Using the disk swords Oliver pushed himself away and once again managed to escape the crash, the Washer was angry but started to be more careful, this sea whale was mainly carnivore , it ate other living creatures and even an infant would learn through trial and error after multiple times, it no longer saw Oliver as a harmless fly, he was now a wasp.
Oliver side was bleeding, after all the disks had blades on them, although they could be used in varieties of ways they could still hurt the user if pushed too much, which had happened now, but compared to being smashed into a wall these wounds were better, whats more they were healing with visible for the eye speed, Oliver grasped the halberd tighter and charged towards the whale, this was supposed to be his punching bag not the other way around, but the turtle like scales were too hard, this creature had incredible defense, Oliver hit once again didn’t do any damage.
Feeling the attacks of the small creature the whale smiled menacingly, he didn’t mind his food struggling as long as it ended up in his stomach at the end.
Oliver hit multiple times but the result was the same, which made him frown a little, he didn’t know it would be so hard to gut a fish, but that was why it was worth it, thinking like that even the small frown disappeared.
Earlier.
After Gisha left an 18 year old looking boy in a uniform entered, he bowed slightly towards the guard and Oliver.
“Hello gentlemen , my name is Jakfay, but most people call me Fay, I am sorry sir guard but you are gonna have to wait outside”
The guard nodded and left, he was told to follow Oliver but knew that what followed was something ordinary and was done to all the members.
Only Fay and Oliver were left in the room, Fay was the first to speak.
Fay “what follows is the usual explanation given to all new hunters, but before I start, I have to ask you something, which God do you serve, Saint’
Hearing this the smile on Oliver face disappeared and the halberd was immediately materialized and put against Fay neck, he didn’t know how the latter found that out, but this was not information that should be disclosed easily when you wanted to keep low profile.
Fay face remained unchanged which rubbed Oliver the wrong way, he was the one holding the blade but didn’t feel like the one in charge.
Fay”do not worry, that was a mandatory question, even if Saints are uncommon, especially here, we have quite a few of them working for us, do not worry we wont cause you damage in any way, so which god do you serve”
Oliver “can I not answer that” without talking to Flood he didn’t dare to give out this information, but at least it didn’t seem like the other side had any way to differentiate either, otherwise they wouldn’t need to ask in the first place.
Fay nodded”yes you can, after all most Saints choose not to do so ”
That statement angered Oliver, it looks like Fay tested him with that question,
Fay ”but I have to ask, you haven’t broken the rules of the kingdom right”
Oliver “yes I havent broken the rules”
Fay was observing Oliver carefully and decided he was telling the truth, his skill was telling him so.
Fay “ok, now that this is over with I will give you the basic information every hunter needs to know, for more you can either ask the other staff or look for it at the library”
Oliver put his weapon away and sat once again on the couch opposite to Fay, he didnt like people like that, but that didn’t prevent him from asking questions.
Oliver ”was that all I need to register, just this one question”
Fay shook his head ”you registered the moment you grabbed the item the Head gave you”
Oliver took out a little knife like necklace.
Fay nodded ”yes, exactly that, it’s a magical item that represents that you are part of the hunter guild, whats more this one is special and automatically takes the necessary information of the wearer, be very careful not to lose it, new one is quite expensive”
Oliver put it on his neck.
Fay just nodded.
Fay “now what you need to know is not much, but there are two things which are most important, first there are different knives, they represent different ranks and are symbol of your position as a hunter, they have quite a few benefits with the increase of the rank, all new members are given wood knifes, after you accumulate points by doing quests and pass a test you get copper ones, and you go that way to iron, lead and finally, silver, every next knife is more difficult to obtain than the previous one and more things are needed to be tested, if we go by the people who work as hunters they consider those before iron as novice, those in iron and lead as real hunters and silver as veterans, but silver is not the end, after Silver you can get other knife which is named special knife, those knives are made from things hunted by the hunter, only real experts have those, they are considered made specifically for the hunter who owns them, those represent the specialty of the hunter, those special knifes are further divided into two, the first of which is known as advanced knife, and finally Master knife, which is the last one and the one whit most benefits, as the name suggests those who have those are considered pro amongst pros, a true master, by the way most hunter spend their whole lives in either iron or lead”
Fay gave Oliver a look and saw that the other side was listening to him carefully
Fay “by the way the Head gave you a Silver knife, which means that you already are past quite a few hunters”
Oliver smiled mischievously “do you think he made a mistake”
Fay resolutely shook his head ”no, the head doesn’t make mistakes about power, if you gain the points and pass a test you can get a special knife as well”
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Oliver frowned a little, his provocation had no effect at all.
Fay “second, hunter quests or missions, as you might know we hunt what we are told, after which you need to bring the necessary item with the quest sheet and you will receive the reward, excluding the normal one we hunters have our own unique currency,”
Fay took out several cubes made from different metal and put them on the table.
Fay “that currency is known as “prey”, when you finish the quest you will receive those cubes as a reward, they are something similar to universal currency, they are the main reason that hunters don’t need to hunt only in one place, they can be exchanged for the equivalent sum of every other currency in the places that are associated with the Hunters, any building that works with us will do it, weapon-shops, restaurants, hotels etc, or you can use them directly in any place connected to us as well, you can also change them for other available currencies as well, but remember, that only works one way, after you exchange them you cant exchange them back, in cases of stealing or losing they wont be refunded, but if you catch the thief and bring him back he would be punished harshly by the hunter association, and in case you manage to catch the thief in some cases you can be refunded”
Oliver made a devilish smile, but completely hid it with benevolent one,
Fay took out a blue seashell and put it on the table.
Fay “this is item that can store “prey”, the higher the lvl of the knife the more it can store, so you have quite a lot of free space in it, you receive it automatically after you pass to copper, this can be bought as well, and they are different kinds as well, hunter usually use it to show from where they are, this shell is showing that you are from this branch, or the one in the sea-people kingdom”
After that he explained other stuff as well, half an hour later Fay finished and escorted Oliver to the exit where the guardian was waiting for him, they started walking back to the castle.
As he walked back Oliver couldn’t help but smile all the way, he found the perfect job for himself, honestly speaking this job was one born from nothing else but necessity, which couldn’t exist in a peaceful world, but only in one with constant danger.
This job was used to create an army of everyday people, which were skilful in fighting, honestly speaking in this world there werent many humans compared to territory, even if they ruled now it wasn’t sure if they would rule tomorrow as well, there might be a lot of humans but considering that the continent was more than 2 times the scale of earth the humans werent its only rulers, whats more everything other breads and evolves except humans and sub-humans, that proves that the chance of them staying rulers forever are little, in that environment hunters were necessary which no one could even question, even if they were called hunters Oliver thought that “Jacks of all trade” would suit them more, the jobs they did werent limited only to hunting they were defending people, finding fugitives or tracking specific monster and gaining information or materials etc, hunters did everything, when Oliver had asked why they were called hunter instead of something else, the answer was simple.
Fay”noting else suits us more, although we have variety of jobs, variety of people, and variety of purposes for working as hunters there is something that never changes, we strive to survive, we strive to succeed, and we strive to do what we want, but we do not pray or beg for them, we work for them cause we want to have them, catch them, the same way a hunter catches his prey, that’s where our name comes from, and just by looking at you I can tell, that you are a born hunter”
Oliver agreed on that part, he always put efforts and tried to catch what he wanted so those words of Fay werent wrong.
Oliver knew that the reason hunters exist was cause in place where no weak could survive there needed to be strength,royal guards and other similar positions even if produced larger quantity of strong people they didn’t produce large quantity of people who were needed for survival here, royal guards, bodyguards etc they might occasionally fight monsters but their real enemies were humans more often than not, while hunters dont really have enemies, they just do what they do but more often than not, not against humans, but against nature, animals ,and monsters, which in this world was much more difficult than humans, there were a few rules for them, but they were basically the laws of the kingdom, if anything the hunters had more freedom than regular people but it was normal.
The reason the King and most people werent found of this profession was simple, it was too dangerous, the chance of dead were extremely high, it was high-risk high-reward kind of job, a very large part of hunters die on their job which was not something that anyone wanted, even the easiest hunter quest contained risk, it was just smaller but there should be no mistake, it was still there.
So hunters werent usually people with happy families but people with nothing to lose, or in dire need of money, or those with no other choice, but whatever the reason those people tried their best to survive, which in result created nature formed warriors which no one could look down upon, even Fay was confident in that statemen, for the simple reason that not many survived the profession, nobody dared to mess with those few that did, the people here were given a two week training camp that trained them the way of survival but two weeks were way too little to learn everything on which depended your live, so those who could manage to survive under those circumstances were nothing but strong. Oliver once again thought back to his conversation with Fay.
Fay ’we are not exclusive organization, the hunters are more like a group of many combined smaller organization forming a bigger one, as long as you become hunter the hunters see you as one of them, we all want to survive and in those cases strength is more important than race, gender, or anything else, we are the only organization which functions in all of the four kingdoms, with power which rival them”
When Oliver heard that, a question naturally came to mind.
Olive”and you mean to tell me they tolerate you all, an organization with power rivaling theirs”
Fay shook his head ”they don’t tolerate us, they don’t have a choice, even if the hunters in only one kingdom can be overturned by it, if we combine our strength two kingdom would be needed to destroy us and that would be only after heavy casualties on their side, you can tell that even by my previous questions, a large number of saints which are extremely rare and powerful work for us, and I don’t mind telling you this as you are one of them, we respect their wishes and keep them hidden if they wish so, we satisfy their needs but don’t make a mistake they work with us, and they are not even our strongest, if the kingdoms can be looked like one big whole, then the hunter are like combinations of small ones, and nobody would take the risk to deal with us, that’s also the reason why we are freer than other people, and why even the royal guard spoke respectfully to this branch leader, nobody wants to mess with us knowing that for sure we would retaliate, hunters have their pride as well, we also help the kingdoms quite a lot so there is no sane reason for them to attack us when there is nothing but disadvantages for them if they do ”
Oliver nodded, now he was in aw from the power of this organization, Fay also later mentioned that he would have to help the hunter association if similar situations were to happen, but Oliver didn’t mind at all, if anything he wouldn’t mind going to war with the kingdom thinking about how exciting it would be.
Before Fay finished talking he handed Oliver a small shell, after pressing on it an image of a large whale looking creature appeared, with the word ”Washer” below it.
Fay” usually immediately after joining you would have to do a quest to test your skills, but since you are a silver knife your first mission cant be an ordinary one, find and catch a Washer, dead or alive doesn’t matter ”
After explaining that, he pulled out a small bag that seemed to be made from some kind of sea weed and gave it to Oliver.
Fay “you can use this bag to transport the body, usually you can borrow this for a certain sum at the branch but most silver knives have their own, you would receive this one as the reward for this quest but I will let you borrow it before that, do keep in mind that those things are something which only the hunters use and cant be lent, given or even lost, or you wouldn’t be hunted by the kingdoms but by all the hunters, that’s how precious these are to us”
Oliver nodded, it was time to hunt.