My Last Hunt

But then, everything returned to normal as if nothing had ever changed. Qiao grasped for breath as he turned towards the shop, only to find the man missing. The strange force that had been pulling him had disappeared.

He rushed to the street to look for the Old hag, but she was nowhere to be seen either.

Calming himself for a sec, Qiao then rushed towards his home to check up on his younger brother. He was scared something might have happened to him.

"Oh you still have time to worry about your sibling huh. Well then it's settled. You will follow my arrangement and if you don't your brother dies. Or worse I will kill you in front of him" A strange and eerie voice suddenly appeared in his mind.

Qiao was scared as he looked around, but no one was there. He again moved forward, but

*CRASH*

A ruthless force almost dragged him toward the building and he closed his eyes in fright. What else was there left to expect at this moment. Some crazy invisible force was bent on killing him by smashing him against the building and he could do nothing against it. This was his last thought before his brain went numb.

Yes…

It went numb.

At that moment a portal appeared on the side of the building and the remaining senses in his body gave some signs that he was not going to die.

The skyscrapers disappeared and the city turned into jungle. He opened his eyes and sure enough, he had appeared in some place totally random. What the hell happened at the moment he closed his eyes? He cursed in his mind.

Today was a bad day. Truly shackling things were happening with him.

He was returning home from a tiring day at university, but out of nowhere he had ended up in this strange situation. He looked around only to find it even confusing. If not for that old hag, it would be all fine.

"Since you are currently a zero level, you will be killing a level one monster in your first quest," the same voice warned him, ringing inside his head.

....

A team of the hunters stood outside a cave entrance waiting for the last member to appear. They were informed that a new person will join them at the last minute.

The team only consisted of three people who were wearing rugged leathers. They belong to the smallest guild of the region, and this world was completely different.

This was not a world for the weak.

Only the laws of Jungle work here.

Strongest guilds ruled over with their power.

Might is right is the only motto for people to live by here.

The strong devoured the weak.

In such a place, chaos reigned most of the time. The monsters birthed by nature were the major cause of disturbance usually, so whoever wanted to make a living should know how to hunt or how to work under the orders of the hunters guilds.

"How long do we need to wait for this newbie?" the patience of the hunters was temperamental. Bluntly speaking, they have lower patience than a hungry lion who chases his hunt to fill its stomach.

"I have no idea, the newbies are always this irresponsible. I have some experience with newbies but I do hope, he is not freeloader," the low level hunter shrugged his shoulders.

The Guilds lack manpower so they sent random people to join the parties sometimes, it was not that all guilds were same, the powerful guild has enough flow of the stable and strong hunters who could kill level five to seven monsters with ease.

"I am worried about how the experience will be divided among us," the first one spoke. He was not bothered if there was a newbie, what matters most was the distribution of experience points. They will get their fee from guild according to their experience points. They were given tokens to collect and administer their experience during hunting based on their effort, collaboration and amount of kills acquired. The highest experience could be gained through delivering the fatal blow to a monster.

Qiao Tai was looking at his surrounding, deliberating at the place and the voices which he heard.

"There are people there, right?" he walked to find a way out from the forest and see whether he could return back. He was worried about his younger brother. And this damn voice which kept filling him with frustration immensely. If he could find the person behind the voice, he would make him regret for toying with him as such.

His leather bag was still around his shoulders and a few steps later he spotted the hunters.

....

"Ahh, here he is. Come here, you freeloader. Why are you dragging your feet this way, do you want to alert the monster before we even enter the cave?" the hunter reprimanded him for coming late and looking like a lazy bone.

The newbies were meant to be scolded by the hunters because they were not accepted by any guild yet so they could only be bullied by other hunters. From level one to five, hunters were called Chasers and the people who were yet to reach the first level were called freeloaders by the slang likers.

Zeroes…

Without any level, they were zeroes in actual term.

Qiao Tai heard the man wearing rugged fleece and saw him pulling out a rustic old-fashioned sword which he happened to see in the museums. He felt the stare and looked behind him. There was no one behind him.

'Does that mean this man was talking to him?' he wondered.

The other chasers were looking at him with some suspicion now. Qiao Tai was wearing pants and shirt, a finest leather bag was hanging behind him and his fair face was clean of any dirt. While compared to these chasers who looked like they had not washed their faces in ages, his appearance indeed struck out like a sour thumb.

Qiao Tai was equally bewildered but he did not show up his concerns.

It was all a wild storm in his head and he was trying his best to grasp the facts and situation in front of him. He was just wondering over the new situation when…

Qiao Tai remembered what the voice had informed him, something about hunting a monster?

'Never mind,' He shook his head.

"We are about to enter in the cave for hunt, do your best not to get in our way of killing the monster," a chaser who did not bother looking at the youth reminded him.

"He is wearing a token already," another chaser pointed.

Qiao Tai looked at his chest and sure enough, there was a token hanging around his neck.

"What the heck, when did this thing appeared now?" he picked the token and observed.

It was shining and emitting a dull java lime glow. It indicated that he was a zero level hunter but the presence of the token means that if he took part in the hunt, his experience would be counted.

The Chasers were little worried now, they thought they could divide experience among them if the prowler might not be having his token with him.

But it turned out that this youth would be snatching their experience.