Chapter 8

Jack made it back to the hunter’s headquarters by early evening feeling a little exhausted but still exhilarated; that was a tough fight but he won! Leaving his bike chained up at the bike racks in the courtyard. He walked in through the revolving door towards the requests room, he pushed through the double doors and made his way over to where he could see Cheryl still at the help desk. There seemed to be more people in the room than there were earlier as if they were waiting for someone.

A moment later, before he reached Cheryl there were simultaneous groans of disappointment and cheers of triumph all around him. Jack looked around in shock and confusion as he walked, everyone around him was either laughing and smiling and seemed to be celebrating or looking despondent and were being jeered at by those celebrating. Jack made his way to Cheryl who looked rather smug.

“You're still alive then? You just made me a fair amount of money,” she said as she leaned against the counter with a lopsided smirk.

“Money? Were people betting on something?” Jack frowned looking around the room.

“Yeah, on you. We always do this with newbies on their first hunts, although they usually go out with a team or someone experienced. But you kinda rushed out before we could arrange something and with it being Saturday there weren’t a lot of people around on short notice. By the time we found someone willing, we found you’d already texted you were going and then an hour and a half later the job was confirmed completed. Although the requester did have one complaint in the comments section of the review, he said you left him with and I quote “an unholy mess for him to deal with in the barn”. What was that about?” she asked, looking at him quizzically.

“Oh er ha, yeah, I may have needed to get inventive in the last fight, didn’t want to get swarmed and eaten ya know,” he said sheepishly with an awkward grin. “If i’d known i’d have bet on myself!” He grinned.

She looked at him with wry amusement. She held out her hand. “Can I see your pho - pager?” He handed her the pager with a small smile at her near slip of the tongue. She frowned then navigated through a few pages on the screen so he could see. “Here you can see your progress to the monthly required quota of requests, you're a fifth of the way there, you can also see your progress to the necessary number of jobs towards a promotion, and here you can see the money deposited into your hunters account. Later on you can input your bank details to transfer some or all of the money over to your current bank account.” She handed him back the pager and put it in his pocket.

“Ok, now I'm supposed to show you the rest of the various facilities we have here, I would have done it earlier but you seemed to be in a hurry before.” She came out from the help desk and made her way over to the door to the med vendor next to the notice board. On the way they passed Charlie who gave a little wave and a grin to Jack.

“Hey Jack! Still alive?” he cheerfully asked before walking past. Jack gave a weak smile back.

Cheryl entered through the door and Jack followed. He’d been in here earlier albeit very briefly to pick up a free first aid kit, all he’d needed to do was slot his licence in and the vendor like machine brought up various options on the screen, most required money from his hunters account of which he'd had none, but the free bi-weekly first kit was highlighted and without a price tag so he tapped on that and one was deposited in the repository. There were several vending machines for medicine and medical supplies lining the walls in this classroom sized room but Cheryl led him past those through another set of doors at the other end of the room.

They emerged into a large hall that wouldn’t have been out of place in a shopping centre or mall with a large fountain in the centre and palm trees scattered around. Everywhere Jack looked he could see colourful stores that would sell a variety of wares that catered to hunters including weapons, armour, medical supplies, cultivation materials and more, there was even a taxidermist Jack saw on the upper level.

“This is hunters plaza, here you can buy whatever equipment you need for a job, you can even make custom orders for weapons and armour, providing your own materials from monsters you’ve killed. Some monster hides and bones make excellent components for various pieces of gear. And more importantly you can sell the various pieces of loot you obtain from monsters here, the stuff you harvest from them I mean, you’ll know what kinds of things they’re interested in from the type of store it is, but if you're not sure most places have interactive notice boards set up outside them with lists of current prices of various pieces of loot,” Cheryl explained. Jack nodded mutely.

He looked around observing the various store fronts, most places seemed to sell weaponry and armour and were probably in competition with each other, it was a little quiet with most stores looking like they were closing up for the night.

“You can explore tomorrow when everything opens up, for now I'll show you the gym and then the guild hall, it’s not actually the guild hall by the way, it’s officially called the dining hall but everyone insists on calling it the guild hall for some reason.” She shrugged before beckoning for Jack to follow her again.

They left the plaza the way they came and turned right moving past the notice board going through another set of doors. They were at an intersection with signs saying gym with an arrow pointing left and another saying dining with an arrow pointing right. Cheryl led Jack to the left, they entered what looked to be a standard gym with stations of free weights, treadmills and various exercise machines.

“Ok, it's pretty simple, the lockers and showers are left of the gym entrance, they’re gender segregated. You can pick up your locker key at the front desk in the main atrium, don’t lose it. The main gym room is all here and over there through that door at the end of the room is the swimming pool. There are also sparring rooms with practice weapons to the right. Questions?”

“Nope.” Jack shook his head.

They left back through the doors and headed down the hallway to the guild hall. As they approached Jack could hear the dull roar of many people, Cheryl opened the double doors and he was immediately hit by a wall of sound and delicious smells, as he emerged into the hall he stopped and looked all around in a small amount of wonder. All around him people were sitting or standing, eating and drinking and laughing. Large tables and chairs were set out all over a wide hall with a vaulted ceiling, curved staircases ran up the sides of the walls to a mezzanine level where Jack could see through the railings of a balcony more tables and more people. Booths with smaller tables and curved cushioned seats lined the walls. Chandeliers and candles were all over providing a dim lighted sort of ambience but with everything still perfectly visible. In the centre on the ground floor was a large circular bar surrounded by people drinking or ordering drinks from a group of busy looking bar staff, above the bar circling it were large plasma screen tv’s showing various channels.

Jack smiled. “This is great,” he said to himself.

Cheryl looked at him, “Have you eaten yet?”

Jack could just about hear her over the noise, “No not yet.” He shook his head.

“C’mon on then, we’ll grab a booth and order.” She led him over to the side and slid into one of the empty booths and Jack slid in opposite her.

In front of him in the centre of the circular table was another touch screen showing what appeared to be the menu. He looked through it and saw a wide variety of food, a great deal of it seemed to be gourmet dishes of meat harvested from monsters which had high price tags. There was still plenty of normal food and drink also.

“It’s interactive, just select what you want then when it asks you to pay you use your licence like a credit card for a contactless payment, someone will deliver our order,” Cheryl said.

“Huh, you guys sure do like the touch screens and automation here,” he said

“Well we had a chance to build an organisation from the ground up, why not make it modern, more organised and convenient?” she asked with a shrug.

“Oh no I’m not complaining, it is convenient. Uh anyway, I heard about that new monster they found in the city centre park this morning, the news said no ones ever been able to obtain a fully intact monster corpse before, is that true? How do they know it's not just a mutated animal?” Jack asked, trying to change the subject but also still a little curious.

“Oh that thing, ha! Trust me it’s definitely a monster, no animal could mutate to look like that, but yeah, so far no one until now has been able to get fully intact monster corpses before, they always fade away no matter how much we attune them.” She smiled as she continued looking through the menu.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Attune? Oh is that what you call putting in your elemental essence before harvesting?”

“Yep, why? Can you do it? I thought you were a lightning element,” she asked curiously.

“Er yeah I can, just about,” Jack said evasively.

“Huh, well that's lucky, I thought you guys couldn’t manipulate your elements at all, suppose that opens up a few more options for you than I thought,” she said now looking at Jack a bit more intently, frowning, as if he were a puzzle. Jack shifted in his seat uncomfortably not enjoying the scrutiny, he wasn’t really ready to tell anyone anything yet.

“Yeah erm, anyway what did they decide to name that thing?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah, since it was first discovered in York our branch gets to name it, I heard they’re thinking of naming it a “Jaw gnasher”, because it’s got a large mouth with lots of teeth or some stupid reason.” She sighed regretfully.

“HAHA WHAT?! That's a terrible name!” Jack didn’t know whether to feel appalled or supremely amused.

“Charlie’s on the committee responsible for naming things like that, you can usually tell which monster or new plant life or new minerals were discovered by a hunter in North Yorkshire by the name,” she said with a smirk.

They continued chatting for a while until their orders arrived, they had both ordered just normal hamburgers with fries. He didn’t know how hungry he was until the food arrived and he could smell it. When he bit into it he felt like it was the best burger he’d ever tasted, he wolfed it down along with his fries in no time at all and sat back in satisfaction with a full stomach. He looked across at Cheryl who was taking her time.

“Hey I’m gonna get a drink at the bar, you want anything?” he asked as he got up, she shook her head mid bite, her hands still holding her burger.

Jack went to the bar and ordered a beer, when he went back he found his booth and Cheryl had visitors. Three men were sitting in the booth talking to Cheryl, she had a bored but unhappy look on her face and one guy was in his spot. He frowned, it was this type of social interaction he dreaded, should he just walk away? Or should he go over there and stand his ground? Cheryl looked unhappy but then again she always looked unhappy, are those guys arseholes pestering her or are they actually nice guys just popping over for a chat. Fuckit he decided, he’d been in several life or death fights today, what was a little social awkwardness compared to that. He walked over to the booth and sat back down in extremely close proximity to the man that was occupying his seat.

“Hey, I'm back.” He took a sip of his drink.

“Who are you?” one of the men asked, predictably he was a rather large, excessively muscle bound fellow who seemed to be wearing a skin tight tee shirt, all the better to show off his muscle bound frame, the sort of muscle where he looked like he would have difficulty bending his arm at the elbow, he and his also rather large compatriots were looking down at Jack, one of them was actually sneering at him.

Jack plastered a smile on his face, oh, it's that sort of social interaction. “I’m Jack, pleased to meet you!”

“Well Jack, this is a private conversation, so fuck off,” Muscles said forcefully, some spittle hit Jack in the face.

Jack paused thinking of his rebuttal. “Hey, do you spend a lot of time in the gym? I really hope so. You know, like an excessive amount, like more than is healthy and you know it deep down but you just can’t bring yourself to stop. That kind of amount. With maybe steroids involved?” he asked, now feeling genuinely curious.

“What?” Muscles seemed confused.

“It's just that, I know cultivation eventually grants you enhanced strength, but I don’t want to end up like…..you know.” Jack waved his hand in Muscle’s direction, Jack was terrified but couldn’t stop himself, all he could do now was double down. “If that’s all down to cultivation can you tell me when’s the best time to stop? At what point did you look in the mirror and thought…..you know…..Jesus…..what have I become?” His heart was beginning to beat faster but he kept his face impassive, meanwhile Cheryl’s jaw dropped before twisting into a crooked grin of amusement.

Muscle’s mouth opened wide and then closed again several times, his face went red and Jack could see veins appearing on Muscle’s neck and forehead. It could just be Jack’s imagination but he swore he could actually hear Muscle’s fists clenching.

“Jeremy, leave, now,” Cheryl said quietly but with force. Surprisingly the three goons actually listened, she stood up and they left quietly past her but not before Muscles or Jeremy as he was apparently known directed a venomous glare at Jack.

“Was it something I said?” Jack asked innocently before taking another sip of beer. Cheryl smirked at him.

Jack was considering ordering something else from the menu since he was still rather peckish when their booth was approached again.

“Hey it’s Cheryl and she’s with the newbie that won me all that money!” Jack looked up and saw another trio approaching, a woman and two men. In fact they looked familiar, Jack realised with surprise that they were some of the people he’d seen fighting that group of giant wasps several days ago in the alley. He looked around and saw Barry didn’t appear to be with them.

“Hi Stacey, yep he’s the new blood, just did his first hunt today, giant rats on a farm.” Cheryl smiled. Stacey sat down next to her and started picking through the fries left over on Cheryl’s plate, the two appeared to be friends. Stacey, the woman who gave Jack the venom sack from the giant wasp, looked across the table at Jack for the first time and widened her eyes recognising him.

“It's you!” She exclaimed.

"Its me!" Jack replied with a grin.

“Hey, it's Sparky!” one of Stacy’s friends also recognised Jack in surprise, the other just let out a disinterested grunt.

“Hey, do I know you? Just kidding, I remember.” Jack smiled at them politely. “Also are we sure “Sparky” isn’t some sort of derogatory term referring to lightning elements, could you just call me Jack please?”

“What are you doing here! Hunting is really dangerous work! You could get hurt!” Stacey seemed slightly alarmed.

Jack decided to mess with her a little. “Well I thought over what you said and decided you were absolutely right, you convinced me, I should join the hunters guild. I’m gonna work hard and take only the most dangerous and toughest assignments possible and get as strong as possible. And I owe it all to you, I never would have joined up if it wasn’t for you,” he ranted trying to hide his grin.

“Wha…but I never said….oh god please don’t…..” Stacey seemed genuinely upset, on the verge of tears, almost lost for words.

“In fact, now I know your name, I’m going to commission a sword and have it named “Stacey” in your honour, is that Stacey with an e or without?” Jack was really struggling to hide his grin now, Cheryl and the other two men were trying to hold in their sniggers.

“You’re fucking with me aren’t you?” Stacey deadpanned.

Jack and the others burst into laughter.

“You arsehole,” she said but grinned anyway. “But still, I’m surprised to find you here, I thought I said it wouldn’t be a good idea.”

“I know, but I got intrigued and decided to try it out anyway, I’m aware I have limitations and if it makes you feel better I promise not to try anything too crazy,” Jack tried to reassure her.

“He’s actually not too bad at this.” Cheryl chimed in. “Giant rats might be considered only G rank but they’re upper G rank and usually newbies need to be in teams of two or three at least. He did it all on his own.” Cheryl looked on rather smugly.

“Ha! What? A handful of giant rats, that's nothing, it should take any decent hunter only a second or two to deal with.” The guy that called Jack Sparky derisively said.

“Even so, it was a good first solo hunt,” Cheryl defended, glaring at him.

“Three or four? Is that normal? There were actually twenty four,” Jack said with some confusion.

“WHAT?!” Cheryl exclaimed, the other three hunter’s jaws dropped. “What do you mean twenty four?!”

“Er I mean I had to kill twenty four giant rats, what? Why is everyone looking at me? Stop, you're making this weird,” Jack was beginning to feel even more confused.

“Twenty four giant rats is a lot, like a whole lot, definitely not a solo hunt and I don’t think it's a G rank request either,'' Stacey quietly informed Jack, looking over in concern at Cheryl. Meanwhile Cheryl was on her pager furiously tapping and swiping at it.

“Did you really kill twenty four giant rats by yourself?” the so far quiet man asked.

“Er yeah, was I not supposed to? I’m still new at this,” Jack confirmed. The quiet man looked at him for a moment solemnly then nodded once at Jack before returning to his drink.

“Haa, goddamnit,” Cheryl sighed. “I looked at the request you accepted and it didn’t specify a number of rats, it was vague and just said ‘slay some giant rats on a farm’. Shit! Sorry Jack, that hunt slipped by the request acceptance committee and made it onto the notification system before it was vetted properly. They should have contacted this Joseph guy and asked him how many rats there actually were, there was no way that hunt was a G rank, it was more like a high E or more and was not for solo hunters no matter the rank. I’ll contact upstairs admin and have them look into this. This is how we lose hunters, faulty info.” She looked annoyed and frustrated.

“Oh, it still counts though right? To my monthly quota? I get to keep the money too, right?” he asked now slightly concerned

“Oh it definitely counts! You may even receive an extra request completion to your monthly quota if I can help it, and you should be receiving more money as compensation, probably another £500.” she said reassuring him.

“Oh good.” He leaned back in his seat in relief. “You know, now that I think about it, he did look a little er……sheepish about telling me the number, but he’d told me it was a rat farm so I assumed that was normal.” Jack shrugged.

Everyone was silent and looked at Jack for a few seconds before the guy that called Jack Sparky asked.

“What the fuck is a rat farm?”