He leapt towards me, and I needed to think fast now; he moved with the sword in his right hand, and when I was going to step backwards to dodge it, I slipped on the wet mud, and the sword barely missed my head. I rolled quickly to the side, and the sword followed suit until I stopped, changed direction, grabbed his legs, and pushed my body towards him so he fell on the ground. I quickly jumped up on him, and he tried to swing the sword towards me, but I grabbed his hand to stop the attack and gave him a right hook. When I was going to go up from him, something hit my back; I felt hard hit. I was sure it was his knee, and I rolled over his head to try and keep a distance from his sword. Both of us rose quickly from the ground, and I could see on his facial expression that he probably was pissed off now.

"Who are you? He asked with a disappointed expression.

"Eh...I am the ghost in your dreams, haha *Cough*."

We both started to leap toward each other, and the rain kept pouring in the weather; he tried to be clever and pushed the sword forward as much as possible to try and finish me off from a distance. Still, I bent my body to the side, so he missed completely. I went down under the sword and only rose from the ground when his hand with the sword touched my shoulder. I gave a hard left hook to the side of his body, leaning in with my whole body to get as much power as possible in the hit. As I was leaning towards his body, I fell to the ground. I quickly grabbed both his legs and thrust with my body mass towards his legs, so he lost his balance and fell to the ground. I jumped on his body and gave him a right hook on his left side. That was the finishing blow, and the crowd gathered outside went utterly silent.

"Pft! I thought Panun was going to crush the new guy. That is boring; I'm going inside." A man with a strange wooden helmet said and went inside.

The rest followed him inside. I went up to the Panun guy and took his sword from him. It worried me that he would wake up later and try to attack again.

I opened the door with a lively tone, surprised that only a few looked like humans. Some of them look like half-creatures mixed with humans and something else. I noticed that some didn't go outside to watch the fight earlier. A suspicious individual in a cloak was sitting in the corner of the Area where the lightning wasn't shining bright, so I needed to be aware of my environment. A hot girl was standing at the bar. Well, I don't have any money. Shouldn't Victoria have thought of these things before sending me here? Ah, now I am getting a little pissed off. Okay, think Taz! Register to become a hunter, then go and find Faz. That can't be that hard to achieve. I approached the blond girl at the bar and tried to casually talk like I belonged in the area in an attempt to not draw attention to myself.

"Hey! Eh, I am here to register to become a hunter?"

The whole place went quiet, and the blond girl pointed to the right with a surprised expression.

"Eh...Thanks!"

Someone with brown hair had buried their head on a desk, going with a closet behind. I walked over to the individual who was snoring.

"Eh! Excuse me!"

A young girl woke from her sleep and mumbled to herself. She scratched her head and looked surprised.

“The Fbare his on the hleft!” She said.

Hmm, I think she meant the bar.

"No! I am here to register to become a hunter." I told her.

She bent her head to the side to watch the other people sitting around the tables and said:

"Who made this joke? You know this is not funny. I am a servant of the Valiant organization, and this is not funny."

She was ignoring me and watching the crowd behind me. I bent my head to meet her eyes.

"Lady! It is not a joke. I am here to register as a hunter."

She sighed, went in the back, and came out with a book in her hand and opened it up. It was just a blank page.

"To make things clear. Hunters have different categories. The highest-ranked hunter is named Tieros; only one remains since the other 20 left the Sheipad kingdom to hunt down Berk Van Polan, who entered the Tomera Kingdom. Then there are the Sieros, ranked number two, and Kieros, ranked number three. These are the big three; nobody in this bar has any of these rankings, and never have we had any visit here from these ranks. All these three ranks of hunters are usually leaders; when there are bigger missions with several hunters involved, they usually take the lead as they outrank everyone else, which shows how strong they are. We also have the ranking in alphabetic order for other hunters. There is an A to E ranking, with E being the lowest. Usually, farmers who want to become hunters get the E-rank. It's in the following order: Antaron, Bentaron, Centaron, Dentaron, and Entaron. Then there is a rank nobody ever gets, the Failtaron. You don't have to worry; nobody has gotten the F ranking in 30 years. Now that you have the explanation about all the rankings, you have to put your hand on the blank page, and it will read up which ranking you will have." She told me.

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I looked at her confused, but at least A to E made sense, and F was more or less impossible to get. Maybe it is my luck that the highest-ranked hunters have gone to hunt down Berk, which makes my job easier and bigger chance for that prick to die. I don't think that guy will die, though; he is completely crazy and always takes risks no matter what.

"Before I put my hand down on the page. What are all the rankings allowed to do exactly?"

"Rank E is forbidden to be involved in dangerous missions, even if they have a weapon. All the ranks above E are allowed to go on missions and hunt wanted criminals or monsters.

That sounds like a plan, but a hunter should be able to go up in levels.

"How do you go up a level?"

"If you carry out a lot of successful missions, you can put your hand on the blank page on these books that are spread out all over the kingdom and check if you have carried out enough missions or made successful missions to get an upgrade."

That doesn't sound that hard. How hard can it be?

"Okay, Fudge this, let's do it."

I put my hand on the blank page, and the girl became more interested in knowing my ranking. My hand was glowing yellow on the page. It kept going for a few seconds before disappearing.

"Is it done now?" I asked her.

"Yes, please remove your hand."

I removed my hand, and she turned around the book to see what ranking I got and held it in the air. I tried to catch her facial expression and see if it was something extraordinary.

"This can't be right! But at the same time, the book is never wrong." She said.

She put the book on the table, and I could see the letter F. What the Fudge? I thought that was impossible to get.

"You got the F-rank. I am sorry!" She said, and everyone was laughing in the bar.

The F-rank must stand for failure. That must be the reason they are laughing at me; It makes me wonder if I will keep being unlucky. Then death is sure to come my way. The laughter continued; some even cheered and looked happy that they got an F-ranked hunter in this town.

She turned around the book again and told me:

"Can you please put your hand on the other blank page now? It will show your powers as a helper to farmers."

Shit, I will get humiliated again. Wait...did she say helper to farmers? Am I a freaking assistant to farmers?

"Mm...fine!"

I put my hand on the other blank page, and a window popped up above the table, and the girl made an announcement.

"Hunter, Ranked F. Taz Van Pol...an of Earth. Wait a minute, you are one of the three wanted fugitives."

"Eh...I don't know what you are talking about." I told her, trying to make a facial expression that I was clueless about what she was talking about.

"You are officially a hunter now who can help farmers and merchants plough in the fields or help with selling merchandise, but I must report you. You will have a head start of one hour because you are in Rattin Town. As a representative of the Valiant organization, I have to report to you."

Great, things got even worse for me now. I need to find that damn dragon and get the move on so I can get out of here.

"Fine, I will go. Can you tell me the direction to where I can find the blue dragon Faz?"

"I can't tell you that information." She answered.

Maybe I can try to ask the other hunters. I turned around and yelled:

"Anyone here knows where I can find Faz, the blue dragon?"

Someone huge with their back against me got up from the chair and turned around towards me, looking with murderous eyes. It is like an individual who has just eaten 15 cheeseburgers and is lying on the floor trying not to end up in a coma. Someone asks a question, and you give the stare. It is a murderous stare.

"You can not get Faz; he is in prison for being responsible for the death of his partner. If you try to break him free, you will get killed." He said.

Hmm...was the scar on his face meant to be scary? His body size was not to mess with. Why would I get killed? I am already on a suicide mission, and within one hour, the alarms will go about my whereabouts. How can this get any worse than what he is telling me?

"I am not worried about getting killed. Can you please tell me where Faz is?" I asked with a polite tone.

"Suite yourself! He has been at Princess Cilla's palace. It has been several weeks since we last saw him. Faz is in prison, from what we heard. The alarms will go off in one hour, and security will be tight. So you don't have a chance to come out of this alive."

Great, one more individual that thinks I will die. Soon, I will be able to write a list of everyone who says I will die.

"How do I find the palace?"

"You go out and turn right, follow the road, and continue for a half day; you will arrive in the Sheipad Kingdom. There you can easily find the palace. Look for the biggest building, and you know where it is. If I were you, though, I would not go on the road; maybe going through the woods is your best option; the same direction is towards The Sheipad Kingdom. The soldiers will be coming from that direction that you are going. That means an even more dangerous path for you."

Half a day, oh my god. Damn dragon, it was supposed to be here in Rattin Town. So now I have to add tight security and go into Enemy's place to pick it up. I must be unlucky. This whole assignment is a big freaking curse. Can it get worse than this?

"I suggest you run before it is too late to distance yourself from the town.

"Thanks...I guess!" I told him, and quickly went out of the place and started to run on the road in the direction he told me.

After a while, I have to turn into the woods and be careful not to meet surprises, like in the swamp earlier.