Velik wasn’t entirely clear on the exact reasons Jensen had decided to move his operations from Cravel to Ashala. It had something to do with trying to put some distance between himself and his father, and Jensen had rambled on about some justifications in things like ‘better market distribution’ and ‘access to nobility-backed contracts.’ Maybe some of those were even legitimate reasons.

All Velik saw was a man running away from a fight he didn’t think he could win.

Regardless, Velik had no attachment to Cravel, so he didn’t mind the move. It also got him away from that branch of the Monster Hunters Guild, which had already been corrupted by regular old humans long before the actual monsters showed up. Removing them had done very little to fix what was wrong with that organization, so despite technically being a member, Velik was more than happy to step away from them.

He hadn’t bothered to announce his presence in the city to the Ashala guild house. Maybe that meant that he was running away, too. If so, it was for vastly different reasons than Jensen’s.

The city was a bit warmer than Cravel, and significantly drier. It was located inland, near the center of Ghestal as opposed to by the coastal northern edge. More importantly, it was several times bigger and its noble districts housed every single important family in the kingdom. Even the ones who didn’t specifically live there maintained property in Ashala for when they had business in the capital.

Supposedly, that made the city safer than anywhere else, and while Velik could readily admit he’d seen far more in the way of local guards here, he figured that just meant the dangers were more along the lines of being preyed upon by a noble than mugged by a commoner. In his mind, that was an arguably worse fate.

They returned first to Jensen’s new home, a house far too large for a single person to need, but which he’d claimed was essential since he was also running a business from it. Velik didn’t care enough to argue, and he’d declined Jensen’s offer to store personal possessions there. For one thing, Velik didn’t have much of anything besides what he wore, and for another, he’d invested a huge sum of money in his own portable storage space for those rare supplies he did want to carry.

Velik’s real purpose in following Jensen back was to check his mail. His entire circle of associates knew that the best way to reach him was through Jensen, and while Velik wasn’t terribly interested in casual invites to come visit, he did want updates regarding agents of corruption, dungeon seeds, and anything else that might point toward whoever had left that dungeon seed that had changed Velik’s life and turned his best friend into a monster.

He had a quest in his status, one granted by a god. He’d been staring at it for over six months now, and he felt like he’d made no progress. Every avenue he explored was a dead end. He might help some people, or curb the spread of the corruption, but he was no closer to tracking down the source now than when he’d first received the quest.

[Current quest: Locate the source of the dungeon seed and destroy it before it can spread more chaos and destruction.]

He wasn’t the only one with that quest, either. Jensen had it, too, though he didn’t seem to care about it. More importantly, the god who’d assigned it, Morgus, had also blessed a woman with a druid class and set her on the hunt. Truthfully, it was her quest more than anyone else’s. Velik was more focused on revenge than justice.

Either way, the same asshole ends up dead at the end. That’s good enough for me.

Velik met Jensen in his office shortly after they returned. The [Vault Seeker] was up to his eyeballs in paperwork, including what had to be twenty or thirty feet of parchment tacked onto boards with complicated charts and lists of vendors, markets, shipping expenses between cities, and a dozen other topics that he didn’t care to even try to understand.

And this is what he wants to do with his life? I suppose someone had to do it, but I’m glad it’s not me.

What wasn’t taken over with paperwork was filled with small artificing trinkets, more than half of which would throw sharp pieces of metal or blow up under the right conditions. Those were more to Velik’s speed, but in truth, he was so far past such weak weapons that they were nothing but novelties to him. Five years ago, he’d have been intensely curious. Now, they were idle time-wasters to him.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“You got a letter from the guild,” Jensen said without looking up from his paperwork when Velik entered the room.

“I can’t imagine they’d have anything to say that I’d care about.”

“Torwin brought it here personally, so I’d at least read it if I were you. It’s on top of that cabinet over there.”

Jensen waved a hand off toward the corner, where an oak cabinet sat. A glass window revealed row after row of liquor bottles, most of which were more than half empty. Tumblers with gold rims were stacked up on one side, all polished and sparkling. It seemed like every time Velik looked into that cabinet, the bottles were a bit emptier.

The letter sat in a cream-colored envelope, his name scrawled across the front in wide, looping calligraphy. Velik pulled it out and unfolded it to find the same lettering, only significantly smaller.

Gold-ranked hunter Velik,

This letter is to serve as a notice that you are delinquent in membership dues in the amount of 117f31v, or approximately 40 decarma. Guild rosters have been updated country-wide, and services have been suspended for you as of the 11th of Avendia. You may remit your dues at any guild hall in a major city. Please allow for up to two weeks for updated records to circulate.

Please be aware that penalty fees may be assessed depending on the lateness of your submission and the distance it must travel to your home guild hall. Forms to authorize payments from a bank account may be obtained at the reception desks to avoid future suspension of guild privileges.

Cordially,

Blevra, Guild Accountant

Velik’s eyebrows shot up as he read through the letter. He hadn’t even realized guild dues were a thing. Considering how much money they made taking their cut from every mission they assigned out, not to mention ventures they got involved in like Jensen’s vault hunts, them trying to scrape vitrunes and fulmites out of their members’ wallets was almost offensive. It wasn’t even the amount, which was laughably low, it was the sheer gall that they were trying to bill him.

“Bad news?” Jensen asked.

“No,” Velik said after a moment. He fished the gold pin signifying his rank within the guild out of his traveler’s bracelet and stuffed it into the envelope along with the letter. “If Torwin comes back, feel free to let him know I’m quitting the guild.”

It wasn’t like he’d set foot in a guild hall or taken a job through them, ever. All he’d wanted was access to the books, which he’d already gotten. The number of hoops he’d jumped through just for that was infuriating.

“I’ll… relay the message,” Jensen said. “Would you mind if I…”

Wordlessly, Velik handed him the letter. Jensen skimmed it over once, then started laughing. “Oh, gods. That’s an old scam. I can’t believe they’re still doing that.”

“I’m not following,” Velik said.

“Okay, so, your profession is dangerous. It’s got a fairly high mortality rate. I don’t know the exact numbers, but a lot of hunters die. If they’ve allowed the guild to withdraw membership dues from their accounts though…”

“And nobody knows what happened to the hunter,” Velik finished.

“Exactly. Eventually, the guild extracts the entire balance of their account. But since you never signed the forms, they can’t do it to you, so you’re getting a letter trying to prod you into it in the interest of convenience.”

“But surely the families would protest this, or drain the accounts themselves.”

“Sometimes, yeah,” Jensen said. “But a lot of hunters don’t have families. The younger ones might have parents or siblings, but it’s not a career that calls to people who have good reasons to stay safe at home.”

The more Velik learned about the Monster Hunters Guild, the more he hated them. “I don’t understand how Torwin can accept these behaviors,” he said.

Jensen shrugged. “He’s old. I think it was very different back when he was young. Nostalgia for the previous generation of the guild holds him there, but there are less and less hunters from his day still active. Like I said, it’s a profession with a high mortality rate.

“Or maybe it’s just, once you strip away all the corruption and politics, the guild saves lives. Monsters still exist. People still need help. The guild facilitates that, and I think that’s important to Torwin. Why don’t you ask him yourself? He’ll be here soon to talk to you about something.”

“He’s still in Ashala?” Velik asked.

“I saw him when we first got back. You were off… somewhere,” Jensen said with a frown. “Where do you disappear off to between jobs?”

Velik ignored the question. “I’m sure Torwin can find me if he wants to talk.”

“Maybe don’t go out of your way to make it difficult to find you,” Jensen suggested. “This kind of stuff is why no one likes you.”

“I’m not here to make friends.”

“I doubt he’s looking to catch up over tea. If Torwin’s here personally to talk to you, it’s probably about something important that he considers too sensitive to put in a letter. The polite thing to do would be to go relax in the garden or something until he gets here.”

Velik blew out a sigh. “Yeah, fine. Which way is that, again?”