Branch Director Halren had met many unusual people during his years in Greyhaven.
Hunters who regularly entered the Hollow Depth rarely remained ordinary for long.
Some developed strange habits after spending too much time surrounded by monsters, while others possessed abilities that made interacting with them difficult even under normal circumstances.
Halren had therefore learned not to judge someone entirely from their appearance.
Kael, however, presented a problem that had nothing to do with appearance.
Halren could see a young man standing beside Rhea.
He could see Kael breathing, blinking, and occasionally looking toward the exchange counters on the floor below.
Every physical observation confirmed that a living person was standing there, yet the perception Halren had refined over decades continued returning the same impossible answer.
There was nothing there.
Halren eventually withdrew his senses.
Whatever Kael was doing, forcing his perception against it clearly wasn’t going to provide an answer.
“Sir Kael, have we met before?” Kael looked at him.
“No.” “May I ask which organization you belong to?” “None.” “A private instructor, perhaps?
A family school?” “No.” Halren waited for Kael to elaborate.
Kael did not.
Daren quietly looked away.
He had already learned that asking Kael broad questions rarely produced anything beyond the exact answer requested.
Halren gestured toward a meeting room.
“Then perhaps we should begin with Captain Daren’s report.” The group entered a large chamber containing a long wooden table.
Two Guild officials joined them to record the expedition report, while the injured hunters were permitted to leave for treatment after giving their names.
Daren began from the start.
Their original mission had been a routine harvesting expedition near the known western routes of the Hollow Depth.
Unexpected monster movements forced them away from their planned path, after which several encounters gradually pushed them deeper.
Then came the Graveback Ravager.
Halren’s expression became serious.
“A Graveback that deep into your route?” “Larger than any I’ve seen,” Daren answered.
“It followed us until we were trapped against a cliff.” “How did you kill it?” Daren looked toward Kael.
“He did.” Halren followed his gaze.
“How?” Daren was silent for several seconds.
“I don’t know.” One of the recording officials stopped writing.
Rhea leaned forward.
“Master didn’t touch it.
The Graveback charged him, and then its body started…decaying.” “Decaying?” “I don’t know how else to describe it.
Its armor cracked.
Its flesh shriveled.
Even the bones deteriorated.” Halren studied Kael.
Kael was finishing the second grilled meat skewer Rhea had bought him.
“You have an unusual technique, Sir Kael.” Kael swallowed.
“I suppose.” Halren waited.
Again, nothing else came.
Daren continued his report.
Blackroot Basin caused the first interruption.
The Stonehide Brute caused the second.
By the time Daren mentioned the Gravespine Range, one of the Guild officials had begun looking increasingly doubtful.
Halren raised a hand.
“You crossed Gravespine?” “Yes.” “Which passage?” Daren’s expression became tired.
He had already explained this too many times.
“We didn’t use one.” “Then how did you cross?” “Through the mountain.” Halren frowned.
“You found an unrecorded cavern?” “No.” “A tunnel?” “There is one now.” The official holding the pen stopped again.
Halren looked from Daren to Rhea.
Rhea nodded.
“Master made it.” Halren finally turned toward Kael.
Kael had finished eating.
“There was a mountain,” he explained.
Halren waited.
Kael continued, “It was in the way.” The room remained quiet.
“And therefore you created a tunnel through it?” “Yes.” “Instead of using the established route?” “It went the wrong direction.” One of the officials slowly lowered his pen.
Halren had spent decades dealing with powerful hunters, and many of them possessed unusual personalities.
He had never met someone who discussed tunneling through a mountain as though he had moved a chair blocking a doorway.
The report became even stranger when Halren realized Kael had not actually been escorting Daren’s team.
“You were already leaving the Hollow Depth?” “Yes.” “And Captain Daren’s group joined you?” “More or less.” Halren looked toward Rhea.
“And during this journey, you became Sir Kael’s disciple?” Rhea straightened.
“Yes.” Halren studied her.
Rhea was a respectable young hunter, but nothing about her history suggested the kind of extraordinary background that would attract someone capable of performing the feats Daren had described.
“What made him accept you?” Rhea’s confidence disappeared slightly.
She looked toward Kael.
Kael answered for her.
“I was bored.” The recording official’s pen stopped for the third time.
Halren looked at Kael, waiting for some deeper explanation.
None came.
Rhea cleared her throat.
“That’s genuinely what happened.” Halren somehow found that more difficult to believe than the tunnel through Gravespine.
Once the report finally ended, Halren leaned back in his chair.
“There is also the matter of your identification, Sir Kael.
If you intend to remain near human settlements, having recognized documentation will make travel considerably easier.” Kael didn’t particularly care about documentation, but he had already experienced the inconvenience of entering Greyhaven without it.
“What do I get?” “Guild registration provides recognized identification in territories where the Hunter Guild operates.
It also allows access to Guild information, contracts, material exchanges, and certain restricted services.” “You buy monster materials?” “Yes.” “Fine.” Halren had expected more negotiation.
“We can issue temporary identification today.
Formal hunter classification can be addressed later.” Kael nodded.
The exact rank written on a piece of metal meant nothing to him.
What mattered was that he could apparently exchange things he already possessed for the strange little coins Rhea kept using to buy food.
When the meeting ended, Kael went directly toward the exchange counters.
Rhea followed.
The appraiser behind the counter was a thin middle-aged man who initially showed little interest when Kael approached.
“Materials?” Kael placed the dark blue crystal on the counter.
The man’s expression changed.
He picked it up carefully.
Then he reached beneath the counter and removed a magnifying instrument.
Several seconds later, he stopped breathing normally.
“One moment.” He disappeared through a door.
Rhea looked at Kael.
“You scared the appraiser.” “I put a rock on his table.” “Apparently an expensive rock.” A much older man returned with the appraiser.
He wore the insignia of a senior Guild evaluator and immediately examined the crystal under several different instruments.
Finally, he looked toward Kael.
“Where did you obtain this?” “Found it.” The senior appraiser waited.
Kael waited too.
“Where did you find it?” Kael pointed vaguely toward the Hollow Depth.
The man’s eyebrows twitched.
“How deep?” Kael considered the maps he had seen since meeting the hunters.
“Near where I was staying.” Rhea slowly turned toward him.
The appraiser seemed unsure whether he had heard correctly.
“You were staying in the Hollow Depth?” “Yes.” “How deep?” “Your maps don’t go that far.” Silence settled around the counter.
The senior appraiser looked at the crystal again.
“This is a Deepheart Crystal of exceptional purity.
There are almost no structural impurities, and its internal density is considerably higher than what normally reaches Greyhaven.” Rhea leaned closer.
“How much?” The appraiser gave a number.
Rhea’s eyes widened.
Kael looked at her.
“That’s a lot?” She turned toward him.
“Master, you could buy a good house in Greyhaven with that.” Kael looked back at the crystal.
“So I can buy food for a while.” Rhea nearly choked.
“Please stop measuring money in food.” “Why?” “Because nobody measures the price of a house by how many meals they can buy!” “Seems practical.” The senior appraiser stared between them before deciding not to become involved.
“Do you have any other materials you wish to sell?” Kael thought.
“Yes.” Another object appeared in his hand.
The appraiser stared.
It was a curved black horn.
Kael placed it beside the crystal.
Then came a palm-sized piece of silver mineral.
Then a dark red scale.
Then a small section of pale bone covered in naturally occurring patterns.
With every object, the senior appraiser’s expression became increasingly serious.
The younger appraiser had already disappeared to find additional specialists.
Rhea watched Kael produce another crystal.
“Master.” “Hmm?” “How much of this do you have?” Kael considered the various places where he had accumulated objects over the years.
“A lot.” Rhea’s expression immediately changed.
She remembered another conversation.
How many places could Kael occupy simultaneously?
A lot.
Apparently, those two words were dangerous when they came from her master.
“Stop.” Kael looked at her.
“We’re selling too much?” “I don’t know, but judging by their faces, I think we should understand what these things are before you empty everything onto the counter.” Kael looked toward the senior appraiser.
The man appeared one rare material away from experiencing a personal crisis.
“Fine.” Upstairs, Halren received the preliminary appraisal report less than fifteen minutes later.
He read the first entry.
Then the second.
By the fourth, his expression had become grave.
One material originated from a creature rarely encountered even by elite expeditions.
Another had not appeared in Greyhaven’s market for nearly twenty years.
And Kael apparently considered them miscellaneous objects he happened to possess.
Halren placed the report on his desk.
The mysterious man’s complete lack of presence was rapidly becoming only one item on a growing list of problems Halren could not explain.
Downstairs, Rhea followed Kael away from the exchange counter.
She remained silent until they entered a quieter corridor.
“Master.” Kael already knew what was coming.
“Where exactly did you live?” “Inside.” “I know inside the Hollow Depth.
How deep?” “I told you.” Rhea frowned.
“Your maps don’t go that far.” She stopped walking.
Kael continued several steps before she hurried after him.
“What does that even mean?
Nobody lives beyond the mapped regions.” “I did.” “Why?” Kael glanced at her.
That question had a much longer answer than she realized.
Instead, he said, “It happened.” Rhea was becoming increasingly suspicious of every simple answer he gave.
“How long were you living there?” Kael slowed.
“A while.” “A few months?” “Longer.” Rhea’s eyebrows rose.
“A year?” “Longer.” She stared at the youthful face beside her.
“Five years?” Kael was silent for a moment.
Before Rhea could continue, Daren’s voice came from the other end of the corridor.
“Rhea!
Senior Kael!
Director Halren needs us.” Kael turned toward the voice.
Rhea remained where she was for several seconds.
Five years had apparently not even been worth immediately confirming.
She looked at Kael again.
He appeared no older than someone in his mid-twenties.
For the first time since impulsively asking him to become her master, Rhea realized that she had absolutely no idea how old the man actually was.
Far beyond Greyhaven, deep within regions of the Hollow Depth that did not appear on any hunter map, another position occupied by Kael stood inside a cavern filled with objects gathered over years of wandering.
Crystals covered one section.
Bones and strange minerals filled another.
Some had been collected because they were useful.
Others simply because Kael had thought they looked interesting at the time.
That Kael opened his eyes.
At the exact same moment, the Kael walking through Greyhaven looked toward Daren.
There was no distance between the two experiences.
No second consciousness.
No copy waiting in the Hollow Depth.
There was only Kael.
And he had been there for much longer than Rhea was beginning to suspect.