Duskbound

Velik's cooking was edible, and that was as charitable as he could be describing his culinary skills. Having a meal at the Raven's Nest was making him revise that opinion. Who knew there was more to it than just adding fire to meat? He shoveled another spoonful of some sort of meat stew into his mouth.

The fact that he didn't hear footsteps until they were approaching the table told him who was walking up to him. He wanted to blame it on being absorbed in his meal, but the truth was that the hired hunter was just as strong as him and probably a hell of a lot more experienced. There was no telling how many skills he'd mashed together.

The chair across from him slid out and the old hunter dropped into it. "You know, you could have made it a lot easier to catch up with you. I just wanted to ask you a few questions."

"What made you think I was interested in answering them?"

The hunter chuckled. "Seems like we're in the same business. Wouldn't hurt to cooperate with each other. I'm Torwin."

Velik looked up from his stew to see an outstretched hand. "Not interested."

Torwin waited a moment, then sighed and pulled his hand back. "Look, I'm not asking you to work with me. I've already got an apprentice to look after. I just wanted to ask a few questions and according to everyone, you're the guy who knows about the wilderness beyond the frontier."

"What's there to know? Monsters show up, I kill them. You don't need me to explain that."

That sleazy mayor is behind this. I should have insisted he fill the order so I could get out of town as quickly as possible.

"I was actually hoping to get you to tell me more about the night you found your class orb." Torwin was probing at him with some sort of skill while he talked, but Velik's mental was too high for it to break through. He frowned at the older hunter, who immediately stopped whatever it was and at least had the decency to look ashamed. "Sorry."

"I'll make you a deal," Velik said. "I answer this question. You leave me alone from now on."

"Deal," Torwin said instantly.

He took another bite of his stew while he thought it over, one of the especially delicious bites that had a little cube of meat in it. I wonder if I could learn to make this. Maybe the cook would give me the recipe and I could buy the ingredients.

"There's not much to the story. A friend and I decided to go explore the old dungeon in the forest. Back then, there were basically no monsters in the area. Some high levels came through thirty or forty years ago—I'm not sure exactly when—and broke the core. I think we had some vague idea that we'd discover some secret treasure everyone else had missed."

Torwin smiled. "I think we all had dreams like that when we were children. I remember thinking that I'd find some legendary weapon and become a mithril-ranked hunter, a max level dragon slayer."

"Something like that," Velik agreed. "And we did find something."

"The class orb."

"Yes. It gave me [The Black Fang]."

"I've never heard of that class," Torwin smiled. "Quite a surprise. It's been twenty years since I saw a hunter class I didn't know everything about already. I hope you'll forgive me for prying. I'd love to get information on it to add to the guild archives."

"It won't do you any good," Velik said.

"Why?"

"It's unique."

Torwin's eyebrows rose. "You found a class orb that granted you a unique class when you were seven years old. That's… far-fetched."

"I don't care if you believe me, guild hunter," Velik said. He took another bite, savoring it as he chewed. "They serve good food here, don't they?"

"Good beer, too. So, you found a class orb, got a unique class. I haven't heard you mention what happened to your friend."

"I don't know. The process knocked me out. When I woke up, my friend was gone and there was a monster crawling toward me. I assumed the monster got him first and ran for my life."

"Could you have revived the dungeon core?"

Velik shook his head. "We never even saw it. The stories say they're huge things, big stone pillars you can't even wrap your arms around. The only thing we found was the class orb, and that was barely the size of a hand ball."

"I can't imagine it was a coincidence that monsters started pouring out of the trees the same night you went exploring."

"Yeah, that's what the mayor said when I got back, that it was all my fault somehow, and that I was a monster myself."

"Why would they say that?" Torwin asked, his brow furrowed. "I'm sure whatever happened was an accident."

"Ah, because of my race. It changed when I got my class."

"It did what now?"

"It's not a secret. Did nobody mention it when you were asking about me?"

"They did not," Torwin said. "So, it wasn't just a class orb, then. But I've never heard of something that can change a race. Perhaps it was some kind of cursed item. That might also explain why it was left behind by the original team. Though…"

"Though what?"

"They still should have taken it for disposal. I guess it's possible they just missed it."

"Maybe," Velik agreed. He didn't really care why the class orb hadn't been found before, just that it had changed him, and that using it had done something to start the monster population in the area. Or it was a massive coincidence.

"I was thinking about going to look at the dungeon," Torwin said. "You know, to make sure it's still dead. It's possible that the team that cleared it out made a mistake and sent it into hibernation instead of actually killing it. I know a second team already checked it, but I'd like to see it for myself."

Velik's spoon scraped the bottom of the bowl. He tilted it a bit and got the last little chunk of carrot out of there, then said, "I'm not going to try to stop you. If you want to waste your time, that's your business. Do me a favor and kill any monsters you see on the way there."

"I was hoping to get you to come with me."

"Not interested."

"Don't you want to see what's there?" the hunter pressed. "There could be clues about what happened to you and why the monsters appeared."

"I've already been there, three times now. There's nothing to find." Velik pushed his chair back and stood up. "Did you want something else before I go?"

"I just want to do what I was hired to do: kill the monsters and stop more from showing up. I'm not your enemy. I'm not working against you." Torwin stood up and offered his hand to Velik again. "If you change your mind about working with us, we've got rooms at this inn. Come find me."

The old hunter started to walk away, then paused. Without turning back, he said, "And… I'm sorry for what you went through. You didn't deserve to be treated that way. If I'd been there…"

He trailed off with a sigh, then walked out of the inn and left Velik alone with his thoughts.

That could have gone a lot worse. The way he was chasing after me a few weeks ago, I didn't think he'd take 'no' for an answer.

Velik left a pair of silver vitrunes on the table—probably more than the meal cost but the money was worthless to him now that it had served its purpose as a training aid to boost [Stealth] up another rank—and followed Torwin out of the inn. The hunter was already gone, thankfully.

Now to go have a word with the guy who told him I was here. He'd better have my order ready.

* * *

Torwin found Jensen easily enough. His apprentice's grasp at woodcraft was best described as rudimentary, or maybe it was more accurate to say that Jensen knew how to walk without leaving a trail, but didn't care to expend the effort. Either way, he wasn't hard to track down.

"Well?" Jensen asked when Torwin stepped out from behind a tree and joined him on the trail.

"No good. He answered a few questions, but he's not cooperative and he didn't tell me anything new, beyond confirming that he'd already gone back to look at the old dungeon a few times. Our plans haven't changed."

"Why didn't you make him cooperate? It's not like he could stop you from grabbing him by the neck and dragging him out here."

"First, because I like to think I'm not a shitty person. Second, because that's a good way to grow a knife between your ribs while you're sleeping. Third, because I think he just needs time to realize we all want the same thing, then he'll willingly assist us."

"We could offer to pay him," Jensen said. "I mean, that's why we're here. Everyone likes money."

"We're here to get you valuable experience fighting an enemy that's within your capabilities to handle, and also to solve a monster problem on the frontier. The money doesn't really factor into it."

Jensen paused and turned to regard his master fully. "Wait, really? You're not out here for the money?"

"All hundred gold fulmites of it?" Torwin responded dryly. "No, it wasn't a hugely motivating factor in my decision."

"A hundred? That's it?" Jensen sputtered. "That's barely pocket change. It was three hundred miles just to get here."

"You have an incredibly skewed grasp on how much money that is, especially to people as poor as the ones living here. Maybe we need to have a discussion about how much things cost, and how much people earn when they don't have a noble household to see to their every whim."

"Can't we just go kill some monsters instead?"

Torwin flashed his apprentice an evil grin. "Not to worry! We can do both."