The day started abruptly for me, I fell out of bed, after a few seconds of confusion I realized what was really happening, an earthquake.

I left my room as fast as I could, in the center of the village I could see the rest of the people gathered, as I got closer to the crowd I could see old Ardug sitting on the ground, in his hands a small mortar in which from time to time he poured herbs and dried mushrooms to continue grinding later.

-Ah boy, I see the shake woke you up- said Ardug once he realized I was approaching, as he said that many of the sailors and fishermen began to exchange bags of money, some happily came over to pat me on the shoulder while the others just went about their business.

-The boys were betting on whether the shake would wake you up- the old man explained and then gave a big laugh, one of the fishermen approached him and handed him a small leather bag with coins -Never doubt you boy- a big smile was on his face as he put away his gains.

A few minutes passed before the village stopped moving, it was then that the Captain, standing on some crates, began to speak.

-Everyone listen!, as we did last time, we must check all structures. Broken boards, ropes, poles, take note of what you find and report it to the quartermaster-

Without knowing much about the situation, I proceeded to do what we were ordered to do and return to my hut to check that everything was in order.

After 2 broken boards and a few knots that I had to redo my room was in order, shortly after the Captain arrived in my room.

-There are some things I have to talk to you about- said the Captain turned around and started walking. I hurried to catch up with him and while we were walking he began to talk.

-You have lived with us for some months already, old Ardug gave his approval too, if you wanted to you could become part of the guild, I know, it is an important decision, but before you accept or reject I would like to tell you a little bit about what we do-

During this talk we were approaching what functioned as a smithy, a narrow but long hut with a central forge, a few work tables, 2 anvils, a handful of Felynes and the little man who worked there, whom I later discovered was called Hyges. Seeing us approaching, the old man put the blade he was working on into a barrel from which a column of smoke began to rise as the red-hot blade made contact with what appeared to be oil, although from its reddish color I wasn't quite sure.

Once there, both the Captain and Hyges cleared the area a bit, they brought a few boxes and planks to improvise a table. I sat down with the Captain and shortly after we were joined by Hyges who had gone to a small stove in the corner which he had not repaired to for hot water, once we all had tea in our hands the Captain began to speak.

-The Hunters Guild is one of the main organizations that governs the world. Its main tasks are to manage hunting activities to ensure the safety of people and monsters, research monsters to learn more about them, and develop new technologies for the advancement of society-

There it is again that word, I had heard several people in the village talking about monsters, at first I thought it would be a confusion because of the language, something that I lacked context, until one day I saw the hunting group arrive for the first time, they brought with them a kind of huge dinosaur, they called it Aptonoth, at that moment I understood the reason for their large weapons.

-The Guild is in charge of controlling and grouping requests from people to obtain materials or hunt monsters. These requests are called "missions", which after being collected in different places are posted on the boards of the Guild's posts to be carried out by the hunters- the Captain continued his explanation, stopping from time to time to take a sip of his tea.

-We also order missions, which generally consist of investigating and gathering information or, in cases of threat, hunting a dangerous monster-

Old Hyges interjected as the Captain poured some more water into his now empty cup. Hyges continued

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-Another main task of the Guild is to defend the populations from monster attacks. To this end, an outpost is set up at the threatened location and one or more hunters are sent to ensure the safety of the inhabitants-

-And that's just what we find ourselves doing right now," said the Captain as he returned to his seat-

-Eventually this will become a civilian population but before that we must make sure that there is nothing too dangerous, one of the problems we have now are the shocks, as you may have noticed they are somewhat strong and that alters the other beasts on the island-

-Normally I wouldn't do this but we find ourselves in a situation where we can't afford to let go of an excellent pair of hands- exclaimed Osat as he interlocked the fingers of his hands.

-The guild sent me to investigate the island, everything was going well until a few months ago when the shaking started and, along with it, the behavior of the monsters in the area changed abruptly, we have to investigate the cause of these before people start to arrive-

After one more sip of his tea, he continued

-Unfortunately due to the way the situation is developing, we don't have enough hunters to do everything, that's why I want to extend the invitation to you- he said.

For a few moments my brain was frozen by the Captain's words, two pairs of eyes were inspecting my face to read an answer that even I didn't know, shortly, after I could shake the surprise I tried to answer

-I'm not quite sure what you're asking me Captain, but if you're asking me to go out with you to hunt those huge things I've seen you bring I'm going to have to decline your invitation, I've seen your weapons and I doubt I could even lift one of them-

Admittedly, I was never one to feel confident in my abilities or to have high self-esteem in general, but I believe I am correct in saying that the strength required to wield such a weapon is superhuman.

Yes, during the last few months I've been getting a lot more exercise than in all my previous life together but not enough to be able to use the weapons I've seen the Captain and his crew use.

While I was inside my own head I didn't notice that Hyges had stood up and was coming up behind me. With a slap that almost made me spit out my tea, Hyges said to me.

-Come on boy, I've seen you train and I can see that you have the minimum necessary to start, nowadays hunters are very soft, with their schools and training. In my time we used to do the very same but with sticks and stones....-

Little by little, the old man's history lesson was lost among the sounds of the forge and the anvils, walking without stopping to check if we were following him.

-Let's go- said Captain Osat as he took the last sips of his tea -if he realizes we weren't after him he's going to get really mad-

Imitating him I took the rest of my cup and followed them, fortunately by the time Master Hyges turned around we were already with him.

-...and that's why we only make groups of 4 hunters, I hope you both take this into account-

His gaze felt as if he could see our past sins, after a few seconds in which we both averted our eyes, Master Hyges turned and pointed to a wall of the blacksmith shop.

-Eventually you will need to change weapons depending on the situation, but your first weapon should always be something you can trust to fall back to-

With that said Hyges retired to continue with his activities, leaving me alone with Captain Osat and my thoughts. In front of me hung some of the weapons that the blacksmiths had made, some of metal, others of bone, blades of different sizes and thicknesses, a huge bone with a handle at one end was leaning against the wall, an extremely long sword that seemed to have been pulled from the jaw of a horrible beast. Among all these things what really caught my attention was a sword and a shield.

Both made of metal, the shield relatively small and circular, a sword of no more than 1 meter, I approached to take them and when I armed myself I realized that they were lighter than I had imagined when I saw them.

-Sword and shield- said Osat behind me -not much damage but they tend to compensate with good combinations and versatility, good choice-

I nodded to his comment although I didn't really know what he was talking about, we started to head for the exit trying not to get in the way of anyone in the smithy, once outside the Captain grabbed me by the shoulder and said

-From now on you will be a hunter in training, we’ll take care of taking away your fear and teach you what we know about the craft-

As he said this to me, still with his hand on my shoulder, he began to direct me to what I understood to be the crew barracks, opening the door I could see several heads turn at the same time.

-Boys- shouted Osat -I bring you a new rookie!-

And with that several smiles began to appear on the faces of the men present, at the same time I was beginning to regret having let myself be carried away by the Captain's words.