Monsters, the very idea of them scares us as children. As we grow older some of us seek out stories of them now thrilled by the fear we had before. Others of us hideaway, I was a mix of both. Horror movies quickly bored me so I went for the stories rather than nonsense that I could look at and tell how it was made. Goosebumps was a book series you'd always see in my hand as a child I loved that thrill, books where I could make the choices of the main character followed seeking out that thrill of the unknown and adventure to go with the danger. As I became an adult and more versed in science the wonder slowly began to fade and my taste in reading changed. Manga, anime, lightnovels, many with a common theme of your average otaku being reincarnated into some fantasy world. It was all complete nonsense and most of it pervy but I still kept reading them. This did not change as I became more successful. Not that I ever became rich or anything. From serving customers at the counter of the game room I was in I was put to the back as a cook as I became more easily irritated and disillusioned with the world. Before long I had become the main cook just under the manager, helping with the orders and yet another pay raise came with it and it was then I began adding science text books and the like wanting to learn of the real magic of the world. All the while following the same routines, becoming more successful, I couldn't have cared less.
My second life everything was different. I couldn't tell you how I died, though I likely collapsed into a book when I did. This time though, I was happy! Everything was different! Science was largely an unknown and there were creatures that broke it's laws like they didn't exist! I was in a land of monsters, bound and determined I found someone to teach me the only two weapons I could even hold properly. The light bowgun was similar enough to a crossbow or rifle and having come from a hunting family in my last life I picked that up quickly while the dual blades took more work. Every zenni I was given from helping the cook and my parents at their farm went to the local hunter for teaching though he struggled with my weapons of choice we made do. We also agreed to never talk about my attempt to lift one of his skyscrapers, ahem, greatswords.
All was going well, everything was absolutely perfect! Till the day a hunter came from Tanzia I think it was called. My master was getting on in years and with no one here in Moga of age of the hunter inclination with the experience to take his position they sent someone else. He could still tell me stories but anything that even resembled something official had to be stopped. This of course included my position as his apprentice. Which leads us to now...
***
"Mr. Griffith... Are you honestly trying to tell me those earthquakes my parents told me about were caused by a single monster? That shouldn't be possible! They'd need to be capable of shifting an entire tectonic plate!"
I wasn't doubting him I'd seen honest to gods wyverns flying across the any it was simply that this world never ceased to amaze me. Besides that I'd heard this story before both from him and other villagers who've been here from before Moga began to grow. Junior especially would not stop talking about how he'd helped him in his various exploits.
"It was indeed but it was not it's fault. Never forget this young man. You're setting out soon, don't hate the monsters you'll come across even though you will have to fight them. To be a hunter is to be more than a killer, you need to be a part of the world out there. To be able to read it but not submit to it.
"We are the invaders out there in the wilds we can't just go killing everything or the balance will fall apart. Kill too many predatory monsters and the herbivores will come crashing through the fences to get to the farms, kill too many of the herbivores and the predators will do the same to get at us! Hahaha with all the technical stuff you talk about I'd 'magine you got that down even more than I do though. You asked that gal at the guild counter on a date yet urk!"
To this day no one knows for certain if it was the look from my mother or me that shut him up. The exact opposite of old man Griffith's smiling eyes and gentle face amplified by the laughlines my mother and I both had long spiky hair resembling the monster known as a rajang's mane and a face that naturally looked aa though our goal in life was to rip out your heart and eat it if we didn't make an effort to appear kind. Even when I tried though people would still flinch at how unnatural it seemed on me. At best I looked like an old man brooding over taxes. Despite both of us having the same soft brown eyes and other features mother could at the least look kind when she tried thank the gods or I'd have been terrified of her. Father I got my build from though not to the extent he has from both being a hunter when younger and then working the fields in his early retirement. Until I met hunters I thought my father was hercules and I'd been sent to some version of olympus to live my next life!
"My son may be of marrying age but she is far too old for him Taren Alorain Griffith and I would appreciate it and I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't imply such crude things about him. He goes there to study isn't that right son?"
"Yes ma'am."
True but even if it wasn't I am not about to get in the middle of that. I'm just going to enjoy the aptonoth roast I made and try not to laugh at the misery of my foolish master as he tries to explain himself. Reaching out for a bit of bread to soak up some of the broth I see my father give me a thumbs up and I feel my expression flatten out to neutral. Is he approving my neutrality or... Surely he doesn't think I'm actually...
***
Once everyone was full and happy from my cooking as per usual I stepped out setting up my nightly fire. I don't know who it was that answered my desperate pleas in my last days but clearly there is at least one god or goddess out there so I have been doing what I can to honor them despite having never been a religious person in my past. I don't know much about the practices here and nearly nothing about the practices from earth in my first life so all I have to go on is sacrifice and song and dance. Much preferring the modern version of sacrifice and likely being unable to drag a monster or even a person here alive even if I was so inclined I went another route. I brought some of dinner out. Setting it aside near where I have the setup for the fire on a makeshift altar my parents thought I was carving to be a stool I grab my stick. Yes, stick, not a wand or staff as I'm pretty sure those need all sorts of requirements to be proper and I don't want to make one that fits the wrong deity gods forbid it not even be the right pantheon. For the same reason I don't try any sort of prayer either. Moving along I drag the stick through the dirt in a circle before lighting the fire and beginning to dance around it as I sing, thankful that though I found my previous life boring the memories don't seem to be fading.
"When all things lead to a dead end
A point of no return
When nothings left but to stand back
and watch the fire burn"
This... This is what things felt lime before! There was no hope. Things weren't a disaster. Sure I wasn't rich but I was comfortable, I had nothing to complain about but at the same time, there was just nothing in it that excited me.
"I won't surrender my spirit
I won't give up my life
I'll live this day till my last breath
With you all by my side
We've been trying so long
We've been fighting so hard
When all things must perish
And the heavens fall apart
And the heavens fall apart
We're dancing in the dark
No tomorrow, no regret
We're dancing in the dark
For tomorrow, we'll be dead
..."
Dancing in the dark by beyond the black, it isn't the perfect song but I believe it fits well. Some divine being out there took me from an endless hell of repetition and allowed me a chance somewhere where I can make my life really feel like I'm living! I will die before I let this new life become a repeat of the last!
"Tomorrow I set out for Val Habar, I hear it's one of the easiest places to get approved to be a hunter due to the nomadic nature of many of the people, so they often need people for the caravans you see..."
I probably look silly explaining my plans to a slowly dying fire but something about it feels right so I sit there and do so before making sure to put out the fire and cover it up leaving the plate just in case. Maybe I'm wrong and it'll just be eaten by some of the smaller creatures around, I don't know, and that alone brings a smile to my face as I bring my blanket over myself and close my eyes.
***
"Sleep well my child"
Shadows congeal along the ground rising up into the general shape of a woman before slipping down again revealing a beauty of alabaster skin as the darkness itself forms a dress around her and she takes up the plate of food eating quietly as she watches inside of the home through the walls as if they aren't there.
"An entirely new world and your skills didn't fade in the slightest! Just the right distance from the fire to keep it hot as well!"
Chewing happily as her form solidifies further the few guards on night patrol notice nothing which is likely a good thing! Besides her beauty her eyes would unnerve anyone who saw them, solid black with small points of light like stars you could practically fall into them. Hair formed from seeming nothingness as black as the dress of darkness flowed around her shoulders, and her form itself seemed made of moonlight.
"But this isn't enough sweet boy, you have a spirit like the old heroes. Show it to me, just being a hunter isn't enough for you I know that. So... What will you do? What story will you tell me in this life I wonder?"
