The next morning, I was awakened by voices. Still half asleep, I listened with my eyes closed.

“...Don’t you think he looks just like Jack?”

“Nah, Jack doesn’t have a black eye like that! At least he didn’t when I last saw him...”

“Dumbass, that’s not what I’m talking about! And when I beat him up over Mary, he had one of those, too.”

“Ha, beat him up! You took a beating yourself back then. And Mary will go with me anyway, when I come back a hero...”

“She won’t!”

“Yes, she will!”

I opened my eyes. Right in front of my bed, two young guys were scuffling, one trying to put the other in a headlock. The latter resisted vehemently.

“Hey! I’m trying to sleep here!”, I yelled at them. They weren’t even trying to be quiet!

“He’s awake!” The guys let go of each other and stared at me. Both were probably around 20 years old and looked pretty much like each other. Their curly straw blond hair was sticking out in all directions from the scuffle, and their blue eyes peered with the innocence of a five-year-old. They were both wearing beige shirts and black pants, the right guy’s had a hole below his left knee.

“What a miracle! Your noise would wake a dead man,” I said grumpily, but had to smile right after. Those two looked so funny, I couldn’t stay mad at them. “Are you guys brothers?”

“Ha, keen-eyed!” grinned the one with the holey pants.

“Of course we are, you can tell right away!” added the other proudly. “I’m Tim, and this is Bob.”

“I’m Jasp...um, Jason!” my new name came to me just in time.

“Cool, Jason, are you a recruit too?” asked Bob.

“You wouldn’t be able to sleep any longer than that anyway,” Tim said almost at the same time. “We’ll have breakfast in a minute, and then we’ll go on to Kargoth.”

“I see... Well, why don’t you go on down, and I’ll join you in a minute.”

The brothers nodded in sync and moved toward the exit. At the door there was another brief argument as each wanted to go through first, then they were gone. I shook my head. What giant babies!

I certainly wouldn’t mind a few more hours of sleep, but I was in the military now and, on Earth at least, it wasn’t known for letting its members sleep until noon. I doubted it was any different in this world. Besides, my stomach reacted extremely positively to the prospect of breakfast. Doubly motivated in this way, I got up and made my way downstairs.

In contrast to last night, the guest room was almost empty. Tim and Bob were sitting at one of the large tables, busily working with spoons. My plate was waiting for me, too. There was a kind of cereal porridge with a meat sauce on it. The dish didn’t taste bad at all, and I’m sure it wouldn’t meet with rejection in our cafeteria. While eating, I looked around. Neither Sergeant nor Orthok were to be seen. Who was this guy, anyway?

“Tell me, do you know Orthok? Is he a recruit too?”, I asked between bites.

At this, Bob snorted so hard that food came out of his nose. He then coughed, half-stifled. Tim patted him hard on the back. “No, never. Orthok is a seasoned monster hunter, how could you miss that?”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Monster hunter? What’s that?”, I immediately picked the topic up. Were there monsters here?

“Huh?” the bright red Bob finally got his cough under control and was now wiping tears from his eyes. “You don’t know the monster hunters? Where did you come from, man?”

Oops! I probably wouldn’t have made a good job as an undercover agent. I thought feverishly about what to say in response. Fortunately, Tim skillfully ignored his brother and was already excitedly telling me, “Monster hunters are totally cool! Not only do they protect people from the magical monsters, but they also collect valuable loot from the defeated monsters! I would have loved to become a monster hunter, but without combat experience, you don’t stand a chance as an applicant with them. And on our farm there is only one monster, the breeder bull Carlos...”

“But after serving in the army, they’ll take us with a kiss, you’ll see!” Bob interrupted him. Hmm, I really needed to know more about the magical monsters, but I couldn’t draw too much attention with my questions.

At that moment, Sergeant Rieg quickly entered the room. “Enough of this chatter. Pack up the provisions and let’s go!” The brothers jumped up and ran to the counter. I quickly stuffed the last of the breakfast into my mouth and hurried after them. As it turned out, the innkeeper there had provided travel rations for us: three loaves of bread, four sausage curls, and a large piece of cheese, all packed in a wooden box and covered with a cloth. In addition, there were a few onions and some red-yellow apples. Next to it was a small bag of grits.

The boys grabbed the food, there was nothing left for me, so I just followed them. We left the inn through a side exit that led into the courtyard. There, a covered wagon was waiting for us, with two horses already harnessed to it. The provisions were loaded in no time and we set off.

The sergeant played the coachman, we recruits walked behind the wagon. As we left the yard, Orthok joined us. He had on the leather armor from yesterday, on his back he carried a high-quality bow, on his left belt hung a short sword and on his right a quiver with arrows.

A short time later, we reached the gate, which was now wide open. A guard was leaning against the palisade. When Rieg raised his arm in salute as we passed, the guard waved back idly. Fortunately, we stopped at the fork in the road behind the gate to the south, so we would not pass the site of the robbery.

After leaving the village, the brothers took me in the middle.

“Where are you from, Jason?” asked Bob innocently.

“Your skin has such a strange tone, are you from the South?”, Tim pecked.

Damn. I was hoping the subject of my heritage had been forgotten. “Um...yeah, from the South,” I said vaguely. My maternal grandmother was a native Cuban. From her, my mother and I had the olive complexion. Hmm, Cuba... “From the islands,” I added on an impulse.

“Oh, cool, from the islands!” exclaimed Bob enthusiastically.

“Is that true, that there’s no magic there?” interjected Orthok unexpectedly.

“Yes, that’s true.” I took the opportunity to disguise my lack of knowledge about magic. “That’s why I didn’t know about magical monsters and the monster hunters. Can you tell me more about them?”

“Oh yes!” Tim readily took up the subject. “Orthok, please tell us about your hunts.”

Bob immediately left me and lined up next to the monster hunter. “Please-please!”

“No,” he declined with a smirk. “Otherwise, you’ll have nightmares at night.”

“Oh, come on!” whined Bob like a little boy.

“Tell us about the most dangerous monster you ever hunted,” Tim followed up.

“All right,” Orthok finally agreed. “You guys won’t give it a rest anyway... The most dangerous monster our group ever had to fight was a forest pigeon.”

“What?!” exclaimed Tim in disbelief. “A forest pigeon? What’s dangerous about that?”

“What?!” shouted Bob at the same time as Tim. “You’ve got to be shitting us, man!”

“Well,” said Orthok. “The bird had a wingspan of six feet, its feathers were hard as steel, and it could do air magic.”

“Wow!”, Bob’s eyes lit up with excitement. “And how did you get that one?”

“Well...” The narrator knew how to build suspense. “As you can guess, there’s not much you can do against a bird with melee weapons.”

“That’s clear, you shot him,” Tim pointed at Orthok’s bow.

“Pfff,” the monster hunter made scornfully. “We sure did, but did you forget about the air magic and the hard feathers? It deflected the arrows, and if one got through, it didn’t penetrate!”

The boys had to digest that.

“Magic!”, Bob had the brilliant idea. “Only magic could help then!”

“True,” Orthok confirmed. “Luckily, Swon was with us, our water mage. He then threw an ice lance at the bird and wounded it severely with it, rendering it unable to fly. The rest of the fight was then hard work, but also routine in a way.”

“Man, an ice lance, how cool is that!”. Bob was blown away.

“That’s nothing,” the monster hunter winked at me. “When we had to fight the giant hamster, that was some challenge!”

“Giant hamster?” asked Tim suspiciously.

“Yeah right, imagine the cuddle factor, only the toughest survive that!”

“Aw, man, he’s just pulling our legs!” exclaimed Bob, exasperated. “Come on, Timmy, we’d better check for berries along the way!”