The Hunter's Guide to Monsters

From the look on Menrike's face and the amusement on Gysavur bal Thaunal's, she'd tattled her woes to her apparent grandfather.

The village head was grateful that Krow had intervened.

[You've finished the quest |:Stop the Medicine Girl!:| gaining +10 Experience Points, +7 Silver Serpens!]

[You've finished the Hidden Sub-objective: Escape a Toad, within 30 minutes, gaining +5 Experience Points, +3 Silver Serpens!]

[You've finished the Hidden Sub-objective: Survive a Healing, gaining +5 Experience Points, +3 Silver Serpens!]

[You've finished the Hidden Sub-objective: Grandfather's Worry, gaining +5 Experience Points, +3 Silver Serpens!]

[You've gained 5 RP in Cerkanst Village!]

[Quest Completion: A]

Great!

Quests involving the village head gave him 5 RP every time.

The average villager quest gave him only 2 RP, and only if the quest wasn't that easy.

"Krow, stay a moment." Gysavur waited until his daughter and granddaughter closed the doors to his office, brought out a bottle of wine, poured them both a glass.

The old draculkar sat behind his desk, swirling the wine slowly, letting the red liquid idly cling to the sides of the glass.

"My son left to join the Guardhouse in Velkenbragg, sponsored by his mother's family. He's raised his children as dwellers of a city. I'd like to thank you again, for preventing her mistake from ending badly."

Krow coughed slightly, remembering that he'd pitched the old guy's granddaughter through the air carelessly, like an old softball.

He hid his embarrassment in a sip of wine.

"I was raised in a city too," he assured the village head, "and remember well how difficult it was when I…first started traveling. The amount of times I came close to death in the first month alone is, looking back, slightly concerning."

He'd just seen Greatcentral City destroyed by the forces of unrelenting nature. Waking as StrawmanScare – a different place, a different time, a different face –  had been terrifying.

Alone, terrified, unknowing – and overcompensating for everything.

A city dweller, in very rural Cerkanst, learning that her city values were very different from the values of those of her father's clan…he could understand Menrike's behavior.

Gysavur nodded, looking out the window, eyes far away. "Clan Thaunal has always been small. There was a long, lonely time when it was just my mother and I, then just me. Three grandchildren. That is the future of Thaunal."

Krow drank his wine.

It was surprisingly delicate, but still full-bodied. A light wine by draculkar standards, pleasing to most palates, not overwhelming, almost bland.

In Zushkenar, he'd have said it was something for the negotiation table, but this was Redlands.

He studied the old draculkar.

Would behavior so subtle exist yet?

"You came here to hunt, as you've said. You've been heading out into the outskirts of the Forest almost every day since you came. I wonder, could you stand a few days away from the monsters of Cerkanst?"

"You need a hunter elsewhere?"

"I need a draculkar who knows how to use a weapon."

"Oh?"

Shkav, was someone hiring him as an assassin again?

What was with venerable old men and needing assassins? Did all the old people in Redlands grow old because of their regular employment of assassins? Scary thought.

"I'd like to hire you as a guard for the herb delivery to Rakaens."

Oh.

Not as an assassin then.

"Herb delivery?"

Gysavur smiled sad and proud both. "The herbalists of Cerkanst may be diminished, but the reputation has remained over the centuries. A number of apothecaries in town swear by Cerkanst herbs. You can sell your monster materials at the apothecaries there as well."

Krow didn't need to. He had a Tradebook.

"What do you say?" Gysavur raised his brows at Krow.

"It would be a pleasure."

It really would.

No wine or coaxing needed, really. But it was appreciated.

The quest notification pinged his acceptance.

Krow had been meaning to visit the town of Rakaens soon.

Still…

"Will your regular guards work with me?"

Gysavur looked amused. "A group of farmers, doing nothing more than heading to market, is innocuous enough in these mountains."

"You had no guards before." Krow was a little incredulous. The Tasseline Verdant Herb alone – a cartful was worth more than the average Zushkenari laborer saw in a year.

And in the black market? It was worth enough to make even a Bloodcrow take notice.

All this time, they were using the ruse of farmers to hide a small fortune in herbs?

That worked?

"It was unneeded. But there are increasing reports of bandits from letters of people I know. I am afraid even simple farmers' carts will not pass the roads unmolested."

Krow nodded.

Increasing amounts of bandits meant the wars were picking up in intensity, driving more people out of their homes to banditry.

The mercenary bands that were guilds were already plotting deeply with various people in power; factions were created and destroyed in a day.

The kingdoms were fracturing at the edges.

In the halls of power, people were starting to panic. Chaos approached.

How long before the wars came to peaceful Cerkanst?

The border villages here were really in a fortunate location – the Forest protected them from the kingdoms in the foothills and the swamps, and they were kilometers away from a main road or anything important.

Krow thought it was unlikely that this area would be embroiled in large scale battles. But war was unpredictable. Who knew what quests were out there?

Even these isolated villages wouldn't be able to come out of the wars unscathed.

"Don't worry, village head," Krow said when Gysavur looked slightly concerned at his silence. "I will get the herbs and your family to Rakaens, and all of them will return to Cerkanst."

Gysavur's eyes crinkled pleasantly. "You understand."

Old man, you talked a lot, you know, Krow mentally complained. If he didn't understand those very large hints, what use was his brain?

The only reason the draculkar would talk so much about family before giving him the quest was because Jamutaltei and Menrike were both going to be part of the delegation delivering the herbs.

Krow left the tower, walked down the Cerkanst main street.

The herb delivery was leaving tomorrow at first light.

One more quest, he decided, before logging out.

The main trade shops were in Khoyresk tower, so the street was full of workshops – bulk unprocessed plants and plant parts like roots, flowers, buds, leaves; edible herbs both fresh and preserved; cosmetics and soaps; herbal oils and herbal solutions.

The herb trade in Cerkanst was livelier than he expected.

Considering the words of both Buri and Maga, even a semi-lively herb trade was not enough to keep the youth from trickling outside the village to look for better prospects.

How long would it be until those same leaving youth came back to escape the escalating conflicts? Or until the youth still in the village left for the different armies and never returned?

Krow looked up.

The skies, from horizon to horizon, were a clear brilliant burning blue.