Hunter or Hunted?

As Kace approached the large, thick wooden doors he could hear a rowdy atmosphere radiating from inside. He had decided to join this guild because well, what better place to find information on non intelligent monsters he could use to strengthen himself?

As he pushed the door open he was greeted with a warm scene. Groups were huddled together around their own tables laughing and joking with each other as drink flowed freely between them. 'These must be "Party's" he thought, casting a glance around the room.

A few people looked back, seemingly to admire his coat but apart from that they appeared mostly indifferent. After all most hunters wore clothing made from their kills. As soon as he was satisfied Kace made his way to the service area. Behind the desk sat a man who was missing his legs.

"New face huh?" he said in a deep voice. "Here to join I s'pose?"

"Yes, though I have no idea about the requirements."

"Well that's easy to fix." the man replied, pulling out a black stone tablet. "Just put your hands on this and it will do all the work."

Some of the tables went silent as they watched on with intrigue. Kace lightly placed his hands on top of the tablet and waited. After a few seconds it lit up with a mellow, green glow. He was fascinated as he watched writing appear on its surface beneath his hands. After a few minutes the light gradually faded.

"You can remove your hands now." the man said as he took the tablet after Kace withdrew his palms. "Let's see here. Hmm, well this is interesting. Your not nearly as strong as you look are you?"

With those words most of the onlookers immediately lost attention. It seemed as though they were waiting to find out if he had the ability to be a potentially powerful recruit for their party. Though this seemed to not be the case.

"Yeah I'm still new to hunting for the most part. I've only dealt with a few varieties of wild animals and some spiders in the forest nearby." Kace replied while rubbing the back of his head slightly embarrassed. At these words a couple of ears pricked back up.

"Hm, well can't just take your word for it so for now you'll have to make do with F Rank. What's your name boy?"

"Ah, excuse me. My name is Kace." He replied in a quiet voice. Determined to act as an inexperienced and naive rookie. How could he not recognise the looks that he was being given. It was the same one he had developed since coming to this world when he spotted something to take down.

"Ok, no problem. Like most folks here you'll have no family name then? That's fine. I've already got your age and status from the Godite stone so your all good there. Here you go then. Make sure you don't lose this here card now you hear? Oh and I'm Ben. Just hollar if you need anything."

Taking the card from Ben he studied it wanting to know what this Godite stone could do. You know, just incase he had to deal with something like this again. He was slightly shocked by what he saw though.

Name: Kace

Rank: F

Level: 1

Age: 17

Gender: Male

Race: Human

HP 105/105

AP 100/100

MP 0/0

Exp 35/100

Strength: 2

Endurance: 1

Intelligence: 2

Willpower: 2

Agility: 3

Speed: 3

Charm: 2

Luck: 1

Skills:

Tracking (Active)

Cost: (None)

Description: Heightens users sense of hearing and smell allowing them to 'see' recent paths of passing lives.

Instinct (Passive)

Cost (None)

Description: 70% chance to detect a stealth attack aimed at the user. 30% chance to automatically react to what would be a lethal blow preventing a killing strike.

After he was done inspecting the card that he had been given he noticed a new notification out of the corner of his eye.

[Notification: Racial Ability: Chameleon has been Unlocked]

Seeing this he immediately said 'Status' in his mind. Quickly glancing through it he found what he was searching for.

Racial: Chameleon (Passive) (New)

Description: Your Chimera bloodline has awakened the ability to give a false reading of your status. Allowing you to "blend" into the world of humans with great ease.

'Oh, that's a nice bonus.' he thought gleefully. This would make the surrounding prey... Ahem... people underestimate him. 'Couldn't have come at a better time. Didn't expect something like that tablet to exist.'

Ben had gotten the wrong idea about the gleeful smile on his face.

"Now, just 'cause your now a professional it doesn't mean your any stronger. Make sure and stick within your abilities until you make some progress ok?"

Realising what had happened Kace quickly flashed him a sheepish grin, trying to gloss over it. Well, Ben was not to curious about it believing he had hit the nail on the head.

"You can see on that board over there what materials folks around town are looking to buy. It's first come first serve here. None of that reserving the job exclusively until completed shit that the mercs and heroes do. So everyone here will be your competition until you hand it over to the poster and get paid. As for the monster extermination jobs the flyer will tell you what parts from them are needed as evidence and you'll get your gold from me. Those ones are paid by the mayor who leaves the reward with myself. Any questions?"

"No thanks, I think I can manage." Kace smiled having said that a bit loudly for the benefit of those listening in. He trotted over to the board to begin looking at his options.

Posted there were jobs for killing rabbits, wolves, deers, bears, spiders and oh and there was one for Salamanders! Wait was that not what he had set out to get in the first place? This was quite a bit of luck in his eyes.

Then he noticed that the difficulty rank was set as 'E'. Although Ben had not forbade him from taking on higher rank jobs he felt that his facade would be seen through if he took this one after the telling off he just received. Luckily one of the nearby groups that had been watching him noticed his hesitation and used the opportunity to approach him.

"Hey, how you doing?" the leader of the four man party announced as he drew level with him. "Name's Jason, that's Yasmin, Paul and Connor."

"Hey, I'm Kace." He replied enthusiastically. 'Someone took the bait!' he thought.

"Yeah, we heard. Anyway, so your eyeing up the Salamander job huh? Yeah it's a tough one for rookies like you. Ain't that right?" he said while directing the question to his team mates.

"Yeah real hard."

"Especially alone, without anyone watching your back."

Kace smiled at this. He knew what game this lot were playing. They were attempting to appear friendly and like noble mentors to get him to lower his guard. Next they were boy d to invite him to join them as they did the job, which would usually look like a gracious and great opportunity to a new newbie. Then shortly after leaving town they would likely kill and rob him. Or maybe wait till they got his help and make sure he had an accident "during" the job so there would be less of a split in the pay.

"Well you just happen to be in luck."

'Here it comes.' he thought, sneering at them in his mind.

"We just so happen to be heading out to do this one ourselves. You could join us? Ol' Ben won't mind if you have others out there with you."

Kace pretended to mull his options over in his mind. All the while secretly gloating at this group of meatbags. Wait, just when had he truly started thinking more and more like a monster? Ah well, let's think about it later.

"I think we could work together on this." He finally replied.

"That's great!" Jason replied while taking his hand and shaking it thoroughly. "Who knows? This could be the start of a long and profitable relationship!"

'Yeah right. Profitable for you maybe. If you had chosen a better mark.' he thought maliciously, all the while keeping up a mask of friendship.

The group left the guild together. When he caught sight of Ben watching him he waved. Ben returned it but the the look in his eyes was a bit sad. Kace got the feeling from this that Ben probably knew the group's game but likely had no way of proving it or dealing with it.

'It's fine big guy. You were decent enough with me so I don't mind cleaning this little mess that's been sitting around for you.' this thought drifted across his mind as he followed them through town. They made a couple of stops here and there to get the supplies they needed. Kace bought some preserved foodstuffs managing to empty all of his funds in the process.

'Yep, Henry definitely ripped me off.' Kace thought as they passed out of the town gates, with a wide smile on his face. 'No matter, I have a feeling that after this my pockets will be pretty full.'

*

Important Author Note Please Read

Hey folks! I've had to edit this is to quite a few chapters so that as many people as possible see it. Please read to the end as it is important.

First off. I need to thank each and everyone of you for the massive show of support in the past few days. You guys are the heart and soul of why I do this.

Second. You deserve to be rewarded. You have shown so much support that I feel you deserve something more in return. Therefore I'm going to try to start releasing two chapters a day. They may be a tad shorter but you'll end up with more to read overall.

Third. Some goals! We're doing well in quite a few of the charts. So let's aim for more. See below for targets to meet and the rewards to go with.

1. Enough votes to make it into top 100 in power Ranking. Two extra chapters to be released next Monday.

2. Top 50. You get 3 extra chapters.

3. Top 25. You get 4 extra chapters.

4. Top 10. You get 5 extra chapters.

5. Top 3. It's a secret but will be worth it.