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Energy Eater - Monster Hunters - Chapter 104
🕑 Added 2025-04-15 01:09:53 +0000 UTCWhile we were seeing the city of Spokane, that wasn't our destination. At least not the city proper. Instead, we were heading to a smaller clump of buildings that were not as destroyed as the ones in the city to the east. Closer to our location. That's where a village seemed to have been formed at some point. Even from the distance, we could see people coming in and out of a few of the buildings that were still standing and some considerably large tents here and there. Tents that seemed to be relatively new, even though it was kind of hard to say with the age of the tarps and leather that made out the outer layer of those encampments.
As we approached, a tired-looking man holding a long spear stopped us by raising his hand.
"Look, we don't have any more space for refugees. I don't care how bad things are south, you going to have to look for someplace else to stay."
I paused. "Refugees? What's going on?"
The man looked up at me with an annoyed expression. "You aren't the first one to try that. I'm not going to buy it. Just go to someplace else. I'm sorry, but we are full."
"No, seriously. We're not from the south. We came from the east. From Flathead Lake. And we're not refugees." I sneaked a glance at Pamela, but still continued speaking, hoping that the man didn't notice that. "We came here to trade and see what's going on in the area."
The man frowned. "What do you have to trade? You don't look like merchants."
"We're not." Michael stepped in. "We are not, but we do have some supplies, some medicine, some food soap we were hoping to trade them for, maybe a place to stay for the night and talk to whoever is in charge here. You see, we are monster hunters. We go around looking for dangerous creatures that are causing problems for various villages and get rid of them. We do hope that after a job well done, we can get paid in supplies and recoup whatever we traded to stay the night but, we are not here to stay for free."
The man raised one eyebrow. "Monster hunters, you?"
Michael chuckled. "I know I don't look like much and honestly, I'm really not. I am more of a tracker than anything else. Cass here is our leader and the girl with the axe. Well, I don't have to say anything" He gestured to Astrid, who was standing with her arms crossed, the veins bulging out of her biceps.
That seemed to be enough to convince the man who nodded. "Okay then. Give me a mome..." He looked around and called. "You, boy, come here."
A kid rushed towards us. He had long chestnut hair, his skin was a bit thin and his clothes were tattered but still serviceable. Even if not by much.
"Take them to the Chief. Unlike you, they actually seem to amount to something."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."
I frowned at his comment, and the guard seemed to notice my reaction, letting out a sigh. "Look, too many people came here and are expecting hand-me-downs. We don't have enough for everybody. And kids are the bigger problem. We can't actually make them work very much and they end up being the ones who eat the most food."
"Sure, but that still doesn't make it right the way you spoke to him."
The man just shrugged. "I'm tired. I've been dealing with people like that all day. And I'm just don't care anymore, okay? He's going to take you to the Chief and you can handle whatever you want to handle with them. Just don't bring me any more trouble."
Like he asked, I didn't say anything. Even though I really didn't appreciate the way he was speaking to the kid, he was tired and being a dick wasn't enough for me to get up in arms. I became even less worried once I started talking to the kid. His name was Joel, and he was very eager.
"Are you really monster hunters?" He asked, and Michael nodded.
"Yes, we are. We just came from a place called Flathead Lake where we killed the Giant crab."
"What's a crab?" the kid asked.
"Oh, it's kind of like a giant spider that lives in the sea."
"Ooh, that's cool. Scary." Astrid added.
"How big was it?" The kid turned to the Frosted Lumberjack, who just pointed at a nearby tree and said "Bigger."
"Bigger than a tree?" The kid's eyes went wide, trying to understand what we were saying. Astrid just nodded with a smile and it was my turn to ask a few questions.
"By the way, the guard mentioned about refugees? What's going on? Why are so many people coming here?"
The kid's excitement seemed to vanish a bit. "Oh, it's because of the monsters in the south. Too many of them. They're fighting and we need to run."
"What kind of monsters? The Eaters?"
The kid shook his head. "Them too, but there are others. Giant rats. And the bats. And there are some monsters in the woods that keep eating children. It's not nice."
Hearing about the rats, I glanced at Astrid, who seemed to understand my concern. "Those giant rats? Do they talk?"
The kid looked at me like I was crazy. "No? Can rats talk?"
"No. Well, maybe a really smart rat can." I replied, trying to pretend it was a joke. But it didn't seem to land as the kid just kept staring at me, as if I was crazy.
"What about those other monsters? You mentioned the bats. What's going on with them?"
"They're getting bigger." Joel replied. "I saw one flying off with a horse."
"Damn, how big are they?" Michael asked.
The kid just replied. "Bigger than a horse."
We continued talking as the kid guided us to the leader of this village and apparently things further south were really not that great. Especially once you reach the desert. Basically, the monsters were everywhere. And there wasn't just the issue with the giant rats and the giant bats. But also people were being people. Attacking each other and causing problems when they should be helping instead. That wasn't that uncommon, but by the looks of it, near the desert, that kind of thing got to be more frequent. That's why there were many refugees coming up north. They were just trying to escape the madness that was going south.
The problem was that according to the kid, some people were saying that the problems of the South were reaching the north. Which meant that it might not take long for even Pops to be involved in something like that. And knowing my grandfather, he definitely would be involved. After reaching the shore, I had to double back soon to make sure he was okay.
You know, honestly, maybe I could just go back there. Even if I got there just a couple weeks after leaving, it should be enough for people to accept that I wasn't being chased by an Eater. Not to mention that at this point, telling them about the System wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. But then again, I had promise Astrid and Michael that we were going to reach the shore and despite Pops being crazy enough to try to help a bunch of people he never met, he also wasn't stupid enough to get into trouble that he couldn't solve. Especially considering that he also had the System. There was no need for me to be that worried about what was going on with him.
Joel didn't take long to bring us to the house where the village leader was staying. But even then, he wasn't the first person who we were allowed to talk to. That was for the simple reason that there were too many people in that house. And everybody seemed to be working hard with one thing or another. Some were talking while looking over a map others were discussing something serious on top of a box of something, but Joel didn't seem to care about any of them instead he just continued walking past by everybody until he reached a grizzly old man with sunken eyes gray beard and oily white skin. By his side was another man, this one bulkier and younger with dark skin and a stubble.
"Mr. Conrad, Mr. Chad asked me to bring those people here."
The grizzly man sitting on a chair looked up and smiled. "You should say 'these people". And well done kid. Joel. Here." He passed a small metal coin to the kid. "Take that to the kitchen so you can get your food for the day."
That thing made me frown. "He doesn't get to eat unless you tell him he can?"
"Oh yes. Sort of. It's not really like that. We have too many refugees, and unless they are actually doing something to help with the village, we're not giving them food. As long as they do something that will benefit us all, they get a token that they can then take to the kitchen and get food instead."
I kept frowning, but I had to understand that sentiment. Especially if the village was struggling to sustain everyone which very much seemed to be the case.
"Now, what can I help you with? If Chad sent you here, you're not just simple refugees, are you?" Conrad asked.
"No, we're not. We are actually Monster Hunters, and we were wondering if there are any creatures that are giving you some trouble lately." Michael spoke up with a smile.
"Monsters? You think you're some sort of hero?" The man to the side scoffed.
"Oh, not at all. We are not doing this for free and we are not going to go after something we absolutely can't kill. But we've been dealing with some pretty nasty creatures. We can't carry that many supplies with us and honestly, usually the meat of whatever we kill is much too much for any of us. So we are just offering our services as hunters in exchange for some food and supplies and, more importantly, a place to sleep."
"And let me guess you want to sleep first, eat our food and then you're going to go after this monster?"
"Jackson, that's enough." Conrad spoke up, making the man grumble a bit. But Michael didn't seem fazed by that.
"Not at all. We have some food, medicine and soap to barter for the night. We only ask that if we are successful in our hunt, you include the same amount of supplies that we gave as part of our payments. That way we're not actually losing anything and neither are you in case we end up dying."
That explanation seemed to make Jackson soften up a bit. "And what exactly would be your pay?" The big man asked.
"Well, like I said, the monsters we hunt sometimes are too big for us to carry by ourselves. So part of the payment would be manpower to help bring the creature to the village. If that's something, you would be interested in it. The second thing is we get our first pick of materials from those creatures. Since we are hunting, we sometimes might need to pick some clothes or the leather to make clothes for our travels. If you have tailors or someone who's well-versed in doing that kind of thing, we would very much appreciate the help."
"So far, all I'm hearing is that you're going to bring a lot of work for us to do. Work that could be spent on something else." Jackson crossed his arms. But Michael nodded again and continued with his smile.
"I understand that. And that would be part of the payment. Help to make sure we can gather the most amount of supplies from the monsters in the most effective way. Beyond it, we would want to stay a number of days here, depending on how long we took us to hunt. Maybe if we are too injured, we would need the medicine, but that's something we can work out later."
"Again, a lot of work and not a lot of benefits for us. What do we get?" Jackson pressed.
"Everything we don't want. And being free from whatever monster is being an issue," Michael replied.
"So we get your scraps?"
Michael shook his head. "Not exactly. We travel light. As you can see, we don't have more than a backpack with us. And depending on the monster that is being a problem to you, there's no way we would be able to carry all of its meat or its fur everywhere. So after hunting the monster, we bring it back to the village and use it to trade. We will just want some supplies and enough food to fill up our reserves. Plus a bit to eat on the next day or so and then everything that's left it's yours."
Jackson stared at all of us for a moment and shook his head. "I still don't see why..." but Conrad cut him off.
"Jackson shut up. That is more than a fair deal, and we're not going to try to swindle everybody who stops by here. Besides, we do have some problems with monsters. If they want to hunt it, let them. Either they are good and what they do and kill it or they die and we can spend a couple of days without having to worry about that thing."
The grizzly man didn't have to say, but it was clear that he was talking about what would happen if we were killed. As in, the monster would eat us and leave them alone. Jackson grumbled a bit more and started walking away. He stopped just after he was past us and turned around.
"Are you not coming?"
We didn't know exactly what to do and just turned to Conrad, who nodded.
"He's the one in charge of the guards, so if you want to know more about the creature that is being a problem, you should follow him."
Michael didn't say anything, but I was sure as hell going to try to have Pamela staying behind as part of our payment. Even if we had to give up some of the meat or pieces of the creature. As long as she wasn't traveling with us anymore, I would be fine. And hunting a monster to level up was just a bonus.
