Bruce followed the knights and after walking for about 15 minutes, he saw huge walls as tall as 15 meters and a huge iron gate with a few guards around.
There was a long line of people waiting to get inside but an ID was required to do so. The knights went straight to the front of the gate and Bruce followed behind.
"Welcome back, sir!! " a guard saluted the bald knight
"hmm,He must be the leader or has some high position? " Bruce thought
The leader pointed his fingers towards Bruce and said "I found this illegal hunter with no ID deep in the forest, go check him up and inquire him about his identity"
"come, follow me" the guard instructed Bruce ro follow him to a small room nearby.
A horn like helmet full body armour in blood red color and a devilish looking mask.
The guard glanced him up and down making Bruce feel a little embarrassed
"Do I look that cool? " Bruce thought
"Take off your mask" the guard asked. Bruce then tried to take his mask off but realised in won't come off no matter how much strength he used, he was surprised but kept his cool and said, " I can't and I won't take off this mask as it is taboo for a warrior to take off their mask in our culture "
"I see you are a tribal, Which tribe do you belong to? " the guard asked without any change in his expression like he had countered this type of people a lot.
"That too I can't tell but all I can tell you is that I am from the far East" Bruce had no idea about tribes so he just went with the flow and told he was from a tribe in the far East.
The guard this time had an excited face somehow " Savage lands? You are from the savage lands". "savage lands? " Bruce had no idea what the guard was talking about and just nodded in affirmation.
"Then you must have travelled quite far, tell me your purpose of coming here"
"I seek adventure and strength so I set out in this journey"
The guard stared at Bruce for a while and told him he could go in. "Get yourself and ID, if strength or power is what you are looking for join the hunter's association, If for money and wealth join the merchant's association".
" The building with four floors and a large statue of the Sun God Helion in the entrance would be the hunter's association's hq, go there and forge an ID for yourself, just walk straight through the main road "
Bruce nodded and walked through the gate.
" A tribal who worships The death God huh"
the guard said while taking a seat beside the Leader taking some rest.
" Won't you get fired if he causes trouble, you let him in without even investigating him properly and without any entrance fee? "
"Haha, he won't cause any trouble or should I say he can't". The leader was confused, seeing his confused face, the guard continued laughing and said "He has no mana and he is an unblessed too, how could a weakling like him stir any problem in this world where power sets the rules"then they both started laughing but deep inside they felt a little bad for this glonk, they knew how it felt to be a weakling living in a world where being powerful was the most important goal, everyone wanted to be Powerful so they could
solve any trouble or live life in their most desired lavish ways may it be by the power of strength or the power of wealth it didn't matter but not everyone was destined for that only the chosen ones could achieve such a feat. Talent was the only thing people wanted as hard work didn't always pay off, but a little work with talent could take you places. With these thoughts always in their minds, the guard went back to his post and Leonard the leader of the Hunting knights 12th order went off to do their duties.
Bruce walked straight through the main road like the guard told him. He was constantly checking how his senses have been after being transmigrated as he was afraid to lose all the hard work he put onto his body for years. But when he was about 100 meters away from the guard room he could still hear the guard's and Leonard's words like he was standing right in front of them.
His senses had become monstrous. If he focused he could even hear the breathing of people 200 meters away. Bruce was super excited to check his other senses.
" If my sense of touch and smell are also upgraded this much I would become a true master" he muttered excitedly.
He stood still letting the breeze flow over his body.
"Shit!! this is too good I can feel every blow of wind touching my skin even the dust, I can differentiate every single piece of those tiny dust just with the smell" Bruce was too excited "this feels way too good that I might end up ejaculating".
Bruce was standing still in the middle of the r road, one hand clutching the handle of the sword he looked like he was posing for photoshoot.
" Why is that scary looking dude just standing there? "
"oh look at that armour I have never seen that type of armour"
"me too, he must be an outsider or tribal warrior and that must be his traditional armour"
"aren't tribal warriors strong?"
"Yes, I have seen a lot of strong tribal warriors, but most of them were uncivilized or dumb in the head"
Bruce could hear every one of their words so he just started walking again after feeling a little bit embarrassing.
Soon he saw a building just like the guard had described. There was a statue of about 3 meters in height in front of the entrance, it was of the Sun God helion riding a chariot being bulled by the divine mare 'Rein'. Some people were gathered in groups outside wearing some light armour, weapons and staff.
As soon as Bruce stepped in the building he could feel that many eyes where on him and soon he started hearing the awaited whispers.
"oh! look at that armour, must be a tribal!"
"haha!! he has a long sword, he must be an unblessed"
"poor guy , he must have come here to do small tasks and earn some money".
" Longsword?!? unblessed? how does this two relate? " Bruce then ignored their words and calmly walked toward the lady giving him a warm smile and was standing behind a desk.
"Welcome sir, my name is Linda and I am a guide here"
"Oh, hello Linda" Bruce said with a monotonous voice, unfazed by the dazzling beauty of Linda.
"You look new here, sir. Are you here to forge an ID? "
"Yes and please tell me about the rules and norms"
"Ok then, please tell me your name"
" Batma--!! ehm, I mean Bruce"
She wrote something on the paper and burnt it over a stone tablet while chanting something.
"Please place your hand over this tablet"
She pushed the tablet forward and lay a piece of a small thinly pressed rectangular piece of iron on top of the table.
Bruce placed his hand on the tablet and started Linda startes chanting. Soon the piece of metal started shining and words started appearing on it. Linda told Bruce to remove his hand.
"Take this, this is your ID" Linda gave Bruce the piece of metal or ID.
"Thanks"
"Now about rules and norms, let me tell you everything" Linda thought he is was a tribal and knew nothing " After the war which I suppose you know about, even if you are a tribal, corruption spread everywhere, humans, elves, dwarves, Pinols and even plants and animal where not spared. Many of these became insane after being unable to handle the corruption or being unable the sheer amount of excessive corrupted mana being put forcefully in their bodies and turned into demons. These demons then started attacking everything that moved, they were like vicious animals and the could even use magic as most of them were former mages or followers of the God of Magic. Growlendia was in turmoil, every world was in chaos, but soon the first blessed ones started appearing they formed the hunter's association and started pushing them back towards the east"
"East, isn't that where I'm supposed to be from? " Bruce was confused "Why did they push the demons East if their were tribes living there? " Bruce thought.
"As you should know the East worlds at that time had no inhabitants and was devoid of any intelligent life except for some few animals" Linda continued after noticing that Bruce was listening diligently " After a long time most of the demons were successfully pushed back to the East and peace prospered. The first blessed ones established branches of the hunter's association all over the worlds, this place is the branch situated in the town 'Kmerh'. Bruce wanted to ask how tribes came to be on the East worlds if demon resided there but he had told the guard he was a tribal and everybody thought so too and being a tribal means he must know about his origins so he just aske Linda to continue.
"So now that you know the history let me tell you the rules and norms. The hunter's are divided into seven ranks and they are the beginner rank - adept rank - expert rank - Master rank - Grand master rank - Legionnaire rank and the highest 'Grand rank'. Hunter's start at beginner rank and after completing quests, requests or achieving a huge feat ranking point are added which you can see in your ID. After exceeding the threshold of the particular rank the hunter is at their rank increases by one."
"For example beginner rank has a threshold of 1500 points and when you get 1501 you will reach the adept rank, did you understand? "
"Yes, I did, now can I get a quest" Bruce was excited as he felt like he was the male lead of a fantasy novel he used to read.
"oh, okay you are quite eager to rank up I see, but please dont get yourself killed"
Bruce just nodded.
Linda sighed thinking she would she another unblessed tribal die as tribals were always unblessed and couldn't use magic resulting in them being weak.
She then pointed towards a board and said
"The quests are listed there and you can only accept quests labelled for your rank or one rank higher, if you want a quest higher than that you would have to complete a test to prove yourself worthy".
Bruce nodded
" Doesn't talk much ehh. Hope he realises the truth soon and doesn't do stupid things to get himself killed" Linda muttered to herself.
Bruce walked towards the board and started looking for a suitable quest. His eyes started searching the whole board and stopped at one quest posted on the left most side of the large board.
"Slay the wyvern duo living in the 'South - mound hills' "
Required rank - Master rank
minimum rank - Expert rank
minimum Group recommended - 17 adepts (experienced)
Reward - 55 gold
Points -100
"Hm the points reward seem high here why are people not taking this quest maybe it's because their are not many strong hunters here or the gold reward is low" Bruce thought after looking at the quest " I should take this quest , it's way higher than my rank but I believe I am strong enough anyway" he was full of confidence " There is the test too, if I pass I am strong enough and if I fail I have to train harder"
Bruce pulled the paper off the board and presented it to Linda.
"I will take this and I am ready for the test"
Linda was baffled by Bruce's choice
" is this dude wrong in the head? I just told him about the dangers and yet!! "
"Are you sure you want to take this? this may be end being too difficult for you and abandoning quests also lands you a fine" Linda asked.
" Yes "Bruce nodded
Linda sighed at his stupidity and asked Bruce to follow her. She led him to an empty ground where a middle aged man with long straight black hair who looked like he was in his forties was practicing with a glowng transparent sword.
Linda walked to him and started talking about something. Bruce could hear it all,
"Another test? "
"Yes, but please go easy on him he is an unblessed"
"unblessed?!? I haven't heard of any unblessed hunter"
"He is a tribal who just registered a while ago"
"hm...What rank is the quest?
" Master"
"hahahaha!!! " hearing this the man burst out laughing
"Glain please go easy on him"
"No, I must teach him a lesson and show him the harsh reality"
"Sigh" Linda knew Glain was stubborn so she didn't say anything and indicated Bruce to come over.
"He is the Examiner for the test 'Glaive' a Master rank hunter, you will have to spar with him and get his approval if you want to do that quest" Linda told Bruce with a disappointed face.
" Hey kid, you got guts to think that a master rank quest would be easy now let me show you how wrong you are "
There were some sitting by the side of the ground resting after practicing. They were
looking towards Bruce with a face that showed pity.
"Another one huh"
"I feel bad for that kid"
"Look he is a tribal then that means he must be a tribal"
"sigh poor kid"
"Glaive is gonna beat him to pulp like he always does to people who comes for tests"
"Atleast we get to watch a show"
They were acting like an audience waiting to see Bruce's horrible beat down.
Bruce didn't mind them as he was fully focused on Glaive's transparent sword.
Glaive noticed it and said " This is a mana sword, it is formed when you focus and project your mana toward a short sword, it copies the form of the sword and you can even decide the length and breadth, the better your control of mana the sharper the sword, far sharper than an normal handcrafted sword"
Glaive said all this with a wry smile knowing Bruce was an unblessed.
Linda glared at Glaive and then walked away towards the edge of the ground and told both of them to be ready.
"Don't kill him" a man from the audience yelled
"haha go easy on him" another man said
"Don't worry a moment is all it would take"
"yes" Bruce said while standing still and one hand on his sword, he looked like he was ready to take the sword out any moment.
Hearing this the audience burst out laughing, even Linda and Glaive.
Yet Bruce stood still showing no sign of embarrassment and the audience went quite after recognising Bruce's focus.
Linda then started count " remember this isn't a death battle "
"one"
"two'
"Thre--" "You are quite bra--"
WOOOSH!!!
Glaive didn't even get to complete his words before he could feel something go over his head, not just the top but every angle over his head.
He felt light headed literally!!
The audience along with Linda went silent.
They couldn't believe what had happened.
The couldn't even see Bruce move, he was just standing there yet they knew Bruce did strike!!
Bruce walked off the ground to set out for the quest.
After a while when they recovered from the shock. Their bodies couldn't stop shaking
"That was way too amazing"
"My body is still shaking because of the shock"
"How is he so fast without using magic"
"I couldn't even see him moving"
"me too, that was way too cool"
Linda walked to glaive, gave him a hug and consoled him.
Glaive couldn't hold it in and started crying
all the while Linda had a big smile on her face holding back her laughter