Chapter 30

A couple of days later during which time Jack simply practised his abilities and trained with Danny, Jack was back in the guild’s jobs and requests room. It was a normal busy weekday. Hunters were everywhere in the guild, standing around talking, waiting for other group members to join them or perusing through the terminal stations for jobs. As usual a large crowd was gathered around the large plasma screen notice board, speculating on the different jobs posted there.

Jack himself was browsing through the various hunts, attempting to find something worthwhile. All the other hunters he knew were doing their own things today so it would have to be a solo hunt. This time he wanted to fight an actual monster, not just a mutated animal. After scrolling through the E rank requests he spotted something familiar.

A giant Wasp, huh, in curiosity he tapped the link and the job was brought up. As facts would have it, this creature wasn’t a mutated insect at all despite looking like one, but was in fact considered a monster. It had been named Needlejacket due to looking like a wasp but had been observed to fade away shortly after death similar to other monsters. It was one of a variety of different monstrous wasp species found in the wilderness. It was highly prized due to the venom sacs it possessed, these sacs contained a variety of different venoms all of which were highly useful in medical research around the world. Needlejacket venom contained a type of protein known as a prion which had a deleterious effect on certain proteins within the brain of their victim causing severe neurodegeneration within a short space of time. A similar protein had also been the cause of a terrible disease in cattle years earlier known as ‘mad cow disease’, however the venom the wasp produced somehow appeared to be far more potent, more effective within a shorter space of time. The way they hunted was to simply sting their prey and then retreat after also placing a tracking pheromone on the victim's body, they let their venom do the work and within an hour or two their prey would be weak, delirious and easily transportable back to the main nest, just in time for dinner.

Oh god Jack realised, he’d had one of those venom sacs in his fridge! Well, it had been in a sealed bag and that girl from the pharmacy who handled it didn’t seem too bothered, plus if the venom was so potent he would probably have felt the effect by now if he was infected. Still he thought, it might be a good idea to thoroughly clean his fridge tonight, or get a new one. And maybe also never store harvested monster parts where he also stored his food in the future.

Jack looked at this hunt for a few seconds after reading the bestiary, these were the same monsters he’d seen Stacey and her team fighting in the alley so long ago. It sought of felt right, like he’d come full circle, but at the same time these things looked like nasty customers, especially for a solo hunt. There was no cure for prions, no antivenom or antibiotics that could fix him if he was stung and he didn’t know if cultivation was enough to help fix him either. But at the same time he really wanted to do this hunt, but also at the same time it might be a really bad idea. Hmm, what to do.

While he was deliberating he noticed another hunter step up to the terminal next to him and begin browsing too. He was slightly taller than Jack, well made dark carapace armour, nothing too flashy, with long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. Jack looked around the room and with hesitation he called over to the hunter.

“Uh, hey, hey are you looking for a job?” He called over, trying not to sound too sleazy.

The hunter looked confused for a second before looking around to Jack, he stared at him for a few seconds before answering. “Um yeah? Are you looking for an extra?” He asked.

Jack got excited, maybe it was really just as simple as asking. “Yeah! Needlejacket wasps, E rank, one thousand four hundred pounds split down the middle, how about it?” He asked cheerfully.

The hunter deliberated for a moment before answering. “Hmm, yeah ok. Sounds good, I’ve fought them before too.”

“Great! I’ve never fought them before, got any tips?” Jack spoke happily as he accepted the hunt, the screen asked him if he wanted to add another to the hunt. He stepped aside for his new friend to access the terminal.

“Tips? Yeah, I guess, try to use widespread ranged elemental attacks, they’re fast but not too tough. It's generally a bad idea to try and fight them in melee, too risky with the stingers you know?” He explained as he went up to Jack's terminal, licence in hand, Jack nodded along listening intently. “Oh and what element are you? Just so we can come up with a strategy.” He asked.

“Oh, er, haha, erm, I'm a lightning element, but don't worry, I’ll be completely fine up close. We can still come up with a good strategy.” Jack answered, now starting to get nervous as his new friend stopped and took a step back. “Erm, what element are you?” Jack asked hopefully.

The hunter looked at Jack with a mixture of suspicion, pity and annoyance before sighing heavily and speaking.

“Look, I don’t know what you’re doing here pal, but this isn’t a game.”

“I know it's not a game!” Jack replied, affronted and confused.

“You’re a lightning element, this is for real cultivators and real hunters, you shouldn’t even be here. Can you even fight?” He looked Jack up and down.

“Of course I can, how do you think I got to F rank?”

“By flower picking and being a loot mule obviously, like most of the other career F rankers. Look, why don’t you just go back to the easy G rank harvesting jobs, there’s loads of those. Leave the real hunting for-”

“Real hunters?” Jack interrupted him indignantly. “Fuck you!”

“Whatever.” He shrugged. “I’m not putting my life on the line so some dumb sparker can pretend and play hunter for the day.” With that he walked away.

“Again, I reiterate, FUCK YOU! That's gonna be the most important thing anyones gonna say to you ALL DAY!!” Jack shouted after him. By now people were looking at him as if he were crazy, he felt his face heat up and hurriedly turned around. That didn’t stop him from overhearing the whispers and the murmurs from the crowd however.

“That's the sparker.”

“A lightning element? Really?”

“Thinks he can hunt.”

“Aw, don’t be mean, I feel sorry for him.”

“I heard Stacey took him on a few pity hunts recently.”

“Oh yeah, I heard about him.”

“He’s been here a month, still not quit yet. Huh.”

“Trying to do a hunt by himself.”

“Dumb sparker.”

He heard it all, the scorn, the pity, he also saw that he’d foolishly committed to an extremely hazardous, dangerous hunt that had a narrow time frame and he was now without backup. He looked back around over to the help desk, maybe they could cancel the hunt for him.

However, the help desk was currently surrounded by other hunters with their own business and Jack was still feeling the gaze of the semi hostile crowd upon him. After several minutes of listening to their whispering and sniggering he’d finally had enough and walked out of the room in irritation and embarrassment, now determined to just do the job and show everyone he could do it.

Once he stepped outside into the cool air he felt slightly better. He took a deep breath and tried to calm down, he took out his pager and looked down at it. The hunt accepted message appeared along with the map of how to get to the hunt location. It was a small old church currently going through renovations towards the centre of town. It wasn’t far and he could walk it in twenty minutes or so. It probably wasn’t a good idea to go alone but he figured he might as well see what he was dealing with first before he came up with a plan. So he set off from the guild through town to see the situation.

After twenty minutes he arrived in front of the church, it was a small church with a traditional steeple tower, large curved front doors at the front leading to the street and stained glass windows on the sides which had been hastily boarded up from the outside. The street itself had been shut off by the police, several of whom were now standing guard outside the church iron fence armed with automatic rifles and garbed in rather worn and torn looking riot gear.

As Jack approached he held up his hunters licence for the police to view. They eyed him tiredly and seemed a little confused for a moment, asking if it was just him but in the end they waved him through when he affirmed that it really was just him. He stepped through the gate and found himself in front of the large wooden main doors, the doors were fairly sturdy and had a new looking shiny steel bar drilled over them, sealing them shut permanently. However there was still a smaller door cut into one of the larger doors, known as a wicket gate, this also had a new locking mechanism drilled into it thereby locking it from the outside. Fortunately it was a simple bolt and latch mechanism which Jack could open easily without a key.

He opened the door as quietly as he could, wincing slightly as the door made a small creaking noise. He stepped through and closed the creaking door behind him, pausing for a moment. He heard someone from outside step up to the door and slide the bolt shut to lock it from the outside before speaking through the door to him in a muffled voice.

“Sorry we have to lock you in, can’t risk those things getting out. Just bang on the door when you want to get out.” Someone said, sounding guilty.

Jack acknowledged them before taking a look around, he was in a small entryway, he moved further into the church, it was rather dim inside with small beams of sunlight getting through cracks in the boarded up windows but there was just about enough light to see by. It looked like a fairly traditional anglo saxon church inside, wooden pews covered in canvas sheets took up the majority of the large hall in the nave in front of a raised altar with an organ behind it and an area for a choir.

However there was no choir behind the altar today, instead there was a collection of massive paper mache like constructs, they looked like they were woven paper with dark holes located randomly on them, irregular in size and shape, partially covering the organ and its pipes, taking up the entire large space behind the altar from the stone floor all the way up to the ceiling. The wasp nest.

Jack saw all this and cautiously moved forward, making certain to keep his eyes to the sides too, not wanting to be ambushed. He could hear a low buzzing from the nest but couldn’t see any wasps. He continued to move forward whilst drawing his spear from his back, he thumbed the button and it extended with a series of crisp clicks which echoed rather loudly throughout the church. Jack winced and the buzzing got louder and clearer.

Suddenly there was movement at the nest as several shapes began to move from the holes into the nest. More and more shapes crawled out until close to thirty of them could be seen. Oh shit, this may have been a mistake, Jack thought. It was too late for regrets now as some of the wasps took flight and made their way towards him to investigate.

Jack took a firm grip on his spear and looked around for an advantage he could use whilst backing away. He backed up all the way towards the entryway when he realised the entryway was significantly smaller than the rest of the church, it was only slightly taller than the church main doors which were slightly more than twice his height and about four metres across, still big but smaller than the church nave. Jack thought he could use the entryway to restrict the number of wasps that could fly in and attack him, he also saw several long heavy wooden tables lining the sides, all taller in length than him. He quickly grabbed the tables and turned them onto their ends before standing them up into the air thereby obtaining a sort of barricade, he placed them around him to restrict the space the wasps could fly through to get at him. As soon as he was finished the wasps were on him, one wasp which was around two feet in length flew between two tables, it paused briefly to crawl between and that was when Jack struck, he thrust his spear enhanced with lightning straight into its side, it spasmed briefly before falling to the floor, its legs curled up and it stopped moving.

Jack didn’t have time to celebrate however as the rest of the wasps impacted the table barricade or flew on top of it. One wasp tried to pounce on Jack but he stabbed it with the spear and it fell to the floor dead, he followed up by stabbing several other wasps trying to get through the tables. Another wasp tried to attack from above again, he stabbed at it but it dodged away, whilst he was occupied with that one of the tables to his left began to wobble as a leg began to splinter and give way, the table collapsed onto Jack and he stumbled to his knees with the heavy table on top of him. A wasp landed on the stone floor in front of him and scuttled towards him, he frantically stabbed out with his spear and managed to kill it.

With a burst of panic filled adrenaline he shoved the table off him and stood up, from what he could tell only three wasps were buzzing around him, however they seemed to be zipping around rather slowly, he also felt like he was moving slowly too. One came at him and he brought his spear point to aim it at the creature, it tried to veer off but he easily stabbed out and caught it in the abdomen. The other two tried to attack simultaneously but were still moving too slowly, Jack decided to go on the offensive and moved to attack, quickly finishing the fight with two precise thrusts of his spear. Now that the fight was over he looked around and took stock, there was a dull throbbing in his head, the church interior looked brighter and he could see everything, everything sounded dull and echoey, he could even hear his own heart beat, he looked over to the nest and saw more wasps flitting about, not moving towards him.

He began to walk towards it, the wasps took this as a sign of aggression apparently and the rest of their number began to swarm towards him, around twice the number he had just killed. He was now without cover in the middle of the nave, he dropped his spear and quickly grabbed several of the canvas sheets covering the wooden pews. He thought he might be able to trap some of the wasps if he was lucky, he held out a large heavy canvas sheet as several wasps approached him, when they were nearly on him he threw it out like a fishing net and it enveloped them, their wings were quickly caught up and they toppled to the ground. Jack hurriedly wrapped the wasps up in more layers of the sheet to make sure they were contained before grabbing another nearby sheet and turning his attention to the next wasps. He had to frantically dodge to the side as one dive bombed him but he took up another sheet and attempted the same tactic.

It proved remarkably effective and before long almost every wasp that had attacked him was struggling, wrapped in tough heavy canvas sheeting. However some of the wasps that Jack had trapped earlier were beginning to tear their way out, he couldn’t find his spear so he hurriedly unhooked his axe from his back harness and proceeded to hack away through the canvas sheets at the struggling insect monsters. He did the same for all the wasps and once he was sure they were all dead he allowed the axe to fall to his side and he released a breath of relief.

Slowly the world returned to its normal speed, the sound of his heart beat and the blood rushing through his ears receded. In its place rapidly grew an incredibly sharp headache, he winced then grimaced as the headache grew and grew, feeling like a pickaxe was slowly digging through his brain. The headache reached a new crescendo of pain and he gasped before falling to his knees and holding his head with one hand, this was far more painful than other times he’d experienced this. He curled up in the foetal position and could only ride out the pain for what seemed like hours but was in fact only several minutes, before long the pain rapidly receded to nothing and Jack allowed himself to relax and uncurl himself til he was flat on his back. He gasped several times and marvelled at the sudden and wondrous, total absence of pain, however a sudden feeling of extreme nausea overtook him and he got up on all fours before proceeding projectile vomit all over the church floors.

After creating an impressively large pool of vomit he got back up feeling a little shaky, he looked around and saw around ten or so ripped up canvas bags covered in whatever bodily fluid the wasps possessed. He turned to the wasp nest, it didn’t look like anything else was coming out of it, that was good because he doubted he could fight off a kitten right now.

Once he was sure that there were no more threats around he then began the work of harvesting the giant wasp venom sacs and cultivating. It was gruesome work due to the fact that most of the wasps were tangled up in blood soaked rags and each had been chopped up by a frantic hunter with his axe. He had to sort out which wasps had intact venom sacs and which had been burst apart, but in the end he had a nice tidy pile of twenty two undamaged venom sacs which if they were sold for one hundred and fifty pounds each would net him a decent sum of three thousand three hundred. And that was on top of the one thousand four hundred he was already getting for this job. A pretty decent haul he thought gleefully to himself, and then he wondered if he could increase that slightly. He took out his pager and looked up Steven the taxidermist and called him. It rang a few times before someone answered.

“Hello? Jack, is that you?”

“Hey Steven, you still in the market for heads?” Jack asked.

“Oh? Absolutely! What have you got for me Jack?” Stephen asked excitedly.

“How would you like a sackful of Needlejacket heads? Like twenty or so, well maybe not twenty, more like however many I can fit into the sack.”

“Needlejacket? Hmm, just a moment.” Jack heard the typing of a keyboard. “Oh! Giant wasps, oh my, they do look ferocious don’t they? And you say you’ve got a hunt for them?”

“Got the hunt, got the heads, just need to bag ‘em up.” Jack said. “What do you think?”

“Yes! Definitely yes! Bring as many as you can! I actually know an entomologist who’d be interested, and I bet there's plenty of other collectors out there that would love these things. Bring them around and we can discuss the price!”

“Ok, thanks Steven, I’ll be there later today, see ya.” He hung up.

With that he set to work cutting off giant wasp heads with his trusty machete as well as cultivating from as many monster corpses as possible, he managed to fit twelve wasp heads into a bag and cultivated to his absolute limit from all of the Needlejackets he’d slain. He had to sit down for a breather halfway through, he idly turned to look at one of the wasp heads in the sack next to his feet. He took it in his hands and stared at it, it just about fit into the palm of his hand, Steven was right, it did look ferocious. Red and yellow banded colouring with jet black large compound eyes and two long fuzzy antennae. He prodded where its mouth was and saw it open a set of large razor sharp mandibles, he could see why people might be interested in collecting or studying these things. He took his pager from his pocket and made sure to take a selfie with the wasp head held up next to his, with the giant wasp nest in the background. Once that important task was done he got back to work.

He finally stood up from the last wasp, wiping his sweaty brow, he felt sore and jittery, the usual random twitch in his muscles was present and he now just wanted to lay down. He took up his sack of heads and harvested venom sacs, retrieved his spear and axe, then set out. He walked tiredly up to the church main entrance and banged on the door.

“All done, can I come out now?” He called out.

It was quiet for a moment before someone answered.

“You’re alive? Are you ok?” Someone asked as they unlocked the door and swung it open. The sudden bright daylight blinded him for a moment before he regained his vision.

“I am definitely alive, thanks for asking. The wasps are dealt with, someone just needs to remove the nest, burn it or something and that church will be ready to receive some worshippers, also that puddle of vomit was like that when I got there. Buh Bye.” He responded as he walked past the stunned police officers with his bags of loot slung over his shoulder. Without another word he stepped back out onto the street and began the walk back to the guild, enjoying the cool breeze.

Just as he was getting to the end of the closed down street and back to where people were, a man approached him.