My Last Hunt

Quests: Making A Team (part 19)

War between teams;

The new slots were finally settled and it made many arrogant team leaders lick the dirt of shame. They were directly thrown to the last slots and it was an utter humiliation. 

.....

Early morning, Qiao and his team reached the reception desk for taking the mission. The quests month ended and they had no longer a need to search and hunt on their own. They could ask for missions which provide the basic information about the monster and the location.

Today the reception man was looking weird. There was a black line under his eyes and his gaze was sharp rather than lazy which was strange. His hairstyle was looking a little messy and he no more seemed to be in a good condition like yesterday. 

Qiao and his men were little puzzled to look at his condition but they did not ask. They only asked for mission and got a rustic paper in return, 

"You should also add some more members to your team, else the Guild would not give backing to someone who has no sense of responsibility of himself," the weird reception man warned and his tone in no way matched to how it was yesterday. 

Apart from the tone, he was also right. 

But how could he search himself another team member. 

"I am waiting for someone who could join the team," Qiao looked around. The teams were getting ready to leave the Guild, though not in good spirits. 

When he randomly mentioned this, someone came running and fell in front of him.

"Please give me a chance in your team and I won't let you down," the chaser who was thrown from another team yesterday begged for a chance. 

The way the previous leader kicked him out of the team was not witnessed by Qiao. If he had been there and observed the situation he might not be giving this man a chance in his team but before he could point out anything and reject, the weird reception man interrupted.

"You are fortunate to have someone experienced asking to join you. There are few who are looking to enter a new team and are experienced at the same time. The winters are coming and it is possible that you might not get anyone for the next two or three months," the weird reception man plainly spoke. 

Still his voice did not match his earlier tone.

"Alright, from now on you are part of our team and you have to follow the rules of this team," Qiao was almost forced to give him a chance so he did. 

He was not in mood to question the reception man or debate with him. 

He left the Guild for the mission. His current focus was on two more hunts and to reach the level three. Then there will be something else to worry about and that was to buy another weapon with also another skill. His agility skill was slowly getting better and there was no need to upgrade it until level six. 

His choice was to learn trap skill before reaching level five. With the higher levels he had to choose higher level monsters for the experience gain and if he did not then he would be struck at the same level for years. Trap skill would definitely come in hand when facing stronger monsters.

…..…

As soon as he left, the man sitting on the reception desk stood up and looked toward the entrance. If he happened to be the real senior reception guy, he might not have suggested Qiao to take the chaser in his team. But the actual person was not here yet. He was talking with the senior of the Guild in the inner hall.

This weird person was the wicked hunter who came for tricking Qiao. He had placed a small stone under his tongue and changed his features to resemble the reception man to some extent.

Being a superior hunter, he knew what was the plan of the team leader and why he kicked this chaser out of his team. As his intention was also somewhat similar, he decided to play his part here. 

After doing this, he disappeared from the Guild mysteriously.

His appearance was horrible but remained hidden because of the stone which he kept under his tongue. If a stronger level five hunter happened to see him, he might die with horror. This was due to the curse that he looked immensely wicked and freakish which was why he never contacted anyone in the Hightown for help and found a wicked way to throw over his curse onto someone else. 

No one will ever know that he was in the Middletown currently and before any level seven Guild owner happened to sense something off, he had was already gone. 

After talking to the senior when the reception man came, few of them who noticed this change were little puzzled but they did not voice it out. They silently left after getting their missions. Many other teams were resting today so the Guild hall was not much crowded. 

.....

The wicked hunter had to resort to all these means because he was restricted in a lot of ways. If it were left to him, he would not allow this youth to grow any longer and directly kill him. But he could not do that as the effect of the curse had to be the one to kill the youth and only then would he be free from it. 

This was the reason that he did give any deadline to the youth to level up and face him. He had thought that with the nature of this world, he would choose to level up at a safe pace. If that were to happen even in ten years, he might not become a level nine hunter. But alas this guy was risking everything to become stronger.

He was amazed at his drive and grit. 

It was unusual and unheard, most of the time people don't act strong in such situations. 

It must be his younger brother or safety for his own life that must be his motivation.

…..….

Qiao and his men walked at a fast pace. Linwin and Quipu had learned slowly to match with the fast pace of their team leader but the new chaser who joined today was not ready to face this. 

He huffed and puffed and tried his best to reach them but could not. He was perspiring and also looking around. He was right at the rear and didn't want to be left behind as the food of some fresh monster this early in the morning. 

His previous team and the team leader had a completely different attitude toward leveling or missions. They never focused on to necessarily getting a monster and hunting every day. Their first and foremost priority was to remain safe and to find a weak monster that was within their limits. Never reach near a monster which was attentive about its surrounding and always surprise attack. This way they gave it no chance to damage the team, but still they ended up with damage in the previous month.