Chapter 16

Russel and Jack were assailed by a wall of noise, flashing camera lights and awkward questions, after the relative tranquillity of dragging a dead insectoid monster through an eerily quiet forest, it was quite jarring.

“Jack! Jack! Turn this way Jack!”

“What did you hunt today Jack!”

“Are you injured Jack?”

“Did you use the monster to cultivate?”

“Are you responsible for hunting the Jaw Knasher in York city centre park three months ago Jack?”

“Who’s the hunter with you Jack? Is he a new team member?”

“Was this a promotion hunt Jack? Are you getting ranked up?”

“What can you tell us about the events in Clifford’s Hill dungeon?”

“Did you kill Barry and his team Jack?”

“Is it true you use other people to cultivate from Jack?”

At that last question Jack’s head snapped around and a surge of anger welled up inside him, he looked for the person who’d said it but couldn't find them.

“Who said tha-?!” But he couldn’t finish as Russel gripped his shoulder and dragged him and the Xenosilf to a waiting white van. While the media did their best to get in the way and be a nuisance, Jack, Barry and a couple of other armoured hunters from the guild loaded the Xenosilf corpse into the back of the white van. Barry and the others got in the van to go back to the guild and waited for Jack. Jack told them to give him a moment as he turned to address the crowd of reporters and camera crews, which had grown substantially since he and Barry had gone into the cemetery, there had to be over fifty people from various news crews there now.

“Ahem! Ahem! Can I have your attention please? In response to all your questions I have something I’d like to say, which I feel really needs to be said!” he called out, he waited as the clamour from the crowd died down and all the cameras and microphones pointed towards him, the large crowd of reporters quieted down completely as they all eagerly awaited what he was about to say with rapt attention.

“Ahem, no comment, that is all.” With that gave a grin to the surprised crowd and hurriedly got into the back of the van before slamming its doors shut. “Drive! Drive!” he yelled over to the driver before letting out a delighted cackle, nothing better than trolling a large group of people who have certain expectations.

The van driver grinned in the mirror before he acquiesced and sped off, his way was clear as Jack had lured all the reporters and cameras to the rear of the van.

They quickly made their way back to the guild and drove around to the rear of the building where there was little traffic. The building was still fenced off similar to the front of the building, they pulled up to an iron gate where a man stood waiting. He opened the gate and they drove through, the driver swung the van around and reversed up to the building towards what looked to be a loading dock. Once they’d parked the van doors were opened revealing a group of men, Russel and the hunters in the van greeted them and helped unload the Xenosilf, carrying it into the guild HQ.

Jack trailed behind looking around the large warehouse he found himself in, Russel turned back to him.

“Good work today Jack, come by tomorrow at ten pm and we’ll formalise your rank up,” Russel told him with a nod.

“Er great, will do, see ya. Erm….” Jack looked around, not quite knowing where he was or how to get out. “Shall I just……?” He pointed towards the loading dock door, wondering if he should just climb out.

Russel silently pointed towards a set of double doors at the far end of the warehouse a few dozen metres away, he nodded his thanks with a chagrined smile and set off. As he walked he looked around at everything that was stored in the warehouse, there were all manner of different things, crates full of different coloured rock material, stacks of black chitin, piles of thick fur, horns, dried plants, large canisters labelled as various liquids Jack had never heard of.

It seemed this was the place the North Yorkshire hunters guild branch stored and distributed all the things its hunters harvested. He noticed that many if not all of the crates and boxes of goods had the logos of different companies and corporations printed on them, they must have already been purchased by or harvested on behalf of these companies. Jack recognised logos from different pharmaceutical companies, tech giants, agricultural companies, weapons manufacturers, energy companies and more.

He took it all in with interest before he reached the doors and left the warehouse, he followed a long corridor before reaching another set of double doors. He went through them and found himself on the ground floor of hunters plaza in between a couple of the stores, he’d never noticed a door here before.

With the rest of his day free and a nice big paycheck/promotion due, Jack let out a deep breath and felt some of the tension from earlier in the day drain out of him. He slowly wandered into the middle of the plaza towards the fountain and palm trees. He idly looked down into the waters and noticed people had tossed coins in. He felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Erm, excuse me? Jack Errant?” a timid voice from behind him sounded.

He turned around and saw a young woman looking up at him with a nervous smile, she seemed vaguely familiar.

“Hi? Can I help you?” he asked.

“Erm yes, I was wondering if perhaps you would like to come in our store and check out our selection?” she said hopefully, she motioned towards a weapons store. It was one he recognised, it was one of the many weapons and armour shops in the plaza that had refused him service in the past, in fact, it was the very first one.

He frowned, so now that he was well known they actually wanted his business? Screw these guys, he already had a weapons and armour provider.

“No thanks, I’m good,” he said with a shrug. She looked disappointed but turned around and walked away. With a small smile he left the plaza and continued till he was outside and walking across the street into the multi storey parking building where his car was, parked on the third level.

“Hey there!” a voice echoed through the car park from behind him, Jack jumped in surprise, what was up with people sneaking up on him today?

He turned around and saw a cheerful looking man grinning at Jack, he looked to be in his mid thirties, wearing a flannel shirt and beige trousers, Jack wondered if he was perhaps one of the guild admin staff. He certainly didn’t look like a hunter.

“Uh, hey,” Jack answered cautiously.

“Oh wow! It's really you! Jack Errant! In the flesh!” the man said enthusiastically.

“Yeah, me, in the er……flesh….ok who are you? What do you want?” Jack had never been a social person and he found that speaking to people or meeting new people he hadn’t been meaning to speak to or meet really drained his social batteries, so he just cut straight to the chase.

The man didn’t respond for a moment, he simply continued smiling for a few moments before speaking.

“I really wanted to meet you!” he exclaimed happily.

“Yes, I can see that, any particular reason?” Jack had his hands in his pocket, covertly fumbling for his car keys, edging towards his car.

“I’m like you! A lightning element! We’re the same!” the man’s grin got wider.

“Oh, you are huh? I don’t think I’ve ever met another lightning element that I’ve been aware of, huh.” Jack looked at the strange man in contemplation and allowed himself to relax slightly. “So erm, what can I er………do for you?”

“My name’s Michael and I want you to teach me! I want to do what you do! I want to be able to cultivate!” the man, Michael cried out, his exuberant voice echoed slightly in the car park.

“Teach you? Lightning cultivation? Haven’t you been watching the news? The secrets out, you need to use living matter to cultivate lightning, preferably monsters and mutated animals,” Jack explained.

“Oh I know all that, but I mean the actual method to it, the technique, surely you don’t just suck up electricity from a dead monster and store it in your core do you? What's the technique really? Is it some sort of variation on the Abercrombie Twist? Or maybe the Harmony Alternation method? Or the Flowing Spiral Kinesis technique? C’mon, what method do you use? Please?” Michael waffled on and pleaded, talking about stuff Jack was almost certain he’d never heard of.

“Wha? Abercrombie what? Alternation? What are you talking about?” he asked in confusion. “Are you just making this up? Are you sure those are actual things?”

“Of course, I did my research on the internet, they’re known and established ways for cultivators to draw in their elemental essence and to eventually condense it in their cores.”

“Hmm, I don’t think I do any of that stuff you mentioned, I just do what feels right you know. I generally just improvise, I wing it.” Jack shrugged.

“You wing it!?” Michael asked incredulously.

“I wing it,” Jack confirmed.

“Er…I don’t….I-” Michael stammered for a second before he was interrupted by a loud indignant voice from the parking building stairwell.

“HEY YOU! I GOT YOU NOW! HE’S HERE! I’VE FOUND THE INTRUDER!” Jack and Michael turned to see a security guard rushing over to them, from the noise coming from the stairwell it sounded like more were coming.

“Oops, sorry Jack gotta go, it was nice meeting you.” With that Michael ran off to the other end of the parking building with the security guard in hot pursuit.

He watched them weave around various parked cars before they disappeared down the other stairwell, he shook his head in bemusement before getting in his car and driving home.

The next day Jack woke up mid morning and proceeded with his usual morning routine before grabbing his gym bag full of his equipment and heading out. There were still reporters and cameras outside but far less than usual, perhaps they realised how uncooperative he was willing to be and gave up.

He made it to his car with only the occasional camera flash following him, he ignored everything and got in his car and drove to the guild.

One of the girls at the front desk told him which room to go up to on the first floor. He went up there and entered one of the glass walled conference rooms with the long table surrounded by comfortable swivel chairs. He dumped his gym bag on the floor and flopped into a swivel chair at the head of the table to wait for whoever was coming to assess him.

He didn’t need to wait long, after a minute or two of waiting the same pair of admin staff who’d authorised his last promotion stepped through the door followed by Russel. Jack stood up to greet them.

“Ah, Mr Errant, erm, so glad to see you again,” the male of the pair greeted him somewhat nervously. He sat down several places away from Jack further down the table, the woman who did the same was also looking a little nervous.

“Er yeah, likewise, you guys ok? You seem nervous, did I pass? Did I fail? What are those looks for?”

“Oh, no you passed, so long as Russel here gives us the go ahead then everything’s fine, we just need to formalise it?” The suit looked questioningly to Russel who simply nodded without really paying attention, looking down at his phone. “Excellent then, congratulations Mr Errant, you are now a Rank E monster hunter. We’ll be off then.” With that the pair of admin staff hurriedly got out of their seats and left the room, their chairs were still spinning after they’d left they were in such a hurry.

“Wow, that was brusque, what was their problem?” Jack asked Russel.

“There's been some odd rumours about you on the internet lately, the interview Eric Flamewrought did yesterday didn’t help matters. Don’t worry about it.” Russel shrugged.

“What rumours? Actually, you know what? Nevermind, I think I can guess. Huh, I like how people always tell me terrible things in this place and then tell me not to worry about it,” Jack said bitterly.

Russel simply shrugged again, not appearing concerned in the slightest. “Rumours will always come and go, it's up to you whether you prove them false or true.”

Jack thought about that for a moment before asking, “Well alright, but are you going to give me my real evaluation then? That's how this works right?”

“Sure, I noticed you’ve got a weapon which has been infused with an elemental crystal, water right?” Russel asked and Jack nodded smugly. “Those are pretty expensive, you go to Gary’s yes? On the highstreet?” Jack nodded again.

“Yep, he’s also got earth elemental crystals too if you're interested,” Jack mentioned.

“Oh yeah? Maybe I’ll go down there and give it a look, I’ve heard Gary does excellent custom pieces. Anyway, as far as your evaluation goes, there’s not an awful lot to criticise. You’ve developed your core and have some reliable ranged attacks, you were able to keep up with the Xenosilf which is one of the faster E rank monsters we know of and you were even able to engage in combat with another group of monsters almost straight away afterwards. You’ll be fine to keep moving up the ranks if you keep training and cultivating,” Russel explained.

“Huh, so, what if I wasn’t then? What if you thought I’d hit my limit?” Jack asked.

“It’s……different in every branch, but in North Yorkshire, Director Welts enacted some measures that made it so that hunters can’t rank up too fast or too easily. If an assessor thinks you're not ready to move up or makes certain recommendations regarding their fitness for the hunt, then you get placed under heavy scrutiny, the jobs you accept are monitored and sometimes you get ordered not to take certain jobs or hunts. It's all in an effort to decrease the number of hunter deaths on the job, and because of that North Yorkshire has the lowest overall rate of attrition in Britain.” Jack listened with interest as Russel explained some of the inner workings and policies of the guild.

“So, how does it work in other branches then? I would’ve thought every branch would have the same policies,” Jack pointed out.

“I don’t fully know other branches' local policies, but I do know that not every branch has quite so many safeguards in place that we do. And as far as every branch having the same policies, well…….there are some basic rules that are written in stone for everyone, but for the most part the main guild headquarters in London only care about results. As long as certain quotas are met like local income, monsters slain, a low number of civilian casualties or a relatively low number of dead hunters on a weekly basis, then they find that acceptable I suppose.” Russel leaned back in his chair and shrugged.

“That's about the gist of it, Russel, very succinct of you.” Jack and Russel turned their heads in surprise and saw Welts leaning in the open doorway, listening to Russel’s explanation with a small smile on his face. He walked into the room, followed by Cheryl and sat down in one of the comfortable padded swivel chairs before giving them both a friendly grin as he leaned back and seemed to relax, Cheryl sat down between Jack and Russel. “Yes, the various branches of the UK hunters guild do have different policies with regards to how they perform their functions, I myself decided to prioritise hunters' safety, making certain that no hunter took a job that was beyond his abilities. I received some criticism from some of my fellow branch directors due to a lower monthly tally for slain monsters and income than what would be expected for a county this size, but I believe I made the correct decision regardless.”

Jack listened with interest to Welts, he wondered if the cautious nature of the directors policies regarding the guild were due to wanting to protect his hunters lives or his children's lives, Rachael and Zack. Either way Jack wasn’t complaining.

“Right!” Welts continued, clapping his hands once before leaning forward and looking at Jack. “Let's get down to business Jack, Eric Flamewrought.”

Jack also leaned forward, the issue that had been niggling at his mind now coming to the forefront. “Ok, Eric Flamewrought,” he responded.

“We’ve been talking, and after a great deal of cajoling we’ve finally managed to make him accept what happened and that you were just defending yourself, that it was all just an unavoidable mess and you were not to blame,” Welts explained.

“Unavoidable?” Jack questioned sceptically.

Welts ignored him and continued. “Eric has agreed to go back to Cornwall in a couple of days to continue his watch over the Red Gorge.”

With that Jack sagged with relief.

“However, I would still try to avoid being in a room alone with Eric for a…..well forever actually. He can be rather impulsive at times, so it's not completely out of character for him to…..shall we say lash out? Yes, lash out. Perhaps also avoid going down to Cornwall too and you'll be fine.” Welts gave Jack a bright smile to which Jack nodded uncertainly.

“Anyway! Now that little bit of unpleasantness is almost behind us we can finally focus on you!” Welts continued.

“Me?”

“Yes you! You’re the first ever known lightning cultivator and a hunter to boot, a variety of organisations from the media to the government to a whole multitude of private corporations have been hounding us for access to you. And we did say the guild would act as an intermediary.”

“Ok, so I can sort of guess what the media wants with me, but what does everyone else want exactly?” Jack asked with an equal mix of curiosity and worry.

“Well, it varies, the government essentially wants to know your capabilities, they’re a little nervous about what a lightning element can do given that our entire civilization runs on electricity. I believe the terms ‘going rogue’ and ‘human EMP’ were thrown around in a rather spirited meeting between guild executives, the military and government officials a little while ago. And more than a few corporations are interested in snagging you as a spokesperson, you know, to do advertisements and the like, you are rather famous after all.” Welts cheerfully explained.

Jack gave Welts a sceptical look. “Ok, I can accept that I may be well known, but isn’t it a little soon for the whole celebrity endorsement thing and doing adverts and stuff. I mean, they don’t know me, what if I turn out to be a complete psycho with a creepy fetish or something?”

“I think they’re prepared to take that risk Jack, early bird gets the worm after all,” Welt smiled.

“Well, good for them I guess, but I’m not doing any adverts or endorsements, not yet anyway. I’ll consider it if I somehow find myself in massive crushing debt and I need to sell out but for now I’d rather not. I’ve seen some of those soft drink and toy adverts with the hunters in them recently, they’re so cringe and they only show the edited good bits, I don’t want any part of that. And the less said about those over the top perfume adverts the better,” Jack stated firmly.

“Well that's fair enough, but would you accept your likeness being taken for a monster hunter trading card though?” Welts asked.

“Oh? I’ve heard about those, so I actually get one then?” Jack leaned forward with an excited smile.

“Yes indeed, they’re becoming quite popular amongst the youngsters lately, the company that makes them uses their own judgement on who they want in their cards. Generally it's any C rank hunter and above, and after that it's any hunter who’s done something particularly noteworthy.”

“Well ok then, no objections to that!” Jack smiled happily.

“Great! We’ll schedule a time for their photographer to come. As well as that there’s also the bit about a formal press release to appease the public, we were going to do it a bit later once the rest of the guild executives had time to come together and come up with a narrative, but certain events forced the news to break faster than we were prepared for. Ah well, that's life isn’t it?” Welts grinned. “Anyway, in a couple of days we want to do a brief press release, just a quick statement from us then you answer a few scripted questions. Just to assure the public we have everything under control, you’re not a sadistic psychopath etcetera etcetera. Easy right?” He looked expectantly at Jack.

“Er right, easy, I suppose I can do that, but erm……you’re not not gonna send down to PR again are you?” he asked with genuine concern to which Cheryl snorted in amusement.