Preparations

(MUSCLE DECAY NEARING CRITICAL. LIMITING SETHENGH TO 10% UNTIL REPAIRS CAN BE MADE)

(I kinda overdid it huh, I need to recover an orb as soon as possible before I run out of active nanites in my bloodstream)

"a personal favour is it, what kind?"

"assassination, technological know-how or medical assistance. however medical assistance will have to wait until I've recovered at least one orb"

"why is that?"

"there are several reasons. I'm out of active nanites I use for healing, I expended most of them to heal Alice and Viktor and I need the rest to sustain myself. also to regrow organs and limbs I need equipment that is likely to be in the closest orb"

"I would like you to heal a relative of mine, well we can talk about the details later. for now, let's get something to eat, Dax you do eat right?"

"yeah I do, it's been a while since I last ate so I would be grateful"

"I know a good place nearby, let's go. Alice you wanna join us?"

"huh!? can I?"

Alice standing in the background listening was surprised when her name was mentioned, let alone invited to one of the high class restaurants she knew Russell frequented

"yeah you've earned it, I'm gonna find another reward for Viktor later so don't worry"

"yay!- ah sorry, come on let's go"

"well now I'm also looking forward to it"

(i wonder how food is in this world..)

while wondering about what kind of cuisine he would encounter, Dax followed Russell and the drooling Alice, they moved in towards the inner wall while the sun was slowly setting. the inner wall appeared to be just if not taller than the outer one and appears to be made of white marble.

"we're here now, this is the place"

they had arrived at what appeared to be a 3 story inn with a restaurant on the ground floor. the building, like the others in the area, was made of a supporting frame of load bearing timber, with a kind of coloured clay for the filling giving the street an overall colourful look.

"well let's just go in and see if they have any open reservations"

"eh, is it really fine? I'm still wearing leather armour and Dax is.. wearing… something"

"it's a zero g flight suit"

"a… what?"

"something you wear under armour, that allows you to survive in space, well I'm gonna need to get some more normal clothes at some point, so I stick out a little less"

"I don't think that's possible for you to not stand out, well let's go"

after getting a table for 3, Dax was faced with a new problem

"yep, I can't read this"

"wait you can't, but you talk our language just fine?"

"yeah well that's because I kinda stole/copied that from Alice and Viktor"

"you... did.. what to me?"

"oooh so you can actually look scary Alice, well calm down and let me explain. I didn't look at any of your thoughts, ideas or memories as that is highly illegal. well I'll just have to lean it"

(ICI start an analysis.)

(CONFIRMED, INNISALYZING PATTERN RECOGNITION ANALYSIS)

"for now I'll just have whatever you would recommend Russell"

"is there anything you can't eat?"

"nope, but it's been a while since I last ate so a big portion would be appreciated"

"in that case, I recommend a beef entrecote, what about you Alice?"

"I'll just have a stew"

after eating Russell ordered some wine for the 3 of them

"what is this?"

"this is a red grape wine, it's made by fermenting and ageing a mix of grapes in wooden casks"

"ooOo! so you have alcohol in this world too? that's amazing"

"what's your world like Dax?"

"well where to begin? the world I'm from is called Tau Ceti F it used to be cold and dead long ago, but it's was terraformed to serve as the home of my race."

"terraformed?"

[TERRAFORMING OR PLANETARY ENGINEERING: THE ACT OF TRANSFORMING A PLANET'S ATMOSPHERE, MAGNETIC FIELD, ECOLOGY AND/OR SURFACE TOPOGRAPHY TO MAKE IT MORE HABITABLE]

"the biggest difference would be the gravity, it's about 3 times stronger than here so everything weighs about 3 times more"

"that seems.. rough"

"well it's not so bad, qitons are designed to live in even stronger gravity. but sadly that not the case for humans so qitons mostly live isolated, so most people sadly fear us because of our image of inhumane killing machines, that we appear as when fighting in wars. well that's enough about my history for now, let's focus on recovering the first orb, please take a look at this map"

extending his right hand forward with the palm up Dax only got a confused look from Russell and Alice until he realized his mistake.

"ah sorry, ICI switch form AR to holo projection"

[CONFIRMED. RENDERING TERRAIN MAP..]

now appearing from Dax's cybernetic hand was a circular hologram about 30 centimetres in diameter showing a map over the nearby area

"this is Black Hollow and this is the orb I landed in, finally this is the orb I want to recover the contents of"

pointing at different parts of the hologram, Dax quickly explained where the orb was located

"that's not good, you see what I'm seeing Russell?"

"yeah that's about 5 kilometres from that large arachnid nest"

"arachnid? they don't sound friendly"

"that's because they're not, arachnids are large flesh eating spiders, they have a tough exoskeleton and move fast so they're a pain to deal with"

"how big are they?"

"about 2 to 3 meters tall when fully grown"

"how do they attack, any ranged?"

"they have no ranged attacks, but can quite easily stab you to death with their legs"

"so not quite a tank, but more like an AFV with lots of spears strapped to it….. how many are there?"

"unknown. most likely more than 50, I send word to the capital a few days ago for help in clearing them out, but that's not gonna happen anytime soon now that the country is in lockdown"

"and I need about 5 hours to break through the shell of the orb from the outside, and I currently have no drones to defend me while I do that, plus I only have 5 mags left for my pistol. this is gonna be a pain, can I borrow Alice and Viktor?"

"it was my plan from the start to have them help you, but you're gonna need more help than that and a weapon….."

"that sounds expensive"

"yeah it's not gonna be cheap, but I'll finance the whole thing as thanks for returning my subordinates unharmed. go rest now Dax I've rented a room here for you to stay in, Alice will come by in the morning and take you to a weapon store, while I organize a team from the hunter's guild that can back you guys up"

"thanks I'm gonna pay you back when I can, but I'm still in your debt Russell, see you tomorrow Alice"

leaving Alice and Russell with a bow after getting his key, Dax went upstairs to find his room.

"are you insane?"

"in what regard?"

"me and Viktor holding off a swarm of pissed arachnids, even with a team of hunters that's unreasonable"

"it's not gonna be a swarm, at the most 4 or 5 that far from the nest, and Dax will be there too plus a team of hunters, and you will have time to set up defences around the orb"

"I still don't like it what if the colony have started to roam?"

"there's no way that's gonna happen, the colony only have a single queen, you did the recon yourself remember?"

monster hunters as the name imply make their living of hunting monsters and are ranked by the guild.

the lowest rank is iron and is mostly made of up beginners under basic training.

above iron is bronze they're a bit stronger than iron but are still mostly useless against anything other than the weakest monsters

after bronze is silver, they make up a large part of the hunters, a group of about 4 can kill a single troll with some injuries

the rank above silver is gold, gold ranked hunters are rare in smaller towns, but every larger city have at least one party, and a single one can kill a single troll with ease.

after gold is platinum, they mostly stick to capitals of larger trade hubs, a single one can clear a camp of trolls while sustaining a small number of injuries.

above platinum is the highest conventional rank that makes up the top 1% of all hunters: mithril they command parties of platinum hunters or form 2 or 3 man party's that can kill a single low tier dragon with a few fatalities.

the final rank is adamantium, only a handful exists in the world and they all hold titles of high nobility in different countries, a single one can kill a mid tier dragon barehanded.

organizing all the hunters is the hunters guild. the guild handles the contracting and organizing of requests from varying governments and private customers, looking for monster parts for crafting potions or recon/clearing of specific areas. customers pay a small fee besides the pay to the hunters for a request, the guild sources reliable hunters and works a middleman in price negotiation, and the hunters get job safety and protection from being scammed by employers

"so did you understand all that Dax?"

"wow you're actually smart Alice. wait! it was a joke so don't stab me please!"

Dax and Alice, with a lot of bed hair, was walking to a weapons store near the inner wall while Alice was explaining the hunters guild to Dax.

"by the way, what kind of weapons can you use Dax?"

"anything will do, but I would like a blunt weapon for going up against enemies with exoskeletons"

"but is there any weapons you're not good with?"

"I've been training and fighting for over 750 years, I don't think there's a weapon I haven't mastered. but I'm most comfortable with knives, swords, pistols and rifles as they're the ones I mainly use"

"what's a rifle? some kind of bow?"

"no, if I had to describe it in simple terms it's kind of a self reloading crossbow, except a lot stronger and fires a lot faster than you are imagining now"

"that seems like an amazing weapon"

"yeah I could've killed all the trolls we encountered a few days ago instantly if I had one"

"I can't even imagine that… oh we're here now"

Alice stopped in front of a rarer brick building with a large chimney at the back, at the front was a larger than a normal door, that Dax didn't even need to duck under to enter

"well this is nice, for once a door appears to be made for someone of my size"

"yeah that's because a lot of large humanoids like or use weapons"

"let's take a look"

opening the door with a childish look, Dax's face lit up like a child in a toy store. Swords, war hammers, battleaxes, spears, shields and different kinds of armour packed the whole store as far as Dax could see

"ooOOoo! so this is this worlds weapons, very interesting"

"why is a weapons store so interesting?"

"well for me it's like walking in a museum. that and I'm a qiton, it's in my genes to love any and all kinds of weapons"

"are you saying my weapons are primitive? you have a lot of nerve demonkin!"

"I knew this would happen… hallo Alex this is Dax, he needs a new weapon"

"yeah well, he can find that elsewhere, like in a dump!"

standing in front of Dax and Alice was a pissed off dwarf. Alex, as Alice called, him wore a sturdy leather apron filled to brim with blacksmithing tools over simple hard leather clothes leading Dax to assume his profession and reason for anger.on his head Alex wore a black piece of cloth like a bandana, working as makeshift fireproofing for his dense red hair underneath. the dense and slightly curly hair perfectly matched his curly and long beard, and at the moment, his red furious face.

(this looks like a setup for a really bad joke..)

while Alice looked at the short Alex screaming furiously at Dax she couldn't help to think so

"no I meant that the weapons are so far removed from anything I normally use, so I'm quite fascinated, I didn't in any way mean to imply that the weapons you make are primitive"

"who the hell would find a sword foreign!? are you daft or what!?"

Dax quickly picked up a nearby sword and gave it a few swings before starting to examine it closely

"what the hell are you doing!! get out of my shop NOW"

"I thought it was made of iron but on closer look, it's a lower carbon steel alloy. there appears to be a small number of impurities, but those are almost impossible to get rid of without using coal coke and pure O2, but they don't impact performance much so it would be purely cosmetic to get rid of them. the more interesting part is the atomic crystal structure of the steel alloy, it's way too stable for that low carbon content… that must be some kind of magic. it's also extremely well balanced… did you add a counterbalance in the grip?… no there's some kind of denser material in the core, that would explain it, and add to the overall durability, what is it? titanium? no, even if it's a heavy alloy that wouldn't explain it… is it tungsten? that certainly has the density to explain it but it's way too hard to process… no it's a steel tungsten alloy with maybe a bit of chromium, am I right?"

""...""

"did I say something strange?"

"aha! ahahahaha!! not bad Dax, in fact, that's brilliant! you're completely correct I do use a denser metal in the core and magic, it's a secret that has passed down in my family for generations!"

"ah, are you mad I told Alice that?"

"no I'm not mad! Alice is a smart lass so she knows to keep a secret, more importantly, let me shake your hand!"

"nice to meet you Alex"

"you too Dax. so you need a weapon?"

"yeah for killing some arachnids, oh and I can't use any kinds of magic"

"I've never heard of a demonkin that couldn't use magic"

"that's because I'm not a demonkin, well that's a story for another time. do you have any recommendations for a weapon?"

"arachnids huh… no need for any runes or crests since you can't use magic.. would you prefer a one or two handed sword? and what about the weight?"

"a one handed sword would be ideal and as heavy as possible"

"I don't really have anything like tha- no wait I do, follow me"

Alex turned around and headed deeper into his store and disappeared behind a door at the counter, leaving Dax and Alice behind

"I don't have all day!"

"I think we should follow him"

finding Alex in a storeroom filled with weapons behind the shop counter looking through the messy inventory

"now where the fuck is that sword, I know I left it somewhere… ah there it is"

Alex pulled out a dusty two handed sword form a weapons rack and gave it to Dax that started to examine it with great care

"I made this for a blockhead of an adventurer a while ago, the daft one couldn't use any magic but he was strong as a demon, the idiot died before I could finish it, however, but it's the most robust and heavy sword I ever made, go ahead and try it out"

"this is a titanium steel alloy! amazing craftsmanship and it's so perfectly balanced. how much for it?"

"you can have it for free, it's unsellable goods just promise to share a beer with me when you're done with all your arachnid business"

"I'm in your debt Alex, I owe you a lot more than a beer"

"that you do, let's talk weapons next time, I would love to know what kinds of weapons your kind use"

"now for something to test it on"

"ahaha I like your spirit Dax, the hunters guild is always the shortest way to a fight"

"could you show me the way there Alice?"

"no way"

"do you want me to go into combat with a weapon I'm not used to?"

"it's still a bad idea"

"then I will tell Russell our little secret"

"you wouldn't…"

"oh I will, ICI?"

[HE WILL]

"AARRRG FINE! but this is a really bad idea"