"So," Claire begins once I'm sitting up on the counter to see again. We're across from a man who looks in his mid-twenties. Maybe a few years younger than Eryk, and dressed in a similarly nice suit. "This is the monster hunter's guild? And you are?"
"Brandon, guild master," he answers easily. "What can I do for you today?" It's obviously a formality, since he's been listening to us the entire time we've been in here, even with the book lying open under his hands.
"First off, what does the monster hunter's guild do?" Claire begins with the same question she had for Ramona at both other guild counters.
"We manage any monster hunters working in town." His tone says he's reciting this from memory, and that he's kind of bored doing it. "We do information, buy slain monsters or magical creatures, and keep tabs on where dangerous creatures are, what kinds, their numbers, all that. We also put up bounties for anything that needs killing," and he points a thumb off behind him, to where a wooden board is mounted to the wall, a handful of papers nailed into place on it. I can't read them at this distance, but there are some pictures sketched on them.
I stop, blinking at the pictures. Because I recognize them. Myra, Avara, and Gram?! Well, I mean, the pictures aren't them exactly, but they have the fur, the same body shapes, the claws. It's all there, immediately recognizable.
"Aria?" Claire suddenly calls my name, and I realize I haven't been hiding my reaction at all. "Is something wrong?"
"N-no, umm!" I blurt out, which just brings a displeased look. Realizing I'm already in too deep, I point over at the board and say the only thing I can think of here. "I've heard about those!" There have been rumors around town about them for a while now, since despite their best efforts, there's no way they can avoid anyone seeing them while they're running all over the forest people still have to go into every day to gather things.
Brandon turns around in his seat, looking at the pictures I'm pointing out. "Ah, those," he nods a few times. "Word in town is we've got three out there. Nasty-" he throws a glance at me, "-things. Extremely dangerous." I nod rapidly, to make it clear I'm listening intently. That makes him chuckle and decide to go on. "They're magical creatures called Phana. They're supposed to live in The Magic Forest, this is the first I've ever heard of them being spotted this far out."
Phana, so that's what they're called... Wait, but is Avara also one? The blue ones like her were clearly very different from the yellow kind like Avara and Gram. They even have different magic... I tilt my head, frowning, and point that out. "I heard one of them was different. A blue one."
"A blue one?" His eyes go a little wider. "That's a Phrina. Very similar, but a different type. Their magic is even more dangerous than a Phana's. I didn't hear about that." He didn't? But I swear I remember people mentioning yellow and blue in the rumors, didn't they...? Maybe I'm pushing my luck, but...
"Wow, could you tell me about them?" I ask, then glance back at Claire, expression asking for permission. She smiles and nods. Having followed our silent exchange, Brandon shrugs.
"Sure." But before he says anything else, he gets up and walks over to one of the bookshelves off in the back of the large room, and searches for a bit. His finger traces along the books, before he plucks one from the shelf, and pages through it briefly. Then he comes back over, setting it down over top of the one he was reading earlier, and the first thing I see on the page he has open is 'Phana' written in big letters at the top, with a sketch just like the one on the board, drawn in the middle of the page. In fact, it looks so similar, I think copied the picture out of the book, onto the papers on the board.
Brandon eyes the book while reading things out a bit at a time. "Phana are medium size cat-type magical creatures. Solitary hunters... Identified by their yellow fur and brown spots... Average between fifty and seventy kilos... Known for their extreme strength, and magical claws, which can cut through any non-magical armor, though it happens infrequently, so is likely active magic. Most useful for their magical bones and teeth, their claws do not retain magic when slain..." He pauses for a little longer this time, eyes still moving. "Mm, that's about it." I raise a brow slightly. I can't really read it with the scribbly text and the book upside down from where I am, but there are way more words written there than he read off.
"What is 'active magic?'" I ask about the unfamiliar term.
"Ah, we classify magical creatures' special abilities into two types, active and passive magic. Passive magic seems to be something the magical creature has all the time. Like phana's super strength and resistance to attacks. Active magic is something a magical creature has to use. There's a huge difference between the cuts made by phana claws normally, and when they use their magic. Good, solid armor will provide adequate defense normally, but as soon as they use their magic, they'll cut through the same armor like it's not even there. That's how we can tell that they're magical creatures. Well, besides the incredible strength anyway."
"Oh, that makes sense..." I scratch my cheek, hiding how that reminds of some of our divine armaments. Different ones have passive effects or active effects which perfectly mimic those descriptions... Not thinking about that right now... Still, the note about the useful parts of their bodies makes me shiver a little.
The part about the claws not being useful actually makes sense based on what he said about active magic. I'm still not sure how they normally work in magical creatures that can't control mana. Maybe they can naturally channel mana without feeling it, like I taught Emily and Eryk to do... But however it works, it's a conscious thing, so of course that active magic won't work when they're dead. I had no idea their bones were magic though, they don't feel magic as far as we can tell. So how does passive magic work...?
While I consider all that, Brandon flips past a few more pages of information, and starts with the info on phrina. "Biggest difference between these are the danger level," he notes. "Since phrina have much stronger passive magic, they're much more difficult to kill. First off, their bones are so much stronger, they are nearly immune to bludgeoning weapons. They're also incredibly heavy, averaging four to five hundred kilos." I tilt my head, blinking when he puts a number on it. I knew Avara was heavy, but I didn't think she was that heavy. No wonder why charging boars can't even make her budge...
"Most important is their fur. Unless they're caught by surprise, they are impervious to non-magical slashing and piercing weapons. That alone makes them impossible to take down by anyone but experienced monster hunters. In all, their ridiculously durable bones make them far more valuable than phana, but they're so hard to kill, and unfortunately, a large portion of the resilience of their fur seems to be active magic which doesn't last after death, so it isn't worth as much as it would be otherwise. Generally, they aren't considered worth the risk to hunt," he notes.
Again, he pauses briefly, looking over the remainder of the writing in the book, then shrugs. "So, those are the magical creatures that have been out in the forest. Thank the gods, they haven't tried attacking the town like any of the other monsters out there. Since we don't have any monster hunters who could take one down, the only one who'd stand a chance is Catherine Lundrum."
"Wow..." I murmur. No wonder why nothing out in the forest stands a chance against them.
"Of course they don't," Myra suddenly chips in while she stalks through the forest, half paying attention to the conversation since it's relevant. "And good job, Avara, the humans consider you even more dangerous than I am!" The praise just sends Avara into a sputtering fluster, until she buries her face in her paws, giving everyone else a chuckle.
While they're playing around, I hide my own smile, and throw another glance at the board. It doesn't have anything that looks like Hilde. Besides the three papers, there's one other, but whatever the thing is, it's nothing I recognize, even by descriptions I've heard. Looks like eight or more legs, with a really long body. Some kind of bug? The parchment is way older than the others, dry and cracked around the edges. It looks like it's been hanging for a really long time. Something no one's ever hunted? None of the magical creatures have seen anything like it in the forest since they've been out there, and they've fought all sorts of monsters in the last couple months.
They all make a mental note to keep an eye out for it. If it's on the monster hunter's guild bounty board like they are, it must be dangerous enough to worry about.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
"Thanks for telling me about them," I speak up to Brandon again. "That was interesting." I smile and try to make it seem like I just wanted to know about them. Which I did, but for a lot more than just curiosity. Then I send a look to Claire, to let her know I'm done and she can continue with her lesson. She does so, questioning the man about the guild some more. We hear about the last member of the three mashed together guilds, the young man named Jeremy who still looks like he's learning how to read from Larissa. He's officially a member of the monster hunter's guild, even though like the others, he basically works for all three.
So, that's five people running three guilds. With one little girl being guild master of two of them. No wonder why things are so run down around here. Especially since they don't do anything. Besides the money they get from the government to pay their few people, they don't really don't earn anything, so they must be pretty poor. So of course they can't afford much...
It's pretty sad actually. Especially since two of them are mainly information guilds, which like Claire taught me, would be greatly related to Reena. Why is everything that relates to her always looked down on? It's just not fair...
"Haa," Claire sighs, hands on her hips. She's gotten just about everything out of Brandon that she can. She doesn't even have to say anything, it's written all over her face. She wanted to give me a whole lesson about guilds, and these sorry places were all she had to show me. It makes me feel even worse about the poor guilds, and the people who run them.
It's not even time for lunch, and we've already run out of things they can help teach me...
"How about..." I try making a suggestion when I see how disappointed she is, but I'm having trouble coming up with anything. I glance between the three counters. Magic, hunter's, alchemy... "Oh!" I perk up. "You taught me about animals, but not magic creatures. Since the magic and monster hunter's guild both know about them, wouldn't this be a good place?" I try asking.
That finally brings a small smile back to her face. "Yes, I suppose that would be a good topic for here." Having said that, she ends up roping Brandon in for a lesson on them, sending the man over to his reference books a number of times as she teaches me about a number of different magical creatures.
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"Oh!" I gasp, and point at the picture Brandon just opened to in the middle of the lesson. "That's a kitsu?" I ask, which gets a strange look from both adults. They don't get it? "That's the one on the sign!" And I point toward the front of the guild hall. With the little snout, and more narrow ears compared to cats, it's a perfect match for the picture I saw on the little hanging sign out front.
"Why does the guild hall have a kitsu on their sign though? Isn't that the same as Reena's mark?" Why not just use the actual mark like some shops do with Baro's?
Claire chuckles. "Of course. As we went over, two of the guilds in here are primarily attributed to Reena."
"Oh..." I guess that makes sense, with two of the three shoved into the building, that would be the closest thing to relate it too.
Then Brandon speaks up. "Monster Hunters love kitsu too."
I tilt my head in confusion. "They do?"
"Yeah. They're really clever and hard to spot, but a well placed arrow will kill them, and their pelts are worth a fortune. They're a favorite of almost every monster hunter."
"..." I try, but I can't find any response. They love killing them? When I turn back Claire, to see what she has to say, her face is set like stone.
"In recent years, kitsu have nearly gone extinct due to extreme overhunting in the regions where they are known to live." After explaining what 'extinct' means, she doesn't say anything else. She doesn't have to.
Claire continues on with our lessons after that, but despite her pretending, I can tell that her mood doesn't really improve.
We make it through the rest of the day, and I do manage to learn a whole lot about various magical creatures. And we do eventually visit the alchemy guild counter again so I can learn a bit more about the few things they have discovered - and more importantly, the methods they used to do so. It gives me better idea of how to go about my own experiments later. When the time comes, we thank the two guild masters and leave the guild hall behind. At the central plaza, Claire says goodbye for the night and starts on her way home, somewhere to the south from the direction she walks off, while we return to the refinery.
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"...So." Eryk huffs out, when we're back in his office. We haven't really spoken much today, which feels a bit weirder than usual, since he was right next to us the whole time. I mean, it's not that much different from him being in the next room over while I'm doing my lessons, but it still feels different. "While I can't say much about the rest of that visit, I'm glad we learned a little more about alchemy."
"Yeah..." He raises a brow at my response. I close my eyes and shake my head. "Sorry, I'm still kind of..."I can't shake the bad feeling in my chest.
Eryk sits, peering at me closely for a few moments longer, but eventually shakes his head. "Sorry, I don't think I follow. What's wrong?"
"What's wrong?" I gape incredulously. "Kitsu are nearly extinct!"
He opens his mouth, eyebrows furrowing together for a few long moments while he tries to understand, and I see when he finally gets it. "Oh." But he almost seems to shake it off just as quickly. "Well, it's not like we can do anything about that."
"But, but..." I try uselessly. "But it's just so..." Sad? But it's more than that. Just so... so... "It's Reena's animal," I try to explain this awful emotion. "It's her mark. The thing that's supposed to symbolize her. She's a god. No one hunts fairies or nagi! Kitsu should get... I don't know, something! Respect? Something! Anything!" I throw my hands up in aggravation. "Instead they go out of their way to kill them! They've almost gone extinct! Why does everyone hate Reena so much?!"
At my angry shouts, Eryk just smiles despite the sadness in his eyes. He comes over and pats my head, like that'll calm me down. "I know it's not fair, and I know you care, but that's just how it is. People rely on the gods, and Reena doesn't help them, so they don't show her the same sort of respect as the others. Kitsu fur is valuable, and they're not particularly dangerous, so they're hunted. That's all there is to it."
I know he's right. But... I cross my arms and scowl at the table, unwilling to meet his gaze. "It's still not fair. Even if it's not as much, she should get something. She's still a god..." Eryk doesn't respond, he just continues rubbing my head, and I can't help but start to feel better. He eventually gets me to look at him.
"Feeling better?" he asks with a knowing smile.
"Hmph," I grumble, pouting because I don't want to feel better. Not without... I don't know, doing something. But I know there's nothing I can do about this. I can't use her mark and go around making people respect her or something, because that'll just end with the other gods taking notice. Then they'll find out about me and I already know nothing good will come from that. Why does everything always have to be so hard...?
"Hmph!" I grunt at him again, then hop down from my chair. The best I can do right now is just trying not to think about it. "Fine, you win. Let's just get to work." It took us time to get all the way back across town, so it's already after the ninth bell and we really don't have much time left today.
"Hold on," he stops me with a hand on my shoulder. "You should change back first."
"Right..." I'm still wearing the nice green dress. Definitely don't want to destroy it if something goes wrong with any of our metal, magic, or alchemy testing. I'm not even sure what to call it anymore, there's so much overlap now...
Grabbing my peasant clothes from the where they're folded up on a chair in the back room, I quickly change, then we head into the workshop.
Of course, there isn't much we can really do in the last bit of time we have in the day, so we just end up trying water, heat, and lightning on different metal slags. Out of all our quick, thrown together tests, we only find one thing.
When we mix together the white, burning powder with water, we get that same, extremely hot effect we saw last time. But the powder seems to disappear... When I touch the leftover water, it burns me for some reason, with that weird, non-heat burn the powder had. It's not quite as bad as the powder, but I still have to continuously wash it off with a bunch more water to get it to stop, and it leaves my finger stinging like yesterday. Good thing I can keep healing stuff like this with earth mana...
"Wait..." After Eryk stares at the strange, now-burning water for a long time, he suddenly gapes at it. Then he mixes it together with some other cooled slag. I think the one from the iron ore. The result: the rocky stuff breaks up like it's getting burned away, until only a few chunks are left floating in the crucible. Eryk scoops the rocks out and slides the crucible into a small hole in the side of a furnace in the workshop. When it comes out, Eryk's smile turns to confusion. In what I would have expected to be a crucible of molten orange metal, there's some white... stuff. Well, it's floating in molten metal, but why didn't some of it melt?
"It should have made sulphra," Eryk wonders aloud. "That white powder, I thought it would turn into sulphuric acid. Now I'm not so sure..."