“While it’s a guild policy to accept anyone who has the will, I personally can’t in good conscience let you join without trying to talk you out of it.” The guild receptionist told him with a look he wanted to call pitying, though it was hard as they didn’t strictly have anything that could be described as a face.
After his talk with Myriad, Ben woke up feeling well-rested and ready to take on the day. He sent up a quick prayer of thanks and then headed straight to the guild. He needed to register to get the information he wanted, but it was going about as well as he expected it would when it came time to show his skills.
“Don’t worry, as you can see I’m just a prospective craftsman in town trying to find a teacher. I just figured that while I was doing that I could do some gathering quests to make some money, and take a look at the guild archive to see what materials are in the area that I could collect or buy.” He confidently mixed truths with lies. The archive was definitely his main goal when coming here, but he would be taking a more active role in gathering what he needed.
“Well if that's all then I suppose it should be fine. With the skills you possess I can only make you a rank 7 adventurer anyway so you can’t accept any harder quests, just don’t venture too far into the woods, you never know what's going to be out there.” She took his card and added a new mark to it, symbolizing his adventure rank, and let him go on his way.
The first thing he did was head to the archive. He had been told it should have all of the information he would need on monsters that could be found in the area, so he grabbed any books that looked like they could be relevant and sat down to get reading.
It was pretty interesting to learn more about the creatures that inhabit the world. There were beautiful rainbow colours pterodactyl-like creatures that would soar through the skies, a subterranean kingdom of mole people that would take in the few other sentient underground races to accept as family, fairies that were each attuned to a specific element of magic, having subtle effects on any land they stayed in for too long. It really was a land of beauty and wonder if he was open to seeing it.
On the other end of the spectrum was the Amarok wolf, a real bastard of a beast. It was a large black wolf, about two to three meters in length, that was particularly known for preying on anyone foolish enough to be hunting alone at night. It would take its time toying with its prey, making it think it had a chance to escape before finally finishing it off. If its prey wasn’t alone it would still hunt its targets if it thought it was more powerful, though it probably just wouldn't enjoy it as much.
The wolf couldn’t use any magic itself though, so it was considered barely acceptable for a group of five rank 6 adventurers to hunt it, or one or two rank 5. Well, that seems like it’s only the case if you’re going to do something dumb like try and play fair.
“...So I can hear you when I’m awake too huh?”
“Well whatever. We clearly see this pretty differently, I would say I feel pretty confident after all that I’ve read."
The next week had been long, really really long. He had to buy and gather his materials, turn them into something usable, and then trick the various guild members into telling him where this creature was likely to be found under the guise of hoping to avoid any danger as a solo gatherer. But it would soon be worth it.
Night was falling and camp was set up under a tree, while a figure sat by an open fire. There was the meat of a small animal being cooked above it, while a few more that had been skinned were hung up to bleed, with the smell filling the area. The wind moved to carry it through all corners of the forest, hopefully attracting what he needed it to.
But Ben just ignored Myriad, staying silent and focusing on his task. The only thing he wanted to hear was if it was approaching.
Instead he focused on enjoying the feeling of the night, the atmosphere of a camping trip filling him with pleasant memories of past family outings. He was bundled up in a warm blanket, looking up at the stars when he wasn’t observing the area around him, wondering if any of them were home.
Myriad said, interrupting his thoughts.
It’s been mentioned, but I still don’t really understand the point of going through all that, sounds like a lot of work.
So that was the reason?
Wait, does that mean that of all the people summoned, I was the only one who could have been scouted but wasn’t?
The silence spoke volumes and Ben did his best not to fall down another depressive spiral. He already knew he was the most worthless among the twenty he came with, what was another 180 on top of that? He couldn’t let it keep getting to him and had to just do his best from here on out.
As a god, Myriad was privy to the thoughts of mortals. He knew that as Ben was thanking him for the support that he hadn’t really believed it, but for now there was nothing he could do to help him. Ben would have to find his self-worth himself, maybe if he succeeded here it would help with that. Of course a larger part of his mind expected Ben to die and that he would be back to where he started, believerless, but there wasn’t much point in telling him that. He knew the boy had made up his mind, and that nothing he could say would change that.
Ben tensed up. It all came down to this. He was pretty sure he would be able to avoid getting killed so Lehie wouldn’t get too mad about all of the time she spent trying to teach him going down the drain, but they would find out soon.
The creature for its part spotted the figure by the fire, dressed in an unreasonably red outfit, and loudly approached, trying its best to get his attention. It wanted him to know it was there, to feel afraid, but he wouldn’t give in. When there was no reaction It seemed angry, personally offended that a scrawny thing so far beneath it would have the gall to ignore its majestic presence. Three meters long and covered in thick black fur, it was definitely an incredible sight, but what Ben really saw were materials to be collected.
He might not be able to do anything with the meat, but from what he had read the claws, bones, and fur were all good as crafting materials. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on them.
For its part, the pile of materials decided it couldn’t wait to get its claws into him either. It had had enough of being ignored, and jumped towards its future victim, ready to rip off a limb or two to teach it some fear before digging into its flesh. At least that was the plan, but the moment he landed on it after clearing the fire the ground gave away, and long wooden stakes pierced its majestic body. It thrashed about in pain, but as Ben watched it from the tree above, he dropped two large rocks down on it. His aim was true, and its skull shattered under the weight of the falling stones.
I told you didn’t I, these things are probably plenty tough when dealt with head on, but they’re used to going after solo hunters that aren’t expecting them, they aren’t actually smart enough to spot a trap.
Myriad actually found that to be a bit unfair to the beast, Ben had just used his skills and resources to his fullest advantage. When he started his plan he only bought a handful of items. A shovel for digging a large pit, taking up nearly eight hours to make it big and deep enough to serve the purpose Ben had in mind, as well as a knife to carve spikes from branches he had found gathered around the forest. That alone wouldn’t have been enough, but he also got a large but thin tarp, a blanket, and a bright red cloth to aid in his scheme, not to mention the application of his skills.
When he was still at the church he tried playing around with enchanting a bit, just to see how it would go, and once he had gotten dismantling one of the first things he did was apply it to a knife at the church. Once he did it had a small but noticeable improvement in its ability to cut through objects. Learning from this he spent some time applying it to all of the wooden spikes he had carved, hoping that plus the creature's weight would help them easily pierce its flesh. From there he did his best to apply stealth to his blanket and his tarp, to help hide himself and cover the spikes so that it wouldn't be able to see them, hopefully thinking it was just solid ground.
To both sell that illusion and distract the creature from seeing it he sprinkled it with dirt to make it blend in more and set up some garbage to look like a person, wrapping it in a bright red cloth to capture its attention and make it not inspect the area too hard. When all was said and done the plan had worked out excellently. All that was left to do was get that apprenticeship.