Danmachi: Scavenger

The two men stared silently at each other for what seemed like forever before Zanis finally spoke, "Wh-what?" he stuttered, then pushed up his glasses and regained his composure. "What do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what I said," Rex replied, sticking up both thumbs with a stupid grin. "I, Rex Magnus Lapis, am now the captain of the Soma Familia." He dropped his hands. "What's so hard to understand?"

"Haha," Zanis chuckled, shaking his head. "And you expect me to just give up my position... like that?" He looked down at the paper. "You expect me to believe such an absurd status screen? Indomitable Will? Dragon's Bane? What even is this Predator Development Ability?"

He looked up again, his tone dripping with skepticism. "If you really had such a status, why wouldn't you run to the Loki Familia and show them? I'm certain they would have come and asked me personally to let you transfer to their Familia, and then," he shrugged, "there would be nothing I could do about it."

He held the paper up with both hands, "But you didn't." With a sharp motion, he ripped the paper in half down the middle. "Meaning this is fake."

"..." Rex nodded, understanding where Zanis was coming from.

Zanis's expression didn't change as he continued, "I doubt you're even Level 2, and I don't know how you obtained those loot," he gestured at the bag beside Rex, "but I'll be taking them, and you..." He paused, probably thinking of a punishment.

However, before he could say anything, Rex raised his hand. "Then why don't we fight? Let's see if you're right."

Zanis let out a dry chuckle, shaking his head. "A duel?" He scoffed, adjusting his glasses. "I don't duel dogs."

Rex tilted his head. "That's gotta be racist."

Zanis ignored him. "You're arrogant, Magnus, but not completely brain-dead. You know what happens when a dog bites the hand that fed it?" He leaned forward, voice dropping to a whisper. "It gets put down."

"Damn." Rex mumbled. "I admit, that was a bit cold." He nodded, "But, I can smell your doubt." Rex pointed at his face. "You don't think you can beat me, or else you would have already cut me down."

"I don't want to cut down one of my best hunters, Magnus." Zanis smirked, still unfazed. "So I will give you the chance to apologize and return. Then I will be tripling your quota for half a year and you won't be getting soma for three months."

"You know what dogs do to mark their territory?" Rex asked, as he grinned like a madman. "They piss on things. Why don't I piss in this office that now belongs to me."

"Don't you DARE!" Zanis shot up from his seat. "If it's a fight you want, then you will get it, you black DOG!"

"Oh, my." Rex pulled up his pants. "Damn, chill. I wasn't really going to do that."

Zanis pulled his sword he had under his table and unsheathed his rapier. "Pick up your weapon, Magnus." He growled as he walked towards the shelf, faceing Rex who still stood across the table. "Let's get this over with."

"Nah, I have my own weapon," Rex raised his clenched fists. "These hands."

"Are you mocking me?" Zanis asked as he got in stance.

"Nope." Rex got into a stupid boxing stance while jumping from side to side like a dumbass. "I'll hit you with the one, two," he performed a right hook, then a left jab, moaning with each punch. "Then—Look! Over there!" He suddenly pointed at the door.

Zanis looked. "!!!"

When he turned his head back to opposition, he saw a fist flying toward his face with a grinning Rex behind it. A right hook slammed into his jaw, then a left jab followed soon after, crashing into his nose with a resounding crunch and sending him flying back into the bookshelf behind him.

Zanis slammed into the bookshelf, causing it to rattle and books to fall on him as he stood there, his eyes blurry for a second. He reached up and touched his nose, then looked at his hand. Blood. His nose was broken. 

Looking up, Zanis saw Rex performing a mocking dance he could recognize, but others might recognize it as the Orange Justice from Fortnite. "How stupid are you to fall for that?" Rex asked without stopping the dance.

"You bastard," Zanis growled as he clenched his sword and stood up while tossing his cracked glasses to the side. "That trick won't work again."

"I know," Rex nodded as he got back into his stupid boxing stance. "But the fact it worked the first time is questionable."

With the ferocity of a madman, Zanis dashed forward, crossing the distance between them in an instant and stepping into a downward slash, the sharp edge flashing in the sunlight. The rapier whistled past his ear, missing him by a hair's breadth as he leaned to the side just enough to avoid it. 

The moment the blade swept past, he tilted his torso, twisting just in time to duck under the horizontal follow-up slash, the tip of the sword cutting a thin line through the air where his throat had been an instant before. 

Zanis clicked his tongue, recovering fast and lunging forward, thrusting with the tip of his blade aimed squarely at Rex's chest, but the Chienthrope twisted to the side at the last second to let the rapier slide past him. With Zanis still fully committed to his lunge, Rex shot forward his right fist slammed into Zanis's ribs with a sickening crack, the sheer force lifting the man off his feet. 

Before Zanis could even react, Rex followed up—his left hand shot up, seizing the front of the captain's coat, and in the same fluid motion, he pulled him forward while simultaneously slamming his forehead straight into Zanis's face.

*CRACK!*

Zanis let out a strangled gasp, his head snapping back, blood spurting from his already broken nose. As Zanis staggered, barely upright, Rex spun his entire body into a devastating right hook, twisting his hips and putting all his weight into the punch. His fist smashed into Zanis's jaw with brutal force, sending the man flying across the room like a ragdoll. He crashed into his desk with a deafening THUD, knocking over stacks of papers and scattering them across the floor.

The room fell silent except for the sound of shallow, ragged breathing of Zanis slumped against his overturned chair, his head lolled to the side, his eyes unfocused. He groaned weakly, his grip on the rapier slipping until the weapon clattered onto the ground beside him, blood dripping from his nose and mouth, staining his coat.

Rex walked up to the desk and, with a simple swipe, sent it flying to the side, where it slammed into the bookshelf with a loud crash. "Stand up, Zanis," Rex said, standing over the man, whose only response was another weak groan. "Come on, don't tell me you're done."

Zanis's eyes slowly regained focus as his vision shifted from the side and then refocused on Rex—no, it was something else; a pitch-black silhouette outlined by cold, glowing amber eyes, radiating a suffocating presence that made his heart pound like a trapped animal.

Every breath felt sharper, colder—an instinctive warning to run, yet his legs refused to move. A wave of primal terror seized him, and his throat locked, preventing any scream or plea from escaping as warmth spread down his legs, soaking his trousers, the sharp stench of urine filling the room.

"No way," Rex mumbled, staring down at Zanis, who looked up at him in horror. He quickly jumped back, his eyes wide as he took in the sight of Zanis Lustra, captain of the Soma Familia, who had just pissed himself.

"Damn," Rex muttered, shocked. "Uh..." He looked around, unsure of what to do. He had expected fear, but not this. A grown man pissing himself wasn't on his bingo card for today.

"I'll go get some snacks from the dining hall, and while I do that, you clean yourself up," he said, gesturing down at Zanis's crotch before turning to leave the room, adding, "And don't try to run. I'll spread the word that you pissed yourself, and I'll make sure a god vouches for me not lying. So do what's best for both of us and just clean this place up and wait for me."

He opened the door and stepped out, closing it behind him and walking down the hall. Wrinkling his nose, he called up his status using Scavenger. 'Is it that effective?' he thought, looking at the description of his new Development Ability, Predator:

[Predator – Any target the user chooses to hunt is automatically marked with Prey Mark and can apply primal terror to those significantly weaker or consumed by fear. Improves all combat abilities against those marked with Prey Mark, which fades if the target escapes beyond range or if the user removes the mark. When a Prey Marked target who isn't significantly weaker than the user is killed, the user temporarily gains a burst of power, slightly regaining stamina, mind, and regenerating injuries. The effects stack with limitations.]

It was an overpowered ability and the first thing that had caught his attention was the Hunting Frenzy effect of the Development Ability. He hadn't had time to think about it before and sounded utterly broken at first glance, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized how situational it was. 

'I can't exactly build up buffs in a one-on-one fight—it'd require multiple kills in rapid succession.' he shrugged. 'But then again, that's not the point of it. It was specifically made for a one vs many situation.' 

Even without chaining kills, Predator was already beyond anything he'd ever heard of, rivaling the best combat based Development Abilities in existence—Hunter included. That one only helped against monsters the user had previously gained excelia from, whereas Predator worked on any target Rex wanted to fight, human, Demi-humans, those stronger than he was, or otherwise. 

"Talk about having inflated base stats…" He mumbled as he walked down the stairs. 

Then there was the primal terror effect which he couldn't help but compare it to Conqueror's Haki from One Piece—an overwhelming aura that crushes the will of those weaker. But he hadn't expected it to be so effective, especially not on someone like Zanis. A grown man, a captain, someone who prided himself on his position and power, reduced to a trembling, urine-soaked mess. 

It was almost comical—if it wasn't so unsettling. 

Rex smirked, running a hand through his hair with a slow, deliberate motion, tilting his head slightly to the side as if posing for a portrait. "But the prey has to fear the predator, right?" he chuckled, then spread his arms out slightly like he was basking in his own imaginary presence. "That's just the way of the wild… the strong thrive, the weak TREMBLE—!"

A strangled noise made him turn his head. A female elf, who had just stepped into the hallway, visibly recoiled at the sight before him, her mouth slightly open in what could only be described as secondhand embarrassment. 

Rex blinked as he slowly dropped his arms. 'Shit, I was alone a second ago!' He cleared his throat. 

None of them said anything as they walked past each other.

'Note to self,' he thought as he turned the corner, cringing at what he'd done earlier. 'Never act like an idiot in an empty hallway. It's never actually empty.'

With that, he turned his attention to his new skill.

— — — — — — — — — —

"Dragon's Bane"

— Massively increases all basic abilities when fighting dragon-type monsters, scaling with the user's accumulated "dragon-slaying" experience.

— Can sense all nearby dragons and inflict fear upon weaker ones.

— Dramatically improves the quality and quantity of loot dropped by slain dragons while improving Excelia gain.

— Grants all allies within range a combat buff when fighting dragon-type monsters, which scales with their and the user's accumulated "dragon-slaying" experience. Anti-Dragon-based skills or magic gain an additional buff.

— — — — — — — — — —

Like the name said, it was a skill entirely anti-dragon. Literally, the bane of all dragons. Personal buff, ally buff, and magic/skill buff. 'I guess this'll be a must-have when fighting the One-Eyed Black Dragon.' But ignoring the final boss for now, with Dragon's Bane, his next goal was to massacre the wyverns in the Middle Floors.

'I also heard there's a Green Dragon living on the twenty-fourth floor.' He dodged a running girl as he entered the dining hall. 'Is it Level 4 or Level 5?' He doubted he could hurt it as he was now, even with Dragon's Bane, but it wouldn't take long.

'Like I did for the Infant Dragons, should I use it as a level-up requirement from Level 3 to 4?' This sparked another thought. 'Should I only use dragons as my level-up achievements? Like working toward the OEBD goal?'

Interesting idea, but impractical. There were no dragons he could use for his Level 2 achievement. Wyverns wouldn't be much of a challenge as 'basic' Level 2 monsters, and there were no Level 3 dragon-type monsters.

'Unless…' He took a banana from a fruit basket in the dining hall. 'I train an Infant Dragon or wyvern to be as strong as a Level 3 monster, then kill it.' 

Just like how Ottar trained that minotaur for Bell. He dismissed the thought immediately. Ottar pulled that off because of the vast power gap between himself and a minotaur. Rex wasn't reckless enough to try something so stupid.

He ate a few fruits in the dining hall while thinking about his predicament before deciding, 'Forget that for now.' 

He washed his hands, drying them on his pants, then began his walk back to Zanis's office. As he walked another issue clawed at his mind: What should he do?

He had grand plans for when he took office—kill Zanis and maybe even kill all the 'bad guys' in the Familia's rot. But now that he was practically the captain, he realized how unwise those plans were. 

For starters, Ganesha would arrest him for murder. Murder wasn't legal here, just like it wasn't on Earth. Sure, he could report the worst offenders to the Guild and have them arrested, but that was just as stupid. He'd lose a significant chunk of the Familia's income if he purged all the 'bad guys.'

Money was one of the main reasons he'd stayed, and with the Familia's financial resources, he could commission great gears from Hephaestus or Goibniu's top smiths. 

'Hell, maybe even Tsubaki,' he thought, which he doubted, but a guy can dream.

The point was, he couldn't just kill people if he wanted to. He could maybe report Zanis and have him arrested, but then who would run the Familia? Who would handle all the financial crap? Who would do the taxes!?

Not Rex!

He could maybe hire an outsider to do it for him—someone from the Guild, perhaps? But again, he couldn't do that. He was 100% certain Zanis had been involved in a lot of illegal business, and if that came to light, the Soma Familia would be cooked. So he had to keep the business in the family.

Rex needed to get Zanis on board with him. 'Have him keep doing what he's doing while I spend the money however I see fit,' he thought, stretching his arms above his head. 'I mean, he should accept.'

After all, Zanis had seen his stats. The rapid growth and dragon-slaying prowess made Rex a good investment. Anyone in their right mind would agree to work with—or for—him. 

'I just hope he isn't a comically villainous idiot,' Rex sighed. 'God, please let Zanis be smart like those three thieves who tried to rob me.' He prayed while pushing open the double doors. The former captain stood rigidly by the desk, wearing fresh pants, the scattered papers now neatly restacked. Their eyes met—and Rex suddenly shouted:

"BOO!"

"EEEK!" Zanis screeched like a startled cat, flinching so hard he nearly toppled a stack of papers.

Rex burst into laughter, doubling over. "Haha—I-I'm sorry! So sorry, man!" he wheezed, clutching his stomach. "I just couldn't—BOOOO!"

Zanis yelped again, and Rex's laughter roared louder, tears streaming down his face. "How do you fall for that!?" He laughed.

After catching his breath, Rex wiped his eyes. "Alright." He took a deep breath and calmed. "Let's talk, my friend."

[Author's Note: My bad for not posting yesterday. Things happened. Also, is the pacing of the book good? Is it too slow? Fast? Nice? I was thinking of picking things up when he returns to the dungeon but not sure. Also, Zanis 'redemption' arc coming? Lol, thanks for reading and have a wonderful fucking day!]