Chapter 377 The Old Monsters

The blowing wind was fast and cold.

'I last stepped into these badlands centuries ago'. Shanks thought.

'Then, I was still hotblooded, willing to go every length to prove my strength'.

'Hehe…' He chuckled in his mind.

As he stepped deeper into the deepest and most unchartered regions of the North, the President of Planet Darvis had flashbacks to his youth. He remembered his youth when everything was so simple and he didn't have to care so much.

He remembered then when he didn't have any responsibilities.

Then, he could do anything and get away with it.

With the royal family ruling the Planet the way that they wanted, as a hotblooded Superhuman, he went out seeking adventures to prove his power.

Of course, the hot-blooded Jon Stones started it. Back then when the Ancestors were still around, aiding the royal family, Jon Stones had no considerations about creating an organization then as he solely sought adventure.

His achievement of being the first to kill a Grade C Beast in the territory of the Monsters spurred the others on, Shanks was among the others to follow in his footsteps. He remembered as he pitted his life against the beasts.

'Life was so simple then man'.

'Then, there was no Clown Society, no Presidential considerations, just me against the world, I miss then'. He sighed.

Shanks' memories were distracted though when he met his first beast.

"HUMAN!"

The gigantic Bear roared as soon as it saw the human.

"This is my territory, die!"

'I missed this feeling, that feeling of my life always being on the line'.

The same way that if a stray Grade C beast strolled into the human shelters, its life would be in danger from every side, the same way it was for a Superhuman swaggering deep into the territory of the apocalypse monsters.

The constant danger everywhere stimulated his primal instincts.

Shanks' first beast encounter here was a Grade C Beast.

He was not deterred though, it only ignited his battle will.

"Summoner Ability: Beast Plane Summoning!"

Instantly after the rainbow bridge opened, one of his contracted beasts charged out as riding the beast, he made short work of the gigantic Bear.

A few minutes later, his contracted beast was licking blood away from its lips, Shanks chuckled. 'The good old days'.

While most humans in the planet slept, their President spent the night wandering into Monster territory. Every few meters, he met a beast that caused him to use a large part of his strength.

After an hour of going deep enough, he finally disturbed the territory of an alpha. This time, just to save his ass, Shanks had to summon all 4 of his beasts.

Despite the injuries that he sustained as he moved in, he never gave in to tiredness. 'The planet is in danger; I must find them'.

'Without their help, I doubt we stand a chance!'

Motivating himself with this, he forged ahead.

2 hours later…

Bam!

President Shanks was slammed against the ground as he coughed blood, 2 Vampire Blood Hounds attacked him. The synergy of both Blood Hounds was crazy as they used their unique abilities to counter all 4 of his beasts.

In the end, after sustaining severe injuries, he barely escaped.

After going deep enough, meeting a lot of powerful beasts and suffering severe injuries in the process, President Shanks finally saw light illuminating the darkness of the night from a distance. The light called out to him.

Shanks did not hesitate; he crawled his way in.

Bzzz!

After what felt like a millennium to his brain, he woke up.

Blink!

As soon as Shanks opened his eyes, the first thing that attracted his attention were the bright light that were illuminating wherever this was.

"You're awake?"

Shocked, he inclined his head to the right only to see a human with a stocky build. This old man squatted before a metal object through which fire burned, and at this moment, he was paying attention to the cauldron that was on top the fire.

Shanks sprang up to his feet.

"Easy, you took a nap for 3 days". The old man chuckled.

Shanks looked around him, this was when he discovered that he was in a large hall that was furnished like a laboratory. The white background, the white lab coats that all 3 of them wore, they all pointed to this.

Yes, there were 3 old men in this huge laboratory hidden in the Arctic.

As he looked at the remaining 2 old men, Shanks froze.

"…!"

Unlike the first stocky old man whose attention remained on his cauldron, the 2nd old man was studying alien machines in an enclosed workshop in the lab as for the last of them, this familiar old man was attending to a herd of beasts.

Seeing this man again after so long caused Shanks to tremble.

Noticing it, the old man turned to look at him with a smile. "You're seriously trembling? Hahaha".

"Stop it!" Shanks trembled even more in embarrassment.

The old man laughed some more before finally speaking. "You've grown".

Shanks' lips shook, then he bowed. "Master".

…

A few dozen minutes later, they were gathered round the fire.

"What is that thing called?" Shanks pointed at the metal through which the fire burned.

"Hehe, it's called a gas cooker".

Shanks took a deep breath to internalize that even as he kept on thinking about everything that he just learned. "So you've known about the aliens before, why didn't you inform us about them?"

"The Kings would have never let us have our way". George, the old Pugilist who was one of the very first Pugilists in Planet Darvis replied.

"Deciding to go into seclusion to prepare for the aliens was not an easy decision, we literally sacrificed our whole lives for this". Enoch, the old Elementalist who worked on the alien machines added.

"Yeah". Gorgon nodded. "It was not an easy decision".

Shanks looked at these 3 faces again, though he wasn't entirely familiar with the other 2 faces, he knew their names, they were literally his childhood heroes.

These were the surviving old monsters of Planet Darvis before his era.

Gorgon looked at the burning fire. "We were originally 5, after discovering the aliens and seeing the situation of the Planet, we came to a conclusion".

"Unless we were prepared for it, we would never survive the aliens, they would run over our planet and turn us into slaves in it".

"This was why we sacrificed our lives to plan and prepare for the clash".

"After centuries of preparations, we came to our different conclusions, Maignan thought the clue was getting to understand our opponents. This was why he decided to become the first Superhuman to take the trip to space".

"It's been over 2 centuries since we last saw him".

"As for Ash, she decided that our only hope of survival was by taming all the apocalypse beasts in our Planet and turning them into allies".

"We told her it was an impossible task but she was stubborn".

"I believe Absolute Zero got her". Gorgon's face briefly turned sad.

"Who's Absolute Zero?" Shanks asked.

"The strongest monster and ruler of the monsters in the North, she occupies a special place in their ranks as she is one of few Primordial Beasts from the apocalypse".

At this point, Shanks already asked a lot of questions and he already got a lot of answers but he was not satisfied, he finally asked the ultimate question.

"So, after so many years, did you people arrive at a plan to annihilate the aliens?"

"…" Silence first reigned for more than a minute.

Gorgon threw a piece of paper into the burning fire. "I…"