CH8

“While it’s a guild policy to accept anyone who has the will, I personally can’t in good conscience let you join without trying to talk you out of it.” The guild receptionist told him with a look he wanted to call pitying, though it was hard as they didn’t strictly have anything that could be described as a face.

After his talk with Myriad, Ben woke up feeling well-rested and ready to take on the day. He sent up a quick prayer of thanks and then headed straight to the guild. He needed to register to get the information he wanted, but it was going about as well as he expected it would when it came time to show his skills.

“Don’t worry, as you can see I’m just a prospective craftsman in town trying to find a teacher. I just figured that while I was doing that I could do some gathering quests to make some money, and take a look at the guild archive to see what materials are in the area that I could collect or buy.” He confidently mixed truths with lies. The archive was definitely his main goal when coming here, but he would be taking a more active role in gathering what he needed.

“Well if that’s all then I suppose it should be fine. With the skills you possess I can only make you a rank 7 adventurer anyway so you can’t accept any harder quests, just don’t venture too far into the woods, you never know what’s going to be out there.” She took his card and added a new mark to it, symbolizing his adventure rank, and let him go on his way.

The first thing he did was head to the archive. He had been told it should have all of the information he would need on monsters that could be found in the area, so he grabbed any books that looked like they could be relevant and sat down to get reading.

It was pretty interesting to learn more about the creatures that inhabit the world. There were beautiful rainbow colours pterodactyl-like creatures that would soar through the skies, a subterranean kingdom of mole people that would take in the few other sentient underground races to accept as family, fairies that were each attuned to a specific element of magic, having subtle effects on any land they stayed in for too long. It really was a land of beauty and wonder if he was open to seeing it.

On the other end of the spectrum was the Amarok wolf, a real bastard of a beast. It was a large black wolf, about two to three meters in length, that was particularly known for preying on anyone foolish enough to be hunting alone at night. It would take its time toying with its prey, making it think it had a chance to escape before finally finishing it off. If its prey wasn’t alone it would still hunt its targets if it thought it was more powerful, though it probably just wouldn’t enjoy it as much.

The wolf couldn’t use any magic itself though, so it was considered barely acceptable for a group of five rank 6 adventurers to hunt it, or one or two rank 5. Well, that seems like it’s only the case if you’re going to do something dumb like try and play fair.

<See, it’s something that a lower mid-ranked adventurer could do, but it’s out of your league. Give up on it and I’ll help you find someone else.>

“…So I can hear you when I’m awake too huh?”

<When you prayed to me this morning you basically acknowledged me, opens up a few more pathways for communication then summoning you in your sleep.>

“Well whatever. We clearly see this pretty differently, I would say I feel pretty confident after all that I’ve read.”

<It literally recommends at least five people a rank above you. How could you possibly be confident right now?>

“Watch and see.”

The next week had been long, really really long. He had to buy and gather his materials, turn them into something usable, and then trick the various guild members into telling him where this creature was likely to be found under the guise of hoping to avoid any danger as a solo gatherer. But it would soon be worth it.

Night was falling and camp was set up under a tree, while a figure sat by an open fire. There was the meat of a small animal being cooked above it, while a few more that had been skinned were hung up to bleed, with the smell filling the area. The wind moved to carry it through all corners of the forest, hopefully attracting what he needed it to.

<I still say you’re going to die.>

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