahg!"
"Ha! Weak!"
Filip's grin became wild as he looked down, his eyes widened as he noticed his punch had actually been blocked by Dante's left hand.
"Surprise, motherfucker."
A trickle of blood drifted from the corner of Dante's mouth as he looked up, his grin mirroring Filip's.
Dante swiftly yanked the guy's hand down, bringing Filip's face to his knee with a wet sound of Crunch!
"Kugah!"
The guy's head bounced back from the impact. Blood flew out from his mouth, his eyes rolled back.
'What...'
And before he could recover, Dante's right hand grabbed Filip's hair, yanking his face to meet his knee again and again.
Crunch!-
Crunch!!-
Crunch!!!
the bar fell silent. The cheering from earlier vanished as Filip swayed back, his steps shaky, and a trembling hand rose to touch his bloody face.
"Brat...!"
Fwosh!
Without missing a beat, Dante's kick, amplified with a Burst steps, connected with Filip's jaw.
Bam!
Filip's body flew away, Crashed into a table on the wall.
"Kah...what the fuck?"
Step-
step-
step-
Silence remained, leaving only the groans of Filip as Dante approached.
With a bloody spittle spat from his mouth, Dante looked down. His pink eyes shone, like a ruby reflecting the light, intense.
"Kuhg."
Dante stepped on Filip's chest and pulled a dagger from his dimension watch, pointing the tip at his neck. Lower himself as he whispered
"From now on, only answer the questions I ask."
He poked the dagger a little deeper, drawing a drop of blood as Filip's face paled. His eyes darted around, looking for help, but the others had already fled. It wasn't that they feared Dante; they were simply suspicious of his status. They weren't fools. A kid like that, with that kind of skill and face... it just wasn't worth facing a bad end. So they chose to leave the scene, that's all.
Meanwhile, Uncle Ben had already sipped his whiskey, his eyes locked on the scene with interest.
---
September 3th, 2868.
'Ouch.'
Dante winced as he drank a minor recovery potion, sitting on the hotel bed he had booked before coming here.
'That punch sure hurt.' If you asked why he didn't use mana to enchant his body, simply put, he couldn't.
What did you expect from someone from mana-lacking Earth? He needed more time to efficiently channel his wild mana. It required his focus; it meant he had to mentally imagine how his blood flowed into his muscles. He could do it, but not that quickly. His blessing did nothing for him apart from things related to fire. That was his biggest problem, for now.
"I have to use this plan because of you, Carl, so you'd better pay up next time." Dante murmured as he went into the bath, because things were quickening their pace now, he couldn't waste any more time to get to Axel Graphel.
He meant he could use other means to get info about him, but his money was running low now.
"Hah~" A warm water cascaded down his body as he relaxed under it.
He bet that Axel had already detected the presence of another party tailing his trace—so wasting time going around to ask anyone was out of the question.
If by any chance the information got to Axel, he would simply vanish. So his only option was this risky choice: to ask a hunter in this town.
Dante opened his eyes and looked down at his hands. Once smooth, they now started to show signs of calluses, a sight of his hard work.
'Not enough.'
The high-level hunters were a no-go, because if they didn't outright ignore him, they would scam his wallet dry, and there was nothing he could do. So he chose a low-level hunter—someone cowardly enough to often receive a watch guard job around the city. It was a simple job that paid less but was safer than fighting mana beasts outside.
'That's why I went into that bar. Well, because if things went south, I knew Uncle Ben would interfere.'
He came out of the bath, a towel wrapped around his lower half as he looked at himself in the mirror. Blue hair, pink eyes, a sharp jawline... perfect. He sighed to himself as he muttered, "I'm starting to sound like a narcissist now."
He dried himself and dressed in a simple long black shirt and gray pants, along with a black long cloak.
"That guy said he found a man with a scar across his right eye, coming down the Ash Mountain at night, right?" Dante asked no one in particular as he readied his backpack.
'So he's planning to escape into the Great Meadow with his daughter. Knowing the First Prince, that guy won't easily let him go for sure.'
He opened the door as he looked toward the night sky, in the direction of Ash Mountain.
Tonight.
is the night he will move his final piece on the chessboard.