"Welcome back," the Gate greets us as we approach. "You had a fine hunt today, it looks like."

"We did," I nod. "A Tier Four hawk for Cam and me, and plenty of Tier One hares for Liam."

"Good job," the Gate tells us, then opens so that we may enter.

Our first stop is the Elder Hunter. While Liam and I are the same Level as before, Cam's participating in the fight against the hawk brought him up to Level 14, so he wants to get that updated, and we want to get Liam his first payment for his hunts.

"Welcome back," the Elder Hunter greets us as we take seats around the table, Liam and me across from her, Cam to my right. "Judging by the basket and the hawk, you three had a productive day."

"We did!" Liam is doing his best to restrain his excitement at having completed his first hunt. "Things got iffy with the hawk, but Rex and Cam took care of it!"

"Let us handle them first," she tells Liam. "Then we will do your assessment."

"Okay!" Liam responds.

I do my assessment first, then Cam does his, and she updates his brand to reflect his new Level, Then, she performs Liam's assessment, before telling us to wait here. The Elder Hunter heads into the back of the shop, returning with two sacks. A smaller one for Liam, and a larger one for Cam and me to split.

To his credit, Liam doesn't even look at what's in the pouch, just fixes it to his belt. It's not about the money, it's about the proof that he completed a hunt.

We thank the Elder Hunter, then start to leave, only she calls for us to wait.

"I've received word back," she tells us. "There is a team of Soul Strikers who was passing through the next town. They're on their way here now, and should arrive in three, maybe four days."

They're making haste, then. It normally takes five days to reach us from the next town over.

"As with all Soul Striker teams," she continues. "One of them is a healer, so they should be able to mend your leg when they arrive."

"Okay," I say. "Thank you."

She dips her head, then we leave, Liam asking how she already received word back with the journey being so long.

"Messenger birds," Cam answers. "All Elder Hunters have at least six of them. They're kept in her yard."

"I didn't see them in her yard," Liam frowns.

"That's because," I explain. "Her house isn't a solid rectangle, like it looks if you just look at the side walls. The actual house itself is only about half as long as it looks when walking along the side. Then, there's storage rooms along the sides of it, taking up about five feet of space each, with a fifteen-foot-wide yard. But the roof is shaped as if the entire thing is one building, no gap, even though there's a hole over the yard. Hunter messenger birds are among the only birds that can fly over the walls of even the most fortified cities. They're fast and swift, and able to bend light to render themselves invisible as well."

"You can use light that way?" Liam asks in exclamation.

"Yeah," I answer. "Cam and I can both use it, but we don't very often because it has several issues. First, it doesn't erase your smell, which is why it wouldn't have helped us with the wolves. They can smell things before they see them. Second, it takes focus to maintain. Third, it drains sacred power to sustain, and a lot of it. According to the Elder Hunter, it normally isn't learned by anyone under Level 30."

"Wow," Liam says. "You two learned it early."

"Mostly for the rare occasion on which it would be useful and practical," I tell him. "Because Cam and I are rather weak compared to many of the monsters in the area, we have to rely on ambushes and other strategies. Sometimes, wrapping ourselves with bent light is a useful strategy, even if it's only for a moment at a time."

"Oh, cool," Liam says. "You've never told me about that spell! You've got to tell me about some of your stuff with it once we get back!"

"Sure," I ruffle his hair. "First, let's give our kills to Nick, so he can process them."

"Okay!"

We stop by Nick's shop and drop off the kills, then make our way home, Cam splitting from us at the fork after telling us he'll be back after he grabs some clothes and informs his parents that he'll be staying with us until my leg is healed.

Liam and I reach our house and head inside, dropping off our gear before I take him out back and have him practice summoning his wind blade, then firing them at a bear golem I manifest. This one, I keep around his size, mostly because I know how the training session will end up.

It takes Liam about twenty minutes to tire of firing wind blades at the golem and striking at it with his spear, and that's when he decides to start wrestling it. Because it's his size, it's easy for him to match up against it, though part of that comes from me not pushing him as hard as I could.

Once Liam is worn-out, we head inside, and I send him to take a bath. Cam's inside, fixing us dinner.

"Hey, Cam!" Liam greets him, then bolts to the bathing room.

"How's your leg feeling?" Cam asks as I sit at the table.

"Sore," I answer. "Pain goes through it if I move my foot, which is an inevitable action, even when flying."

"Well," Cam says. "At least we only have to wait three or four days, rather than the week or two we'd expected."

"Yeah," I nod. "That's a relief."

He nods, then returns to cooking, and I let my head hang back as I stare up at the ceiling. Soul Strikers were passing through the next town? Why were they so close to us? It's a week from the next town to the closest one after that, and there's a shorter route between cities and these towns. Not only that, but I can't think of a reason Soul Strikers would need to pass this way to get somewhere. Surely Soul Strikers would have been closer to wherever they were going than need to pass through the next town?

Unless the next town's Gates sent an ominous warning as well, and after an investigation was made, their Elder Hunter sent for Soul Strikers. If so, then they must have found something rather fast. They were lucky not to have issues, too. I'm sure our Elder Hunter would have mentioned if there were troubles.

But if they did receive an ominous warning, just how bad is the situation? The next town is to our east, yet we came across the wolves to the west. Is there something else going on? Something even stronger than the gaia wolf?

"Whatever you're worried about," Cam says. "It'll resolve itself once the Soul Strikers are here, Rex. They're powerful enough to handle the wolves, and if they find something else around, they'll take care of it, too."

"I know," I say. "I can't help but worry, though."

"I know," he echoes me. "Liam is probably almost done with his bath, you should try to hide the worry so he doesn't stress."

"Yeah," I lift my head up and look at him. "How long before dinner finishes?"

"Just need to finish making this pasta," he tells me. "Then cook it for a couple of minutes, then I'll be just about done."

"Alright," I say. "After dinner, would you mind fetching the package?"

"Yeah," he answers. "Is it where you usually hide stuff?"

"No," I answer. "Liam found that hiding spot a few months ago. It's in the other one."

"I'll grab it after dinner, then," he tells me. "Set Liam to washing the dishes to distract him."

I nod, then we fall silent. As Cam is finishing the last touches of dinner, Liam comes out, dressed in shorts and a tank, towel wrapped around his neck, his hair still a little wet.

"Smell delicious!" He exclaims.

"We have linguine tossed with an herbal sauce and grilled fish," Cam tells us as he serves it. "Grilled veggies, and a salad."

Liam grabs some mugs and fills them up with drinks, then the three of us dig in, Cam and I mostly listening to Liam chatter away about some of the adventures he's had with a couple of the other town's children. Fishing alone and preparing for my return isn't all he does while Cam and I are out hunting, after all.

Now that the scare of my death is over, Liam is back to telling me about his adventures. Minus the parts where he did something he wasn't supposed to do. I'm sure I'll find out about those in the next few days. It seems he decided to spend the day before his turning into a Hunter playing with the other kids here.

I have to refrain from sighing in memory, and Cam gives me a knowing look. Liam's too into his tale to notice it, and it's not something I'd like to tell him about.

Cam might have been my only friend after my parents died, but we aren't the only ones our age here. There are a few hundred residents, after all. One of the girls our age is the blacksmith who forged Liam's new spear, another is a baker.

But there was one person whom Cam and I played with often when we were younger. Five years older than us, my older brother. He became a Hunter before me, on his tenth birthday. There was a group of Hunters here to escort a merchant, and my brother left with them the day after his birthday.

Looking back on it now, I'm sure his departure is part of why our parents went out of the town. They couldn't stand one of their children being better than them, or richer, so they left with the goal of making money using resources from outside the town.

Now that I'm older, I'm able to tell our parents were abusive toward him. I don't blame him for wanting to leave us behind, and forgave him a long time ago for abandoning us. He did play with us a lot, even if our parents hated him for some reason I've never figured out.

We talk by letter from time to time. Every few months, I receive one from him, then send him one back. I haven't told him I'm a Hunter, though, and nor does he know about Liam. I mostly just tell him about the stuff going on in town, it's easier for me that way. He does know that our parents died, though, and while he didn't comment about it in his next letter, I know he was probably a little happy and relieved.

"Rex?" Liam pulls me out of my thoughts about my brother, and I notice his face is full of concern. "Are you okay? You kind of spaced out?"

"Yeah," I tell him. "Your story made me think about adventures I had with my friends when I was little, too. Cam, me, and one other had an old fort in the woods we'd play in."

"The fort?" Liam frowns. "Oh! That fort? It's old and crickety. It's falling apart, too. Rotting and stuff."

"That doesn't surprise me," I chuckle. "It's older than you are, and hasn't been used since probably around the time you were born, maybe a little after. Anyway, now that we're done eating, would you mind washing the dishes?"

"On my birthday?" He mock-whines.

"Cam made breakfast and dinner and he prepared lunch," I say. "And it's not good for me to be floating all the time because my foot will move around, and doing dishes with the crutch won't be easy."

"I know, I know," he stands and collects the dishes, then gets started on washing them.

Cam stands and slips out the back door without Liam noticing, returning after a few minutes and setting a package wrapped in thick canvas on the table.

"So did your friend not become a Hunter?" Liam asks, not taking his attention away from the dishes. "Just the two of you?"

"He became one," Cam responds. "But he left with a group of Hunters for training in a city. His reasons for becoming one were separate from ours."

"Yours was because Rex's parents died, right?" Liam asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "After they died, I wanted to become a Hunter and be the one to gather supplies from outside the town, able to hold my own against the monsters so that others wouldn't act so stupidly in the future. Cam accompanied me on that journey."

"And now," Liam says. "I've joined you! I've never heard about this friend before, though. He's never returned?"

"He's never returned," I confirm. "It's complicated, though. He has his reasons for staying away."

"So you talk with him?" He asks.

"Rarely," I answer. "Last message I got from him, he was in an oceanside city. While you can train in the fields from the start, to set sail on the ocean, the Gate won't let you leave unless you're at least Level 30. Ocean monsters are especially dangerous, and a ship usually has at least twenty Hunters protecting it to travel across the seas."

"Nothing like the monster in the lake, right?" Liam asks.

"Nothing like the monster in the lake," I confirm. "Many of them are bigger, and they have the advantage of being able to go under the ships as well as around them. They're almost as annoying as flying monsters."

"Ah," he says. "What's the ocean like? Did you see it when you two went to the city?"

"No," I answer. "We went in a different direction. They did have a big lake, though. You have to be Level 15 if you want to go on it by traveling through a Gate. Some people ignored that while we were there, went out through the Gate on the plains, and then looped around and brought a boat onto the lake. They weren't able to be rescued in time. So remember, Liam, to always follow the Level requirements of the Gates, even if you can go another way."

"I will," he promises.

Liam finishes washing the dishes, and Cam helps him dry them and put them away, then Liam notices the package on the table.

"When did that get here?" He asks. "I don't remember it being there, but you were both here and no one came by!"

"It's a birthday gift to you," I tell him. "We wanted to wait until after your first hunt, because we knew you'd want to wear them immediately, and then have to clean them off after the hunt."

Upon hearing that, Liam approaches the table and unwraps the bundle, revealing a leather jacket and new belt, along with two new pouches. They'll be worn on hunts, including tomorrow, but we still wanted to let Liam have a little more time without it risking being soiled. The jacket probably won't be worn unless it's a chilly day, while the belt and pouches will be worn regularly.

"Greta told you," I tell him as he holds up the jacket and examines it. "That she couldn't make you a jacket right now because she was already making one for you, and you know the rule."

"No more than one large item order at a time per person," he nods. "Well, for most people. And orders are made in the order of request, with some exceptions, such as you two, who get priority on most things you order."

He gives us a suspicious look.

"You didn't bump anyone down for this jacket, did you?"

"We requested it a couple of months ago," I tell him. "When we had the hide sent to her. That should keep you warm on most chilly days, and protect your chest from rain, too. It's durable as well, so it will protect you from blows of Tier One monsters like what you're fighting right now."

"Cool," he pulls on the jacket, then the belt, before fixing the pouches onto it. "Now I've got good pouches to store herbs and stuff in!"

"Yup," I tell him. "Make sure to keep some in when leaving town."

"I will," he nods. "You and Cam both have salves, don't you? Even though Cam's a healer?"

"We do," I open one of my pouches and pull out a small tin. "We can stop by Hailey's tomorrow morning on our way out and get you some, too. Sometimes, it's best to use a slave or wrap rather than light magic."

"Because," Liam says. "If you use healing spells for everything, even things that could use waiting or letting it heal naturally, you might not have enough sacred power to defend yourself or heal something really nasty."

"Correct," I tell him.

"Alright!" He says. "I'm going to go show my new jacket off to the others!"

"Be back in an hour and a half," I tell him as he runs over to his boots and starts tugging them on. "You may not be feeling it because of your excitement, but I know you're pretty exhausted, and that you're going to be sore once you finally slow down and start relaxing."

"Will do!" Liam responds, then leaves.

Cam and I are silent for a few minutes, then he speaks up.

"I'm doubting they were investigating something," Cam says. "It's possible they had some downtime and were doing something. The wolves are too far opposite us from the next town for a threat we hadn't noticed to be there."

"Yeah," I sigh. "I can't help but worry, though. Not with Liam now being a Hunter. As soon as my leg is fixed up, we're going to take care of Geoffrey, too. We'll have to ask them to leave him alone, that we were intentionally letting him grow stronger so that we could take him out for the experience."

What we're doing isn't illegal, so all we have to do is explain that, and they'll be fine with it. It's extremely common for areas with very few Hunters to do that, because it's both the best way to cover the entire region and good for experience.

Then again, the Elder Hunter's mentioned before that in most areas with as few Hunters as us, the Hunters simply ignore entire areas, resulting in the monsters growing a little stronger than they can handle in those places, while the Hunters handle the weaker ones in their areas. Then, every three or four years, they call out a stronger team to come clean up the Tier Fives and Tier Sixes that formed in the areas they ignore, which generally takes two or three weeks.

That's also how many of the stronger teams gain their experience, by going out to lesser areas and spending two or three weeks cleaning up the monsters that the local Hunters couldn't handle.

Strategy hunting makes a huge difference. Cam and I plan on making sure Liam is a strategy Hunter, too. When it comes to the monsters ranked by Tiers, strategy hunting can allow only one or two Hunters to take on monsters in their five-member Level range.

It's not as if we'd need to save the money we would normally spend on paying the stronger Hunters to come out and do it. Rather, we prefer doing it this way because it means we don't need to call others out to help us. If we can handle things through strategy, why waste someone else's time?

That's why we use strategy hunting. Ambush when necessary, adapt to the element, and cover a range of skills with the main combatant. Have a single backup who performs healing and support attacks. Cam and I started that way at the Elder Hunter's suggestion, and that's what has worked for us for nine years.

"When it comes to Geoffrey," I tell Cam. "Mind if we handle it our normal way? I know you want to focus on acquiring a few more Levels, but there will be other Tier Fives. There are already plenty we can seek out."

"Geoffrey was your project," Cam responds. "You were the one who came up with the idea of letting a snail reach Tier Five, just so you could get the experience of fighting a powerful snail. I have no issue with that."

"Alright," I chuckle. "Yeah, fighting him is going to be fun, especially since he lives in the mud fields. We'll probably need to clean up some of the other monsters before our fight with him. We got lucky the other mudhounds decided to stay out of the fight I had last week. I meant to take on Geoffrey before today."

"Yeah," Cam nods. "But we got side-tracked looking for the thing that bothered the Gate."

"Well," I say. "If these wolves are all that was, then it won't be more than a week before it's dealt with, hopefully. Then we can return to normal."

We'll have to leave Liam behind a few times, and make sure he understands not to leave the town without us when we do. Otherwise, we won't be able to do our usual hunts and take care of stronger monsters. Neither of us wants to have to watch him while we're handling those, and he won't be able to do anything, making him just another target.

Liam knows that we take on stronger things, though, so he'll probably accept that we can't take him with us every time at the start. We'll take him with us when we know we'll be around things that he can handle, or when we know there won't be any danger to him.

He's also probably going to be super excited in a few days, too. Even if he knows it's unlikely any of us will become a Soul Striker, they are still the best of the best, standing above the rest. Being able to meet even just one Soul Striker would excite any kid who is a huge fan of Hunters.

Now that he is a Hunter, I know that excitement will fade with time. Within a few months, Liam will become a lot more serious, fighting just as hard as we did when we were his age. But this time, he'll have a couple of stronger Hunters to guide him and train him, unlike Cam and me. Most of what we learned, we either taught ourselves or paid the Elder Hunter to teach us.

How would things have been, had Cam and I been trained by someone who had already been hunting for a few years? Like my brother?

"You have that look again," Cam says quietly, and I give him an inquisitive look. "The one that says you're wondering how things would be if he were here."

"It's no use thinking about it," I shrug. "It just crosses my mind from time to time. Anyway, while we're waiting for Liam to return, want to play a game of cards?"

"Sure," he says. "Deck in the usual spot?"

"Yeah," I tell him. "Let's play to ten wins. Loser has to track Liam down when he doesn't meet curfew."

"Sounds like a deal!" He laughs.