"Nothing much actually. You see there has been a lot of division of labor causing a loss for our village. I just want you to eliminate that. We have enough ninjas to satisfy your needs.

"

Gozoto looked at the man with a dumbfounded expression. The essence of his words didn't pass unnoticed to him. He turned his head to take a look at Akihiko who had the same expression as him.

37 innocents had died to this…

So many resources and time were invested in it…

Yet what did it end up being in the end? A plot by the village to crush the small village that didn't even amount to a minuscule of their strength?

It was a clear as a day what was happening here. Everything from the beginning was planned to crush Mizukigakure. Kishiogakure couldn't have been more shameless.

One must note that the Mizukigakure was a fairly new village. It had yet to rise into a proper ninja village and needed support and investments. Even in the involvement of the newbie drill, it was its first year.

'We are a monopoly. All that choose to stand against us will be crushed. You either join us or get destroyed.'

To the Kishigakure the formation of Mizukigakure was an eyesore. Unlike Akihiko, they didn't view the other as rivals, but just an ant waiting to be crushed. They had gone to such lengths just to fire the village out of its job threatening Gozoto in the process. Indeed their methods were the vilest that had chosen to sacrifice the life of the innocent as if they were the dirt of the street.

Akihiko gritted his teeth. Everything was clear as a day. There was no point in staying any further and continue getting humiliated.

"Thank you for reminding me what my priorities should be,

" saying so he stormed off the room.

An image of Klautz words was reminiscent of his mind. He had treated the Kishiogakure as brothers yet what happened? In the end, there were no friends in the world of business and dirty politics.

Bam!

Gozoto watched him go as he helplessly sighed. His sharp gazed turned towards the man.

"Did you guys kill them?

" he asked releasing his killing intent. The pressure that was created on the rather weak man made him choke.

"Not at all,

" he squeaked. But at this point, it was rather not believable.

Yet Gozoto couldn't do anything but leave the man alive. It was true that he was pissed off regarding the whole matter, but he wasn't losing out on anything as long as Akihiko backed off.

At the end of the day, his own interests mattered the most.

No matter what the world, monopolies would always kill the small organizations making them hard to breathe. For Mizukigakure, the series of trouble had just started.

Just like today, one after another all of their customers would be turning away from them. Because no matter the day, people would rather buy from an old ninja village with a long history rather than newborn fletching. Such favoritism would be ever-present.

One must note that the newbie drill was one of the few places that Mizukigakure had found a job out of kindness from Ronald. But it was just a matter of time before they were driven out of all of them. Kishikogakure would use the vilest means possible to see through it to happen.

Akihiko gritted his teeth.

"Don't think that I can't bite back!

"

***

Klautz heaved a sigh of relief as he had finally reached his goal. He took at his status screen.

Name: Klautz

Strength: 93 Defence: 87

Agility: 92 Stamina: 90

Devil Aura: 37

He had met the barest minimum of the goal he had in mind.

"I had hoped to reach 100 but considering that the second-gen came in early. This is fine too.

" Klautz nodded.

At the very least he had fulfilled the criteria of the challenge. Klautz and Akihiko had once formed a friendly bet with Akihiko that he would triple his strength within the given time duration. While Klautz had basically tricked him into getting a head start but it was all just for fun and making him fumed all over again.

'It would be fun to see him flustered again.' Klautz smirked.

Little did Klautz know that Akihiko was already out of business.

Klautz had hoped that he would have reached 100 considering his progress and the special terrain of ICe Post he was in. But without Maebi's presence, it would impossible for him to cultivate any more stats. One must note that the validity period of the help only lasted till the second-gen arrived which was indeed the next day.

'But being stuck in the 90s isn't so bad either.'

90 was Klautz basic requirement. And had he reached 100 he would be idle all the time having nothing to do in the newbie drill. There was a stat cap that existed at LVL 100 for every stat and his stats weren't growing anymore further than this without the use of 'special means'.

There was once a time that the strongest man in hell had stats of merely 100. But they weren't without realization that the stats of 100 was nothing compared to the ferocious monsters in hell who could obliterate them in seconds.

That was when they had found new methods to raise the level caps giving the humans an opportunity to grow further opening up their horizons. If humans had ever received a blessing in hell it was probably this.

That event was termed as the 'Huge Cataclysm'. After which humans gradually began increasing their territory till the point where they have reached the present day where various humans guilds stood tall on the lands of hell.

But one also not forget that with every raise in the stat, Klautz gaining the next stat grew rarer and rarer making it fairly difficult to make a jump to 100 from the 90.

***

Author:

Creation is hard for authors. Cheer me up with your power stones.

Let me know about your thoughts on the chapter in the comments sections.