Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Monster Hunting Expert

“You sure about this?” Zach asked as they reached their destination.

Naha nodded her head. “Fighting monsters in the respawning dungeons is one thing. For the most part they have only an animal-like intelligence. Fighting a dragon in the open world that had probably killed tier 14 capable adventuring teams, is another thing entirely.”

“We’ve done well enough so far,” Zach argued, though in truth he didn’t disagree. They had been fighting monsters, true, but they had relied on Naha’s knowledge about them and their mastery of their power to outclass the monsters.

“We have,” Naha said. “But it would be better if we at least tried to be less arrogant.”

Zach chuckled and shook his head. Both of them were confident in their power, and they had both gone through a lot, had overcome a lot. There was little that Zach was afraid of facing at her side.

They walked into the inn and Zach cast his eyes around the room. The building was made out of white bone on the outside, as most buildings in the White City were, but the inside itself was lined with wooden planks. That gave the room a cozy feeling. The inn’s common room was spacious and filled with tables that were occupied by all kinds of people.

“There he is,” Naha pointed at a drake sitting at a table in the corner alone leaned over a small book.

The two of them made their way across the room and came to a stop next to the table where a red and black scaled drake who was furiously writing something down.

The drake raised his head from his book and then blinked, a moment later he grinned at them. His teeth were sharper and slightly longer than those of most drakes, in fact, his whole body was slightly… exaggerated. Longer claws, sharper scales, narrower snout with wicked teeth.

“Ah, wardens,” the man greeted them loudly. “You are right on time!”

Zach inclined his head in the drake’s direction. He remembered him, Adventurer Basthec Fusescorch—a Monster Hunter—though they hadn’t met before now. The drake had taken part in the tournament in the same category as Zach, though he had been a solo entry. From what Zach remembered, the drake had gotten pretty far in the tournament, though Zach didn’t remember how he had placed in the end. Most of what happened before the invasion was a blur in Zach’s head. The fighting and closing of the portal was what he remembered the most, and then the fighting retreat. The people around him who had lost family and friends, people who looked at him and other wardens to protect them. Those things stuck in his mind a lot more than the tournament itself.

“Of course,” Naha said. “We wouldn’t want to keep you waiting.”

The drake nodded and closed his book, then wrapped it up carefully before flicking his hand and having it disappear, probably stored inside a spatial item. “Well then, I’ve taken the liberty of reserving a private room, right this way!” He said, his voice still just a bit too loud.

Zach suppressed the desire to grimace at that, and they followed after him. The drake led to the back of the inn and to a small private room. Zach noticed the standard privacy formations on the walls of the room—most places such as this inn that catered to adventurers had things like that. Places where people could talk in private were important, especially for cities like this one.

“Thank you for meeting with us, Adventurer Fusescorch,” Naha said as all three of them took their seats. Naha and Zach on one side and the drake across from them.

“No problem, you are paying me after all,” the drake grinned. “And just Basthec is fine.”

“Basthec then. I am Warden Nahamassa Plainrunner, and this is my partner Warden Zacharia Gardner,” Naha introduced them.

Basthec tilted his head as he looked Naha over. “A shifter class?”

“Yes,” Naha answered.

“Hm… you have the Chimera attunement, right? And your body means that you have Unique Form, a very rare perk, I am envious, it is better than mine. Though, I think that monster shifting isn’t your primary focus, or it wasn’t until recently…”

“I’ve… shifted focus recently,” Naha said.

“Interesting, perhaps we could spar sometime,” Basthec said with a grin, then turned his head to look at Zach. “And I am, of course, familiar with you. Wardens Tempest, it is an honor. Your fights in the tournament were incredible.”

“Thank you. Your fights were great as well,” Zach said, though he didn’t remember much of the man’s fights.

For a few seconds the drake remained silent, then he spoke again. “The rumors say that you were part of the attack on the portal, that you were the one close it.”

“I was the only one available with a power that could be of use, it was fortune or misfortune depending on how you look at it,” Zach told him.

“Ha!” The drake laughed again. “Misfortune indeed. I’ve fought on the wall; I’ve seen just how horrible those monsters are.”

“That they are,” Zach added.

“Enough about that,” Basthec waved his hand. “Let us focus on why you wanted to speak with me.”

Zach glanced at Naha then motioned for her to speak. They had been making an effort to have her interact with other people more in her base form. She was fine when she needed to pretend, when she played a role. Being herself… that was harder.

“Adv—Basthec, we wanted to talk about your trade, obviously, more precisely—dragons,” Naha said.

“Ah,” the drake laughed at that. “Of course, it is only natural for you to come to me, I am after all the man who is going to be the greatest Monster Hunter in the world!”

The truth was that he was the most qualified person that they could get to on a short notice. He was not affiliated with any of the major adventurer factions, which meant that he was a free agent. The big factions probably had stronger and more qualified people, but getting to them or having them agree to help was close to impossible in the current climate. Everyone was protecting what they had, keeping the dungeons they owned and the knowledge about them close. They had tried to get to a few of the people in them for advice and had either been turned away or asked to join their factions in return for knowledge.

Of course, neither Zach nor Naha were going to tell that to the Monster Hunter.

“Your expertise as far as monster hunting is concerned is well known,” Naha agreed with the man. “We have fought dragons before, but always in dungeons. We are in need of information, and if you are willing, help with tracking and taking down a dragon in the wild.”

Basthec’s expression immediately sobered. “Hm, well, that is another thing entirely.”

Naha tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you’ve paid for a consultation,” the drake raised a hand and scratched at his snout. “You are Wardens, am I right to think that you have little knowledge or experience with fighting monsters?”

“We’ve fought monsters before,” Naha said. “But you are correct in thinking that we are not specialized monster hunting adventurers.”

“Yes, that is… I guess that I should start with the basics then. What do you know about this dragon that you plan on hunting?”

“Not much, unfortunately,” Naha answered. “We know the general area where it was sighted, and we know that several caravans and a couple teams have vanished in the area.”

“Hm… I’ve not heard anything about that, but it is unsurprising. The Island is large. Do you know how strong the teams that vanished were?”

“The information that we got indicated that at least one was a tier fourteen capable team,” Naha told him.

The drake grimaced. “Do you perhaps know what team it was? Their ranking in the Guild?”

“No,” Naha said. The Guild had its own ranking system, the same way as the Warden’s Guild had. Their badges were color and material coded. Zach and Naha had both earned platinum badges over the last three years.

“Then that doesn’t tell us much. Being a tier fourteen rated team means that they had taken down a tier fourteen monster, but that can mean a lot of different things, not all monsters of the same tier were equal. Rarity, age, size, a lot of things went into it. A named monster is a lot stronger than the same type of monster on the same tier of power. A common monster might not have Aspected powers, but it can still be incredibly powerful. The greater the rarity of a monster, the more powers and special abilities it will have.”

Zach nodded in agreement. A monster’s power couldn’t be summarized just by their tier of power, it was something that he had learned early on.

“Many adventurers die because they overestimate their capabilities,” Basthec continued. “A team could kill a tier ten monster easily and then die to a tier six one. Knowing your prey, the way that they fight, their strengths and weaknesses, that was half of the battle. Being able to adapt and fight well as a team also helped. It was how adventurers took down far more powerful monsters. But dragons… they are difficult.”

“They are strong, but we’ve been able to deal with them fairly well,” Naha said.

Basthec met her eyes. “You fought them in the respawning dungeons?”

“Yes,” Naha answered.

“Yeah, well, you can forget everything that you think you know. A wild monster is nothing like those in the dungeons. Not everyone can tell, especially if they don’t go through the same dungeon multiple times. But monsters in the respawning dungeons are… simpler, than those outside.”

“How so?” Zach asked, intrigued.

“Well, for one they will always act and react in the same manner. They are… I guess that you can say that they act based on predetermined triggers. As if they are on strings, with someone else making them move. It doesn’t mean that they are weak, but they aren’t as dangerous as the monsters in the wild or wild dungeons for that matter.”

Zach and Naha exchanged looks, and then she spoke again. “So, what would you suggest that we do?”

“Not hunt dragons,” Basthec said.

“We need to,” Zach added.

The drake looked at him. “You are going to be doing this no matter what I say, right?”

Zach shrugged. “Finding dragons is… hard, and we cannot afford to wait and search for another that might be weaker.”

“Well, what is life without challenge!” Basthec laughed.

After barely trying to convince them to abandon their quest, they negotiated the price for his help with tracking and fighting the dragon.

“I would suggest that we find two more people if that is the limit that you have,” Basthec suggested as he got ready to explain what he knew about dragons. “Fighting without information about your foe is dangerous.”

“We can look around for other independents, but I am the one that needs to deal most of the damage to the monster,” Zach said.

Basthec nodded. “So, control specialists then, I know a few that might be interested, though they will require a lot of Essence for this.”

Zach waved his hand; it wasn’t really a concern. Both he and Naha had been well compensated for what they had done in the Tournament City, and then they’ve earned more during the last three years of taking contracts almost daily.

“Well then, the first thing you should know about dragons is that there are many different types. Most of them have some kind of Aspect associated with them and they are very good at using them. The most common types are dragonlings, which are the smallest of their variants, but are extremely vicious and cunning. Some can fly, but most don’t. Usually, they fight in small packs of six to ten monsters. I doubt that we are dealing with this type, your report doesn’t support that.”

“Yes, the reports are about only one flying monster. Big enough that it cast a large shadow on the ground,” Naha added.

“That means one of the bigger variants, without more information it is nearly impossible to know which one, but I would put my Essence on it being a wyvern.”

“A wyvern?” Zach asked.

“Yes. They are large, territorial, and generally wickedly hard to deal with, mostly because their size. Their mastery of their Aspect is not great, but they make up for the lack of finesse by brute force. Dealing with one of them would involve finding its lair and laying a trap. Most of wyvern types make lairs in caves, so fighting there would eliminate its flying capability.”

Zach nodded his head, since that did make sense to him.

“And if it is not a wyvern?” Naha asked.

Basthec grimaced. “This is why I don’t think that we should make any real plans now. First, we need information. The usual way that these hunts go is that we take a couple of days to gather information about our prey, then we make a plan, return to our base and resupply with everything that we think we might need and only then do we engage the monster. Making a plan to fight a wyvern is a lot different if it is not wyvern, but a lindwrum or a wrym.”

“But you think that we can do this?” Zach asked.

Basthec didn’t answer immediately, he took a few seconds to think about it. “The truth is that we are not a team. If you want me to help with this, then you will need to trust me. Knowing what our powers are and how we fight will go a big way toward making this mission a success. If you can’t do that, then we can part ways here. Otherwise… Yes, I think that we can. From what I saw of you in the tournament you are very strong. If we manage to find two more control specialists taking down even a tier fifteen dragon is possible, assuming of course that it is the right type of a monster and that we can ambush it.”

The right kind of monster. Zach knew that it all came down to that. The difference in power can be incredible, even between monsters on the same tier of power. He had fought tier 6 monsters that had been harder to take down than the tier 9 or 10. He knew better than to underestimate monsters. It was the same as with people, different people even on the same tier could have vastly different amounts of power.

“Alright,” Naha said at last. “If you can reach out to those people you think might be interested in joining us, we can start preparing for the trip.”

“Of course,” Basthec said. “You should take as much supplies as you can now, make sure that your gear is in top shape. There is a small city near this dragon’s territory, but with the way things have been between the factions… You might not be able to get the same level of service than what you can get here.”

“Will do,” Zach said as all of them stood up. They shook hands and agreed to meet in a couple of days, to allow him time to contact other adventurers.

A few hours later, Zach and Naha were back in their room at the inn they were staying.

“What did you think about him?” Naha asked.

Zach thought about it for a few moments. “He is… boastful, but I think that he is capable,” Zach answered finally.

Naha nodded in agreement. “I’ve asked around a bit, he comes well recommended. And I am certain that the people who recommended him were being truthful with me.”

Zach nodded then stopped and looked at her. “You didn’t,” he said.

She froze for a moment, and then tilted her head as if she was confused. “What do you mean.”

Zach glared at her. “We’ve talked about this. Especially in places like this where there are so many powerful people. It is a risk we shouldn’t take.”

“I’ve been doing this for a long time before you came along, Zach,” Naha sighed.

“I know,” Zach put a hand over his face. “I know. I just worry. People generally don’t react well to someone else impersonating them.”

He knew that it was a good way to get information. They had done it quite a few times in the past. Naha had her forms, but she also had abilities that allowed her to shapeshift into people that she just saw on the street. With her perfect imitation, she could fake being someone for short periods of time fairly well. But about a year ago, they had run into an issue with less than forthcoming guards of a small city where they had been hunting a bounty. Naha had impersonated one of the guards and infiltrated them, she got the information they needed, but one of the other guards had a perk that let him see through her disguise. They had been forced to flee the city.

She was registered as a shapeshifter in the Wardens, but that information wasn’t widely known. As far as most people were concerned, when they saw her, they assumed that she was a Cultivator or someone like Basthec.

The biggest issue with her doing that was her madness. She was getting better; she hadn’t had issues in a long time. But shapeshifting and impersonating people… things that she used to do before, it made her remember. It made her get closer to who she used to be. It was why she had pushed her evolutions into monster shifting.

He just didn’t want to have her get into something that could lead to her getting hurt. Because he knew how she could react. Her temper was a lot better, but there was no need for her to risk a relapse. A hundred years of living life imbalanced and mad didn’t go away in just a few years.

And he had nearly lost her when they attacked the portal. If it hadn’t been for Ryun… Zach felt her hands on his skin, and he let her pull his arm away from his face.

He looked up only to see her face a hands-breath away from his. Her touch on his skin was soft, her palms weren’t covered in scales, but just smooth skin.

“Don’t worry Zach, I am not going anywhere.”

He pulled her close and put his arms around her, holding her in a tight embrace.