“Where the distinction between monster and beast lies is a dilemma most monstrologists and other professions that study them have. While monster is a catchall term for anything that crawls, soars, swims or squirms, it is too broad a term to capture the nuances between creatures that share Eryth with us. Apart from the animals we call mundane beasts of course like cows for example. What most lay people fail to see, discounting the mundane beast, is that most creatures fall into a broad spectrum of either fae beasts, monsters, the dreaded fiend beasts and then...undead…” -Foreword, Philiarz Warnerskemander’s Bestiary for Adventurers: ‘Exotic Beasties and Where to Find Them.’

At first he regretted letting [Flash Step] disappear into obsolescence then he remembered he had another way to fly. His situational awareness had flown out the window the moment the den mother had decided if it was going down; it was taking them with it. It was human instinct to want to flail around when there was nothing solid beneath your feet.

Arthur was many things, but he was not invincible; he was not alone either. It took Nora reminding him to bring out his hoverboard and engaging in aerial combat with a creature who was out of its element like a fish out of water.

They were in free fall gliding through the air on the hover board as the Lux crystal illuminated their descent. The den mother was right underneath them; they’d dispatched her by blinding it in the other eye and shocked it into a cardiac arrest. It was dead in the air; dead long before it was going to hit the ground while its killers were merrily gliding down on the hoverboard.

“Seriously Red, you have the abilities of a Steel ranker and the mind of a child;” Nora’s voice echoed through the tunnel

“I’m never going to hear the end of that am I?”

“No…”

“Thank Thea; there’s no one to tell,” he smirked in the torch light.

“Eyes below,” Nora warned as her dark vision picked out light coming from underneath long before Arthur’s borrowed traits did. Arthur put away the torch as his eyes acclimatized to the low light. He sent more mana to the hoverboard, spurring the engine to fight against gravity as they slowed into a lazy glide. Below them, a large splash echoed through the tunnel.

Their descent brought them into a wide subterranean passage that looked to be the size of a subway station. The hoverboard came to an idle stop above the surface of brackish water flowing to the end of the tunnel where it opened to the outside as shown by a small spot of light at the furthest reaches of their vision

“Reckon we’re halfway to Riftedge by now; we’ve been fighting for hours,” Arthur commented as the den mother’s carcass bobbed in the water, carried by the current.

“The den mother; we have to retrieve it else we won’t be getting our bonuses,” Nora pointed out.

“Oh, that…sorry, was lost looking in thought…look around us…” Arthur said. Nora looked about while her partner went towards the slain den mother, with a nudge of his foot, the whole car sized beast was stowed away in [Inventory].

“Yikes, that’s pushing the storage volume, I can almost tell reality wants to retch the thing back out,” Arthur winced. Feeling the space storage full was like having his head stuffed full of cotton or like a blocked nostril; annoying but not harmful…well, the stuffy nostril that was; having cotton inside your head meant you were dead.

“We’ll come back later; going out this way is a straight shot back to the giant’s farm.” Arthur alerted her as he pushed the engine. “I don’t know about you but I’m not getting lost in those tunnels; with the den mother dead, the rest of the vermin should scatter.”

“Right,” Nora responded as she braced herself for a change in acceleration. Ever since he’d settled down, Arthur had wanted to see how fast the Cloud Surfer would go. The runes were fixed and the fan was greased. He even replaced the fracturing Aer Crystal which was the heart of the Mark One. In other words, the mileage counter had been reset to zero.

The spot of light in the distance grew from a pinch between two fingers, to the size of an Ok gesture, larger and larger as they picked up speed. Arthur put up a barrier of way to cushion them from the oncoming air. The mana engine’s increased thrust displaced the water in its wake like a hydrofoil leaving scum lines on the ocean’s surface. The hoverboard rattled and whined.

“Is it supposed to be doing that?” said Nora, alarmed at the turbulence.

“Relax, it’ll hold; we’re still below tolerance,” Arthur grinned. The hole resolved itself into an exit and the two gliders shot out from the hollow like a bullet from a shotgun— and swerved to avoid a merchant aership coasting lethargically in the air like a blimp.

A cry of alarm went up as Arthur ripped through the space between the foremast and the main masts yet unfurled, wind billowing in his wake. There was a lapse in time where the two got a temporary glimpse of a sailor caught wide-eyed while they were about to get into a crow’s nest.

Beneath his mask, Arthur was smiling; Nora was giggling while her nails dug into Arthur’s torso. The only signs that they’d even been there was a single contrail, evaporating the sailor’s eyes. They were long gone by then; having already lifted into the sky by pulling off a daring Chandelle maneuver before anyone could track their flight.

“Whoo, let’s do that again,” Nora pealed with laughter in her husky mask-filtered voice.

“You liked that? Wait till you see the stunts I can pull with an actual aership.” Arthur supplied; a smile evident on his face from the way his eyes sparkled. He dropped them out of the clouds, following the approximate direction of the farm; overtaking a griffin rider and a harpy eagle on a courier run while at it.

Finally, the farm came into view. There was a commotion with the poultry as they saw a shadow drop out of the sky. The owner came out at the sounds of agitation from his livestock to find the two adventurers descending and coming to a stop before him. They got off the board, Arthur harnessed the thing while they walked to their job petitioner.

“Ah, Rod and Snow. Slenlog tanke a feral griffin had kom val chicken again,” the giant guffawed merrily. “Du took long, meg dohttir managt zo get dun spoils.”

“Happens on the job,” Arthur replied. A smaller giant girl came out of the toting a small pouch of things that clinked like crystals?. She was almost as tall as Nora and she was only twelve years old. She walked up to Nora, her baby blue eyes wide with curiosity and admiration as she handed the leather to her hands trembling. Then she ran behind her father and clung to his pants, stealing peeks from behind as her red locks bobbed to and fro.

“Shy dohttir,” the farmer laughed.

“We killed the den mother,” Arthur announced.

“Ho, er det so?” Slenlog gawked.

“Yes, I don’t think you have to worry about a dire hog nest for the foreseeable future.”

“Slenlog thanks you; refreshments perhaps?” He shared a look with his little giantess.

Arthur looked at the position of the sun.

“We would like to, but we have to turn in our bounties early. Perhaps another time mister Slenlog,” Arthur smiled beneath the mask.

The giant nodded; he fished around for the request’s slip of completion and handed it over to the adventurers. With a jolly farewell from the giant farmer, they departed for the town.

“It’s nice to stretch our legs isn’t it?” Nora said, as they trudged along the dirt road to Aldmoor. The city walls were a constant presence even half a bell away.

“Yea, I like the farm too.” Arthur replied as he limbered his shoulder joints. He’d swung a sword after a long time of inactivity; he’d need to get in some practice soon. The bruises and welts beneath his leather armor had faded into a dull ache thanks to [Regeneration]

They waded through the stream they’d flown over on their way past taking in the scenery of reeds and non-threatening aquatic creatures like fish that didn’t want to take a bite out of your ankle. There was a slab of stone where the water was shallow; the giant farmer’s work to make the farm accessible.

“The pouch…”

“Mmh?”

“What’s in it? I didn’t even get to ask…”

“I think they’re mana cores we can cash out for coin…” she said, handing the small pouch over; Arthur took it and poured a couple into his glove. They were weakly thrumming with mana much like crystals would…the crystallization of mana inside monsters that enabled them to use skills and magic. Much like the World assisted hominid races, monsters had instinctual knowledge on how to use theirs.

“Oh, I didn’t know that…so the den mother must have one of these right?” Arthur said, as he pinched a dirty irregularly-shaped purple orb against the light. It reminded him of Ter mana; it was a given because moles were creatures of the earth.

“Yes, and if we get mana cores for Nox affinities we can help Umbra get stronger”

“Oh, and why pray tell can’t people do the same?”

“Because the mana will poison you,” she stared at him owlishly as if he’d forgotten common sense.

“Eh, right.” ‘Whoops, stumbled into that one, almost said I forgot but she can tell outright it’s a lie.’

“What do we do with the rest of the den mother’s carcass?” Arthur asked as he spirited away the mana cores into inventory. He felt the skill take then felt something like an itch between his brows.

‘So that’s what it feels like when [Inventory] is full’

“We turn it in for bonuses; I would hope they’ll compensate us for punching above and beyond for a team of two Steel ranker’s. Her eyes twinkled as she rubbed imaginary coins between her thumb and index fingers.

‘Ha-ha, civilization changes people for sure; just give ‘em’ money and a town’ he crinkled his eyes in amusement.’

They made it to the adventurer’s gate without needing to have the guard see to them; the golem was there instead and let them pass without a cursory glance.

Half the day had already gone and this was evident as they stepped into the town. The sounds, smells and sights of town life buffeted them. Children of various races playing together; housewives talking on first floor balconies, the whistles of centaurs jostling for space on the main street as they ferried their passengers.

It was a surreal experience. Very much unlike the time they’d gone out shopping; that time didn’t count as they didn’t stop to admire the sights as they were trying to be discreet buying household furniture…but this, he could get used to it.

“Let’s go cash our completion slip” Nora grumbled, pulling ahead of him. “I’m already tired; I need a bath.”

“Right away…and I thought you were raring to go adventuring?”

“That was that, this is different…”

‘Maybe she’s introverted? She came around to visit Elena after all… her social battery must be depleted.

“One job request for dire mole extermination completed…” Arthur said in a voice devoid of emotion.

‘Damn, playing a persona is something else…’

“Already?!” The guild receptionist, a male beastkin said looking at the completion slip. That was the second time Arthur had seen someone with beast-kin features. The first was, well dead and buried for days now; they couldn’t save her. Arthur remembered her sweet last smile.

The receptionist had cat ears and a cat tail which were both in a state of excitement after he’d cashed in the slip. Now that he noticed, discounting centaurs, he didn’t see that many beastkin in the town. They were far and few between. Could it be they were discriminated against like tieflings?

Hanna’s absence was also noted; perhaps her shift only ran from morning to noon.

“Do you have any monster cores you’d like to cash in as well?” he looked from the slip to him. Arthur looked to Nora as if consulting and Nora just seemed to shrug in a way that said ‘do whatever’.

“I do have them; however, I’d like to keep them.”

“Oh,”

“I have the den-mother's body. Perhaps the guild might want to take it off my hands after extracting the core?”

“Did you say a dire hog den-mother?!” The receptionist’s eyes bugged out, stunned. He even jerked halfway across the desk. Attention was pulled towards their section momentarily before everyone else continued with what they were doing. Clearing his throat in embarrassment the beastkin mumbled apologies under his breath.

“That’s a peak Steel rank threat that would have needed at least five of you,” the receptionist added, looking from Arthur to Nora, seeing as they were only two. “I’m assuming you have it in a bag of holding somewhere? Follow me to the abattoir” He motioned for them to follow as he notified his shift colleague to cover for him.

They went around the service desk. The main hall of the adventurer’s guild was an L shaped room with the hall taking up most of the space where the receptionists worked. The narrower part of the hall, while still wide enough to make another decent room, consisted of the bar and mess towards the end. It had doors along its walls which were meeting lounges for when people needed privacy. Where this area of the L shape ended were four doors, one for the bar and mess, another for employee’s amenities, the second last for guild’s temporary accommodations and the healer’s wing while the last, a pair of double doors was the entrance to the abattoirs.

“First time here?” The beastkin asked, noticing how curious they were as he opened the doors; it was a basement level and led downstairs. Arthur almost let it slip but he recovered and gruffly said,

“Just different.”

“Oh, you’ve been elsewhere. Heard you came from Kingsfell this morning” he commented as they took the stairs. The air got colder and colder the deeper they went. The beastkin didn’t even look bothered.

“We had new ice enchantments installed recently; the preservation enchantments didn’t hold out well for the smell.”

“Mmh,”Arthur grunted. He couldn't remember if he'd been in one of those walk in cold storages but this, was close to it as it could get. It was a whole little clime altogether.