The Hunter's Guide to Monsters

Now mostly not lost in the Urla Mountains, on the way to Karukorm Town

Status: listening to 100+ guides talk about 100+ locales that aren\'t the place he\'s looking for

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Traversing twenty kilometers was supposed to be easy. 

Krow even had guides that knew the local area.

He\'d logged off and went to sleep before returning at gametime dawn to see that the whole group was already ready to go.

Not an hour after the hundred-strong group set out though, he was trying not to show the sheepishness he felt at the group being menaced by two Vinebears.

Krow had spent the in-game late afternoon and nightfall yesterday dealing with the two monster nests that his Ghostcaller marked on the map. 

The first was another nest of shotbark rabbits, the second was the cave lair of a Marfall Vinebear. 

There was no bear in the cave, but instead Krow was able to happily harvest an abundant crop of Marfall Bearvine Berries.

He should\'ve scouted the area further.

The vinebears harassing them this morning must smell the berries on him.

[Marfall Vinebear Lvl 18]

[HP: 1050][MP:60]

[Marfall Vinebear Lvl 16]

[HP: 750][MP:50]

"Couldn\'t blame the bears," he muttered as he dodged a paw swipe and planted six darkspears in the smaller bear, eliminating the faster of the two. 

[You\'ve gained two (2) Silver Serpens from a monster!]

Bearvine Berries could only ripen with constant careful application of magic. After years using their mana to grow Bearvines, hoping the slow-growing plant would finally fruit, Krow comes by on the year the vines finally reward their meticulous efforts and swipes all of it?

He\'d be mad too.

The other roared, but it was weaker, even if larger.

It lumbered toward him, flashes of red in its eyes.

Quickly, before it gained the full strength of Enragement, Krow shot darkspears until it dropped.

[You\'ve gained two (2) Silver Serpens from a monster!]

He surveyed the area, determining there were only two bears, before holstering his gun and jumping down from the fallen log to touch the bear.

[You\'ve gained two (2) Pouch of Marfall Bearvine Seed from a monster!]

The other yielded the same.

He waved to the group, the experienced butchers coming over. 

The smaller bear stood three meters on four paws, and was divested of a [Bearvine Pelt], [Trailing Vine Bone] and 306kg of edible meat. The claws and teeth, as well as the skull were Common and without grade, but they could be sold still for jewelry or trophies.

Krow took the Bone and the single pelt as his share, leaving the rest to be distributed.

The larger bear yielded a lower quality pelt, and 421kg of meat. Krow declined the pelt when it was offered, but accepted two of the edible bear paws.

The thought cooking them dwarvir-style made his mouth water.

Hopefully, he still remembered the recipe correctly.

The group left the area with grass-woven sacks of leaf-wrapped meat on their backs.

"Liwi, distribute these, one per person, alright?" Krow gave the girl an armful of Monstrepel Sachets. He only used them when he slept at night anyway. 

When she nodded and went off, other children came to help. He sent them off with ruffles of their hair and arms full of the monster repellent sachets.

Their group smelled like a bloody feast right now. Krow would rather not tempt all the predators within scent distance.

He tore open part of the sachet to reveal the string, which he tied onto his belt. 

They walked for another two hours before Krow saw something that surprised him. Towers rising against the nearby peak. He turned to the woman walking beside him. "Has it been twenty kilometers already?"

They\'d been walking fairly slowly, as there were a few disabled and older people in the group. 

Even with the distraction of the bears, it was barely noon. Krow had expected them to be walking until late afternoon.

Of course, if the travel was faster than expected, he wouldn\'t complain.

It wasn\'t the woman who answered.

"That\'s Ghorkirst Village. The town is further on."

Krow glanced back to see it was a draculkar who\'d spoken. He nodded in acknowledgement.

Surreptitiously, he eyed his questpage. Shkav, it did say Karukorm Town.

He\'d promised to send them to the nearest town, not the nearest community. An oversight.

Oh well, it didn\'t matter. 

He needed a town to buy Map Pieces anyway.

It was likely better this way. A town had the resources to support the influx of former slaves looking for work.

"Let\'s see if we could hire a few carts in the village." He loped forward.

He\'d noticed the weaker members of the group starting to exhaust themselves.

The people of Ghorkirst were surprised at the large amount of people at their doorstep, but were generally welcoming. They did keep their children inside their houses.

"Not many travel by here," one of the administrative staff explained. "Especially not in groups so large."

They were on foot too, dirty, bloody, and some appearing like they hadn\'t eaten in weeks. 

It must have looked strange. 

"They were prisoners at a Bloodcrow camp in the upper cliffs."

"Ah, bandits." The draculkar\'s eyes narrowed, with anger sparking in his eyes. "I understand. But we\'re a small village. There are rarely free carts."

A small village, yes. They had barely three towers.

"If they have drivers to go with the carts, I can pay them. Ten serpens each for the trip to Karukorm."

The administrator nodded. "I will see what I can do."

Not thirty minutes later, the weakest of the group were distributed between three farm wagons. Krow waved away the administrator\'s apologies that he couldn\'t find more.

"As long as the ones who need it the most can rest," he said, pressing a small pouch of serpens into the man\'s hand. The draculkar had thought to include casks of fresh water in the wagons without prompting.

Their travel quickened then.

Enough that it was mid-afternoon when the towers of Karukorm showed on the horizon.

The Merast of Karukorm, that is to say, the mayor, received them immediately, saying a messenger had ridden from Ghorkirst.

The merast\'s eyes caught on someone behind Krow and widened. "Talan, kinswoman, you…this?!"

Krow backed away as fast and politely as possible.

Talan strode forward, interrupted the burgeoning fury with a hand slapped on the merast\'s shoulder. "Toga, calm. They are dead and gone." She leaned forward and said something lowly in the younger draculkar female\'s ear.

The merast\'s anger cooled to ice, and she nodded.

She looked at the group. "We\'ve prepared healing solutions and food in the tower\'s Hall. My apologies, for not seeing the Bloodcrow activities in the area sooner."

Krow edged around the group to the drivers and paid them. They left with a smile and a wave at the children they\'d been telling stories to for the last several hours.

[You\'ve finished the quest |:Guarded Escort to Karukorm Town:| with no injuries and no casualties, gaining +7 Experience Points, +5 Silver Serpens!]

[You\'ve finished the Hidden Sub-Objective: Ten Hour Walkathon with  8 hours and fifteen minutes of travel, gaining +2 Experience Points, +1 Silver Serpens!]

[You\'ve finished the Hidden Sub-Objective: Return My Clanmember, gaining +6 Reputation with Karukorm Town Administration!]

[Quest Completion: A-]

Success!

"You are the one they call Krow?"

Krow nodded briefly. "Ilas Krow, merast."

The draculkar nodded. "You have done a great service to these people. You have done a kindness to me and my clan, personally. I would have you ask a boon, in return."

Krow took out the pendant called [Amela\'s Hopegiver]. He\'d only remembered it when he reached for the Monstrepel Sachets. "I got this off a bandit corpse. By all indication, it didn\'t belong to him. Will you see that it gets to who owns it?"

The merast\'s brows lifted. She examined the pendant Krow put in her hand. "Of course. But why did you wait until now…?"

"Oh. Uh," Krow laughed a bit. "I was the lone stranger in the group. I didn\'t want them to think I was involved with the Bloodcrows."

He\'d forgotten about it.

The merast nodded. "Rest assured, I will see that the owner receives it myself."

"Thank you."

She inclined her head. "This is not a boon for yourself, Ilas Krow. Is there nothing you want?"

Well, since she was asking….

"Is it possible to have a look at the town\'s rainbow map?"

"…the rainbow map."

The one that showed census and tax data, property borders, land disputes, and a few other secrets that should not be seen by all and sundry, she did not say, but her eyes studied him quizzically.

Yes, lady, that map.

"Just the location of towns and villages, not the…other stuff," he clarified. "Just for the area around the borders of the Grandshield Forest."

She relaxed a bit. 

Hah, he knew she would.

The eastern borders of the Grandshield Forest, where it met the Urla Mountains, were technically within draculkar nation territory. But they were lowlands that were nearly vargvir woods and therefore of little importance in the mind of most draculkar.

Him wanting to know about the borders was of little harm, in the merast\'s eyes.

"Very well. You will not be alone, of course, and the map you copy will be edited."

"That\'s fine."

Yes!

His Scout subclass recently gained the Eyes of an Eagle skill. His Tracker subclass already had Target Marking. 

Both together? Haha! 

He didn\'t need paper to copy a map. 

He only needed to see it for his system Map to permanently engrave it into itself.

They covered most of the map, and removed the colored membrane layers of sensitive data. But what was left was still important.

His eyes caught and lingered on the name he\'d been searching for since he entered Redlands. 

Cerkanst, one of the hubs of monster material and potion ingredients in Zushkenar.

The crafter guild that occupied the town grew to prominence because the town was both near the resource-rich forest and a number of monster level zones that provided material for some of the most expensive, popular armor and weapon upgrades and enchants.

Sorry, but Krow was taking over first.

He pretended to note the closest communities to the forest on the piece of paper, all the way from Beetle Lake in the north to the swamps in the south.

Even as he copied haphazardly enough that the watcher relaxed, the terrain and names and distances were filling up the empty spaces of his Map.

He rechecked his paper map, tilting his head to get the most of the uncovered section.

"Done."

The clerk examined his drawn map, nodded. "This is fine. Just through the door again, before I return everything, thank you."

"Oh no, thank you."

He ignored the clerk side-eyeing him for a moment and muttering, "Why do the villains always say it like that?"

Krow would beg to differ. He wasn\'t some cheap villain. 

But he was too happy to argue.

He now had a map of the southwestern edge of the draculkar lowlands that was more comprehensive than any high-level Map Piece he could buy.

And finally, he could now say he wasn\'t lost in the draculkar wilds.

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Chapter End

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