Three riders and a spare horse appeared on a lonely mountain road framed by trees. It was an early spring morning and the first rays of the sun were only just beginning to illuminate the valley below them and parting the mists that had hidden it from view.
Right in the middle of the valley, surrounded by wide pastures and fields lay an idyllic village.
“The village looks kind of peaceful from up here.” Hamman said to his two brothers. “The heretic seems to still lay low.”
“Well then get moving before they decide that today is a good day to sacrifice some children.” Amra answered.
“And while we ride, finally tell us what made you so secretive about the mission. I’m not risking anything before I know what’s going on. What has got the Head Hunter so worried about this particular one?” Ohrun, the third and also youngest brother, asked.
“Well…” Hamman said. “The mission is pretty standard, at least as much as missions like this can be. It’s what happens after that has him so excited. You see, we finally got confirmation that the dungeon master has arrived.
After we catch this one we have the order to collect a few others that have been collecting dust in a nearby outpost. The mission paper states I should only tell you when we arrive at the prison, but I don’t really see the point either.”
“The old man is seriously starting to piss me off with his paranoia.” Ohrun said. “I get he’s a veteran from the Witch War, but nobody has heard from them since and we keep the land clean from everything else.”
“Ranting about it ain’t helping either though.” Amra said “Just look at it as an old monster eccentricity. They all got some and there is nothing we can do about it. You can go challenge him about it when you reach peak Spirit Foundation as well. Or Spirit Foundation at all.”
Ohrun grumbled something incomprehensible, but Amra’s speech had visibly deflated his angry bluster.
The winding road down the cliffs grew progressively wider and easier to traverse as they descended. When they left the last trees behind it only led down at a gentle incline and soon even that was gone.
Only flanked by the wild pastures, their approach was soon noticed. While the children were excited to see outsiders and even armed ones at that, the adults were much warier. Having armed strangers enter your village randomly was never a good sign.
For many cultivators, having a weapon and supernatural strength were all the justifications they needed to use them. Thus escorted by distrustful gazes from all sides, the trio of Hunters headed straight for the largest residence around.
The residence consisted of multiple buildings connected by a central courtyard and roofed walkways. The central building reached an impressive three stories and was by far the largest building around. Its entrance was guarded by two poorly equipped mundane warriors.
“This would all be much more impressive if land and labor weren’t so cheap out here.” Ohrun mumbled, clearly still in a bad mood.
“Just shut up and don’t antagonize them. I don’t want to do this without their help, do you? And remember that we want to test whoever is in charge first.”, Hamman reprimanded him. Then, loudly, he announced: “Three adventurers in search of treasure and the Dao have arrived. Go fetch your lord so that he may help us in our endeavor.”
The two guards looked at each other and then back to Hamman, clearly unsure of what to do in this situation. Just as Hamman was about to just ignore them and enter through the open gates, an old housekeeper appeared.
“The warmest welcome to the three heroes. My name is Steward Negin and I will show you to our greeting room. Unfortunately, the lord is currently receiving other guests, but he will be with you shortly.” he said and bowed to them.
“Very well. Tell him to be quick about it.” Hamman answered.
The three brothers dismounted and followed the steward into the courtyard. Once inside, their horses were taken over by stable hands and they were led to a comfortably furnished room on the ground floor of the largest building.
The room contained four large couches arrayed around a large marble table. The servants soon served them tea and biscuits while they waited and a large bowl with various fruits was also brought in.
After a few minutes of waiting, a richly clad, middle-aged man entered the room. His greying temples and well-groomed beard gave him an air of authority and dependability. He eyed the trio lounging on the couches as if they owned the place critically.
“Greetings. My name is Korrin Ouengard and I’m honored that young heroes such as yourself saw fit to visit a simple magistrate like me. I am however not quite sure what I can do to help you in your endeavors. The problems of cultivators are not something I can really involve myself in.”, the man said.
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“Well, you have a cultivator problem already, even if you seem not to know about it yet.”, Hamman said. Amra mostly preferred not to speak and Ohrun couldn’t be trusted not to mess things up, so it fell on him to represent their group. “How familiar are you with the world of cultivation, Magistrate Ouengard?”
“I have dabbled with cultivation myself in my youth, but in the end, it wasn’t really for me. I have however kept myself informed about the potential threats to my village. Has a dangerous Spirit Beast been sighted in the vicinity?”
“Much worse. The oracles have seen a shadow darkening the spiritual energy in your valley. A demonic cultivator has made their nest here.”, Hamman answered. While speaking, he had removed a medallion depicting a tree strangling a demon from beneath his shirt. This medallion was proof of his membership in the Hunters.
The magistrate’s eyes threatened to bulge out of his head and for a moment he was too shocked for a proper reply. Amra and Ohrun used that opening to swiftly dash to his side.
“Going by your reaction I’m rather sure you aren’t the person we’re looking for. Even so, it’s always better to check.” Along with those words, Hamman removed a round hand mirror from his pouch. After injecting a small amount of spiritual energy into it, it began to emit an intense ray of light which he shone on the magistrate's face. When the magistrate showed no reaction besides closing his eyes at the intense light, the three Hunters let out a sigh of relief.
“I apologize for that unpleasantness, but we had to be sure that you remain uncorrupted.”
While the magistrate tried to recover his eyesight, Amra and Ohrun moved back to their seats. For a moment it looked like he wanted to protest the rough treatment, but none of the three Hunters looked even remotely apologetic.
“Right. Well. So how can I help you find the demonic cultivator? The few things I know about them tell me that the longer they can stay undetected, the worse for all involved. I assume you can’t just shine that mirror of yours on everyone.”
“That is correct.” Hamman said. “The mirror has to recover for a few hours and it’s also very energy intensive. The foreign energy that most demonic cultivators depend on can feel quite unsettling even to mortals. So if there are locations nearby that evoke such feelings that should be our focus.
Sadly, most of them know that much and the mountains that surround your village probably have many spots to hide in. We’ll need a local guide who knows every cave, ruin, or other places that would allow someone to hide in for quite some time.”
Magistrate Ouengard nodded. “There are a few prospectors and hunters that I do business with. I understand that they’ll have to be kept in the dark so that the demonic cultivator isn’t alerted, but they won’t. It has to look like I was just your intermediary.”
“Naturally. This isn’t our first hunt. Once this is done you can blame the reckless cultivators for endangering everyone.” Hamman said. “But don’t overdo it. I’d hate to cut through another mob of enraged villagers.”
The magistrate paled at that and nodded again. “Then I think it would be best not to dawdle. I’ll have some guest rooms prepared for you while I gather your guides.”
“That’s very kind of you. We’ll go take a look at your village in the meantime. You can expect us to be back around midday and we’ll set out after lunch.”
. . .
“Why do those bastards always hide out in such dumps.” Ohrun complained. “Everything is muddy and you can’t tell whether the thing soaking your shoes is earth or shit. And have you looked at their girls? Flat as a board and plain like the eastern prairie.”
“Why did you even become a Hunter then? You knew where they hide beforehand, city boy.” Amra said.
“Youthful idiocy and unrealistic expectations. I should’ve just joined a sect and continued to read about Hunters and explorers in my trashy novels. If I find the ones who wrote such drivel I will drag them to the most backend hovel I can find and force them to live there for a few months. Let’s see if they will dare to lie like that again.” came the heated answer.
Hamman rolled his eyes. His parents really had pampered his little brother beyond belief. “Just keep your eyes open. We’ll get a nice lunch at the magistrate’s mansion and tonight we can sleep in real beds. Save your complaints for the bad missions.”
Internally, he agreed with Ohrun though. The contrast between the magistrate’s mansion and the shoddily stacked stone houses of the regular villagers was quite stark. At least they had somewhat solid roofs over their heads and most of them didn’t even look that malnourished. Compared to most city slums this was almost luxurious.
After a while of fruitless sightseeing, they returned to the magistrate’s mansion. While it was the largest one around, it wasn’t the only one. There were plenty of smaller compounds and two of comparable size, their only lacking feature was the two-story main building instead of the magistrate’s three-storied one.
“So why weren’t we looking into these obvious targets?” Ohrun asked, pointing vaguely at the other buildings.
“’cause we can’t just run in there without alerting everybody. Amra will stay and keep an eye out for suspicious movement, but we’ll eliminate the soft targets first. Rich people won’t run unless they feel they have to. And if one of them does go missing we’ll hear about it. Then we’ll either have our target or a first victim which can lead us to the heretic.” Hamman replied.
Amra grunted in agreement. “Before you complain, I know what to look for and I’ll also take night watch. Besides, you have to get used to finding clues in the wilderness. Most of them hide out alone or with other outcasts, where nobody asks why there’s suddenly one less mouth to feed or loot to split with. If you’re rich you have the means but also much more to lose.
This village is too small for a proper slum and too poor for bandits to bother with, so loner or affluent it is.”
“Shouldn’t they teach all this during apprentice classes?” Ohrun asked. “Not that cultivation lessons and weapons training aren’t important, but I feel that I should maybe know stuff like this already. I could have just trained with my bow during the journey.”
“Aren’t we teaching you right now?” Hamman asked back. “But seriously. I can teach you this stuff as we go, but I can’t teach you to keep up if you’re too weak. You can only learn if you survive. Now enough of that. Don’t let the guards or servants hear you. We don’t want to alarm the target too much.”