My Last Hunt

Quests: Making A Team (part 3)

War between teams;

They were going to the market to buy better weapons since they already decided upon it. 

"I sense few team leaders were giving much attention toward us," Quipu spoke first, seeing Qiao silent. 

"They are looking for trouble but I am not sure about the reason yet," Qiao answered. 

He was observing their overall behavior and it was not welcoming. He could tell some new trouble was brewing.

His observation skill was also advancing with his level which was a good sign, else he would have to buy another skill stone and end up bargaining badly. 

"We'll know when we will return back," Linwin chuckled. He was slowly getting addicted to the behavior of all stronger chasers and learning how to overcome or ignore them.

They finally arrived at the market and without wasting their time hurriedly entered the weapons shop. 

Qiao was most worried because he came here third time with the intention to buy weapon and who knows what he would eventually decide on and if he might be surprised by something here. 

He was yet to decide what type of weapon would suit him the best. 

They all calculated their spoils and accordingly, Linwin could only buy a level two weapon while Quipu had enough saving with him and he was going to buy a level three weapon. 

Qiao had a lot with him but not enough to buy a level five weapon, so he thought to remain contented with a level four one.

"I am fine with a sword," Linwin looked toward a level two sword and asked the sales person to let him take a look at it. 

He examined the long sword and nodded, he paid the price and finally heave a sigh of relief. He had a feeling of being rich to have a stronger weapon than his level. 

Quipu wanted to buy a chain weapon to experience it, but Qiao stopped him by saying that he should chose a weapon which would suit him best and not to experiment with the new types. 

So he bought a spear instead. Now they had a long-range weapon and a close-range weapon in their team. It was a tough feeling for Qiao to choose a weapon more than before now. 

"I want to buy a unique weapon with unusual shape just like this," Qiao pointed toward his shapeless weapon and the sales person shook his head seeing it.

"It would be impossible for Middletown to have such a highly designed weapon, only the higher-level hunter can get it from the Hightown markets," 

The shop keeper answered. But as if remembering something-

"Still I can shuffle through all the floors of this shop and if you are lucky, I might find something here in the stores left by the senior owner,"

Initially the sales person was not going to show the weapon but seeing that this customer only wanted to buy a unique one he had no choice. If he denied outright, the customer might not purchase anything and in future might not even consider their shop. 

The sales person brought out a strange looking weapon. It was not actually a weapon but something the owner of the shop used to hunt with. It was molded by him and shaped for easy use as it can be used at short range and long range. 

From one side, it was sharp like a sword and from the other side it had two sharp horns. The deep blue shade of the weapon did not give out any deadly aura but whoever looked at it for few moments could feel a different vibes as if it was hungry for hunt and blood. 

It was almost four feet and as Qiao held it in his hand he could feel a strange sense as thought it was meant for him. The grip was just as he would have preferred. And its uniqueness attracted him.

"I will be buying this then," Qiao was fully contented that it at least met his requirements. Moreover, it was also a level four one, not a bad choice. After that, the three exited the place.

Qiao was left with some spoils with him after buying the weapon which he didn't feel the need to submit to the Guild bank yet. 

They came out of the market and started to wander. 

Though Qiao was leader of this newbie team, he didn't want to force them to do anything. He would only suggest and if they thought it was worth to act on, they can follow. 

"Are we going toward forest?" Linwin asked puzzled. 

Qiao did not seem to be in a hurry for the quest even after they had bought their weapons. 

"We will go after some time. Right now just follow me. I felt that a team leader was intending to follow us, I am pretty of sure what was his reason but we cannot simply face them. The team leader was at level four and with six members in their team, I feel like if we directly went for the Quest right now, they might trouble us," Qiao spoke out his observation about a team. 

He was right about this as the team was currently waiting at the paved path from where low-level teams chose to enter the forest. 

....

"We have been waiting for quite some time some, where is the newbie team?" a member spoke out, he could no more stand under the direct sunlight sweating here. 

"He should have appeared until now," the team leader smashed on the ground and spoke angrily. 

"I think we should move out for our own quest and see this matter later. We can't delay and give our rival team a chance to act on our absence to let them surpass our score in the Guild," someone pointed out. 

Currently they were doing quests for the competition and whatever they gained from the hunt belong to them. But the experience they gained would be counted as their score. If they hunted more than once a day, they could increase their score. But wasting their time like this here was definitely not beneficial.

As there were a mix of level one to level three hunter in this team, the leader got to choose the level of difficulty of their quest.

This was also to make sure the fairness of the competition and the Guild also wanted to avoid the blame of being partial to any one team. 

In this manner, the competition among teams was conducted. Those during the hunt lost instead of gaining experience would be kicked out from their teams. And those leaders who were not wise enough when deciding about the hunt would be punished by stripping from their leadership of the team. 

This Guild had extensive competitiveness and only those who have the guts to face others would be given chances. 

After waiting a half a day, the team left and Qiao finally also decided to enter the forest for the hunt. 

The reception man had not told him about the ongoing competition or anything as he was waiting for them to complete the first hunt and if they returned alive, he would let them know. 

So, this hunt was a test whether this newbie team could survive or not. If they could, then he might give one or two team members to stabilize the team member's count and strength.