<~> CHAPTER 74

We stood outside the hunter's association building. We already took care of the money changer and now we were five gold tigers and four silver bears richer. The amount from the first chest I got gave me another two tigers and two bears on top of that. The animal money thing is kind of funny to me, but I suppose people called one hundred dollar bills "Benjamins" too so it's not that strange. From the cursory glance I got of the prices at the restaurant we went to, we had quite a bit of money. The nice place we went yesterday after leaving the dungeon asked for a few deer for all of our food and I now had more than one thousand deer if I converted all the gold down. Pretty good.

The prices didn't transfer neatly, of course, some things cost way more and other things seemed to cost less at a glance but that didn't change that we had a lot of money on us now. Maxwell reassured me that it wasn't that much to delvers and that we were already considered experienced delvers by this town's standards, but still. I found out later that Maxwell and Piper split the tab for all the beer we had last night and turned me down when I offered to pay them back. They said that picking up my tab was the least they could do for getting them the rest of the money they needed to pay off the rings. Once we sorted out a few more things here, we would start trying to find a caravan to Ironcastle and the first step to that plan was registering me as a hunter.

Apparently, the fairly generic term of hunter usually referred to something that would land closer to monster hunter in my tongue. It did overlap with hunting game but there was an understanding that 'hunters' usually referred to people who hunted monsters for money or delved dungeons. Though the term 'delver' was coming up fairly often too but that was mostly pointing out a specialization rather than making a clear distinction. Not all that surprising since a majority of the money our group made was from the gross monster parts Maxwell had been carrying around in his magic larger on the inside bag.

"I'm going to ask to speak with the branch manager when you join up," Maxwell said. "We need to tell them that you're not actually blind. The hunter's association has seen some weird stuff and I don't think any branch manager would panic over your eyes the same way most people might."

"Should I tell them anything about the other stuff?" I asked.

"No, just keep to the obvious stuff. The manager might be curious but don't answer anything unless one of us signals you to," he replied.

"Alright."

He spoke to one of the receptionists and scheduled a meeting for us as soon as the manager was finished with their current one. We were fortunate that he had a block of time free today so we could knock out my registration during the meeting too. Normally managers aren't involved with membership but Maxwell said this was a special case and got the receptionist to agree. Maxwell's word had a bit of weight to them after the amount of intelligence he sold the guild when we returned to the surface.

Probably about half an hour later we were led into an office in the back of the building. The gruff draco sitting at the large desk nodded to us when we entered. "I didn't expect to see you again so soon Maxwell. And with your entire team no less, though, it seems you have an additional person in your group today."

The blindfold I'm wearing lets me see how much mana people have in their bodies at a glance, which gives me a decent read on how strong they are. I was a bit surprised to realize that my friends and I glowed significantly more brightly than most of the people coming and going from the dungeon, let alone the general populace of the city. This guy was on a whole different level though. He seemed ridiculously strong.

Maxwell nodded. "This is Helena. She's someone from our hometown that we want to delve and travel with. We intended to delve together but since we are barred from this dungeon for now, we've decided to return to Ironcastle. We chose to register her as part of our group so that she can help us find a caravan escort job." Luna filled in some of the words that I didn't know as Maxwell said them. She had become pretty good at telling me when he said a word that I wouldn't know.

The draco looked me over with a raised eye ridge. His red scales caught the light as his muscular body shifted as he looked me over. "I assume that you wouldn't request a meeting over something like this unless there was a problem. She didn't bump into any chairs walking in here so I assume she isn't actually blind, but that couldn't be the only reason you needed to talk with me. Is she even strong enough to be in a group with you four? Delving all the way to the seventeenth floor isn't an easy task."

"Helena is probably the strongest fighter out of everyone in my group. The only thing she lacks is experience in a dungeon. She's been hunting monsters unofficially for a while now," Maxwell admitted.

The draco pursed his lips but didn't say anything. After a moment he gestured for Maxwell to continue. "And the issue?"

"Helena, the blindfold." He gestured to me before turning back to the draco. "She has a... quality that would make most people uneasy if they saw it openly."

I pulled the blindfold off and opened my eyes. The man flinched when he saw them but didn't jump or react any more than that. His brow ridge furrowed as his eyes searched me for a moment. Eventually, he broke eye contact with me and looked back at Maxwell. "You showed us a skinned umber hound and then brought back a friend with glowing white eyes... You know, there was a form saying an extra person had left with the rest of your group but I assumed it had been an error by the person doing the paperwork. I wouldn't have even looked at that if you hadn't brought in so many high-value parts, but I had this time. Be honest with me, you found this... 'human' in the dungeon, didn't you?"

I didn't like how this was going so far. "Sir," I said interrupting. "I can explain."

He studied my face. "You certainly look the part, if it wasn't for the eyes... Why should I trust anything that comes out of your mouth? Are you some kind of monster posing as a human? Why should I even entertain the idea of letting you walk out of here alive? Let alone joining the association."

This was quickly escalating in a way I hadn't been expecting.

Maxwell cleared his throat, not looking nearly as nervous as I felt. "James, with all due respect, Helena has saved our lives multiple times over and could have stabbed us in the back anytime she wanted to. She also helped us hunt more monsters than we would ordinarily be able to and agreed to split the money the same way any other hunter would. She didn't even know us the first time she saved our lives, I was shitting myself when I first saw her walking up to us. I understand how frightening Helena's situation is, but trust me when I say that she is on our side. I'd stake my life on it."

The draco smirked. "So, you admit that you found her in the dungeon then?"

Maxwell's eyebrows rose, it seemed he didn't realize what he had admitted to.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

He leaned back in his chair and cupped his chin. "She's been pretty calm listening to me talk about killing her. I sense some of her unease, but I almost expected her to run or attack me at the first provocation. If she is against us then that would be far scarier than a monster simply lashing out."

"Manager," Piper started to say but he raised a hand to cut her off.

"You, mage. Answer me truthfully, does she have a monster nexus?"

Luna hesitated then shook her head.

"Don't just shake your head like an idiot, does she or doesn't she?" the draco spat.

"Luna can't speak, she's mute," I told him.

The draco looked at me incredulously before turning to Maxwell. "Is that true? A mute mage?"

"Yes, she has a neck wound that didn't heal properly. She's been mute for a little over two years now," he replied.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair again. "You all have got to be the weirdest group I've ever come across... Well, the monster seems civilized but I do have concerns... Tell me how you got here umber hound, we've already moved past the lie that you grew up with these three," he said waving at my group.

"I... can try. I am not skilled in your language yet," I admitted.

"She didn't know draconic when we met her, we mostly used this book she found in the dungeon to teach her," Piper said before slapping the heavily dog-eared book on the desk in front of the draco.

He flipped through the first few pages with interest before making eye contact with Piper. "You found this in the dungeon?"

"Helena did," she said gesturing at me with her head. "She pulled a chest out of the lake on the sixteenth floor."

"The lake near the goblins?" he clarified and Piper nodded in response.

"You taught her how to speak from scratch using a book? Now that sounds like the tallest tale so far," he said dismissively.

"Well, the rings helped," I admitted while running a finger over the ring on my finger.

"Ah... telepathy rings. That would help, yes." He let out a sigh. "Fine. Just do your best, I still want to hear where you claim to have come from. Even if you somehow snuck into the dungeon, I'd like to hear the story."

I reached to scratch my head and I saw his muscles tense as my hand moved closer to the axe still slung over my back. I slowly returned my hand to my side and he relaxed just as quickly. I took a breath and started my story, sometimes stopping for help from my friends when I struggled to find the right words. I was honest about coming from another world but I did my best to be light on the details of my ability to transform and when my powers first manifested. My ability to shift into a wolf and take a lot of punishment was still the ace in my sleeve if things devolved into a fight. There was also the thing I did when shifting into a frost salamander... but I probably shouldn't risk that again until I can practice with that ability.

He quietly listened until I got to the part where I first encountered my friends and saved them from the goblins. He held up a hand cutting me off. "That's enough..." He tapped his fingers on the table a bit before nodding. "You say that you come from a world of only humans?"

I hesitantly nodded.

"At the start of the story you talked about falling through the ground. I've heard of that before, spatial magic. Very rare, it can do all sorts of odd things. I don't know why an umber hound of all things would be able to use spatial magic, but there have been countless reports in the last few months of our dungeon doing weird shit even before you came back saying the lost halls are broken now. Bosses where they shouldn't be, often much stronger than normal, and with odd powers that are atypical of the monster. Just the other day, I got a report of a large bird monster on the twelfth floor. A bird on the crystal floor using fire magic, how strange is that?"

The image of a phoenix came to mind.

"So," James continued, "that's why I believe you. It's patently obvious that you're still hiding things from me, but it feels like it's in the scope of typical hunters trying to keep their strength under wraps." He focused back on me, "Keep the blindfold on in the city. If you go somewhere else, it's not my problem. But if I hear a story of a human looking monster with umber hound eyes killing people, I'll hunt you down myself. Clear?"

"Yes, sir. I understand," I replied.

"Good. You're built like a fucking hulk, carrying that minotaur axe on your back as if it were a fucking branch. I don't want you to mess up my office and you seem respectful and well enough mannered. Don't make me regret this woman."

I nodded.

"Put your blindfold back on and have one of your friends fill out this form. The answers don't matter, I'm going to keep an eye on you and send word to a few other branch managers regardless. Don't write down anything about your eyes, keep that unofficial between us. Again, don't take the blindfold off in town, you'll scare the piss out of anyone that's ever seen an umber hound. I'll put a note saying that you're roughly the same strength as Maxwell, that'll make the caravan escort you're looking for easier." He marked the paper with a wooden stamp and handed it to Piper when she motioned to accept it from him. "Give it to reception when you're done. You're dismissed," he said with a wave.

All of us shuffled out of his office and I let out a sigh of relief. That could have gone a lot worse.

"Umber hound eyes creep me the fuck out." I heard him say to himself through the door.