My Last Hunt

Level Three (part 34)

Qiao stopped when he heard the voice, then started thinking why had the old owner asked him to stop?

"Why is there a cursed aura around you? From your age to level, you do not seem to be someone who would venture to such a place." The old owner asked out of curiosity. Previously when this young man had visited, he had already felt it and then later once more he had strongly sensed it again, but could not find the chance to ask about it. 

"It's a long story respected Gege." He replied while having a strange expression on his face that was quite not a smirk. He could not help but mock his current situation and how he was caught by the aura. 

The old owner nodded at the response and did not try to pry any further. Qiao exited the shop and then reached back to his cottage. Limmu was waiting for him while sharpening his weapon all this while. He was feeling stupid that he had never valued his weapon and the skills to become strong up till now. 

Qiao entered and handed him the booklet which only consisted of twelve to fifteen pages. Qiao was not surprised about it as the previous booklet which he bought only had ten pages with limited information. Extensive care was taken by high level people to not expose the more dangerous and secretive information to lower level hunters. Knowledge was a weapon in itself and more often it could lead to a precarious situation. Spreading of such information would mostly garner greed from them rather than to do something for the betterment of the world. 

Many of those who chose to spent spoils on buying booklets once or twice, later decided to never buy again after seeing how limited information was provided on the papers. As for the better grade booklets, they were naturally more expensive and only obtainable by those who could handle it. Although sometimes people who had a passion to collect information at any cost would pour their wealth to buy them no matter their level. 

"Read this for me." He handed the booklet to Limmu, who had a surprised look on his face. He lifted his brows to see that this young man had spent his spoils on a booklet. He had only witnessed one person doing this and he was the leader of his team back then. 

"Alright then. The title says 'A precise information about the Hidden Island located in the middle of Azzura Continent" Limmu translated the title first of all. He then opened the cover and started reading. 

"Azzura Continent is the same land where the Middletown forest is located and this is one of the safest havens for lower class chasers. Azzura Continent has five islands in total with Hidden Island being the most dangerous among them. In fact, the name Azzura was given to this continent because of the presence of this Hidden island." 

"Here the Monster race, Azzura breed and live and usually level six hunters are sent to this Hidden Island for the Class test." 

"The identifying trait of this race is really special as these monsters are all blind or more precisely, they cannot use their eyes to see in the darkness. It was noticed that the monsters chose to disappear as the evening falls but as to where they disappear is still unknown to hunters who happened to visit this place." 

As he continued, the sun had finally set and it wasn't possible to continue reading. Limmu handed back the booklet to Qiao.

He did not notice the look on Qiao's face at that moment.

He was thrilled to finally know more about the place where he was currently living and how many places were unseen yet. This meant he wouldn't be hunting in the Middletown forest after he reached level four. He would be sent to another island of this continent or perhaps if he was able to gather some trusted men then he could form his own team. 

The old owner had not taken all the spoils and returned four. He planned to visit the Starglow Guild tomorrow since he had some spoils to pay as fee and was enthusiastic to take the test for recruitment. 

"Tomorrow I might leave to join a Guild, if you want to stay, you can because I have paid one month rent in advance." Qiao voiced to tell the chaser. 

"I am also going back to my Guild." Limmu answered. Again, there was silence. 

"How many Guilds are working in the Middletown? Also do the other islands also have living population?" Qiao thought to ask this chaser who had much knowledge. 

"There are close to a hundred Guilds, but only tens of them could grant the golden token that is required to reach the Hightown because these Guilds have a large influence. Their sub Guilds are present in even the most dangerous parts of the continent so they have influence as well as the power to stand against the circumstances. The other Islands also inhabit population but not much compared to the Middletown. You must have heard of the exits and entrances of the Middletown, did you? Limmu asked. 

"I have heard about it." Qiao spoke. He felt quite fortunate to have met someone really knowledgeable. 

"Some of these exits also lead to various small and big islands where the teams venture in the day time, according to their levels. For example, level four teams are not allowed to hunt in the Middletown forest. If anyone of the team was found hunting. The only exceptions are if those teams are given a mission or a special permission." 

"It is also because as the monsters becomes stronger, they choose to live in their separate territories. They grow bigger and frightening and eventually learn how to use their natural armours. Which is why stronger hunters are required to face them" Limmu stopped for a while. 

"What is natural armour?" It was something new for Qiao. 

"Buddy, the stones which we get in form of spoils are the natural armours of the monster. When they grow up, they start using them for their defence or offence." 

"For example, if a monster lives in the water, with the help of evolution or the natural body condition it can bear a stone which has the quality to repel water or manage life under the water. Then after reaching level five that specific monster will be able to use this stone as a water source and also as a source to live without water depending on how carefully the monster bred that stone." 

"This could probably result in a situation where a big water monster is able to walk around with water circling it to keep it damp. Now imagine what happens if the large monster of water needs more water when outside of the lake or river or ocean for itself. What would it do?" Limmu suddenly asked as he seemed lost in defining. 

Qiao who was listening carefully was surprised when he was asked a question in the middle. His brain went numb as he thought of an answer. Yet, despite playing various monster games in his advanced world he was unable to imagine what would the monster do. 

"The monster would start absorbing water from humans for its own body; many learned hunters have told that though humans live on the open grounds, our body bear considerable amount of water and suppose if most of the water was sucked dry, what would remain behind? This is why Middletown is chosen for the lower level chasers and strong hunter clear it for more than a quarter population of all the continents." 

The lower level monsters cannot learn the usage of natural armours. This was why other islands had low population. It was more dangerous living there.

Qiao was astounded to know this and then he thought how are the other continents and their population surviving? He could not wait for Limmu to speak further so he asked, "How do the other continents and their population deal with monsters then?" 

"Ah this, I don't know even a single piece of information related to it. I only know that Level seven and upper hunters are sent in various parts of the other continents for class tests and training. The chosen Guilds send their teams with mission to hunt down troubling and strong monsters." 

"What is a class test?" Qiao put out another question. Every piece of information led to many other questions but he was asking only the urgent or more pressing ones on his mind. He had treated this Limmu like any other bad chaser crudely, but he never knew that he was an encyclopaedia of information. 

"Hah I will tell you this, but this will be the last one. My eyes are closing buddy..." He pleaded. For a carefree chaser to hunt down two monsters in one day was exhausting and he was dying to sleep. Nonetheless, he choose to answer because he feared Qiao and his anger. 

"Oh, alright." Qiao forgot because he was immersed in understanding and remembering all the words spoken by him. 

"From level six, every level above a hunter went, he would not be given the mark of level up until he passes the class test. This means if a team chose to not join any Guild and ventures on their own, they won't be considered strong hunters and would not be given missions to collect treasures. Such teams remain rogue and eventually vanish out from the face of this world because they end up in front of unexpected monsters due to their ignorance. Only one out of a thousand teams survive till level nine and..." Limmu did not speak further. 

Qiao finally started to understand why the present rules were set by the Guilds and why chasers were forced to abide by such rules.