Edited by: tommyjl7
In the inn section of the adventurers guild in the capital of Neira, at a table quite close to the bar a single blond-haired beautiful for her age girl was pitting and sobbing quietly. She was whining like a scolded puppy, hiding in a corner in order to avoid any further harsh treatment.
- “Hey! El! Why such a long face!” her friend quickly sat by her side.
- “S-so… I was training with Miss Aiele, as always… and… and I was doing pretty good…”
- “That’s great! Why are you sobbing then?!”
- “B-Because I said it aloud…”
- “Aaand?”
- “And Miss Aiele decided to prove to me that I was not doing well at all. She sped up.”
- “Yeah, as far as I know, that’s a normal procedure, when you catch up to the current level of training it’s just a natural thing to rise difficulty!”
Elana rolled up sleeves of her long shirt.
- “Oh my!” Rus actually became speechless. From wrist up to the shoulders the body of the little girl was purple. It was almost as if bruises completely took over place of the skin.
Once again Elana let out a quiet whine as she started massaging her body trying to bring at least a little bit of comfort.
- “Wasn’t this treatment a little bit too harsh?” magician girl asked still gazing over damages in shock and awe
- “Miss Aiele said that she had to show me how much I am still lacking… apparently, she doesn’t like when someone brags… I had no idea that she is such a humble person…” El said more to herself than to her friend
- “Ay? Humble? Riiight…” to Rus these two words did not belong in the same sentence.
- “Rus, I’m starting to think that… this whole adventuring may not be my thing.” Blonde girl admitted after a moment making her companion spat a tea she just started drinking.
- “What?! Why!? You were so excited about it! You wanted to see the world!”
- “But… But… I am so weak! And slow! And terrible! There is no way I will be able to finish even the simplest task alone, and I will be slowing down the rest of the people… In the end I am just a ballast, first to my family, then to Mister Zariel, now to Miss Aiele and the rest of the guild…”
A quick slap in the cheek forced El to snap out from her dream-like state.
- “Don’t even talk like that!” Rus was furious “… I felt this way at the beginning too! Even more, I don’t have too many friends because of my age! Other people are nice to me, yet they patronize me! You are the first person I can truly call friend! Also – I have already started booking some easier quests for both of us, so you better train hard! Otherwise, Master Jericho would not let you g….”
- “Master Jericho would not let you what?” a pleasant voice of an elder man could be heard right behind red-hair’s ear making her jump slightly.
- “I-I didn’t hear you coming, sir!” Magician admitted politely seeing a Master of the guild.
- “Of course! I used to be called the world strongest human for a reason, child!” Jeremy brushed his beard with pride “… but back to the business. I heard you are doing great, El.”
- “T-T-That’s not true! Miss Aiele just showed me how many things I have yet to learn…”
- “Weird. I just talked with her, she couldn’t praise you enough.”
- “T-this is very nice of you, but I just can’t believe it, sir.” Blonde girl lowered her head with sad expression.
- “Why? Because she got bit harsher to you? El, Aiele is a very dangerous woman, her carefree attitude is just a charade, a trick she uses to fool everyone around her, yet for a moment there you made her serious. This always cheerful Aiele didn’t smack you playfully as usual, did she?”
Eyes of the wanna-be-adventurer widened in shock.
- “S-s-still…”
- “There was one more reason for you to get all these bruises. Something that people like Aiele know the best. You can never let the satisfaction to overcome you… You may, or may not, know it already, but Aiele is an assassin. A very dangerous one. Do you know when people are the most vulnerable for an attack?”
- “W-when they sleep?” girl stated with her purest naivety making old man laugh.
- “Yes, and no, what I mean – right before succeeding. It is easiest to stumble and fall one step before the finish line. You made huge progress, even more, Aiele said that when it came to new training methods, you are natural. She didn’t want you to rest, girl. The path to perfection is never-ending, and path of adventurer is path of mastering the art of killing. Go to bed early today, girls, Ay asked me to tell you that starting from tomorrow you begin the training with actual weapons. Also, that she will make you sweat a lake.”
- “Aww. Poor Elly!...” Rus mocked her friend with cheerful smile “… I wouldn’t like being in your boots starting from tomo… Wait, why did you say
- “As the two of you wish to form a team, Aiele said that it’s the finest time to work with your cooperation – so naturally, you will participate too.”
- “NOOO WAAAAY!”
Rus’s scream echoed across the whole building of an inn.
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Same time, at the little trading city next to Omega Forest in the room of the head of the city guards a young, pretty boy “woke up”. Oh, he was awake this whole time, when one of the guards was carrying him, when somebody put him on some kind soft furniture, when they got rid of damaged and blooded clothes, washed his body with a wet towel and put on him some simple shirt and pants.
He kept listening, smelling, gathering data, analyzing, planning, picking a strategy and trying to foresee outcomes. With perfect, lethal accuracy he kept spreading the strings of his web of plots.
And he did learn more, for the guards were really talkative. They kept saying a few seemingly unimportant things like “I bet he will be hungry when he would wake up, he was walking for days…” or “this new place will most likely confuse him….”.
All of these told him what he was expected to do, and by following their predictions, he could lower their suspicions, gain trust, learn more, act more freely.
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He opened his eyes, sat up and looked around while holding his head pretending to be at pain. He made sure that his eyes were darting over the whole, unfamiliar place, for he sensed a person sitting behind him.
- “Careful there, you may hurt yourself…” though the voice was soft and calming he
- “W-w-who are you? Where am I? Where is…”
- “Sh-sh-sh-sh. Easy there. Everything is fine. My name is Gerry van Akar and I am the captain of city guard of this outpost, and this lovely lady is Susan, my second-in-command. We are here to help citizens like yourself. So you can relax, you are safe here… You were spotted at the city gate where you collapsed. Before you did, you asked to help your parents… Mind telling me what happened? Knowing more I would be able to act faster and better…”
- “I…I…” exotic looking kid started stuttering. He tried to act as confused as only he could. He learned those kind of actions pretty well, his prey would often act silly as they got ambushed. They knew they were about to die, yet had no idea in which way they were supposed to run.
- “T-t-there was this sound… weird sound… papa started saying bad words, words for which mama would spank me if I would say them… Then papa screamed… and mama threw me off the cart… told me to run…. To call for help… she said she would be right behind me… but when I crossed the corner she did not come… she would just scream that I can’t stop running, that I can’t stop… So I… So I…”
A single tear appeared in the corner of his eyes, his lower lip started trembling.
- “Now! There-there-there!” a lady, named Susan, quite young yet guessing by few scars here and there definitely experienced hugged him with one arm trying to create an illusion of safety “… I am sure they are fine, in the end they are such brave people! Brave people always manage to leave bad situations victorious! We will help them for sure! Now, do you remember something else? Where were you ata…” she stopped for a moment as she decided to change her rhetoric “… this weird sound, where did you hear it? How did it sound?”
- “L-Like this…” Erio opened his mouth and let out a perfect hiss of cave salamander – one of the creatures dwelling in the forest, he just made sure to make it sound bit more vicious.
Eyes of guards opened in shock. Little chimera realized what he just did. Apparently humans were not supposed to let out such noises.
- “Papa taught me how to mimic sounds of other a animals…” he said after the moment, trying to make up excuse for this weird display “…I can mimic most birds and farm animals…”
Though once again, word
- “I see… Susan, make sure that squads patrolling routes outside of the city will be carrying additional spears… just in case we had some mutated reptile…”
- “Gairarans?” Susan asked hugging kid bit closer
- “No. If that were Gairarans, kid would be dead too. They never stop chasing their prey.”
Capitan gave her subordinate a sign with hand that she didn’t have to keep covering kid’s ears. They had no idea that little beast heard every single word.
- “You must be hungry? Right? Wait a moment, I ordered you some meat soup and dessert… it should be coming… right… now! Voila!”
As if waiting for a command, the door opened and another guard carrying a bowl and a plate entered the room, leaving what he brought on the table in front of the kid.
Chimera quickly inspected the meat…
… and became furious inside. WHAT WAS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE! – he asked himself while looking at bowl of cooked meat.
It was damaged! Boiled! Cooked! Burned! The proteins structures were useless! The essence of the creature was unavailable! To eat means to grow! To eat means to absorb and adapt! Yet this! This is useless! This so called
… but apparently, humans do not possess this ability of perfect storage. What they won’t digest right away would leave their body. Such a waste! On the other hand, it forces them to hunt more and more frequently… Weird. Structural weakness. Trait undesirable.
Humans are such a silly creatures. The only environmental advantage they have comes from brain. Everything else is useless. Regressed lungs, if compared to birds. Smaller hearts, skin deprived of scales, regressed claws and talons….
Yet here they are – so weak, yet ruling the world… Their existence is an insult to the evolution! They need to pay for this offense with their very essence!
- “What’s wrong kid? Go on, feel free to eat!”
Crap. The Chimera became so lost in his thoughts that stopped paying attention. When he was in his spider-ling form it was easier. He could spend days and weeks in the web waiting for the preys to come. This gave him lots of time for thinking. For consideration.
Though his mind was far less complex. Matters he contemplated were simpler too.
Kim burrowed spoon in the meaty liquid, filled it completely and put it in his mouth.
And taste exploded. Aromas he never knew assaulted his brain like an army of charging Goliaths. He was not ready for it.
- “Everything all ri…” the guard wanted to double check his condition, yet kid threw the spoon to the side, raised the bowl to his mouth and started to greedily slurp and swallow the food.
- “He really hasn’t eaten for days…” Susan sighed quietly “… I will go ask for a little more.”
- “Please, do.” The Capitan agreed with a nod of his head “… there, there, you got yourself all dirty.” Man took a piece of towel made of cloth and started to wipe the fat off kid’s body.
Kim put the bowl on the table, still trembling, overwhelmed with the sensation of taste.
- “Before Susan would come with more soup… here, taste this chocolate cake.. but please, this time use fork.”
Just as he was instructed, chimera picked a little piece of dark pie and once again started inspecting.
Mostly plant-components and lots of artificial sugar. The substances in this “meal” couldn’t even serve purpose of nutrition! Outrageous! This never contained any essence! It never learned anything! To eat this!? It’s an even greater offense than eating animals whose essence was wasted!
But, for sake of infiltration… he put the fork into his mouth.
And this day, he died and was reborn a little. For a moment he thought that the clouds covering the sky moved apart and the beam of light fell upon him, as he was tasting this… weird… delicious … chocolate cake.
How and why. How something so USELESS can taste this GOOD!? It’s divine! May the hunts be forever damned! This… CAKE… is the meaning of life! Tasting it is like touching the face of god! Magnificent!
As soon as he swallowed and taste disappeared his sanity went back to him.
- “Tell me, boy, do you have any other relatives? Someone who could… take care of you until your parent would return?”
This was his chance!
- “P-papa was making deals with a man… he told me that if something would happen, I am supposed to find him…”
- “That’s great! Who is this man!?”
- “I… I don’t know. Who he is or what he does… I… I know only the name.”
- “The name? This may be quite troublesome, many people share the same name… Fine, what is the name?”
- “Zariel.”
Man froze.
- “There is only one man with such name in the whole world, kid.” He smiled back to him in a - “Really?! I-is he a good man? Papa was talking about him all the time… but only that he is fortunate to get this contact so I never really learned a thing…” - “Good? Hard to say, but he is quite important. Or, should I say, one of the most important people in the whole country…” Kim knew this much. His instincts kept screaming this name in the corners of his mind. - “… he has a company in the capital, few days east from here. We will try to organize some transport…” East? East!? No! Can’t be! His instinct does not lie! They are telling him to go to the West! - “U-um, sir? Are you sure? Papa wanted to go West…” - “I said his company is to the East. But, your mister-very-important is an adventurer, which means he travels a lot. It is nearly impossible to tell where he is right now.” - “A-adventurer?” Another flash, images, memories. Girls he swallowed were members of those - “Monster hunters. They are traveling the world and killing monsters that are threatening cities and merchants!” …. Brilliant. Marvelous! This, Zariel, is a genius walking alive! Kim already knew that he and Zariel are alike – consumers – swallowers – feasters. He knew that they both were aberrations that the rest of the world would hunt down. Then, how would he gather essence under their noses? Become a full-fledged monster hunter. Humans would literally point him in the direction where he could find a useful essence to consume, pay him for protection and even be grateful! As adventurer he could travel with no risk nor suspicions! Growing! Adapting! Becoming stronger! … … perfect predator – the wolf in sheep's clothing. Kim decided. This night he will leave the city and follow further to the West. In the end, he can learn so much from this wonderful, more experienced existence. … yet, the chain of thoughts of Kim got disturbed – by another bowl of meat soup carried in by Susan.