"Now, now. Can we all settle down. Holy shit your HEL is 20," Lily said side eyeing at King before taking a few glances at his party.
"Yes, Cindy's HEL is 7 and Brick's 11," King said pointing at Cindy and Brick when he said their names. He continued to stare down Allen until administrator Amanda interrupted everyone, "Hey yawl, can you take this elsewhere, there might actually be people who want to sign up for the Dragon Hunt."
"Right, we must take our leave. Mistress Lily you ought to join us on a hunt, I have much to discuss about your father."
"Uhm, sure... It would be nice to get a higher HEL. Could Allen come with us as well, he needs just as much help as I do," Lily asked grabbing onto Allen's shirt as she smelt the rancid smell of burnt flesh. She noticed a slightly burnt hand hanging over King's shoulder. She closed her eyes and rubbed them before calming herself down and thought, 'I'm obligated to help him, I killed his master, he has nowhere to go. He is like a lost bird. That's a good analogy Lily. A bird going north for the winter. Well I guess he would be a dragon?'
"I'll come with as long as I can hunt without you guys bothering me," Allen said as his eyes returned to normal.
Allen and Lily began walking over to another part of the lobby where bounties are posted. King, Cindy, and Brick followed them, as they all walked away, the administrator yelled out to them, "Remember guys! August 1st is the day of the Dragon Hunt. If you're late you get a gold penalty. If you don't show up it's a suspension from turning in any bounties. And they're gone." She sighed as Wick took a seat next to Amanda, the same seat Lily sat in before she got up. "There's no such thing as a coincidence. The very fact that those two met means that their energy alig-"
"You're still here," Amanda asked Wick who seemed to get extremely comfortable.
"Ignore my energy and continue living administrator. I must see the team I'm required to supervise."
"Okay then, Amanda said stretching out her upper body.
"By the way, how much bounty does the dragon have?"
"I don't remember off the top of my head, but you can probably see it on the bounty board."
The bounty board was a large corkboard that took up an entire wall inside the lobby. The board itself wrapped around the whole wall. The wall was located at the center of the lobby and practically split the lobby into two halves. On the board was papers that detailed creatures in the nearby area. These papers also detailed the price of the head of the creature, as well as how many days before the bounty was taken down. The lower half of the board contained local creatures that had no bounty expiration date. On the upper half of the board, there were bounties for legendary creatures and dangerous people.
"Lily, let's hunt that one," Allen pointed at a bounty in the upper half of the board that detailed a vicious man eating plant that laid inside the heart of the forest.
"It says that it recommends a HEL of 5 to complete," Lily responded as she let go of Allen's shirt.
"Rookie mistake number 1," Cindy began as Brick and her arrived to the bounty board before King. "HEL recommendation is just that, a recommendation. Your HEL doesn't actually reflect your skill. He, the King of Peasants, will put it in a better way, he's quite the pro at this."
"Yes I am! Year 3 of doing this and I have no plans on slowing down. So I expect you all to just catch up," King walked up with Richard following closely behind him. He seemed happy and excited as they both walked onto the four choosing a bounty.
"That guy again," Brick said cracking his knuckles.
"Settle down there Brick. I invited him to join us."
"Who is he," Lily asked.
"I have no idea," the King laughed as he looked over at Richard, "What art thou name again?"
"R-Richard," he said holding his arm.
"Richard! Yes, I remember now. Thank you."
"Why are you inviting some nobody," Allen said trying to take a better look at Richard.
"First of all, I did not invite him. I'm helping him, he asked me for help so I'll help him," the King responded smiling at Allen, he then dropped the smile as he looked toward Brick and Cindy. "Can you two prepare the camel dogs?" They both nodded their heads as they walked toward the exit of the guild hall.
While they left Lily tilted her head as her thoughts raced in her mind. 'When was the last time someone asked me for help? I always offered myself up to people. Ew, that sounded weird Lily. What's weirder is this King guy. He has got to have some ulterior motive or something. Something about him just unsettles me, plus Allen doesn't like him. He said despise right? Or was it hate?'
"What hunt did you guys choose?"
"The plant one," Allen said after getting a good look at the lean and weak looking Richard.
"Oh! The Merlin Crapper."
"The what," Lily responded with aggression and speed hinted with curiosity.
"It's an inside joke between hunters. You'll understand once we get there. Let's meet up with the others."
The King began walking the same direction as Brick and Cindy, he held Richard's hand as he began making his way to the exit. Lily quickly followed after, hollering at him, "Wait up!" Behind her was Allen who hesitated for a few seconds before following in the King's footsteps.
"I'm not waiting up for anyone. I already told you that I expect you all to-"
"To catch up, yeah I get that, but what are we going to do about the rewards. I was looking at the reward for th-the Crapper," the King giggled as Lily continued, "Splitting 7000 gold six ways will be very awkward."
"Then split it 5 ways. I don't need that amount of money."
"You don't need money, but you have to get supplies, equipment, travel clothes, hunting, and etc. I plan on getting some new clothes and maybe a sword to defend myself when I'm out of mana."
"Rookie mistake number 1, if you're a mage hunter and you run out of mana, give up for the day. There will always be a hunt for tomorrow, you being alive for tomorrow is never guaranteed when you are out of mana. In fact don't even allow yourself to run out of mana, preserve enough to make an escape at all times."
All four of them made their way out of the guild hall, they went out into the street and down the block until they came to a large fence post that had 3 camel dogs tied up to it. The camel dogs looked like camels with a dog's face. They had the smell and speed of a dog, and had the carrying ability of a camel. Each camel dog had large bags attached to them. "Do you like them Lily," the King started, "imports from the Desert Kingdom Ra."
"I've never seen one up close before. Do they have any names," Lily asked rushing up to one and petting it.
"You name your animals," Allen interjected with awe written across his face.
"You don't? You never owned a dog before," Cindy asked as she threw a ball against the fence post and waited for it to come back.
"Master told us to never name animals, we'll get too attached to them and hesitate on killing them."
Cindy, the King, Richard, and Brick all froze as they shared a single thought, 'This guy is a slave?' While they thought that they all slowly rotated their bodies to look at Allen who stood there scratching his head.
"I'm so sorry," Richard said rubbing Allen's right shoulder.
"It must have been tough for you," Brick yelled bowing his head toward Allen.
"What," Allen said raising his brow.
"With those freaky eyes and being a slave, life must have been rough," Cindy stated as she caught her ball and put it in her shorts pocket.
"What are you guys going on about? I'm free, I'm not a slave anymore. I've been free since last week, Lily freed me."
They all turned toward Lily, except for King who pondered for a few moments while the others looked at Lily for her response. "I freed him after what happened at the Truman Farm."
"Oh! It's because of you two that we have this Dragon Hunt," King finally said as he turned away from Allen to hop on a camel dog. Lily smelt the rancid smell of burnt flesh as she looked down at her feet, "Yeah, it is because of us," she stuttered the sentence out while Cindy got on a camel dog.
"Tell us all about while we're on the hunt," the King exclaimed as Brick untied all the camel dogs. He took the rope that was used and placed it inside a bag that was attached to the only camel dog without someone on it. After he loaded everything up, he hopped on the camel dog.
"Richard, you're with Brick. Allen with Cindy. Lily with me. Shall we move forth."
Richard nodded his head as he got help from Brick to get on his camel dog. Lily grabbed the hand of the King who lifted her onto the camel. "Can we make a stop at a friend's house. I need to pick up my spell book." King nodded his head.
"Are you going to get on or not," Cindy asked Allen who did leg stretches and squats. "I'm not. Let's get to hunting," Allen said smiling with snake like eyes, and flames that sparked out of his hands.