Duskbound

From the day Velik left to the day he returned, three weeks passed by. He didn't go out of his way to kill monsters on his return trip, but there was still plenty of bloodshed to slow him down, not to mention he needed to practice his new skill. Since he'd acquired it primarily to deal with enemies that had physical stats too high for normal attacks to hurt them, that meant fighting the monsters in the deep wood.

His practice paid off in the form of a rank advancement for [Kinetic Charge] on the third day of his return trip, and his decarma stash continued to grow until he recouped the potion expenses for the trip. Considering that it would have taken him months near the towns to gain that much of the system-generated currency, he couldn't argue with the gains, especially when he considered the skill ranks and breakthrough to level 30.

And then there was the [Champion Seed]. He had no idea how to use that, or even if he should. Planting it somewhere and growing a new monster was the opposite of what he spent his time doing, which made the item seem wholly useless. Even selling it sounded like a bad idea, since that probably meant somebody else growing the monster instead.

Maybe some sort of research center might be able to do something with it, he thought to himself as he stared at the line in his status's inventory screen. The actual seed was in his hip pouch, but he could see the system text on his gear and supplies without having to handle them. Unfortunately, no new information had revealed itself in the last few days. Even its reserve counter still read 0.

The closer Velik got to home, the more concerned he grew. The monsters should have been getting weaker, on average level 12 or 13, with the biggest, most powerful ones barely reaching 20. That did not seem to be the case anymore, however. By the time he made it back to the den he'd hollowed out and furnished for himself, the forest was still thick with monsters above level 15. It made very little difference to him, personally, but it was a huge jump in strength that he doubted the town watch could manage so easily.

Most hunters and guards in the frontier towns around here never made it past level 20. That was the goal, just high enough to unlock the third skill slot, then stay home and hope trouble never came their way. It became harder and harder to level as they outleveled the local monster population, so the ones that didn't give up ended up leaving. As a self-regulating system, that made people like Velik the anomalies, and to be fair, most of his latest levels could be attributed to the rising average monster level over the past six months. A trip to the deep wood accounted for the rest.

Ignoring that for the moment, why are there so damn many of them? I thought the towns brought in that guild-certified hunter with the idiot apprentice who could barely shoot straight. Did he up and leave the second I went north or something?

Now that he was back home, Velik's first priority was to replenish his food supply. Much as he wanted to sleep—it was already three hours past dawn and he'd pushed to cover the last fifteen miles—he hadn't stopped to forage yesterday and his last hunting trip had been interrupted. It was either go find something to eat or head to the closest town and buy food.

That idea actually held some appeal, if only because it would allow Velik to stock up a few weeks of supplies in one trip instead of spending days butchering and preserving venison. Celarut was the closest town after Beldrit, and Velik wasn't in so much of a hurry that he was eager to go back there again, not after last time. It would only add an extra half hour to his trip going a few more miles, so he set off immediately.

* * *

Fifteen miles and about a hundred slain monsters later, Velik walked into Celarut. It was the second largest of the four frontier towns, and whoever had originally staked it out had been enamored with the idea of wide streets. Two full-sized wagons could easily pass by each other unimpeded, and they often did as timber was brought to the local saw mill. Right now, the town was mostly empty. It would fill up in the evening as its citizens returned from the forest or came into the inn for a meal, a drink, and some company.

But empty was just the way Velik liked it, and he really only had one stop in mind. It was a large building on the main street, two stories and with a full warehouse attached to it. The owner was also the mayor, unless something had changed recently, and he stored the town's lumber on-site while they waited for the next caravan to show up to take it off their hands in exchange for luxury or otherwise-unavailable goods from down south.

There were only two people in the store when he walked in. One was the mayor himself, a short, thin man with an enormous mustache and his thinning, graying hair parted down the middle. The other was a strapping younger man, probably one of the saw mill's workers judging by all the sawdust on his clothes. They were deep in conversation, with the mayor looking cross and tapping his foot the whole time.

"—telling you, I don't care if they need to hire a few extra guards. Just get it done. We need the saw mill running round the clock or we're going to come up short on this month's shipment," the mayor was saying as Velik walked in.

"But, sir, there aren't any guards to hire! We'd have to take them off the wall, and the captain won't sign off on it," the worker said.

"Who does he think he reports to, anyway?" the mayor snapped. "You tell him I said to— Oh, hello there."

The tonal shift when the mayor noticed Velik was almost jarring. His expression immediately cleared up to a placid, pleasant smile as if he hadn't been reaming out a guy who, as far as Velik could tell, hadn't done anything to deserve it beyond having the unfortunate luck of being the bearer of bad news. Not your problem, he reminded himself. You just need some supplies.

"The Black Fang himself," the mayor said. "Haven't seen you in months. Say, now there's an idea. You like killing monsters, don't you? How'd you like to get paid to do it?"

"Not interested," Velik said immediately. He hefted his sack and held it out for the mayor. "I need you to fill that with two weeks' worth of dry provisions."

"I'm afraid my assistant is out today, and I'm handling other business," the mayor said. "I can certainly fill your order, but I'll need an hour or so. If it's a meal you want, though, why not head over to the Raven's Nest and have a nice late breakfast. I'm sure everything will be ready by the time you come back."

Velik might have ignored the advice if his stomach hadn't chosen that exact moment to express how unhappy it was with not having been given anything to eat for the better part of a day and a half. Perhaps it was the thought of a hot meal cooked by somebody who actually had ranks in a relevant skill that did it for him, but whatever the reason, the mayor's idea suddenly sounded like an excellent one.

"Very well," he said. "I'll be back shortly."

"Take your time," the mayor said breezily. "I've got to get this business sorted out before I can work on your provisions anyway."

Kind of suspicious how quickly he gave up on recruiting me, now that I think about it. Well, I guess you don't get to be the mayor by being stupid. It was worth floating the idea since it didn't cost him anything, but not worth hounding me over.

The mayor and his hapless worker watched Velik leave, then started back up again the second the door closed behind him. He stood there for a moment, then took a breath and shook his head. Don't be paranoid about it. It's not like the whole town could do anything to you. Just go enjoy a hot meal. Morgus knows you've earned it. Now, which one of these buildings is the inn?

* * *

Jaryll waited five minutes after the Black Fang left before he abruptly cut his employee off mid-sentence. "I don't care about that right now."

"You… what?" the idiot kid said. "But, I thought—"

"That monster hunter we hired made it known that he was looking for the Black Fang. Go get a message to him that the boy is here in town, and do it fast while we still know where he is. Got it?"

"How am I supposed to do that? They could be anywhere!"

"You've got a whole logging crew plus guards out there, don't you? Figure it out!" the mayor snapped. "Now quit wasting time and go."

The kid, in perhaps the first intelligent move he'd made since walking through the door, scampered off into the street and started jogging toward the edge of town. Why do all the smart ones level up and leave? Jaryll mentally lamented. I swear these new hires get dumber every year. Oh well, if he can get the message to where it needs to go, maybe that monster hunter can finally do his damn job and end this infestation. Then it's back to business as normal, with profits as normal, too!

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