BrightMoon: Path of a Witch King

Chapter 13

Gola had given me directions to the hunters Union, it was a large building closer to the center of town, there was an inn next door called the Prattling Ass. I nearly coughed out a lung hearing that, who in the world names an inn after a donkey?

It wasn't all that hard to find, considering the name of the inn, though Gola had downplayed the largeness of the Hunters Union. The building towered over its neighbors by a few stories, I saw a few folks head inside, I marched over and entered behind them.

Coming inside reminded me close to what a saloon might look like, there were tables and chairs, a small stage and a bar. The difference was that there was a second counter on the far wall that had a sign above it that said “Reception” in bright red letters.

“I suppose after we finished with business we could just eat here.” I said to the girls trailing behind me. They were looking around curiously as they followed me to the reception counter, when I approached a woman in a red vest called us over.

“Good afternoon and welcome to the Hunters Union, I don't recognize you, do you have a Hunters Tag?” she asked sweetly

I shook my head, “No, I haven't joined the Hunters Union, though I am interested. Could you tell me a bit about the benefits of joining the Union?”

“Oh! Of course sir. Joining the Union has plenty of benefits, a hunter can turn in bounties at the union earning a steady income. There is also that while traveling to other towns the Union has discounted rates at the inns, depending on your rank of course, there is also the bounty board which allows hunters to see active bounties in the area. Also if you specialize in a particular monster we will put you on notice when jobs open up about that particular species.” the girl said in a chipper voice.

“There is also the benefit of party requests, if your rank or skills are required we will reach out to you and advise others about you.” The girl finished up the sales pitch. Honestly it sounded like most guilds you would find in games, and even acted as a talent scout if you were good enough.

“Alright, what are the requirements for signing up?” I felt like this was a decent way to gain some world experience along with some income.

“Since you are all starting out there are guild dues once per year, or you can do a monthly payment if that's more suitable, Flint is the first rank of the hunters union and the dues are one silver cube per year. If you rank up in your first year you don't need to pay again until the full year.” she explained while bringing out some paper. “Just write your names and occupation on these and I will be right back with your tags.”

We each wrote our names onto the paper and passed them back, “Wow four witches at once, that is surprising, we haven't seen any witches or wizards around here in ages.” the girl said before going into the back room. We waited patiently and five minutes later she came back, I placed the silver onto the desk and she handed me the tags.

It was a thin rectangle of stone that had our names engraved on them, I passed them to the girls, they each wore their tags and tucked them into their clothes.

“Is there anything else I can do for you Mr.BrightMoon?” the receptionist asked. I quickly brought out the goblin emblems and placed them on the counter. “Oh that is excellent sir, a few more hunts like this one and you can move into the iron rank.”

She counted the emblems expertly and passed me a pouch and receipt, the pay was correct and I thanked the woman before heading towards a vacant table. I wasn't too concerned about ranking up in the union at the moment, it was more a means of being able to turn my efforts of slaying goblins into profit.

A server found us a minute later and we placed an order for roasted chicken, potatoes, and corn with a slice of  apple, cherry, or blackberry pie for dessert. I chose apple, Indra and Cera chose blackberry, and Satera chose cherry.

We ate our meals while listening to a man play the lute. It was interesting to hear a man sing and tell stories so captively, I hardly noticed I had finished my meal by the time he had ended his first set.

Once we had all finished our meal I tipped the minstrel a silver coin into the instrument case, he gave an amazing bow, before strumming his lute and dancing his way across the stage. The rest of the hunters laughed and sang along to the ditty, I stayed for the final song and left with the girls right after.

The sun was setting and the air had cooled down, we walked slowly to the ship with our full bellies. Once I was back on board I found three more bodies. “I guess I was wrong about learning their lesson the first time.” I searched the bodies before tossing them overboard. 

“Indra take us home.” I said before sitting on the rail, the sprites came up to me, “Good work, I didn't expect so many people to try and come on board while we were gone. Is everyone alright?”

“Yes master. We tackled them quickly and before they could lift a finger they were already full of holes and stopped moving.” The cute voice and morbid message didn't quite go well together.

“Well I am glad you are all safe.” the sprites went back about their business, whatever that was, and the ship started to disembark. We would be coming back to town in a week to collect the bedding and drop off any pelts we managed to get.

Roughly an hour later we made it home, though it was dark out so parking the boat was slightly more difficult than usual.

Once we disembarked we headed towards home, just as we reached the yard I heard a familiar sound, the guttural broken language of goblins. “Girls, stay close,  go my little ones and be ready to fight.” My sprites jumped into the bushes and disappeared.

I felt the girls standing behind me, I walked forward and peaked over the fence, more than twenty goblins were inside the yard trying to get into my home. I pushed my mana and I turned all the stones I could into arrows and let them fly at the crowd of goblins.

The horrid little creatures screamed out in surprise, pain, and some in death. I hopped over the fence and moved toward the green skinned monsters. I held my clubs and swung them left and right crushing skulls and breaking bones, the sprites were already hopping into the fight and they worked together to take out the goblins.

With the element of surprise and extreme number advantage we took down the goblins in a matter of minutes. A few of my sprites had minor injuries but otherwise they were alright.

Hurried footsteps approached, “Are you alright master?” the girls reached me and looked me over.

“Yes I am just fine. Though, it seems that we need to improve our walls. I don't want to have to worry about goblins getting into the yard all the time.” I opened up the door to our home and let everyone inside, I didn't close the door right away and decided to make sprite sized tunnels that led outside. They were mostly for ventilation but they would be useful if I needed to check on the outside of the cave.

The sprites collected all the loot and brought it inside the cave, I let the earth open up a bit and disposed of the bodies, no need to leave them rotting in the yard. After cleaning up I closed the entrance of the cave, “Just adding on more work before I could get the original list done.” I sighed, and headed to the bathroom.

A hot bath was just what I needed to relax, tomorrow was going to be a busy day.