Chereads / Max Entropy / Chapter 44 - Monster Hunting License

Chapter 44 - Monster Hunting License

The next day, after school, Paley went straight to the Guild after dropping Dillie off. It turned out that Hig was Libon Reish's - the monster hunter whose books on monsters Paley read - great-grandson. However, unlike his brothers and cousins, who were all strong mages, he was weak, barely able to conjure a gust of wind.

Paley arrived at the Guild and entered to find he was asleep on one of the tables. A half-eaten apple and empty plate with crumbs on it lay in front of him.

"Hig?" Paley woke him up.

"Paley!" He sat up with a confused suddenness, "What happened?"

"Nothing, I didn't have anything to do, so I decided to come early." He took a seat next to Hig.

"Early? You're so late," Hig took the apple and began eating the rest of it.

"What?" Paley asked but then clocked it, "When exactly did you get here?" He asked suspiciously.

"Five."

"It's 3:30 right now. Don't tell me you came here at five in the morning." He facepalmed.

"Did you mean five in the afternoon?" Hig asked moronically, finishing eating the apple.

"Of course, I meant five in the afternoon. I'm twelve. I go to school." He sighed and stood up, "Come on, you idiot. Have you already signed up for a test?"

"No,"

"Why?"

"I was nervous, so I waited for you to do it."

Hig's incompetence blew Paley away. They walked over to one of the desks at the sides where people worked, compiling files and writing registries, and approached a skinny woman wearing large spectacles.

Paley nodded and pushed Hig forward, who was fidgeting with his hands nervously.

"Hello, ma'am." He quickly bowed, "Could I sign up for a monster hunter's license test?"

"Name, date of birth, and family names, please." She quickly listed and took out a large registry book.

"Uh, Hig Reish. 13th February 6641. My dad's name is Rize Reish, and my mom's name is Yolena Reish."

"Ah, the Reish family." She quickly wrote down the information on a page with messy cursive, "It's a shame that not many people know about your family anymore. Libon Reish was the pride of Gouon when my dad was growing up."

"Yes, I am very proud of being his great-grandson."

"Alright, well, here you go, Hig." She wrote down his name and a code on a slip of blue paper, "I've booked you for a test in two days at seven p.m. Come back and show us that slip, and we'll take you to the testing grounds." She smiled professionally.

"Thank you." Hig took the slip of paper and put it in his pocket, then made his way out with Paley.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Paley asked.

"No, it actually went surprisingly well." Hig replied as they approached the end of the street where they split off, "So, I'll see you here in two days, then?"

"Yes, and make sure to be here at five in the *afternoon*" Paley emphasized.

"Got it," Hig laughed embarrassedly, and they went their separate ways.

The next time, it was Paley who waited for Hig; he waited for about two hours, arriving at around 4:30. He sat down on a bench facing the Guild and watched people walk by. The sun had begun to set since it was nearly 6:00. Posters of the upcoming summer festival were being put up; it was going to happen throughout June and July with a massive ball hosted by the Lord of Gouon on the last night.

It was already fairly hot, so Paley hoped with all his soul that the guy at the end of the street in the oversized pink puffer jacket wasn't Hig. But, he recognized Hig's excited face immediately and dropped his face into his hands.

'I don't want to be seen in public with this idiot,' He thought and stood up, waving awkwardly at Hig.

"Hey!" Hig greeted unzipping the front of the jacket.

"Hey..." Paley replied, "You couldn't have gotten a more conspicuous jacket? One that didn't hang down to your knees?"

"We needed something that can fit both of us." He opened the jacket, motioning for him to get in.

"Can we do this somewhere private?" Paley took them to an alleyway where he climbed into the jacket and around Hig so that he could hold on to him from his back. Hig entered the Guild, trying to seem confident to mask his nervousness.

Paley was in an extremely uncomfortable position, hanging onto Hig with his legs, impairing his movement, and having to keep his arms in the sleeves with Hig's. Additionally, it was boiling in the jacket, but he solved that problem by cooling himself with Temperature magic (a variation of Fire magic).

"Is it just me, or is it kinda cold? Like freezing." Hig asked.

"It's just you," Paley mumbled from within the jacket.

The skinny woman was there at the guild. At first, she didn't recognize Hig. But after struggling for a bit, she managed to recall him.

"Ah, the Reish boy!" She stared at him, confused, "...What are you wearing?"

"A jacket. It's cold." He swallowed nervously.

"Okay... Have you got your slip?"

"Yes, right here." He took it out of one of his oversized pockets and gave it to her. Paley wondered how he managed to buy the jacket in the first place. A shop would try and get you to buy a jacket that fits you.

He asked him on the way to the back of the Guild where the test was going to take place.

"How did you buy such a big jacket?" He asked.

"I told them it's a fashion statement." Hig boasted. His fashion sense was completely broken. He wore colorful clothes that never fit together the way they were supposed to, so if he went to the same shop he always went to, Paley understood why they let him buy such a ridiculous jacket.

Once Hig reached the testing grounds, he was met by three perplexed looks by two men and one woman.

"Uh, you have to take that jacket off." The woman said.

"Why?"

"Because we have to make sure there is no use of runestones or any other magic-enhancing device." She explained. One of the two men was another hunter looking to get a license, and the other man was her coworker, examining that hunter.

"I can't take it off. I will die." Hig's horrendous lie made Paley want to slap him across the face.

"Act like that was a joke, and take the jacket off." He mumbled the order into Hig's ear.

"I'm just kidding." Hig laughed awkwardly and unzipped the jacket, slowly taking it off to let Paley have enough time to escape. But he still felt Paley clinging to him as he took it off, looking up at the examiner terrified that she saw Paley. Except she didn't. She was waiting for him to put the jacket away to begin the test.

Confused, he looked down to see that although he still felt Paley, he wasn't there.

"Woah!" He exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" The examiner asked impatiently.

"Nothing, just a fly." Hig excused, "Are you here?" He whispered to Paley.

"Yes, now let's hurry up and get this test over. My mana's running out." Paley replied. Illusion magic was powerful magic, capable of bending what the eye sees, meaning that it required a ton of mana to keep up. Plus, Paley had to perform spells to pass the test for Hig.

"Alright, to begin with, do any Air Magic spell of your choosing on this dummy." She presented a rubber human figure on a stick, "It has to be an offensive spell."

Hig panicked. He hoped that they didn't know his magic type, but it appeared that they examined his mana at some point. This meant that he couldn't ask Paley what magic type he was. Hig still had no idea Paley was a Quimnia, so he thought they were doomed and that Paley couldn't perform his spells.

"Say, Windblast." Paley lifted his arm and blasted the rubber dummy out of the ground with his new Wind magic.

"Windblast!" Hig said it a bit after the spell happened. The examiner was taken aback by the power of the spell since it ripped a stick that was halfway underground out into the air.

"Wow, was that one of your weaker spells?" She asked as she reset the dummy in position.

"N-"

"Say, yes," Paley ordered.

"Yep,"

"Show me your strongest one. As long as it doesn't destroy the place." She joked, but Paley took it completely seriously and used 'Tornado'. A new spell he devised over the past two days. It did exactly what its name suggested and lifted the dummy out of the ground and spun it upwards in visible streaks of wind.

The spell, in Paley's opinion, didn't turn out as powerful as he hoped, but everyone else there was astonished.

"T-Tornado..." Hig tried to guess the spell's name a few seconds after it happened.

"Pass. That's a pass. Your magic is incredible. You truly are a descendant of Libon Reish." The examiner meant to compliment him, but her words made him look to the ground, disappointed.

"Right... Thank you." He didn't feel accomplished. He felt like a cheat. Libon Reish was a great monster hunter who had used Air magic too, but every bit of his strength was derived from hard work and determination. This wasn't Hig's hard work that passed the test for him. This was Paley's.

"Come back tomorrow and we'll have your license ready."

"Okay," He replied gloomily, put on his goofy jacket, and left. Once he'd gone back out onto the road, he tried to let Paley out, not realizing that he was right behind him.

"Woah!" He got startled, "Sorry, you scared me."

"It's fine. I gotta go home, so I'll reach out to you when I go on my next hunt. Where do you live?" Paley asked.

"Uh, Street 3, House 13, to the left of the Lord's manor."

"Got it, I'll see you later, Hig."

"See you later... Paley." In his oversized jacket, he watched Paley walk off at the end of the street, "Wait, why am I still wearing this?" He took it off and lugged it over his shoulder as he walked back home.

He got home when the night veiled over the city, but the stars and the moon were partially covered by clouds. His home was small and humble, situated on a wide road and bought by his older brother for him. He walked up the five steps that led to his door and opened it, dropping the giant pink jacket on the ground and making his way to the living room.

The living room was also his bedroom and it had a ton of random things ranging from dusty coins to wrinkled books. There was a table in the middle with a sofa next to it which he slept on. A window looked out onto the street and toward the stars on the right of the sofa.

He sat down on it and looked glumly out at the overseeing moon above. There was a half-read book on monster hunting resting on the table in front of him. He glanced at it, gritting his teeth in frustration.

"Argh! You know what? I don't care. I'm gonna be a monster hunter whether you like it or not!" He yelled at the moon - Hig was a strong believer in the Moon's Church -, "No offence of course." He added quickly before marching to the garden at the back of his house.

There was one tree in the middle of the garden and he stared at it, determined. He stretched his arm out toward it and focused.

"WIndblast!" He shouted and a small, weak stirring of wind occurred at his fingertips.

"Gotta start somewhere." He hyped himself up for another, "Windblast!" It had the same result. He continued, repeating the same spell again and again.

"Windblast!" He repeated.

"Windblast!" He repeated.

"Windblast!" He slightly sang this one.

"Will you shut up!?" His neighbour shouted in the distance.

"Sorry," Hig apologized and stretched his arm out, "Windblast." He whispered. He spent the rest of the night training like this, trying to at least reach the wood with a blast of air.

"Wind... Blast..." He eventually passed out from mana exhaustion. But as soon as he awoke, he was going to return to training.