4 Rushing Towards the Rally

(A/N: This chapter contains a bit of an info dump, but I tried to keep it short and concise. Things may not make too much sense for anyone not too familiar with the Monster Hunter games, so please bear with it. Everything will be explained in due time. Thank you.)

People watched as an ecstatic duo sped down the streets of the city. One was a boy with white hair and an excited smile on his face, while the other was a grey felyne holding on to said boy's shoulders for dear life. It was not a comfortable ride for the felyne as the boy had a large brown bag on his backside, and he would jump every once in a while due to his jubilant nature.

"Good morning Velk!" A middle-aged man greeted the boy.

"Good morning Velk. I wish you good luck at the rally!" A young woman wished him luck.

"Ey' Velk...! Hey, wait! Where are you going!? Slow down!" A young boy around Velk's age called out to him and started chasing after him.

"Good luck, Ash!" A young girl yelled towards the felyne on his shoulders

Velk would happily nod at everyone who greeted him and Ash, well... almost everyone. He totally ignored the poor boy who had tried to get his attention. Right now, he did not have time to stop and converse with his friends. Given that the boy had also started running after him, it's not like he needed to greet him at this point in time.

Rak-Al-Faar, the city he'd been living in for the last ten years, had just a little over seven thousand residents. Velk had always been a little explorer; he had gotten to know many of the city folk. Although the number of residents was moderately small compared to most of the larger cities located in the Old World. Rak-Al-Faar was only a new city founded just over sixty years ago in the New World and away from the coast.

Populations of Humans, Wyverians, and Lynians, a species of sentient beastman, often of short stature, started to immigrate to the New World searching for adventure, research, opportunity, and just about any other reason why people would leave their homes to start afresh.

Initially, the Hunter's Guild sent the Research Commission to study the New World and unlock the mysteries of an event called The Elder Crossing. They were an organization of elite guild personal, made up of hunters, scholars, and engineers, all of whom had to labor through many vigorous tests to join the commission.

Guild personal arrived in fleets consisting of hundreds of different individuals. The First Fleet's ships had crashed into jagged rocks along the shoreside, so they used them to set up the outpost known as Astera, the current capital in the New World and headquarters of the Hunter's Guild. Many in the First Fleet had it rough. Almost all of them had returned back to the Old World by the time the 5th fleet arrived.

Every fleet thenceforth arrived ten years after the previous. The Second Fleet consisted of numerous engineers and technicians, while the Third Fleet was made of Scholars who traveled the New World in a flying research base.

The Fourth Fleet was made up of support personal sent by the guild to help manage the multiple guild outposts and camps. They were to also help manage the hunters who were slaying monsters and keeping order. They were the ones who introduced the Handler system to the new world and made it easier for hunters to explore.

A handler is a Guild Receptionist assigned to an elite hunter to help manage Guild Quests and the hunter's resources. Guild Receptionists are guild personal who give hunters their quests and inform them of the potential dangers of fighting the supposed monster for the task. They mainly consist of female staff, but there are a couple of males as well. They all wear specialized uniforms for the region that they are assigned.

The Fifth Fleet's population was considerably more numerous than any of the previous four fleets and mainly consisted of hunters. They were sent to the New World to follow a colossal elder dragon named Zorah Magdaros and to protect the settlements, establish infrastructure, and either slay or capture monsters so that the researchers could study them. The guild also hoped that the Fifth Fleet would finally solve the mystery behind the Elder Crossing.

After constructing a second base named Seliana, residing in a snow-covered region northwest of Astera, the Research Commission immediately started expanding deeper within the New World, setting up numerous outposts and campgrounds. The outposts were built in different terrains and environments so that the guild could get a more comprehensive understanding of what monsters and plant life they were dealing with in said areas.

The Sixth Fleet was nothing much and just brought a mixed number of Research Commission personal to stabilize the new base that they had created. Only after advanced laws were set and multiple experiments were conducted did the guild allow prospective immigrants to migrate to the New World. They were not a hundred percent sure things would turn out well, but the gains were high enough to risk it.

Welcome the Seventh Fleet. The largest fleet of all past and future fleets thus far. With a population of over thirty-thousand individuals, each looking to settle the new land and grow their businesses or raise a family outside the Old World. It multiplied the population of known humanoids in the New World by over five hundred percent.

They ended up traveling all over the New World, and now settlements are popping up left and right. With many of the migrants settling in both Astera and Seliana, they grew past triple their previous size and had become sprawling cities within the New World.

Laws, of course, needed to be enforced to keep the local monster population in check. Numbers needed to remain stable, and they were threatened by the influx of human activity. Balance has always been critical to the Hunter's Guild, and they made sure it was kept by employing many guild knights and sending them to new towns and settlements.

Guild knights were employed to hunt down and kill criminals for the guild. They would protect a settlement from monster attacks as well as other people. Poaching monsters that did not threaten your own life was illegal, so they were often sent to either find and kill poachers or return them to the guild where punishment would be dished out.

Now eighty years have passed since the Seventh Fleet had arrived. With a total of fifteen fleets already landed and one hundred and fifty years of development in the New World, humans have accomplished much. Yet new regions, monsters, animals, and plant life are constantly being discovered, and with monster attacks continually on the rise, new hunters are perpetually needed to bring 'balance' to the ecosystem.

Velk, Ash, and their short, brown-haired friend trailing behind them, quickly ran towards the city center. This is where the guildhall is located. Rose had her house built somewhat close to the guildhall, so it would not take long for the duo, plus extra, to reach it.

Velk could see many people going about and buying their daily necessities as he ran past. There were numerous stalls and shops to choose from, so no one ever felt as if they were missing anything. There were multiple street performances where he could find men and women playing instruments and dancing. He could also see many guild banners and ribbons hung on numerous buildings, posts, and signs. They were there to inform the citizens that a rally was taking place soon, and everyone, even those who are not hunters, are invited to attend most of the event.

The city was always in a festive mood around the time of a rally, and people loved having free food and drink served, so many people would often show up. The beginning of the rally would almost always be a meet and greet. This was where members of the Hunter's Guild were expected to show up and talk with the community. It was against the rules for any guild personal to miss a rally unless absolutely necessary. This was to enforce order and prosperity while also keeping track of who was still alive and well.

The meet and greet would last for about two hours, from ten to noon. After the meet and greet, the guild would dish out information about new subjects of interest. This includes new monster variants, different locations, and plant life/endemic life found. They would also commemorate and give rewards to guild members who did great deeds or simply worked hard enough to earn rewards. This lasted two hours as well. To end the first part of the rally, they would hold a mass funeral giving honor and recognition for the hunters they had lost over the past three months.

Not many achieved great, but almost everyone was given a short speech about the work they had put in and the achievements they had obtained. Even killing something as easy as a Great Maccao was rewarded with honors. The funeral would last for about an hour, ending the main event at around three in the afternoon. However, this would move the rally into the second part, and that was the recruitment process and different events hosted by the guild.

The events ranged from various social gatherings to arena contests against fierce wyverns and other hunters. The event changed every three months so that no one would ever grow bored of showing up, and the prizes that could be won were also very enticing.

Of the two times that Velk had attended a rally, one of the events was "Find the Poogie," a game where hunters and guild staff would venture around the city looking for a pig dressed in a bright green frog costume. They were allowed to screw each other over to give themselves an advantage. As long as it did not harm the personal property of others, anything went.

The other event Velk witnessed was a simple drinking game where they would see who could last the most time drinking alcohol before passing out. Neither of the events were very fun to watch for the spectators, but the participants always seemed to enjoy it.

Velk would not have attended any rallies if he and Maeve were not so insistent on seeing them. The first time was because they were curious, while the second time was a reward for good behavior on Velk's part. Rose, while not antisocial, did not like to attend the rallies for reasons unknown. While Maeve would always grow impatient whenever they did go, and after the second time, she decided that she did not like them anymore.

*Wacky Stomach Noises.*

"I guess I probably should have eaten before I left." Velk mused to himself. He was just too excited that he forgot to eat.

*Ungrateful Cat-Stomach Noises.*

"That goes for you too, Ash. We will get something to eat once we get to the rally. How does that sound?" Velk asked and just kept running.

After a bit of time, the brown-haired boy finally caught up with Velk. He was a little younger than Velk, but only by four months. He can join the Hunter's Guild six months from now if that is what he fancied. The boy had short brown hair and wore a pair of glasses over his hazelnut brown eyes. Short in stature for his age and wearing cheap wrinkled clothing with his messy hair, all this together made the boy look like an orphan, but he had two loving parents, moderately wealthy too, so it was just his style.

Velk felt someone grab onto his shoulder, so he turned to look in the hand's direction and saw his friend right behind him with sweat running down his forehead.

"Huh... huh... Velk... You got... huh... to slow down next time..." His friend said while panting.

"Mmm, maybe you should just become faster then so that I don't have to slow down."

"You know I don't want to become a hunter like you. I want to study the monsters, not fight 'em. Anyway, where are you going? It seems like you are in a hurry." He asked a question that had an obvious answer.

"Ha, ha. I want to become a hunter, right?" Velk questioned his friend while laughing in amusement.

"Um, Yea." His friend answered.

"I was running towards the center of town in the morning, right?" Velk asked another question trying to hint at something.

"Ye... ye... yes." His friend sounded a little flustered while trying to answer for little to no reason.

"You can see the multiple guild banners hung up around the city, right?" Velk asked one final question to get to the heart of the matter.

His friend looked around to see multiple guild banners and ribbons strung about. It only took him a second to understand what was going on. He stared back at Velk and nodded. Velk gave an infectious smile that seemed to spread towards his friend as well, who gave the goofiest and most embarrassing smile back.

His friend could only curse at his own stupidity while saying, "I'm going to the rally with you. I don't have anything going on today, so it should be fine. Plus, I will be joining as an apprentice in six months, so it would be best to get used to the crowds." Velk's friend started to laugh while holding the back of his head.

"Well, we better get moving fast then. We don't want to miss the rally, right?" Velk could not help but joke one last time. Velk found it amusing to tease his friend this way and hoped he would find it funny as well.

However, his friend had something different in mind. He snatched onto Velk's hand and started to run at an even faster speed than Velk was beforehand. Ash had to hold on even tighter, and Velk had to make sure he was not bumping into people.

"Sylas, maybe you should be the one to slow down this time. Aren't we going a bit too fast?" Velk could not understand what was going on through the boy's head, and he could less understand how such an unathletic boy could even run and maneuver so fast through a sea of people and stalls without having trouble.

Velk had never seen Sylas exercise a day in his life. While Velk could undoubtedly do the same that Sylas was doing, it was surprising to witness his friend perform such a feat while also leading another person through the crowd. Both Velk and Ash could only laugh in excitement and follow along.

(...)

It did not take long for the trio to reach the spacious-looking guildhall. It was decorated in multiple different-looking guild flags and banners. Many paths lead around the building to things like the guild blacksmith and a botanical garden. Each had various different structures, each suited to their respective purposes.

The door leading into the guildhall was wide open today, and many different guests were entering and leaving the building. Several people dressed in a myriad of armor and possessing several diverse weapons could be seen wandering the premises.

"Ahh, look at that!" Sylas shouted out; loud enough for people in the surrounding area to hear. He was pointing towards a man attired in armor. It was a heavy-looking set of blue armor with a couple of green blotches on the head, shoulder, arms, and feet. The helmet had two giant horns sticking out of it and made him look like a rhinoceros beetle. There were also two large spikes pointing out of his pauldrons. Overall it gave the feeling of being able to tank multiple substantial hits without much issue.

"Do you know what wyvern it is made out of?" Velk asked curiously. He had never seen any armor that looked like it and couldn't remember a monster that resembled its appearance within any books he received from Ethran. Although the texts touched on many different monster types, they never detailed any variants or deadlier monsters. It was mainly cheap books for beginners who would not have to worry about such things until later.

"Yes, It's a full set of Brachydios armor. They are a large brute-wyvern species. It specializes in secreting a gel-like substance that will explode after a set amount of time. It will also often lick its arm to prime the gel for further explosions, and it packs quite the explosive punch."

Velk always appreciated his friend's knowledge of the various monster species, even though it could be a bit overbearing at times. While Velk also had a lot of knowledge on the subject, it was never at the level Sylas could bring to the table. Sylas could never seem to 'fit in' with the other kids, so Velk took him under his wings for 'similar circumstances' and had grown to enjoy his company while suffering from their delusions and fantasies of becoming a famous monster hunter and scholar duo.

Velk was able to make friends easily, but every time he did, either Rose or Maeve always scared them off at some point. They never had a problem with Sylas, so he could keep one close friend, other than Ash and Maeve. Ethran could also be considered a friend, but he was closer to an older brother than a friend, and Velk had always treated him as so.

Velk, Ash, and Sylas stopped staring at the heavily-armored man and made their way inside the guildhall. Inside they were able to see many famous hunters from the city and the surrounding area. Each key town was designated as a district. This was done to make sure that guild personal never had to adventure too far outside their homes. It also makes it easier for the guild to assign quests to specific districts depending on where the monster or material was found.

Looking at a massive clock in the middle of the room, Velk could see that they still had thirteen minutes before the rally started. The two decided that it was best to just sit on some stools placed around the massive hall. Nothing big ever happened during the meet and greet, and it is only used to make sure that everyone was in their places and that city officials could make time to talk to the VIPs.

The trio decided to wait out the meet and greet while silently eating and conversing until the next event started.