The room was small, with only a table and a few chairs scattered about. Five people were in that room. Standing at the far left corner of the room was a big, burly man in his late 60s wearing a set of full plate mail armor and wielded a large hammer. Another man, who wore a set of chainmail armor and had a bejeweled sword strapped to his waist, stood next to him. The other three people were sitting around the table. One was a slim man wearing leather armor, another was a classy woman dressed in an expensive-looking robe, and the last one was a young girl donning the robes of a high ranking priest. The Hunters all turned to look at the person who walked in. Chad stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do.

“Err… hi?” Chad said in a tone of uncertainty. “Uh, Sir Strudwick told me I was supposed to come here and, uh, help you guys to kill… the arachne……” Chad trailed off as the five Hunters probed him with their eyes.

“Hmm… he’s pretty lightly built… “ the man wearing the plate-mail boomed. His aged face wrinkled slightly in disgust. He sighed. “Huh… Another shrimp… “

“Hey, don’t go so hard on him, old man. Don’t think many people can fit your category of ‘not shrimp’ anyway.” the sword wielder said, chuckling.

‘Shut it, you two.” the mage spoke up. Crossing her arms, she glared at the two men before turning back to face Chad. “Yes, we had received a report about this yesterday. Your name is Chad Perugia, light green ranked Hunter, correct?”

“Y-Yes, that’s me.” Chad managed to stutter out. Earlier today? That means Sir Strudwick had already planned to use me for the arachne assignment…

“Well then, let us work well together.” the mage turned back towards the table. “Now, since us five have work with each other on multiple occasions in the past, we know each another’s skill-set and manner of fighting very well. Please pay attention to what we tell you to do during battles, as you have no knowledge of what we are able to do. We have already gone over your Hunter profile, so we have a basic understanding of how you fight and what special skills you possess.”

“Err, wouldn’t it be better if I learned what your skills are, though?” Chad politely asked.

The mage held up her palm and shook her head.

“Unnecessary. We have already wasted enough time, thus using even more time to familiarize yourself with our abilities is completely not necessary.”

“C-Can you at least tell me your names?” Chad inquired softly.

“I am mage Corielle Eira Ankeren. This is our healer, Archbishop Claudia Farahana Halloran.” Corielle gestured towards the young girl, who nodded graciously at him. “This here is Elazar Narses Halvorsen, our rogue and scout.” Corielle pointed at the man in the leather armor. “And in the back” she leaned back against her chair. “Is Pravin Moreno, the big man with the war hammer, and” Corielle sighs, “Aengus Cadeyrn Iyr, the other guy.”

“Ey, don’t be so cold, Cori babe!” Aengus said as he walked towards Corielle and tried to put his hand on her shoulder.

Smacking his hand away, Corielle glared angrily at Aengus before taking out a large scroll from a small bag on her hip. She unfurled it and beckoned Chad to the table. The scroll was a map of the Empire.

“Now that we are all here and adequately acquainted, let us go over the information we have and form a plan.” Corielle pointed at a small house-like symbol on the map next to a mountain. “This was the village in which the arachne was last spotted by Captain Joshua. From what we know, the monster ran this way through the forest.” Corielle traced her finger across the map to the north-west. “And because of this piece of detail, we suspect that it will be able to reach the mercantile city of Vakran. Thus, we shall make our way there undercover in order to prevent any information to be leaked. Any objections?” she looked around and seeing none she continued. “Good. We shall depart tomorrow before the sun rises. Chad, meet us in front of the western gates. Have all your supplies packed and ready. Now get on preparing.” Corielle shooed Chad out of the room.

- - -

Meya woke to the sound of civilization. Sunlight streamed into the room she had slept in for the past day. It seems as though no one really did use this building or it was just that her traps were working effectively, either way she had not been found or been caught yet.

Meya stood up and stretched, taking special care not to be seen from the outside. She grabbed a piece of meat jerky and the map. Meya sat back down, chewing on the jerky while unfurling the map and laying it out on the ground. She hovered her finger over the name of the small mining town she was at, Lepphia, and moved it in the direction she ran in.

“Vakran, huh,” Meya muttered to herself. “Damn, stealing’s gonna be a lot harder here in such a large trading town… Now, what should I do…“

Meya stood up and started pacing around the room as she tried to plan next moves. She stooped down and retrieved her map as she swallowed the last bit of jerky.

“Shame it’s noon. Guess I’ll just do some scouting for now.” Meya said under her breath.

Meya has a bad habit of talking to herself whenever she’s alone and (fairly) stressed. She’s been like this ever since both of her parents died when she was young and she was left to fend for herself.

From prior experience, she knew she needed to learn the layout of the city’s backstreets and alleyways. This way, she’ll be able to both get from one location to another faster and evade pursuers much easier. Another thing she needs to learn are key locations around the city. Places like Hunter’s Association buildings and the city guard barracks are all locations Meya needed to keep in mind lest she wanted to be caught out in an unfavorable part of the city.

Meya packed up her belongings and stuffed them under a piece of loose flooring she found, taking extra caution that it wouldn’t be found by accident. Right now, all she had was her knife on her, which she had sheathed on the back of her waist.

Poking her head out, Meya made sure no one was present or looking when she quietly crept out of her new residence and into the alleyway. Meya gathered mana across her entire body and cast the spell Camouflage, causing light to bend around her and made her become almost invisible.

Satisfied, Meya finally set out into the slums.

- - -

Vakran is split into three different districts: residential, recreational, and commercial. As you’d expect of a trade city, the commercial district is by far the largest and busiest. The second largest district is the recreational district. Because of the similar nature between these two districts, many parts overlapped, with the recreational district’s main attraction, the great Galanic Colosseum, having been built in the heart of the commercial district surrounded by shops and stalls. These two districts covered the northern and eastern parts of the city.

On the other hand, the residential district is separate from the other two districts. It is split into two sections: the upper-class section and the lower-class section. The upper-class section consisted of the mid- to high-end residential homes and inns, while the lower-class section consisted of low-end residential homes and inns and of the slums. The upper-class section is situated in the north-western part of the city and is separated from the lower-class section by the large street that went from the southern gate all the way to the city’s center.

Meya had split the entirety of the lower-class residential section into three separate sections. First, to the north, lies the eastern road, and it is also there that the red light district had situated itself. This is the safest area within the low-class section, and is often referred to as the “safe section”. Nothing extreme happens here, only theft, extortion, and the occasional murder. The second section is called “the slums”. This is where most of the denizens of the lower-class residential section lived. Kidnapping, burglary, murder and the likes are a regular occurrence here, and gangs of thugs and slit-throats roam the streets and alleyways day and night. The third and last section is also the most dangerous section of all of Vakran. This section is where all of the darkest and most disgusting acts are done. Human trafficking groups and the black market both call this section their home, and many gangs and organizations butt heads, each trying to gain dominance over its competitors and obtain the ability to monopolize this source of income.

Meya's temporary abode was situated smack in the middle of the slums. Crime is rampant in these areas, and it’s not rare to spot a corpse or two lying about. Luckily for Meya, nothing much happened while she was weaving through the lower-class section of the residential area, engraving every last twist and turn into a map she held inside her head. Most of the day was spent scouting, and by the time she was done with her mapping, the sun had already begun to set.

Meya sighed and sat heavily on the roof of a building. Once the sun has completely set, she would set out into the commercial/recreational district to steal some food from a restaurant. Although she’s a half-human monster, she requires the same amount of food as she needed back when she was still fully human. Besides, Meya knew she would need to find another person to extract essence from anyway, as she did not consume his entire soul nor was it a good quality soul to begin with.

It’s gonna be a lot simpler now. No need to worry about eating the entire soul. Dead people’re everywhere in this place. I really do hope those Hunter fucks stopped chasing me, but knowing my luck they’ve probably already sent a highly experienced death squad after me, heh.

She leaned back against her abdomen and stared up at the reddish-orange sky. Closing her eyes, she slowly drifted off as a cool summer breeze blew across the rooftops.