Chapter 24

Later that evening, after he’d dropped off the harvested turf and was relaxing back home in front of the tv, he received an automated message on his pager. He was now eligible for a promotion hunt. He’d done enough hunts of the required level and could now go on a supervised F rank hunt to be considered for promotion to F rank.

Jack grinned, finally, he’d only been a hunter for maybe a month or so, but had been informed that the jump from G to F rank usually happened pretty fast and then got progressively harder the higher in rank you climbed. F rank was still pretty low but it was a step up.

He wasn’t normally one to rush things but he wanted to be promoted right away to get access to better hunts. He acknowledged the message and confirmed that he was ready for the promotion hunt. A few seconds later an automated reply came back saying the guild would find a supervisor and organise a hunt for him, he just needed to report in the next day.

A little while later, Jack received another text message, but on his phone. It was from Gary the smith, he said he’d finished working on Jack’s custom order and that he needed to come and collect it. At this Jack leaned forward in excitement, he’d only been half serious when he suggested the spear design to Gary, he never expected the guy to actually make it. He texted back that he’d be there in the morning.

After a night's rest he got ready and made his way into town, going first to Gary’s Monstrous Alloys. He arrived and walked through the front door, in contrast to his previous visits there were actually people in the store, half a dozen or so, all browsing the weapon and armour selections. He walked up to the store counter and saw an unfamiliar face manning it. A young girl who looked to be a teenager, short and blonde with a cheerful smile.

“Hi there! Welcome to Gary’s Monstrous Alloys, how can I help you!” She greeted a slightly perplexed Jack cheerfully.

“Uh yeah, I’m here to see Gary.” He replied cautiously.

“Oh that's ok, you can speak to me about purchasing weapons and armour. Gary just makes the merch.” She replied with continuing cheer.

“Erm no, I mean I’m actually here to see Gary, he texted saying he had an order for me to pick up.”

“Huh?” She tilted her head in confusion, then. “Hey! Uncle Gary! Some guy here to see ya!” She yelled back through the door then turned back to Jack with a smile. “He’ll be right out.

Right on cue Gary emerged from the back door. “Ah Jack! Ya here, well c’mon, come round back and I’ll show ya what I made. I think you’ll like it. Heh heh.” And with that Gary immediately ducked back through the back door again and Jack hurried to follow him, passing the girl with a small smile and a shrug, she smiled and waved back at him.

In Gary’s workshop he found the man himself standing next to a work table holding a short silver rod. He walked over and Gary proudly showed him what he was holding. It was about two feet in length, one half was a cylinder with the end part curving slightly almost resembling the handle of a revolver gun. The other half was a foot long straight blade.

Gary motioned for him to back up and Jack did. Then Gary held out the object horizontally, then grinning like a child he pressed something and with a series of crisp clicks the object extended almost instantaneously from two feet to two metres.

“Whoa!! You actually did it!” Jack exclaimed in surprise.

“Of course I did it! Was there ever any doubt? Heh.” Gary grinned.

Jack marvelled at the spear for a few moments. “Can I hold it?” He asked. Gary grinned again and passed it to him. Jack took it and felt its weight, it was slightly heavier than his previous spear, he swung it around a few times and found it had good balance and a decent amount of flexibility, not too rigid and not too bendy, solid feeling.

Gary then explained to him how it worked exactly, it sounded complicated and Jack wasn’t certain he’d taken it all in. What it essentially boiled down to was that the spear was comprised of hollow metal tubes made of a tungsten titanium alloy. A nifty series of devices filled with mechanisms made up of magnets and springs allowed it to retract and expand with the click of a button.

Gary took it back while he was giving his lecture to Jack and cradled it lovingly as if it were his firstborn. Afterwards he reluctantly handed it back to Jack after forcing Jack to promise to come back once a week for maintenance. Jack agreed happily, the spear was pretty cool he thought but there was no way he knew how to take care of it. They chatted a little as Gary walked Jack out of his shop.

“I noticed you have a lot more customers than usual Gary, like, more than zero.” He nudged Gary playfully.

“Heh heh, yeah, probably got you to that for that actually.” He chuckled sheepishly.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, that thing on the news a while back, with you slaying those wolf things and then standing there in my armour. With the chained crimson bull there for all to see.” He said proudly.

“Oh yeah, I remember seeing that on the news, I thought that might be good publicity.”

“Well anyway, thanks for that, it really helped.” He clapped Jack on the back in appreciation.

“Hey no prob, just doin’ my job, anyway text me again when you’ve another hunt for me.”

“Will do, see ya Jack, oh, er by the way, where's that other spear I gave you?” He asked but Jack quickened his pace towards the exit.

“Thanks Gary, see you soon!” He waved goodbye and Gary gave a bewildered wave in return.

Jack carefully placed his new weapon in the back holster on his weapon harness, glad now that he didn’t have such a cumbersome spear slung over his back. He set off for the guild HQ.

Once he arrived he went to the help desk in the jobs and requests room. He told the young woman manning it that he was here for a promotion hunt and gave her his hunter licence. She then told Jack that the hunt was scheduled for later tonight at nine pm when his supervisor was ready. Jack nodded his assent and decided to head for the training halls for some practice.

No one was there that he recognised so he simply headed down to one of the sparring halls for matchups with anyone available, he was proud to say he only got his arse kicked most of the time, rather than all the time. Most hunters in the guild were still more experienced than him and had more combat time and cultivation under their belt than him. At this point any other G rankers in the guild were either like him and just finding their feet, or they were career G rankers and happy with the admittedly decent income low ranking jobs pulled in. So any hunters the same rank as Jack probably weren’t going to provide a good spar in any case.

After an afternoon of spars and a set of new bruises he had a shower and wandered over to the guild hall. It was fairly busy, being early evening, but he managed to get a table to himself on the ground floor near the bar where he could watch tv. It was a programme documenting coverage of the first delve into the new dungeon that had opened up in Manchester, it showed a group of excited young men and women, all hunters, armed and armoured to the teeth, also carrying large rucksacks, ropes, picks, flashlights, flares and all sorts of odds and ends. They almost looked like they were about to climb mount Everest or go into the jungle rather than standing around in the middle of Manchester city centre at a rather charming looking cafe.

A large crowd of interested onlookers were gathered behind the police barricades watching the group of eleven hunters saunter across the square confidently, waving to the crowds. Each hunter had small cameras and flashlights strapped to their helmets, the group paused just outside the entrance to do one last check of each other's gear. The entrance itself was rather strange, it consisted of man made objects and yet at the same time the entrance itself was decidedly not man made, it was more like something a child might put together if given lego pieces from different box sets. It was a strange mixture of different materials, bricks, cement blocks, plaster, car doors, house windows, traffic signs, furniture, household appliances, plastic bottles and more, all arranged into a large six metre tall doorway that led underground. The bizarre mixture of materials was assembled without rhyme or reason except for its deliberate shape; it might be the sort of thing one would find on the grass lawn of a university as an example of a student's attempt at abstract art.

Jack watched with interest as the group of dungeoneering hunters entered. The coverage cut forward to when the group re-emerged several hours later, they no longer looked quite so confident. They were exhausted, dirty, sweaty and several appeared injured but they were all alive. Paramedics swarmed them and all but forced a couple of hunters to lay down on stretchers.

From there it cut to the newsroom where a panel of speakers discussed the footage gathered by the hunter team inside the dungeon. A popular opinion these days was that dungeons were actually a form of monster, but one that hunted in a very different way. Its primary motivation was to feed off whatever wandered into it and to use whatever energy it somehow derived from interlopers to grow larger in order to draw in more prey in order to get larger and so on and so on. They defied the laws of physics, a dungeon could quite easily pop up in the middle of a large city and have an interior spanning dozens of square miles but nothing located nearby would be touched or affected in any way, it was suspected that dungeons occupied their own pocket dimensions but no one knew for certain. Naturally, dungeons were filled to the brim with things that could only be described as lethal counter measures, monsters, traps, traps that turned into monsters and more.

The footage gathered by the hunter team showed first of all a set of steps leading down onto an underground subway platform with a set of rails, however on the other side of the rails was not another platform but instead what appeared to be a classroom. The group jumped down and crossed over the rails and climbed onto the other side into the classroom. One man approached a desk, it was an open front desk and chair, he stepped to its side and cautiously used his axe to slowly open it up. Suddenly jagged blades of rusty metal and glass flew out and impacted the rear wall, everyone sprang back in shock but when they saw no one was hurt everyone laughed.

In another scene the group are fighting what appears to be a group of mannequins, in the seating section of an arena, except there is no arena, just rows of seats on stairs arranged to face a bare brick wall.

Later on they’re walking along a corridor when someone triggers a trap and torrents of dark grey slime gush down from the ceiling, the group react quickly and dodge back or to the side. A couple members of the group are splashed on the arms or legs and scream but are pulled further back whilst other members of the group channel flame into the large pool of slime as it rears up to lunge at them.

Several more scenes play out like this with the group of dungeon delving hunters, they explore bizarre combinations of familiar environments, battling monsters, avoiding or triggering traps and narrowly avoiding death multiple times. Jack leans forward in excitement avidly watching everything the screen shows, it's the ultimate reality show, a mixture of adventure, drama and horror. He wonders where he can see more episodes, now he’s hooked.

Whilst the show is playing, a waitress comes over and delivers some food Jack ordered earlier, grilled steak and chips. He goes to grab the cutlery wrapped in a napkin but as his hand nears them, they slide away from him across the table. He frowns in confusion and reaches for them again, they slide away even further almost out of reach. Wha? He lunges across the table but they slide away over the edge onto the floor.

“Fuck, what?” Jack swears quietly to himself in confusion and frustration under his breath and walks around the table to pick up the rogue cutlery but they just slide further across the floor under peoples feet. He frowns and gives up before turning to the bar to get a spare knife and fork, he approaches a bemused looking waiter who’d been watching his struggles and who wordlessly proffered a set of cutlery. Jack nodded his thanks with a small chagrined smile and took the offered set of cutlery, at least he tried to, he could barely get his hand to grasp them, as if the metal was rejecting his very proximity. The increasingly perplexed waiter also seemed to be having a rough time, he looked to be struggling to hold the cutlery in place as Jack's hand got closer, strain visible upon his stoic face. Finally Jack managed to grab a hold of the cutlery and with a triumphant smile he thanked the waiter and walked back to his table holding his knife and fork in a deathgrip. Behind him the waiter silently shook his head.

Jack sat down but didn’t know what to do, he had his eating utensils but didn’t think letting go at this point would be wise, he could still feel them trying to leap out of his hand. This was new, what was he now? A human magnet? In fact it was getting harder and harder to keep a hold of them and his steak was getting cold dammit! In frustration he slammed the utensils down on the table and they shot off like a pair of arrows into the crowd.

“AAARGH!! MY ARSE!! OH FUCK!! WHO DID THAT?!!!” A scream of rage and anguish came from within the crowd of people standing at the other side of the hall forty metres away. Jack panicked and his eyes widened, without thinking he stood up and immediately went to the bar for another set of cutlery. The same waiter as before was leaning casually against the bar already with a knife and fork offered up, Jack nodded to him meekly and grabbed them, finding that he could take them now without issue. He hurriedly sat back down and began eating nervously, it was then he watched the confused crowd of hunters at the other end of the room devolve into an arguing chaotic mass, although when it became clear to everyone what had apparently happened the reaction soon turned into hysterical laughter which spread throughout the hall.

“Cool trick.” A sardonic voice suddenly sounded from next to him.

Jack jumped out of his seat. “Oh shit! I didn’t mean too!” Then he saw it was Cheryl.

“Relax, I saw everything, you should really do that trick at parties.” She said as she rested her chin on her hand on the table after she pulled up a chair, all the time watching the chaos.

A moment later a hunched over figure staggers out of the laughing crowd clutching their buttocks. It was Barry, he lets out a strangled snarl combined with a whimper and waddles unsteadily like a drunk duck past their table towards the exit, clutching his buttocks with both hands the entire time. As he passes he notices Jack and Cheryl, he growls at them and smoke bursts upwards in a plume from his mouth. Jack tries his absolute hardest to look as innocent as possible, making certain Barry can clearly see Jack holding a set of cutlery and that he couldn’t possibly be responsible for stabbing Barry in the arse with a steak knife and fork. Barry gives one last snarl before waddling past them, exiting the hall.

As the laughter dies down Cheryl turns to Jack with a smirk. “Maybe in the future you might want to invest in some insulated weapons and tools.”

“Huh, I honestly don’t know what happened, that's never happened before.” Jack explained in confusion.

“Hmm, were you feeling stressed before? Or angry or happy? Any reasonably strong emotion really.” Cheryl asked him.

“Uh, well I was just watching that dungeon crawler programme before I got my food, that was pretty cool. They were exploring that new dungeon in Manchester! Did you see it? It was like this bizarre city underneath the city! That was so cool!” The knife and fork in Jack’s hands twitch before flying out of his hands straight towards his face! Cheryl reacts lightning quick and snatches both of them out of the air before Jack inadvertently stabs himself.

She calmly gets up, takes the cutlery and gives them over to the same waiter as before who stands ready to receive them. When she sits back down she explains to Jack. “Sometimes when a new cultivator feels certain emotions such as anxiety, anger or excitement, their element can manifest in various ways, it always passes eventually though, it's just a phase. For fire elements it's normally coughing or hiccuping out smoke, for wind elements they can get hiccups or burps, as for lightning elements, apparently you guys can become magnetic, that seems like much more fun. Hmm, I’ll get the staff here to obtain some non-metal utensils I think.”

At this Jack was nodding along seriously trying to take it all in, but then he realised something, did Cheryl know? At his suspicious glance she rolled her eyes.

“If you’re wondering if I know and how I know then yes, I know and it became obvious after the news footage of you killing two Bloodletter wolves. But I was suspicious way before that.” She said with a dismissive shrug. “Honestly, did you really think you could keep your lightning cultivation a secret?” She shook her head then treated him to an absolutely scathing eye roll.

Jack's shoulders dropped in disappointment, he really was terrible at keeping secrets.

“Are you gonna tell anyone else?” He cautiously asked.

“It's just me and the director for now.” She replied, whilst flicking through the touchscreen menu on the table.

Jack flinched, the director now too? “Sooo, what now?”

“Now? Don’t you have a promotion hunt to go on? As for me, I’m gonna have a burger and a beer.” Still looking through the menu.

“Errrr….” Jack intelligently replied before he was interrupted by someone from behind him.

“Jack? Ready to go? Hi Cheryl.” A deep voice sounded from behind him.

Jack turned around and there was Russel, the large shield bearing earth cultivator from the goblin hunt in the apartment building.

“Ah! Russel? Are you my supervisor for tonight?” He asked.

“Yeah, c’mon, those monsters won’t hunt themselves.” He motioned for Jack to follow him and Jack reluctantly got up, he gave a pained look to Cheryl.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be here when you get back and we can talk then.” She said, finally looking up and taking pity on him.

He nodded at her wordlessly and moved to catch up to Russel. They walked silently across the atrium before exiting into the courtyard, Russel then turned to Jack and spoke.

“Someone else will be joining us tonight, it's a tricky job and as your supervisor I’m not supposed to lend too much assistance, so you’re getting back up.” Russell explained in his customary calm and quietness.

“I thought you were my back up.”

“I’m your back up’s back up.” He smiled slightly. “We’re meeting him here, we’ll hear him before we see him I think.”

“So what's the job then?” Jack asked, sitting down on one of the stone benches around the fountain, it was getting dark now and different multicoloured lights shone out from the water.

“Giant Common pipistrelles.” He said, not elaborating. He faced stoically forward, arms crossed, staring into the fountain lights, not overly bothered it seemed at the anguished confused look Jack was directing at him.

“What? Pippy what? Pipstels? Pipstroles? Errr…..”

“Giant common pipistrelles.” Russell said again.

“And what exactly is that?”

“Giant bat. The Common pipistrelle is the most common species of bat in the UK. Ironically it's also the smallest, except for the mutated ones we’ll be facing tonight, those things are huge.”

“Ohhh, ok I get ya, erm, how big exactly?”

“Up to about the size of a grown adult man, not including wingspan.” He says calmly, not showing the slightest bit of nervousness.

“Oh fuck that is big!”

“Mmm, fortunately they don’t come in large swarms like normal bats, then that would be a big problem.”

“Heya bitches!!” A loud voice from the main entrance.

“That's your back up.” Russell informs Jack, still gazing down into the fountain.

Jack looks over and spots Nate swaggering over to them waving cheerfully.

“Hiya Jack! Looks like we finally get a hunt together huh? And your promotion hunt too! Look at you! They grow up so fast!” He wiped a fake tear from his eye and pretended to sniffle.

Jack looked at Nate with a deadpan expression for a few seconds before turning back to Russell.

“So where are we going?” He asked.

Russell finally shifts and starts towards the main gate. “A pathway near the river Ouse, one of the cycle routes includes a raised covered bridge going over the rail tracks, the lights inside it malfunctioned a while ago and no sunlight can get in because of the surrounding woodland. That's where the bats roost during the day, it's about twilight now so we’ll get them just as they’re about to head out. We’ll attack from both ends of the path and meet in the middle.” Russell explained the plan.

Jack nodded, seemed easy enough, but he had to ask. “So, how tough are they?”

They all walked out of the courtyard onto the pavement and began walking.

“They’re not too tough, a solid hit or two is enough to take them down, they don’t have natural armour. You just have to watch out for the wings, they’ll try to buffet you with them before clawing you.” Jack listened attentively, this didn’t sound too bad. “Oh and some of them do have a sort of shriek attack that can burst your eardrums and cause incapacitating thunderclap headaches before they evicerate you, but otherwise they’re not too tough.” Jack's eyes widened and he did a double take, clearly he and the big guy carrying what had to be a fifty to a hundred kilogram giant shield had different ideas on toughness. Meanwhile Nate was happily tagging along behind them, humming softly to himself, tossing his unsheathed long sword several metres up into the air before deftly catching it.

They weren’t far from the river and Russell sent Nate through the small overgrown wooded area underneath the covered bridge, over the rail tracks to the other end. Jack and Russell ascended the short flight of stairs and stared into the near pitchblack entrance of the pathway. Needless to say they couldn’t see a thing but if Jack listened he could hear the rustling and slight squeaking of something inside.

The bridge itself was old and wooden, with faded cracked green paint, on either side of the bridge tall trees grew and provided extra cover from the sunlight which is probably why the bats decided to roost there.

They waited there for a couple of minutes until they heard a distinct buzz from their pagers, the pre assigned signal from Nate that he was ready and in position. Jack and Russell both got out flares from their kit bags attached to their backs and lit them. They cautiously walked in with Russsell motioning for Jack to take the lead.

Jack reached behind his back and drew his new spear, his finger was on the button to extend it, ready for the first enemy. A few metres in he came to his first target, a massive bat hanging upside down from the roof, it had to be the same size as Russell! As he got nearer it showed signs of waking up. It began to shift and grunt, Jack didn’t really want it to fully wake up so he aimed his spear point at its chest, poured some lightning energy into it and thumbed the spear trigger. The spear shot out and extended instantly, skewering the bat in the chest, it spasmed and fell to the floor but thankfully didn’t make too much noise. After a few seconds it stopped moving and Jack was pretty certain it was dead, judging by the amount of blood and steam coming from the ragged wound in its chest.

With the first kill under his belt he moved further along the dark tunnel. He managed to kill one more bat like the first one before the shrieking started and then things quickly degenerated into pandemonium! His entire world became nothing but flapping wings and hideous bat shrieking, the red light from the flare barely providing enough light to see by, he felt himself getting buffeted around as he got swarmed by the creatures. He lost his balance and fell to his knees, he jabbed out with his spear and felt it get stuck in something before it was torn from his grasp. He hurriedly reached behind his back and unhooked his axe, in a panic he flooded it with as much lightning energy as possible and swung it around in frenzied strokes all around himself, he spun on the spot trying to kill everything around him. All the time he felt the searing touch of the bats claws on his arms, legs and head, but as he continued to blindly strike out the shrieking died out and he felt the floor beneath him getting slippery.

Finally the assault seemed to ease and he had time for a breath, he looked around and saw that he was surrounded by dead giant bats, some still twitching. He looked to the far end of the tunnel, it was dark but for the flickering light of a red flare, he could just make out what had to be Nate fighting two or three giant bats. At the other end of the tunnel Russell was just standing there watching him, at his feet were two dead bats.

Jack used his reprieve to light a few more flares and toss them around the tunnel for more light before heading over to assist Nate, almost tripping over a dead bat in the process. It turned out he needn’t have bothered, as he was watching Nate expertly stabbed one bat through its head with his long sword, ripping it out and killing another with a smooth backswing. He then killed the final bat by dropping his sword, moving within its wingspan and grasping its face with hands wreathed in flame. It struggled frantically to get free but it couldn’t, with a feral grin Nate ripped the bat’s head apart into smouldering wet chunks. It flopped to the floor and Nate casually stepped over it, waving to Jack with a smile.

Jack nods back, still twitchy with adrenaline he turned around to walk back to the other end where Russell stood waiting. They pick their way over a dozen or so giant bat corpses, Jack spots his spear and bends down to tug it free of the bat it was stuck in. He clicks the trigger and the entire thing retracts from two metres to a mere two feet. He then stowes it away on his weapon harness. From next to him he hears Nate whistle lowly in appreciation.

“That's pretty cool, where did ya get that?”

“From Gary’s Monstrous Alloys. Over on the high street.” Jack replied.

“Huh, might just give that place a visit if they can make stuff like that.” Nate mused to himself. Jack smiled.

They both head over to Russell who was standing waiting for them at the far end of the tunnel, picking their way over the dead bats. Nate managed to stumble and slip over in a puddle of blood, he flopped ungracefully to the floor and slid about, struggling to rise, Jack used the opportunity to snap a quick selfie with him smiling cheerfully and a disgruntled Nate on the floor in the background.

Once he helped Nate back to his feet they made their way over to Russell, he acknowledged them with a nod.

“Ok, the jobs done, you’ll both be paid F rank pay later tonight. Jack, come by the guild tomorrow at ten pm for your evaluation, and Nate…….I’ll see you around.” With that Russell turned around and walked away into the darkness.

They both stare after him for a few seconds before Nate turns to Jack.

“Beer?” He asked Jack.

Jack agreed but told Nate he’d catch up to him in a few minutes. Nate shrugged and nodded cheerfully before heading off, whistling a tune.

Once he was certain Nate had left he turned back to the dark tunnel filled with dead giant bats, otherwise known as cultivation materials. He managed to cultivate from six bats before he felt he was approaching his limit. He stood up from the last one feeling sore with a slight headache and decided to call it a day. With that he headed to the guild for a well deserved drink.