Chronicles Of The Crafting Hero

Clouds gathered overhead, casting shifting shadows across the town of Aria. Frank's bulky form moved with nervous energy as he walked beside Anna, their footsteps echoing against cobblestones as they passed through the town square. The smell of bread from a nearby bakery mingled with the earthy scent of approaching rain.

Anna's gaze remained fixed ahead, her jaw set with purpose.

Frank glanced at her, then cleared his throat, a rough, gravelly sound. "You know, this shadow hunter, he might actually be B rank or higher."

"Isn't that obvious?" Anna's voice came low, edged with irritation like a blade barely sheathed.

"Yes, I'm sorry, what I meant was..." Frank stumbled over his words. "This guy called Tyler, when we went in there, it turns out that within the last month he had turned in a lot of quests. People said there were less monsters within the monster zone now. The place was kind of deserted. We didn't see a lot of hunters because most of them moved to Lyria."

Anna's head turned slightly, her eyes cutting toward him as they continued walking. "So?"

"So I think he might be the one who caused it. It would make sense for him to level up after doing that, right? I'm just saying, if it is like that, then he may not even be the Shadow Hunter."

Anna sighed, the sound sharp as winter wind. "Are we going the right way?"

"Oh, yeah. This is definitely the right way."

*She's just ignoring me, Frank thought, his shoulders tensing. Not listening to a thing I'm saying. As if what I'm saying is pointless.* He clenched his jaw. *But it does make sense for him to reach that kind of level if he did that.*

"Even if he managed to kill every single beast in that monster zone, he wouldn't be able to take down an entire guild by himself, not even an S-ranked Berserker," Anna stated, her voice firm.

Frank frowned. "I know, it's just… he did manage to kill some of the members before that too. Oh, and there's a rumor circulating about a new form of craftsmanship in Veridia, one that supposedly allows people to gain new skills without leveling up."

"What?" Anna turned to face Frank, a flicker of disbelief in her eyes.

"Yeah," Frank said, nodding. "Apparently, some people have acquired armor that grants them skills while they're wearing it. But so far, it's just been whispers. I haven't seen any of it myself."

Anna looked ahead as they continued walking, the bustling sounds of the citizens fading behind them. "That's very unlikely. I believe items can provide special effects, but… an entirely new skill? It seems improbable."

"Yeah, it's probably just a false rumor," Frank conceded.

Anna looked at Frank, her expression thoughtful. "So, you think he might have used something like that?"

Frank shrugged. "It's a possibility, but, as we both said, it's probably just a fabrication, right?"

Anna didn't answer, her gaze fixed ahead as they left the crowded streets of the town behind them, drawing nearer to their destination. "So, the Crystal Mage, you said she didn't have any valuable information?"

Frank sighed. "Yeah. And she didn't see his face. Said he wore a mask the entire time."

"You shouldn't have let her go," Anna said.

Frank's steps faltered. "What? Why?"

"What rank was she exactly?"

"I think she was B rank."

Anna's voice sharpened. "If she was B rank, you could have used her truth crystal skill to help with your investigation. You could have gone to the Hunter Assessment Center and asked those people if they knew Tyler or if he bribed them or not."

Frank's eyes widened, the realization hitting him like cold water. He muttered under his breath, gaze dropping to the dried grass crunching beneath their boots as they left the cobblestones behind. "You're right. Why didn't we think of that?"

After a pause, he looked back at Anna. "Actually, she left without us even knowing. Even if we wanted to stop her, we wouldn't have been able to."

Anna kept her eyes forward, her black hair swaying with each purposeful stride. "You could have thought of that sooner. And who knows, maybe she was lying to you. Maybe she was involved with the Shadow Hunter to begin with."

"What?" Frank's voice pitched higher. "But that's highly unlikely. The crystal mage made a connection with all the other members, I heard it backfired on them every time someone died. It's a type of life tracking ability that's like a double-edged sword. The girl was traumatized from it all. It was hard for us to get even the smallest words out of her."

The wind picked up, carrying the scent of dust and dried earth.

"I could say you could have made her create the truth crystal and then used it against her," Anna said, her tone calculating, "but she would have been able to manipulate it anyway."

"She could do that?" Frank asked, his voice tinged with surprise.

"Yes, if she's the one who created it," Anna answered.

"Oh." The single syllable hung in the air, heavy with Frank's realization.

They arrived at what had once been a small forest housing the Black Cloud Guild Mansion. Anna stopped short, her breath catching. The devastation spread before them like a scar across the land.

This wasn't a forest anymore, it was a battlefield frozen in time. Craters pocked the earth like wounds. Broken trees lay scattered, their splintered remains pointing at odd angles. The ground itself had been churned and overturned, mixing soil with shattered stone.

Where the mansion should have stood, only rubble remained. Not even the foundation was recognizable, as if some massive force had reduced everything to meaningless debris. Broken branches crunched under their feet, mixing with pulverized stone and unidentifiable fragments.

"The shadow hunter must have been really powerful," Anna said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Yes, he absolutely was." Frank's voice carried a note of remembered fear. "He was taking on the captain head on, well, that was until he activated some kind of skill. He was covered in shadow."

Anna turned sharply, fixing him with her dark gaze. "You said he covered the whole town in shadow, right? And he could teleport?"

"Yes, he could teleport, and he could fly as well."

Anna's eyes widened, just slightly, the first crack in her controlled demeanor. "Why didn't you mention any of that in the report?"

Frank scratched the back of his head, dried leaves crackling under his shifting weight. "It wasn't mentioned? Well, I'm pretty sure the captain wrote it. He probably forgot to include that detail."

Anna's teeth clenched, the muscles in her jaw visibly tightening. "How can you forget to list that detail, that he could fly? Are you guards stupid?"

Anna started rubbing her forehead with her hand, eyes closed in frustration.

"Hey, it wasn't our fault, right?" Frank said, his voice defensive. "It was the captain's. We gave him every single detail. He must have been the one who-"

Frank's breath caught. Anna's dark gaze shifted to him, and his heart hammered against his ribs. An almost invisible smoke-like aura emanated from her form.

Then the cold hit.

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Not the natural chill of the air, something else. His skin prickled as if frost was spreading across it, but when he glanced down, there was nothing. Instead, sweat beaded on his flesh. His teeth began to ache with cold, as if he'd bitten into ice. The sensation spread through his jaw, sharp and painful.

He stepped back, teeth clicking together uncontrollably. His body shook as if winter had suddenly descended, though the day remained unchanged. He immediately looked down, averting his gaze.

"Yes, I apologize. I'm sorry for the missing detail."

Anna turned away and continued walking toward the mansion's rubble.

Frank stood frozen, hands trembling. *Damn it, what the hell is wrong with me? I almost forgot who I was talking to for a second there. What the hell was that just now?*

He grabbed his wrist, feeling a crunch beneath his leather arm guards. The sweat that had broken out across his entire body when she'd looked at him, it had frozen. The ice crystals crackled against his skin beneath the armor.

The realization sent a fresh wave of fear through his core.

Anna's gaze swept across the ground, catching on dark stains among the rubble. Dried blood marked the earth, some in scattered droplets, others in what had been pools, now crusty and rust-red against the disturbed soil.

She turned to Frank. "Hey, your captain told me you were one of the guards who got close to the shadow hunter when we were going to interrogate those prisoners, you said he was struggling against the captain. Was he bleeding?"

Frank nodded, the memory still fresh. "Yes, he was bleeding. A lot actually. There was blood spilling out from his mask."

"Can you show me where he bled?"

"Yes, of course." Frank looked around, his brow furrowing. "He was fighting somewhere around here. The place is hardly recognizable from the sheer devastation alone, but I'm pretty sure..." His voice faded as he started walking, picking his way through the debris.

Anna followed, her trained eyes cataloging details. Amongst the wreckage, something caught her attention, tiny white scales scattered across the ground, glinting like discarded fish scales in the light.

"What are these scales that are scattered around here?" she asked, still moving behind Frank.

"Oh, I think those are the shadow hunter's. He had some kind of ability, it was strange. Scales kept coming out of nowhere when he was fighting the captain." Frank stepped carefully over a broken beam. "We don't really know what kind of skill it is."

Anna sighed. "He didn't include that in the report either."

Frank's jaw clenched. A chill ran down his spine as he kept walking, but he didn't answer. He knew better than to speak now.

Anna continued surveying the devastation, her thoughts turning inward. *This shadow hunter definitely is S rank or higher. If this fight had sprawled into the town, a lot of people would have died.*

She knew the devastation caused between two S-rank fights would be immense, but battles between those at the level of pale reapers, that would be cataclysmic. If two pale reapers faced each other on normal land, using their full abilities, that land would probably become uninhabitable. The memories of her own training grounds surfaced unbidden, those scarred and lifeless patches of earth that would never heal.

Frank stopped, placing his hand on his waist as he studied the ground. His eyes narrowed. *Yeah, he was standing right here when he told us not to approach. That was strange.*

The memory crystallized, how the shadow hunter had actually stopped them from intervening, warned them away. *Because he knew we would be powerless. He didn't want us to get hurt.*

*This Shadow Hunter... who is he really?*

Frank remembered how Tyler's voice had carried genuine concern when he'd given that warning. Like he truly cared about their safety. But that memory warred with what came after, the sheer overwhelming power Tyler displayed once he was covered in shadow.

"It's right here," Frank said, his voice cutting through the stillness.

Anna moved to stand beside him, her gaze fixed on the floor. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the dark, dried stain of blood. *Hmm, a stroke of luck that it's still here,* she thought. Looking up, she said, "It's about to rain. If the rain had washed this away, it would have complicated things significantly."

Frank watched her, a cautious note in his voice. "What is it you intend to do with the blood?"

"You'll see soon enough," Anna replied.

Suddenly, a faint blue light began to pulse from within Anna's pocket, shimmering, dimming, then shimmering again. It caught Frank's attention. **what is that?* he wondered. *Had that always been there?* He saw the vague outline of a rectangular shape bulging at Anna's hip. He cleared his throat. "Sorry, but what is that?"

Anna sighed, then produced the object. It was a crystal, rectangular in form, and Frank's eyes widened in recognition. *Whoa, is that a messenger stone?* he thought, his mind racing. *She has one?*

Anna immediately turned her attention to the crystal, her eyes narrowing. It was nearly translucent, with a striking blue hue. "Speak," she commanded.

Instantly, an image coalesced within the stone. It was Karen. She was seated on a wooden sofa in the corner of a room, a bookshelf behind her. She wore a red dress, and a small, black wolf rested on her lap. Her pink eyes met Anna's gaze, a gentle smile gracing her lips as she stroked the wolf's fur.

"Anna, how have you been?" she asked.

Anna's response was clipped. "Just get to the point. What do you want?"

Karen's tone remained light, almost playful. "Oh, I'm just checking up on you. Is it wrong to check up on a fellow member?"

"We both know that's not why you're calling me."

Karen giggled, still stroking her wolf. The sound grated against Anna's nerves. "Where are you? I assumed you'd be soaring through the air right now." She gasped then, bringing her hands, covered in white gloves, to her mouth in exaggerated shock. "Don't tell me you haven't found the Shadow Hunter yet?"

A vein pulsed on Anna's forehead. "I'm going to end this if you don't tell me why you called me."

Karen's giggle softened into something more controlled. "Well, I have a message from Adrian." She paused, letting the weight of the name settle. "Our Master said that you should bring the Shadow Hunter alive, if possible."

Anna stiffened. "What?"

"Yes. I don't know why, but they want him alive." Karen's voice carried a casual shrug even through the stone. "But they said *if possible*. So, if it's too hard for you to bring him back alive, you can just take the easier route and kill him. Don't worry, we won't judge. This mission must be so hard for you."

Anna's teeth ground together as she stared at Karen's image, heat rising in her chest.

"Oh well, that's all I have to say. Good luck." Karen's smile was honey-sweet and poisonous. "You need it."

The image flickered and vanished.

Anna shoved the messenger stone back into her pocket, her jaw tight, frustration radiating off her in waves. Silence hung in the air awkward, heavy between her and Frank.

*Who was that?* Frank thought to himself. *Was that another Pale Reaper?* It sounded like she knew her, and she'd called her a member, so it must be one. That means the person on the other end had another messenger stone too. These things are very expensive, not something just anyone could get their hands on. Though It's not really surprising for Pale Reapers to have them.*

Anna sighed and crouched down to the blood on the ground.

All of a sudden, she extended her left hand out to her side. A white, smooth, shiny bow appeared, out of nowhere, shimmering with a faint white glow. A silver string stretched taut between its ends, gleaming even in the dim light.

Frank's eyes widened slightly, but he said nothing.

An arrow materialized in Anna's right hand and she licked the end of her thumb and pressed it on the arrow head. She lowered it, pressing the silver tip into Tyler's dried blood on the ground, coating it. The dark red clung to the metal, staining it.

*Where are these things coming from?* Frank wondered, his gaze fixed on the bow and arrow. *Is this some type of spatial magic? I thought only mages had those. The rare ones, in fact.*

Anna stood up. Her eyes began to glow, a faint gold that pulsed like embers. She turned her gaze to the sky, and in one smooth motion, nocked the blood-tipped arrow. She drew the string back, the bow creaking softly under the tension, aiming straight up at the clouds gathering overhead.

*If this really is the Shadow Hunter's blood,* she thought, *this should lead me to him.*

Frank stepped back, watching as Anna held her aim steady. The sky above was darkening, the clouds swirling and bunching together like something was stirring them from within.

Her eyes narrowed as she filled the arrow with mana, activating her tracking arrow skill. A thought crossed her mind, should she put as much power as possible into it, or less so it could just hit and find its target? After all, she didn't know where the Shadow Hunter was. Maybe he was among a group of people, walking among the innocent, blending in. If the arrow exploded amongst those people, they would die.

But it didn't matter. People always got caught in the crossfire when these battles happened between Pale Reapers and other monsters. It wouldn't be anything new.

The arrowhead glowed fiercely with golden light, the blood on its tip disappearing completely as if absorbed. The wooden shaft of the arrow began to crumble, flaking away like ash. What remained was only the golden shape of the arrow itself, pure light, pure energy, as if it had shed its skin and left only its soul still nocked on the bow.

Anna loosened her fingers. The arrow shot into the sky.

Suddenly, the white coat materialized on Anna's body, the fabric swaying in the faint wind.

Frank's voice cracked with surprise. "Whoa, what is that? Is that a tracking arrow?"

Anna didn't answer.

The ground beneath her feet exploded with a deafening boom. Dirt and grass erupted outward in a violent burst. Anna shot into the sky like a bullet fired from a gun, her body rocketing upward with impossible speed.

Frank stumbled backward from the sheer pressure of the blast, losing his balance. He hit the ground hard, his eyes wide as he stared up at her rapidly shrinking form. "She can fly?" he muttered in shock.

Anna soared through the air, following the arrow. It was extremely fast, a streak of golden light cutting through the darkening sky, guiding her straight to the Shadow Hunter. Guiding her straight to Tyler.

She'd already left Aria behind. Now there was only sky above her and the vast plains stretching out beneath her, endless and green.

The arrow was faster than her. But she could track it, it left a faint trail behind, a transparent straight line of light cutting through the air.

She activated her perception skill. Her vision zoomed ahead, and what she saw surprised her completely.

Someone was running across the vast plain at astonishing speed, carrying another person on their back in a piggyback. But the person being carried wasn't just anyone, it was a girl. The girl had green skin and silver hair, wearing rags that looked brown and rough.

Anna's breath caught. This was the man she'd encountered earlier. The one she'd seen when she was flying. She hadn't bothered talking to him because she thought she might reveal herself as a Pale Reaper.

The green girl was obviously a monster. A humanoid. Anna's confusion deepened. She'd seen a humanoid monster earlier, but it didn't look like this. This one was bigger. What happened to the other one?

Then something surprised her even more.

The arrow suddenly shot downward, its speed increasing dramatically. And immediately, it happened, Tyler sensed the arrow. He threw away the girl he was carrying. Joy.

Anna's eyes widened. *No way. He's- he's the Shadow Hunter?*