We sat around the hearth that night, my parents tried to look reassuring, but anyone would’ve seen the truth.
Dad had trained a lot of the local hunters in his free time and today almost a full group wiped out.
All thanks to Hans’s mistakes.
They were gone.
In-game you couldn’t actually die and this was my first experience with people dying to monster hunts in this world.
I scooped some vegetable and deer stew into my bowl.
“Guess he gets banished from the village after what happened,” dad said.
My mom nodded, “he deserves it.
Guild master Shen even ordered a guild investigation for him.” “What’s a guild investigation?” I asked between chews, reveling in the strong taste Catun deer meat had.
It was savory and filled with meat juices.
I wasn’t a big fan of eating meat, but mother’s cooking was simply the best.
My parents exchanged glances and after a minute of silence, mom spoke up, “it means they’re sending guild employees to check the hunting grounds for signs of Hans’s guilt.
They’re usually sent out for hunter killers.” The hell?
I’ve never heard of guild investigators or even hunter killers.
Frontier Hunter Online had no PvP, so killing other players wasn’t possible.
It was one of the main reasons I even played the game.
“Hunter killers?” I echoed questioningly.
Dad let out a sigh, “it’s a shame such people exist.
Aria, hunter killers are folks who actively get their party in trouble and even use them as bait for monsters.
Some even go so far and kill their party members outright by luring them into traps.” “But why would they murder hunters?” It didn’t make any sense to me, hunters were the only reason humanity could investigate forgotten ancient ruins.
Without them, humanity would be wiped out.
They were essential to keep the balance of nature.
Dad shrugged, “beats me.
Couldn’t say I’ve met a hunter killer before and I hope you won’t either, Aria.” He exchanged glances and a light nod with mom.
The mood felt shifting.
“Sweetie, your dad and I have talked about you registering as a huntress and how you wanted both of us to be there.” I got a bad feeling about this, looking at dad who just seemed apologetic.
“You see, guild master Shen decided I have to go get the investigator from Yselia’s guild hub.
So I can’t accompany you for registration tomorrow.” Dad told me, his voice pained and broken-hearted.
“It’s okay dad,” I threw my arms around my parents, “I’m fine with mom coming with me.” The next morning came quickly and when I got up, dad had already left.
I ate the usual soup and bread for breakfast, a staple my mom always cooked.
Today it was radish with green onions and kelp.
As I finished, mom pulled out something wrapped in wax paper with a green ribbon.
“This is for you, your father and I ordered it from the capital armorer for you.” I took the gift from her and began unwrapping it gently.
A leather made cuirass in a dark ashen tone, beneath it a pair of pants and reinforced boots.
I unwrapped it faster.
“You’ve got….” I almost choked, my mind grinding to a halt when I realized what it was made out of.
“This is Lind-drake leather!” My fingers shook, just holding the armor set.
They were beautiful pieces, adorned with adamantite reinforcements and deep red wyvern gems.
The armor was obviously made for mid silver ranks and not something a soon to be bronze huntress could dream of wearing.
“C-can I r-really have this?” Tears ran down my face and I jumped into my mother’s arms, embracing her.
Her hand patted my head, “we couldn’t possibly let our cute Aria become a huntress in novice armor.
Do you like it?” I sobbed against her chest, nodding, “I love it!
Mom, you’re the best!” I looked up at her, my face a mess of tears and the biggest smile I could imagine.
“I’ll put it on right now!” Putting on armor for the first time, my heart thrummed heavily.
The inner linings were soft and cozy, as if the cuirass was my second skin, the reinforced parts flexible, despite being adamantite showed it was true artisan work.
I pulled on the pants, which felt easy to move in, but covered a lot more skin than the shorts I always wore and the heavy boots followed right after.
I closed more than a dozen sturdy buckles and finally stood.
“You look like a real huntress already!” Mom chirped.
“To think the day would come to see my daughter looking so dashing in armor.” She put her hand to her cheek, admiring how I looked.
To be blunt, in this life I grew just as tall as in my previous one and was taller than my mother.
I now stood at almost 180 centimeters, still a good two and a half heads smaller than dad.
My red hair was long and tightly braided to make it less annoying and while I didn’t possess Rune’s agility, I certainly lucked out with how strong I got.
Even if I still was too weak to wield those damn heavy lances.
I scratched my cheek, embarrassed, “I’ll become one today, I am a real huntress.
Ha.” I posed, lifting my arms up and showing off a strong woman pose.
Then I let out a cough, “can we go now?
I really want to register.” In my mind I added, ‘maybe I can even do a quest right away when I’m early.’ My mother escorted me to the guild hall.
It would be the first time for me to step inside, as entry was prohibited for children, but in this world I didn’t count as one anymore.
Stepping inside, I saw a wide open area, the ceiling was at least 30 meters up and was dome shaped.
To the left side were guild counters and quest boards with only a dozen quests posted up.
There was a staircase leading to resting areas for hunting groups.
My eyes moved towards the right where a canteen was, with a few hunters already sitting at tables and drinking what looked like ale.
In the back of the hall were separated areas which I guessed was the open bath at the far edge of the hall.
It was a weird design and I wondered how it ended up this way in reality, because in-game it was simple convenience and a social hub and the baths weren’t needed, roleplaying and screenshots aside.
But then again, hunters could come back dirty from their hunts.
Mom slapped my back, “don’t just stand there staring, let’s get you registered.” I snapped back to reality and followed her to the counter.
A small woman sat at the counter, reading through some papers and as we got close she looked up, her face moving into a friendly smile, “welcome to the hunters guild, how may I be of service?” Mom shoved me up front, “hey Sue, my daughter wants to register herself today.” She said in a proud motherly voice.
“Great!
Please fill out this form and sign it.
Don’t forget to put in your weapons of choice in the corresponding fields,” she burst into an explanation, pushing a form and quill towards me.
“If you need guild training, we provide it with payment of 250 Zenny.” Her eyes moved towards my mother, “but I doubt you’ll need it with the lightning princess being your mother?” Mother smiled at her, “we helped her train since she was a little girl, she will be fine!” I felt a bit embarrassed and focused on the form instead.
“Your husband always gushed about her being so talented whenever he came to investigate training spots.” “I mean she is really good!
She was just 6 when Norlan took her to learn reading tracks and wouldn’t you believe it?
She found the nest almost in first try!” It was pretty standard and only had fields for name, birthday, hometown and preferred weapons.
Below was a wall of text, explaining the rules for hunters and quite a few regulations, because we could legally carry massive weapons with us at all times.
“I heard this generation of hunters is seriously strong.
We recently had a 24 year old become gold rank one!” “I heard of that one, our little Aria is friends with him.
He’s a nice young man, not like…” Hmmm, the first fields are clear, but I thought deeply about the weapons choice.
While being bronze rank there weren’t any restrictions when switching weapons around, as a lot of people still searched for their style and there were main and sub-set to fill in, so I could switch between them.
I wrote ‘Sword and Shield’ into the main one and chose the bow as my sub-set.
“We shouldn’t talk about that out here.” “You’re right, Sue, sorry.
I know you have to stay neutral as a guild employee.” “Ah, don’t worry, your husband’s helping out, so it’s fine!” I began reading the whole wall of text and it sums up to this, ‘killing monsters in self defense is allowed, but we aren’t allowed to go out of our way to impact nature more than needed.
Impacting the local ecosystem negatively can lead to expulsion and the use of weapons in villages was forbidden without emergencies.
Contracting outside of the guild was allowed, but the guild wouldn’t step in if anything happened and wouldn’t provide any rescue services.
The ranks went from 1 star bronze up to max rank with 5 mithril stars.
It was all pretty straightforward and while hunters often killed monsters, their overall role was the protection of ecosystems.’I carefully read it all and signed it.
I mumbled, “I’m finished filling it out, Miss Sue.” I pushed the form back to her and looked up at mom and the guild employee.
The guild employee, Sue, checked everything and gave it a stamp, “please wait a moment.” She stood and left the counter.
“She’ll make your guild seal now,” mom explained.
It took more than 20 minutes until Sue came back, sitting down at the counter with a smile, “your guild card is ready Miss Aria.” She pushed an open box towards me, containing a hunters seal made of leather.
It had the sigil and one gleaming bronze star on it.
With careful hands, I lifted the seal gently and saw my basic information embroidered into the leather together with the symbols for my weapons style.
It was beautiful and I clutched it to my chest for a moment, the sigil still lifted.
This is mine now.
Mom peeked over my shoulder, “let’s see what weapons you chose.” She pulled my seal out of my hands and continued, now with surprise tinting her voice, “you chose the same weapon combination I use?” “You registered a sword and shield too, mom?!” I’ve never heard of it.
All I know about her hunting is her use of bows and I’ve never lifted her hunters seal.
The 4 adamantite stars it had were enough for me to admire already.
“As my sub set, yes.” She removes her seal from her waist and lifts her sigil.
The embroidery was old and well cared for despite the tough environment it could end up in and there it was.
Her main weapon is a bow and sub set sword and shield.
“I didn’t think you’d come so much after me!” She suddenly embraced me, pushing me into her bosom and embarrassing me in front of the few hunters present in the hall.
“And here I thought you were a daddy’s girl!” “Moooom!” I squealed and pulled myself out of her grip.