SHITSHITCRAPSHITCRAPSHITSHIT

These two words sounded loudly in Meya’s mind. She gripped her hair in frustration as she paced around her “bedroom”. A while ago, some Hunter broke into her home. Usually, when someone wanders into this abandoned inn, they will immediately feel a strong urge to leave. This is because young arachne had set up loads of traps that shoot a type of poisoned dart around the building. This was usually one hundred percent effective against your average citizen, but, as it turns out, this Hunter had a much higher willpower and resistance to this kind of magic, and was able to perfectly resist the poison's effects.

Meya racked her brain for a solution, as this had never happened before, but ended up resorting to brute force when the Hunter had found and broken into her chambers.

Knocking the Hunter out was easier than expected, and she was just about to suck out the poor chap’s essence when she noticed the crystal tied on his belt. A linked high-grade Detection Crystal. Great.

“Fuck my life...” she whispered to herself.

Just when she had FINALLY completed her new home, the Association just HAD to have sent a Hunter immune to he poisoned darts and said Hunter just HAD to have had a Detection Crystal linked to both the Association HQ and the user’s consciousness. The Association is most likely already on their way here, alerted by the crystal since this guy’s completely out cold.

Meya hurriedly wrapped her belongings up with her silk, along with the little food she had left from her previous expedition out to the shopping district. All she had was a Grimoire, a knife, a map of the region, and a guandao specially crafted for her use.

Strapping all of this to her back and her sleek, black abdomen, Meya turned back once more towards the unconscious Hunter.

“Lucky bastard.” she cursed him under her breath before covering him almost entirely in her webs. As much as Meya wanted drink his essence and then gut him, she couldn’t risk angering the Association by killing someone who they deem necessary to give a linked Detection Crystal.

Meya easily tore through the layer of webs covering one of the windows and burst out into the fading sunlight. Good. Night was fast approaching, which meant the Association would have a harder time tracking and/or fighting her.

She landed softly on the ground, and rushed towards the city walls.

Ulstaza is a border town, resting at the very edge of the Empire of Chimeron, next to the Kingdom of Zeltar. Tensions are high between the Empire and the Kingdom, and small skirmishes between the two countries often break out. In an attempt to prevent further bloodshed, the Hunter’s Association has moved its headquarters right on the border of the two powers, forming a sort of neutral zone.

For the past 3 months, Meya had stationed herself in Ulstaza, living off of stolen food and water, and occasionally luring men into her home in the dead of the night, feeding off of their essence. Meya headed east, away from the border and hopefully away from influence of the Association’s headquarters, and deep into the heart of the Empire of Chimeron.

The Empire of Chimeron was the greatest empire in this world’s history. Chimeron was initially formed when a group of human outcasts and rebels from the Kingdom of Zeltar joined forces with a band of outcast Elves and Dwarves. Together, with a common goal of freedom in mind, they built a country which did not care about its citizen’s race or religion. They built the capital deep in the middle of an unclaimed forest, right along the shore of the Middle Sea. Because of the forest’s many dangerous creatures, the settlers tamed and, with the help of magic, crossbreed many different monsters to bring out traits ideal for colonization of the rest of the forest. As the years passed, more and more crossbreeding occurred, and these creatures, chimeras, were so efficient at what they do that the new Empire’s economy was booming. Many large trade routes went right through the middle of its capital, and the Empire continued to grow. Within the Empire, races of all different shapes and sizes were welcome, peace and prosperity ensued.

That is, up until the crowning of the 19th Emperor. The previous Emperor had died a mysterious “accidental” death, and strangely enough, the 3rd prince, prince Aran Hollis Kollen, was crowned the Emperor. If this wasn’t fishy enough, in the first few months of his reign, Emperor Aran put forth multiple policies and laws in favor of the military and border growth, something the past couple of Emperors have actually been avoiding. Because of this, the already tense relationship between the Kingdom and the Empire grew ever tenser, and the possibility of another war was steadily rising.

Meya took out her map from her web bag. Although she was running at high speeds, Meya’s map did not flutter at all due to the still air she kept around her using magic. She studied the map with her main eyes.

“Hmm...the nearest town seems to be only a day’s walk away. At my speed, I can probably get there by midnight.” Meya said. “I’ll probably stay there for a week or so, then I guess I’ll slowly make my way towards the capital.”

Meya rolled up her map and slid it back into her bag, continuing onwards in her journey as the evening sun made its way slowly down the horizon.

…………

……

…

Chad opened his eyes. An unfamiliar white ceiling stared back at him

“You finally awake, Greenie?” gruff voice sounded behind him.

Recognizing the voice, Chad snapped up and turned around to face the short, gruff dwarf. His neck scream in pain, making him flinch.

“Woah, there, buddy, careful. Your neck’s still badly bruised. Quite a number that creature did on you, eh?” the dwarf laughed and scratching his beard.

“G-Groden! The monster-” Chad rasped, sending another jolt of pain down his neck.

“What did I tell ya, stop movin’ so much! They sent out a couple’a the boys after it.” Grodon grunted. “Seems like the lil’ bugger escaped through the window, but don’t worry, Capt’n Josh’s also with ‘em. The lil' bugger's fast, 'nd was already long gone by the time we arrived. Else, I woulda been out there chasing as well!”

“I have to go after it!” Chad tried once more to get up, but Groden pushed him back down.

“You ain’t goin’ nowhere, buddy, Capt’n’s orders. Seems like Head underestimated this lil’ bugger.” Groden growled.

Chad lied back down and sighed, thanking the gods for the linked Detection Crystal. Who knew what would have happened if he came here unsupervised.