Chapter 14

Jack used the next several days to rest and recover from his ordeal, however he wasn’t entirely left alone. Over the course of his time off, more and more reporters were gathering outside his apartment building as they discovered where he lived, his doorbell was frequently pressed and he had to turn off his phone after sending a few messages to friends and family to assure them he was okay.

He thought through what had happened in the dungeon, he’d killed people, several people. He thought he’d feel guilty, and he did at first, but that feeling rapidly faded. In the end he had been defending himself, if there was one rule or right a disaffected young adult like Jack respected above all others, it was the right to defend oneself, no matter what.

Jack decided to simply ignore the outside world for a few days and concentrate on healing and examining his lightning core. It had grown significantly since he’d first become a hunter, it no longer resembled a small bright spark, but instead a small blue white orb with the occasional thin arc of electricity lazily coming off it.

He tried to see if he could cultivate from the various manmade gadgets that he’d used before discovering how to cultivate from monsters and mutated animals, but it still wouldn’t work. For some reason, he still couldn’t use artificial electricity as a cultivation source, it only ever worked from something biological, and especially well if his target was from a dungeon apparently.

Jack was reminded of the dungeon goblin he’d used as a cultivation source, if all dungeon monsters could provide him that type of power, well then, it seemed he needed to rank up and get access to a dungeon as soon as possible.

After a few days of rest he decided it was time to get back to work, though first he needed to get re-equipped. Once he was finished being thrown into a monster infested underground lake and getting hunted down, he had walked out of Clifford’s Hill dungeon bare footed with only his spear. The rest of his equipment including his armour and axe had all been taken by the dungeon, while she was leading him out Cheryl had explained that if you leave anything lying around too long the dungeon simply absorbs it. That included dead bodies.

So before he went back to the guild HQ, he needed to pay a visit to Gary’s. Jack peeked out of his window from behind a drawn curtain at the street down below. There were still more than a few reporters and cameras gathered down there, what did these people want from him? Surely there were better stories out there? As his face became visible multiple camera flashes targeted him and he hurriedly ducked behind the curtain again.

He grimaced, he’d have to go through them in order to get anywhere, they surrounded his car, which had been helpfully returned to him by a member of the guild. With a sigh Jack pulled some clothes and trainers on and headed outside. He was on the third floor of the building, he walked down and exited the building.

Almost immediately he was assailed by a wall of sound and light. Numerous camera lights rushed across the street and were shoved into his face, many frenzied reporters shouted out for his attention. His way was blocked.

Jack looked around in bewilderment, this was a disorientating experience, everyone was shouting different things at him. How did these people expect any kind of reasonable response from him if they were just going to shout out confusing nonsense at him? When he came out here he’d been willing to answer a question or two but this was ridiculous.

Jack shrugged slightly and did his best to shove through the crowd, these people were surprisingly handsy, and one cameraman managed to shove his camera directly into Jack's face and hit him in the eye. After a brief struggle Jack made it to his car and gratefully slid inside, he started the engine and very slowly eased the car forward through the rabid crowd without running anyone over. Eventually he got enough speed up that even the most tenacious paparazzi gave up the chase.

He got to Garry’s in good time and parked around the back, he headed straight into the workshop carrying his empty kit bag. As he entered he heard Gary raise his voice in irritation at something.

Jack cautiously made his way into the workshop and saw Gary shouting down the phone at someone.

“No! For the last time I will not sell! Stop asking me!” Gary slammed his phone down and sighed heavily.

“Yo!” Jack called out cheerfully. Gary spun around in shock and saw Jack standing there waving with a smile.

“You! I see you’re still alive, where’ve you been!? I've been trying to get into contact with you for days! Do you know the trouble you’ve caused me?” Gary poked him in the chest.

“Ah, my bad. I had a bit of trouble myself a few days ago. I’ve been off grid since then, trying to recover. Although I suppose it's not really off grid when reporters are surrounding the place you live,” Jack explained. “What was your trouble?” he asked.

“Hmph, the press found out that I’m your supplier for weapons and armour, now I’ve got a rabble of them outside the front, have you seen them!?” he asked in exasperation.

“Nah, I drove straight round to the back.” Jack pointed behind him.

“Well they’re there,” Gary said with a sigh. “Nobody ever said notoriety would be this irritating, I just want to make weapons and work in my forge, but now I’ve got reporters banging down my door at all hours. I’ve got all these big corporations trying to buy my shop and yesterday, my niece was nearly in tears because of all the new customers we’ve been getting. We’re just about sold out of everything!” Gary heaved a deep breath as he finished his rant.

“Everything?”

“Everything! The shelves are bare!” Gary exclaimed.

“Umm, surely that's one of those good problems to have right? I mean, would you rather it go back to being a ghost town out there?” Jack questioned.

“Hmph, no,” Gary answered begrudgingly.

“Well then, what are you gonna do? You're not going out of business right?”

“No, no, I’ll just….I dunno, hire some more people I suppose,” Gary said bitterly.

“You don’t sound too happy about that,” Jack said with some amusement.

“I don’t like sharing my forge, but I need the extra hands to make the standard stock while I work on the custom stuff.”

“Standard stock? Like steel axes and swords right? Don’t they just mass produce that stuff in factories or assembly lines or something, do you really need to make it here?” Jack asked.

“Factories?! Assembly lines!?” Gary spluttered indignantly. “Not my stuff, you can’t mass produce my stock! Even the standard stuff is leagues ahead of anything you’ll find coming out of a foundry….some…some….corporate forge!” Gary protested, sounding affronted at the very idea.

“Ok ok, I was just asking, calm down old man.” Jack put up his hands in surrender. “Anyway, I hope you haven't sold out of everything because I sort of need some equipment replaced,” Jack said with a wry grin.

“Really? What equipment?” Gary asked.

“Er, everything.” Jack grinned again.

Gary gave him a ‘are you serious look?’ before grunting and going over to a storage room and coming out again with several bags.

“I’ve actually got a few new things to give you, though I’d been planning on waiting a little while after you got me a few other things, but nevermind, now's as good a time as any.” He dumped the bags on a workbench and unzipped them. “Plus I always keep spares of the stuff I supply you with anyway.”

Spread out on the table were the same kevlar flak jacket, armoured boots, vambraces, greaves and gauntlets that he’d supplied Jack with before. The helmet however, looked very different. Jack raised an eyebrow at Gary before picking the helmet up to get a better look at it.

The actual head protection was the same as before, but the lower half of the visor looked incredible. It had been moulded in the form of a set of large ferocious jagged fangs clenched together, they looked like they belonged to a monster or a demon. On either side of the fangs near the jaw line were two small cylindrical canisters.

Jack pointed to them and asked, “What are these,” he said, tapping the little canisters.

“Those are respirators, I made your new helmet into a gas mask, it’ll filter out smoke and most airborne poisons,” Gary said smugly. “And then while I was doing that I thought, why not add a little form to the function? So I moulded the bit in between to look like a set of demon fangs. Pretty cool huh?” Again with the smugness.

“Wow! Yeah, definitely! So what else? I need a replacement for my axe too,” Jack pointed out.

“Oh man, do I even want to know? Did you really lose everything?” Gary asked, shaking his head.

“You…..probably don’t want to know, no. And yeah, I lost everything, I even lost my boots, I only managed to keep my spear. I saved that fortunately.”

“Good, good,” Gary said in relief. “Because I don’t have a replacement for that little beauty yet, anyway, I have a couple of weapons for you. Now, these are expensive, so if you lose these too I’ll be pissed.” Gary picked up a couple of cases that were leaning against a nearby wall and put them on the workbench.

He opened the first case and resting inside it was a short sword, it was a one handed straight sword with a blade about two feet in length and three inches in width, the blade had an odd colouration to it. The hilt was a simple unadorned cross guard. As Gary took the hilt and removed the sword from the case, the blade seemed to shift in colour from dark purple to light blue with the motion, with all the shade variations in between.

“I infused one of the water crystals you got for me into this blade, with it you should be able to conjure a small amount of water,” Gary explained as he handed the sword to Jack, hilt first.

Jack took the blade with a little confusion, he looked at Gary. “Um, you know my elements lightning right? Not water? Did you forget?” Jack grinned.

Gary rolled his eyes. “No I didn’t forget you cheeky shit, but without a lightning crystal this is the next best thing.” At Jack’s continued scepticism Gary sighed. “Look, just follow me to the yard, bring the sword.”

He led Jack outside into a small yard around the rear of the shop just outside the workshop.

Gary stepped a few metres away from Jack. “Now, channel a bit of energy into the sword and give it a swing, swing it away from me too please.”

Jack shrugged and faced a brick wall ten or so metres away from him, he channelled some lightning energy into the sword and swung it with a bit of speed in a wide arc. What happened next was not what he’d been expecting.

A faint white haze like fog or water vapour condensed into a thick arc following the swords trail, but at the same time the trail was lit up by multiple arcs of lightning.

“Whoa! Did you see that!?” Jack exclaimed.

“Mm, I see it, not so doubtful now are we,” Gary said with that familiar smugness.

But Jack couldn’t hear him, he was having too much fun, grinning like a loon. He swung the sword around more and more, watching the trails of water vapour and lightning he was creating. He eventually managed to also extend the range by changing the motions of the swing so that water was flung forward from the blade and arcs of lightning followed it for several metres.

After a few minutes he began to feel the strain on his body and core and stopped, Gary approached him.

“So, not bad huh? You like?” he asked with a smirk, leaning against a wall.

“Eh, it's ok.” Jack shrugged, Gary’s expression turned thunderous. “Whoa! Kidding, I like I like!”

“Mm, that's more like it, anyway follow me back to the workshop, I've got you a replacement axe, it's infused with a water crystal too so you can go nuts.” Gary turned around and headed back inside followed by an excited Jack.

Gary showed him the axe, it was a little bigger than the previous one, looking more like an executioner's axe, but still a large single headed two handed battle axe. The axe head had the same purple blue tint to it that shifted in the light like the sword. Jack marvelled at it.

“Top notch work like always Gary,” Jack complimented him.

“Oh I know, but it ain’t free, normally a hunter wouldn’t get access to weapons like these until their at least C rank or higher. You’re damn lucky you met me ya know. So I need you to get me more stuff.”

“Ok sure, what stuff?” Jack asked.

“More slime and more elemental crystals for starters, I’ve got the hunt request for the slimes ready and the request for the crystals is nearly done, just need to submit it to the guild. I also need various metals and minerals gathered from certain spots on the map and I’m also looking into monsters that produce high grade silk, so yeah. I’ve got enough jobs to keep you busy for a while if you’re up for it,” Gary said. “And I’ve almost finished that chain I’m making for you too. I'm infusing it with an earth elemental crystal with that smelting method from Sweden but with a few of my own tweaks, so it should have some interesting effects.”

“Hmm, sounds good to me. Get the requests into the guild, then I’ll do ‘em. The more jobs I do, the more I rank up,” Jack answered with determination.

“Great! Thanks Jack, well if there’s nothin’ else, I’ve gotta get back to work.”

“Ok, thanks Gary, see ya.” With that Jack said goodbye to Gary and left the workshop with his kit bag full of brand new shiny equipment.

He got back in his car and drove to the guild HQ. When he arrived he saw it was close to empty, just a few suit wearing guild personnel walking around, it was late morning so most hunters would have already received their hunts or jobs for the day and gone out to do them.

Jack walked straight to the jobs and requests room and immediately accepted the G rank hunt for slimes that Gary had put out. All ranked jobs counted differently towards a hunter's monthly quota and the number of jobs a hunter needed to do in order to be eligible for a rank up. It just so happened that this G rank hunt would put him at the exact number of jobs needed to be eligible for a promotion hunt, while he’d been recovering he’d received a message on his replacement pager that some hunter had completed the honey harvesting job for him, so he’d been credited with it. He didn’t know who it was but he suspected it was Cheryl.

With happy thoughts of going up to rank E and tackling bigger and better hunts Jack exited the guild to hunt some slimes. In the end it didn't take him long, some slimes had been spotted gathering under a bridge on the river Ouse, he quickly dealt with them and harvested the leftovers before giving the gallon or so of slime to Gary.

With that done he headed back to the guild, it was mid afternoon and hunters had begun to come back to the guild having completed their jobs for the day. Many were heading to the gym and training rooms, more were heading over to the bar in the guild hall, others were going to hunter’s plaza to sell their loot. Plenty of other hunters were also hanging around the atrium for one reason or another, chatting casually with one another, swapping war stories. When Jack walked back into the guild however, the air of general joviality disappeared and a tense silence spread throughout the atrium, many hunters and admin staff stopped what they were doing to stare at Jack.

He stared back in confusion, what now? Were they still hung up about the lightning cultivation thing? He spotted a familiar hunter named Bernard who he’d briefly collaborated with during a hunt a while ago, however when he tried to greet him the guy just avoided eye contact and walked quickly away. In fact every person he got close too simply avoided him like he had the plague.

Eventually the entire atrium was vacated leaving Jack standing in the middle by himself, feeling very confused.

“Jack!” A voice called out from above, he looked up and saw a serious looking Cheryl leaning over a railing on the first floor. She waved to him and beckoned him to come up. He walked up the stairs and joined her.

“Hey, what's up? Why’s everyone acting so much weirder than normal?” he asked.

“You’ll find out, we’re going to the directors office,” she explained.

“Again? What did I do now?” Jack asked in exasperation.

“We’ll talk about it when we get there.”

And so they walked up the several flights of stairs until they got to the eighth floor and entered director Welts’ office. Inside, the normally cheerful Adrian Welts looked rather grim and serious, he sat behind his large desk and greeted them both with a nod.

“Jack, glad you could make it, I trust you’ve recovered from your ordeal? Please, take a seat.” He gestured to one of the chairs facing his desk, Jack sat down.

“So, what's up?” Jack asked. “Is this about the lightning cultivation thing again?”

“Ah, no, unfortunately not, I wish it was, but no. It seems word has gotten out about Barry’s death a little sooner than I had wanted, we didn’t have time to erm, how to put this…….” Welts trailed off, trying to think of what he wanted to say but Jack thought he knew what he was getting at.

“Come up with a good story? Put a spin on it? Doctor the truth?” Jack suggested.

“Well, I was going to say ‘break the news tactfully’ but yes, the story came out a bit faster than we were expecting and now some awkward questions are being asked.” The usually ever cheerful director Welts actually looked a little frustrated.

“What questions?” Jack asked.

“Don’t worry about that for now, fortunately the police have agreed to drop it after I explained to them exactly what happened. But if the media asks you any questions about Barry, then answer them with no comment, do you understand?” he asked seriously.

Jack nodded in response.

“Good, but I’m afraid that's not the end of it. Barry’s father, Eric, found out what happened.” Welts leaned forward and steepled his fingers on his desk.

Jack felt a surge of mild panic at the thought.

“That's…..not good is it?” Jack asked a little lamely.

“It is decidedly not good no, Eric can be rather….shall we say hotheaded? What I really need from you right now Jack is to keep a low profile, if you see Eric Flamewrought then turn around and go the opposite direction of wherever you were going. And whatever you do, make sure there are always witnesses around when you’re near the man. Actually, scratch that, don’t keep a low profile, if there are always people around and even better, cameras, then he’ll be far less likely to murder you. Yes, try that.” Welts nodded to himself.

“Er, so keep a high profile?”

“Yes, definitely, don’t take any more jobs out of the city for now, stay in York, try to make sure there are always cameras on you. That shouldn’t be too hard considering. In the meantime I’m going to run interference with him along with a few other colleagues and eventually he’ll calm down,” Welts explained.

“And eventually everything will be ok?” Jack suggested hopefully.

“Erm, well he’ll probably no longer want to actively hunt you down, eventually. But even still, I’d watch my back if I were you,” he warned Jack.

“Great, just great.” Jack slid down his chair with a despondent sigh.

“Don’t worry Jack, you’ll be fine,” Cheryl spoke up from behind him where she was reclining on a sofa, reading a magazine.

“Oh yeah?” he asked sceptically.

“Yeah, just do as director Welts says and you’ll probably be fine, me and a few others will be talking to Eric later today about it,” she assured him.

“I’ll probably be fine? I thought you just said I’ll be fine, probably fine is a downgrade from fine you know,” he protested but she just waved him off and went back to reading her magazine.

Welts looked like he was about to say more but his pager buzzed, he looked down at it and his eyes widened for a moment before he looked back up to Jack.

“Well Jack, thanks for coming up, remember what we talked about, don’t leave the city and try to stay around potential witnesses, don’t worry, everythings going to be okay.” He got up and quickly walked Jack out of his office. “Also we were going to schedule a press release for you regarding the whole lightning cultivation thing, you know, but due to recent events we’ll be postponing that for a little while, so no need to worry about that. Anyway, like I said everything's going to be okay, so don’t worry, we’ll take care of everything.” He ushered Jack out and closed the door leaving Jack stood out in the hallway.

Jack frowned to himself.

“Don’t tell me there's an unstoppable killing machine out there who wants my blood and then tell me everythings going to be okay,” Jack muttered to himself in frustration as he walked along the corridor and back down the stairs into the atrium.

As he walked downstairs he looked down at the ground floor of the atrium and noticed a crowd of hunters and other guild personnel had gathered, he also saw a crowd of what looked to be journalists and reporters gathered outside the building within the courtyard.

Jack continued walking down and made it to the first floor, he looked over the balcony and eventually saw what had people's attention, Eric Flamewrought, he was here and he looked angry. He was standing just within the entry way of the building, tersely answering questions from various reporters, it also looked like a member of the guild admin staff was trying to get his attention for some reason.

Jack very seriously considered just going back up the stairs and hiding within the offices on a random floor until Flamewrought had passed him, like what Welts had suggested, surely he was here to see director Welts in his office? However that plan became unlikely to work when Flamewrought turned his head to look directly at Jack, the journalists noticed he’d stopped answering their questions and turned to look at what Flamewrought was staring so intensely at.

Everyone in the atrium and all the cameras turned to look as well, Jack felt like a deer caught in headlights. Everyone was staring at him. Jack vaguely recalled with some exasperation at himself that this was the sort of situation he’d been wanting to avoid when he first became a hunter. And yet, barely a few months into it, he already had the attention of the national media and a potentially lethal grudge with an A ranked titan slayer. Great, just great.

He took a deep breath and steadied his nerves, the worst thing to do now would be to show fear or any kind of weakness. He began to walk down the stairs, it was completely silent, in a large room full of close to one hundred people you could hear a pin drop, everyone watched him intently, waiting to see what would happen.

Jack got to the ground floor and decided to exit the guild through the main entrance, he wouldn’t be forced to skulk out the back, no matter what Welts said. Why should he be afraid? He’d done nothing wrong! He’d been defending himself! What right did this guy have to want revenge when it was his son’s own fault for putting everyone in that situation in the first place!

Jack angrily worked himself up, if there was one thing in life he hated then it was bullies, if there was anything he hated more than bullies then it was bullies who got offended when someone has the perceived audacity to defend themselves. Jack stepped through the crowds who parted for him, his way was clear all the way up to Eric Flamewrought who watched him with a wide eyed burning intensity, he was visibly gritting his teeth and black greasy smoke was leaking from his flared nostrils. Jack could actually smell smoke and feel the taste of ash on his tongue as Flamewrought filled the entire atrium with his elemental essence in his anger.

Jack boldly walked towards him, he debated whether or not he should say something but thought better of it. It looked like the guy would need very little antagonism at this point in order to do something rash, plus he didn’t want to be seen admitting to anything. Instead Jack simply walked until he was standing next to Flamewrought and about to step outside, he stopped before going outside and turned his head to look Flamewrought in the eye.

He was taller than Jack by about a head and much more heavily muscled, he stared down at Jack with visible hatred, he ground his perfect white teeth together and wisps of smoke escaped through them. Jack felt an almost overwhelming primal fear, like a mouse staring at a snake before it strikes, but if there was anything being a monster hunter had taught him over the past few months, it was how to master his own fear and carry on regardless.

Jack blankly looked him directly in the eye, unblinking for several Mississippi's, he heard the distinctive click of dozens of cameras and was vaguely aware of people filming them or just watching them with gobsmacked expressions.

Once he was satisfied Jack turned his head away and proceeded outside, again for the second time that day he ran into a wall of journalists all wanting their pound of flesh. He pushed through them and ignored all their questions, he managed to get to his car parked in the car park across the street. The car park was a multistory building and fortunately was restricted access, for use of guild personnel only.

As soon as Jack reached his car, he vomited.

The stress, the anxiety, the overwhelming contradictory primal signals in his brain telling him to flee and fight at the same overcame him and he staggered to his knees and he threw up next to his car. It was worse than anything he’d felt in the past when facing down a monster.

After a few dry heaves and a few deep breaths he got up again, he got into his car and drove home.

Later that evening he received confirmation that he was eligible for a promotion hunt to E rank, he hit the accept option on his pager and was told to report to the guild for his hunt at one pm.