The Ghost Shepherd

First Expedition (Part 1)

Sly woke up a few minutes later to find out that the Puppeteer had left when he was unconscious.

“What Happened?”

“You got knock the f**k out, that’s what”

“And the Puppeteer?”

“She left after your last attack, she was acting a little weird but she didn’t say anything”

“Well, I guess that is it for training. I can eat a cow… would you join me…”

“Of course kind Sir” said K.C before laughing joyfully

Sly left the training room and the blazing sun let him know that it was still daytime. There were exactly 3 weeks until his financial aid was suspended and he was going to enjoy it all before he left for the jungle.

The time training allowed Sly to save on the food stamps and he could now eat without reservation. His financial aid also came with a small allowance but he was aware that he could not lay his hands on it since his survival during the expedition depended on it.

The credits were transferred straight to his Hunter ID, so he didn’t have to go to any office just to pick them up.

Sly had a sumptuous meal at Moe’s and thanks to the spirits floating around he discovered that it was an amphibian type animal on the menu. A lot of people might have puke the moment they found out what it was on their plate, the species was found close to not so sanitary places but It didn’t really matter to Sly as long as it was cooked rare and in vast quantities.

After the meal, the tiredness of more than a full week of intense training with very little rest caught up to him and he fell asleep like a rock. This time there was no weird dream or anything close to it but there was a file being transferred to K.C in the middle of the night.

The file contained information about the Irakui tribe and their belief system, especially the rare ability of some of their members who they called Shamans. Shamans were able to see spirits as well as communicate with them and were highly respected in the Irakui world as healers and keepers of knowledge.

The file was pretty small, there was little information on what the broader field of spiritualism had to offer and there were no videos of spirits available either, the file mainly contained myths and folklore of fantasy-like abilities that went beyond what the Umdalis cared to acknowledge.

K.C was quick on the uptake and organized all the information while Sly slept and had it ready to go for the moment he woke up. The knowledge would definitely steer him in the right direction and it would shed some light on what the target of the ability was supposed to be, the opponent's spirit.

More experimentation was needed but it was a great start. It was clear to K.C that the Puppeteer had something to do with the information but she didn’t really care as long as it could help her host.

Sly slept until noon the next day and when he finally woke up, he was bombarded with information about the spiritualists and how they could communicate with the dead and stories of how some of them could even revive them. The fast transmission of information was one of the main benefits of the Chip, and it made learning a breeze, it all depended on the capacity of the brain to absorb the knowledge given.

"Hmm… all the crystal seems to do is swallow them"

"That is because the spirit belongs to a creature that was too weak. Spirits of stronger individuals should be able to communicate and do other things. You said that in your dream the creature spent his time talking to the dead, according to the Irakui's, you could revive them by providing a suitable corpse, or you could go into the spiritual plane to move and then materialize at another location ".

"Sounds amazing"

"It is!. There are no records of an ability like that even in the core members of the Mystical Order and they got the DNA of an overlord Argonian!!".

"Well, right now I need to survive the next expedition so let's go and get some supplies. The space folder can barely fit a draco so we probably have to transport it back to the shelter after each kill"

"Alright, Let's go” said K.C

Sly was as ready as he was going to be, his last 7 years were spent studying the species of the planet, their habits and the topography of the areas they called their home, but most important of all he had K.C and the Nanotrons to help him on a tight spot.

The list of supplies was not long at all, Water and Dry Meat was a must but with those canines and his urges to eat raw meat, he figured any dead Argonian was going to do.

The government provided his students with a flashlight and some other camping necessities including a tent that he had used many times before in mock camping trips. With the camping supplies out of the way, he used the little money he had left by following The puppeteer’s advice and got himself a second hand gun at a pawn shop and a few regeneration syringes for the worst case scenario.

“Well, That is it. I can’t think of anything else we need, so tomorrow morning we can head out first thing in the morning”

Sly couldn’t get much sleep that night, he couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had happened in his thirteenth years of life and was amazed that in all his recollections, the faces of his parents were no longer visible.

After tossing and turning on top of his bed for a while, he decided to head out.

It was 4 in the morning when Sly made his way to the gate located on the east of the city. It was the exit that connected the City of Hope to the Area inhabited by the Dracos. Despite the fact that they were really strong physically, they behaved like a pack of hyenas and always attacked directly and in the open field.

The Draco’s were highly territorial and they attacked and ate anything that moved. The rule of the jungle resonated with the Argonians more than with any other race in the universe and since consuming other species gave them the materials necessary for their evolution they had no reservations.

Sly’s face was scanned at the gate and he was allowed to leave, there were no restrictions for hunters to come and go as they pleased but record keeping was an essential part of good city management. There were a few other cities on planet Alpha and sometimes people left for the forest to appear at the door of yet another city and if there were no records of the hunter leaving from another place, chances of being killed were high.

There had been incidents where complete cities were destroyed by Argonians capable of transforming their bodies and mimicking the alliance races.

It was easy for them to mimic the features of a race but so far there were no records of one able to mimic a specific individual. The scenes of millions of people getting butcher and eaten were still on the government's mind so a face scan was the least of the measures taken.

Sly advanced through the forest at a nice pace, the sky was dark and best of all was that he was not alone. Novice Hunters were going in the same direction and for almost 100 miles after exiting the gate it was extremely safe, the government had patrols of hunters with land vehicles while bots flew constantly sweeping the area, it was a little excessive since the low Class Dracos were not stupid enough to antagonise them in alliance territory.

The majority of the novice hunters heading into the wilderness were having conversations about their abilities or about the best way to kill Argonians without having to worry about their safety which was a very common occurrence at least until they reached the safe house A.K.A the Bunker.

The places beyond the Bunker were called the wilderness and everyone that went passed it, was on their own.

Sly didn’t have many friends besides Millie and she was not around to have a conversation so he didn’t bother to listen to anything other people were talking about and just double time it to the safe house. It was his first time making it that far but it was nothing like he thought it was going to be. The atmosphere was heavy, there were alot of people with missing limbs coming back to get assistance and there were others trying to hustle by buying the hunters’ catch at a cheaper price in order to transport it back to the city for a profit.

The main feature of the Bunker was that the real facility was underground and on the surface there were only giant screens full of information. The screens were updating constantly and there were some that display a map with different colors showing the area of activity of the Argonians. All the information was collected from the people returning from expeditions and it was pretty easy to understand. The colors went from green to red signifying the level of activity of the Dracos with green being the lowest and red signifying extreme danger. Red Areas were avoided by the majority of Novice Hunters and were usually hunted in groups due to the high chances of encountering large packs of Dracos that didn’t leave even the bones.

The fatality rate of the red zones were as high as 70 % but the rewards were pretty high considering that in addition to the corpses that could be sold for a pretty penny, the government would provide outstanding rewards to the people completing the Long Term Request also known as Standing Orders.

The standing orders were government requests that never changed due to their nature, for example on the east side where the majority of the Argonians were Dracos, the request numero uno was to kill 5000 Dracos from the red zone. It didn’t matter how many hunters fulfill the request that day, the next day or the day after that, it would continue to appear on the boards and the reward was always the same, an apartment on the 50th floor on one of the towers.

The Dracos were always in high demand but there were also private requests from people that had businesses in the City of Hope. There were some to collect herbs used in the creation of regeneration syringes as well as some for metals found in the wilderness that could be used for equipment or even decorations.

The data kept scrolling left on the screens like in the stock market and all Sly had to do was observe the number given to the order and then have K.C sign a virtual contract.

…. Order 00001 …. Kill 10 Dracos Rewards a first generation equipment…. Order 00002…. Kill 20 Dracos Rewards a DNA upgrade from a Three Star Argonian Soldier…. Kill 30 Dracos Rewards a Core from a Three star Argonian Soldier from the list of abilities…. 100 Herias from the lake in the middle of the red zone. Reward 50 Regeneration Syringes ( Medium Potency )