Chapter 2: The Apex Predator of Oldtown
Eventhough it is cold and snowing, I sweat profusely.
What the hell?! First time I walk into this town and I immediately encounter the big boss himself!
Okay, let's calm down. It had must be some exaggerated rumors. Besides, I don't actually heard he did anything bad. I mean he is kinda weird but I don't think he's a bad person.
We walk into a diner in the middle of the town. Oldshore Diner, the sign wrote. However, instead of the cozy family friendly diner I had expected, what I found instead is a den of crooks from all walks of life. Human, Faunus, heck even some Elves. And I see some Dwarves at the corner too.
A huge brute came infront of Soren. Like me, he is fairly tall, 178cm or so. But the brute's height tower over him. Yet, Soren doesn't seem to give a rat ass about that giant of a man.
"So this is the famous Murderhobo I kept hearing about. I don't see anything impressive about you."
Soren looked over the old man manning the counter. The nametag on his breastpocket read, Uncle Ben.
"He's new.", Uncle Ben explains to Soren. "And please. No bloodshed."
Soren gives him an okay sign. Ok, clearly this matter will be resolved in a peace-!
KRAKK
With lightning fast move, Soren grabbed the brute's head, one hand on top of his head while the other on his chin and twist it 180 degree. The silence of the diner could not become even more pronounced as the sound of the brute's lifeless body crash to the wooden floor, sending the floor shaking like a mini earthquake.
Soren pointed to a group of elves in fedoras and gestured a sweeping motion. With fearful eyes, they hastily dragged the heavy brute's corpse away.
"No worries pal. Most of the people here is some kind of criminals. Rapists, murderers, sex traffickers, you name it. I don't kill good people.", he gestured to me to sit next to him by the counter.
Everyone else resumed their chatter. Muted and wary.
I gulped the saliva pooling in my mouth. I know the life of a Hunter... No, I am a Drifter in the making now. I know the life of a Drifter is full of bloodshed. But I never really register the consequences of partaking in that lifestyle until now. This guy just walk into a diner, had some rando being rude to him, and he proceed to just murder him on the spot.
He is The Murderhobo. He has zero hesitation to kill. I must never cross him!
"I told you, Soren. No bloodshed."
Soren just shrugs. "I didn't shed any blood this time, did I?"
"I meant not killing someone in my diner for once!"
"Eh, semantics, Uncle Ben."
Uncle Ben just mumble his rants as he wiped his beer glasses.
"So, who are you, lad? What manner of misfortune that had led you to follow around this murderhobo anyway?", Uncle Ben starts a conversation with me. He poured a glass of cola for Soren, while I just order the same.
"Well, same old story, I guess. I found out that coming to Lake Lullaby was a bad decision and had came here to seek work. Then, I happen to stumble upon this guy."
"Depending on perspective, you're either a lucky bastard, or a cursed one."
I sweat profusely. Meanwhile Soren just hums as he enjoyed the drink.
"Just don't do bad things, like betraying him or hurting innocent people. He's harmless to good folks. Well, scary, but harmless."
"Oh err... So he's like a dark hero or something, huh?"
"nah.", Uncle Ben shook his head. "He's only interested in killing two things, things he can eat, and monsters. Think of it as a palate rather than any goodwill from him. Eliminating evil that plagued good folks is just a side effect of his predatory behavior."
"Wow gee, Uncle. You make me sound like a wild animal."
"That's because you are one. I'm surprised you're not somekind of a Faunus with how bloodthirsty you are!"
"Human is a type of animal too. Maybe I am a Human-Faunus."
Uncle Ben laughed out loud. "Hahaha! That sounds so stupid! A Human-type Faunus!"
Soren just shrugs.
"Anyway, you had been going around Anima continent this year, right? How does the Nightshade Empire conquest going there?"
Soren then began a long statement of the ongoing war between Mistral city-state with Nightshade Empire.
56 years ago, the Faunus tribes in Menagerie had united under the banner or Nightshade Nation, led by the Belladonna Tribe. They unite under the idea that Faunus is superior than Human due to their beastial gift, and so they launched the Faunus Conquest. The Conquest ended 23 years ago, where they had conquered a quarter of Anima continent down south as well as a significant portion of East Sanus continent. Several more skirmish had occur in Anima as the new Empire attempts to expand further, but for now, a full scale invasion had yet to start.
Among the races that emerged after the Age of Apocalypse, Human is deemed the most inferior among the Four Major Races. We lacked the arcane mastery of Elves, the physical prowess of Faunus, and the tinkering expertise of Dwarves. Seriously, if not because theres also some small pockets of halfling tribes moving around the Frontier, we would had been the butt of the joke of the planet, despite being the most numerous.
There is some powerful Humans, of course, but they are the exception, not the norm. For the most part, Human is simply put the weakest out of the Four Major Race.
I heard horror stories of how Human are treated in Atlas and Nightshade. Human are enslaved in droves in the Empire while Human is treated as fourth class citizen in Atlas, the City of Magic which is ruled by the Elves.
"I see." Uncle Ben nodded. "Those Nightshade bastards, sure Faunus is a bit stronger by average but the greatest heroes in the world had always been the Human!"
A Wolf Faunus scoffed in indignation. "Those 'heroes' can hardly be called Human. Inhuman, more like. Freaks of nature. Human is an obsolete evolutionary model that's only good at breeding up their population, not that its much more fertile than the Faunus."
The diner began to become heated with debate as crooks from Human and non-Human side began to argue whether or not Humankind is an obsolete evolutionary model.
Soren tapped his glass and the diner simmer down.
"Sheesh, if you want to debate over racial eugenics, do that somewhere else. Besides, you all need to remember, this Human is the Apex Predator in this town. Maybe try not going full Faunus Superioty in my vicinity, Welkin."
I swear I heard the Wolf Faunus whined like a beaten dog. Dear lord, just what did Soren do in the past that even as a 16 years old teenager, every crime boss and their top henchmen live in fear of him? While I came from a Human-only village, I had met some traveling Faunus mechants and they are some of the most smug, obnoxious bastards I ever met. Its weird to see a Human stand on top of the foodchain, because that is not the natural order of Remnant.
Human is at the bottom of the sapient races ladder, that's how it had always been since the Apocalypse. As Uncle Ben had said, the greatest heroes in history had always been Humans, however they are treated as anomalies rather than an example of the full potential of Humankind. To see one in action is definitely a surreal experience to me.
Am I witnessing the beginning of the legend of the next Hero of Remnant?
And he is a callous murderhobo?
The fate of Remnant looks bleak.
Soren gestured me to follow him as he got up from his seat. I follow him into the kitchen door, and see a girl, perhaps a year younger than us cooking.
Soren proceed to close her eyes from behind.
"Its you, Soren, isn't it? I'm cooking here, so let me see!", the girl cheerfully guessed.
"Sheesh, not even playing along.", Soren let go of her and she resumed cooking.
"I'm busy right now, so maybe later. Anyway, who's the newbie?"
"Hey, I'm Jaune Arc.", I introduce myself. "I sort of trying to get a job under Soren here."
"Aww look at you, Soren! You finally make a friend! I knew you had it in you.", she cheerfull praised Soren. "I'm Tessa Codwell. Let's just say I am the childhood friend of this psycho here, but honestly I feel like I'm more like his mom."
Tessa Codwell is a really short girl. I estimate her to be about 156cm in height. She has a short , slightly wavy brown hair and pink eyes. She has a mom energy around her, which is weird because she's younger than me and so small.
Soren grabbed her head and lightly put pressure on her, so she squeaked in pain.
"Heee, more like my mom huh? Who called me daddy back in spring when I was about to leave?"
"Soren! We have guest here!", she escaped out of the mild head grab and blushed as she continues to cook.
"Errr... You get along well with your girlfriend.", I commented.
Both of them look at me like an alien.
"We're not dating.", they both stated in unison.
"But...", I wondered. Why else would she called him daddy then.
Then, it clicked in my brain.
From the gist of it, Soren only stay in town during winter, and then he go around Drifting for the next nine months. It's not really a conducive schedule to dating.
So they have a friends with benefit thing going on here.
"Okay, okay, I think I get it."
Soren shrugs. Yea, I better not dig into it too much. And also avoid Tessa Codwell like a plague. Even if they just have friends with benefits things going, I don't think Soren take kindly to any dude taking chances with his girl. Probably girls. Who knows what he's up too during his travels.
"Anyway, I'm here to tell you that from now on you make meals for this guy too. He's gonna help me build Rust Bucket.", Soren now states the reason he introduced me here.
"oh! Then Jaune, got any allergies? Food you didn't like?"
I replied. "Oh I eat anything as long as its tasty."
"Good. Very good. I don't like picky eaters, Jaune."
Somehow I dont feel like she's referring to me with the bloodlust in the air.
"Well, now that you two got acquainted, I'm going to take Jaune to where he will be living now.", Soren the began to leave
"Okay. When are you coming back to my room?", she asked.
"11 ish."
"Alright then. And remember to grab some pills from Avery's."
Soren just wave her off as we leave through the backdoor.
"Are you sure you're not dating?"
He shrugs. "I guess we sort of do, I guess. We get back together each start of winter and break up by spring. We been doing this for three years. She's sort of my Winter Wife, I guess."
Winter Wife is a slang referring to old sailor's culture of taking on lovers while being stuck overseas during winter. There's the female version of it called Winter Husband, tho that was a less practiced culture.
Either way, I am totally steering clear of Tessa Codwell except when it's necessary, like taking my meals.
We keep quite, the occasional scream of terror as townsfolk run away from Soren being our only company. Its sort of cartoonish if not a little bit sad. Soren however couldn't give a rat ass about it.
At the west edge of the town, I found myself to arrive to a chapel, with some small huts around the courtyard.
"BIG BRO!!"
Over a dozen kids raced toward Soren as they excitedly greet him back. There's a lot of chatter, like how long he will stay and will they teach him new cool tricks and what's the new story he have this time. Patiently, he answered each kids one by one.
"So the prodigal son returns."
A sweet looking rabbit faunus in nun outfit came into view to greet us. I bad syntax error for awhile. I heard rumours about bunny girls, you see, so seeing one as a nun is quite the paradox.
"Hi, I'm Jaune Arc."
"Velvet Scarlatina, caretaker of this orphanage."
We had a bit of a chat over my situation.
"Hey Velvet, half of the kids is gone.", Soren stated his observation.
Velvet looked sad.
"We got a Baba Yaga crisis that stopped by the past summer. She took half the kids before Beacon finally drove her away."
"Damn, the poor kids turned into stew.", Soren commented. "Fucking Lake Lullaby. They wait until their own kids get taken to finally shoo away that old hag."
"That's right. Over 300 children in the slums were taken too."
"Old hag must be so bloated huh?"
I looked between the two of them. Seriously, Baba Yaga?!!
"You still fail to track her down, Soren?"
"You know how it works, Velvet." Soren checked up the kids. They looked so thin. "Baba Yaga can never be found when you seek her, yet she surprise you with a visit when you least expect it. I can't track her down, because thats how her concealment spell works. The only thing I can do is just hope to stumble upon her randomly."
"That would take years. And she purposely try to avoid you."
"Yea, I know. But you know I can't stay around forever. A Drifter must drifts when the time comes. There are many other monsters out there other than Baba Yaga."
Velvet nods. "Anyway, Jaune, come. Let me show your room.
I follow the rabbit nun. The chapel is small, over two floors high. Velvet has given me a room to stay at the left wing on the second floor. There are old kids drawings taped to the walls.
"No one use this room now. For the duration of winter, this will be your room."
I put down my sword and shield. Knowing what happened to the previous tenant of this room, it gives me a bitter taste.
"Soren seems like a good guy.", I stated my observation, hoping Velvet to clarify more to me.
"Please, don't fool yourself, Jaune.", Velvet fold her arms. "Soren Coldforge is a monster, just like his father and the ancestors before him. It just so happens that his diet is other monsters."
"I don't really get it. Isn't that a good thing?"
"I suppose, yes. Wolves does good for the environment by keeping the deer population down to acceptable level. Without them, the deer becomes overpopulated, and that throw the environment into imbalance. The wolves however does not control the deer population out of goodwill. They're just an amoral force of nature. That is Soren Coldforge relationship to Remnant. He is a Predator that control the population of the monsters. Nothing more, nothing less."
Is that so?
That sounds so... Cold...
"Look, I like Soren. He is a nice fellow. He always helps around and liven up the orphanage whenever he's around. But I want to get any idea that he is heroic out from your mind. Soren like the kids, that's true. But you also heard how nonchalant he stated that the kids had been turned into stew. If you treat Soren like a normal person, you will get hurt."
"What is Soren then?"
"Something that looks like Human but not really. I guess he is closer to a Human-shaped Faunus in terms of mentality. His family line goes all the way back to the Age of Apocalypse. The Apex Predator of Remnant, some wise people had called them."
"I never heard of such term before."
Velvet shrugs. "Well, for a long time, millennia even, they're thought to went extinct. Or maybe they just decide to lay low. The world is mostly stable the past 1000 years, so the Coldforge, not that I know what the ancient people called them, had no need to be active in the open anymore."
Velvet hold me by the shoulders.
"The Coldforges are the pioneers of Drifting. Living as a nomad and hunt whatever monsters they stumbled along the way. On your journey, you will stumble upon many tragedy. Soren can be caring, but as you can see, he can detach from his emotions just like that when needed. A necessary skill for a predator who wade through tragedies across Remnant. Soren can teach you many things and make you a great Drifter, but be prepared. To be a Drifter, you need a heart of steel."
I gulped my saliva nervously. Okay, I didn't know how much of a big deal being a Drifter is. As before, I was blinded the fun part of hunting, but, isn't the quest of every hunt begin with a tragedy?
Is this what I signed up for? A path where I am not a hero, but rather I am simply a drifting hunter that clean up the mess along the way?
"I'll remember that, Velvet."
Soren had said, the world has too many heroes. What it really needs is professionals.
This career I am trying to take part in, is not all sunshine and rainbows. We are just a cog in the amoral force of nature machinery, designed to maintain balance.
Just what did I got myself into?
)))))))))
I wake up early in the morning, hyped up to begin my training. I jogged to Oldshore Diner. Supposedly, Tessa and her uncle live upstairs. Beforehand, I got permission to freely enter the building. Its not locked because no one in their right mind would barge into the territory of Soren Coldforge.
I knocked on the door which has the nameplate Tessa on it. After a bit, the door is opened by a crack, and I see the glimpse of Tessa who looks like she had barely got some sleep.
I looked away in embarrassment as I imagined what the two of them doing last night that they went to sleep so late.
"Oh, it's you Jaune. Sorry, I woke up late. I didn't make your breakfast yet."
"Oh, I don't mind. I'm not really hungry."
"Young man, just look in the mirror. You looked like a skeleton with how much fat you don't have. Just wait a bit, I'll make your breakfast."
She close the door and I can heard faint sound of Soren and Tessa talking. Then, a sleepy Soren came out with her, though Tessa just leave downstairs immediately. Groggily, Soren brought me to an office. Well, Kinda an office. The room has a table and some chairs and some books on a shelf.
Soren gestured me to take a chair and sit in front of him.
"Alright, I'm going to awaken your Dust."
I raised my brows
My Dust?
"Every living thing has Dust in them. The higher your Rank, the more Dust you have in your body. You gained Dust through two way, breathing and consumption. Its why you see me eat a lot of monsters. I need my daily Dust intakes and Yellow Zones is just too thin with their Dust content in the atmosphere for me to get by breathing."
"But isn't Dust poisonous?"
"Like how proto-lifeforms nearly wiped out during the First Mass Extinction Event when oxygen was amassed in the primordial atmosphere..."
Mass Extinction Event what?
"There are Six Mass Extinction Event in known history. The Age of Apocalypse being the sixth. In the first, life nearly wiped out from the introduction of oxygen, but they adapted. In the same way, we adapted to Dust. Keep up, Jaune."
Well, that's a random histroy lesson but at least Soren is starting to wake up now.
"Dust, which comes from the comet 6000 years ago by itself is sorta inert. It just stays there in your body, not really doing anything. Magic is the ability to turn Dust into energy to fuel magic. Think of it like fat. We store fat and burn it for calories later."
Soren then chuckles. "Just to tell you some secret. Those Dust Crystals you see those cityfolks using for their electricity and cooking food? Those comes from the billions of corpses that crystallized when they failed to adapt to Dust. Just a dark fact for you to remember."
Dear god! Why did you tell me that?!! I licked one thinking it will give me superpowers once!
Urrghh, I feel like vomiting already!
"Anyway, give me your hands."
Awkwardly, we hold hands.
"Look, I know I am a pretty boy but dont get weird on me, Jaune. I'm just trying to teach you here. Now, as I told you, melee fighters burn Dust into Aura. Wizards on the other hand burn Dust into Mana."
"Is the two of them really different?"
"Yes and no. Both energy works for different application. You can generate Aura and Mana simultaneously, but that will wait until you get good at using Aura. As you seen yesterday, I can use magic. Nothing too magical, just simple spells to aid me."
Okay, that's pretty exciting. Real magic here we go!
"Aura is very simple to use. It fortify your body to perform beyond your biological limit, tank a lot of hit for you and strengthen whatever equipment in contact with your body. The Hunters at Lake Lullaby developed Aura-based magic called Semblance, but those are for noobs that's too dumb to learn how to use Mana along with Aura."
Soren looked at me dead serious.
"Don't you dare develop a Semblance, Jaune. Once you did, you can't ever generate Mana anymore. Shortcut for power has dire consequences. If you make a Semblance, I will throw you off the cliff. I refuse to be associated with a lame Semblance user."
Gulp.
"Especially passive support Semblances. That's so lame and not MC material."
"What?"
"Anyway, here we go."
Soren injected a large amount of Aura into me through our hands and it jolted the Dust in me awake. Aura burst out my whole body like a white, roaring flame!
"Wow, Rank 2 already? Dang it. I guess we really are partners now."
"I feel so powerful!"
Soren proceed to deck me in the head and sent me flying out of the balcony. I crashed into the snow with a crunch, but I barely felt the impact.
"Dont get ahead of yourself buddy!", Soren said cheerfully by the balcony.
I nodded. Still, wuhuuu! Superpowers!