A few days went by without any incident.
Hal waited patiently for a call from the MHO but received none.
However, he couldn't just wait and do nothing while waiting for the team to form, so he accessed the website for Hunters today as well.
He asked around, dropping memos of his need to different freelancer Hunters, but received no reply. No one wanted to freely participate in a raid with an E-rank Hunter, except they were in a tight spot and needed a Hunter urgently to cover up the Hunter tally needed to tackle a dungeon.
The same was the case with the last dungeon he raided with Sir Jack's team.
They were simply in need of a Hunter to fill in the gap.
'Thanks to that, I made a lot of money, my levels went up, and I even got a new skill, too.'
Should he feel grateful to Sir Jack, in that case?
Hal let off a smirk
'Nah.'
It was through his strength that he was able to gain all that, Sir Jack wouldn't originally have made him even kill a monster, not to talk of gaining loot, so it was all him.
But, as it was now, he wouldn't mind meeting with other Hunters, who would sign a deal similar to that.
No raid team wanted him, the association wasn't calling him, and even the key to the instant dungeon with him, couldn't be used now.
He was sitting on his ass doing nothing these past few days.
As he scrolled through the website, he suddenly heard a weird sound.
Griiwnn!
"Huh? What was that?" Hal thought and didn't get an answer, not until the weird sound came again, louder and clearer this time.
"Ah!" Hal opened his mouth in realization. It was his very stomach that was making the weird noise.
'Is it time to eat already?'
Hal felt hungry, as he had spent quite a few hours roaming the Hunters platform, for any raid Ads, so he headed to the kitchen.
But when he opened the fridge, it was empty, with only one piece of pizza and a half-drunk carton of milk.
'.....'
Hal stared dazedly into the freezer for a few moments, before reaching out to take both the pizza and the milk, then closed the fridge.
Didn't they just go shopping like a week ago? He thought, how in the name of the blights had it finished?
He was pretty sure it was Bethany. Despite having a small stature she ate like a ravenous beast when the food was available in abundance.
'Should I go shopping then?'
Well, it was okay. He still had over 100,00$ after paying the house rent of 1,255$ and the bills for their last shopping, which had cost just close to 50$, so it did not harm to go shopping.
One of the few advantages the apartment they lived in had, was that it was close to a lot of supermarkets, ranging from medium to large.
Wearing simple, easy-to-move clothes, Hal left his home. Ten minutes later, he had arrived at his destination.
As soon as he stepped into the supermarket, the wide open expanse of the supermarket's interior entered his view. Maybe, because there wasn't some sort of promotion, it was unusually quiet in the aisle.
Hal picked up a basket and slowly walked around.
'There isn't anything catching my interest today, though...'
'Maybe I'll just get the necessities and move on.'
Hal walked towards a roll of goods that contained canned foods, cereals, and a few other things.
In the process of selecting his stuff, Hal's hand suddenly stopped...
'...Huh?' He could feel a sharp gaze on him, and although it was very subtle, it still bore a slight killing intent.
Hal rotated his head to the left and was surprised to see Sir Jack, who he was thinking about not too long ago.
"Ah?" He exclaimed in surprise. Earlier, when he felt the gaze on him, he could read that its source was a Hunter due to his high level of perception, but never did he imagine that it would be someone he knew.
"Hey there, sir," Hal said with a wave of his hand, and...
"Hello, pumpkin." He said with a smile to the little girl, holding hands with Sir Jack.
Sir Jack didn't immediately reply but held the gaze for a while before exhaling.
He then walked up to Hal, with the little girl in hand.
"Hi there, Mr. Hal, it's a pleasure to see you," He said with a smile before whispering. "Not!" In a fierce voice but low enough not to be heard by the little girl.
"Same here, sir," Hal replied.
"Hey, Amelia, say hi to Hal." He told the little girl beside him.
"Hi!" She said with a wave.
"Hal, meet Amelia, my daughter."
"Nice to meet you," Hal said as he bent to smile into the face of the little girl while shaking her hand.
He stood up and looked at Sir Jack once again.
"I never knew, you shopped here, sir."
"Well, I do. This is my regular shopping spot."
"Ok," " Once again it was nice meeting you," Hal said with a smile on his face and turned to leave, but stopped in his tracks as Sir Jack went...
"Hey, don't you go thinking I've forgotten about your matter, now, ok? I've got my ears to the ground and will get information soon enough!" He said with a stern, yet grumpy look.
"Ok, sir," Hal said with a smile.
"Hmmph!"
Just as Hal got ready to leave, a strange occurrence took place.
Ring! Ring!
It happened that both their phones had rang at the same time.
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
They looked at themselves with a weird expression, before dipping their hands into their pockets to reach for their phones.
What they saw on the screen of their phones gave them an idea of the situation, making it less weird.
'Yes!'
"Ah!"
Hal's eyes lit up in joy when he saw that it was a distress call from the MHO.
Sir Jack's eyes squeezed into a frown when he saw that it was a distress call from the MHO.
Hal was happy that he finally found a dungeon to raid, Sir Jack wasn't pleased with raiding a dungeon now.
They reacted in different ways towards the situation.
"Ok, sir, I'll be on my way," Hal said and waved goodbye to his daughter.
He needed to finish his shopping and get to the raid location quickly!
It was another chance, another opportunity to level up.