NOVEL NEXT Chapter 11: The Hunter
Astoria
Drunken and cold, I open my eyes to see the sun piercing through the window of this old tavern. Looking around, most of the people here are also still asleep. Elves, Drows, Tieflings, Orcs, Humans, you name it.
I groan as I rest my head on my arms over the counter. As the barkeep approaches, I sluggishly raise my head and ask, "Soup and…mead, put it on my tab like always." The barkeep narrows his eyes. "I already paid my tab last night…stop acting like I haven't been paying it consistently."
"Consistent my ass, but fine, Aldia!" He shouts at his daughter. "Update her tab make it 5 rellnarius, this time." I clasp my hands, thanking him and I try to get more sleep. His daughter deducts about 14 bellnarius and writes the remaining 4 rellnarius, 99 hellnarius, and 86 bellnarius under my name.
I chug about half of the honey mead before digging in. I relish the soup, As I chew, I notice a hint of olmeria spice. "No wonder, it's 14 bellnarius now. But still…" I look up at the barkeep. "New meat?" I ask.
"Yeah, there's been less felalel around so I used warg meat. The meat tastes like ass, but a bit of olmeria spice is enough to create this culinary miracle." He brags and can't deny it, turning warg meat into something bearable is a culinary miracle.
I wiped my lips with my thumb and left the tavern. Looking at the second floor, the symbol of a drunken crow stands old but proud. "It's too early for this…" I complained. I go back to the river and just walk around waiting for my hangover to be gone, I already washed myself like a day ago so I don't really need to wash myself again.
Looking around, that weird noble isn't around. I recall when I saw him wash himself on the river. Nothing special about him, didn't notice me when I stepped on some sticks. "Or maybe he did, nobles take their time with this kind of stuff, right? Maybe he left early because he noticed me."
I shake my head, who cares anyway? I was quite far from Bellken so I placed my backpack and my black cylindrical container at the base of a tree. I pat myself to look for some of my things. My quiver is still on the left side of my waist, my dagger is still hidden inside my pants. And every knife is still hidden among my armor.
I take my bow and place it on the river. A few minutes passed by and eventually, it became larger. From a longbow on a shorter side to a great bow, almost the size of me. I also began cleaning the blood off on some of my arrows.
As I did so, I began to smell something burning coming from the direction of Bellken but near the river. "I swear, if it's those god fucking goblins, I will start putting them on stakes," I complain as I move down the river.
I didn't try to hurry; the smell wasn't getting worse so it's probably a campfire. But the question is, who would camp this far out? The answer would come ten minutes later when I finally reached the source of the fire.
"Oh, him again," I said to myself, hidden among the trees. I didn't want to show myself since he was probably a noble. "Probably." I tried seeking some gossip at the tavern last night and it seems nobody even knows about him. I thought his house must have been slaughtered by the necromancer but only the well-known ones were taken.
Apparently, people only started seeing some guy wearing nice clothes about a few days ago but even then, it was probably someone else. It was only yesterday that he was officially seen by many. Not like you could miss him; he was the only guy who wore nice clothing while wearing gauntlets and shin guards.
It was somewhat similar to my situation, but at least my torso was reinforced with leather. He was dodging their blood, trying to avoid staining his clothes which unsurprisingly, people recognized as noble-like.
And now, said noble is camping in the outskirts of Bellken, tired from probably catching that fish he was cooking over the fire. "That stick is too small fo–" There was a crack then seconds later the fish fell to the fire– "Annnd, it's burnt." I hold my laugh as he quickly grabs it out of the fire. He blew on the fish, trying to get the dirt out.
A few minutes passed and he tried to eat it. It tastes like ass unsurprisingly, but he was still expressionless. I wanted to tell him to find a flat piece of stone or something before trying to cook but my ears caught an interesting noise nearby.
"Guess I should've made stakes," I said assuming that there were stray goblins running around again, running towards the source of the noise. Staying hidden, I look at the empty field to see a few monsters around. "That's not a goblin," I say to myself. "Damn, are the catacombs getting clogged up again?" I add as more and more monsters make their way out of the stone structure.
The catacombs are an ancient megastructure used as a graveyard for the dwarves back then. Now, it's a maze where the monsters can only get out but sheer luck. They must be quite lucky for this many monsters to get out. "…or maybe, somebody led them here."
Either way, I can't complain, it's free money after all. I check my bag and make sure that extraction tools are still inside before throwing my backpack to a nearby tree. I ready my bow and got some arrows only to be reminded that my current arrows are made for a long bow, not great bows.
I sigh, it would take at least a few more days for my bow to shrink back to a long bow. "So, I guess in the meantime, I'll buy some arrows after selling their parts." I remove my quiver, my great bow, and my black cylindrical container then throw them to the same tree.
A dagger in my right hand in a reverse grip, then three throwing knives placed between the fingers of my left hand. A breath out and focus. A melitabr approaches my direction but before it could even notice, I place my dagger to its throat.