Birth of the Demonic Sword
chapter-177

A jug full of wine was laid in front of Noah and he took a sip from it after doing a quick inspection with his mental energy.

It had become a habit by then to use his mental energy to look at everything before his eyes did.

The wine was strong and dry, far from the quality of Ivor's one.

"I need to teach you some procedures before you can start hunting, I'd say to start with the activities of our guild."

Noah raised his attention at Ron's words.

"We can hunt freely, there is a detailed map of the areas near the capital with the descriptions of the various faunas of each zone. Also, each magical beast had a different value, as it has each of their body parts. You can look at their values on the first floor of the guild, they generally vary due to their need in the Royal city."

Noah nodded internally.

'That's pretty standard, the value of something is given by its demand in the market.'

"We also sign the area where we are going to hunt so that other hunters can decide if the competition for a certain beast is too high and switch to another target, we always try to avoid internal fights and the rules are quite strict regarding the ownership of a certain beast's body."

Ron then pointed toward the table where Kurt was drinking.

"That guy, Kurt, has been a hunter for more than ten years. He usually hunts rank 4 beasts with the cultivators that are seating with him. We trust him a lot so don't be mad at his behavior from earlier, he just wanted to be sure that you were worthy of the guild."

'Hunts rank 4 beasts in a group? So not even he can kill one alone?'

Noah thought and could not help but ask more about that.

"Are rank 4 beasts that strong?"

Ron drank from his jug before answering.

"Well, yes. They are entirely in the heroic ranks while humans need all three centers of power in the fourth rank to be considered at that level. Kurt has a rank 4 body but his other two centers of power are still in the human ranks. He has managed to kill a few rank 4 beasts alone though, it's just way safer if it's done in a group."

'So, it's doable,'

Noah lowered his head on the wine to hide the excitement that he felt.

"You can join or form a group, or even go alone, it's up to you. All this can be done on the first floor."

"The deposit is on the second floor. You can sell or buy beasts' corpses and body parts there, you have discounts based on your hunts' quota. There isn't a maximum of the discounts that you can get but you must meet a minimum quota. It's about fifteen intact rank 3 beast's corpses per month, that number varies on the type of magical beast that you deliver. Don't worry though, you will be paid for those beasts, the guild just does that to force its hunters to work and don't take advantage of our favorable prices."

'That is pretty lax. Fifteen rank 3 bodies are really easy to collect each month.'

"Can you deliver thirty of them at the same time and then be free for two months?"

He was worried that his forging sessions could be interrupted.

Ron laughed and nodded happily.

"Of course! Otherwise, everyone would just let their prey rot in their space-rings in order to deliver them in the next month. Trust me, there was that issue once the higher-ups tried the strict monthly method."

'No wonder, it takes a day just to get out of the city. By the time you reach the hunting area, kill the beasts, and come back here, at least half a month would have passed.'

Noah shook his head internally.

'I should just get the quota for a few months done in my first mission and then focus on forging.'

He didn't forget his purpose.

He needed to find a place suitable for cultivation and for his experiments.

Since he finally had a rank 2 dantian, he could begin the tests to forge a real weapon, useful for his current battle prowess.

"Oh, remember that you can also bring here alive beasts, we keep them in the underground rooms. Their value is way higher than the dead ones of course."

Noah's eyes lit up.

"Do those rooms have rank 4 beasts?"

Ron stood speechless for a moment before exploding in a sonorous laugh.

The cultivators sitting near him that overheard Noah's question did the same and laughed to no end.

'Did I say something wrong?'

Noah was confused by their reaction and waited for them to explain.

Ron forced himself to calm down and gulped a mouthful of wine before answering.

"Tell me, do you know of someone capable of dragging a rank 4 beast alive here? Do you also know of a cage capable of holding them? And, at last, if you really do know him, why would he lower himself on being a hunter?"

"…"

Noah realized how stupid his question was.

Capturing a rank 4 beast alive was extremely more difficult than killing one.

As for restraining it, that meant that its cage had to be an inscribed item with a rank surpassing the second one.

Why would a cultivator with such capabilities choose to be a hunter?

Someone with that strength could become the patriarch of a noble family or funding its own noble house, there was no reason to limit himself to work for a guild.

"I didn't think about it."

His excitement had clouded his mind.

If he could obtain the blood and the core of a rank 4 magical beast, he could attempt on creating a blood companion as his sea of consciousness became stronger.

His two blood companions had the strength of a peak rank 3 magical beast, they could be only used as shields against cultivators on Noah's level.

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They were still useful in dealing with other magical beasts but Noah was starting to rely less on them.

'I guess that, in my Demonic form, they can cause some trouble to other cultivators. Yet, having a rank 4 beast as a blood companion would really boost my battle prowess once I reach the heroic ranks.'