Chapter 60 Assimilation

"Our camp is a very accepting one, however, expect to be severely punished if you dare commit any crime."

"Of course."

"As long as you understand."

Misogi noticed the large number of soldiers gathered within the building.

"Someone take him," said the man.

One of the guards made their way over and escorted Misogi out of the room.

"How old are you?" Asked the guard.

"I'm 16."

"So you're still in high school, I'll take you over to one of the school groups. They'll tell you what to do from there."

"Okie."

They walked through the settlement until the guard found a group of teenagers led by a lady. The children were of various ages from 14 to 17 and there appeared to be around 15 people in total.

"We've got a new friend, can you take him in?" The guard asked the lady.

"Yeah, we could probably take another."

"Alright, over you go."

The guard gestured for Misogi to join the group.

He looked over at the various different people.

Without any hesitation, he introduced himself to them.

"Hey, I'm Misogi, nice to meet you all~"

"Oh, welcome Misogi." The lady responded.

He did not receive a response from any of the other children.

"Ah, you're not a friendly bunch are you."

Still, there was no response.

He looked across to see what they were doing, it appeared that they were all nonchalant and cold, staring into the distance. As he joined the group, the lady began leading them toward one of the buildings. She then was joined by a large, hairy man.

"Alright, we are in pretty desperate need of meat, which of you can hunt?" He asked.

There was a brief moment of silence.

"I can~" offered Misogi.

"Good! Anyone else?"

After a little while, a young girl put her hand up.

"U-um, I can also..."

"Alright! We're going to need more people."

No one else spoke up. The man walked around the room, looking down at all of the children, however, despite that, none of them raised their hands. It seemed that they didn't want to have to venture into the cold dangerous forest.

"Well, the two of you can go first then, I've got some tools if you need them."

"Don't worry, I've already got some," Misogi responded.

The girl walked over and grabbed one of the swords.

"Uh, I'll just take this..."

"Alright, I'm going to tag you before you leave, this way, if something happens to you I'll be able to find you."

The man walked over and touched their heads.

"Done, now go hunt some animals."

"Okay~"

The girl walked beside Misogi as they made their way toward the border of the forest. He looked at her, glancing all across her body, from her hips to her chest.

"Hey, what's your name?" He asked.

"I-it's Isla."

"Ah, nice to meet you, Isla."

"And, you're Misogi, right?"

"That's right~"

The two of them started to venture through the forest, weaving between the various trees and shrubbery. Isla constantly clung to different branches in order to keep her balance. Misogi was walking in front, scanning the area.

"Oop, watch your step."

Misogi grabbed onto Isla and pulled her closer to his side.

"T-thanks."

Suddenly, in the distance, they caught sight of a small boar. The little creature wandered around nonchalantly as impending danger approached it. Misogi slowly made his way closer, quietening down his footsteps. In his hand, he summoned a Knife of Kali and swiftly threw it into the boar.

The knife pierced the tough skin of the creature, causing it to fall to the ground, bleeding. A few moments later, he received the items.

[+3 meat]

"Ah, that wasn't too hard."

Isla looked at him in awe. Misogi walked over to the knife and picked it up off of the ground. It was stained with a little bit of dark red blood.

The two of them continued to wander around the forest, looking for animals to hunt.

Misogi managed to find and hunt a few more small animals, from birds to lizards to boars. He received various amounts of meat from his kills.

[+2 meat]

[+3 meat]

[+1 meat]

"I wonder how much we need to collect, I guess I'll just get as much as possible."

Isla was sticking quite close to him, it seemed that she wasn't exactly too enthusiastic about the whole hunting thing. Misogi didn't mind her, in fact, he seemed to enjoy her presence. He searched around, looking for any possible animals to hunt.

"Ah, where are they all hiding?"

"U-um, I can help search if you want."

"Oh, you can?"

"Yeah, I can scan the area..."

"You should've told me earlier~"

"S-sorry..."

"It's fine, please do the scan~"

She closed her eyes and concentrated her thoughts. After a little while, she suddenly opened her eyes back up and look at Misogi.

"T-there's a pretty big animal over in that direction." She pointed in the distance.

"Okay, let's go." Misogi still had a very unsuspecting yet out-of-place smile.

"Are you sure...? I think it's going to be dangerous."

"Don't worry~ at worst, I'll just feed you to it."

"Eh?"

"Just kidding, I'm sure it won't be that bad."

Isla didn't seem convinced but she followed him anyways. She rathered that than to get ditched and be left alone. The two of them trekked past a few more trees before seeing a large bear crawling around near a cave.

Misogi began approaching the bear, with his Knife of Kali in hand.

"Wait, Misogi, t-that's a bear."

"I can tell~"

"Let's go... we can't take that thing down."

"But it'll give us so much meat."

"No, but it's too dangerous."

She pulled on his sleeve a little but he didn't budge. Instead, he continued to walk toward the bear. With one clean throw, he managed to hit the bear directly in the head with his Knife of Kali, however, it didn't seem to be enough to kill the bear, instead, it appeared to be quite angry.

A loud growl later, the bear began charging at Misogi.

"Misogi!"

He pulled out another Knife of Kali and prepared to stab the bear. It jumped onto his face and tackled him to the ground, in the process, Misogi managed to stab the bear several times in its soft underbelly, killing it.

[+9 meat]

Misogi was left bloodied on the forest floor.

"Misogi! Are you alright?"

He grabbed a sharp stick from the ground and stabbed himself.

"Ah! What are you doing?!"

Moments later, all of his wounds disappeared along with the stick.