Calamity Upon This World

"Before we continue this conversation any further, remove your mask."

William took a long breath, trying his best to remain calm as he asked.

"How long have you known?"

"Since the day you joined the Adventurers Guild.

I'm sure even you didn't expect to deceive one of the strongest in the world with a mere S-rank mask," Michael replied.

"Yeah, you're right. I didn't," Williams answered in a knowing tone.

It would be a lie to say that he was expecting to be able to hide his identity from Michael forever, especially with just a S-rank mask.

Michael was pretty close to Rex in terms of strength, so if the mask couldn't fool Rex, there was no reason for it to be able to fool Michael.

He was just waiting to see if he would mention it or not.

And now that he had it, there was no need for the mask between them.

Before long, the tall and handsome black-haired man was replaced by a much smaller and cuter white-haired kid.

He was wearing a loose but stylish white shirt with baggy brown pants.

"William Verhein" Michael said, already knowing the identity of the boy.

"Yep, that's me."

"There's a lot I want to ask, but for starters, let me ask this: What exactly are you doing all the way in Markwhelter when you're supposed to be in isolation training back in your house?"

"Did you maybe sneak out?"

Michael didn't really think it was possible for William to sneak out if either of his parents didn't want it.

Michael had known both Rex and Myra during their heyday, and he knew both of them were common sense-defying monsters.

Rex is the person closest to his brother in terms of strength.

While the kid in front of them was talented, he was nowhere near either of their level or even good enough to sneak out without them knowing.

But if it wasn't that, why had the two of them let their 10-year-old leave his home town under their protection and travel to a different kingdom all alone?

Especially right after he had just provoked arguably the most dangerous criminal organisation and was under heavy scrutiny world-wide for his actions.

No matter how he tried to spin it, he had trouble understanding their thought process.

Thankfully, he didn't need to  waste his time trying to understand for long as his questions were soon answered by William himself.

"Let's start with your second question. I didn't sneak out, not that I could even if I wanted to."

"I had the full and knowing approval of my parents before leaving, and you don't need to worry about my age; after all, I think I've proven myself enough over the past few months."

"As for the first question, you don't need to concern yourself over the reason; just know that it's something extremely important to me and requires me to go to the neutral continent."

Michael was originally just going to let it go, as he knew that he was being a busybody, and whatever reason William had started travelling alone didn't really involve him.

But that changed at the mention of 'Neutral Continent'.

His eyes dilated unnaturally and turned bloodshot, with his lips twitching as his breath quickened, allowing his chest to move unnaturally fast.

The only thought in his mind at the moment was.

'This kid is going to die'

Despite knowing everything he did about William, he didn't think for a second that he could survive for more than a week in that dreadful place.

Neutral continent was listed as the deadliest in all the black zones of the world.

While it was true that most of the magic artifacts and natural treasures came from that place, it was also true that millions of harrowing and dreadful abominations resided on that single piece of land.

Titans towering over mountains, massive rocs capable of covering the sun with their mere bodies, cunning and mischievous kutsunes.

Abominable wendigos being notified the moment someone thought of them and attacking, skin crawlers posing as humans, nigh-indestructible giant lizards.

Dragons capable of razing towns to ashes in mere minutes, unicorns capable of running at the speed of sound, massive basilisks slithering the ground.

Any kind of creature the mind could imagine probably existed on that God-forsaken piece of land.

There's a reason why not even the strongest of adventurers, as long as they have even a shred of sanity left, choose to avoid that place.

This was the reason why a separate body of independent guilds called neutral guilds existed.

They were all individual guilds that were created and controlled by a single individual, and all of them competed with each other.

Instead of being one unified collective body under the command of one leader, like the adventurer guild,.

There was a reason why neutral guilds were considered the most dangerous jobs in the world.

There were only three types of people who chose to actively live and work there.

Those who were desperate for money, desperate for power, and those without anything left to lose.

The only thing these three groups of people had in common was that they were all batshit crazy.

And according to what Michael had observed so far, William didn't fall into either of these categories.

Neither was he desperate for money or power; in fact, he was probably loaded for life due to his family and father.

He didn't even have a lack of talent or opportunity; in fact, according to what he had heard and seen, he had too much of it.

He had already achieved far more than most people would ever come close to doing in just the first decade of his life.

It also couldn't be the last one, as he had a loving family who loved him more than anything.

So what could possibly lead him to risk it all and go to neutral when he still has so much left to live for?

But that wasn't even the thing that was the cause of his worry, but rather the identity of his father.

Rex Verhein is a legend among men.

The sword saint and the man with an undefeatable blade and technique.

The monster slayer, one strike, martial emperor, steel monarch.

He was a man known by a number of names.

Someone who was closest to his brother in strength and someone he looked up to and respected.

But none of those things mattered at the moment.

The only thing that mattered was his nickname, or rather, more specifically, his title, 'Dragon Slayer'.

Ever since the birth of his son, for an unknown reason, whenever the corpse of a dragon is found one way or another, Rex Verhein ends up being the perpetrator.

In just the last decade, he alone was responsible for over 10,000 dead dragons.

And these were just the ones that were known to the public.

Who knew how many he had actually killed?

It was almost like he actively searched for dragons to kill every day, or maybe it was the other way around.

He didn't know, but the point was that because of his achievements over the past decade, he had managed to solidify himself as the one and true dragon slayer, or, as Michael liked to call it, the 'Natural Enemy of Dragons'.

It was due to his exploits in the field of dragon slaying and reducing their already low population by such a drastic margin over the past few years that he had earned the ire of every single dragon alive.

Normally, this wouldn't be much of a problem, as Rex was capable of slaying hundreds of dragons in a swing.

Or at least that was the case outside the neutral continent.

In this world, there are two types of dragons: monsters and true.

Monster dragons were evolved versions of monsters who evolved into dragon types in one way or another.

They are usually found in dungeons as bosses or in neutral continent just roaming the vast skies.

While for the average awakener, encountering even a single one of them was no different from a guaranteed death sentence.

To those who had honed their art over the years and could boast about their strength, they were no different from overgrown lizards capable of spewing fire.

As that was essentially all, they were just monsters ranging from S-SSS rank incapable of thinking or intelligence and were incapable of using magic instead on  living on purely instinct.

In essence, while dragons in name, they were hardly much different from the normal monsters in their ranks.

And these were the dragons who were killed in the thousands by Rex.

While that barely distracted from how impressive Rex's feat is.

It didn't come close to the real monsters, which is why the neutral continent had to be sealed up and restricted.

True Dragons.

These are the dragons closest to the world itself and are actually capable of thinking.

By extension, they also have control over mana, and their control over it far surpasses anything any of the other races could ever even hope to achieve.

True dragons, while low in number, were nigh immortal.

Having a seemingly endless life span, each one is able to live for thousands of years.

Even Michael himself wasn't confident in his ability to handle a true dragon on his own.

And due to Rex's contribution to reducing their already small race over the years, all of them hate him with all their might.

In fact, if not for the pact of them being unable to leave the neutral continent, he was sure that they would have already all attacked Rex years ago.

If even a single one of them caught a whiff of the fact that the son of their natural enemy had willingly entered the neutral continent,.

His fate would be sealed within moments.

And to make matters worse, most of the neutral continent was ruled by these true dragons, so it was extremely hard, if not impossible, to hide from them in neutral.

It was because of this knowledge that Michael was panicking so much hearing Williams intentions to go to neutral.

But, trying his best to remain calm, he asked.

"Do you think you can survive in neutral as you are now?"

"I don't" William replied almost instantly, catching him by surprise.

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But before Michael could say anything, William added.

"Which is exactly why I came today? I want you to make me strong enough to the point where I can survive there."

"After all, if I ever want to beat your monster of a brother, I need to at least be strong enough to survive in neutral, don't you agree?"

Michael wanted to retort to criticise Williams thinking, but the words didn't come out.

In the end, only a small chuckle came out of his mouth as he asked.

"Fine, you got me. I doubt anything I say will make you change your mind anyway."

"So instead, the best I can do is teach you everything I know and hope for the best."

"Before we start, just know it won't be easy."

"Do you still want to do this?"

"It doesn't matter what it takes; I'll do anything to get stronger"

"I'm ready whenever you are, master," William replied, having one of his palms open while the other striked it in the form of a fist.

This was the proper way of recognising someone as your master in the world, and even if he wanted to change his mind now, it was already too late.

Perhaps if only William knew what exactly Michael meant when he said, 'It won't be easy' he wouldn't have been so quick to make up his mind.

But alas, it was too late for regrets now.

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