I look at row upon row of cages in the middle of a forest far away from the city proper. I have forty Beowolves, and fifty Creep ready to be sold.

It takes me ten days to gather them all. I need to pay a lot of money to buy the cage without raising an eyebrow in the process.

I open up my phone and go to the captured market. Wait. What?

"Why are their prices going down?!"

I quickly call Luk and wait for a few seconds.

"Hello, William~."

"Hello, Luk. Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course~."

"Why is the price for Beowolf going down? Previously it was worth six points and now it is only worth four points."

"Ah, it was because there are too many Beowolf in the market. Supply and demand, you know. The largest buyer for Grimm already has too many Beowolf in her possession. Lucky for you, your Creep is still sold at the original price."

"That is good, I guess."

"Is that all?"

"Yes. Thank you for answering my question."

"No problem~."

I quickly sell all of the Grimm, and I get sixteen points for the Beowolf and fifteen points for the Creep, a total of thirty-one points. Combining it with my leftover points, I get forty points total. It was not much, but I could buy more things with it.

However, I decided to hold it for now. I want to buy more heritage perks from the shop, but they cost me a hundred points. To gather more points, I need to hunt other Grimm as well. I don't want to hunt Beowolf because I have a feeling the price will get lower.

"Filia."

"Kyuuu?"

"Do you think we should continue to hunt and stamp the Grimm or should we go back?"

"Kyu~ Kyui! Kyu~"

"I see. Going back to Vale and taking more missions, huh? I guess we can do that."

Yeah. While gathering points is good and all, I also need to gather money. Buying all of these cages is rather expensive.

I walk toward the now empty cage and store it inside my inventory. After putting them all inside my inventory, I walk out of my hideout. What kind of mission should I take?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

|Rias Magnolia - Dust Merchant|

I look at the available hunters who accept my request and nod.

"How is it, boss?"

"They all clean."

As a merchant, you need to check your guard's background very carefully because many bandits have hunter licenses that they can use to rob you, especially when your goods are something as valuable as Dust.

"Who is it, boss?"

"I decided to hire three people. Vance Khan is a Zebra Faunus. He took forty missions in his life and had a ninety percent success rate."

"Not bad. A relatively new hunter."

"The next one is Terresa Putih, a human huntress. She took one hundred and sixty missions in her life and had a eighty percent success rate."

"The last one?"

"Another new one. William Argento, human hunter. He took thirty missions in his life and had a hundred percent success rate."

"A hundred percent?"

"Yes and all of them are search and destroy missions."

Rossa, my right-hand woman, whistled and grinned at it.

"That is impressive. Not bad for a newbie. Are they clean?"

"They are clean. I have checked their background and they came out clean."

"Good! This journey will be a long one and we need trusted personnel."

I nod my head at Rossa. She is right. We are using the land route in this journey from Vale to Garik town in the south of Vale. It was a journey of around twelve hundred kilometers (around 745 miles).

I can use the air route, but it costs too much for me. I also need to pay too many taxes to transport Dust from one city to another. It would not cost me too much if I transported a hundred tons of dust, but I was not.

I'm not that big of a merchant just yet.

"So, when will we go?"

"Tomorrow morning. Might as well finish this delivery as fast as we can before doing another delivery."

"Roger that."

~The next morning~

I look out of the window and see the world run past me. It has been seven hours since we started our journey. The journey is peaceful, too peaceful. I look at Rosso, who is touching her spear-bazooka in anxiety.

"Something is not right."

"You are right."

I hear from the guild that a group of Grimm has been spotted around this area. However, so far, there is not a single Grimm spotted. There is something wrong going on here.

*RING* *RING*

I take out my scroll and see that one of my bodyguards, William, is calling me.

"What is it?"

"I see a movement at two-two-five."

I take out a compass and look at the degree on it. They are in our right.

"How many?"

"Forty… no, at least fifty of them."

"What kind?"

"Beowolves, Creep, Boarbatusk, and Ursa."

"The leader?"

"I can see a large Ursa in the distance. I have a feeling it was their alpha."

Dammit! I knew it. I knew that something would go wrong. It was too quiet.

"Good job. Tell the other to prepare."

"Roger that. Oh, before I tell the others, can I handle them?"

"What? Are you stupid? You will die."

"Don't worry about me, boss. I know my own ability."

"... Suit yourself. It was your life not mine."

"Thank you. I can see a clearing to your left. You guys can wait for me there."

"Whatever."

I put away my phone and told the other to create a defensive position in the clearing to our left. After arriving in the clearing, my crew got out of the car and started building the portable defensive fortress.

It creates a semi-transparent barrier made of Hard-Light dust that lets my crew shoot the enemy from the higher ground. Behind the wall is our car, which can be used as second protection after the crew puts all the dust away.

"You two, you will be the one leading the crew. Rossa and I will go and make sure that young man is still alive."

Rossa and I quickly run through the forest to the location where William tells me the Grimm is located. While I'm not a graduate of Hunter Academy like Rossa, my father made sure I knew how to fight and hired a teacher to unlock my aura and teach me how to survive.

After running for a few minutes, we arrive at a battle scene. I can see William holding a book while grinning from ear to ear. Around him is what I can only call a magic circle like in the fantasy books.

Each magic circle releases a destructive 'spell' that kills any Grimm in his way.

*ROAR*

I wince a little at the loud roar of the Ursa Alpha and am ready to activate my Semblance to take William away from the battlefield. However, before I could do that, I heard him saying.

"Come to me! Lord of Fire! Ifrit!"

After saying that, a massive humanoid creature appears in front of William. This creature is seven meters tall. Its body is covered in fire. It has a pair of massive horns with a fire on the tip of it.

The massive creature roars and punches Alpha Ursa with its fist and throws the massive Ursa as if it was nothing.

"Who the hell is he?!"

I can only nod my head in agreement with Rossa. Yeah. Who the hell is he? And how I never heard of him before?