"Are you nervous?"
I shake my head in response and go back to looking out of the window again.
I am in my family's car and we are heading to a certain destination. The city, that I never left before, is about 30 Minutes away now.
"You don't need to be brave, you know?" my father declares from the driver seat. "I still remember my first time… Even though I was older than you, I was scared beyond belief."
Well, technically he was not older.
When my father had to do what I am going to do for the first time, he was 10 years old. Today is my seventh birthday.
But considered my previous lifespan I am mentally older now than he was back then.
I am really not nervous… Maybe a little bit.
"Ah let him be. Rell is much more mature than you were back then and even Lyon didn't had problems." Not sure if my grandfather wanted to insult my dad a bit or if he wanted to praise my older brother who wasn't with us.
My father started to mumble in a complaining voice but I didn't really listen and focused on the scene on the other side of the window.
At the moment its just the 3 of us in the car that looked like a small train and flew over the untouched lands. We left the road soon after we left the city.
Normally one needs a special permission to leave the city but because of our jobs we have one of course.
Yes, our.
It is common, that children follow in the paths of their parents and take over the job. Of course one could always ask for apprenticeship in another field and normally there was no problem in doing so.
The only thing not allowed is unemployment. Everyone has to give something and even if it sounds odd, the system works quite well. Maybe because it is used for generations upon generations and something like money seemingly never existed in this world? Who knows.
But because of that I am now in a slightly difficult position.
I am called a genius and because of such a thing it was decided, that I will learn the family business when I become 7 years old… today.
Even in school this was a hot topic, because normally a child joins the work at age 10 earliest. For dangerous jobs it should be 15 actually.
So even my father was a weird exception when he had to do it at the age of 10.
Probably it was because my grandfather rushed him… Yes, that seems reasonable.
My family's job is the so called woodkeeper or forester. Doesn't really sound interesting or dangerous, but actually it is.
We have to keep the monsters, beasts and spirits in check, that inhabit the woods around the city. Also it is our duty to collect needed "resources" from them every now and then.
Today should be an easier job. We just have to secure and mark an area so that woodcutters can work there without being in danger.
I still have a bad premonition.
My grandfather told me much about the work and some silly traditions of which one says, that every child that joins the ranks has to get at least one kill on their first day to get acknowledged.
So I have to kill something?
I feel slightly nauseous.
Of course I killed many characters before and ruined other peoples days, maybe even weeks, but I never actually killed something.
Maybe a bug or a fly and stuff and I killed a little potted plant that my grandma gave me, but this time is different.
No actually, this world is different and I should leave my sense of the other world behind… but can I really do that?
My grandfather always says, that this is the natural order. The strong rule over the weak.
If the weak want to complain, then they should become the strong themselves and rule over us.
To be honest I thought that this was just a saying to excuse the humans behaviour, but some time ago I learned, that his wife and his youngest son died in two different accidents while doing our work just because the hunt was stronger.
Actually there are dozens of people dying daily while fighting hunts.
Oh, yes.
A hunt is just a collective term for all beasts, monsters and spirits that are a threat for humans and sometimes even humanity itself. In the classical fantasy world stereotype they are ranked from A to D.
A is a threat that is only fought by the heroes party and usually takes at least magic of the nuclear level to bring down. From what I heard, it never is without hard causalities when fighting an A rank but luckily they are really rare.
D on the other hand would be comparable with a raging boar in my old world. They are dangerous but if one knows what to do, even a commoner could deal with them.
There is actually the E rank too, but this is a bit special. The E rank has no categorization in strength and instead is used for everything that is good natured towards humans. The Potted Pixies belong in this rank.
"There we are." my father announces.
The cars gently stops in the midst of a forest.
While I was in my thoughts we got surrounded by trees and now there is no way that a car can advance much further into the wild.
I open my door and jump out to see the untouched nature for the first time in this life.
The plants look similar and some small bugs in my surrounding are nearly the same.
"From now on it's the danger zone." My grandfather says with a restless voice, that I never heard from him before.
While my father got a backpack from the backseat, my grandfather handed me some child sized shotgun, a sword that fits my size and a knife with a black, curved blade.
I put the knife in a holder on my sleeve, so that I could draw it in an emergency, stowed the sword on my belt and took the shotgun, so that I could shoot at a moments notice.
My grandfather nodded in satisfaction and then reached in his pocket. The thing that he got out was a thin headband and he leaned forward to tie it around my head.
Immediately after he finished, he chopped me on the head.
I flinched out of reflex but the pain never came. He smiled at me.
"This will keep that fine head of yours safe."
A thin layer of Aether had stopped his hand and protected me. As soon as he took the hand away, the shield vanished too.
To be honest I was a bit concerned that I had no head protection until now, but this will work fine.
My body is covered in some convenient clothing made out of a black, highly resistant fabric. On vital parts there are some plates that remind me of plastic but these plates could actually withstand gunshots easily. On both sleeves is a small device, that can activate a shield similar to the one at my head.
So it's getting serious now huh?
…
….
It isn't.
Actually I am getting bored.
We are walking for nearly eight hours now with only short breaks and nothing happens.
Thanks to the training my body can do this without asking for some rest quite easily and the clothing keeps me at a nice temperature.
The problem is that I am getting bored.
My father and grandfather both are highly on alert and only speak when it's necessary. Every now and then my father takes out a thin metal pole from his backpack and puts it in the air where it just stays floating. He then holds his hand in front of it and channels some Aether in it.
After a few seconds it connects to the pole that was placed before with a thin, flickering line of red light.
As far as I know this will shock every hunt that tries to cross the border we are creating.
By now there is only half a dozen poles left so we wont be doing this for much longer.
5…
4…
3…
2…
My father places the pole and then looks at me with a mix of relief and pity.
"The next one will be placed where the car is, so sadly your chance will have to wait."
The car?
The car should be in the middle of the forest and we are near the edge of it.
A bit confused I follow my father for a bit more until he holds his hand out in a gesture that commands us to be careful.
My grandfather crouches immediately and I follow his example.
I sharpen my ears and try to see trough the thick bushes to the location my father is pointing at.
There is a car.
It's the one my mother and brother used.
For a moment I realize, that we did one half of the border and they did the other one, so that there is now a completely encircled area. But this thought gets replaced by something else fast.
There is something near the car.
It is buzzing. It is flying around. And it is big!
At least 3 meters tall and because it is hovering in the air it seemed even bigger. It's a hornet with yellow and orange stripes that curiously inspected the car.
And the worst part; it is not alone.
Five of those things are in the area we need to get.
How is this thing flying? No, how is it even alive?
Some beasts circulate Aether in their body to strengthen it completely by instinct. Are those hornets doing the same so they can fly and wont get crushed by their own exoskeleton? I need to check this when I get back home.
Or if..?
No, if it would be to dangerous my father or grandfather would already have ordered a retreat. Right?
The opposite is the case.
My father nods at me and then at the hornet closest to us.
This is it?
He himself aims at the next close one and my grandfather points his rifle at the hornet near the car.
"You make the opening." He whispered near silent. "Don't worry, we will follow up."
Oh, that's not what I worry about. I know that trust is the most vital part in this job, so I have confidence in my family.
...But can I really do it?
I feel nauseous again and cold sweat runs down my back.
I know that this is a beast in front of me and it wouldn't hesitate to kill me the moment I am seen.
But still.
Heh, what a fine excuse I am for a self declared endboss.
It could be so easy to make it reality in this world, but I am sitting here shivering because of my own morals.
No, actually… it couldn't be easy… it is!
I never cared what my enemies thought of me, so why should I hesitate in front of a mere beast, that shouldn't even have a real sense of self.
This is just an C rank beast.
Only some A rank hunts have an intelligent sense of self and the ability to reason. So why should I care for such a beast?
As if it was completely natural I lift the shotgun. Aiming at the hornets head I correct my crouching position a bit and take a deep breath.
I let Aether flow from my body over my hands and into the gun.
There are two cylinders so I could prepare two shots.
The manipulation of Aehter to invoke magic is easy and just pressing it in a tool is even easier.
Within a second both cylinders are filled up and felt close to explode.
Without a second thought, I let the first one explode.
There was no sound like a gunshot when I fired, but a frizzling explosion sound the moment the shot hit.
I didn't even confirm the hit as my body moved out of pure reflex by the training and the second shot gets released towards another hornets head. At the same time both my father and grandfather take down one hornet each.
The reloading time would only be a second but my fathers gun is made for rapid-fire, so he could take down the last beast that turned around in confusion easier than me.
I wont share the bonus for the most kills in a party!
Wait what?
The thought came to late as my body already moved.
I had dropped the gun and took out the knife while jumping up. At the same moment as my father turns towards the last hornet, I throw the knife, that was filled with my Aether.
The trigger wasn't even pulled yet and the knife already hit the hornets eye. The body is protected by the exoskeleton but the eye should have a bit less defence.
I was right.
The knife penetrated the eye and a grotesque sound appeared in the same moment. The hornets head bursts open. Split from the inside by a crystal made out of ice.
I seem to have a good affinity with ice magic. Nothing to herolike but for a villain quite fitting. I chuckled.
"Yeah you can definitely be proud of you with that performance." My grandfather smiled at me widely. "For a moment I thought you hesitate but you only thought about getting the most prey, eh?"
I blushed a bit. "Yes."
The "fight", if one would name it that, was not very long, but the cleanup was.
We had to stow away the beasts corpses in the trunk of the car but with their sizes it was near impossible.
Only three would barely fit and we could fix one on the roof so for the last one we had to place it on the backseat and I had to sit on my grandfathers lap for the ride home.
This wouldn't be a problem but he talked all the time in a way to proud voice about me. That's embarrassing you know?
...
--------
...
"So you really did it?"
The small childrens eyes start to shine with a weird glance when I told about my birthday in class the next day.
Well, I say that they are small but they are about my size. I just can't get the image into my head that I am only at the same level as the other elementary school students.
"Yes, it is tradition in my family to get a hunt when we join the job so they kinda forced me… It was…" I searched for a word other than weird, "interesting."
A murmur that sounded like a weird way of respect filled the whole class even though I already had to tell the story four times today.
School was always a bother and quite boring but if this keeps up, it will be annoying more than anything else.
You should fear me and not admire me!
Hehe.