An excellent opportunity had been laid out before him, yet he had missed it. The feeling was not disappointment but rather a tangled state of mind. When it came to age, he merely possessed a youthful appearance, and although as a transmigrator he had retrained from scratch in Hazy City,
the time he had experienced hadn’t diminished. It’s said that appearance affects one’s mentality, but... forget it, forget it. Since it was missed, so be it.
Zheng Yichen returned to the inn, where Eileena and Katrina didn’t share a room with him. By the time he got back it was already late, so he didn’t disturb them.
The next day, he arrived at Raymond’s headquarters, which was also Raymond’s home. In this world, buying a house was not difficult, and obtaining a big one was even easier. John was already there, and the remaining two Hunter-Demons arrived one after another—only the two who had died couldn’t make it.
"Good morning," Zheng Yichen greeted John, who nodded. The man was engaged in some light exercise, his wounds from the battle with the vampires still not fully healed, and the blood lost in the fight couldn’t be replenished quickly.
"Continuing with skill training?"
"Of course."
Zheng Yichen was more than happy to continue. It wasn’t long before Raymond arrived, and he waited until after the sparring session between Zheng Yichen and John had finished before he spoke, "Since everyone is here, let’s have a meeting."
A small meeting of four started with Raymond welcoming Zheng Yichen’s inclusion. The initial cooperation had been temporary, and if Zheng Yichen’s performance wasn’t satisfactory, there would be no follow-up.
"This time we’ve lost two companions. There’s no rush to replenish our numbers, but if anyone finds a worthy teammate, feel free to invite them."
"Also, the church has now truly witnessed our strength and I can obtain some new, special assignments from them, which pay a high bounty."
John frowned slightly, "Does the church intend to have us do their dirty work?"
He thought of the church’s specially trained individuals, many of whom were tasked with eliminating heretics.
Raymond shook his head, "We are Hunter-Demons, not assassins. At most, it’s about dealing with issues that the church finds challenging to resolve."
Like the recent struggle against the vampires, the church’s massive mobilization was very cautious. But once the vampires sensed danger, they would run away, only to return and carry on their havoc after the church’s forces had left. And if the church sent too few men, there would be fatalities.
If ordinary forces died, it was one thing, but confronting a vampire nest certainly wouldn’t be assigned to ordinary troops. Sending any number would be futile.
And sending a few powerful individuals would be costly if several were killed. It was better to hire Hunter-Demons. If their own died, they needed to provide compensation... if a Hunter-Demon died, it was simply a lack of skill. The dead don’t need bounties, and if the Hunter-Demons resolved the issue, all the better.
"That’s quite good... The church has no intention of recruiting us?" John nodded. Cooperating with the church meant a bounty increase. The bounties offered by the church would be substantial, but the glory would be theirs. Once the church received the honor, they could undoubtedly convert it into greater benefits.
But such a thing wasn’t of much use to Hunter-Demons.
A famous Hunter-Demon would indeed be sought after for commissions, but that meant greater risks in those tasks. Except for those who loved adventure, most Hunter-Demons preferred to set their sights within their manageable range.
Hunter-Demons are a profession, just like Hunters, and most of the time Hunters don’t choose extremely ferocious prey, such as bears, tigers, and lions.
If the meat and hides are roughly the same, why bother with those beasts instead of going after deer and the like?
"No," Raymond shook his head.
John’s expression was somewhat disappointed, for joining the Church was like getting an iron rice bowl.
"Haha, don’t be disappointed. Now, our cooperation with the Church allows us to easily get many high-return commissions. As long as nothing unexpected happens, it won’t be long before everyone can save enough money to live comfortably for a lifetime."
John and the others nodded. They weren’t the sort of Hunter-Demons who traveled mainly; they had settled down in the city. There were quite a few Hunter-Demons like this, all of whom had mixed enough in their youth and planned to save enough money to live a normal life.
As for saving money when young? Well... at that time, they were still young and hadn’t really thought about it.
"For the next few days, everyone should just rest well, the rest stays as usual," Raymond ended the meeting with a final note.
Zheng Yichen, as the newbie, remained silent for almost the entire time. His goals were different from John’s and the others. Joining the Church wasn’t something he had to think too hard about; it was downright impossible. If the two witches with him were exposed, it definitely wouldn’t end well for him. Saving money? Saving money was important because having enough money was necessary to gather more information.
In the following days, Zheng Yichen went to the base to train whenever he had time. As John and the others gradually recovered from their injuries, he no longer needed to apply so many bandages to himself each day, and occasionally when they saw Zheng Yichen’s arm restored as before, John and the others would just remark on how young people recover so fast.
More than half a month had passed, and the minor injuries should have healed by then, so Raymond brought new mission information. This time, it wasn’t about dealing with vampires, but cleaning up some Ghouls. Ghouls didn’t have the brains of vampires, so they were less risky to deal with.
"Since the risk is not great, why doesn’t the Church go deal with those things?"
"Because it’s a waste of time," Raymond said from horseback, explaining to Zheng Yichen, "Compared with dealing with vampires, the Church people prefer to go after witches and the Headless Knight. Dealing with creatures like vampires and Ghouls is considered dirty work by the Church."
So is this a case of bullying the weak and fearing the strong, or is it a matter of having high standards?
"Another theory is that the Church wants to give Hunter-Demons some business, but whatever it is, the Church’s word is final," John added some thoughts, "For Hunter-Demons, most targets are things like vampires and Ghouls, with the occasional werewolf."
Zheng Yichen nodded. He had also learned about werewolves in this world. Werewolves here were much more ferocious than vampires. In a one-on-one situation, a vampire definitely couldn’t beat a werewolf, and even in one against many, a werewolf had a good chance of winning.
This mission didn’t take up much time; it was physically demanding. The Ghouls were hiding in graves, and to find them, they had to dig up graves. If they didn’t find any, they had to refill the graves they dug up, which was also part of the mission.
The Church wanted honor, so naturally, their commissions wouldn’t leave such a ’stain.’"
After hours of digging and less than five minutes of combat, several Ghouls that were dug up faced four strong Hunter-Demons and were directly chopped up into firewood. These creatures, besides some malignant viruses, didn’t have the value of vampires. After dealing with them, it was enough to keep the Ghouls’ left hands and burn the rest.