Chapter 22 - A Flower in a Clearing
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After registering at the guild I spent my first day as an adventurer inside the capital, getting used to the city, finding an inn to stay at and just going around like a tourist. The inn I decided to stay at was half-way between the guild and the gates of the outer circle. Thanks to the two knights letting me keep the horse that I used to get to the guild, I was able to sleep there the first week of my adventurer life, not needing to walk whole days to reach the locations of the low rank quests I took. Slaying low level monsters in the fields and woods around the capital during the day and trying to resist Raziel's words to go back to the castle for a good portion of the night, these days passed by fast and soon I was iron rank.
Being iron rank allowed me to take part in the steel rank mission for escorting the caravans which departed every day from the capital to travel along the Road of Wealth heading towards the other capitals of Kilis. I took the quest immediately and the day after I left the capital behind with one of the caravans. It took us a bit over eight days of relatively tranquil travel to reach the town of Trivis, where the road forks before the border with Astall.
After receiving the payment for the quest I was tempted to pass the border and go sight-seeing the swampy lands of Astall but decided to refrain from that and keep my promise to the king, heading west towards the port city Dulsaliés.
Having left the Road of Wealth I started traveling through the still well maintained but smaller roads which lead to Dulsaliés. Along the way I started taking small quests from the chiefs of small villages or the guild branches of towns barely big enough to have one. Most quests from those villages and towns were just hunting quests for animals, with the rare extermination of small groups of monsters in-between the hunts.
It was after almost two weeks since I left Trivis, I was laying on the ground in a clearing wearing only my normal clothes, a basket of fruits and berries next to me and a simple straw hat covering my face from the sun, waiting for a viltusk, a boar-like creature as big as an elephant, famous for destroying fields, attacking women and children and for its ability to flee at the first threat, to approach me, lured by the smell of fruits. I heard the steps of a huge animal at the borders of the clearing and raised part of my hat to see an animal which fit the description slowly walking towards me while sniffing the air around it.
It stared at me and the basket of fruits next to me for a second and proceeded to walk in my direction, fastening its pace every second that passed. The moment it was halfway from the border of the clearing and me it started sprinting, just to see an arrow getting stuck on his leg. An arrow which wasn't mine.
It stopped immediately and turned the other way to run from where it came, away from a young man, probably in his twenties, who had started shouting to the boar from the other side of the clearing, while running towards it.
I sighed, knowing that my prey was lost because of a foolish hunter as the young man stood a few meters from me, looking at the boar that was running away.
He let out a sigh and said "this isn't the place for a woman to rest, what were you even thinking?" Before turning towards me.
"That I might have killed a viltusk without having to run after it through all the forest."
"What? Those things can be a threat to moonstone ranked adventurers. How do you think you could have-" He froze in the middle of his sentence the moment I took the hat off my face and [looked] at him.
Name: Holiés Race: Human Lvl: 37 Job: Hunter HP: 2985 MP: 345 SP:2486 STR: 276 DEF: 98 AGI: 267 INT: 98 WIS: 86 Skills Dagger mastery lvl 2 Archery lvl 6 Hand to hand combat lvl 2 Stealth mastery lvl 7 Path finding lvl 4 Sense danger lvl 3 Titles -
(Oh, this one isn't half bad.)
I got up, put my hat on my head, the fruit basket in my storage and gave a few pats to my clothes to remove any dirt which remained on it while the young hunter kept looking at me with his mouth agape.
"Fortuna Tullius, baroness of the Holy Olivedias Kingdom, Hero of Humanity and soon to be steel ranked adventurer, enterprising hunters permitting. Pleased to meet you." I said, raising my hand towards him.
I found out during the previous weeks that it was much better introducing myself using all my titles as soon as I met someone if I wanted to avoid useless confrontations.
...if.
The hunter in front of me remained still even after my introduction, the only difference being that his mouth was now closed while he kept eyeing my face and my hand.
"And you are...?" I said, hoping to break the awkward moment.
"H-Holiés, My Lady" He said stuttering a bit, before making an awkward bow.
"Ah, drop that shit, Holiés, I'm here to hunt, not to attend a ball."
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"Oh, thank the goddess, I’m really bad with those things " He said, straightening up.
"Now then, Holiés, I have a prey to hunt, if you don't mind..."
"My Lady-"
"Call me Fortuna." I said as I started walking in the direction the boar-like creature went.
"Fortuna, now that it's running away it will be almost impossible to catch even on a levelled horse." He said, walking a few meters behind me.
"And that's why I was unarmed and unarmored with fruits next to me in a clearing."
"Oh, right, sorry."
I stopped and turned towards him before saying "Come here."
“What?”
"I said come here."
“Why?”
"Oh, for fuck’s sake, I need you to corner that beast, I'm not going to eat you, now come here."
"Ok, ok." He said and walked up to me.
“I’m going to take this for a second.” I said, took his bow and put it in my storage.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
"Shut up for a second." I said and put my hands behind his back and legs, carrying him in a princess carry before starting to feel his weight while walking around a bit.
I let him down and said "this doesn't work, hop on my back."
"Why should I hop on your back?"
"Just do it." I said, turning my back to him and crouching a bit.
"Fine." He said and got on my back, holding on my shoulders as I caught his legs.
"Put your arms on my front and hold tight. Also, try not to fall and make me lose even more time.”
“Don’t blame me if I end up touching your breasts.” He said, tightening himself against my back.
I ignored him and started sprinting through the forest which made Holiés scream a loud and prolonged "fuck" behind me.
As I ran through the forest, and Holiés held tight to anything he could grab, following the track of broken branches and bent grass left behind by the huge beast, I said to him "when we reach it I'm going to put you down and surpass it. If it tries to run away from me shoot at it, ok?"
"Yes!" He said, practically screaming in the wind that hit his face.
Soon I could see the beast which was starting to slow down after trampling trees and bushes for kilometers. As I was neering it though it started running again, glancing back at me as I approached it. When I finally reached it I took the bow out of the storage, gave it to Holiés and dumped him there as I Sped up to go in front of the beast.
Seeing as I was now in front of it the viltusk stuck its legs in the ground to stop and I slided to a stop in front of it, my armor appearing on me as I took the halberd out of the storage.
Now stopped the beast turned around to run away from me, only to get hit by an arrow from Holiés who had just managed to get back on his feet.
The viltusk looked at me and him for a second too much before deciding the best way to run away from us and it was enough to slash at its leg with the halberd sharpened by my mana. The halberd went right through the limb, cutting flesh and shattering bone.
Understanding that I was a threat much greater than the bow it turned towards me and tried to bash at me, tusks in front, while balancing on its three remaining legs. I tried to sidestep while moving my halberd to meet its side but I was too late and, while I managed to scratch it, I found myself being thrown meters away against a tree.
While still dizzy, I tried to straighten myself to rush back at the beast I thought had run away, only to see it on the ground, a long trail behind it and an arrow on its other hind leg right in its tendons.
I gave a thumbs up to Holiés and walked where the beast was struggling to lift itself on its remaining legs. I circled around it so that it wouldn't be able to hit me with its tusk and hopped on its back. I put away my halberd and took out the rapier as I held on its fur. Once I reached the back of its head I filled the rapier with mana and stabbed at its neck, cutting the nerves of its spinal cord. Seeing as it was now completely immobile I hopped off it, took my lance and stabbed through its lungs and heart.
As the beast gave its final breaths I dropped my spear and let my body fall to the ground. Finally able to catch some breath I removed my armor and started using holy magic to fix me up from the hit I had received.
Holiés walked up to me and said "that was amazing, why did you even need to lure it?"
"Yeah, why lure it and stab at its neck while it's eating some fruits when you can sprint for kilometers, have to fight it when it's aware of you and scared, get thrown against a tree and end up with almost no stamina, half your mana and a few broken ribs?"
"Fair enough."
"Now, do you want to start skinning it while I try not to puke a lung?"
“Oh, of course.” He said, taking a small knife out of a leather sheath strapped to his pants.
I looked at him skinning the beast for a while as my stamina returned and my ribs healed. When I was finally back in shape I got up, took a small knife I had bought during my first week as an adventurer and helped him remove the skin and the organs from the viltusk. Once it was all cleaned up I put the pelt and the beast inside my storage.
"So... Are you going to sell it to the guild?" Holiés asked me after I closed the storage.
"That was my intention, why?"
"Well, we could use some game back at my village and..." -he looked at the sun which was starting to go down -" I don't think I'll be able to hunt much today."
"A gold coin and a bed."
"What?!"
"And somewhere to let my horse rest too."
"No, no. A gold coin is too much, I helped you hunt it."
"After you made it run away. It's a viltusk. The guild pays two golds and twenty silver. One gold coin and a bed or nothing."
"I don't have a fucking gold coin!"
"Do you really plan on eating it all by yourself?"
"No but... Ooh"
"Eeeh."
"Right, I'll have to talk about it to the chief but I think we can manage."
"Perfect, let's get back to my horse then, I tied him at a tree near the clearing we met in."
Holiés nodded, got next to me and put a hand on my shoulder before I said "what are you doing?"
"Oh, I thought..."
"Hell no, we are in no rush now and I'm not going to give you a piggy-ride through a forest for no reason."
"Right."
"Also, don't think I forget the comment about groping my breasts, nor the fact that you actually did it." I said as I started walking back to the clearing following the path left by the viltusk.
I heard him gulping behind me before he started following me.
When we reached the clearing after almost an hour of walking and talking I was happy to find my horse still in one piece, tied to the same tree and resting in its shadow. I untied it and we both mounted on him, Holiés holding on me behind while I stayed in front holding the reins after various minutes of fighting on who should be the one in front.
"Well then, be my guide." I said.
"Are you sure you don't want me to hold the reins? It will be easier for both of us."
"Ehi, my horse, I hold the reins. If you're not happy about it you can walk."
"Fine, fine. Head north."
"See? It wasn't that difficult after all."
We rode through the forest only for a couple of minutes before reaching a path which was obviously used often which we followed for another twenty minutes or so before finally reaching the village.