Lightning Is the Only Way

The door of the Hunting Guild was kicked open, and Gravis walked in while pulling the Forest Fiend's corpse by its leg. Not a lot of blood flowed out since he had dragged it all the way here like that. The people at the tables looked at Gravis with some astonishment and also a little disgust.

The lady behind the counter looked at Gravis with a shocked look in her eyes. She hadn't thought that Gravis would actually successfully finish this hunt. On top of that, it looked like Gravis wasn't even injured. Hell, he didn't even seem exhausted!

Gravis dragged the corpse to the counter, but the lady immediately shouted. "What are you doing? Don't you see that people are eating here?" She gestured to the tables where multiple people had stopped eating with looks of disgust. "Get outside and go to the bounty entrance beside the main entrance!" she commanded.

Gravis furrowed his brows. "Why didn't you tell me?" he asked simply.

The lady went red in the face. She hadn't even entertained the thought that Gravis might be successful in his hunt, so she didn't bother telling him. "That doesn't matter! Go to the side entrance!" she commanded again.

Gravis frowned, but pulled the corpse outside and went to the bounty entrance. The bounty entrance was multiple times bigger than the main entrance. Probably, so even big bodies could fit. He pulled it into the bounty entrance, where he could see some men sitting at a table, playing a card game.

The men heard the scraping of the corpse on the ground and looked at Gravis. Seeing the body, they stood up. "Place it on the table," one of the guys said, as he started putting on an apron and gloves.

Gravis saw a big, metallic table in the middle of the room. Some blood remained on the table, but Gravis didn't care. He hoisted the corpse with one hand and let it slam onto the table. The eyes of the men widened. This guy had some good strength!

They quickly inspected the corpse. Its cause of death couldn't be inferred by just taking one look. It took some time until they noticed a deep groove on the top of its head. One of them opened it a little wider and saw that half the brain was cut. So, this was the cause of death.

One of the guys whistled in astonishment. "Wow, that's good work, newbie. The corpse is basically without any injury. Let me just check the price of the corpse, and I'll give you your spoils. Oh right! Do you want the reward as materials or currency?" The man asked.

"Money," Gravis stated.

"Well, okay. Gimme a sec," the man said and walked over to one of the tables. He took out a thick catalog and looked through it. After about a minute, he closed it again and walked over to Gravis. He took off the thickest sack of money from his belt and searched through it. After a while, he had taken out some silver coins and recounted them again.

"Alright, that's 45 silver coins for you," the man said as he handed Gravis the coins. Gravis took them but soon found a problem.

"Hey, can you sell me one of those purses for a silver coin?" Gravis asked, pointing at the sacks of money on the guy's belt.

The guy looked surprised but quickly nodded. "Sure! Here, take this one," he said as he emptied a half- filled sack into another one. He gave the empty sack to Gravis and took his silver coin, obviously happy with this trade.

Gravis emptied his silver coins into his new purse, nodded to the man, and walked out. When he walked back into the Hunting Guild, through the main entrance this time, he saw someone cleaning the floor of the little blood the corpse spilled. He ignored the man and walked to the counter lady again.

"So, where's my payment?" he asked directly.

The lady harrumphed. "Can't you youngsters learn some patience? We have to wait for the report from the bounty hall." She gestured to the wall of the bar. Behind that wall, was the room where Gravis just left the corpse. "It should take about five minutes."

Gravis frowned but nodded. Some things couldn't be rushed, so he simply leaned against a wall and waited, his eyes closed. The hunters looked at him weirdly. They saw that Gravis didn't engage in any brotherly conversation with them at the table. He was a young guy, so that was unusual. Young men would quickly start to brag about their kill or simply just unwind by releasing their happiness with some alcohol.

Instead, they felt like Gravis was releasing an aura of coldness and rejection. It seemed like, he didn't want to be disturbed. Some of them stood up and tried to make conversation, but Gravis always answered plainly, with as few words as possible. After a while, the hunters stopped trying. He was obviously an anti-social person.

About four minutes after he talked with the lady, one of the men from the bounty entrance came in and gave the lady a piece of paper. "Hey, newbie! Come over here," she commanded. Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Gravis walked over and looked at her. The lady didn't know why, but for some reason, she really didn't like Gravis. "Show me your weapon!"

Gravis frowned but complied. Being direct was one thing, but she obviously acted hostile towards him. He showed her his saber. There was some blood on the saber, but not much. The lady looked at the saber, then at the paper, then again at the saber, and the paper again.

"Alright. Your mission's done." She then took out an emblem made of metal and a sack filled with coins. "This is your senior hunter emblem. You need to present it if you want to accept missions," she explained and gestured toward the big notice board at the end of the hall. "That's the mission board. Every mission regarding ferocious beasts is listed there."

Then, she gestured at a long list on one side of the hall. "That's the bounty list. It shows you, on average, how much a corpse is worth. You can bring any slain ferocious beast into the bounty hall. They will evaluate the grade of your corpse and compare it to the current price. So, prices may vary since the bounty list only shows the general average."

"Missions have an additional monetary reward compared to bounties, but your slain beasts are still your property." She then pointed at the sack of coins. "On average, a mission for killing a ferocious beast gives a hunter around 50 silver coins, yet it may vary according to the strength of the monster. Trial missions are only worth around a third of the price of an actual mission since we can't guarantee the kill on the first attempt. You get 20 silver coins for this mission."

"When someone commissions a mission, we first send scouts to classify, which monster is stalking the place. We can't trust amateurs to correctly identify a monster, so we always verify with our own eyes, what kind of monster the target of a mission is. So, the information is pretty accurate. When you want to take on a specific mission, pull down the notice, and bring it to me together with your emblem. Though, you have to pay a contract fee when accepting a mission. The fee counts as insurance if you fail the mission. The contract fee is about 25% of the reward. If you complete the mission, you get the fee back."

She explained everything in a very natural and practiced manner. Gravis took the coins and added them to his purse. After that, Gravis did some calculations. With luck, he could hunt two ferocious beasts per day, but he would need about an average of eight to buy a Skin-Pill, including the bounty. Gravis knew that this was the lower world and that the pills here wouldn't be like the pills in his world. He would probably need more than one.

The entrance exams for the Elemental Guilds would be in around 90 days. He wasn't sure if just hunting ferocious beasts was enough. He needed more money.

"Are there missions for hunting low-grade demonic beasts?" He asked, and the hall went silent.