Our party stood in front of the massive quest wall and I had barely slept last night.
After I overheard Silvia’s talk with a hooded guild employee, sleep was the last thing on my mind.
I was lost in thought about last night and I just wanted to stop ruminating about all this.
And still, what I overheard stuck with me, but I had no idea how I should even ask her or if I even should ask Silvia at all.
I finally looked up, my gaze moving over the expansive quest wall.
When I first arrived I hadn’t noticed, but this quest wall was made with multiple movable plates, each containing quests not only for Marx, but for every town of the region.
It seemed there were some perks to bigger guild halls and this one was multiple times the size of Tide’s.
I was a bit embarrassed to believe Tide village’s guild had been big.
It was one of the bigger differences between the game and reality.
I had no idea if I could propose one of the too many quests to them, so I stood a bit behind, Silvia next to me.
Her gaze focused on Stonard.
“Let’s ‘unt Regrex!” Stonard began again as he saw a few hunt quests for that devious monster.
Despite being dead drunk last night, he didn’t look any hungover as he sported his bone armor.
An ice cold shudder ran down my back when he stroked his thick chest hair.
Irelia stood in front of a board full of silver ranked hunts, pondering.
Today she seemed normal again and something deep inside me told me to not talk about how she behaved last night, “say it one more time and I’ll slap you again.” She pointed towards a quest, “we should hunt Rabbilving, they’re always fun and our rookie could learn a thing or two~.” I liked her idea right away, these adorable furballs, ahem, evil monsters were some of my all-time favorites.
Fighting them was a big snowball fight and they loved to attack with belly slides.
The way they wiggled their butts was way too cute though and combined with their cute ears, they looked more like 15 meter tall wombats.
I often felt bad hunting them even in-game, but their cute fluffiness was deceptive.
“Rabbilving, huh,’ Silvia mused, turning her gaze to me and my mostly leather armor, “then she’ll need an overcoat to resist the cold.
Otherwise she’ll end up as a popsicle for it.” She stepped towards the wall that was about to slide away and pulled off a quest.
“We’ll hunt Boreagard first, that way we can test her instincts and teach her teamwork.” “Boring,” Stonard immediately complained, face scrunching up with displeasure as he turned to Silvia.
A slap to the back of his head from Irelia followed right away.
He glared at her.
“Boreagard fine and good, but we don’t even know how well trained our Rookie is with her second weapon set or if she even trained it~.” Irelia joined the old huntress’s proposal.
I lifted my hand a bit shaky and told the group, “I haven’t bought one yet, but..” I fidgeted a little, “I learned the bow from my mother, so I can do at least the basics.” Of course I remembered more than just the basics, the bow was a fun weapon in most Frontier Hunter titles and after reincarnating, my mom trained me while I grew up.
It wasn’t even special, as I loved the compound bow dearly and when I didn’t play my favorite game, I tried to imitate the special moves from the game at the archery’s.
Much to the dismay of some elderly archers.
“Then it’s settled, we’ll hunt a Boreagard and then get our rookie a bow made,” Silvia settled it.
“Any objections?” She glared Stonard down, making the old guy visibly shrink.
“Are there even any noteworthy bow drops?” I mumbled absentmindedly to myself.
It was, simply put, a feathered copy of a Zengard, back when the developers tried to sell reskins as new monsters.
They later made it a more feathered raptor and easily the size of a bus.
Both Boreagard and Zengard had bone sets, one a simple bone armor adorned with tribalistic symbols, the other a fitting winter version with feathers adorning it.
The one thing with them both though, I only knew of the Zengard having a bone made bow you could farm for.
There was one big difference between them though, Boreagard hunted by using a sleep poison they spat out.
Realization hit me, but if it really were similar, then why shouldn’t there be weapons I didn’t know of?
There was no reason why bow makers wouldn’t use every worthwhile material right?
It made my heart beat!
I could gather weapons no player had seen before!
I almost squealed delightedly, “Bowyers can make bows out of them?!” Then hid my face behind my hands with pure embarrassment.
‘Please just let me disappear right noow.’ Gladly the others ignored my embarrassing squeak.
Trying to act normal and barely managing I hoped, I asked, “umm do we go right away?” But Silvia already stood at the guild counter, so our group followed.
After the classic guild greeting, we all showed our hunter seals and Silvia pointed to the Boreagard quest.
Hunt down 1 Boreagard Time Limit: 5 days Location: Marx alps Reward: 75,000 Zenny The young guild employee, nervously gazed at my seal, “are you sure you want to bring a fresh hunter into a silver rank quest?
I’m aware of your ranks, but please be advised to keep her safety in mind.” I stood nervously next to the others, my legs shifting.
Her eyes moved across the other hunters’ seals and stopped at Silvia’s, “but my worries might be unfounded, Unforgiving Savior Silvia.” I heard her title for the first time and stared at her.
The rising anxiety inside me was forgotten for a beat.
She had to tell me how she got her title.
There had to be a tale told and an epic one at that, but I couldn’t ask.
The guild employee then continued, she couldn’t take Silvia’s stare it seemed, “I will register this quest with your team, but I’d really advise you to keep the fresh hunters abilities in mind.” We got our hunter seals back and went outside, my fingers fidgeting with the amulet around my neck.
Not even a step outside and Dana joined us, already prepared to depart.
She even got us a rented carriage ready, together with the same Peco birds from before.
I got onto the carriage’s large flatbed, this one didn’t have proper seats other than the small box coach’s, and the others followed, with Irelia sitting close to Dana.
We took off through brightly illuminated roads, this one as wide as three carriages, and I wondered if we’d use the elevator again.
I already knew how weird the game could be, especially with all its food collabs, but I had actually no idea who in this world managed to build these constructs.
We came to a stop at a different elevator, even if it had the same size and boarded it for an even longer ride than the last one.
As we got out, a sea of glowing white greeted us, almost blinding me.
We had quickly moved into Marx’s alpine region, even if quickly probably still meant a 6 hour elevator ride.
My armor definitely wasn’t made for these weather conditions and prospects of having to toughen it out were horrible.
I already felt the coldness seep deep into my bones.
My whole body began to shake.
A hand touched my shoulder, a gently smiling Irelia.
She gave me a mug with hot, sharp smelling tea.
I took a sip and grimaced at the burn I felt in my throat, but I felt less cold already.
It was alcohol and strong one at that and paired with an even stronger herbal tea.
My face scrunched a little from the taste, or rather the burn.
‘So hot drinks are alcoholic?’ I involuntarily thought, shaking my head.
“Today we’ll make our way to the upper base camp,” Silvia explained, as we traveled through layers of thick snow.
“Last time we found a Boreagard near one of the connected ice grottos, so we scout them out first.” Even the carriage’s Peco’s talons sank in deep, the icy layers of snow grazing its fluffy feathered belly.
Around us were no trees at all and we were way above any possible tree lines.
It was a world of whites and grays and in the far off distance I could make out a hot air balloon.
Noticing my gaze, Irelia told me, “that’s a guild survey.
They research and scout ecosystems from high up in the air and report it back to the guild.” The carriage reached a massive glacial wall.
I gasped when I saw the beauty of this frozen wall.
I’d never seen a real glacier before and was more than amazed.
The glacier went up almost vertically and gleaming a stunning blue with breathtaking white streaks, glistening radiantly.
Dana turned the carriage onto a winding path, driving us even higher up and we soon reached an expansive circular cave, reminding me a bit of a man-made shaft.
It was only illuminated by our carriage’s and our own lamps and led into a beautiful open-air cave.
The air inside wasn’t as cold and almost even fair, albeit still fresh.
There stood the camp.