Mas looked over to Euness questioningly, but caught sight of Vilda. “Oh, Hunter Vilda. I apologize,” he said sincerely as he jumped from his seat, “I had, um, in a way, forgotten that you were here.”
He scratched the back of his head and cursed inwardly at his choice of words. He wasn't a scholar or anything, so how could he be blamed for his poor verbal skills?
Vilda simply nodded her head, overfilled with curiosity about what had transpired around the illiterate young man called Red Rumble. She was, however, a bit put out that the people of the Classy Slums had completely ignored her when they walked into the room. A person like her, who had once called the Classy Slums home and looked at as a source of inspiration by all poor slum dwellers, was somehow overlooked by a fellow named Red Rumble.
“Please, have a seat,” Mas offered while bowing and gesturing to the sofa for Vilda to sit.
Vilda complied and accepted a cup of tea along with some tea cakes from Mas.
“Now,” Mas said, feeling the situation with Vilda had been somewhat fixed, “Mister Euness, what was this about Red not becoming a Hunter?”
“The oaf can’t read or write,” Euness said again with a bit more venom than the last time, annoyed at the rabble that had trounced through their guild, “If he can’t fill out a simple form then how can he become a Hunter?”
Red’s head fell to his chest once more as the floor again gained all of his attention. He had just started to like the Mas fellow, but if he too ridiculed Red’s faults, it would push Red’s mood to new lows.
“That’s all?” Mas said with an exaggerated look of irritation at the receptionist.
His answer made Red look back up, a tinge of hope igniting in his eyes.
“What do you mean ‘that’s all’,” Euness snorted with his own look of annoyance, “Do you think being illiterate isn’t a big deal? Not to mention he’s from the Reeking Valley.”
Mas’ eyes widened as he heard Reeking Valley and turned to Red, “Is that true?”
Red nodded his head slightly, his eyes already retreating back to the floor.
“That’s amazing!” Mas exhaled, “How in the name of the gods did you get so good at fighting?”
The casual way of Mas used "gods" made Vilda’s eyebrow twitch. After all, she was a religious leader as well as a hunter. Her white garb wasn’t just for show.
“From the toughest places, come the toughest men,” Red’s boxer memories compelled him to say.
Mas clapped his hands together as he laughed, “Well said, young man, well said indeed. Hey, Euness,” The receptionist looked at Mas, the bags under his eyes seemed heavier than even when Red first met him.
“What is it Mister Mas?” Euness breathed out, already stressed and it was still the beginning of the day.
“Bring me an application form,” Mas demanded.
“Mister Mas, you can’t just fill out a form for another person—”
Mas cut him off, “I’ve been a Hunter for nine years now and I know for a fact that there isn’t any rules about helping someone fill out an application form.”
Euness was quiet.
“That’s what I thought,” Mas said nodding, then looked over at Red and patted his leg with a hand, “Don’t worry, young man. We’ll get this sorted out.”
Moments later, the form was filled and Red approached the desk of the receptionist once more. Euness was frowning but still, he accepted the application form and a letter of recommendation written by Mas.
As if this added any weight, thought Euness staring at the letter with disdain.
“That will be 2 silver coins,” Euness said as he put out his hand expectantly. Red made a face that caused Euness to sigh, “You need to pay the processing fee in order to have your application go through, sir.”
“I don’t have—” Red began to say but was interrupted by the clatter of two silver coins landing on the desk.
Mas stood behind him smiling and assured, “Red, don’t worry, I’ll pay.”
“You told me you had a family. Don’t—” Red began to protest.
He was aware of the difficulties that a family of two faced while being with his mother all those years. A family of four had to be dealing with more difficulties. How could Red take such a significant quantity of money meant for a large family struggling in the slums?
Mas interjected, not letting Red finish, “Do you think I would risk my family to pay for some brawling champion? I happen to have made a lot of money recently and I mean a lot.” Euness raised an eyebrow at Mas who answered his curious expression with an even broader smile, “I won a bag of gold along with a handful of silver and a few bags of copper.”
Euness couldn’t hide his envy. “How on earth could a gambling failure like you manage to come across so much money?” the receptionist demanded to know.
Mas slapped his hand on Red’s shoulder and responded with a smile, “By betting on this boy to win every one of his fights at the gypsy brawls and by the realms, he did just that!”
Euness looked back to Red, but with a different expression painting his face than the dismissive look he had a moment ago.
Money was what truly made Soalde the jewel of the Kingdom of Loderan. People in the city talk about sage symbols, innovation and vision, but the real power here was the amount of gold that piled up. Anything that can make money was valued here by all Soalde’s citizens, especially Euness.
“So don’t worry about the money or paying me back, Red Rumble,” Mas assured, patting Red’s broad back, “I owe you big. I don’t have to earn coin from doing any dangerous quests this year and I can get a tutor for my kids because of you. This is all I can do to thank you for showing up in my life when you did. So please, don’t mention it.”
Red smiled at the grizzled Hunter, making sure to imprint Mas’ kind face into his mind.
Mas, I will remember this as long as I live, Red thought with gratitude.
“Thank you,” Red said with all the sincerity his simple mind could muster.
It took all morning for applications in the reviewing process to be either accepted or denied. Red wasn’t sure how paperwork worked, so he wasn’t stressed in the least. Ignorance is bliss, as they say. He remained in the lobby talking with Mas about the Hunter business. Vilda had excused herself long ago to run her own errands around the Classy Slums.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“You’re going to have to take on the basic quests,” Mas continued his explanation on how Red was going to start out, “There are quests that are recommended to be taken as part of a team, but you can choose to do any quest alone. But as a beginner, it would be best to join a team.”
Red nodded his head dumbly. He couldn’t retain anything said by Mas so far. He was still as empty headed as he was before he was a champion in people’s eyes.
A short statured man with a red nose walked into the building with his shoulders slumped and his head down, which caused him look all the shorter.
Mas caught sight of the short man and called out, “Dwindle! My friend, it has been a while since I’ve seen you.”
The short, red-nosed man, Dwindle, walked up to both Mas and Red and then slumped down onto an opposite sofa like a slug down a hot rock. Red couldn’t help but stare at the newcomer. The red-nosed man was as small as a child but more sturdily built. A recollection of a moment Red shared with his mother appeared in his head.
“Mother,” he one day asked her, “why does that child have so much muscle?”
His mother slapped the top of his head for how loud he spoke and chastised, “Red how many times do I have to tell you not to be rude to dwarves!”
Red was certain of it, the man sitting across from him was what they called a “dwarf”.
The dwarves were a race of humanoid that were known for the same kind of ingenuity that humans had, but more in terms of mechanical inventions and forging disciplines rather than an encompassing generality over all disciplines that humans possessed.
Red didn’t know all that, he just knew that they were short and stout.
“Come on now, Dwindle, are you still making those kinds of faces?” Mas asked the dwarf.
A deep sigh was all Dwindle could muster to answer his friend with.
Mas, trying to cheer up his depressed dwarf friend, went on, “We’re living the dream as Hunters. The job many would trade their left arm for, and you can’t at least smile a bit?”
Dwindle continued to mope, but he managed to squeeze an answer out of himself, “I won’t make any money doing this, my friend. As I sat there in my somewhat cool room at the Beanery Beds,”
“That’s a good inn,” Mas commented, “Real soft pillows, and natural beans in those beds too.”
“I thought to myself,” Dwindle continued, “Is this my life? Is this all that I could manage being in this city for so long?”
Mas scratched his head not knowing what to say. He was in the same straits as Dwindle, but he was content with what he had. He knew his destiny wasn’t something out of a story book, but he was happy.
The dwarf lamented, “I have been in this putrid human city for five years trying to make a living, and all I could manage to do in that time was become a Level 2 Base Hunter. All my inventions: failed. All my forgings: denied. My dwarf cousins laugh at me, they do. They laugh right at my handsome face.”
Dwindle then seemed to stare off into the void with empty eyes, not exactly at the two men sitting with him.
“I actually managed to run into a bit of luck myself,” Mas said, thinking about the amount of gold and silver he deposited at the guild bank and unable to keep his recent fortune to himself, “I won more than a fair share of coins at the gypsy brawls last night.”
Dwindle perked up at the mention of coin and remarked, “But you’re terrible at gambling. Your wife actually asked me to talk to you about it.”
Mas hurriedly spoke over the subject while throwing a quick glance at Red, not wanting his gambling to become a subject of conversation, “That’s neither here nor there. I took in a good amount this time and my wife couldn’t be happier!”
Dwindle thought about what he said before speaking, “And that goblin subjugation quest you were trying to convince me to help you with?”
“No need. All the subjugation quests I was going to need to take, I've shelved for the time being. I’m only doing gathering and public relation quests for the whole of the new year.”
Dwindle sat suddenly upright in his chair at attention.
“You know about the tutor I had been droning on about for the last few months?” Mas asked.
“How could I not? You wouldn’t stop complaining about your children needing to get a step up above the others at their school,” the dwarf replied.
“Well, I got her. She’s going to teach my kids every week from now on.”
“Hammer and wrench, human! You’ve must've struck gold! How did you do it?”
Mas used both hands to gesture towards Red as he spoke, “This fellow is the new gypsy brawling champion. He fought more than ten fights last night, and I bet on him right from the get-go to win every single one.”
“A champion?” Dwindle said with awe, finally taking notice of the young bruised up human with a face swollen from fighting. The dwarf thought of the gypsy brawls, which prompted him to ask Mas, “So, he fought the current champion, the Mystic Masher?”
Mas shook his head and spoke quietly for effect, “The Mystic Mauler was taken out during the sixth or seventh bout. The real news here is that he beat the Hound himself.”
Dwindle looked back at Red with awe. “This thin lad took out the Gypsy Hound?” he asked, astonished.
“And that was after a dozen or so fights."
“Mister Rombell?” a voice behind them called out, interrupting the conversation.
They turned to see a young woman with glasses who had approached holding a square piece of paper and a small, thin metal plate with a single dash embedded in it that dimly glowed at the center.
“Yes?” Red answered.
“Congratulations, you have been accepted into the Hunter’s guild as a Level 1 Base Hunter,” the young woman said with a pleasant smile. Her hand took the pin and paper, handing it over to Red, “This is you’re hunter’s license and your pin to show your ranking as a Hunter. May the goddess of luck bless you with good hunting.”
Red got up and accepted the items and was about to give his thanks when an indignant voice spoke up stopping him, “The champ is only a Base Level 1? How can that be?!”
Red turned around to find the dwarf had been angered. Red didn’t know what to say. He had just met the dwarf and the short guy was already defending his honor for some reason.
Mas saw the look on Red’s face and whispered to him, “That’s how dwarves are. They hold titles to an even higher esteem than we do.”
Red nodded, but still did not understand. His mother told him to play along when things became too confusing for him, so all he could do was accept what was told by people he trusted, and he trusted Mas.
“Have you heard of the Gypsy Hound, lass?” Dwindle prompted the guild worker, the dwarf now standing on the table since the furniture was obscuring his view of the woman.
“I can’t say that I have,” the young woman answered, becoming a tad nervous at the outrage being displayed by the dwarf.
Dwarves were known for their tempers, especially in the city of Soalde where haggling was a daily practice for those who did business at dwarven shops. Word of warning by most humans was to never get into an argument with a dwarf. They could cut off their own leg with your blade and argue that it was somehow your fault.
“The Hound was the gypsy brawling champion who retired after ten years straight of going undefeated, little lass, and that boy that you disparaged by giving a Level 1 ranking was the one to beat that champ as well as the recent champ.”
“What is gypsy brawling…?” the woman asked, nervously, backing away step by step away from the dwarf’s rage.
“I need to speak to your superiors,” Dwindle demanded.
To Dwindle and the rest of his dwarven kind, all titles mattered, especially if they were earned. If there was a trash disposer that couldn’t dispose of trash properly, they would take it to the highest authority that they could get to in order to punish the disposer. With Red being crowned the gypsy brawling champion, Dwindle couldn’t sit idly by if someone wasn’t able to recognize that fact. To dwarves, it was an injustice of the highest kind if titles were not respected, or, God forbid, unrecognized.
“I don’t think that’s necessary. Forgive Dwindle, Tulip, you know how he gets…” Mas said as he hurried the young girl away who was in turn thankful for the reprieve.
“I don’t understand you humans,” Dwindle said as if it was a catchphrase, “clearly the boy has gifts and you people squander it.”
“It’s better if he takes things slow,” Mas advised.
Red nodded.
“Humph,” snorted the dwarf, sitting back down then turned to Red, “Champ, I don’t think that’s wise. For someone like you to take the slow route is an egregious and an immoral act.”
“Immoral…?” Mas groaned, even having known Dwindle for a while, he still couldn’t understand dwarven sensibilities.
“Champ, go for the goblin subjugation quest,” Dwindle instructed.
Red nodded.
“Whoa, hold on. That is for a whole Level 1 Base team of Hunters to handle or a couple of Base Level 2 Hunters. Red hasn’t had any experience with such hunts yet,” Mas reprimanded.
A wave of his hand was all that Dwindle answered Mas with which angered the grizzled Hunter, but he wouldn't dare get into an argument with a dwarf, so he let it go.
“I’m telling you, champ. You should hit the hardest quest available to Base Level 1 Hunters and show them what champions are made of!” the dwarf said with gusto.
That lit a fire under Red as he spoke, “Don’t worry, Mister Dwindle. I’ll knock these quests out quicker than you can say subjugism.”
“It’s subjugation, but I like that spirit in you, human. Let’s go right now and get you that quest!”
Mas placed a hand to his face and simply shook his head.
Dwindle was the first to move and headed straight for Euness stressing at the sight of the dwarf as he slid a hand down his face.
“Mister Mas,” Red said, pausing before he made his way to follow the dwarf.
“Yea, champ?” Mas responded, looking up.
“Should I be doing this?”
Mas sighed then smiled, “Dwindle is one of the most trustworthy folk I know, even more than most humans I’ve met. You’re in good hands.”
Red nodded and smiled back at him before running off towards Euness’ desk where the receptionist had already started arguing with Dwindle.