The guild knights arrived two days later, in an airship. Valen couldn’t have missed their arrival — the airship was the talk of the town, and from what he heard, it had been years since an airship came to dock. This news made Valen worry a bit, because airships weren’t cheap to rent. If they were going that far as to use one just to get to him, the guild itself was worried about Valen.

  He was right to be apprehensive, because the moment the knights found him, they “requested” that he follow them to take care of some “guild matters”. Knowing how foolish it would be to refuse orders from a guild knight, he obeyed them and was led back to the guild hall. This time, though, instead of going into the room behind the counter, they went into a room sealed behind a heavy door that took them almost a full minute to unlock. Valen now definitely had reasons to be worried. This kind of room was used only for the most serious matters, and he had only seen it used a total of two times in his entire career. And in both of those cases, the hunters brought in were demoted in rank a few days later.

  Taking a deep breath, he took the seat offered by the guild knights. One stayed in front of the door while the other sat in front of him, lit up a lamp and pulled out a notebook.

  Valen didn’t remember much of the actual interrogation, all the questions blurring together in his mind. But ultimately, the interrogation ended up being just a formality, and clarification on why he fled the hunt, abandoning his last teammate. When Valen described, albeit not without difficulty, what had happened in his youth, and how the deaths made him recall that part of the past, they had been understanding.

  That didn’t stop them from asking a lot of questions with the goal of determining if it would happen again. To which Valen assured them that it couldn’t… Because he would no longer hunt with a team. The proclamation and certainty in his voice visibly surprised both of the knights for a moment, but they understood, and it wasn’t the first time that disaster had made a hunter go solo. Solo hunters were rare, but they nonetheless still happened, and a few of them were legendary hunters who saved whole regions from a calamity.

  Then Valen further assured them that unless he was faced with the same species again, he was certain he would not panic. He owed it to his fallen companions at least.

  They asked him several more questions, this time more related to his period of recovery. They were satisfied at the end. One asked to see his hunting notebook. To which Valen had replied that he hadn’t found it among his items when he woke up so it was either lost or stolen by his rescuers, as with a lot of the other contents of his bag. They didn’t press the point.

  Once the interrogation was over, the Guild Knights gave him a permit to receive a new weapon from the local blacksmith and informed him that he would be cleared to take on a hunt for new gear in two dark moon’s time. As the full moon was just the day before, Valen had more than a month to train. He intended to make full use of his time.

  “Am I allowed to train in the wilderness? No hunting of anything but game, but I usually prefer the wild environment to diversify my training,” Valen eventually asked as the knights prepared to go back to the city.

  “You are, just be careful, since anything larger than a Yian Kut-Ku will be a match for you.”

  “Don’t worry,” Valen reassured them. “I found a good spot on my way back. It has plenty of nooks and crannies I can take shelter in if I need to.”

  The Knight just nodded in response, then he embarked on the airship. But before the ship took off, he turned back to Valen. “Come to the city once you are geared up, there are matters that need to be completed there…” He seemed to hesitate. “And your new assignment.”

  Valen raised an eyebrow at that last part, it wasn’t something that boded well. He still nodded. “I will come as soon as I finish.”

  The knight didn’t say anything more as the airship undocked and started to rise into the air. Then it floated away from the town. Valen observed it for a few minutes before heading to the blacksmith to get the temporary gear he’d be training with.

  His workshop was the only building in the town made entirely of stone and bone, the gigantic ribs being the support for the roof’s tiles. Valen could already hear the clang of hammer against an anvil ringing from the inside. He waited for a lapse in the strikes, then entered the open-air workshop.

  The heat that should have been filling the whole room was only noticeable near the gigantic stone furnace kept hot by a pair of Felynes working its bellows. The smith had a mane of the reddest hair Valen had ever seen, accompanied by a thick mustache of the same color. As Valen entered, the man raised his eyes from the Longsword he was working on to appraise Valen. He nodded and spoke in a deep voice.

  “I was warned by the knights that I would need to provide you with a new weapon and set of armor. You’re in luck, I’ve almost finished with a new set of all the weapons, unless you wield a Longsword, in which case you would need to wait a couple of days.”

  “I favor the Switch Axe,” Valen replied.

  “Oh? Then it’s your lucky day, I just finished it yesterday, so it will be as new as you could get! Give me a minute, I’ll go get it, then give you your armor.”

  The smith left the workshop to go to the backroom, and returned carrying a weapon as tall as he was, seemingly effortlessly, and placed it down on a table, making room for it by brushing aside several tools with the scraping of steel against stone. “Here it is! What do you think of it?”

  Valen approached the table and made to pick up the weapon but stopped before grabbing it, wordlessly asking for permission. Only when the blacksmith nodded his consent did Valen pick up the bulky weapon.

  He looked at the edges, testing them and finding them sharp enough for his liking. Then he looked at the inside machinery along the central line, finding no obvious faults in it. Nodding in satisfaction, he then removed the safety and squeezed the morphing lever halfway through, engaging the Axe mode. The weapon seamlessly shifted its parts, the axe head moving to the top.

  He looked again at the machinery and confirmed that there were no stuck or otherwise out-of-place parts. Then, backing away a bit from anything valuable, he did a couple of practice swings in the air and was satisfied with the balance. It was where he was used to, about halfway through, just above the shaft. He nodded to himself, then squeezed the lever fully through, and with a grinding of gears, the weapon shifted into Sword mode, the axe head lowering towards the handle while the sword head pivoted at the top to rest above it. After a third check of the machinery, he looked at the place where the phial was usually slotted, and finding it empty, just decided on a couple of swings. Using the Sword mode usually required both hands, but allowed for deeper cuts on the monster. Releasing explosions while it was cutting allowed the hunter to damage the internal parts.

  Once again the balance was met with Valen’s approval, and he was satisfied with the weapon overall. He would be able to train using it with no issue. Pushing the lever all the way back to the top, the weapon shifted back into carrying mode and he turned the safety back on. Then he turned to the smith and spoke.

  “I’mm satisfied. This will be a good base to upgrade to a better weapon once I’m done with the target the guild will assign me.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Oh hoh?” The man replied, now interested. “I would be happy to be the one that reforges this magnificent weapon!”

  “You probably will, I don’t really have a personal smith, and this is quality work.” Valen paused and then spoke up again. “Could I have the armor as well, so I have time to prepare my gear before I leave for training tomorrow?”

  “All right lad! I would usually give you the whole talk about taking care of your weapon, sharpening it regularly, and making sure you know how to disassemble and reassemble it so you can clean the internals, but I know I don’t need to, given the way you examined it!” Then he went back to the back room, and this time he returned with a whole set of armor, grunting not because of the weight, but because he was trying to not let anything fall from his arms. Then he placed the pieces of armor on the table. “I trust you know how to put each piece on as well?”

  Valen nodded. “I do.” He eyed the pile of armor. “Could you help me carry them to my room? If it’s not asking for too much?”

  A booming laugh answered him. “Don’t worry lad, that Longsword can wait for a bit more, I’m not at a critical phase of its smithing. Here, you take the legs and arms, I’ll take care of the rest.”

  “Oh wait, do you have a harness for the Axe first? I almost forgot.”

  The smith paused. “You’re right, good idea you reminded me, lad, I forgot to pick it up when grabbing the weapon.” He once again went to the backroom, returning with a harness made of leather which was made to carry a heavy weapon on the back. Not all weapons required one — most Longswords were paired with a sheath to carry it which was also used while fighting, and others like the Sword and Shield or the Dual Blades also carried ones for convenience.

  But for weapons too big or heavy for a sheath, they used a harness that allowed the user to carry it on their back while traveling. Then the Greatsword was a special case, using a giant electromagnet on the back to affix it, created using cheap parts of a thunder element monster, allowing the user to turn it on and off at will.

  Thus Valen put on the harness made for a Switch Axe and slid the weapon into it. He did a few small jumps and jostled it after it was on to make sure it was secured, then he picked up the armor the smith designated for him to carry and they both headed to his room.

  Once everything had been transported, and with a final goodbye, the smith departed and Valen was left alone in his room. He removed the harness still carrying the weapon and put it on the corner of the room. Then he exited the room, locking the door behind him, and headed to the storeroom of the guild, intending to buy a couple of items he needed.

  He left the store with several whetstones, a flask of oil, and spare leather bands to repair his armor if needed. He also bought a tool kit that allowed him to dismantle and repair his Switch Axe more easily, along with a couple of new notebooks. Then once he was satisfied that he had everything he needed, he finally went to prepare his bag for the journey tomorrow, double and even triple-checking everything, packing it all nicely into his bag. He would also usually at this point take care of his weapon, sharpening and oiling it, but given it was brand new, he didn’t see the need.

  Then once everything was ready for him to leave the following morning, he ate dinner, spent the evening reading a book on the local plants, and went to bed.

  Valen left early the following morning, so early that the guard told him he had just started his shift and was allowed to leave people out. Dawn hadn’t even started yet, but the guard just shook his head and opened the door for him. Once out, he walked at a steady pace, not as worried about being caught in the night as before, and also less concerned about keeping the correct heading too, since he had a way to signal his presence to Nikki once she went looking for him.

  He planned to take two days of travel this time, for several reasons, the first being that he wasn’t under the deadline of trying to arrive before night, the second being that he also was carrying a much heavier load, so he needed to save his strength. Carrying the heavy load was comforting for Valen though, as it was as it should be: trekking through the wilderness to reach his goal, by foot.

  Looking around, he paid attention to the plants that were growing around him, collecting the ones that held a use for him, such as a couple of parashrooms, some ivy, and even a godbug that he saw crawling through a thick trunk. Hunting was more than just tracking a monster and exhausting it until it made a mistake. You also had to collect the means to make sure you covered your own mistakes as well.

  Most plants were rare, and hunters were always encouraged to never fully collect a plant, so as to allow it to regrow. Uprooting plants was almost completely forbidden unless it was one of the plants that could be cultivated in specialized farms. Mushrooms were another exception to the rule, as most of their mass was underground anyway. And even then, it was considered a good habit to disperse their spores when able to.

  Once the sun started dipping below the horizon, Valen decided it was a good point to stop. He was still in the forest, so he looked for a tree with a thick trunk and started climbing it. He had been drilled so much about how to find a safe spot for the night while traveling solo, as well as the means of keeping monsters away. Thus he unrolled his bag, deployed the alarm system that would wake him up if a large monster wandered too close, and, after a quick meal out of his rations, managed to find sleep, alone in the wilderness.

  Valen woke up early the next morning, cracking open an eye and listening while keeping his breathing as even as possible. Once he was certain no creature was stalking near, he had a good look around, paying attention to footprints in the mossy ground. After he was satisfied no monster had passed nearby in the night, he packed everything up and carefully clambered down the tree. Then, he went back on the road, confident in the fact that he would arrive at his destination later in the day.

  It took until the middle of the afternoon, but finally, Valen was certain he had found the clearing Nikki had dropped him in. Taking a deep breath, he dropped his bag on the ground and put his weapon against a tree. Once he rested from his journey, he walked for a while in the forest, looking for deadwood, an easy enough task. Once he had collected enough, he built a campfire, serving both as warmth and a signal to Nikki that he was there, something they’d agreed on before he left. With the fire lit, he sat down and waited.

  A while later, while he was snoozing in front of the fire, he was broken out of his light slumber by a rumbling noise. Properly woken up, he searched the skies, and it didn’t take long for him to break into a grin.

  Nikki was coming in towards the clearing, definitely slower than the speed a Valstrax usually traveled at, but he had expected something like that. She didn’t want to risk injuring him with a heavy landing or a shockwave.

  Valen waited for her to cut off her wings and drop the last few feet separating her from the ground before walking towards her. Once he reached her head, he stopped and opened his arms wide, like he expected a hug. Nikki responded in kind, butting her head in his chest. Valen embraced her, scratching the underside of her beak, drawing out a rumble of pleasure from the happy dragon. Both of them stood there for a while, enjoying the reunion after being separated for several days for the first time.

  Our hunter might have found it strange how close their bond became in a scant few days, but he just embraced it. He had a suspicion that Nikki had never known this kind of comfort and thus she embraced it wholly.

  It took several long minutes before the two of them finally broke the hug, looking at each other, and then nodding.

  Finally, Valen walked towards the tree upon which he put his Switch Axe and recovered it, keeping the safety locked. Then he walked towards Nikki and signed. ‘Tomorrow, me fight you… No blood.’ He hadn’t got a sign for training yet, but it would be his objective soon, she seemed to get the meaning still, nodding once, then walked towards him, inspecting the weapon.

  Suddenly, she raised a paw, and before Valen could react, ran it along the edge of the blade, testing its edge. The move was so fast he couldn’t react… But to his surprise, she showed him that she was completely unharmed, without a scratch on her scales. She then mimed.

  ‘No… Element. Weapon weak.’

  Element was a weird term they had agreed on, prompted by Nikki, which was rare enough. However, he wasn’t sure he got the meaning right, as Nikki brought him a large number of items to describe this word, which were plants with elemental power infused… But also scales of monsters, and several other things that he wasn’t sure of. The only thing in common he could think of was the elemental powers monsters could wield, which were concentrated in these plants… Yet he still felt that he was missing something in his own explanation.

  Clearing his errant thoughts, Valen returned to the matter at hand. So Nikki thought this weapon, a basic iron weapon, wasn’t sharp and sturdy enough to hurt her? That… Worried Valen, because if he had to do a hunt to upgrade it… He probably wouldn’t even be able to hurt the monster. Then he remembered that even monsters like Rathalos had tales of being felled by simple iron weapons.

  This meant that the Elders were definitely out of his league though. Still, he knew he had nowhere near the skill required to face one anyway. So he looked at Nikki and, staring at her eye, nodded. Starting tomorrow… He would do what he was pretty sure no Hunter had done before. Train with an Elder itself, and not in a dance to the death. A dance both of them agreed on.