Chapter 44: Heading to Portland

Bree tried placing the poisonous herb on my skin again, and nothing happened, just like before.

Eventually, she decided to call someone else to try it. Zeph was the one chosen. We stood really close, one in front of the other. I stared him down. That bastard.

Anyway, Bree then said the same thing to him, explaining how it would hurt, but that he didn’t need to be scared.

Zeph didn’t think the herb was that dangerous, since it hadn’t worked on me. He had no idea the reason for that was my toxin resistance.

When Bree placed it on his skin, though, the poor guy screamed in pain. The students watching us laughed at him.

Bree then rubbed another herb on his skin, and the burning effect instantly disappeared.

"It works on you, but it doesn’t work on you, Vincent," she said, turning to look at me again. "Why is that?"

I shrugged. "I don’t know. Maybe my body is just strong?"

"Even if you have a higher VIT attribute, that doesn’t mean you should be immune to this poisonous herb. Does your ability give you toxin resistance, or do you have a magical item with you?"

The reason for my resistance was my bloodline, as I said before, but I couldn’t share that with anyone, so I didn’t answer any of her questions.

"I really don’t know, teacher Bree. I’m sorry."

She didn’t ask any further questions, but she knew something was wrong with my body.

All the other students certainly had their doubts as well. Once again, I was being the mysterious student. That would come back to bite me, for sure.

The rest of the class was just her explaining more about the herbs, with no actual practical test yet. I wanted to get to the alchemy classes, you know, learn how to brew potions that might be useful in combat, but that would take a while to happen.

Nothing interesting happened for the rest of the day, and on the following day, I got my temporary C-Rank Hunter ID!

People were gossiping about it inside the academy. Even second or third year students didn’t get a badge like that. Not because they were incapable of getting it, but because it was usually only meant for graduated students.

I was the sole exception because Frederic and Lion Heart were helping me out. Of course, people talked about it, but Frederic never said anything in public about our relationship.

In fact, I was supposed to be his personal disciple, yet he hadn’t even trained me yet...

We talked about it a few days before I left the academy with Ethan and Tom for our first mission together.

"I’ll train you after you return," he said, "because I want you in the special team to explore that rift, the one where you found the mysterious eye."

That was pretty damn good. With his help, plus the monster crystals from the missions I could take now, reaching the B-Rank level in three months would be possible. And with it, I would have a new continent to explore to find Tom’s brother.

Speaking of him, I also talked to Tom about that.

"They want you to enter the squad looking for my brother? Why is that? The people in there are much stronger than you, no? Only S-Ranks and A-Ranks were supposed to go there, and you’re going even if you get B-Rank?"

"Apparently my ability is useful for them," I explained. "Having a storage to bring basically infinite supplies during the search is pretty good, right?"

Tom shook his head. "Now that you put it like this, you’re right. They already have people who are good in combat, so having someone to support them is essential. But like, three months... Will they find my brother? Isn’t that too long?"

He was visibly down. Tom wanted to go and help find his brother. Hell, he just wanted some good news from the hunters searching for him, yet no one said a thing to him.

"He’ll be fine," I said. "Your brother is an S-Rank Hunter for a reason."

"You’re right..."

And just like that, one week passed. I had classes every day, but my only two teachers were Dorian and now Bree.

Balthazar, who would teach us about beasts, never showed up. I kept asking the principal about it, but Frederic just kept giving me excuses as to why the old man was missing. I was starting to think something had happened to him.

Then, the day finally came for us to leave the academy for a mission. Or rather, two missions.

Frederic gave us all the information before we left, all written down in a file he sent to our phones.

"You’re going to Portland, then from there to a small city called Estacada. A monster is kidnapping residents, and probably killing them. We have two victims already. You must track it down and kill it."

"Then, for your next mission, you are to clear the dimensional rift in the area located at the North Fork Viewpoint. Understood?"

I had never been to those locations, and barely knew anything about them, but it wouldn’t be difficult to get there. Just hop on a plane and then a car.

What concerned me was the fact that the creature was kidnapping humans. That meant it was actually a smart creature, different from most of the ones we found in the rifts.

"Do we know what creature it is?" I asked Frederic.

"No, we don’t."

"Is it even a creature?" I asked again. "Could it be a villain?"

We call villains the hunters who didn’t give a fuck about anything and were up to no good, doing shady stuff, destroying places, killing humans, and of course attacking other hunters too. Not everyone with awakened abilities wanted to do good.

In fact, the number of villains was increasing so much that the whole country was having a hard time dealing with them.

Frederic nodded.

"Yes, we don’t rule out that possibility. So you must watch out. Villains are even worse than beasts, you know. They are smarter, and sometimes even crueler than them. Anyway, take this card, it will cover all of your expenses, but please, don’t spend too much money."

He handed the card over to us. It would be used to pay for everything. The mission was on behalf of the academy, so we didn’t need to use our own money to get there.

They had paid a large sum of money to hire the academy to deal with the problem.

So, after speaking with Frederic and learning everything we could, we left the academy on a private plane which would go directly to Portland.

I wouldn’t be going alone on that mission. Tom and Ethan were with me, like Dorian had said before. I was the team leader.

"This is the first time I’m using a private plane," Ethan said. "How cool is this."

Tom, on the other hand, had used one before. His brother was an S-Rank hunter, so of course he had that experience at some point in his life.

It was the first time for me, so Ethan and I were excited about everything on that plane, from the seats to the food and drinks they gave us.

Ah, the treatment was just too good.

We landed in Portland not long after. It was pretty damn fast. A black car was waiting for us at the airport.

Our first mission was about to officially start!