My Last Hunt

Treasures and Snatchers: Level Three (part 14)

This was going to be a new beginning where they were responsible for their own life. Since they had not much spoils left with them currently, they chose to venture into the forest first and decided to meet the old man after the hunt. 

"Brother, I felt that someone was watching us the whole night yesterday night. Could it be true or is it just me becoming overly concerned?" Linwin spoke before locking the door of the cottage and leaving. The cottage was not in a good condition but only a shelter for spending night and it was at the farthest part from the main market and central Middletown. 

"This is why chasers chose to live under the protection of Guilds where they could submit their spoils and rest at ease and sleep in calm. But here one of us needs to guard at every part of night to make sure no one robs us or snatches our weapons." Qiao had not been sleeping the whole night. He was trying to figure out what steps he should take in this situation. But obviously fighting with every thief was impossible. What if they were in huge numbers?

They cannot take the risk and lose their experience points nor their spoils. These fifteen days were going to be a challenge for them. If Linwin and Quipu gathered enough spoils they would return back to downtown for minimum two months in advance. And Qiao would be left alone. He has decided to join a higher Guild to reach level five before the end of winter. 

With every level up, he could feel that the experience accumulation demands also got higher. He cannot simply hunt and feel at ease with lower amount of points from easier hunts. Also Quipu had told him that after reaching level three peak, the lower region of the forest won't be much effective for fast level ups. 

He has to venture alone to a better part of forest or take the help of a Guild. If he kept hunting lower level monsters despite reaching level four, he would soon feel frustrated because the level up would be worse than the snail's pace. So in these fifteen days, his goal was to reach at least level four and then look for the Starglow Guilds recruitment test. 

"Keep your senses alert, we are now heading towards the forest." Qiao reminded them. This was their first day as rogue chasers so Qiao was extra cautious. Quipu also was well aware about the fate of rogue chasers so they were cautious.

The arrogant and vicious teams of other Guilds cannot bother with the teams of their Guilds or the other Guilds but they were free to harm or chase the rogue teams without any sense of self justice. Those teams mostly look for rogue teams and then rob them off or show their strength by attacking them in the middle of the hunting. 

It was one of the favourite hobbies for the strong teams. Rogue teams were treated as the easiest hunt compared to strong monsters. Their team especially had earned the anger of few strong teams so Qiao and his men had many threats lingering around them. Qiao on the other hand was thinking about all the stuff he was going to teach his team in these few days so that when they would part with, they will have enough experience for the various situations. 

If the world was more advanced here he would considered to tame a monster as his hunting partner. That would have been a beneficial scenario and would also allow him to spend nights in the forest with more ease. But because this world was limited with it's knowledge and the current learning was limited too, he could only drag himself around to hunt or snatch the opportunity as said by Linwin earlier. 

For spoils, it only depends on luck whether the monster has a number of pearls or was only bearing one. If they succeeded and no one came to bother them, then single spoils also count as precious stone but if they were chased then it would become burdensome to fight for a single stone. 

"Our priority is to find level two monster this time because even if we are surrounded by bullies later and land in a precarious situation, we won't regret at the final decision. Though I would prefer that we don't let anyone rob us at any cost." Qiao spoke and both of them nodded.

They were walking in the forest now. Today seemed a good day for hunting as most of the teams were already in the forest with their missions. They could hear voices of few chasers shouting for others to take action. It wasn't easy to spot the teams hunting unless someone really wanted to look for them and not the monster. 

Level two monsters usually try to collect enough food for the winter hibernation or they look for the safest underground caves where they could spend a harsh winter. To look for a monster in the caves was dangerous unless the Guild sent a mission with necessary information. 

"Brother Qiao, my opinion is to move toward the caves for hunt, it would be safer rather than hunting in open. The monsters who chose to live in caves usually bear the qualities of living alone and not living with crowds so we can silently hunt and return back in the Middletown without other teams bothering us." Quipu gave his suggestion which seemed feasible for today. The day was clear and they could easily reach the dense part of the forest and look for caves. 

….

Meantime, another level five hunter who was assigned a hidden mission led his team toward the opposite part of forest where bigger caves can be spotted easily. This mission was urgently given to this team after a senior surveyed the broken part of the forest. The senior spotted a strong monster which could bring trouble for newbies and lower level chasers.