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Why can’t today be over yet? I hate this! Drim’s mind had been filled with thoughts like these for almost an hour now. His head was fully slumped down onto a table in the middle of a diner. The town they were currently in only had two options for food: a traditional diner, and a guy selling possum burgers out of the back of his truck. Drim had honestly been excited to try the possum burger, but the other three had dragged him away.

There was a fast-food place as well, but that only opened in the afternoon, and the Fiends had decided to get lunch much earlier than the usual range. This was due to the fact that there was absolutely nothing else to do in this town. They had robbed the town’s bank first thing in the morning, but due to certain circumstances, they couldn’t leave and go to the next one.

Lunch, however, had ended over an hour ago, and the Fiends had not budged from their table. They certainly weren’t in a rush, but that had somehow developed into a complete refusal to move in the other three. Drim was happy for them to get some downtime, but he had to admit he was rather uncomfortable. When they first came to the diner it was practically empty during the void between breakfast and lunch.

When the proper lunch half-hour rolled around, though, the diner became packed with every seat filled. The diner seemed to be one of the town’s main meeting spots, on top of being one of its only food options. It was not an exaggeration to say that every eye was on the Fiends. There was endless gossip, some took pictures, and there was a call to the police made by another customer which was subsequently ignored.

When the luncheon period ended, a lot of them cleared out, but there was still a decent amount compared to when the Fiends first arrived. The last half-hour had been torture for Drim. In the last few months, he had taken great strides in being more social, but this only applied to small groups. When he was the center of attention for a crowd, he couldn’t bear it and wanted to flee.

Drim pulled out his phone, to see if there were any jobs nearby he could use as a reason to escape. There was nothing, though, not a single job in 30 lages. They really were in the middle of nowhere. He had kept his head down on the table during the entire lunch rush, so he decided to look around it and see what his friends had been up to. Kada had out a large stack of notebook paper, and was scribbling something down on it.

“What are you writing?” Drim asked her, genuinely intrigued.

“A thing,” was all Kada replied.

“A thing…” Drim repeated.

“Yup, I don’t really want to talk about it just yet,” Kada insisted. “I haven’t decided if it’s good enough, and if I’m not going to keep working on it, what's the point in telling someone about it? Who knows, I might just burn it.” She looked too focused on it for it to be something she might burn later, but Drim decided to drop it for now.

He then turned his attention to Phon. She was leaning back in her chair, with her cap pulled down over her eyes. “You awake, Phon?” Drim inquired, unsure if she was napping or not.

“Shh,” Phon put a finger to her lips and shushed him. “I’m scheming.”

“Uhh… I probably shouldn’t even ask, should I?” Drim asked rhetorically.

“I’m trying to figure out what I can do to mess with the people tomorrow,” Phon still answered.

“Phon, you know I won’t sign off on any schemes for that,” Drim disputed.

“Don’t be so quick to decide,” Phon implored him. “Listen to what I come up with first, and then make up your mind.” The conversation ended there, but a few seconds later she mumbled to herself, “But where would I even get that much tar on such short notice…”

Before he could even get to Xard, Drim noticed something hanging on the wall. It was a monster bounty board. Since this town was so small, they must use the diner as their information exchange. This could be a good opportunity. Xard was only looking at his phone, so there was a good chance he’d join Drim, and they could have some bonding time together.

“Hey Xard,” Drim spoke to him, but there was no response. “Uhh, Xard?” Drim waved his hand this time to try and grab his attention.

Xard finally noticed, and pulled earbuds out that Drim didn’t realize were in his ears. “Yeah, what’s up?”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t know you were-” Drim instinctively tried to apologize but decided to simply ask what he wanted. “Do you want to go on a monster hunt with me?”

“Uhh, maybe later,” Xard responded, but Drim could tell by the tone of his voice that he wasn’t really interested. “Sorry, I’m really invested in this drama right now. Trying to catch up since I’ve missed so much of it lately.” He then put his headphones back in and resumed watching.

Drim sighed, a little sad since everyone was so preoccupied, but he wasn’t going to let it stop him. He had an out now, to get away from being stared at for a while, and he wasn’t going to let it go to waste. After walking over to the monster board, he started browsing through the options. There was a decent selection, but since he only had an afternoon to accomplish it, that severely limited his choices.

Initially, Drim’s eyes were drawn to the pangobeetle but ultimately decided against it. It was a rather smelly creature, and the bile it produced was exceptionally rank. Drim wasn’t confident that this town would have a laundry service equipped well enough to handle the aftermath. This left him with the trapfish, a smelly creature in its own right, but that was more due to its habitat. It was nothing Drim wouldn’t be able to take care of later with hand-washing.

Trapfish were classified as an intermediate-tier monster, but could still prove a daunting task for any hunter unfamiliar with them. An expert hunter like Drim wouldn’t have any problem. It would be like taking a walk through a monster-infested park. Not even a second after Drim pulled the poster off the wall, a large, strong hand slapped down onto his shoulder. “I see those trapfish caught your eye there, rookie.”

Drim looked over his shoulder. A stout and rugged middle-aged man was standing mere inches behind him. It was honestly a little shocking for Drim that this man had managed to sneak up on him like that. “They may be a little tough for a newbie like you, though,” the man continued. “Tell you what, I’ll join you and show you a thing or two. I came here specifically for them myself, so I’d feel awful if you got injured on account of my negligence.”

The man started pulling Drim’s shoulder, leading him towards the exit of the diner. The other three Fiends looked at him with befuddled expressions. Drim merely shrugged back at them as he was pushed out the door. “Hang on a minute, I need to grab my gear. Come give me a hand, won’t ya?” the man urged him.

They walked a few minutes to an SUV and the man opened up the rear hatch. He pulled out a small wagon that was normally used for children to play with. “Can you help me load this, it’s pretty heavy,” the man insisted. He was referring to an odd looking machine sitting inside the vehicle. All Drim could understand about it was that it had a motor, a few belts, and a hopper at the top.

Drim reached into the vehicle, and pulled the machine out entirely on his own, setting it down gently on the wagon. “Dang rookie, you’re a strong one, aintcha?” the man was impressed. “Guess you’re hiding some muscles under that cloak of yours. I may not have to be worried about you after all, but I still think there’s a thing or two I can teach ya.”

The man then pulled out the rest of his gear: mostly fishing supplies like a net, rod, vest, and tackle box. He loaded what he couldn’t fit onto his person onto the remaining space of the wagon. “Oh, I know you,” Drim suddenly announced. “You’re The Angler, aren’t you? A hunter who specializes in fish monsters.”

“So you’ve heard of me, have ya?!” The Angler proudly boasted. “I’m no Slayer, but I guess my name’s starting to get around some. Yes, that's me, The Affordable Angler, at your service.” Drim was honestly surprised to finally meet him after all this time. There were many hunters in the world, but very few with enough renown that Drim took notice of their names. Of the ones he remembered, he had met almost all of them. However, The Angler was one with whom he had never crossed paths in all his years of hunting.

“Well, let’s get going then, shall we?” The Angler suggested. “Mind towing the wagon for me, Mr. Muscles?” Drim did as he was asked, and the pair of them headed off past the diner into wilder territory. They walked for around 20 minutes, The Angler yammering nonstop about nonsensical topics. This had always been Drim’s experience with other hunters when he worked with some in the past. They loved to talk about themselves, and their feats, to anyone who would listen, taking advantage of the ‘silent’ part of Drim’s title.

Soon, they found themselves at a bog, and Drim’s eyes widened at the sheer number of trapfish. To those unaware, it would just look like a field of small puddles, but if someone knew what they were looking for, it was like a sea of landmines. Trapfish often roamed in schools, but this was ridiculous. There had to be well over a hundred. “You must be lucky there, rookie,” The Angler chuckled. “I’ve never seen so many. This will be a mighty catch indeed!”

Drim wondered why he was so excited. As far as he knew, trapfish weren’t worth much since they couldn’t be eaten by humans, and they didn’t have any scavangeable resources. They would be paid by the head for each fish, so more of them definitely meant more money, but it wouldn’t be an amount a hunter of his prestige should be getting so excited about. It was quite possibly the first time that anyone had ever actually been genuinely happy from trapfish, since most people despised them simply for their existence.

Trapfish were a combination of catfish and trapdoor spiders. Appearance wise, they took more after the catfish, maintaining its entire body. The only add-ons were additional eyes and the legs from the spider that surrounded the middle of the fish in a circle. Their behavior was more on the spider side. They would burrow in marshlands, disguised as small puddles or clumps of mud. When their prey would get close, they would leap out, and latch onto them with their mouth.

Inside the mouth of the trapfish were several fangs that would inject their prey with venom. They would then dive back into their burrow, and use their legs to pull their prey into their body as it was rapidly digested. They could devour a creature ten times their size in a matter of minutes. This was part of the reason people were hesitant to hunt them, but most just refused out of principle, disgusted by their very being. However, once someone knew their tactics, they were rather easy to kill. One could simply stab the puddle with a spear and kill them in a single blow with minimal risk.

“Alright kiddo, time to watch the master,” The Angler proclaimed. “I’ll show you once, then I’ll let you try for yerself.” He grabbed his fishing net and walked over to the nearest trapfish puddle. Then, he put his hand into his net, with his fingers poking out through the holes at the bottom. He moved his hand over the puddle, and wiggled his fingers. It took less than a second for the trapfish to take the bait, and it launched out of its puddle, trying to nab the angler’s hand.

Just when the trapfish’s mouth was about to enclose around the hand, The Angler pulled the net down. It wrapped around the trapfish, scooping it out of the air, and then the neck of the net closed. “Oi, isn’t that really dangerous?!” Drim criticized his tactics. “You’re unnecessarily risking your arm. Their venom can be deadly, and why bother keeping it alive, anyways?”

“I see you know quite a bit,” The Angler acknowledged, “But it seems you don’t know everything. For starters, this net is made of metal fibers, and is thick enough that the trapfish’s fangs won’t reach. I keep a vial of antivenom with me just in case, though. As for why I keep them alive, well, that’s what this beaut is for.” The Angler moved back over to his machine that was still sitting on the wagon, and dropped the trapfish into it via the hopper.

The machine began to whir for a moment, and produced a pleasant ding sound a moment later. When the machine stopped making noise, The Angler opened a compartment near the bottom. He pulled out a small brown bottle, and it was around a sixth of the way full with liquid. “Tell me son, have you ever heard of Smooth Shores?”

“Uhh, it’s a lotion or something, right?” Drim wasn’t entirely sure.

“Yes, indeed it is,” The Angler confirmed. “But it’s not just a lotion. Smooth Shores has expanded into a full line of cosmetics, and I just so happen to be the founder of that modest company. High quality for a low price, that’s why they call me The Affordable Angler. It’s well known that my products are fish-based, but what no one else knows is the special ingredient that goes into all of them. This!” He brandished his small bottle proudly.

“I’m only telling you this because you look like the type who can keep yer mouth shut,” The Angler admitted. “If it got out that I use trapfish oil as my key ingredient, my market share would plummet to bupkis. But this stuff is amazing! A single drop is all I need for a full batch. If we catch all the trapfish here, it will be enough oil to keep me raking in the profits for decades!”

“I see, and don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone your secret,” Drim gave his word. “I have no interest in ruining your cosmetics business, and money isn’t really an issue for me. I’m guessing you were going to offer me hush-money if I indicated otherwise.”

“You’re a perceptive one, rookie. I’ll give you that,” The Angler chuckled.

“I can also guess as to why you keep them alive,” Drim persisted. “Monsters rapidly decay when killed and the oil of a trapfish is only skin deep. So, you’d only have a matter of seconds once you killed them to extract it. It looks like your machine is capable of doing just that.”

“Well my my, someone’s done their homework,” The Angler gave his admiration. “I know you said money’s not an issue, but I could use someone with your intellect. How about becoming my apprentice? I’ll give you a percentage share of the profits.”

“I’ll pass,” Drim immediately replied. “However, I am interested in trying out your method.” He grabbed The Angler’s net, and proceeded to a different puddle. Once Drim stuck his hand in, he could immediately feel what The Angler was talking about. The net was made out of good material and it felt like his hand would be fully protected. Drim repeated the same motions as The Angler and caught a trapfish without problems.

“Put yer hand at risk without hesitation and managed to pull it off on your first try; you’re an oddity boy,” The Angler declared as he took the net back from Drim and plopped the trapfish into the hopper. “With your help this would certainly go faster, but I only brought the one net. Hmm, I wonder if we could get another from somewhere nearby.” The Angler closed his eyes, rubbed his chin, and pondered on the matter for a moment.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ve got it covered,” Drim proclaimed, prompting The Angler to immediately turn around and look at him. His eyes grew wide with confusion, but this much was to be expected.

“How did you…?” The Angler muttered in disbelief. He was referring to the net Drim was now holding, which he had made with his curse moments ago. It had a wooden handle and a net made out of his vines. “Well, I think I’m better off not knowing. Who am I to question your assistance? Let's get to work then and we can probably finish it before supper, and I’ll tell you what, dinner’s on me.”

The pair of them began capturing every trapfish in sight, meticulously progressing through the bog so that they didn’t miss any, didn’t repeat a puddle, and made sure they wouldn’t accidentally step over one. About every ten or so, they would move up the wagon so they didn’t have to keep trekking back to it. The Angler would also use this chance to swap out any filled bottles and dump out the worthless trapfish guts, since the machine could only hold so much.

“Oh, hold for a moment kid,” The Angler moved his arm in front of Drim, stopping him. “See that puddle, that one’s a might bit bigger than the rest. It’s too risky to use our arms, so we’ll have to use a more traditional fishing method to nab it.” The Angler grabbed his fishing rod, and pulled out what almost looked like a child’s toy from his tacklebox. It was a ball with a bunch of wriggling noodles coming off to it. He attached the weird lure to the end of his line, and cast it over the large puddle.

It took some coercing and finesse with the lure, but after a bit of bobbing around, the trapfish finally took the bait. The Angler then extended the handle of his net, and held it underneath the writhing trapfish. He pressed a button on his fishing rod, and the lure detached, dropping it and the trapfish right into the net. The Angler then dumped it into the hopper without even attempting to reclaim the lure. “Don’t worry, the oil I’ll get from that one trapfish alone could pay for a million of those things.”

Drim couldn’t help but watch in admiration as The Angler worked so smoothly. It reminded him of something he hadn’t thought of in quite a while. Humans were strong. They were skillful and could adapt to anything. For too long now he had been seeing them as a weaker species, something that needed to be looked after and protected. It felt like a bit of a relief for Drim. He had been rushing to accomplish his plans because he felt humanity needed them as soon as possible, but perhaps it was fine to take it in stride.

The Angler then immediately went right back to his catching, heading to a new batch of puddles. After only taking two steps past the puddle where he’d just caught the larger trapfish, the ground beneath his feet started to shake. Soon, a giant mouth erupted from the ground, fully wrapping itself around The Angler. It was a giant trapfish the size of a car, and it swallowed The Angler whole before pulling him back into the ground.

Drim’s eyes were bulging out of his skull as he tried to comprehend what had just happened. I take back every thought I just had. This world is far too dangerous for humans! Drim was able to rescue The Angler easily enough, pulling the trapfish out of the ground and ripping it apart with his thorns. The Angler, however, was unconscious, and had punctures all over his body where he’d been injected with venom. Drim rushed over to the tacklebox, found the antivenom mentioned earlier, and forced the entire bottle down The Angler’s throat.

The effect was immediate, and Drim could already see the effects of the venom receding. It was fortunate that The Angler had such a high dosage. Drim would have been able to make it himself, but he may not have been able to complete it in time. The Angler’s breathing and heart rate both returned to a stable condition, but he was still unconscious. Half an hour later, Drim got impatient and injected The Angler with an herbal concoction to force him awake.

The Angler leapt upright, and then rubbed his head which undoubtedly had to be aching. “Welcome back,” Drim greeted him once he seemed to settle down.

“What in the frozen hell just happened?” The Angler grumbled. “There was a giant trapfish, and then everything went dark… Did… Did you save me?”

“Yeah, I suppose I never introduced myself,” Drim realized. “I’m Drim Drazah, The Slayer, nice to meet you.”

The Angler started to laugh uncontrollably, but it wasn’t one of happiness, it was one of utter disbelief. “The Slayer, huh, well Cosmos be damned. I guess this was my lucky day after all. I should have guessed right from the beginning. I’m a daft fool, aren’t I? Now then, Mr. Slayer, how can I repay you?”

“You really don’t have to worry about that,” Drim insisted. “Saving people from monsters is kind of my thing. Knowing you’re safe is all I need. Also, I went ahead and caught the rest of the trapfish for you while you were unconscious. I assumed you wouldn’t mind. The giant one wouldn’t fit into the hopper, well at least in sizable chunks I would have been able to cut in time, so I didn’t bother.”

“Hah, you’re the best for a reason, aren’t ya?” The Angler evangelized. “A Fiend right? What I wouldn’t do to get my hands on power like that.”

“I would dispose of that thought as soon as possible,” Drim diminished his dream. “Believe me when I say the cost to obtain this power was a heavy one, a price I’m still paying. It’s a path I wouldn’t recommend for anyone.”

Aww, you’re talking about me, Eleen piped up for the first time all day which made Drim grimace.

“Well, I’ll take your word for it,” The Angler smiled in return. “With your help, I’m about to become the richest cosmetics tycoon in the world, so I don’t need power like that anyways.” The Angler stood up, having finally recovered enough to do so. He batted some of the dirt and grime off his body, then went and grabbed his wagon. “I know I promised you dinner, but I’m honestly too exhausted for that. I’ll call ahead and let that diner know that anything you want is on me. Be seeing you around, Slayer.”

Drim felt he should say a goodbye as well, but couldn’t quite find the words. Before The Angler went too far, he stopped, waved his hand back at Drim, and shouted, “I’ll repay this even if you don’t want me to. You’re already the best hunter in the world, but you’re about to be the one with the smoothest skin!” The Angler then laughed heartily to himself until he was out of sight.

The town they were staying in surprisingly did have a proper hotel. It wasn’t nearly as fancy as ones in more refined towns and cities, but it had all the basic amenities they needed. It was also the venue that would be hosting the final stage of their grand plan tomorrow. After Drim went to his room to change into a fresh pair of clothes, he returned to the diner which was only a short walk away. There, he found the Fiends still sitting at the same table, looking like they hadn’t moved an inch. He sat back down in his seat as if he’d never left, and looked at the menu to decide what he was going to eat for dinner.

Thanks for reading this chapter. Feel free to leave a comment or review. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have an idea for a Fiend or Lesser, feel free to leave a comment or send me a DM and I may use them in a later Volume!

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