Birth of the Demonic Sword

"That's about it. Go on the first floor, sign for a hunting area, and fill your monthly quota. The discounts on the second floor will be available to you after that."

Ron spoke, ending his explanation.

'I need to complete a mission first then.'

"What about accommodations? Does senior have any advice about the houses in the capital?"

Noah asked and Ron showed a bitter smile.

"The prices are high almost everywhere in the city. I advise you to learn the layout of the city so that you can avoid using the transports. Also, unless you are rich, you shouldn't rent places for a long time. Since we spend most of our time hunting, a fixed residence is only a monetary burden. Most nobles prefer to be enrolled in the Royal army so to obtain free lodgings, us hunters live by the day."

Noah lowered his head and fell deep in thought.

'Money is not an immediate problem but it will become one once I start experimenting with rank 4 materials. That scrounger is becoming a problem.'

He didn't mind not having a fixed residence but he had to take care of Ivor.

'I still need him to clear my doubts on some aspects of the forging. I can also use him to run errands for me or to sell my creations, his certification as an inscription master should suffice and I will also avoid the trouble of going through their examination. I don't think I can hide my aptitude from them.'

His choice of joining the Hunters' guild didn't solely come from his need for materials.

There, he could continue to hide while still increasing his power.

If he was to show his creations personally, it would be impossible to hide his element, after all, all his creations were made using his own "Breath"!

'I need more time and more money.'

"Thank you for your explanation, I will start to work immediately."

Noah said as he stood up and bowed.

There was no need for him to undergo examinations or enrollments as Thaddeus had taken care of them after Noah had chosen his position.

Noah went directly for the first floor and a spacious room unfolded itself as he climbed the stairs.

'This is quite messy.'

There were more than ten men and women, all looking at various boards on the walls.

At the center of the room, a big table was placed.

Over it, a detailed map depicted a large area near the Royal city.

Noah neared the table and inspected the map carefully.

'It reaches even the places on the other side of the border.'

The drawn area was huge, it covered at least five hundred thousand square kilometers of surface, it even reached hunting zones in nearby continents!

'It should work with mental energy, right?'

Noah found the picture of Arolyac forest on the map and used his mental energy to inspect it.

As soon as his mind focused in that area, a long list of names and information appeared in his sea of consciousness.

'Whoa, that basically covers every possible beast of the forest.'

The list contained the names of every type of magical beast that could be found in the forest.

There were also descriptions of the beasts, notes about their behavior, and the value of their body parts.

Noah randomly moved his attention toward another area of the map.

The list in his mind changed and a different fauna was shown to him.

'Amazing.'

Noah was honestly surprised.

Not only the map was an inscribed item capable of storing an incredible amount of information but he really admired how much work was put into it.

'To gather all this knowledge, one lifetime is not enough.'

There were hundreds of environments described with thousands of magical beasts listed, Noah knew that behind the creation of that map there was more than a century of researches.

He raised his gaze from the map and looked at the various boards on the walls.

There were the names of the various hunting zones with cultivators either inspecting them or leaving a sign through their token.

Noah randomly inspected one of the zones with many signs with his mental energy and its information appeared in his mental sphere.

'Drainston Crag, danger zone. High number of Toxic hyenas discovered recently. Hunters in the area: Orville, Lucian Aildwi, …'

'Ohh, even these boards are pretty detailed.'

Noah nodded in satisfaction seeing the organization of the guild, the disorder of the room didn't reflect at all the orderly arrangements of the various tools.

He then turned toward the end of the room.

The stairs for the second floor were there with the largest board of the room on their side.

That one was the only panel that no hunter was inspecting.

His curiosity was piqued and he neared it.

As his mental energy scanned it, the information was shown in his mental sphere.

'Special missions of the Royal family!'

There were several hunts ordered by the Royal dynasty with special rewards attached to them.

However, their difficulty was far higher than anything Noah had ever seen.

'Thirty rank 4 Mountain trolls have occupied Green Hill Mountain, rewards …'

'Hordes of Golden dragons flying in the skies over Crumbled Plains, ten rank 4 specimens confirmed, rewards…'

'Rank 5 Albino snake found in Twilboia Cliff, near the domain of the Shosti family. Rewards…'

Noah stopped reading at that phrase and remembered the huge beast that resembled a small mountain when it slept.

"I wouldn't even look at that board, most of the hunters that attempt in the missions of the Royals end up dead."

Ron appeared behind Noah.

"I forgot to warn you about that. There is the hidden rule of avoiding that board, I think that you can understand why is that."

Noah nodded and looked again at the areas written there.

"If even the Royal dynasty doesn't want to involve itself in these hunts, why would we even attempt in those?"

Ron nodded at his words and patted Noah's shoulder.

"Just stick to the other panels and to the areas at their bottom. The boards at the entrance of the floor have the names of the safer hunting zones on them while toward the end of the room there are only danger zones. This one with Royal missions is put here because of the incredible danger present in those areas."