Hunters: The Prequel - Chapter 247

“Well then, let me leave you to get some more rest. We’d talk more tomorrow morning” Dan released Mane’s hand and stood up. However, as he was reaching for the door, Mane stopped him and asked for a favor.

“Hold on Sir Dan. If it isn’t too much to ask, can I get a couple of books to occupy my time?” Mane pleaded.

Seeing that Dan was looking at him strangely, he quickly delivered an explanation for his actions. “I think that reading about world history and other things about magical beasts may help me remember something”

“I see. Alright, I’d get you some books. No one is reading them anyway and they have longed for the touch of one seeking for wisdom. However, don’t do too much. When you get exhausted, promise me that you’d let go of the books and go to bed. It’s already nighttime.” Dan promised to do as Mane said, but he didn’t do so without leaving several warnings and reminders for the young Supreme.

“I will. Thank you Sir Dan” Mane expressed his thanks to the man.

“No need to call me ‘Sir’. It’s too formal, and I am not one for formalities. You can call me Dan” Dan smiled as he opened the door.

“Alright then Dan” Mane obliged.

“Hahaha. Good. I’d be back with the books soon” Dan said and exited the room.

“Hoping that you can learn more about this world from the books?” No sooner had he left when Hildegarde asked.

“Yes. If I wait till tomorrow, the quest would have ended, and I would have failed. After all, the fact that I slept the entire day has nothing to do with the quest progression. Injury or no injury, I do not think that the Chaos difficulty would make things easy” Mane waited for a few more seconds before he answered Hildegarde. Dan might not be able to see her or hear her, but that didn’t refer to Mane. If Dan heard him talking to someone, the older man might just label him as insane.

“That is true. I have never been a chaperone to someone who was left injured right at the start, but I’m guessing that’s all part of the difficulty level” Hildegarde was quick to acknowledge Mane’s thinking and didn’t hide it.

“Besides, the books might have more information on the ‘Mystic Arts’ tag I saw on Dan” Mane rubbed his chin and said. It was only after doing so that he realized that it wasn’t smooth like it was supposed to be. There was hair underneath his chin!

“Wait. Did I grow a beard?” Mane asked in shock. And almost lost his grip on the bed. Luckily for him, Hildegarde had good reflexes and used her abilities to keep him stable.

“You only just realized?” Hildegarde scoffed. “Tomorrow morning you should see if you can get yourself a mirror or whatever its equivalent is in this world, and have a good look for yourself.” She continued and returned to his shoulder.

“What color is it” Mane sighed and asked? “Blond of course, but with a bit of brown in it” Hildegarde answered.

“Brown huh. Dad would like it” Mane smiled as he thought of his father’s reaction had he been here. Ray always complained that Mane looked more like his mother than himself. So he would have been happy to see a streak of brown in Mane’s beard. After all, that was his hair color.

“Stop fantasizing about someone who isn’t here and open your status window. There’s something fun on there for you” Hildegarde mercilessly dismissed his thoughts of his family and pressed him to open his ‘Status’. Currently, the ‘Status’ window was minimized, as that was the best option. After all, Mane couldn’t have it on full display and interfering with his vision. The minimized window only showed the completion rate. It allowed Mane to tell whether or not he was making progress whenever he was completing a task. This was very helpful, since it allowed Mane to disregard anything that was of no relevance. Thankfully, ‘Status’ didn’t dwell on his energy, or else he wouldn’t be able to use it, much less maintain it. Otherwise, he would have had to close it entirely.

“Alright,” Mane helplessly answered although she had interrupted his thoughts. He started to miss the brief period in the meeting room of all the fairies, where she called him Sir. If he had known this was how casual she was going to be, he would have messed with her a bit more before asking her to drop the pleasantries.

“What are you thinking about that is causing you to smile like a thief?” Hildegarde raised her brow in suspicion.

“Nothing. Now let’s check my ‘Status’. Hehe” Mane quickly changed the topic.

Name: Mane

Age: 15

Current Setting: Injured

Physical Attributes – *Strength: 2.5

*Agility: 2.9

*Stamina: 2.2

Test Difficulty: Chaos

Testing Ground: Chaotic Era

Goal: End Goal – Become Chaos

Daily Quest: Find out about this world and understand your situation.

Difficulty – Very Easy

Hidden Quest: The meaning is in its title. These quests aren’t given to the tested, but are hidden from his/her eyes. Completing these quests do not raise the completion rate of the test, but they provide a suitable reward.

*Hidden Quest: Use ‘Status’ to check the attributes of another – Reward: Increase all stats by one point [Completed]

Completion Rate: 0.03

“That’s interesting,” Mane rubbed his hair filled chin and said.

“You are so annoying. Every other participant is usually excited to see the completion of a hidden quest.” Hildegarde pouted and grumbled.

“Well, it certainly was a surprise. It’s just that I don’t feel anything” Mane acknowledged that he was stunned to see the new information; however, he didn’t really feel any significant changes. This caused him to wonder if points for attributes weren’t so significant. Maybe Dan’s double figure physical attributes weren’t as impressive as he thought.

“Of course you don’t feel anything” Hildegarde interrupted his thoughts. “You see the part that is labeled ‘Current Setting’?” she asked.

“I do,” Mane nodded.

“That means that your attributes are just numbers right now. Unless you fully recover, you wouldn’t really feel any change. Right now, your actual physical attributes are about 20% of what they are supposed to be” Hildegarde explained.

“I see. That makes a lot of sense now” Mane smiled.

“Of course it does. Let me tell you this: only high leveled Hidden Quests give as much as 1 point increase in physical attributes. The highest leveled ones give as much as a 2 points increase!” Hildegarde revealed.

“Then I didn’t get much” Mane shrugged, feeling that it was good that he didn’t get too excited by the 1 point increase in all stats.

“Humph. What do you know?” Hildegarde folded her arms in disdain. “Its 2 points for only one attribute. It isn’t allocated to all attributes, and it is usually random. It is clear that you got something really good here” she snorted.

“I see. Hildegarde, you are surprisingly well informed. Who would have known?” Mane smirked playfully

“Huh. Are you looking down on me” Hildegarde pointed in Mane’s face and asked.

“Of course not. It’s nothing of the sort. I just thought that low ranked fairies wouldn’t know this” Mane shook his head and said. He based his information off of what he heard in the fairies meeting room.

“I’m low ranked so what? Let me tell you this: I have chaperoned many tested and have the highest scores amongst my peers” she boasted

“Oh, that’s mighty impressive,” Mane feigned pride in her accomplishment. “It’s no wonder you know so much about the point distribution system”

“Of course,” Hildegarde smirked.

“Then Dan must be really strong,” Mane said.

“Yes”

“And all the worlds use the point system right?”

“They do-” Hildegarde quickly covered her mouth. She turned towards Mane to see him smirking at her.

“You deceived me!” she huffed.

“Nope. You deceived yourself” Mane happily threw her words back to her. “You!” Hildegarde couldn’t do anything but point at her deceiver in anger.

“Relax. I only did it to see if it was a hidden quest; and apparently it was” Mane wiped the smile off his face and pointed at the ‘Status’ window that only he and Hildegarde could see. Another Hidden Quest had appeared and it read

*Hidden Quest: Trick a fairy into revealing secretive information – Reward: 1.5 points added to Stamina [Completed]

Because of this quest’s reward, Mane’s stamina was now his highest physical attribute.

Physical Attributes – Strength: 2.5

Agility: 2.9

Stamina: 3.7

“Don’t you know that they would deduct points from me? My hard earned points” Hildegarde sadly tucked her head between her arms.

“No they won’t,” Mane confidently stated. “You didn’t read it fully. It says at the end that if the information is given willingly, the fairy would lose 500 work points, and the quest wouldn’t be considered as completed. It is only completed if it is done through trickery” Mane assured her.

“Really?” Hildegarde seemed to have regained her energy. She checked Mane’s ‘Status’ again and saw what Mane as talking about, but it wasn’t enough for her. She closed her eyes as though she was reviewing something. Mane didn’t interrupt. He assumed that it was a way for fairies to see their gathered points. These were points that they earned for completing their chaperone duties. It was the secure way for them to rank up.

“They are all here!” Hildegarde exclaimed in joy after opening her eyes.

“See? I told you” Mane smiled.

“Keep quiet. Dan is almost here” Hildegarde turned away from him and flew towards the table. Mane smiled wryly seeing that she was ignoring him, but he didn’t call her back. Dan was returning with the books. It was finally time to learn more about this testing ground.