“Every last one of The Hunt perished long ago. Or, perhaps not all of us. I cannot speak to that with absolute certainty, but it is a fact that the large majority of our kind was wiped out.”

“No I caught that,” I wave off the extended explanation. “I mean, if you all died, er, y’know, how are you alive?”

I don’t take it they’re all players and have infinite resurrection. I mean, Jasper’s one of them and she didn’t know about that so, couldn’t be that.

“...Through a skill of The Wild Hunt.”

“The Wild Hunt, or just members of it in general?”

“You know, you’re taking this rather in stride,” Firliam notes with a pittance of confusion.

“I mean, it’s not really that outlandish? It’s not that crazy to think that certain creatures have the ability to revive themselves on command.”

They stare at me blankly for a moment, before a switch seems to flip in their mind. “Ah yes, Jasper did speak of your… claimed immortality briefly when I told her I’d kill you.”

“Uh huh,” I scoff at how lightly they say that, but whatevs it’s a bit of a pointless endeavor getting angry at them now. Both because that whole phase already passed and… they’re like level thirty, again. Not much I can do.

“Suppose you were telling the truth, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched for you to believe in others having a similar level of the same ability.” They nod to themselves as they piece together whatever they think my narrative is.

“So, you were explaining the, you died bit?” I snap, pointing index and middle in their direction.

“Of course, of course. You asked if it was simply an ability that the members of The Hunt possessed? No, no it is not. Or well, a few certainly do, but not on the scale of The Wild Hunt himself. It was a skill, a proper one, not just the manipulation of energy that The Wild Hunt would commonly make use of.”

I tap the table as I wait for them to continue, each finger right to left, before an annoyed smile cracks its way onto my face. “And… that skill… was?”

“[Phantom Memorization] augmented by [Possession]. Unofficially dubbed; [Phantom Parade]. I’m sure you don’t know what any of those skills actually mean, given Jasper certainly hasn’t specialized in the field… And I doubt she’s told you much of anything to begin with.”

“Mmm.”

Checks out.

“[Phantom Memorization] incorporates a phantom into a more permanent form, making the creature something more along the lines of a summoned beast, much like how a monster tamer would make use of their creatures. [Possession] allows the user to increase the physical abilities of the living with a phantom currently under their control. While most individual skills of The Hunt aren’t capable of being combined, much like the average skill, those with fine enough control over them are still capable of manipulating them in ways… outside of the norm.”

…I’m actually about to just fly across the table and slap them if they don’t get to the point. It CANNOT be that difficult to just spit it out.

“As I said, technically any member of The Hunt with these two skills could perform what The Wild Hunt did, but… the staggering level of control it required effectively made him the only man capable of doing what he did on his sc-”

Firliam flinches as my arm twitches unconsciously, their eyes flicking to the side as they clearly notice the suppressed movement. So, clearing their throat…

“Using a few particular aspects of those two skills, The Wild Hunt performed [Phantom Parade] with the souls of every deceased member of The Hunt, redistributing them across the world into the bodies of various monsters. All our levels were reset, rendering us incapable of continuing the fight, but without fail, every single Hunter killed in the battle of Ni’ Veras was resurrected.”

…

“Was that so difficult to say?”

Narrowing their eyes, they give me quite the glare as they defend themselves. “You need to have some context to properly understand what happened.”

“I don’t think it’s that hard to just say ‘he used a skill to turn all the dead members of The Hunt into monsters!!!’. I really don’t.”

On that note, that’s kind of messed up, no? I mean wanting everybody to live is well and good, but turning all of them into monsters? This guy was alive and had the ability to just keep them all as phantoms for a bit, right? [Phantom Memorization] should’ve made that possible. I suppose he was on an active battlefield or something, but still… I can’t imagine everybody had the most pleasant of experiences.

I mean, according to this guy, that basically means Jasper was a person turned into a monster living like an animal for… however long it was after her transformation that I found her? And every single one of them had their levels reset? So, what about the people who got slapped into a monster in, like, a level ninety area? I suppose it’s a possibility that he thought about that and didn’t send people to places like that, so I’m just hating, but…

“Oops, sent you to literal hell as an infant, my bad!”

Well, I didn’t have anything to do with it, so I suppose I don’t get to judge anything to do with it. He gave all his people a second chance after they were already dead, and if they didn’t want it, they could always just die!

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“So, basically, like I just said, you mean to tell me that every random monster here used to be a person?”

“That’s exactly what I mean to tell you yes.”

“...Huh. How does that work out? I can’t imagine the sudden shift was all that pleasant.”

“...It wasn’t.”

Jasper curls up the slightest bit as Firliam’s paws clench as they speak.

“It’s an active struggle for all of us, the conflict in our minds is not a simple one. The people of The Hunt were always an odd group, estranged from civilized land, but we were still human. It is… difficult, reconciling our past with our present. Some have certainly had it easier, myself included. But… my heart… it aches for those born… less human.”

…I just nod. I don’t have anything to say to that, what possibly could I? How am I supposed to relate to that in any meaningful way? I never just woke up one day as a… ffffriggin rhino hanging out on a reserve on Earth. I’m a human being, how could I fathom being anything else?

“I’m sorry.”

I was being insensitive, rushing them to get to the point. I may have not had the context, but this is clearly a difficult subject. If The Wild Hunt was the one who did this, then clearly he didn’t have it done for himself… and I doubt there was anybody to do it for him. In all likelihood, he’s probably the object of some obscure questline, but I’d be shocked if he’s still among the living. Even assuming he wasn’t an important person emotionally for all these people, just thinking about the body dysmorphia and everything else that would come with a change like that, I can see how it wouldn’t be pleasant to think about.

So… that’s a definite my bad.

“...No need to apologize,” Firliam sighs and straightens up, kneading his paws together. “Let us take this from the top, to discuss your plans rather than the past, yes?”

“Sure, that sounds fine.”

Not sure what plans they’re talking about, but anything to change the subject!

—

“As I’m sure you’ve puzzled together at this point, Jasper has decided to stay with you. Which is understandable, I suppose.” Firliam sighs, gazing down at the big cat. “As she’s to have me believe, it’s because she thinks you are competent enough to be worth remaining with, which I’d be inclined to agree with. And, your goal is to see the world, yes?”

“...Yeah, pretty much,” I shrug.

“Good. Because as long as you are travelling, that would mean you will no doubt come across more members of The Hunt at some point. Jasper intends to make contact with them in order to assist in reuniting the broken pieces of our order. I’ve already given you a gift for this purpose, but I figure you likely didn’t know what it was for, given Jasper has a perclusivity to not tell you anything.”

“That I did not,” I nod bemusedly.

“Hm. Well, for now, whilst you may be skilled, you lack the levels to deal with the threats that will no doubt come your way, aligning yourself with members of The Hunt. I have no doubt you’ll be capable of dealing with a minor gap of perhaps five or six levels, but you’ll stand no chance against overwhelming odds. Even if you should be capable of keeping your allies safe no matter what, I don’t imagine you look forward to dying on repeat.”

Once again, spot on. All I need to do is nod.

“So, I’m going to do you a favor. I take it you don’t have an issue with exploring the dark given you found your way here, so I’m providing you with a guide of sorts,” Firliam states matter of factly as they conjure a piece of paper into reality through whatever means they have available.

“This is a map of Pierre’s Karst in its entirety, marked on it are the locations of each dungeon that we’ve made note of in our time here. We haven’t dared to clear one proper, for risk of exposing ourselves, but you are a being that makes absolutely no use of the powers of The Hunt, and with limited use of Jasper’s abilities, there’s no risk of you outing yourself.”

Wait…

“Are you… giving me a dungeon hit list?”

No fucking way.

Nearly snorting, Firliam hands the sheet over to me, and taking it, I open up my menu, and move to my map shortly afterward, watching as the ground above our current location fills in, the covered ground basically pentupling in comparison to what I’d seen so far.

“I suppose you could call it that, yes. I’m giving you a ‘dungeon hit list’. I wouldn’t generally recommend this method of growth to anybody… that’s not unkillable. But, you’re a special case. I’m not sure I’d believe you if you just told me that, but Jasper herself has told me of your… nearly suicidal stunts, so I’ll take you at your word.”

“...Bet.” I rocket up to my feet, nearly putting a dent in the table.

Firliam El-Nial! You are forgiven for being a little shit!

Clearing my throat. I do my best to suppress the smile crawling up my lips, turning away as I utterly fail in doing so.

“So there’s no problem if I go through every single one of these?”

“None at all.”

BET!