Chapter 2

As usual every returning hunter made straight for the guild hall, with some making a beeline for the bar in the centre of the hall. The bar staff quickly found themselves inundated with heavily armoured people as well as the odd person in a suit and tie all making orders for various drinks.

Jack, Stacey and Cheryl made their way over to a nearby empty booth and sat down. Jack leaned back and relaxed, despite getting kicked out of the dungeon job he wasn’t too concerned, one black mark on his record for a year was fine.

The three of them chatted about the day and perused the menus. Although Jack did have a question for Cheryl.

“Hey Cheryl?” he asked.

“Hmm?” She looked up from her menu.

“Do you know anything about the cause of the attacks? Where the mutated insects and giant spiders came from?” he asked. At this Stacey looked up too.

She gave Jack a speculative look, as if trying to decide how much she should tell him.

“We might know a thing or two, we don’t have anything official yet,” she said cautiously.

“Oh, so you know about the Cult of Four then?” he asked innocently.

Her eyes widened in surprise. “The Cult of Four? How do you know about them? And what about them? What do you know?” she asked suspiciously in a barrage of questions.

“Errm.” Taken aback a little he answered. “Some guy approached me a few days ago about joining, suffice to say I won’t be. Also me and another hunter, Aaron, we found a lorry in a car park today that had the Cult of Four’s symbol spray painted on the side. And this is just a guess but it kind of looks like something tore its way out of the lorry trailer, so, you know…..” Jack trailed off and shrugged. Cheryl continued to stare at him, meanwhile Stacey just watched and listened, her mouth open a little in shock.

“They tried to recruit you?” Cheryl asked, now with a little worry in her voice. Jack simply nodded in response. “And you’re not considering joining them?” Worry and suspicion now evident.

“No,” Jack said in exasperation. “Why do people get so worried over me potentially joining some weird cult, first Zack and Rachael now you, honestly. Besides, apparently they hate lightning cultivators, so it would be a bit of an awkward first meeting no?”

“They hate lighting elements? I haven’t heard this before,” Cheryl said, puzzled.

“Yeah, the creepy guy trying to recruit me was rather vehement about it, he went on about it at length, something about lightning not being a true element and all the people who get it are evil and so on and so on,” Jack explained.

Cheryl sat silently for a few moments before asking, “When were you approached?”

“Erm, not sure when, a few days ago, it was right after I had done a solo hunt for a Needlejacket nest. The guy was waiting for me outside,” Jack answered.

“Hmm, that makes sense, the cult often has recruiters surveying various spots where a hunter might visit. E and D rank hunt locations usually, they try to look out for what they consider up and coming hunters, not too weak but not too powerful either. They’ll approach anyone they consider has potential to be strong in the future but at the same time someone who is still new to the game and naive. You clearing out an entire nest of Needlejackets all by yourself at rank F probably ticked a few boxes as far as recruiting goes,” she explained.

“Oh.” Now Jack actually felt rather flattered.

“But you say they actually despise lighting elements and you’re definitely not going to join up?” She leaned forward and looked Jack right in the eye.

“Yep yep, definitely. Unless they have a cool uniform or something, but otherwise I will definitely rule it out,” he said with a slight grin. Cheryl leaned back and nodded.

“Hey,” Stacey spoke up. “Did you say you were with Aaron today?” she asked curiously.

“Yeah, big guy with a massive warhammer, uses the flame element,” Jack answered.

“And calls out his elemental attacks just before he does them,” she continued with a grin.

“Yep, that's him.” Jack grinned too. “Actually I promised I’d have a drink with him later.” Jack looked around trying to spot him.

“Aaron Trant, the new C ranker,” Cheryl said after looking through her pager.

“C rank, then he’s just a bit stronger than you Stacey. You’re D rank right?” Jack asked.

“Er, ah ha, not quite.” She looked a little embarrassed. “The difference between D and C rank is pretty big.”

When she didn’t explain further he turned a confused look to Cheryl who patiently explained. “The progression from D to C rank is considered an unofficial bottleneck, the hunts and jobs in C rank and up are significantly harder than the lower ranks. It's extremely common for hunters going on promotion hunts for C rank to fail, it's almost expected the first few times actually.” She turned a sympathetic look to Stacey who let out a despondent sigh and rested her forehead against the table, Cheryl patted her back. “It's why you’ll find that the majority of hunters are actually D rank,” she explained further.

Jack looked at Stacey for a moment, trying to think of something encouraging to say, but he was saved/interrupted by a loud voice from the otherside of the hall.

“Jack!! My new friend! Over here!” It was Aaron, he was over by the bar with a group of other hunters.

Jack looked at Cheryl and Stacey, a waitress had just brought over three pints of beer and Stacey immediately grabbed one and began gulping it down with a concerned Cheryl watching her. Cheryl briefly turned to Jack and gave him a nod. Jack took that as permission, he grabbed his beer and headed over to join Aaron and his friends by the bar.

“Jack!! Glad you could join us!” Aaron greeted him with his typically booming boisterous voice. He was in a group of equally large, imposing looking, heavily armoured hunters. They all looked at him with a mixture of indifference and friendliness.

“Hey Aaron, hey guys,” he greeted them with a hopefully confident smile.

“What are you drinking Jack!” Aaron asked.

“Um, just beer.”

“Nonsense! Any self respecting hunter right after a hunt has to down a half and half! I’ll get you one!” Aaron turned to the bar and flagged down a frantic looking waitress.

“A half and half? Like a cocktail?”Jack asked in confusion. At this the group of hunters sniggered.

“Sort of,” one answered. While Aaron was busy getting his drink the other hunters asked him various questions.

“So Jack, what's your rank and element?” one asked curiously but also in mild disinterest, it was a pretty common first question when meeting new hunters. Jack bet his answer might interest them however.

“Rank F, lightning element,” he said nonchalantly with a shrug, at this some of the hunters spluttered into their drinks.

“Lightning!? And you’re actually able to hunt? I thought Aaron said you killed a giant spider today,” one man asked incredulously.

One of the female hunters elbowed him in the side. “Hey don’t be rude, actually I sort of recognise him…….can’t quite remember how though……the news?” She tilted her head and looked at Jack in speculation.

“It's fine.” Jack shrugged and waved it off. “And I did kill a giant spider today, two actually, one in a car park and another over by the Clifford Hill dungeon,” he said while absent-mindedly fingering the damage in his flak jacket. “What rank were those things anyway?” he asked.

After a mixture of confused, amused and suspicious looks one fellow answered him. “They were rank D,” he said.

“Huh, well then, I suppose at the end of the day, rank D or C, rank F or E, an electrified axe to the face is an electrified axe to the face,” he said with a smile to which the group let out a laugh. A minute later Aaron came back with a pint of pale yellowish liquid.

“Here you are Jack! A half and half, you’ve got to down it all, remember!” He grinned in a friendly manner as he passed it to Jack.

“What exactly is this?” Jack asked suspiciously, peering at the liquid. Accepting strange drinks from strange people you’d only just met at least deserved an inquiry or two.

“Beer and orc blood!”

“Wyvern piss!”

“Fermented honey mead from mutated bees.”

They all shouted out various things and laughed.

“I can’t tell if you’re joking or not but can we roll back to the fermented honey mead from mutated bees option, that actually sounds rather good. I don’t suppose that's an actual thing is it?” he asked hopefully. Everyone laughed before Aaron told him what it was.

“Ha ha ha, no no, it's half a pint of beer on tap and half a pint of vodka! You have to chug the whole thing before we can get down to some serious drinking afterwards!” he told Jack exuberantly.

Jack looked down in horror at the drink in his hands. This thing was just the precursor to some ‘serious drinking’!? He took a cautious sniff and immediately recoiled from the fumes. He was about to object but looked up at the expectant faces of the hunters surrounding him, ah peer pressure.

He slowly lifted it up to his lips and let the first dash of beer and vodka past his lips and down his throat leaving a trail of fire, he continued gulping it down for a few seconds with everyone shouting encouragement. He didn’t remember much after that.

The next day found Jack sprawled out in bed, his own bed thankfully. When the seed of consciousness finally germinated within his mind he became aware of his surroundings and began to remember the previous day.

He opened his eyes blearily and looked up to the ceiling. He remembered drinking last night, drinking a lot, various vague snatches of things he did but not much at all. Despite having consumed what he assumed was a prohibitive amount of alcohol due to his lack of clear memory, the actual hangover wasn’t that bad, he had a mild headache and dry mouth, but no nausea or any other ill effects. Huh, either he was more capable of holding his drink than he thought or the cultivation he’d been doing helped in more ways than he would have thought.

Perhaps it was true, he knew that ever since he’d started cultivating he hadn’t felt sick at all, sore for a few hours from overly strenuous exercise and cultivating his element but never sick. His wounds never got infected, even when he neglected to treat them sometimes, they even healed a lot faster than normal too. Lying in bed, marvelling at the fact that he didn’t feel too hungover after a night of heavy drinking, made him realise he was actually making tangible progress as a cultivator. How absurd.

Snorting in amusement to himself he leaned over to look at his phone, it was late morning. Jack didn’t want to do any hunts or jobs today but he did feel like he had pressing business, he needed to get his armour repaired, even he knew that going into a fight with damaged equipment was a foolish move. So he rolled out of bed, quickly had a wash, got his clothes on and headed over to Gary’s Monstrous Alloys with his gear in a gym bag.

Walking through town Jack could still see the remnants of the fighting that had occurred here and there the previous day. Store owners were sweeping up shattered glass, people were clearing away debris, reporters were scattered around talking into microphones and looking into cameras. Fortunately Jack's presence went unnoticed and unremarked since he wasn’t dressed in armour.

He eventually arrived at Gary’s and walked in. The place remained the same except there were a few more people perusing the wares, the store almost looked like it was actually doing good business.

He walked up to the front counter and came face to face with the same teenage girl as before, Gary’s niece apparently. She recognised him and gave him a smile before waving him through. Jack nodded his thanks and walked behind the counter into Gary’s workshop.

At first Jack couldn’t see Gary anywhere but then he heard a clatter from above him and turned around and looked up to see Gary messing around with something on the upper floor of the workshop.

“Hey Gary!” Jack called out.

“Huh? Oh! Jack, yer here! Just a sec, be right down!” Gary stumbled over various projects and junk he had laying around before he finally made it to the stairs and he walked down. “Hey Jack! What's up? How’ve ya been?” he greeted Jack with a friendly smile.

“Hi Gary, nothing much, but I kinda need some repairs on my armour.” He brought out the kevlar flak jacket and showed the damage to Gary who looked at it critically.

“Hmm, what did it?” he asked as he took the jacket from Jack.

“Giant house spider,” Jack answered. Gary only spared him a glance before examining the damage.

“Huh, those things from yesterday? Yeah, I saw one pass right by the store before another hunter brained it. Any other damage, did you get wounded at all?” he asked.

“Nope, just a bruise beneath the bent plating there but other than that I was unharmed.”

“Hah! That's right, cause it's my armour,” Gary suddenly crowed in triumph to which Jack just rolled his eyes and sat on the nearest stool.

“Uh huh, so can you fix it?” Jack asked.

“I can fix the plate but the kevlar needs to be replaced, I’ll just get you a new jacket, just a sec.” Gary disappeared into another room momentarily before returning with a jacket that looked exactly like the old one. “Here ya go.” He handed it over and Jack thanked him. It was then that he noticed something interesting along the wall next to him, it was a rack of spear heads hanging along the wall. He pointed them out to Gary.

“Working on something new?” he asked.

“Hm? Oh those, they're just prototypes. Don’t worry about them,” Gary said dismissively.

“Prototypes? What? They’re like a new design for a spear head or something?” Jack asked in confusion.

“Sort of, I’m working on a design for an explosive spear head,” Gary said. At that Jack raised his eyebrows.

“Explosive spear heads!? That sounds erm……drastic.” He couldn’t think of any other word to describe it.

“They’re for the bigger monsters, and for the otherwise difficult to kill ones. You stick the spear in, press a switch and kaboom, the monster's insides are shredded and liquefied,” he explained with some satisfaction. “I think it could become really popular in the future, you know, once I make it user friendly and less liable to also blow up the wielder as well.”

“I take they’re one use only then.” Jack eyed them curiously.

“Obviously, they’re basically like a spear and a grenade combined into one, also how else could I make a profit if people don’t keep buying them?”

“Hmm, when do you think you’ll finish them?” Jack asked.

“Another couple of months, all going well I should think,” Gary answered. “Speaking of spears, have you brought me yours for maintenance?”

Jack nodded and rummaged around in his bag, he withdrew it out and handed it to Gary, however as he took it Gary was eyeing something else in Jack’s bag.

“What's that there? Some sort of chain?” Gary pointed to the chain.

Jack reached back into his bag and showed Gary the five metre long old steel chain he’d once found in a construction site.

“A chain? What do you have this for? Where did you get it?” Gary asked in confusion as he held it.

“I found it in some old abandoned construction site, actually it was the one you picked me up from when I got you that slime, it's really useful actually. It helps me incapacitate monsters that are too fast or big, then I just channel some electricity into it, job done,” Jack explained.

Gary let out a disgruntled huff. “If you wanted something like this you could have asked me, you didn’t have to use some makeshift junk you found lying around.”

Jack snorted in amusement. “Aww, did I hurt your feelings?” Gary just grunted.

He handed the chain back to Jack. “You can keep using that for now, but I’ll make you something even better,” he said in determination.

“Ah, thanks,” Jack said in surprise.

“Anyway,” Gary continued. “Now that you're here I’ll give you a heads up, I have a job for you, it should be ready for you to take by tomorrow.”

“Oh? What's the job?”