The next day, I was up and dressed early for the first time in my life. As soon as 7 am hit, I opened the Task List in the Hunter App in my Guide. The tasks were divided into ranks, each one a different color of the rainbow. I clicked on the E ranked tasks and a list dropped down, revealing several hundred options. Hundreds – not three, like just a couple days ago. Was there always this much every day?

Most of them were going to get monster byproducts, but some were to collect plants. I didn't feel comfortable going into battle with Chuck, since Shiva was still on the mend, so I concentrated on the gathering tasks. As for the System's daily task – yet again, kill two monsters – I'll just find a couple E ranked monsters on the way home. According to Uncle, Shiva should be fine going out tomorrow, but I still should take it easy. So, one more lazy day, then she and I could go back to taking on the world and figuring out where I stood in it.

And before I figured out my future, I needed to know my past. I sighed, thinking how far away I was from level fifty. Too far.

Within seconds of the list appearing, tasks started to disappear off it, as the max numbers of Hunters reserving the task was reached. From there, it was just a first come, first serve to the person who made it to the Task Desk in the Association's building first.

I blinked out of my thoughts and quickly selected five gathering tasks that didn't seem too hard. There was more paperwork I had to go over tonight before my shift tomorrow, so everything was perfect.

The Hunter's Association building was just as chaotic as the first time I walked into it. Hunters swarmed the Task Desk, tussling with each other to be the first to claim their desired task. Just looking at the mess made my head hurt. It was so much smoother when Uncle gave me a task, maybe I should go to him and see if he needed anything first for now on. If I could get the task the night before, it would save more time in the morning.

Psyching myself up, I stepped forward, ready to muscle my way through the crowd. Gathering tasks weren't as popular as hunting ones, but there were Hunters that preferred the easier ones. Less risk means less likely to die, right?

"Are you serious?" A shrill voice sounded just behind me. The voice was so close, it was impossible to not overhear. "He backed out? What are we going to do now? The roc leaves in an hour!"

Unable to resist, I glanced over my shoulder at the small group, two women and a man. But their worries weren't my problem, so I ignored them and stepped forward. Unfortunately, pushing through the crowd was as hard as it looked. I wasn't going anywhere, fast.

"We just need to find someone else," the guy calmly reasoned behind me.

I didn't mean to overhear their conversation, but with a wall of immovable people in front of me, I couldn't help it.

"Who are we going to find in an hour?" the woman argued back. "Going north takes planning. No one's going to just up and join us."

I paused. What she said was true. Going anywhere away from a human settlement was a big deal. Never mind cellphones – there weren’t any working cell towers outside of settlements – even Guide messages couldn't cover more than a hundred miles. From the sounds of it, if this group was using a roc, they were going quite a ways away. North...

I swallowed, breathing slowly. I didn't know these people and I didn't know what they needed to do north, but I slowly turned around. "Where up north?" I asked.

The three Hunters paused mid-conversation and faced me.

The shortest woman dressed in light armor glanced at me up and down, assessing. "Laramie. It's in Wyoming."

My heart leapt. According to the research I did yesterday, pyreflies could be found around there. The problem was, was I comfortable going out with a group of strangers? Or even strong enough to handle whatever task they had?

The second woman, tall with brown hair, brightened up. "Hey, I've never met you before and I thought I knew everyone around here." Her eyes sparked in interest. "What's your name?"

I smiled back. "I just moved here. I'm Ria."

She beamed and patted herself on the chest. "My name's Star, this is Pepper and Scott." She motioned to the Hunters behind her. "Nice to meet you. Where did you come from?"

I glanced over my shoulder at the mass of people still jostling with each other. It was late enough that getting to the front to get my chosen task was looking more and more unrealistic. But if things worked out with these people, I wouldn't even need a task for today. When it came to getting a pyrefly wing, I could either pay someone to take me up north … or I could hitch a ride with someone already going up, and get paid myself to be there. I knew which one was easier on my bank account.

The only question was, what were these people going up there for? Their ranks ranged from level thirty-three to thirty-eight, so they were pretty strong. After all, Uncle was one of the stronger Hunters I knew, and he was level forty-seven. I also didn't know the task rank Star and her friends were attempting. It was probably way over my level.

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Even so, I kept the conversation going. "I came from Eden," I explained, giving enough information while keeping the rest close to my chest. I didn't know if these people were safe yet.

Star's eyes lit up even more. "No way? Lucky! I've always wanted to go there. I grew up in Boulder. There's nothing here except trees and monsters. I've heard that Eden is like a party city."

A small smile touched my lips as I thought about how different the lifestyles were between the cities. "People are more relaxed there, since there's not a lot of monsters, but there's also a lot of similarities."

Pepper and Scott looked at each other, then Pepper grabbed Star's arm. Without a word to me, Pepper pulled Star back until she apparently thought they were a safe distance away ... but I could still hear them over the noise of the Hunters behind me.

"What are you doing?" Pepper demanded, looking ready to bite. "We don't have time for chitchat."

"I know that," Star reasoned back. "We need to find someone to fill the hole."

Scott, standing with his arms crossed beside them, scoffed. "Did you leave your brain in bed? That girl's an E. I'm not going to spend the day babysitting. We have more important things to do. Like staying alive and getting paid."

"Like losing the task and eating the non-refundable costs?" Star countered snidely. "I don't know about you, but I can't afford it. Literally. But if you're swimming in that much money, you can cover my cost, too."

Pepper and Scott stiffened, their faces turning green.

"I thought so," Star commented in victory. "It's not that big of a deal, really. The three of us are strong enough to handle anything out there, it's just the task says four. We've got this. I want her to go." Star lifted her chin up, a smile on her lips.

I pinched my thumb, digesting their words and absorbing the information. I wasn't surprised the other two Hunters disagreed, but it felt nice to be so welcomed by Star. Especially after all the discrimination I'd encountered so far. Uncle's workers only accepted me because I had his backing, but I wasn't going to tell Star about it yet – if I did at all.

"That settles it," Star announced without waiting for any more objections and marched back to me. "It's like this, Ria. We're looking for another person to join our team." She motioned to herself and two lingering behind. "We got a task to go to Laramie and collect data from the abandoned university there. We pulled a couple strings to get the task and we already booked a roc to fly us there and back. The only hold up is that the task depicts that four people go. Odd, but not a big deal originally. Only our fourth person pulled out at the last second." She took a breath after the long ramble. "Do you want to be our new fourth person?"

Collecting data from a university? Now that society was finally stabilized and the war against monsters was finally tipping in our favor, humanity was reaching out, collecting old data from servers in abandoned cities and factories. After all, it was easier to retrieve something already perfected, than wait for someone to rediscover it. A university could hold a lot of forgotten knowledge.

Of course, it wasn't as easy as one, two, three. The cities were abandoned because monsters took over in the first place, so most places were still full of monsters. As for retrieving the data, that was even more tricky. Most of these places hadn't been maintained in the last fifty years; decades of neglect, earthquakes, and other natural – or unnatural – disasters. Finding the servers was a chore enough, extracting the data was the real test. Most Hunters simply brought the whole server in and let the professionals do the meta-digging.

"Is this the first time someone's collected data from the university?" I asked slowly.

Pepper shook her head, finally joining the conversation. "No. A couple groups have already gone. We think that's why the task stipulated four people, because that's how many the poster thinks they need to go to accomplish the task."

"I understand," I said slowly. If other people have already gone there, then most of the higher ranked monsters should have already been dealt with. Not that I was looking for a cake walk, but I was still a level five puke. "What kind of monsters would I expect to meet there, if I go?"

Scott waved his hand, close to annoyed. "None. You won't have to fight anything, we just need a fourth person. The tickets' already paid for, taken out of the money from the task. The rest of the money will be divided, with the fourth person getting fifteen percent. Because we don't expect you to do anything." He stressed the last sentence, getting his point across.

"But that will still be around five hundred," Star jumped in, putting in a positive spin.

“Now it’s your turn,” Pepper cut in. “Why would an E wanna go up north?” She glanced over my shoulder towards the task desk.

I knew what she was insinuating immediately. “It’s not for a task,” I explained. It’s poor taste to pick up a task and have someone else foot the bill to help complete it without telling them. “For personal reasons, I want a pyrefly wing, and I hear they’re around there.”

Scott scowled. “Are you even strong enough to handle one? They travel in swarms, you know.”

I did know, and I hoped I was strong enough. They were a D class monster, but I didn’t know what level that translated to. Pyreflies were nocturnal, so the plan was to shoot the wings off one while it was sleeping, then run away with the prize before the rest of the swarm reacted. That should work, right?

“I’ve got it handled,” I explained, sounding more confident than I felt.

“Sounds good enough for me.” Star opened her Guide screen, tapped on it for a minute, then spun it around, revealing a contract. "Go ahead and read it."

I wasn't polite as I poured over the contract, checking all the details. It was pretty straight forward. I would accompany them to Laramie, help search the university, then come back with them in the evening before sun down. All the loot I found would be mine, it didn't have to be split between the team. There didn’t seem to be anything that put me in a bind.

"Okay," I said. "We have a deal."

Star beamed. "Great!" She passed me the contract to sign. "We leave at 9 am. That’s less than an hour. Meet us at the landing pad."

I nodded. There were a couple additional things I needed, such as some freeze-dried meals and other outdoor travel gear, since I was going to be gone for the whole day, not just a couple hours which was the original plan. Oh, and I should let Dad know I wouldn’t be reachable for the rest of the day. It was only courteous to give him something to complain about, right?

*****