CHAPTER 24: THE PRELUDE TO THE CURSED NEST

The prelude to the cursed nest

24

The first thing Alex did when he woke up was to see if his sister had arrived while he was sleeping, and to his disappointment , she hadn’t arrived yet and he exuded a look of worry.

Since he couldn’t do anything at the moment, Alex decided to get ready for work, he put on the association’s fine combat attire and then put on the suit to complete the outfit, on one of his wrists there was a watch, on the other a tracking device.

With great difficulty, he had to take care of his mother since his sister was not there and Mónica had not arrived yet, he had to take care of her.

Bathing and changing his clothes and administering his nutrients, it took him about two hours before he finally finished, to his disappointment the kitchen was out of food and he had no money.

"Good morning Alex, how are you?"

"Hi Monica," Alex responded dryly to the girl’s enthusiasm.

"What’s wrong? Lucia hasn’t arrived?"

"So far, I’m not a bit worried, is it normal for her to sleep at work?"

"Yes, sometimes she works overtime, or there’s an emergency at the hospital and she ends up spending the night at work, but when that happens she usually calls so I can stay the night or come in early."

Monica picked up her phone, dialed her friend’s number and made the call, however the call was not completed, only an electronic voice sounded saying that the phone was turned off or out of the network coverage area.

"The phone is off, maybe it ran out of battery, like she did last night I think she should be arriving soon, I think?"

Monica also looked worried, but she tried to reassure Alex that after a round of conversation, he seemed a little calmer.

"Okay, you wait for her, I’m going to the association, I’m already a little late"

"Okay, I’ll wait, when she arrives I’ll call you, so, okay?"

Alex scratched his head remembering that he didn’t have a phone, he took his sister’s and Monica’s cell phone numbers and wrote them down on a piece of paper that he put in his pocket.

The taxi Alex took dropped him off at the hunters’ association. Now that he was an employee, he only needed his card to access the facilities. There were more than thirty floors, the place was huge, and many people worked here, and Alex was just one of them.

"Your Majesty, you are late, Joan and the sword saint have already left to urinate."

Felix looked at Alex with a hint of disapproval, his hand was stretched out waiting for Alex to give him some candy.

Alex had forgotten that there was such a habit, whenever someone came to the control room, he or she would have to bring candy for Felix.

"Sorry, I’ll bring double next time."

Felix looked displeased.

"Your Majesty, don’t forget next time, okay? I’ll just report it because you’re a king." Felix’s childish cheeks looked cute in Alex’s eyes, especially since the little one was puffed up.

"What is there to do today?" Alex looked around and everyone was working except him, even telex was coordinating several urinations while they talked.

"All teams are urinating throughout the city, since you are a newbie I can’t assign you a solo mission, for now you stay with me until something comes up for you to do"

"If that’s the case, then we can only hope that something happens, right?"

"Your Majesty need not worry, soon there will be a request for reinforcements, or something new will come up, in the meantime, how about playing us a game of FIFA?"

"Sure , let’s play then, but in the meantime could you lend me your phone?"

"Of course your majesty, here it is"

Félix took a Nokia brick and passed it to Alex who was surprised to see such a requiem, he took a piece of paper and tried to call his sister and without success, he called Mónica who said that Lúcia had not arrived yet,

"Here it is" Alex passed back the phone with a worried face, he didn’t feel like playing FIFA anymore "

"What is it your majesty, you don’t look well?"

"I’m a little worried about my sister, she left early for work the day before and didn’t come home."

"Has Your Majesty considered calling her?"

"I called, but without success, the number is disconnected."

"How about calling the hospital where she works?"

Alex sighed. He didn’t even know the name of the hospital where his sister worked. How could he have her number? And Monica didn’t have the hospital number either.

"What is the name of the hospital?"

Alex provided the information he knew about the hospital, Félix materialized a virtual keyboard in front of him and tapped a few times, extracting a number, and then a connection was established.

"Hello, this is the hunters’ association, I would like to speak to one of the nurses"

The voice on the other end seemed to belong to a young receptionist .

"Hunters’ Association?"

As she spoke the sound of keyboards could be heard, it seemed like she was getting the number.

"Ha! Well, could you provide the name of the nurse you wish to contact?"

"Lucia Wellny"

It was Alex who said the name, after a while the voice on the other end spoke again.

"I’m sorry, but the nurse you want to contact is not available today."

"Are you sure about this?" Alex asked, concern evident in his voice.

"Yes sir, Nurse Lucia is not present, and this is the second day that she has not been present."

"Okay, thanks for the information"

Felix said before ending the call

***

The spirit guild building was in the city center just a few blocks away, it was over 10 stories high and had its own parking lot.

"You will be raiding a two-star dungeon, the main objective is to raise funds for the guild, so you will not only kill monsters, you must all thoroughly explore the dungeon, understood?"

The vice-leader of the blue spirit guild was returning, giving orders to fifty hunters, everyone had solemn looks in their eyes and listened attentively, among them was a beautiful young woman with purple hair tied in a ponytail.

"Yes ma’am" everyone responded with one voice.

"Many of you are new hunters and most are one-star star hunters. Those of you in this condition should make the most of it to gain experience. There will be five two-star star hunters who are at a high level, so you don’t need to worry."

The vice guild leader took a look at everyone’s faces before telling them to go.

"Tiffany, wait a minute" everyone headed towards the vehicle that would take them to the dungeon portal.