Crater Monkeys

Asking around the taverns for information on the man Thirteen was hunting had proven a tedious task. He was surprised at the extent to which his age proved a problem. It was like no one registered the words he spoke, instead shooing him away or asking where his 'parents' were.

Eventually, he had to rely on more lies to make people listen. The last two taverns he visited, Thirteen had said his father was a bounty hunter and would pay for any worthwhile information. Of course he claimed the money was held by his father, to prevent accidents with the greedy, but this just caused the untrusting to refuse to speak without his 'father' present.

He did get one useful piece of information. Apparently Lukas Junill had visited the Eastern Braveheart tavern. The man who told Thirteen this had seen him there, taking note of the man for his large stature and old age, only to recognize him a day or two later by the bounty posters.

Finally having found a clue, Thirteen made his way to the Eastern Braveheart tavern. The interior was as rowdy as any of the others he had visited, while the counter was thankfully manned by a woman in her middle ages.

Thirteen had found that women listened to him more, even if they too didn't take him very seriously.

"Good afternoon, can you help me?" He asked the woman.

"Oh? Hi there, what's wrong?"

"I'm looking for a man, tall with a large frame, in his older years. His name is Lukas Junill."

"Oh, Old Luke? He's in a spot of trouble at the moment, he won't be anywhere around here." She replied.

'What's this?' Thirteen thought. 'By her speech and expression, she knows him personally? Then, the son of a bounty hunter wont work.'

"I know, he left in a hurry and we got separated, that's why i'm looking for him…"

Thirteen paused for a moment. He was about to finish with 'im his son', but had the distinct feeling that the woman knew Lukas Junill well and would see through such a blatant lie. He didn't like that he was becoming a better liar, but it had to be done.

"I'm his disciple. He started teaching me to cultivate when he visited our village. Mother has passed on, so master said I could follow him, but while I was getting supplies, he had a run in with the guards and we got seperated."

He employed a lonely, anxious expression, hoping to tug at her heart strings, feeling even guiltier as her changing expression proved it a success.

"Oh. I wasn't aware he had taken anyone in. He had always wanted a—, well, that's not important right now. When he was here, he asked around about recent bounties, monsters specifically. When one man mentioned a report of Crater Monkeys near a village south of here, Old Luke almost ran to the inner circle. The Town Hall has all the nearby bounties and their information recorded. If he couldn't get in, he's probably out there looking for them on his own based on what he heard."

She paused for a moment.

"If you want to meet him, go find what village it was that submitted the bounty, and wait for him there. If you have the coin for a personal guard I can recommend someone? He's an honest man, he wouldn't take advantage."

"I'll be fine, thank you very much" He said with a smile, earning one back in response.

He left the tavern quickly, disliking the amount of noise within, and went back to his meeting spot with Ten. An hour hadn't passed yet, so he had to wait 10 or so minutes, but eventually he saw her approaching through the crowds.

"Any luck?" She asked.

"Plenty, he tried to enter the inner circle to learn about a Crater Monkey bounty. He didn't get the full details, but he knows it's a village south of here…"

Thirteen slowed as he spoke, noticing fine drops of blood along Ten's collar. "Any trouble?" he asked, his voice undergoing a jarring change as he spoke frigidly.

"It's fine. Not even cultivators." He only now noticed Ten's usually bright expression was cold and distant.

After a moment of silence, Thirteen's face softened as he spoke warmly and softly. "Let's go."

It took a while to find their way to the northern inner gate, but when they did they passed through without issues, despite still using their numbers. Thirteen was beginning to think that every checkpoint had been prepared for their passing, why else would no one bat an eye to such strange names?

The inner circle was a lot more prosperous with plenty of stone roads and even brick and stone buildings, though timber was still the most commonly used.

The town hall was the centermost building of the town, and was quite large. Upon entering, Thirteen noticed there were at least a dozen people inside, either lined in queues or speaking with the employees of the hall, most among them looking like merchants.

To the left end of the building was a bulletin board on which bounties and requests by the town could be found. The latter didn't interest Thirteen in the slightest, it was 'normal people' work he thought. The bounties pinned to the board were the most recent, important or eye catching, while a great deal of unresolved and older requests could be found bound together, resting on a set of lounges.

A boy of young age was currently flipping through that bundle of older requests, Nine was already here.

"You found what he was after too?" Thirteen asked as he approached his friend from behind.

"Thirteen? Ten? Uh, no not really. I just couldn't find anything else that would have interested him so I'm trying my luck flipping through this thing. I've found a few that pay well and are doable by a lone augmentor, but that's as far as I've gotten."

"Is there a Crater Monkey request?" Ten asked.

"Crater Monkey? There is, but its a request to hunt a large group of them, not something he could do alone."

Nine handed the request over to he and Ten, and Thirteen found the name of the village.

"Hillunot Village" he muttered.

"The bounty is tiny for the amount of work." Ten noted. "No wonder no ones dealt with it yet."

"I dont think he learned of the reward in the outer circle." Thirteen said. "He had been asking about monster bounties in general, but apparently he practically ran to the inner circle when he heard of the Crater Monkeys. Perhaps, its the monkeys he wants, not the coin."

"He could be cultivating a lower-tier body tempering art." Nine said. "We know that lower-tier methods usually rely completely on external resources, unable to be cultivated without. What if he needs something from a Crater Monkey?"

The three fell into thought for a moment, before Ten spoke.

"With what Instructor Piers said, he's an augmentor with a lot of strength. And we know that Crater Monkeys are mass manipulators. If he's cultivating a lower tier art, maybe its just an extension of the Anchoring technique?"

The Anchoring technique was one almost all cultivation arts taught a version of. It was a method to avoid being sent flying in combat where incredible strength was involved. It could be achieved in all manner of ways, whether by increasing your mass or your weight, or locking yourself in space, or any number of other methods. It was often considered the partner to the Lightness skill, which allowed one to lighten their weight—or achieve similar effects— to act with incredible speed, or even run across water and glide at its highest levels.

An experienced fighter is marked by his instinctual transitions between lightness and anchoring.

"It could be, a lot of low-tier arts are just extrapolations of basic techniques. Either way, It's been roughly a week since he was seen in Helbeck, and I'm not sure if he knew exactly which southern village had spotted the monsters. If we're lucky, he's still searching for the monsters, but most likely he's already gone and we'll just have to find what we can from the village people." Thirteen concluded.

"Then we should move now. We're already too far behind him."

After exiting the Town Hall, the three wasted no time in leaving Helbeck, despite it already being mid afternoon. They would have to camp on their way to Hillunot village.

Ten had the foresight to buy food from Helbeck while the others sorted out their horses, so there was no need to hunt as they camped, and by midday the next day, the village of Hillunot could be seen in the distance, positioned precariously in an artificial plain surrounded by woods.

After entering, Thirteen wasted no time, looking for the largest residential house he could see. He wore his sword openly and remained mounted, acting purposefully distant in hopes of avoiding talk with the villagers that would slow down their pursuit. He had only recently realised how easy it would be to lose their prey— no, target he corrected himself— if the man simply avoided settlements.

Finding the largest residential building he could see, Thirteen along with Ten and Nine all dismounted before knocking loudly on the door.

An elderly man answered, his expression confused at the sudden appearance of outsiders.

"Apologies for the abrupt visit, my name is Thirteen. I'm trying to find a man by the name of Lukas Junill, he's an older man with a large and healthy frame." Noticing the elder's expression that indicated he knew the man, Thirteen changed the rest of what he said. "Has he by any chance finished clearing out the Crater Monkeys nearby?"

"Oh I'm sorry son, the man probably didn't make it. It's been a week since he entered the woods and I've not seen him leave. I tried to tell him there were too many monsters for any one man, but he wouldn't listen"

The elder shook his head in resignation.

"I see, thank you."

Thirteen didn't give the man a chance to ask about him, mounting his steed once more as he looked back to ask "What direction were the Crater Monkeys?"

"To the east, but you're thinking of?"

Refusing to wait, he set off, ignoring the old man. He didn't like being a prick, but he was really worrying that they would fail this mission.

"A whole week." he said to no one in particular as he rode.

"It's not over yet, we'll see" Ten said gently as she rode by his side.

Nine on the other hand remained silent, riding behind the two lost in his own thoughts.