Chapter 9: Warm Reception
[Days earlier, in the World of "Party Hunters"]
At the most important place of the world. Party City. This is the center hub of any Hunters in this world, equipped with teleporters throughout the world, the best blacksmiths, and the best protection.
There was a large, obstreperous party going on right now. Warriors stood around dancing by the training dummies, mages showcased their spells in a drunken manner, and everyone feasted. At this moment, a fatigued looking peasant man walked in a tavern, nearly collapsing as he walked. He looked at the Hunters with fear, having never interacted with men of such great power. He gathered his courage, and said, "L-Lord Hunters! I humbly request your help! My--" He was cut off by a drunken warrior, clad in a black armor, with red strips of fire running through, "HAHA! I'LL GO, I'LL GO! WHAT HAVEN'T I SEEN! Forest Ents? Ancient Desert Temples? Even the frost golems up north everyone's scared of has been beaten by me!" The villager took a visible sigh of relief, but continued, "Lord.. It's not monsters, but humans!" Hearing this, the entire parties concentration turned to this in interest."
A woman clad in pitch void magic robes, and a plasma emitting staff walked out from the corner. "Interesting... humans? Just who is it that doesn't respect our organization anymore?"
The villager continued, "To our village, a few men came, with swords and staffs. They told us to submit to the king or die! They took us all to an area outside a castle and made us work like slaves! I barely escaped them noticing... one of the villagers had asked them, 'Aren't you guys afraid of the hunters coming after you!?' They responded in disgust, 'Meh, mere hunters!? No matter their strength.... we'll make sure not a single one comes back! HAIL THE KING!'"
Suddenly, a massive wave of bloodlust overcame the area. Every single hunter had a murderous expression on their faces. "THEY DARE!?"
With this, the villager fell onto the floor, on his knees, unable to withstand this pressure. A big man with bulging muscles stood up and exclaimed to the one who originally offered help, "Oi Steve! I'll go with you to teach these bastards a lesson!" The woman in void black mage clothes also walked forwards, "I'll shatter their very existences under my magic! I recently comprehended the power of manifesting spirits as a weapon... now i'll have some test subjects!" With these two giving their support, the most of the other people in the tavern also joined. Altogether, 40 experienced hunters went to destroy the castle.
.....
Not a single one came back.
[Current day, P.T]
Noah had just come back from destroying the outpost of one of the most notorious pirate groups. He had not yet heard the news, about the raid on the castle, nor their disappearance. He was very excited, today however. From that raid he went on, the pirate captain was actually half transformed into a demon!
He has fought plenty of idiots who try to inject themselves with demonic essence, this one was exceptionally strong. So strong, infact, that despite being in so much danger, all he could think about was the strength of the shard it would drop. Every living being drops a shard of power after death, where everything but the strength of it seems to be random. Some are suitable for blacksmiths to turn into armor, some for magic robes by the tailors.
He was taking this one to the appraisers. He walked in, and walked out incredibly excited. This one, was apparently the highest grade shard he's ever seen! It was suitable for a tanky type armor, which was exactly what he needed!
Walking to the blacksmith, he saw one of the teleporters flash with a bright white light. "No one should be coming back from their mission at this time, it is a new hunter?" Noah was feeling pretty generous right now after getting such a valuable item, and decided that he would guide the newcomer a bit.
The light dimmed down, and..... "W-What is that?"
Noah could hardly even move from shock. His mind rattled but could not find an answer. "I... I do not know what that is!?" It was a being in human figure, but it was covered in black fur. Looking closer, the shape of his head was different, too, having a snout and horns and such. His 'hands' were also different. It didn't look like any being he knew! The only beings he knew that exist in such a humanoid body type were humans and demons.... but this looked nothing like a demon! If it were a demon... he would already be dead!
[Ralsei PoV]
Drifting away as the mind faded away in a deep sleep, his body turned slightly illusory, turning more and more illusory as time went on. Eventually, it left a shadow on the bed, which also disappeared in a few minutes.
Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light in his eyes, and he found himself standing on a pedestal in the middle of a large town!
Ralsei looked around, and saw a man standing merely a few meters in front of him, with an incredibly shocked expression. Ralsei Inwardly asked, 'System.... will he understand my speech'
[YES]
'Ah, good'
Ralsei opened his mouth, "Uhm... where am I?"
The man in front of him, which was just starting to calm down showed a shocked expression once more, but calmed down, and responded, "This, this is Party City?"
'Party City? What a weird name' Ralsei inwardly thought. 'But then again, these are the same people who named their planet Party Hunters... so should I really be surprised?'
The man in front of him spoke once more, "Forgive me asking... but what are you? And... what are you doing here?"
With this question, Ralsei was brought to back to reality. He was not a human, and this only makes his intentions even more suspicious. Ralsei thought, 'To get power.... I would have to be a hunter, right? With the planet description being what is it.. this seems like the right answer.'
"I don't know what I am, but I'll tell you my intentions are to become a hunter."
The man was visibly relieved, and spoke, "Well, you've come to the right place! The names Noah, allow me to guide you !"
'Guide me? What does he gain from this?'
Ralsei warily responded, "Sure, my names Ralsei, by the way."
Noah responded, "I see, well first let me give you a rundown of the hunter life style." Noah pointed over to a large tower. "That there's the mission hall. It lets you know the coordinates of any places you need to terminate, any people already lining up for a team to do the mission with, and stuff like that." He pointed to the pedestal Ralsei came out of. "Those are the teleporters, I'll teach you how to use them later."
"Every living creature here drops a shard on death, based on their power. These can be appraised at the appraisers over there." He pointed at a large, rectangular building. "There's many appraising buildings, but they are all the same thing. It's just for ease of access."
"After you know what your shard is, you can send it to the appropriate people to be made into equipment. The blacksmiths are down south, the tailors are up north over there, and the magic tinkerers are right in front of us. They can also make new spells if you have a special kind of shard."
"Oh, I forgot to mention. Making money is easy for us, too! Any merchant will be eager to buy our spare equipment or shards, so don't throw them away!"
Ralsei took a moment to take in the culture of this world. It was... interesting. He wondered, however, apart from equipment... what exactly was the method to become stronger? He remembered that the system said that this place had low level strengthening techniques.
Ralsei decided that the best way to find this out is to simply ask.
"So, apart from equipment, how exactly do we grow stronger?"
Noah looked at Ralsei with a bit of confusion, then corrected himself and quickly added, "Oh, I forgot to mention. The shards have energy inside of them, if you have one, as long as you will it, you can absorb the energy inside. Although you can absorb the energy of every shard, not all can be turned into equipment. To be equipment, the shard must be a certain size. If it doesn't meet the size requirements, we just absorb it as soon as possible because unless it meets that size, it will dissipate into the environment quickly. We never absorb shards good enough to make equipment, though."
Ralsei thought this didn't make sense. It this was so, then why not just absorb the energy of every shard? Also, if your strong enough, and regularly kill things strong enough to drop shards usable for equipment, isn't it pointless to save them all for equipment instead?
He would have voiced his concerns, but Noah continued talking.
"Well, seeing as I finished explaining this town, its time to let you see the actual missions." Noah pointed next to the teleporter behind Ralsei. "See that there? You can accept missions quickly there. Although, as it not the mission hall, you can only accept missions that no one else has touched, has no details apart from the name and difficulty, and imposes stricter requirements than the mission hall, and is nearly impossible to bring someone else with you if you accept the mission from here."
"I have a bit of a reputation, so I can bring people with me under loose requirements."
Ralsei got a thought, and instantly went alert. 'Isn't this too convenient? A friendly "fellow" hunter guiding me, wasting his time out of pure niceness? He's clearly rushing things to bring me into a mission else where, where we would be alone.... and not under the watchful eye of the public...'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
KarmicNatz
KarmicNatz I changed the previous chapter where the system talked about power. It now mentions that cultivation is any way to grow in power, and strengthening techniques to grow that base power.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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