After talking briefly with the victim’s mother, I made my way to the local Hunter’s Hall, the guild’s base in Horun. I had only been in the city for a couple of hours, so the receptionist seemed a little surprised to see me back so soon. “Sir Theol, you’re back already?” She asked, though there was a bit of disappointment in her voice.
Her tone was understandable, since me coming back meant that I hadn’t been able to catch the Mad Monk, and that he had likely already moved on. Still, that was only to be expected. “That’s right. Same pattern as usual. Mind if I write the report to send back?”
The receptionist nodded her head, her blonde hair dipping past her shoulder as she bent down to retrieve a few pieces of parchment for me to write on. It was rather inconvenient that we couldn’t use the quest scrolls for these reports, but whatever powers controlled them simply would not allow them to mix. After taking the papers and a quill, I wrote down the details that I had discovered from the victim this time.
Victim’s name was Harin, son of Sharlo and brother to Kisma and Joren. Wounds on the body indicate that he was held over an extended period, during which he was injured and healed repeatedly. As with the other cases, his limbs were broken to prevent him from attempting escape. Victim’s family has no knowledge of the Mad Monk or his appearance. I briefly summarized my findings, before going into detail on each wound, making sure that I was able to send as much information back to headquarters as possible.
Only when I had filled the fronts and backs of three pages did I finally return to the receptionist, handing the report over to her. “Straight to headquarters, I assume?” She asked, rolling the report up without even glancing at its contents. When I nodded my head, she closed her eyes tight, as if focusing on something.
I watched as the parchment I had written on began to glow with a brilliant light, its shape shifting away from that of rolled paper. When the light faded, it had taken the shape of a windswept sparrow, one of the fastest birds in the skies. The receptionist lightly lifted her hand, and the bird flapped its wings to fly into the air, exiting out one of the windows along the wall.
Unexpectedly, however, another similar bird came in just moments later, catching the two of us by surprise. It landed obediently in front of the receptionist, before the same kind of light changed it into two pieces of parchment. By my understanding, it was rather unusual for a branch office to receive messages like this, unless there was a special reasoning, but my questions were soon answered when the young woman read the contents.
“I see…” She nodded her head, glancing up at me. “We’ve got some information for you, Theol. Headquarters managed to identify a possible suspect for the Mad Monk based on his body type and original victim.” She then moved to hand me the second piece of paper, which contained a rough sketch. Although I had not been able to get a clear enough image of him through the world spirits, this definitely could have been the face I had seen.
“According to the theory, he should be Martin Hallbern, one of the scholars of Hanbei. He went missing shortly before the first murder, and nobody has heard from him since.” She gave a brief summary, handing over the report as well as the sketch. I had no doubt that this information had been sent out to all of the Hunters on his tail.
“I see..” Just how long has this information been waiting to find me? Even with the speed of the sparrow, it would take a few days for it to have arrived from headquarters. But a few days ago I was in an entirely different city. My best bet was that they chose to send it from a closer city instead, to make sure it’d arrive before I left. And still it just barely made it.
“Well, that’s going to make him easier to track.” I said, letting out a small sigh of relief. “Is the tracking room free right now?”
The receptionist’s face became more serious at my question, before she nodded her head. “Just around back. Good luck, and I’ll see which druids we have available for when you’re done.”
I gave a small smile in thanks as I moved towards the indicated room. While the reception area was a blank stone room with only one desk for the receptionist, the tracking room had a variety of oddities scattered around. On one table was a small glass ball, another a large bowl with a few animal bones. There was even a bowl of ashes, all for different types of tracking.
For me, I headed immediately towards the glass ball, reaching into my cloak and retrieving my badge, placing it on the table in front of the ball. “Martin Hallbern.” I spoke, recalling the name that had been in the report, and visualizing his face. Normally, I’d be forced to rely purely on the bones to track, but having more information about him made this easier. By the time I get to the next city, there would probably be two or three hunters joining me.
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The glass ball seemed to become foggy, shapes appearing within it. Soon, the shapes joined together, forming the face of the man from the report. “Where did he go?”
The image began changing at my words, pulling out to reveal an aerial view of Horun. I could see a thin glowing line slowly making its way out from the western gate of the city, moving along the roads. I let out a silent curse as I watched this. This was one of the westernmost cities of the country, so if this tracking was to be believed then he was moving to yet another country.
Although every kingdom shared the same Hunter’s Guild, it was often difficult to perform our duties when moving to a different country. Not to mention, having a gate network between two countries was forbidden by almost everyone, just in case a war happened to break out. That meant that it would not be so simple to move to the next destination, and I was likely to arrive after the Mad Monk yet again.
Naturally, I confirmed this with the finger bones, each one inscribed with a different rune to communicate with the world spirits. Yet, they as well indicated that he had left for the west. Unfortunately, I could only resign myself to accepting this information.
When I exited the tracking room, the receptionist was waiting for me. “I’ve managed to contact a couple of druids, and they have gates leading to a few of the nearby cities.” She reported, though seemed a bit confused by my expression. “Were you unable to find his tracks?”
“No, I found them… He’s heading west.” Her expression soured when she heard that, shaking her head bitterly.
“I see… Shall I prepare a wagon for you?” She asked instead, moving back to her desk. For most people, they would take a horse when traveling the roads, maybe a carriage if they could afford one. However, Hunters… were on a bit more of a budget. In our line of work, a carriage could easily be destroyed, and a horse killed. A simple wagon was often the best method of traveling for us, when not using the gates.
“Thanks. I’ll be heading out as soon as it’s ready.” We finally had a lead on the identity of the Mad Monk, so any attempt to locate him would be far more effective now. The only problem was actually catching up to him. “Just in case, make sure to have watchmen in the border cities on alert. If he keeps circling around along the border, it’ll be tough to catch up to him.”
The receptionist nodded in understanding. “I’ll pass that on after getting the wagon.” She said, before moving and going outside of the building. Naturally, I followed her around to the back of the Hunter’s Hall, where several wagons were lined up. Each one was extremely simple. Just big enough for two or three people to sit side by side on a wooden platform, walled off on all four sides. Along the sides of the wagon were four wheels, while at the front was the steering wheel.
The steering wheel was a long wooden plank attached at one end to the wagon on a pivot, while the other end had a stone wheel. Nodding my head, I moved to step up onto the wagon, before turning to look at the receptionist. “Typical deal?”
She nodded her head, at which point I closed my eyes to focus, creating a quest scroll. The quest was quite simple. If I destroyed the wagon, I would pay ten standard silver to the guild in order to compensate. Ten silver was enough to feed a small family for a couple of weeks, so it was not a small sum of money.
Thankfully, hunters were funded by the headquarters, so as long as we didn’t slack off we received a fairly decent pay. In the case of the Mad Monk, it was one standard gold for the hunt, five for the kill, and ten to capture alive. And I was by no means slacking off, as I naturally had a desire to continue feeding myself.
With the wagon loaned, I sat at the front of its platform, once again retrieving my badge. “Let’s get going, then.” I said with a sigh, focusing on the wagon itself. The receptionist saw what I was doing, and hurriedly backed away as the wagon backed out of its position in the line, the stone wheel seeming to move by itself to drive the wagon.
With a bit of focus, I commanded the wagon to drive, moving towards the open streets. A few people hurried out of my way when they saw the wagon driving by, giving me plenty of room to exit the town. I looked down at the badge in my hand, feeling a sense of wonder at its power.
The badges were as old as the guilds themselves, the knowledge of both being passed down by the goddess at the same time. Once one created their own badge, typically known as tokens, they would have a direct connection to the world itself. This seemed to give endless abilities, yet at the same time had their own weaknesses.
In a fight, the tokens could at most defeat normal people, those who did not practice any special jobs. If one did, whether it was as a mage, a monk, or even another druid or a priest, then the power of the token would weaken drastically. However, when not fighting, it allowed one to shape the world in most ways rather easily, such as causing a stone wheel to drive a wagon.
Once outside the city, it only took a bit of effort to keep the wagon going along the road. Thanks to other druids who had traveled the roads before, they were kept relatively smooth, causing only slight bumping and shaking to occur with the wagon. Although my speed might not compare to a horse-drawn carriage, I was still traveling several times faster than a man on foot.
Of course, that is not to say that I was able to relax while driving the wagon. Apart from controlling the stone wheel, I also had to keep a wary eye on my surroundings. It was not uncommon for monsters or bandits to be lurking along the roads. And I couldn’t afford to let them destroy this wagon, given the price I’d have to pay to reimburse.
Though, I could probably make a few silver just by killing bandits… I shook my head, deciding it wasn’t worth it. Ultimately, the hunt came first. And thankfully, most bandits weren’t stupid enough to attack an obvious hunter. Which only left monsters to be a problem.