015

The Union building was nothing like I expected it would be. For one, I didn’t understand what the building of one the biggest organizations would look like in another world.

Frankly, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t excited.

It wasn’t a very tall building like I hoped, but rather tall in a sense that it resembled a hall more.

Inside was filled with people. After you enter through the front, both the walls on the side are filled to the brim with notice boards, there were many things posted on there and the papers posted all had different coloured borders on them.

I could guess by the repeating colours that the papers must be divided by something. Maybe by skill, or it can even be rank. I don’t know.

My goal after getting in here was simple.

“Walk through the front door, don’t look around too much and when you reach the front counter, show them the paper you got from the guard and they’ll help you with an ID.”

This is what Kyle said to me when he dropped me off. He said they needed to get back to the company that Aagon’s family ran, Gloom Transports.

Aagon was kind enough to give me his address. He said he would be ready to help whenever I needed it. I know he was being nice but it was nice knowing that I finally knew someone here.

Just the part that I knew some people here helped lessen the fact that I was very far away from home. I was with their group for only about two days and I still miss their company.

I don’t need to worry that much though, Aagon mostly stayed in East Green and Kyle’s group also operates in the same area, I am bound to run into them sooner or later.

It was evening when they dropped me off, and along with the piece of paper, Kyle also gave me the small bag filled with snow wolves’ claws. Apparently they also trade in this stuff, I had to ask him why they would bother paying money for something like a wolf’s claw.

According to him, the snow wolves are a real problem around the east side of the city, most hunting requests that come here are for them, so the Union has put up a bounty on the wolves, if you can show them the proof of the kill, then they’ll exchange it for gold.

I reached the counter and there, sitting across from me was a lady, well lady would be a stretch, she had a mean expression almost rivalling my own planted on her face, and she was staring out in space without noticing that I had reached the counter.

She had light blue hair, similarly coloured eyes, maybe a shade darker. The moment she noticed me, her mean expression was gone and replacing it was the most heart-warming smile ever. If I hadn’t seen the look before, I would’ve been completely fooled.

She noticed my awkwardness and must’ve understood as her expression went a little cold and she asked while the fake smile was still planted on her face,

“How can I help you sir?”

With how cold and unapproachable that voice sounded, I was terrified.

I quickly pulled out the paper and handed it to her.

She looked at the paper and then at me, back at the paper and back at me. She eyes seemed to have glowed for a split second there, but I could also have been imagining things.

Her expression warmed up a bit.

“Wait here, I’ll be back in a second.”

I nodded and sat down. The reception area wasn’t that big, it was the only counter here. There were multiple rows of counters at the back, but they must be for different purposes, as most of the people who were coming in the building weren’t even looking at this counter and just went directly at the back.

My [Awareness] picked up a few curious eyes here, but I ignored them as I didn’t feel any hostility within them.

With my [Awareness] at level 3, although faint, I can also detect the intent people are carrying in their expression. Right now, I can only say what kind of intent people have towards me, but I guess once this skill levels up, I’ll be able to tell other people’s without them focusing on me.

She took maybe five minutes before she came back holding a piece of paper.

“Your ID will be ready tomorrow, you can come and pick it up at noon. For now, I will need your personal information. We’ll start with the name.”

“Grant Steele.”

“Age”

“26”

“Level”

“6”

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“Should I put fighting ability as hand-to-hand combat? The note said that you have neither magic power nor battle aura.”

“Yes, no problem.”

So the guard included that. Did he also include the hand-to-hand part I wonder?

“I’ll also need to note down a skill, do you have any skills?”

“Is this required?”

“This is an optional part, but the requests would be according to your skill sets, so no one skips this.”

“Sprint Level 5.”

Her expression almost froze over after she heard me. I only want to reveal this one skill, the reaction I got from the guard after telling him about my Qi, I don’t know how Qi related skills are viewed here, so for the time being I’ll just reveal this as my only skill.

“Did you say level 5?”

“Yes. Is that too low?”

“No! No! No! It’s not a problem!”

She replied quickly. I even saw her smile a little. What was all that about?

Anyway, I thought we were done with the registration as she had folded the paper and kept it in an envelope before keeping it to the side. I was going to ask about the wolf claws when she suddenly pulled out a long sharp knife from below the counter.

The knife wasn’t the ordinary looking knife either, it was a black blade with runic patterns all over it. She was also holding it in a way that was like a servant presenting me a knife so I could proceed with the sacrifice.

I was immediately startled by her sudden action and I might’ve arched back a little, looking at my reaction, she laughed a little. She clearly did this on purpose, I was sure of it. She passed over the knife to me and said.

“A few drops of your blood are required to bind the ID card to you. I hope you don’t mind.”

Reluctantly, I took the knife and made a small cut on my index finger. She had given a small glass bottle to put the blood in, hardly a few drops came out and I was finally done as she kept the small bottle in the same envelope.

“Thank you. I also wanted to sell these, do you know who I can approach?”

She took the bag I was holding and with a curious expression asked me.

“What’s this?”

“Snow wolf claws. Around 20 of them.”

She looked surprised but she still asked around the counter and one of her colleagues who looked like she was working as a butcher counted the claws for her.

“22 snow wolf claws, none of them are damaged and are fresh, only a few days old at most. That will be 220 silver.”

Said the butcher girl indifferently.

She handed me a small cotton pouch filled with 22 gold coins. Now I at least know that ten silver is one gold.

I thanked her for the gold and she told me to come back to the same counter tomorrow to get my ID. She also told me that I was free to look around if I wanted.

So that’s what I did.

The place was huge so it never felt like I was getting in the way even as I roamed the hall.

There were many different counters behind the one I was sitting at. There were also many different kinds of people at those counters.

Some of them were dealing with stuff that the hunters and volunteers had brought while some of them were dealing with the people themselves.

The most crowded area however was the notice area on the two sides, I could guess no matter what time it was this place would be crowded.

I stayed there for a few minutes and was planning to leave, when suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I noticed something.

It was a small entrance that led to the back part of the hall, next to the door was a man standing cross armed with his eyes closed.

Many people walked past him without much effort so I too walked over to see.

There was a sign on the door that said,

[The Hunters Union]

The man standing by the door noticed me and asked.

“What level are you?”

“Level 6.” I replied honestly.

“Don’t waste your time here then, this area is only for volunteers who have crossed level 15.”

Level 15!

I was wondering what this was so this is the place that only hunters have access to.

Wait. Does this mean that the minimum requirement to become a hunter is to become level 15? Does that mean Kyle and his entire team is well above level 15?

I’m honestly impressed. I think I also need to increase my level but that’ll have to wait.

I don’t know how long it’ll be before that happens. So I left. I needed to first figure out my problem of staying somewhere now that I had gotten some gold.

I asked around a little and found a hotel just near the east gate.

The hotel was old looking but still judging by the people going in and out, the business seemed to be doing well at least.

As the receptionist saw me enter, she gave me a smile. Ever since I saw the union receptionist smile, I don’t trust smiles anymore.

“Room for one. How much is the stay?”

“20 silvers a night. We have the rooms heated and there is a common bath available for use and for food, only dinner is served.”

I didn’t know if she was charging more or not, but I still booked the room for seven days. I immediately went to my room as it would be the first time ever since I came here that I would sleep on a proper bed.

Creak!

The door made a sound as it opened. Clearly some renovating needed to be done in this place.

The inside of the room was very simple. A single bed on the side and a small table with a lamp. Although the lamp was small, it was still enough to light the entire room.

To the back, there was also a fairly large window as it gave a pretty good view of the town as the room I booked was on the second floor.

I could see the streets from here. I had to say though, even if it was night time now, the streets were still filled with people.

From what I’ve heard after asking around, this place is the only big town near the outpost, so every single party that leaves or arrives through the gate must make a stop here.

I admired the scenery outside for a while before I decided to sleep.

I took off my shoes which were already ruined way beyond the point of recovery and I was getting ready for bed when I noticed a problem.

“Why won’t this thing turn off??”

I tried to turn off the lamp but there was no button on it. Just the crystal in the middle that was giving out light.

I tried touching the light itself. Maybe it was touch sensitive. Nope. After fiddling with it for a minute or two, I was thinking that maybe it was malfunctioning.

I was about to go to the reception but seeing the time outside, the reception must’ve closed a while ago.

So, begrudgingly I kept the lamp under the bed where the light wouldn’t disturb me and I went to sleep.

The first most comfortable sleep in a while.