Chapter 46: Chapter 38- First Task Preparations

When preparing for a task, supplies are needed. The obvious, ammunition, food, water, and transportation, are things that even new hunters know they will need. There are, however, other important things that a hunter needs to be successful. Medicine, antivenoms, special munitions, and even more task-specific supplies are greatly needed even when completing the most mundane of tasks.

-Excerpt from the ‘Hunter’s Handbook’

 

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The door opened as Mori entered the mod doc, “I’m back!” she called into the warehouse. Inside, as Aerolat described, Zubov was being yelled at by Fara as he sat on a box. His gaze was cast downwards, but Mori had the impression that he found the woman’s lecturing more amusing than anything else. Standing off to the side, Pride, Jel, and Avarice watched them, “I got a job for us!” Mori yelled out. 

Pride and Jel turned to her with interest written across their faces while Idle and Fury’s heads poked over the railing of the deck. Fury leapt over the railing, soon followed by Idle. Before long, the four of them stood around her with excited expressions. As they gathered, Fara turned from berating Zubov, “Ah, you’re back! How’d it go?” she asked, walking over. 

Before Mori could speak, Aerolat sighed, “The mistress was able to obtain a ‘necrohunter’s license,’ somehow without being asked for a necromancer’s license.”

Zubov laughed from the side, “Oh yeah, that. Long story short, the guild wanted a way of loosening the blue-robe’s grip on necromancy, so came up with the necrohunter’s license. While all it did was free those working with the guild from the blue-robes, leaving any other practitioner of necromancy to their whims, it did steal away the largest population of necromancers from them. Politics, basically,” he spat, “I don’t get how my brother does it…”

Mori giggled while Fara elbowed him in the ribs. The orc had the good manners to at least look hurt by her strike, “Just because she’s home doesn’t mean I forgive you, you hear me? Being rude has its punishments,” she declared to Zubov, who rolled his eyes, “Anyway, did anything else happen?” she asked Mori.

The lich shrugged, “Someone got mad at me for being there, I somehow got my species written as ‘monkey’ on my card, and I talked to this old elf guy,” she listed. 

Fara raised an eyebrow, “Mori, which do you think is the most important? I’ll give you a hint because it may not seem obvious to you, but the problem was with the elf.”

Zubov nodded beside her, getting a glare from the woman, “She’s right. You’ll piss someone off just for stepping on the sand wrong and the whole guild card thing sounds like a funny story, but elves don’t get ‘old’ in a visible way. That’s what you meant, right? He looked old?”

Mori nodded, “Yeah. Platinum blonde hair, old eyes and wrinkly skin, that frail look to him, oversized poncho. The whole nine yards,” she described, “We talked about… Um, religion, living life and unlife, when you should slow down in life, and where the bazaar is. It was pretty fun, all things considered,” she smiled. 

Zubov cradled his head in his hand, “Great. We either have some new elf Variant that can, for whatever reason, age physically, or we have a shapeshifter who wanted to play a prank on the local lich… just what I needed.”

Mori tilted her head, “So you’re saying that, because normal elves don’t ever look old, I ran into either some unique Variant or a shapeshifter who just wanted to talk philosophy with me? That seems… pretty tame, all things considered.”

Fara turned from Zubov to Mori, “How’s that ‘tame?’”

Mori shrugged as Aerolat floated forward, “He could have, for example, attempted to attack the mistress while she was… otherwise occupied,” he stated while giving a scolding glance to Mori. 

“You’re not going to let me live that one down, are you?” she asked bitterly. 

He shook his head, “Of course I will not,” he replied, “It is a poor idea to continually ignore people when they are willing to threaten you as the harpy did.” At Fara’s questioning stare, he sighed again, “The mistress was preoccupied in choosing a task and failed to notice the quite angry harpy spouting profanities and insults, even when she was addressed directly. I am not particularly knowledgeable in social situations, but I do know that the mistress seems… particularly bad.”

Fara frowned, turning to Mori, “Did you, seriously, ignore everything else while you were picking a task?” she asked sharply. Mori’s gaze faltered, falling to the floor with a nod, “By the Creators… Let me see the task; depending on what it is, you may have to go as soon as possible.”

Mori nodded, handing over the piece of paper to Fara, “It’s a wyrm elimination task. I wanted to see what I could do with them before, and this seems like the perfect time to test them out. Besides, while the money may not be the best, it will certainly be good.”

As Fara looked over the paper, Fury stepped in from the side, “So we’re fighting stuff now?” he asked, a few embers floating out of his throat. 

Idle shook her head, “I hope this won’t be too hard…” she muttered, earning a glare from Fury. 

“Why? So you can sit in your little crow’s nest all day long and do nothing?” he asked derisively. 

“Well I-” 

“It is not like she’s doing nothing up there, Fury,” Pride, surprisingly, cut in, “She could be practicing… What traits did you pick up again?”

Idle rolled her eyes, “[Enhanced Senses III] and [Strengthened Skin II],” she recalled, “I am up there trying to hone my Trait by hearing everything that goes on around the skiff from up there! I can even pick up the weird noises that came from the orc’s room last night while up there, thank you very much!” she loudly exclaimed, pointing an arm-spike at Zubov. 

Mori giggled at her words as the orc in question looked between Idle and Mori, “Why do I feel like something either rude or compromising was said about me?” he asked, only inspiring Mori to further devolve into giggles. Even Aerolat was smiling at the orc, who returned it with a confused gaze.

“Alright,” Fara said, “This isn’t bad as far as first tasks go, but remember that you have barely any combat experience at all. You’ve fought in a good three fights, all of them ending with a seriously brutal ending. I mean, you tore a Clockwork apart with your metal cutter, gouged a lizardman’s eye out, and did… that thing to that gang chick. If you need to use it, use it. If you need to burn the wyrms to a crisp for whatever reason, do it. While I don’t think you’ll have that hard of a time with it, you should still be careful.”

Mori smiled wrapping an arm around Fara, “Don’t worry, Fara,” she reassured, “I’ll be fine! It’s a nest of wyrms, after all, so bringing even these four might be a bit overkill. On top of that, I’m thinking of bringing the three zombie girls to help them level up a few times. We’ll be fine.”

Fara took a long look into Mori’s eye-flames, sighing, “Alright, I’ll trust you. The personal skiffs are ready for use as long as everyone using them knows how to move mana. Seeing as you’re all undead, though, it shouldn’t be too hard. Is it just going to be you eight?” she asked, looking around at the other four that had gathered. 

“Probably? I want Aerolat to stay here to protect this place,” she said while casting a glance at the undead in question, who nodded with her words, “I doubt Desire, Avarice, or Crave want to be gallivanting around without any people to talk, things to make, to, or… books to read? Yeah, that. So unless Norta wants to join our-” at that moment, Mokan emerged from the dining hall and began running down the scaffolding beside the skiff. After a few moments, he stood in front of Mori and pointed to himself, “Wait, you want to join?” He nodded, “Um… I don’t mean to be mean, but… you’re not exactly here because you’re strong…” Mori said apologetically. Fara elbowed her in the ribcage to little effect, resorting to a glare instead. 

Mokan rolled his eyes and stepped back behind a stack of boxes. After a few moments, Mori felt a swish in the air and whipped around, only to find nothing there. Turning back around, she recoiled back as Mokan stood there, leaning against a box beside her, a smug grin on his face. Mori was impressed seeing his stealth and Fara seemed to be of the same opinion, “Wow… That was fast. And quiet. Actually, why didn’t you act like that when I was chasing you?” Fara asked. Mokan shrugged, pointing at his shin, “Oh, you were supposed to be luring me into that stupid trap?” He nodded, “Alright, that makes sense.” Mori could almost tell that Fara had more to ask, but knew better than to ask her straight out. 

Just as she was about to agree with Mokan, Norta came rushing down the stairs, “Mokan! I won’t let you!” she yelled as she ran, “You can’t let him go! He can’t take the life of a hunter!”

Mokan shot Norta a glare, but the woman held her ground, “He’s only ever lived in the city and-” Mokan stepped forward and glared at her even harder, “Don’t pretend like I’m not right!” she yelled at him, “I won’t let you just go off and die in a hole in the ground!”

Everyone present looked between Norta and Mokan for a few moments before Fara sighed, “Look,” she said, “I don’t know how much you know about him, but I’m sure he’s up for a bit of sneaking around and acting as rear guard, right?” she asked him. He nodded, “See? Besides, it’s a bunch of wyrms. You’re both planning on joining us out east for the Aekan thing, so why is fighting those things so much harder?”

Norta ground her teeth as Zubov stepped out in front of them, “Alright, let’s calm down here. I hate to break it to you, kid, but you can’t go on hunting tasks. You need a hunter’s license to do that; the necrohunter’s license only applies to the undead minions of the holder. As for you, Norta, you can’t really stop him. I’m pretty sure he’s a legal adult, so he’s free to do as he pleases. But, if you really want to go somewhere where you can hone your skills, I’ll take you two to Bash Lane some time; I know a few good spots for ambushes and brawls,” he offered with a grin. 

Mokan looked downcast a bit, but nodded nonetheless, “Alright,” Norta said for them both, “We’ll take you up on that offer. Tomorrow?” 

He grinned, leading them back to the skiff, “Sound’s good. Oh, and Mori,” he said over his shoulder, “Be sure to take that task notice with you when you go; a gang of undead riding out of town on skiffs is going to cause a bit of suspicion.” 

She nodded, “Thanks, Zubov!” she yelled as he walked up the ramp. At the same time, Allecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone all walked down the scaffolding behind Aerolat, “Alright, we have everyone together!” Mori said, “Does everyone have everything you need? I’m sure you four,” she said to the pyraustas, “Don’t need too many weapons, not with those spiks, and you three,” she said to the zombies, “keep them on you all the time, right?” They nodded, pulling out their rifles, revolvers, and knives, “Excellent! Now then, let’s get started!” 

It took a few minutes, but they prepared for their adventure in short order. While preparations were made, Fara explained to the group about the normal range of a wyrm’s abilities, such as sand burrowing and ambush tactics. 

Standing in the sand pit outside of the mod dock, Fara patted Mori on the shoulder, “Good luck out there. Red Shale is due east of the eastern gate. Follow the rising sun and you should be fine.” 

“Thanks, Fara. I’ll be sure to give you my share of the money to have some fun with, alright?” she offered with a grin. 

The woman, rolling her eyes, punched her on the shoulder, “Keep it. I’m already going to have plenty of fun with this project here. Now, get going; aggressive wyrms are best dead and you’ll make that happen,” she shouted as they shot off, soon leaving the inner city. Using the skiffs was not difficult. The only difficult part of it was modulating the mana throughput to regulate speed; the steering was done through a few basic rudders they had installed that were controlled through a stick in front of the seat. With a final look at the Status of her death knights, she passed the gate and the odd gazes of the guards and began heading to Red Shale.

 

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[Name: Mori Athanatos

Species: Lich

Variant: Bargain Lich*

Level: 15(1%)

Traits: 

Physical: (Mechanical Integration), (Mechanical Skeletal Manipulation VII [+1]), (Mana Rib V), (Emotive Skull)

Spiritual: (Multi-rune Casting), (Mechanical Affinity), (Multi-sigil Casting), (Enhanced Mind VI), (Psychic Affinity IV), (Psychic Conduit), (Psychic Flail)

Granted Traits: (Universal Soul Language), (Adaptive Physiology), (Effeminate Skeleton)]

 

[Name: Pride

Species: Death Knight

Variant: Lesser Pyrausta

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Level: 2(85%)

Traits:

Physical: (Articulate Vocal Cords), (Enhanced Manapaths)

Spiritual: (Sole-mana Casting), (Multi-sigil Casting)

Granted Traits: (Advanced Sapience [Psychic])]

 

[Name: Fury

Species: Death Knight

Variant: Lesser Pyrausta

Level: 2(59%)

Traits:

Physical: (Articulate Vocal Cords), (Wing Muscle Structure)

Spiritual: (Fire Breath II)

Granted Traits: (Advanced Sapience [Psychic])]

 

[Name: Jealous

Species: Death Knight

Variant: Lesser Pyrausta

Level: 1(99%)

Traits:

Physical: (Articulate Vocal Cords)

Spiritual: (Sole-mana Casting)

Granted Traits: (Advanced Sapience [Psychic])

 

[Name: Idle

Species: Death Knight

Variant: Lesser Pyrausta

Level: 3(5%)

Traits:

Physical: (Articulate Vocal Cords), (Strengthened Skin II)

Spiritual: (Enhanced Sense III)

Granted Traits: (Advanced Sapience [Psychic])]

 

[Name: Allecto

Species: Death Knight

Variant: Lizardman Zombie

Level: 0(81%)

Traits:

Physical: (None)

Spiritual: (None)

Granted Traits: (Advanced Sapience [Psychic])

 

[Name: Megaera 

Species: Death Knight

Variant: Human Zombie

Level: 0(83%)

Traits:

Physical: (None)

Spiritual: (None)

Granted Traits: (Advanced Sapience [Psychic])

 

[Name: Tisiphone

Species: Death Knight

Variant: Orc Zombie

Level: 0(82%)

Traits:

Physical: (None)

Spiritual: (None)

Granted Traits: (Advanced Sapience [Psychic])

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