The Guildmaster extended his hand for a handshake.
“My name is John Eluard, a pleasure to meet you.”
Receiving his firm handshake, I introduced myself.
“I’ve heard some rumors floating around, that you’ve killed some henchmen from the Deadnight gang. Eyewitness accounts mentioned that they led you to the alleyways last night, and what came out there was not pretty. So i ask you, did you kill them all by yourself?”
“Yes, is there a problem?”
“No, not at all actually, they were a bunch of d-ranked hunters that were terrorizing the citizens for quite a while, I am just surprised you managed to wipe them out. Your name’s Eric? I’ve never heard of a hunter like you.”
“I just arrived here yesterday, and what’s a hunter?”
John was astonished to say the least, “you’ve never heard of a hunter? What era do you live in? Anyways, hunters are the ones who subjugate monsters in exchange for money.”
“I don’t remember much, and I also lost my identification card.”
I thought that would be the simplest reasoning to give him as I didn’t want to reveal myself, and with no way to travel around the continent without an identification document, I hoped the guild would help me create one.
John scratched his beard for a second, “amnesia huh, well I guess getting you new identification papers won’t be too difficult since you’ve done us a favor of getting rid of these bastards. Come find me later in the afternoon at the guild, it’s a two story red and black building with a lion statue in front, you won’t miss it.”
After he left, i finished up my coffee and wandered around the village. From the looks of how things were, both demi and humans were getting along well, that was not an easy sight to see during the war period. I felt like the world had progressed a whole lot while i was gone, but i still don’t know how or when the War ended, that was still a mystery to me.
The day passed and i made my way to the guild building. Hunters were streaming in and out of the guild, i saw some trying to recruit new members for their missions. Once i opened the doors and entered the guild, i felt the stares of the hunters around the reception area boring down on me.
Some started edging towards me, they were obviously trying to ‘bully’ a greenhorn like me. Everyone had a small pin badge of different colour. They probably singled me out because i did not have a badge on me, which meant that i was not even in the ranks of a hunter.
But before they could start any trouble, the were-rabbit receptionist hollered out, “Mr Pendragon! The Guildmaster is waiting, please proceed to the second floor and turn left.”
The change in everyone’s expression changed from staring daggers to open curiosity. It was understandable of course, meeting the Guildmaster is a rare occurrence. Usually only high ranked hunters or nobility coming to visit would be granted a meeting with him.
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JOHN ELUARD
I heard the bells on my door chiming and i looked up from the mountain of documents on my table. Sometimes i regret retiring from my adventurous life as a hunter and got stuck doing all these paperwork, at least it was more exciting then.
“Welcome to my office, have a seat.”
I poured him a cup of tea and brought out a big crystal ball.
When i first met Eric, his platinum colored hair immediately caught my eye, it was actually the first time i saw hair with such unique color. My first impression of him was that he’s cold and detached, every movement he took was graceful, coupled with his platinum hair, there was a mystery allure about him i could not describe.
“Put your hand on the crystal ball and we can see what strength and abilities you have.”
After a few moments, the crystal glowed brightly, red and brown colors are swirling inside the ball.
“Oh my god! You are a dual elementalist at the advanced stage! Do you know how rare that is?” i exclaimed.
I looked at him, but he had a nonchalant face on like he knew it all along.
There are not many dual elementalist in the Erewhon Kingdom, they are numbered in the hundreds while the rest who wield a single element are in the thousands, the ratio was around 1:5000. So those who were found to be dual elementalist received the better treatment and education.
“You should join the guild, with those amazing abilities, you will surely be a superb hunter.”
“Sure, so what rank will i be getting.” He inquired.
I explained the ranking system of the guild,
Iron – F rank
Bronze – E rank
Silver – D rank
Gold – C rank
Diamond – B rank
Adamantite – A rank
Orichalcum – S rank
“Seeing how you dispatched the silver ranked hunters by yourself, i’ll put you in gold. Usually hunters start off in Iron, others will be suspicious of this abrupt rank up, so i’ll need you to complete some missions and satisfy some requirements for gold hunters.”
He nodded, “understood.”
“So i will need your name and age to complete this process.”
“Eric Pendragon, 19.”
“Pendragon? What a unique surname.”
I racked my head but i can’t remember any nobles with that name, which makes me beg the question, who and where did he come from. He was seriously killing me with curiosity and i am burning with questions to ask him, but i have to keep up my professional attitude and not run my mouth off.
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ERIC PENDRAGON
After i got my identification card done, i left with a satisfied expression on my face. For me to get stronger, i needed power and to get a power source, i needed to hunt, and the easiest way to do that, is to eat monster cores.
Monster cores were usually used by mages to store power or use it to power everyday stuff like lights and buildings. I am pretty sure humans and other races have tried consuming these cores and it did not work out, if not i’m sure they would be way stronger than they are now. These monster cores are just energy sources for dragons.
Why i joined the guild was because i needed money, i don’t think the amount i have in the storage ring will last me forever, the guild accepts monster carcasses and trades it for money. I can get money while getting stronger, this will be killing two birds with one stone.
After i left the office, i headed to the mission board to chose what kind of monster I wanted to subjugate. I can take all missions from iron to gold rank, but for missions which were one rank higher than i am, the requirement was to form a party.
I looked up the mission list and the highest mission was a diamond ranked one, they probably did not have any higher ones because this was just a village, higher ranked ones would appear in cities.
From what i see on the mission list, i can deduce that i am one of the highest ranked hunter in the village, because the missions only goes up to diamond, and ones higher than diamond would not waste their time in a village such as this. I turned around and looked at the hunters around me, they would look away almost immediately when i caught their gazes, because of the newly donned gold pin i have.
Picking up a gold ranked subjugation mission, the content says to hunt down a shadow panther which had gone crazy. I left the guild and headed back to my inn. While travelling back, i sensed someone stalking me.
