Pride Online

Chapter 120: Hunter Guild (Association of Hunters) Part III

“Say, I’ve never seen you around here before. It’s your first time at the guild?”

“Yes, it is. I’m here because my friend recommended the place to me.” He replied.

“What level are you?”

“Exactly 38.”

“Not too high or low, just about right.” The man said smilingly. “Ask me anything, if you have any questions. My name is Wolf, the master of the bar and the guild as well. You can just call me master, too.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Wisana.” Wisana nodded in greeting, the same with Angela who bowed her head politely.

Wolf was a middle-aged man with a tall figure. He was dressed in a white shirt and a black vest, looking all clean. His dark hair was mixed with white and was slicked back neatly, making him look dignified.

“Then, may I ask you something?” The black-haired man started a conversation.

“Sure.”

“These people here in the bar all hunt monsters at night? That’s quite a lot of people.”

“Oh, these guys?” Wolf smiled. “Most of them do go hunting at night. Because that’s when monsters from silver class and higher will come out.”

“Silver?” Seeing this young man making a dumb face when he heard unfamiliar words, Wolf knew immediately that he was a new player for sure.

“Listen carefully, son.” he said softly, placing his elbow on the counter. “Monsters with a bounty on their heads are divided into four classes, steel, bronze, silver, and gold.”

The listener just blinked at the new lecture. The brown eyes were restless like he wanted to have something to make a note of it. And Angela, who already knew him, just sighed, getting so done with her teammate’s nature, before keeping on sipping the tea unconcernedly.

“Are they classified by their abilities?”

“They are, but that’s not all.” The bartender tilted his head. “Mostly, they’re classified by their rarity and the points that they drop. You already know that hunting the monster from the guild’s orders will get rewards as collecting points, too?”

“I do.” Wisana nodded.

“The points are used to divide the monsters’ classes. For example, monsters with points around five hundred to two thousand will be in the steel class, two thousand to four thousand are the bronze class, and four thousand to ten thousand are the silver class. For the gold class, they must have more than ten thousand.”

Even though he was still confused, Wisana sorted to imply that he acknowledged it as he was trying to use his limited amount of brain cells to process this information.

"And are there any rules about hunting? Like players with this level can’t go hunt a gold class monster or something like that.”

“Come on, this is the Hunter Guild, son, not a nursery. Who would have cared about the hunters? It depends on the personal bravery and craziness of the players. But to be honest, there’re not many of those who would go hunt gold class monsters anymore these years. Because since the new patches update, the monsters seem to be a lot tougher.” Hearing that, Wisana paused, looking into Wolf’s eyes instantly.

“Why?”

“The gold class is too difficult to beat. If the players really want to hunt one of them, they have to form a large party to do so. But if they can actually beat one, they have to share the points anyway.”

“What? Even though they’re party, they still have to share the reward? Not that everyone in the party gets the full amount of the points?”

“Of course, not.” The answer made the young man put his hands under his mouth as he was thinking. It seemed that going for a high-ranked monster was not worth the time, because there were more people to share the points. And if they went with a smaller party, it also meant that they were doomed as well.

“Look over there, son.” Wolf pointed to a spot. And when Wisana’s eyes followed, he saw the board that caught his attention since he stepped into the bar.

“What about it, uncle?”

“That’s the board that announces the monsters’ heads bounty.”

“Got it. So, the board has the monsters’ details and guidelines for the players to go hunt them, right? Aw, the guild actually cares about the hunters.” His words made the older one choke on air before he held the cup up to refill the coffee when he saw that it was half empty after a while.

“No, it’s more like a warning.” His accent had a hint of amusement.

“What do you mean?”

“That’s not a board that suggests the members which monsters they should go hunt.” He grinned. “But it’s the board that warns them which ones not to hunt. To make it clearer, the information on the board is about the gold class monsters.”

The listener paused at his words.

“The monsters that we shouldn’t hunt?”

“That’s right. Actually, those monsters could probably be higher ranked than gold, even. Because the points they drop are so high that it could make you squander for fun for a year.”

“They’re really that tough?!” Wisana’s eyes bulged. And Angela just let out a long sigh, like she did not want to acknowledge his reactions that much.

“Tough or not, why don’t you check the look on their faces out?” Wolf said, nodding his chin to the board. And it seemed to be true like he said when Wisana saw that the hunters there did not look excited about the fight at all. Instead, their faces were obviously showing cowardice and fear.

“They seem tense.” He curled up a sour smile. “Okay, so, the monsters on there have to be impossible to beat, right? Then is there anyone who actually dares to hunt those things?”

“Yeah, there is, sometimes,” Wolf answered. “But most of them will go hunting in a large party. Because some monsters have a special reward for killing them. For example, the white tiger Aulansia level 118, apart from the collecting points, the guild will reward them with the chaos ring, an S ranked item, too.”

“I can see now why people will take the risk.” The man drawled like he could finally catch up. The pair of golden-brown eyes glanced at the board, having a second thought about whether he should go check it out, or not.

“Uncle, can I have more tea?” The small voice from the kid beside him spoke.

“Oh, of course, girl.” After finishing, Wolf poured the tea for her for another full cup.

“Master Wolf.” The calling from Wisana got the tall man to look at him. “Why do they have to try this hard? I mean, some of them don’t look like they want to hunt that much. It’s like they’re forced to do. If they’re scared, they don’t have to go, do they?”

The bartender let out a soft sigh.

“They do because they don’t have any other choice.”

“Don’t have a choice?” The young man raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean by that?”

“You don’t know about the first event of the year in the Pride, do you?” Seeing this young man shake his head harshly, the master could only hold his head with his hand wearily.

(Sigh,) this guy was totally a newbie. He was not sure if he should be wasting his breath explaining the news to him or not now.

“In two days, I mean two days in the real time, the GM will hold an event in this town, Dores, which is called the Hunting Gate.”

“Hunting Gate?”

“Right.” Wolf nodded. “It’s the event that will let many kinds of monsters in the town for the players to hunt and compete with each other for the points.”

“Letting the monsters in the town?” The listener repeated with a raised voice. “Won’t that be dangerous?”

“No, it won’t.” The older man shook his head. “This event has a system ready to save the observing players. I heard that the GMs took many years to develop this system, you know.”

“It’s good then. Anyway, what’s this event for? Just catch the monster for fun?”

“No, it’s not just that, son.” The lecturer shook his head again. “The event is to find the strongest hunter of the game. The competitors of the Hunting Gate event have to apply a lot of their abilities to suppress others. So, it can be said that everyone needs to use everything they have in this one event.”

“That sounds like fun,” Wisana said casually, knowing full well that this was not about him at all. He even thought it was kind of nonsense, as well.

SQUEAK!