Returning to the real world after a battle never was easy. Even with extreme concentration, Dallion felt the shift like a wave going through him. The most difficult thing was the look in the eyes. Shifting reality always made a person’s pupils change slightly. Experienced awakened had the knowledge and perception to notice such a subtle change. The only way to hide it was through extreme concentration. Strictly speaking, there was another approach, though it was a lot less dignified.

The moment Dallion returned to the hunter’s den, he blinked.

“Any other missions before that?” Dallion asked.

“Go ahead and ask Hawk,” the fury said, amused. “He’s the only one who’s old enough to know.”

“Didn’t know the den’s been here for that long,” Dallion said casually flipping through the pages.

“It’s not,” Vela said from the entrance.

Splitting into three instances, Dallion looked over his shoulder. The woman was indeed there, along with a dwarf. It was slightly alarming that Dallion hadn’t heard any of them approach. Then again, the fury had made quite enough noise to mask anything. As tempting as it was to think this was a conspiracy, though, there was a far greater chance that the prime hunter had only just arrived.

“What’s he doing?” she gave the fury a glance of disapproval.

“Going through the records,” the hunter replied with a shrug. “It’s not forbidden.”

The dwarf grunted. Without a single word, Vela made it clear that she didn’t approve of such behavior. Within moments, the tomes rose up into the air, then floated back to where they had been. Only the book Dallion was holding remained.

“The den hasn’t been hired to help in your hunt,” Vela said firmly.

“I guess I can’t keep this, then?” Dallion held up the tone. The silence suggested that it wasn’t a good idea to keep pushing. “When will Eury be back?”

“Goodbye, Dal.” Vela crossed her arms.

That settled it. With a nod, Dallion walked past, making his way to the door. He’d already gotten all the information he could from the den. Or had he? Dallion didn’t let go of the door as he closed it, instead, he went to have a final chat.

AREA AWAKENING

“I knew you’d pass by,” Hawk said as Dallion entered his realm. The copyette had taken the form of a person he had never seen. Something suggested that it might be the hunter he was searching for.

The man was quite… ordinary. Muscular, though not overly, he had short brown hair, a sparse beard, and the most common of travel gear. Looking at him, he could pass for anything from a mercenary to a semi-awakened on his way to a big city.

“That’s him?” Dallion asked.

“Yep. I can’t tell you any specifics, though. Moon vow.”

“Never leave the den without one.” Dallion sighed. “Can you tell me if anyone else has been on phoenix hunts?”

“You know they have.” The copyette smiled. So much for that approach.

“Where’s Eury?”

“That is another matter entirely. She’s on a rather boring mission involving ruin hunting.”

Ruin hunting was the extremely annoying mission of hunting creatures that chose ruins as layers. Predominantly magic, they were creatures that lived in the wilderness without being part of it. As such, they preferred to find places that gave them good protection from both people and Starspawn. Some of Dallion’s earliest missions involved ruin hunting, way back even before he was an unofficial apprentice.

“Griffin hunting?” he asked.

“Not exactly. No one would pay an elite hunter just for griffins.”

“They used to.”

“Things have changed. The poison plague killed a lot, nobles especially. Only big boys get the attention or, in this case, a hatcher wyvern.”

The name was enough to convey the difficulty of the mission. Dallion had never seen wyverns, although he’d read about them in the bestiary tome he had. At some point, three eras ago, they were supposedly flock animals moving about the skies and getting into fights with cloud creatures. The dryads even used them during the wars as combat units. Since then, most of them had died out. The few that remained preferred to be left alone, and were highly irritable to anyone who came close.

“Where?” Dallion asked.

“The request was from Calum province, the capital, to be more precise.”

That made things somewhat more complicated. With Countess Priscord spreading news of Dallion’s hunt, there probably wasn’t anyone in the empire who didn’t know. Hopefully, the nobles in the other provinces hadn’t taken a side just yet.

“Thanks, Hawk.”

“You owe me one, Dal. Next time, stop by for a longer chat.”

“Sure.”

That was quite optimistic on the guardian’s side. Apparently, he was of the opinion that Dallion was going to survive through this. Either that, or he gambled that Dallion would pass through Linatol at least once more before his death.

Leaving the realm, Dallion walked away from the building. After several steps, he split into thirty instances, each moving about cautiously. Thankfully, no attack followed. Whoever had tried the previous time was content with just sending a message.

Dallion went out of the city as quickly as possible. All the food was bought on the way at exorbitant prices. For the same amount of money, he could have gotten three times as much back in Nerosal, not to mention a lot more from the smaller towns and villages on the way. Money at this point was irrelevant, though. The main focus was for him to survive and follow the trail he has set out on.

There was no official border between provinces. With the conflict between nobles, there rarely was a single person to have complete dominion over the area domain. Rather, the nobles were in control of their small bubbles of safety within the vast wilderness. It was claimed that the archdukes had full control of the provincial area, just as the emperor had direct control over the entire empire, but Dallion was starting to have his doubts. Based on the way everyone had behaved during the days of the poison plague, settlements were key; everything else was just space on a map.

Based on personal experience, even with good intel, it usually took a few weeks for a hunter to find the layer of a specific dungeon creature. Even nesting ones often changed location, either being chased out by a stronger creature, or in turn finding a better location to chase someone else out. Since Dallion’s knowledge of Calum Province was limited, he had to purchase the information from traders on stops along the way. It wasn’t the best experience, but after some haggling, and use of music skills, Dallion managed to obtain what he wanted. Even better, for a small additional fee, he also managed to learn the task that Eury had taken.

The eldest son of Count Kereel, had apparently expressed the desire to add a wyvern’s nest in his father's city. The idea sounded rather stupid, but as the hunter motto went, “a hunter was not the one to stop clients thrown away money.” Most probably, the noble had read a bit too many historical recreations and wanted to create an army of wyverns to impress others. Given that officially there weren’t any empaths in the world, Dallion assumed that a mage had also been hired to ensure the creatures’ obedience. That made him sad.

The city of Kereel was a significant distance away. Even now, Dallion couldn’t be sure whether Eury had finished her mission or was still searching. Either way, he was going to need some help to find her on time.

You really should exchange echoes, Nil grumbled. At the very least, leave one of yours in one of her items. That way, she’d at least know you’re looking for her.

You know her thoughts on that, Dallion said, though in his mind he agreed. If he had an echo of Eury, he’d already have the information. Then again, if that was the case, he most likely wouldn’t have gone to the hunter’s den in Linatol, but had her check for him.

Sooner or later, you’ll have to get past your superstitions. The sooner the better. Otherwise, you’ll always be at a disadvantage, dear boy.

Maybe you’re right. Until then, I have other advantages I can use.

Once he was in the wilderness and fairly certain that there wasn’t anyone around, Dallion waited for nightfall. Then, when the Green Moon became visible in the sky, he made his request. It wasn’t a boon, not even a favor, but rather something that was easy to obtain. Less than a few minutes later, as he was sitting on the ground, Dallion was forced into one of his instances.

The action caught him by surprise, but didn’t frighten him particularly. If anything, he expected such a turn of events. In reaction, all he did was to draw his whip blade and stop splitting.

A tiny green dot appeared in the darkness in the background of the Green Moon. With time, it grew larger and larger until the outline of a dragon became visible.

As the dragon approached, it split into a dozen of instances, each soaring towards Dallion along a different path.

He seems to have grown a bit, Nil commented. Last time, he was only slightly bigger than a horse.

Those must have been some pretty large horses, Dallion laughed. But even if he had, there were some things that didn’t change.

When the dragon was ten feet away, Dallion split into fifty instances, several of which leapt into the air. The dragon tried to force a specific instance of Dallion to become reality, but Dallion was stronger, forcing his version of events to unfold. After another second, all of the dragon’s instances had vanished, except for the one landing on the ground. Meanwhile, Dallion was still able to maintain his fifty instances.

“Nice try,” Dallion said, several of his instances walking by the massive creature while stroking its scales. “You’ve gotten a bit better, and a lot bigger.”

“Very funny!” The dragon flapped its wings. “You’ve leveled up.”

“That’s what awakened do,” Dallion replied, letting his instances fade away. “How have you been, Dark?”

“Bored out of my skull! Felygn doesn’t let me do anything. I just get to sit and watch and—”

“You get to leave whenever you want. That's better than the realm of your father.”

The dragon didn’t respond. It hadn’t been that long ago when Dallion had effectively rescued the creature from the realm of an ancient dragon at the Green Moon’s behest. Back then, Dark was but a dragonlet, living a boring, but safe life. Since escaping, he had grown quite a bit, becoming a full dragon, be it still a very young one. It would be centuries until it became the powerhouse described in bestiary and old poems. Until then, though, it had to spend most of its days in the realm of the Green Moon, safe from hunters and other monsters.

“Are you in a condition to fight?”

“Who do you take me for? Of course, I am! I’ve been leveling up like crazy!” The dragon flicked its tail like a whip.”

The whip blade extended, then shrunk again, in mocking fashion. Gleam was clearly unconvinced. The dragon could tell she was too, since he quickly stopped posing.

“What are we up against?” Dark asked. “Mages?”

“Hopefully not. I need you to help me find Eury. She’s in some ruins in this province. It would have taken me too long to find her on my own.”

“What’s what you called me for? To carry you? Don’t you have Lux for that?”

“This is the real world, Dark. Not everyone has your powers.”

The dragon snarled.

“Hey, don’t feel too mad. There’s every chance there’ll be things to fight when we find her. Would I have called you otherwise?” Dallion asked. That wasn’t entirely true, though it did have enough to give the dragon some hope.

“You sure?”

“It’s very possible.” Dallion patted the creature on the head. “Trust me.”