Chapter 29: Chapter 10: Scorched Moon

Chapter 10: Scorched Moon

Maybe that talk could’ve gone better but either way, it already happened.

“Goodbye dad” I visited his once grave again before leaving.

After leaving the house, I now had two items on my agenda. First–which could be completed by doing the second–stay away from home for the rest of the night and tomorrow. Second, monster hunting. The first Hungry Wolves hunting session was on toda–I mean tomorrow and I already purchased the basic gear. 

I had a couple of hours to spare before the required arrival time, so I spent it by walking around the city. The city was nice, a little loud and bright, with plenty of nice people and drinks, but it was a little annoying how I had to be careful to stay within the district space. Currently, I was only legally allowed to be in the area around my home and some other public locations.

It wouldn’t be until the end of the month till I could get an all-access pass. Again I only had to deal with this crap because I was a PLS. For the most part, I tried to not break that law,  cause it would only delay the process. Speaking of licences and passes, the house had already received mail that I would be getting my final collection of licences–besides the pass–in three more days. Meaning finally I can use a phone…

Anyway, I went to Hungry Wolves Hunting Guild. It shouldn’t matter if I was a little early.

As I entered the building, “Here’s the skilled recruit,” the receptionist called out, and some heads turned my way.

The building was mostly filled. I guess these lot are a punctuality crew.

“Thought I’d come here early, but I guess I could be considered one of the late ones?” I jokingly sighed.

She smiled back and me the contact to be a part of this mission and use of the guilds portal room and mage.

Looking over the contract:

• I had to provide 20% of mana as payment to run the portal.
• The guild would keep 15% of all my loot. I could pick what.
• No stealing from other members of the operation.

Honestly fair enough, for the type of business being run here.

Time passed, and I chatted with some of the guild members. Petly was interesting and the admiring shine in the younger members’ eyes was a little cute.

Eventually Ketty–I finally learned the receptionist's name–came up to me to introduce me to my carrier partner.

“Ceella, this is Jacob Hauler,” she introduced a gentleman roughly my age. “Nnice to finnally meet you, Ceella?”

“Pleasure all mine,” I replied. We sat back down at the receptionist’s counter and we began our discussion.

“So, did you have any complaints about what I offered?”

“Nno miss, but honnestly it seemed a bit too good,” he worriedly said.

“Don’t worry, I have no plans to put you in harm's way,” I reassured. “I need to ask, how big is your storage?”

“Soul Rank T2, I’m a [Heavy Payload], my storage skill is [Heavy Load] which grants a storage of 30 tonnes. It also increases my strength depending on how full it is.”

Neat, “Okay, thank you, I’m a [Fire Mage] but I do know the sun element and I’ll be killing our enemies at a distance before you collect corpses. However, I’m adept enough at close-quarters combat that I can defend you if we get jumped when in extremely hostile territory.” I replied and we began to further discuss our plan of attack.

[Heavy Load] was interesting, most storage skills I knew of were based on the mana density and/or physical size of the item. We finished our talk and I continued to ask Ketty about the current hunting environment.

“OKAY EVERYONE,” a loud booming voice entered the room, and walking from the backroom was a politely refind gentleman whose looks didn’t match the rash roughness of his voice. Combed black hair and sunglasses, he had a badge on his suit that read ‘Mern Wolfgodest’. “Today is another long day! I have got the permit of Jasper Moon Alpha and it wasn’t taken away this time!”

Ketty whispered, “He did change his last name to that.” Answering the question I wanted to ask.

“What was it before,” I softly replied back.

“That is one great mysterious,” she said before adding, “but he did tell us his old last name was cooler than this one.”

“Huh…”

“Now line up! Prepare yourselves. And remember the rules. DON’T CAUSE TROUBLE! LEAVE IF SOMEONE TROUBLES YOU! IF YOU CAN’T DO THE SECOND, YOU ARE ALLOWED TO IGNORE RULE 1!”

“““YEAHH!!!”””

Everyone got into their groups and first-thing-first everyone poured a little bit of mana into a cube for the spacial mage to use. I should recover that fast enough.

“Ceella do you have any other equipment?” Ketty asked. 

After inputting my mana into the cube, I went outside to changing room next door to put on my hunting equipment, but I was still a bit out of place. While everyone else had a range of old-to-new mana-reinforced armour suits, most went with the full-body options for added protection and security when in space. I was wearing a low-grade suit, something poor independent space miners would wear, and SB (Space Breathing) choker, which created a small invisible barrier that allowed me to breathe.

“No, but before you ask. I’m fine with my current equipment and I do have backup plans.” I replied. In case my choker stopped working–which it shouldn’t–I had a skill that let me breathe in space.

“Okay… Just be careful. No one here likes it when someone dies on their first mission.”

I just nodded in understanding.

The groups entered the portal room one at a time. I did get to see the rectangle blue portal open in the step up and I watched the strained expression on the spacial mage's face as he cast the skill.

Walking through the portal, I felt the atmosphere change, colour shifting and I was ready to jump higher than no man has jumped before. 

Jasper Moon Alpha. The portal teleported us to a small base set up for freelancers and small guilds. Located at the northern point of the moon. Everyone was already prepared and moving out, no time for chit-chatting–everyone had a schedule to meet. And the guild rules meant everyone had to return in eight hours or be stuck on this rock.

Well, the guild would try bringing them back if they missed the portal, but the fine would be large and no one wanted that.

“Take care kid!” Pelty yelled out, with a couple of youngins following behind her.

I yelled back, “You too Madam!” Pelty returned a large happy grin which creeped out the kids around Pelty.

“Ceella, do you have annywhere in particular you would like to go?” Jacob asked, “as I mentioned early I don’t feel safe in any P2 or above areas.”

Monsters were rated using the same Soul Rank system. It wasn’t exactly one-to-one, where the same Soul Rank human and monster were equal strength. It varied greatly due to the bodies and intelligence of the monster. 

“I know, that’s why we’re only going to sectors with M1 rating at the highest.”

He looked a little worried, but he still would be able to escape, so he was fine with the decision.

He opened up his phone, which was strapped to his wrist, “Multiple domain type dunngeons in that sector,” he continued to scroll, then his eyes widened  “Three of the seven have broken,” Jacob added, “So it will be dangerous to hunnt in that sector without backup.”

Domain dungeons appeared as giant bubbles where monsters would spawn within, but they could break and cause a leak of monsters like a bucket of water.

“Okay, that is where we will be hunting.”

“Huh?” Jacob released a confused exhale.

“Come on, I already have marked the location ready for backup to arrive.” I lied, but I wanted him to be more assured of his safety.

“Unnderstood,” he responded.

We rented a two-seated scooter using the guilds credit–we were allowed to use them on basic transport and food.

Jacob drove and before long we reached sector K9. The plan was to deal with broken domains first. These could be fixed with certain items or skills, or the easier way–murder everything in sight and let it naturally recover.

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“Miss, two LKP Crowbeast dead ahead,” Jacob said.

I stopped looking at the nearby stars. Two Crownbeast–having the figure of a bodybuilder, the head of a crow and muscle wings as arms–were walking about in formation. And a little bit behind them was the domain K9-2, with a massive hole on its side.

“All three of the broken domains are near, so it should be expected for some to be walking about,” I replied. 

He decelerated to a stop, I hopped off the scooter and prepared for combat. 

“[Fire Arrow],” I chanted. A perfectly sized arrow appeared next to me and not even a moment later I launched it through the Crowbeast's head.

The other one–looking away–didn’t even notice as the heavy corpse of its friend plummeted into the ground.

Impressed Jacob unconsciously responded, “You're very good at this.

“How many more nearby?” I asked as I readied my next attack.

“Three a little east,” he replied, looking at the radar on his phone.

Hmm, starting slow isn’t bad. But not being on Espoiramissa means I can flex my muscles without worry.

“O3 was the strongest record creature in nearby domains right?”

“Correct Miss.” Jacob went over to collect the corpse. Expecting me to kill the other in a second.

They seem similar in structure to Chickenfreaks on Espoiramissa… and if they are.

I created two more [Fire Arrows]. The first was the size of a regular arrow while the latter matched the original I created.

“Please scream for me,” the arrow pricing the area between the creature's lungs and caused the Crowbeast to–

“CQUARRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!”

Jacob reactively clamped his hands on his helmet–in the area where his ears were located–which did make the screeching sound quieter.

Naturally unfazed by the noise, I said “So they both do scream,” That should be enough. I launched the second arrow blowing off the creature’s head.

Jacob still covering his ears, “YOU KNEW THAT WOULD HAPPEN!”

“Not exactly,” I replied, “I know of similar creatures. But the one I knew had to ability to stab itself to make the noise–I wonder if they have the same ancestor.”

With the bird dead, Jacob released a sigh of relief and collected the two corpses. Walking back to the scooter, he looked down at his radar again, and stopped “Ceella, I’m getting a reading” his voice trembled “Over two hundred signatures headed our way!”

Good. Same attracting effect. “Get on the scooter Jacob.”

“Right!” He ran over, “Are you goinng to call for back u-!” He was silenced as he turned back to see an army of Crowbeast and other monsters stampeding towards us.

“Just stay back,” I controlled my expression to stop the wide grin from forming. I so badly wanted to do this on Espoiramissa more often but couldn’t due to the risks.

“[Scorch Extinction]”

Seven dark orange concentrated balls of heat appeared behind me, before each–one at a time–flew forward. Then the moment the first ball touched the ground–

BOOMM!

A wave of fire was born.

“Holy Metous–what are yo–” 

CRASHH!! 

Unable to respond. A deafening roar screamed when the second ball landed, combining with the first wave.

““Grahhh!””
““SQURRK!!””
““Grahhh!””
““SRIIIII!!””

The lovely music of extermination of pest sang as all seven balls landed creating a true sea of fire. I had no doubt at least 50% of the corpses were destroyed, but 50% of this lot would still be a decent profit.

The sea flowed deep into the broken domain, its waves hungering for more even crashing through into the two nearby domains.

I turned and said, “Well Jacob?” He had fallen to the ground, “You’ve got some collecting to do.”

Scared, but soon a grin formed, “Yes Maam.”

It took one hour to collect all the materials. I did help by dragging over some of the faraway corpses to make the process move along. I still needed to kill a few more, I hadn’t levelled up yet.

“Jacob in your professional opinion, how much was all that worth?”

“More than I normally make in a month,” he joked “Most of the good materials–bones and muscles–were melted for a lot of them, and none were strong enough to create mana core, but with this sheer quantity.” He did the quick math in his head, “With the split, and deductions in mind that’s 8094 Mets for you.”

“That’s good enough.”

“?” Confused for a moment, he concluded “Do you want to stop for today?” He probably thinks I’m low on mana. 

Name: Ceella Stella | Race: [Human] 

Level 298 | Awakened 

Mana: 69% Starlight: 100%

“Nah, let’s finish up the rest of K9’s domains before going to sector M5.”

We did as I said. After finishing up with this sector we moved on to the next. 

Killing monsters that had broken out of their domains and wiping out another small domain along the way. It might have been best to have headed to the more dangerous side of the moon first. I chose K9 due to decent difficult while still being safe, to show Jacob my ability–my decision was correct I was a little salty due to not levelling.

It’s not that easy idiot. It took forever and multiple near-death experiences to reach 298, just never use [Primal Guardian Lord] and I’ll be fineeee.

I continued my joyful stargazing picnic stroll with Jacob as company before suddenly he stopped the vehicle. Holding out his phone and sneered “Ceella, I’m detecting P-8 forces at 2 o’clock.”

Competition hey? “Well let’s hope they won’t get in our way.” I smiled and signalled to turn in the opposite direction. I didn’t want to deal with those invading oafs

Private companies normally only worked planets or moons they owned, but they did have divisions that occasionally operated on more public hunting grounds. Why would this? To be arseholes!

Profit wasn’t guaranteed and losses happened more often than not when private companies did these short-term expeditions, but still, they repeatedly did it. Harassing freelance or small guild-affiliated hunters by stealing kills and locking off sections of territory for ‘personal use’.

I could only hope I didn’t have to burn some mechs to the ground today. Then–

RUMBLE

The moon shook.