For all the grief the Monster Hunters Guild had given him, Velik had been generously compensated at the end of their relationship. He’d been allowed into their vault to take his pick of some of the most powerful equipment and support tools they’d collected over a century-long history of fighting monsters.

With a little guidance from Jensen’s [Treasure Hunter] to help him pick the most valuable piece out of the set, Velik had claimed the Fangs of the Wind Dragon. It was a sort of double victory, both as a snub to the guild that had treated him so poorly and as a weapon to finally patch up a hole in his skill set that was strong enough to work at the level he functioned at.

The throwing knives were heavily enchanted. Not only would every single one of them reappear in the bandolier automatically, half of them could be directed mentally, meaning he could use them to harry an opponent and create openings for devastating spear strikes. Even that was assuming the knives didn’t kill the monster outright, as they each contained their own crippling enchantment, things like [Paralyzing] or [Bleeding].

For a bird monster, having its muscles lock up mid-flight was a death sentence. If it was lucky, it could glide for a bit before crashing. An immediate nose-dive to the ground was far more likely. If that didn’t kill it outright, the monster would be easy prey for Velik to finish off.

Unfortunately, a primal blood hawk was so tough that its feathers were like steel. It didn’t even try to dodge the flying knives as they whipped around in darting arcs. Instead, it merely fluffed itself up and swept a wing across its body to deflect the knives. There had to be some defensive skill at work, because Velik had tested those knives extensively and he knew how much penetrating power they had.

They did serve as a suitable distraction to let him close in, or at least they might have if the hawk hadn’t suddenly taken to the air. Wind whipped around Velik, tearing at his skin with invisible edges, but the hawk’s skill wasn’t strong enough to actually cut him. His ethereal cape flared out behind him, momentarily visible as it billowed before fading away into intangibility again, and his clothes were all [Armored] and resisted being damaged.

Velik chased the hawk into the air, but even his new cloak had its limits. He made it eight great, bounding leaps, about a hundred feet off the ground, all while dodging shimmering red feathers, but that wasn’t enough. The dragon’s fang knives flew after him, harrying the hawk the whole way. But that’s pointless if I can’t reach it.

Still, only three of them were under control of the [Telekinetic] enchantment. That meant there were three more still strapped to his chest. Velik threw himself into a spin and pulled one, then threw it straight at the blood hawk’s face. He didn’t have any sort of skill to enhance the speed or accuracy of his throw. It was all raw stats and natural talent combined with a few months of practice.

For an enemy like this, that was all it took. The knife flew true and struck the bird’s beak, smacking its head to one side and sending it tumbling through the air. A second knife pierced its side by a few inches, not enough to be fatal. It stuck there, scraping against the metallic plumage, only to disappear a few seconds later when Velik willed it to return.

He arrested his own fall with a generous application of [Air Walk]

, all but draining his cloak of its remaining mana reserves in the process. Velik still hit the ground hard, if unharmed, and he immediately sprinted off after the hawk. The monster was in the middle of crashing into a tree, barely coherent as it fought to free itself from the tangled branches it had gotten snagged in. For something with its level, it was remarkably weak.

Must have most of its points in mystic, Velik decided, and whatever it does have in physical is going towards agility over raw power.

The primal blood hawk ripped its way out of the tangle just in time for Velik to catch up to it. His spear pierced its chest, and with a mental command, [Shape Shifting] curved its tip into a barbed hook. The hawk screamed again, letting loose disorientating waves of energy, but Velik had it pinned at range. It couldn’t bring its hooked talons or beak to bear on him, or even really shift its wings forward thanks to its chest muscles being skewered.

Stolen story; please report.

A single [Dread Lance] would end the fight, but it would also ruin the body. The metallic feathers were sure to fetch a good price, if nothing else, and he didn’t feel like spending half an hour picking them up from all over the mountainside. Thick, black blood pumped out of it while it flailed weakly.

Velik pulled it to the ground and held it there until the notification flickered in his mind, confirming that he’d killed it. Then he retracted the spear and summoned his harvesting knives out of the traveler’s bracelet on his wrist. This part is the worst. I should just throw the body at Jensen’s crew and let them do it.

But he sighed and got to work. It would only take him a few minutes, but workers that weren’t even level 20 would struggle to even cut through the skin and muscles of such a high-level monster. If he was lucky, the smell would draw in his next victim.

He wasn’t that lucky, and when he was done, he went hunting.

* * *

“Are there any wyverns left on the mountain?” Jensen asked as he reviewed the harvested materials Velik had added to his storage box.

“A few.”

There had to be a thousand wyvern wing bones in there. At least Velik had had the decency to clean them properly before returning with them, and the bones were quite valuable, but it would be a hassle to unload so many. If Jensen just flooded the market, they’d be worth nothing. He’d need to sit on the inventory and dole them out slowly for years

unless he could find some buyer willing to do that for him.

In the meantime, Velik would expect to be paid out his shares of the profits for bringing in so much valuable merchandise, which would come out of Jensen’s bottom line. That was annoying, but it was a good problem to have. And when Jensen considered how much profit they stood to make from salvaging the sky bridge, it wasn’t like he couldn’t afford it.

But at the same time, all the metals, mana batteries, and other resources his team was pulling out of the golems also had to be dribbled out lest their values tank. So while this was undoubtedly the most profitable expedition yet, it was a slow income over the next few years, and he had several dozen people who wanted their money as soon as they got back to Ashala.

It would bankrupt me to pay out the value for all of this now. Maybe if it was just the sky bridge materials, I could do it, but Velik went and committed genocide on a mountain that probably hasn’t seen a hunter in several decades. There’s just no way… I… can… What the hell is that?!

“Primal blood hawk feathers,” Velik answered the unspoken question. “Turns out there are a lot of them here, which struck me as odd because they’re in direct competition with the wyvern colonies. Well, they were in direct competition. Not so much anymore.”

“Velik, I can’t afford to pay you for all of this,” Jensen told him in a harsh whisper. He glanced around to make sure none of the engineers or laborers were around—it wouldn’t do for them to think their boss’s pockets were empty—before leaning closer. “This has to be several hundred thousand decarmas worth of raw material. I spent all the liquid capital I had from our first two runs on the storage box.”

“I assumed you’d sell it with all the rest,” Velik said.

“Yeah, eventually. I can’t just go dump it all in one go. That’s not how the market works.”

Infuriatingly, Velik just shrugged. “Whatever. I don’t care about the money. Figure out how much you owe me and pay me when you can.”

Unbelievable. You can’t have that many decarmas left after all those gear upgrades over the last few months. Every time I see you, you’re wearing something new, and I know that cloak is at least epic rarity.

[Treasure Hunter] struggled to get a read on valuables actually being worn by a person, but it wasn’t completely impossible. Jensen hadn’t worried much about pushing the skill in that direction since he wasn’t interested in a career as a bandit. Even so, Velik’s kit was probably more expensive than Jensen’s at this point, and Jensen had relied on the backing of one of the richest families in the country to equip him.

Just roll with it, Jensen told himself. Out loud, he said, “Alright, as long as you don’t expect it anytime soon. It’ll take months to unload the feathers, and probably years with the bone.”

Velik just shrugged again. It was annoying, but it would have been even more so if Jensen didn’t know he was absolutely serious about not caring. Something in the man just wasn’t wired to worry about money, probably some leftover remnant of raising himself. Velik didn’t need to earn money to survive. If he was dropped naked in the wilderness, he’d just kill monsters with his bare hands, fashion weapons from their bones and clothes from their hides, and prosper anyway.

“How much longer are you guys going to be cleaning this place out?” Velik asked. “I might need to head to the next mountain over if you’re going to be a while.”

“We should be done in the next three days,” Jensen told him.

“Oh. Well, I’ll keep it short and check in soon.”