Hunting

After leaving that small village, having left the body of the thief to the wilds, Thirteen, Ten & Nine rode throughout the day until they reached the town of Grondsil.

Grondsil was a lot less busy than Beckton, but also a lot less prosperous. The homeless littered the streets, both young and old, huddled in the narrower paths, where they were ignored. Ten's mood in Grondsil had been poor, so Thirteen stayed with her in the inn rather than exploring the town in what little remained of the afternoon.

After expending a great deal of his lifeforce to cultivate the baseline of his life, Thirteen finally opened one of the books he had brought with him on this trip. It was a thinner book titled "The Story of Creation, the Birth of Spirits.

It read as follows.

"The cosmos we know is one of order and structure, formed of chaos and the void.

"Before it had come to be, before time or space were present to distinguish reality, four wills existed in the void, each of them a seed of what would become the dao. They were Truth, Fate, Origin, and End.

"The four wills, from their earliest moments, whatever that entails in a reality without time, knew of their purpose. They were to act as the pillars of creation. Together, those four wills, the most primordial of spirits, each shed a part of themselves to begin the creation of a structured reality.

"Those four fragments, the seeds of a grand dao, together became the firstborn of the spirits, Existence.

"Existence was beloved by the four wills—The Primordial Spirits. But Existence was born a lonely soul, her being a barren one, incapable of achieving her truest potential alone.

"And so the four Primordials descended into Existence, gaining forms of their own, as they each bestowed their most favored daughter with a child. To reduce her loneliness, Origin granted her his gift, leading to the birth of Life. But still, Existence—and Life who was present only within her bounds—were stagnant. And so Truth too gave her a child, Time.

"With the company of Life and Time, Existence finally felt happy, but alas the feeling waned as even Time could not prevent stagnation.

"And so it was End who whispered in the ear of her favored daughter "Do not consider my child a curse or a burden, know that it is for the benefit of all". Shortly after, Existence birthed Death, who would mark the transition of ages and prevent Time from becoming meaningless.

"With Life, Time, and Death, Existence was finally beginning to live up to her potential, no longer sorrowful or alone. But Fate, the Primordial whom most doted on her grandchildren wanted them to experience their fullest potential also, and so seeded Existence with a child named Destiny, who would later bear the ambition of man."

Thirteen closed the book, deciding to stop there for now. Worship of the spirits was even older than the advent of qi and cultivation, but Thirteen himself had never actually heard the tales. He simply picked up the short prayers or sayings from his time in Rehall.

'What a strange story' he thought. 'Are they people or things? And how can two women create a child? And aren't the Primordials like the parents of Existence? Why are all the oldest tales the weirdest.'

Shaking away his confusion, Thirteen spoke with Nine and Ten for a while before going to sleep.

Their journey continued to stretch on for quite a while. Most villages were within one days ride of a town. This was part of the reformation to the founding of settlements that had occurred with the appearance of monsters three centuries ago.

While most villages had a few strong men and everyone knew the very absolute basics of how to wield a weapon or tool in combat, it was unlikely that a village could defend themselves against anything more than mutant beasts. If one could kill monsters, they would make enough money doing so to live in a town and find better opportunities.

For this reason, villages were spotted around towns in a radial pattern, usually within a days ride. This way, if hunters or loggers suspected monster activity nearby their village, a notice could be sent to the nearest town, and warriors could be dispatched to deal with it.

As great of an idea as it is, responses are rarely swift. Usually, if the village thinks it a potential emergency, they'll instead send a bounty request to the nearby town, whereupon citizen warriors looking to make some quick coin will usually respond faster, so long as the pay is enough.

Towns follow a similar rule in that they are usually no more than 7-14 days ride from a city, depending on their defendability and importance to the kingdom. This way, any threats to the town that the residents and guards are incapable of resisting, can be reported to the nearest city for the dispachment of elite troops or more confident monster hunters. During which time, the town will enter siege or evacuate if possible.

In all cases though, whether village or town is in jeopardy, a tragedy is more likely than some heroic rescue, but there is little to be done as few humans can and do willingly battle monsters for a living. Not to mention that with the Kingdom being as old as it is, there are plenty of settlements that were founded long before the appearance of monsters, and so don't have nearby towns or cities to support them in case of the worst.

——

Many days later, when they finally reached the outskirts of Helbeck, they once more had to cross through a guarded gate to reach the outer town, however Thirteen noted that no one took their names or inspected their appearance, only taking entry tax with a perpetually outstretched hand, and stopping anyone who looked like a merchant.

'Poor management' Thirteen declared inwardly. EVERY town and city were to record the names of those who enter. While the rulers of each settlement had a great amount of authority within the town or city, they still had to obey the King's law.

'Is this why Lukas Junill managed to reach the inner circle gate before they recognized him?'

The town of Helbeck was a very old one, founded before the changing of era. In the past, it had a walled inner circle surrounded by an open border outskirts town, the former being the residence of the important or rich. This wall that Thirteen passed through now was a new one, constructed to prevent the outskirt town from being devoured by monsters.

"So, where are we supposed to begin?" Ten asked.

"Let's start with what he was doing here, where he would have gone and why." Thirteen said.

"We know he tried to enter the inner circle. I don't know why he went there, but it probably wasn't his first stop. I doubt there's much for a wanted commoner there."

Thirteen tried to place himself in the shoes of Lukas Junill, voicing his thoughts aloud.

"Whether intentional or not, he killed a baron's son along with a few others in a bar fight. For him to lose so much control as an augmentor, he was likely drunk, so we can assume he has a fondness for alcohol. Following that he'd have been on the run, avoiding towns, so he's been staying outside or in villages. Either way, if he's used to a decent bed and drink, then when he finally does return to a town for the first time, it's fair to say he'll seek those out first."

Nine picked up "The inner circle will have better quality inns and taverns, certainly. But he would stand out like a sore thumb, being a commoner cultivator who's likely a bit disheveled from camping outside, not to mention the bounty posters of him in the town hall. If he was careful enough to avoid towns up until now, I don't know why he would risk going to the inner circle for this."

"Unless he learned of something here in the outskirts that made him try to get in?" It was Ten who put the nail in the coffin.

"Okay" Thirteen started. "So after an extended leave from any major settlements, he enters Helbeck with its shoddy outer circle security, and wants to fulfill his three needs: Eat, Drink, and Sleep—"

"Four needs." Nine interrupted.

"Huh? What else?"

Thirteen and Ten each looked at Nine blankly, as his usual calm front began to falter.

"U-um… I think, I mean I heard. That there's another?" His face grew red as the others still seemed to have no idea.

"N-nevermind. So three! F-food, drink, and bed. If he found out about something in the inner circle while pursuing any of these… well it has to be drink right?"

"Taverns are rowdier than restaurants," Ten added. "Drunks are noisy."

"Alright then. We know Lukas Junill tried to enter the eastern gate of the inner circle, so he may have entered the outskirts from that same direction. Let's head to that entrance and look for nearby taverns."

"I might head straight to the inner circle, see if I can find anything there." Nine said.

"Alright, well let's meet back at this gate after… two hours?"

With a nod, Nine made his way south from where they were, heading to the northern gate of the inner circle, while Ten and Thirteen went east.

It took a while for Ten and Thirteen to reach the eastern gate, as the town of Helbeck was quite a large one. However once there, they realized a problem.

"There are too many," Ten said, as Thirteen simply gulped.

The taverns and restaurants filling the surroundings of the eastern gate were tremendous in number. "We might need to split up" she proposed.

"Agreed. Let's meet up here in an hour, if we have anything, we'll find Nine in the inner circle, otherwise we keep going until two hours passed, okay?"

"Sure"