And, as I pulled my hood down to wipe some sweat off the side of my head, I was pretty sure I passed the test. Considering that I did so without getting grievously wounded, and with only a few scratches across my body, I was pretty sure I did so with flying colors.
I glanced down at the dead Chimera. At the Monster that was almost ten foot in length, probably weighing a thousand pounds. Then I realized the folly of my ways.
...how am I supposed to bring you back?
It was morning. Or rather, dawn. This was an important time of the day for most people. It was when farmers got up to plough their fields, when gatherers went out to collect their herbs, and when hunters went out to catch their prey.
But truth be told, that mattered more so in the village than in the city. Cityfolk did begin their day early, but not to follow nature’s schedule as they went about their day. Instead, they created an artificial schedule to follow, one where a regular person would miss all the hustle and bustle which would inevitably lead to the loss of opportunities.
Such a thing— a construct of peoples’ affairs— was what the Hunters of the city had to follow. They did not just hunt animals for their pelts or meat to sell or eat. These Hunters were part of the Hunters Guild, and were tasked with Monster extermination, bodyguarding rich nobles from Monsters, or selling off prized Monster parts to the guild or in an auction.
As was quite obviously spelled out, Hunters mostly dealt with Monsters. Not all the time, of course. But generally speaking, if a Hunter was involved, surely Monsters had to be involved as well. And with being in such danger all the time, it was no wonder so many Hunters would want to take the easier, safer jobs.
Because of that, the Hunters Guild was almost always most packed in the morning. Hunters came in searching for a job that was posted overnight, that they hoped was good and safe. If there were none— which generally was the case, since such jobs did not just appear into existence every single night— they would wait until someone came in with a job they found appealing. And like a pack of wolves— which was ironic, considering the metaphor and their jobs— the Hunters would pounce on the job, trying to be the first one to get it.
Some Hunters were even willing to accept less pay than others to get the jobs they wanted. This would lead to arguing and bickering, which would end up with a receptionist calling the Guild Master/Mistress down, and sometimes involving the job-posters themselves to make the final decision. Today was no different.
Two teams of Hunters were huddled around the job board, arguing over who should be the one to take the request to exterminate a group of Horned Rabbits, as other Hunter teams or individual Hunters watched on with mild amusement, and some with boredom, desensitized to such a common scene. The first team believed they had won the task on a first-come-first-serve basis, which was generally how it worked. But the second team had been there all night, and they were unhappy that no one informed them that such a job had even been posted while they were there.
The Guild Master had just arrived, and was trying to resolve the dispute, although he was failing pretty bad at it. One of the receptionists, a woman called Agnes, had just finished working the night shift, and was definitely not going to butt into this pointless argument, opting to quietly leave instead.
However, just as that was about to happen, there was a sudden commotion. No— not the one from inside the building. But from outside of the Hunters Guild.
There were sharp gasps. People— both Hunters and regular cityfolk alike— began to gather in a crowd and whisper to one another. The source of whatever was causing the disturbance slowly made its way closer to the building, before finally, a figure appeared at the doorway.
It might have been a child. Or it might have just been a really short and thin man. Or an emaciated Half Dwarf. Or even a Goblin, rare as they were in Laxis. But it did not matter.
Whoever it was had a hood up, and was wearing a mask to cover their face. Furthermore, it seemed as though they had just come from a fight, since their clothes were stained with blood and gore. And while that was not exactly an unusual scene in the Hunters Guild, what the hooded figure brought with them was indeed quite odd.
It was the head of a Chimera.
The exact same Monster that had a bounty on it for the last two weeks, yet no one had completed. The child, or Goblin, or whatever they were, dragged the head slowly across the floor of the Hunters Guild, approaching the front desk.
The severed head, which was still leaking some blood, left quite a mess behind as the hooded figure finally reached the receptionist. Everyone in the guild had already stopped what they were doing, even the two bickering groups and the Guild Master, turning to see this masked person as they hefted the Chimera’s head onto the long table.
The receptionist just stared down at the head in shock, before being startled by a sudden noise. The masked person jammed a dagger down into the Chimera’s skull, squirting more blood out of its side and onto the wooden desk.
"Wh— huh? What do you want?"
"Hi," Melas said loud enough for all to hear. Then with a deep breath, she repeated her opening line from 12 hours ago. "I’d like to register as a Hunter, please."
She glanced about the expressions plastered on everyone's face across the room, stopping only
