Chapter 31: Chapter 30

I woke up seriously considering taking Deryl up on his offer to go hunt monsters. I guess I more so went from debating it in a dream to debating it while eating leftovers for breakfast. There wasn’t much of a reason to go do it, but there also wasn’t much of a reason not to do it- my student body had plenty of free time over the three days of weekend so time wasn’t an issue for local hunts. I also wasn’t concerned about safety being very likely immortal- although if I did die around people, only to come back there’d be a lot of questions.

 

As for why I’d do it: I get bored easily. I’m not an adrenaline junkie, but there is very little in the way of entertainment in this world. From what I’ve heard, the Academy is one of few places that is safe enough that you don’t have to worry about being able to make it through the week constantly. In most other places, a combination of monsters, corruption, and/or crime makes those without a lot of power have a higher-than-what-I’m-sure-is-healthy level of anxiety. Heck, this shows in some traditions: sixty is considered ancient in most other places, constituting a big community celebration.

 

Getting back to my point, there isn’t some constant danger to keep myself occupied, my job only uses one body and only for a handful of hours a week, and there's only so much reading you can do before you feel like burning the library down. Sure, I could go to some plays or concerts- which I’ve heard are shockingly good- but that costs a lot of money for how long it’d last. I’ll concede that monster hunting isn’t the best solution to my problem- I could get a new hobby or job, but those are basically the same thing for this word and I don’t want to feel forced into doing something. All this to day I was really tempted and it would let me actually put the skills I’m learning into context and use…

 

A few hours later after training and cleaning myself up, I was sitting in the guildmaster’s office with him and Deryl having some tea.

 

“I tell you, this lass here is plenty ready. Been easily keeping up with my ‘celerated lesson plan. Heck, even without that she could do some mean punchin’- probably fell a tree in a hit or two.”

 

“Look Deryl, I get that. I know how well you can train and assess people, I really do. However, that doesn’t mean you can just sign them up for a big hunt without going through any procedure. I sweat, this paperwork is going to kill me someday- but at least this little bit of bureaucracy is important. We need to know what she can do and is comfortable doing before sending her at a potential Mountainworm.”

 

“Yea, Yeah, those things ‘aint nothin’- could kill one wit’ my eyes closed. Most my pupils from my army days would be able to take one fairly early on.”

 

“Most of your pupils had a few years of training and some experience prior to joining you. If I may ask, uhh, Ripple: how long have you been learning to fight for?”

 

“A week and a half? About ten hours I think?”

You are reading story Spiral Hill at novel35.com

 

“And that's plenty time to be ready for some huntin’- in fact it’d be good for her learnin’!”

 

“I’ve said this before- I agree she could probably go hunt something. I just can’t in good conscience send her on the Mountainworm hunt. And before you ask, yes, the group tackling it is fully capable of doing so on their own, the request was left up to be polite- not as an actual invitation. Can’t you pick one of these instead? Infact miss Ripple, how about you choose? Feel free to ask questions about monsters you don’t know about.”

 

I think both me and the guildmaster were relieved when Deryl didn’t complain again, the conversation had been going in circles for almost ten minutes. We weren’t even really supposed to be here. Deryl had opened the front door, and just walked up the side stairs- leaving me to follow awkwardly behind him and try not to die of embarrassment. I was slightly relieved as the guild staff didn’t try to stop him, just kinda sighing and continuing on. 

 

When we made it to the office it was a similar story. Deryl had immediately started talking about how he had a new pupil that wanted to go hunting and that a Mountainworm- whatever that was- was the perfect thing to “test my mettle” against. I think my bewildered look was reassuring for the guildmaster as he looked at me and gave an apologetic shrug before guiding us to the couches in the middle of the room. 

 

I was honestly impressed by how he was able to keep up the conversation while writing the same form I had when I signed up as Elly. He continued to not miss a beat as he called a staff member and had them process the paperwork- and in a few minutes, I had a card with my name, a check in the Ability box with “Increased strength and weapon-type apandage”, and three ticks off to the side. He then dug out another sheet of paper from the pile on his desk that explained what each bit on the card ment- still keeping up the inane conversation with Deryl.

 

I had no clue where he got my name and Ability from- maybe he heard from my passionate mentor over some drink or something- but both were accurate. The sheet I had gotten explained that the three tick marks meant I was trusted to be able to complete most requests someone on the level of a city guard could- which I guess I was at by default from the training I had gone through. I wondered why I hadn’t gotten one as Elly until I read a section that stated that only members who are trusted to be reliable and reasonably loyal would be given one. That made sense as I was quite shady in full cloak and mask- despite the volume of plants and herbs I had collected. 

 

I took my time looking through the stacks of monster reports as Deryl and the guildmaster chatted. Eventually I settled on three: dealing with a lightning-aligned wolf, an abnormal jaguar-thing, and whatever a ‘Goredeer’ was. When I handed in my choices, the guildmaster gave them a once over before suggesting I take on the Goredeer. Apparently they were a type of deer that had become their own species due to similar Ability-induced changes that eventually created a stable population with the same Ability appearing in the vast majority of them. Said ability was to stop blood from coagulating, along with being physically large on average by a good amount. On the bright side, due to their Ability, there are solitary outside of mating season as one accident with another in a herd could easily lead to death.

 

What had I gotten myself into?

You can find story with these keywords: Spiral Hill, Read Spiral Hill, Spiral Hill novel, Spiral Hill book, Spiral Hill story, Spiral Hill full, Spiral Hill Latest Chapter