Whale Plaza.
A massive crowd of residents surrounded the area, packed three layers deep. Astonishnt and shock were written all over everyone's faces.
"Wow! This is incredible! To think that after ten whole years, soone actually managed to reel in this monster fish again!"
"I rember Ging was the one who caught it last ti, but Ging is a Pro Hunter!"
"Even five grown n working together could not haul this Swamp Spirit Fish out of the water!"
"I heard Gon wants to take the Hunter Exam, but Mito doesn't want him to go."
"Can you bla her? Pro Hunters might get great benefits, but it is way too dangerous. It is much better to just live peacefully on Whale Island."
...
"Aunt Mito! I caught the Lord of the Lake just like we agreed! You have to keep your promise!"
Sporting his signature gravity-defying spiky hair, the innocent and endlessly energetic Gon-kun was bouncing with excitent. He pulled a crumpled Hunter Exam application form out of his pocket.
His dream since childhood was to beco a Pro Hunter and follow in his old man's footsteps.
He wanted to find his father!
He needed to understand exactly what it was about the Hunter profession that captivated his dad so much.
Aunt Mito, wearing her usual red top and white skirt with her short orange hair framing her face, stood frozen in place. Her fingers were tightly interlocked, and she gently bit her lower lip.
A deep struggle was evident on her beautiful face.
When she originally made that promise, she was absolutely certain Gon-kun would never be able to catch the Lord of the Lake.
How could she possibly let Gon-kun walk down the sa dangerous path Ging did?
Being a Hunter...
It was not a kind profession.
But she knew.
The look in this child's eyes was exactly the sa as his father's.
Once he set his mind on sothing, nothing in the world could stop him.
"Riku-nii! You made it! Please help process the Lord of the Lake! I want to use it to throw a massive feast for all the uncles, aunts, and friends on the island!"
Catching sight of Riku in the crowd, Gon called out eagerly.
He had already made up his mind to leave Whale Island, and this was going to serve as his own farewell banquet.
Riku stepped out from the crowd.
His eyes locked onto the Lord of the Lake resting on the ground. Even after ten years of slaughtering fish, his heart could not help but pound wildly in his chest.
Na: Monster Fish - Lord of the Lake Traits: [Long-Lived Species] (Gold), [Monstrous Strength] (Gold), [Scale Armor Defense] (Purple), [Regeneration] (Purple), [Underwater Breathing] (Purple)
This was undeniably the most badass fish on all of Whale Island.
Bar none!
"Phew... Success or failure all cos down to this! Let us hope I roll so good traits!"
Riku took a deep breath and drew his sharp, slender filleting knife. The surrounding residents imdiately parted to give him space.
Everyone's eyes unanimously fell upon the Lord of the Lake.
Those pitch-black, steel-like scales glead under the sunlight. An ordinary fishmonger likely would not even be able to scratch its defenses.
But Riku's eyes narrowed with quiet focus. The knife in his hand descended with the blinding speed of a thunderbolt.
Crack!
The blade smoothly slipped into a scale right by the monster fish's gills.
Just as expected.
The defensive power of this thing was not much different from a solid block of iron.
But as a professional fish butcher, it was all muscle mory and flawless technique.
The sheer number of fish Riku had slaughtered could easily form a mountain.
Coupled with his own terrifying physical power, his muscular, sculpted arm suddenly surged with force.
The razor-sharp edge of the blade perfectly bypassed the monster's unyielding bones and armored scales, effortlessly sliding into its soft spots.
He then carved out a flawless, uninterrupted line.
The entire monster fish was smoothly dismantled.
Watching this spectacle, the surrounding residents burst into awe-struck applause.
When it ca to knife skills, Riku was the undisputed number one!
However, the monster fish's vitality was freakishly high.
Even after Riku sliced it into two massive halves, he still did not hear the System's settlent notification.
It was not until he forcefully butchered the massive beast into manageable blocks of at that the chis finally began to ring in his mind.
[Ding! Congratulations, you have killed the Monster Fish - Lord of the Lake. Automatically plundering trait: [Monstrous Strength] (Gold). You already possess [Imnse Strength] (Purple). Automatically fusing into [Monstrous Strength] (Gold) (74%).]
[Automatically plundering trait: [Long-Lived Species] (Gold) (Grants a lifespan of over four hundred years).]
[Automatically plundering trait: [Regeneration] (Purple) (You possess incredibly robust vitality. Normal wounds will automatically heal at a rapid pace, and your life force can resist even fatal injuries).]
...
This was absolute, mind-blowing news.
The mont those notifications sounded, Riku distinctly felt an indescribable, torrential warmth flooding madly through his limbs and bones.
It was as if every single cell in his body was being baptized and remade anew.
Host: Riku
Traits: [Long-Lived Species] (Gold), [Monstrous Strength] (Gold), [Lethal Poison] (Gold), [Super Endurance] (Gold), [Extre Speed] (Gold), [Underwater Breathing] (Gold), [Regeneration] (Purple), [Camouflage] (Purple), [Enhanced Defense] (Purple), [Super Fertility] (Blue)...
...
An unbelievably gorgeous character panel!
[Long-Lived Species] (Gold)
A guaranteed base lifespan of 400 years!
This ant Riku finally possessed the true capital to step toward the absolute pinnacle of this world.
One had to rember that the Chairman of the Hunter Association, hailed as the strongest in the current world, only had a lifespan of around two hundred years.
Four hundred years.
That was more than enough ti for him to hunt down even more longevity traits to stack and synthesize.
[Imnse Strength] (Purple) had evolved into [Monstrous Strength] (Gold)!
Riku could clearly feel the explosive upgrade in his physique.
The exact sa trait applied to different lifeforms yielded completely different results.
An ant with [Monstrous Strength] versus an elephant with [Monstrous Strength] were two entirely different concepts.
The only reason this Lord of the Lake was so incredibly strong was purely because it lived for so long and grew to a massive size through sheer ti.
To put it bluntly, it was still just a fish.
But Riku was different; he was human.
The boost [Monstrous Strength] (Gold) provided was a fundantal, percentage-based, ultra-massive multiplier.
Right now, he could probably lift the entire corpse of this monster with a single hand.
However, doing sothing like that would be way too shocking, so Riku had no intention of showing off just yet.
[Regeneration] (Purple)!
Riku was not entirely sure about the exact limits of the healing, but the System explicitly stated it could resist fatal wounds. This trait absolutely lived up to its Purple rating!
So far, the trait ranks Riku had encountered were:
White, Green, Blue, Purple, Gold!
As for anything higher...
Sorry.
He had not fused anything that high yet. There might be God-tier or even Super God-tier traits out there, but the sheer quantity required for that kind of fusion would likely be astronomical.
A simple place like Whale Island... could no longer satisfy Riku's appetite.
He understood.
It was finally ti for him to choose to leave as well.
Seeing Riku finish dismantling the monster fish, the entire plaza erupted into excited cheers.
Many of the residents who ca over to watch imdiately began prepping the ingredients for cooking.
Not too far away, Mito stood with a deeply worried expression.
"Aunt Mito, Gon-kun has grown up. Let him go. Besides... I am going to be leaving Whale Island soon too. Thank you, Aunt Mito, and everyone else, for taking such good care of all these years. I will keep an eye on Gon-kun for you."
Having finished with the monster fish, Riku walked over to Mito and spoke with absolute sincerity.
It was not that he wanted to play the role of a babysitter. It was because when he first crossed over to this world, it was Mito who fished him out of the freezing sea water, and the whole island who pitched in to raise him.
This was a life-saving debt of gratitude.
One that Riku found difficult to ever fully repay.
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