Waking up, I stretched my arms.
My whole body was sore, however, I had a lot of distance I needed to cover today.
Untying myself and taking out one of my hunter's meal packs I began wolfing it down.
It contained 3 meals worth of food.
After all, hunters didn't know how long they would have to wait to catch the monster they were hunting.
Therefore it was necessary to have adequate preparations.
Eating it quickly, I packed everything up and began my journey back.
Making my way through the swamp, I once again lamented at how filthy this place was.
Some things never change.
Sighing away my frustrations I just continued walking.
After I woke up I checked my status and was pleasantly surprised.
===Status===
Name: Isaac Moreau
Affinity: ???
Rank: E-
Strength: F+
Agility: E-
Stamina: F+
Mana Control: E-
Awareness: F+
Perseverance: E-
-- > Martial Techniques: None
-- > Spells: None
==========
My stats had gone up quite a bit, thanks to the Pool of Life, my stats should go up faster than most people.
Sighing for the millionth time after almost tripping, I took in a long breath bottling up my frustrations.
The air was relatively clear if not a bit humid.
All was silent and peaceful since I had begun my trip back.
Suddenly the bushes rustled.
-Rustle!
-Rustle!
Freezing in place, I scanned the treeline carefully.
I totally jinxed myself, didn't I?
My body tensed, ready to bolt.
From the bushes, an oversized lizard came out and ran away.
'Phew…' I couldn't help but sigh in relief.
It seemed I was paranoid now.
Great something else to add to my resume.
Oh, wait
I already knew that?
Gosh, the thoughts that go through my head.
Honestly…
'Shut it.'
Shutting my wandering thoughts up in order to stay focused on the task at hand, I began walking again.
Continuing my journey I managed to make it back by nightfall.
Walking into the branch of the Mage's Association, I nearly collapsed.
"Hey kid, took you long enough. I was getting worried." said the guard from the desk.
Most of the people were gone as barely anyone entered at nightfall.
I noticed however that the hunter I had seen multiple times was sitting on one of the benches.
"Ran into some trouble, nothing I couldn't handle," I said, walking over.
The guard scoffed and smiled slightly.
"Kids these days…"
"Do you know anyplace cheap to stay?" I asked him.
My budget was tight and I still needed money for the trip back.
"Hmm, there's old Hughe's place," he said, writing it down on a piece of paper.
Handing me the paper, he looked me in the eyes.
"Be careful out there kid, lots of people want their hands-on academy students these days," he said, his eyes drifting to the side slightly.
Not looking up at him as I grabbed the paper, I said.
"I'm aware, I'll be careful."
"Well, keep the emergency transmitter, in case you ever need me," he said before walking off somewhere.
Walking out of the branch, I made my way toward where the address on the paper was.
Eventually, I arrived at the same shop I had first come to.
Pushing the door open, I looked around.
"Hold on a second!" called a girl's voice from somewhere.
Standing by the counter, I waited impatiently for someone to come.
By this point, I was exhausted and in pain.
I had quite frankly reached boiling point and spilled out of the pot.
After 2 minutes the girl from earlier finally came out.
"What can I help you wi-" she began to say before she saw me.
"You!" she cried.
Her eyes bugged out with shock as she pointed a slender finger at me.
"Me. I need a room for the night," I replied apathetically.
"How did you know we have rooms?" she asked.
"The guard at the Mage's Association told me," I said impatiently.
"Oh, Uncle Gus," she said, her voice lowering in pitch as she sighed.
"It'll be 100 ∃" she said.
What the fuck?
Is this daylight robbery or what?
However if what that old guard said was true then this was the cheapest place, and quite frankly I was too tired to check anywhere else.
Scanning my phone on the metal plate she handed me, I sighed.
Beckoning for me to follow her, she began walking away.
I wordlessly followed her to the back of the shop.
Just for the record, my eyes were following the back of her head.
Ok?
I don't want any misunderstandings.
"So what are you doing all the way out here?" she asked.
It was a logical question seeing as I didn't have any hunting gear nor did I have the aura of someone powerful.
However, I was at my wit's end.
"None of your business," I answered curtly.
"Ok…" she muttered as we climbed some rickety old stairs.
"Here's the room," she said as we reached a door with peeling white paint.
The hell?
This looks terrible.
It'll probably look better on the inside…
Right?
Right?
Opening the door I entered the room.
Dear me,
Is this even sanitary?
A single lonely bed and desk lay inside the room.
Around the room were all kinds of boxes with stuff in them just strewn about.
Some cobwebs could be seen hanging in the corners of the room, and everything looked pretty dusty.
"Errr… it could use a little cleanup but I'm sure it will be fine!" she said with a smile, her bright eyes turning to me.
"You call this a room?!?!" I shouted at her.
Normally I followed the rule of composure however I had a lot of pent-up stress and I honestly wasn't in my right mind anymore.
"Ah!" she yelped and moved away as I yelled at her.
"Look at this dump, how can you charge so much for this?" I yelled again.
"Look, I'm sorry it was just on such short notice!" she said, trying to calm me down.
However, I wasn't calming down, if anything I was angrier.
"Short notice? how can you even charge 100 ∃ for this garbage if you knew it was like this." I started advancing on her as my anger boiled.
"Look here, miss! I don't know what kind of scam you're trying to pull here, but I'm not going to forgive this," I said pointing my finger at her.
"Shame on you for this terrible hospitality!" I said angrily.
Her hands were covering her face at this point and her shoulders were shaking.
That was when I sobered up.
I realized she was crying.
I backed off slightly as my head cooled.
She continued crying for another minute before she finally regained her composure.
Now she looked angry.
"He-" I tried to apologize, however, before I could.
"Look mister whatever your name is, I don't know who you think you are. But you walked into my shop and asked for a room with no notice and then complained about how garbage it is and told me I should be ashamed," she yelled, her shoulders trembling and hands shaking.
"Don't you think you're the one with the problem and should be ashamed!" she yelled before rushing downstairs.
I could only watch her back silently, regretting letting anger overcome me.
Sighing, I entered the room.
'I'll have to discipline myself for this.' I thought with a sigh.
Moving some boxes out of the way I made my way into what appeared to be the bathroom.
It certainly seemed in better shape than the rest of the room.
That wasn't saying much though.
The white tiles nearly burned my eyes out.
Luckily there was no apparent rust or mold to speak of.
Looking at myself in the mirror, I honestly looked like shit.
I was covered in mud and the back of my shirt was torn and my back wound was crusted over.
Luckily it wasn't too deep but it would leave a scar.
Taking off my clothes I turned on the shower.
Waiting for a minute I hopped in and let the hot water cascade on me.
Pressing my hands to the shower walls, I let the water flow down my back as it cleaned off the blood and dirt.
Running my hand through my hair, I sighed.
It seemed like I was sighing a lot.
It's like a chronic disease.
I took out the soap and began lathering it over myself.
As I was showering I suddenly heard a noise in my room.
Hmm?
Opening the shower door, I listened closely.
The sound of shoes walking slowly on the floor entered my ears.
I heard it because the floorboards creaked.
Turning up the heat in the shower and leaving the shower running and closing the door, I grabbed a towel off the rack and pressed the button on the metal ball that I left on the counter by the sink, I then made my way behind the door.
I knew this wasn't the girl from before for 3 reasons.
The girl from before was wearing slippers and not shoes.
The floorboards were creaking, which meant significant weight was put on them, which could not have been that girl.
After our fight, the girl from before would have knocked or called out and would not have entered without permission.
That led me to one conclusion.
Someone had broken in.
Wrapping the towel around my hands tightly, I waited silently.
-Creak!
The door opened with a slight creak not loud enough to be heard if someone was in the shower.
The barrel of a mana pistol peeked through the doorway.
Good, whoever it was wasn't a high-level superhuman as they used a mana pistol that fired beams of concentrated mana.
I had a guess as to who it was, however, I waited patiently.
The person slowly made their way into the room, approaching the shower.
It was hard to see into the shower as it was so steamy.
As the person fully stepped into the room, I confirmed my suspicions.
It was the Hunter I had seen everywhere.
First, I saw him at the train station when buying a ticket.
The ticket lady had diverted her gaze to him after giving me a weird look.
So I tilted my head and saw him.
Then I saw him on the train.
I noticed he was using a regular backpack and not a storage space, which was odd for a hunter.
After all, Hunters needed to store monster corpses.
However, Syndicists or those contracted by Syndicists couldn't legally buy storage spaces if they were wanted.
Of course, they could buy from the black market but those were expensive and someone starting out couldn't possibly afford it.
Then I saw him in the shop.
He was browsing the gear section, however everything he was looking at he already had.
Then I noticed him following me from the alleyway, however, he broke off after I entered the Mage's Association.
I then saw him again at the Mage's Association when I came back.
And the guard had shifted his eyes to him when warning me.
Therefore I was confident in my analysis.
He was a contracted Syndicist.
Someone who was paid for a job on the black market.
A low-level grunt essentially.
He must have been sent to kidnap me seeing as he hadn't attempted to shoot at the shower yet.
To be honest, it wasn't unheard of for something like this to happen, after all, Syndicists wanted to take over the Mage's Alliance, and what better way than to steal its future.