Desmond looked over to see Jezabel approaching. Jez was a member of Alivia’s party, so Desmond had worked side by side with her in the past. She was a mage that had both fire and air affinities, which was a potent combination.

Jez was slightly on the tall side at around 5 foot 9. She had long straight orangish-red hair that went down to her mid-back. The way the light was coming through the lobby, it made her hair look like it was actively on fire as she walked over towards them. Her eyes were a bright shade of orange that matched her hair, and she wore red lipstick.

Jez was one of the few people in the Lodge who wasn’t human. She was a kintorn from the west side of the Empire. The only visible difference between a kintorn and a human was the horns on top of their head. Their horns came in many shapes and sizes, but the kintorn common in the Empire tended to have two straight horns pointing upwards from right above their ears. Jez herself had two slightly curved black horns pointing up from each side of her head. She was also a peak disaster class hunter.

“What do you want Succubus?” Anthony said with drunken scorn. “Can’t you see the men are talking here?”

Desmond instantly felt sorry for Anthony. If he had wanted to pick a fight, then he had just succeeded. Jez hated her nickname, which is why nobody called her that to her face. However, the nickname wasn’t going anywhere. Jez was dressed in a tight, form-fitting skimpy black dress with detached sleeves. With her sexy body and black horns, she really did have a succubus vibe going for her.

The nickname had started as an inside joke within Alivia’s party before Desmond and Ben had joined. The dress was a relic item, that apparently had succubus in the name. But then Ben had joined their party, and he had a loud mouth. So now the inside joke was her unofficial nickname, and she loathed it.
“Excuse me, what did you just say?” Jez said as she got right up in Anthony’s face. “You half-wit, son of a whore!”

Desmond was trying to send Anthony some nonverbal cues at this point. This wasn’t worth it, he didn’t have to die on this hill. Anthony, in his drunken state, chose to just bulldoze on forwards.

“I said mind your own business,” Anthony stated while getting progressively more angry. “You stupid bitch!”

Well, at least this would be a good distraction for him. Anthony was lifted into the air by wind magic, before being slammed down through a table. He hit the ground hard before jumping to his feet and charging. Desmond used this opportunity to extricate himself from the evolving situation.

Desmond took the request he had picked up over to the counter and handed it to a clerk. As the Lodge clerk was processing his request he looked back over at the fight, if it could even be called that.

Jez and Anthony had drawn quite a crowd, with people surrounding them whooping and hollering. Anthony was currently suspended mid-air, spinning wildly. But this hadn’t dampened his spirit, as they were both still throwing curses at each other.

He sympathized a little with Anthony as it was a bad matchup for him. Desmond wouldn’t be able to do much better against Jez himself. He had dueled her several times in the past and as it turns out, great strength doesn’t do much against a ranged mage that can fly. She was basically his hard counter. People always thought that the person with the higher class rank would win, but in reality, the matchup was a very large factor.

The clerical staff handed back his request ticket. “All done.”

“Thanks,” Desmond said before he moved towards the exit. As he reached the doors Desmond heard a loud smash behind him. Turning around, Desmond could see Anthony had been thrown right through one of the wooden walls of the lobby. Jez had been covered in beer at some point and looked absolutely furious. This was not going to end well, but it wasn’t his problem.

After exiting the lobby, Desmond was heading down one of the more secluded hallways on his way back to his room, when his path was blocked by Lucel. It was clear that she had been waiting for him, on the very route leading back to his residence. Lucel was still flanked by her two guards in plate armor.

Meeting in a secluded place like this, was she here to pick a fight? As Lucel approached, she seemed much more calm than their previous meeting.

“I know the truth,” Lucel said.

“Oh, do enlighten me,” Desmond replied in a mocking tone, as he crossed his arms.

“You tried to kill Ben,” Lucel stated as anger slowly crept back into her voice. “But you failed!”

“Is that so?” Desmond replied as he put on a mocking smile. “That’s news to me. If I failed, then how would I have this?” Desmond pulled out the spatial ring and slid it onto his pinky finger.

Lucel’s expression instantly turned into one of fury when she saw the ring. “That’s mine!”

“Is it now?” Desmond asked still in a mocking tone. “No, I’m pretty sure I found this.”

Desmond could see Lucel grinding her teeth in anger, she really was too easy to get riled up. But it was time to take a step back. A real confrontation wouldn’t work in Desmond’s favor right now. If he had to crush her guards right here in front of her, then she might smarten up and not leave the safety of the Lodge.

Desmond walked up beside Lucel like he was going to pass by her. “That rumor is fake. Ben’s dead. I saw it with my own two eyes.” Desmond said with conviction.

Desmond knew that Lucel hearing this from him would only convince her that the opposite was true. Desmond walked past Lucel as she shot him an angry glare.

Desmond couldn’t help but smile as he walked away, she had bought it hook, line, and sinker. Desmond had shown Lucel the ring to reinforce the fact that the letter was real. If she can confirm for herself that one part of the letter is true, it makes it easier for her to believe that the whole thing is true.

***

Desmond walked through a hallway as he approached his room. He had made a detour to see Barco in the Market District to see if his new sword was done yet. Unfortunately, Barco received a rush order late yesterday, so it was going to take him a few more days. A rush order that Desmond didn’t help with by distracting the man for a few hours with drinks. As Desmond neared his room he was greeted by Alivia and Jez, who had clearly been waiting for him.

“Oh, hey Dez,” Jez said as she was the first to notice his approach.

“Hi, Jez,” Desmond replied. “What brings you to my humble abode?”

“That is, I just wanted to apologize for the incident in the lobby,” Jez said. “I mean, if Ben was still alive? Talking about it in the lobby like that is just stupid. I hope I didn’t make things worse.”

“It was no problem, really,” Desmond replied. “If anything I should thank you for distracting that buffoon. I can confirm that Ben is dead so there is no issue there, but Anthony was just not going to get the message.”

“See, I told you there was no problem,” Jez said to Alivia.

“Why are you acting like this was my idea?” Alivia asked. “You were the one fretting over it.”

“I was not fretting.”

“Sure you weren’t,” replied Alivia while not sounding convinced at all. “So Dez, I hear you are going out on a hunt?”

“Yeah, I decided to take your advice,” Desmond said. “Me and Riki are going on a short hunt to the south for maybe a week or two. It depends on how long it takes to find the darkmoon elk.”

“I see,” Alivia replied.

“That’s good, it’s best to just get back out there,” replied Jez in a jovial tone. “Moving forward is important. Maybe we can even work together more in the future now.”

Desmond knew he would receive no condolences from Jez about Ben’s death, and he was sort of happy about that. Jez could hold a grudge, and she had far more than a grudge against Ben. Ben had gotten the whole party to hate him in such a short amount of time that it was honestly a little impressive. Jez actually seemed more upbeat, after hearing about Ben’s demise.

“Perhaps,” Desmond replied.

“I think Riki would fit in well with the rest of the group,” Jez said as she continued to talk. “I mean she couldn’t be worse than Ben. That would just leave us with another mage spot to fill.”

Desmond continued to make small talk with Jez and Alivia for a few more minutes before excusing himself. He needed to get moving if he wanted to ambush Lucel.

As Desmond looked around his residence and found that he had beaten Riki back. Desmond walked over to the burden armor he had set out on the porch in his courtyard. It was a large set of plate mail armor with inscriptions covering it. It was designed and enchanted to make movement harder for the wearer. It was basically a fancy and expensive set of training gear.

Desmond hadn’t had the chance to use it since his last hunt, as there were simply too many things to worry about. He considered putting it in his spatial ring with the rest of his valuables, but he was running out of space.

If he put in the burden armor, then he would have no room for anything else, so he decided against it for the moment. The 2 meters cubed was simply not enough space. Desmond would already have to carry most of his supplies as it was. Maybe he should hire someone to lug around his stuff? It was what all the big hunter parties did.

“Hey Dez,” Riki said coming out of nowhere. “You ready to go?”

“Yup,” Desmond replied. “You got everything?”

“Of course,” Riki stated.

***

Desmond was sitting on a tree branch staring out at the dark forest feeling utterly useless. The sun had set a few hours ago so his viability was basically zero. He and Riki had left the Lodge going south until they were outside the array’s perimeter. They had then circled around to the northeast, and were now lying in wait for Lucel’s group.

Desmond glanced over to the branch beside him where Riki was sitting with her legs crossed and eyes closed. With her here, Desmond really felt like him being on lookout was pointless. She had much better scouting abilities than he did. In a larger hunter party, Riki would play the role of a scout, after all.

Hunters generally formed parties to take on more powerful beasts. This all came down to getting more experience. Killing a slightly more powerful beast could provide a significantly larger amount of experience. To make this more efficient, groups were broken up into roles. The basic roles were mage, warrior, bait, healer, and scout. Groups didn’t have to fill every role but having a good mix was important.

Mages were ranged magic damage dealers who focused on the mental stats. Warriors were close-range combatants that focused on the physical stats. However, all warriors tended to learn some magic, even if it was only for utility. The big advantage of an awakened over a dark was magic after all. Even Desmond who had a legacy that made him a perfect warrior depended on some magic use.

Bait was a role that focused on defense and attracting the enemy's attention. It was basically the tank role from RPGs. Not all parties filled this role as real beasts didn’t tend to listen to aggro tables, but most high-class parties tried to fill it in some way. Many beasts were dumb enough to just attack the person you put in front of them.

The healer role was just a mage that focused on healing skills and would save much of their mana throughout a fight for restoration. The scout was a role that could be filled by anyone as long as they had a few scouting skills. Every party filled this role, but the person who filled it would usually have other responsibilities, like acting like a mage during a fight.

There were of course many variants to these roles, but every hunter fell within one of these general categories. Desmond himself filled the warrior or bait role. More often than not he acted as the bait, as there were just fewer people capable of filling this role.

Riki was sitting on the branch incredibly focused on her task. She was using some type of shadow magic scouting skill. Desmond was overcome with a sudden desire to tease her, but stopped himself. This was serious business and he had to keep focus, even if he did feel useless. Desmond went back to staring at the surrounding dark forest.

“They're here,” Riki said softly. “Three people about a kilometer west of us. They meet the characteristics of who we are looking for.”

“Well, let’s get this over with then,” Desmond replied jumping off his branch. He wasn’t looking forward to this, but it had to be done.