Chapter 2
He shot another red feather arrow, with a scroll attached to the arrow body. It landed in front of the girl and she ignited it. The scroll burned and released its magic and spells. The pale-colored flames of magic started to burn again. Virgil ran to the back of the flames, waiting for the air cannon triggered by her crying. He then directly pierced the arrow into her collarbone.
Suddenly, a powerful force dragged him down, and the mayor pulled him up. With a furious expression, the mayor pointed at the entrance of the cave and shouted, "Let's go!"
The little girl's high-pitched cries filled the entire hall. The earth elemental finally broke free from the constraints of the Sunstone and the light-based Exile Spell, perfectly responding to the summoning.
Huge soil and stone spikes emerged from the ground one after another, blocking their way back. Virgil quickly pressed the mayor onto a whole Sunstone. Although both of them were pushed around by the constant spikes, they managed to avoid being pierced from head to toe.
The mayor trembled and asked, "Didn't you kill her with one arrow?"
"That was a tranquilizer arrow!"
The main job of a Demon Hunter was to capture demon beasts and sell them for a good price. Some people wanted beast skins, and others wanted beast blood. So, a Demon Hunter needed to bring back the entire demon beast as intact as possible. Tranquilizer arrows were a necessary type of arrow for every Demon Hunter. The front of the tranquilizer arrow had a crossbar to prevent it from penetrating too deeply, so it had almost no killing power. The effective element was the anesthetic attached to it.
"Oh my! You're risking your life! We can't get out!"
Virgil shook his head, "It's not necessarily true, you see, it's about to collapse."
The temple trembled as the girl cried loudly, and a beautifully carved arch stone with a delicate Sun God totem fell, shattering in front of Virgil and the mayor. The mayor's face turned pale like paper, crying, "It's going to collapse, we're all going to die here…"
Virgil pushed him away, took a look at the girl who was groggy from the anesthesia and on the verge of collapsing. He reached into his waist pouch and pulled out another scroll bound with white silk thread, tied to a red feather arrow. He shot it into the air, and pale flames burst into an explosion, creating a fireworks display that wreaked havoc with the strong winds on the dome. Falling rocks and soil came down, some even melting from the intense heat.
He took out another scroll, this one bound with red silk thread.
The feather arrow soared into the sky with a sharp sound, piercing through the flames and magma caused by the previous scroll, forming an even larger pale fireball with a touch of crimson in the center. It grew bigger and bigger.
He took out the only two scrolls he had left and ignited them with fire directly.
The air shield created by the second burst of flames was identical to the one Virgil had used to defend against the air cannon, just larger. The flowing lava couldn't drip downward, so it had to extend upwards. The dome was burned scorching hot, and thick lava splattered in all directions, burning a hole through the ceiling. Moonlight shone down from above, and Virgil howled with excitement.
However, the burned hole caused even greater tremors. After the lava on the ground cooled down, the buildings on the dome finally collapsed after having lost the support of the arches. Virgil was in a panic, but quickly calmed down and took out the final scroll. He kissed it lightly and whispered, "Xerath, my old friend, it's all up to you now."
After the last scroll flew into the air, it stirred up turbulent winds. The falling rocks were blown away by the strong winds, creating a safe area above their heads, like scattered leaves.
"Safe now…" Virgil breathed a sigh of relief and knelt down. He glanced at the little humanoid demon beast and noticed that she was also tilting her head to look at the sky. Eventually, she closed her eyes and fell to the ground.
The rocks and soil collapsed, the dust settled, and finally, everything became quiet. The ground was a mess, with lava, fallen earth, and rocks mixed together in a bowl-like shape, trapping them inside.
The mayor went from life to death and fell to the ground, looking at the stars. He said to Virgil, "A Demon Hunter is really rich, huh? You burnt this scroll like it was free."
"Haha, haha, hahaha, I have a friend who is a wizard, she gives me a 50% discount… It's not easy." He took a deep breath and pulled out a roll of black cloth from his backpack. It had silver patterns on it. He walked towards the unconscious little girl and carefully tied her limbs together.
"She…"
Virgil looked at the mayor, who covered his mouth with his hand. Virgil nodded and said, "Mm, yes, I do."
He took out a roll of cloth, the patterns on it were just like the ones used to bind the demon beast, only the colors were opposite. He tore off a piece and tied it around the little girl's mouth.
"Alright! Mission accomplished, we're safe… Goodness, when was the last time she took a bath?" He lifted the small body and climbed up to the surface. He turned to the mayor and said, "The town's guards will probably be here soon. I'm leaving. Don't forget that you owe me money!"
He actually just ran away. When the town guards arrived, only the mayor was at the scene. He went back to the inn in the town and asked if the Demon Hunter had returned during the day. The innkeeper said they saw him coming back with a bag and then checking out.
The mayor sighed.
Virgil was a Demon Hunter, his job was to hunt all sorts of demon beasts. Some were sold as pets to wealthy families, some to wizards for experiments, and some were bought by tailors to be skinned and dismantled. Well, every animal had a use, didn't they?
Considering that "demon beast" was a general term for a very dangerous wild creature, a lawful Demon Hunter must register the demon beasts they captured with the hunters' guild and then sell them in the guild's name to buyers. In other words, it was like collecting taxes.
The punishment for privately buying and selling demon beasts to the wrong people was very severe. Besides being expelled from the monopolizing hunters' association, the person would also be wanted by the association. Because the bounty was very high, the adventurer's association was always hoping that there would be occasional cases in which Demon Hunters engaged in a few private transactions of demon beasts, to increase their extra income.
Virgil was a "kind and honest" person, but he didn't engage in private buying and selling of demon beasts. So his first stop was to take this Humanoid demon beast to the hunters' association to register it.
The people from the association saw the small cage he brought and casually handed him a form. Virgil borrowed a pen and filled out the form on the nearby table. He quickly finished filling in the information of the applicant column, "Um, the species… Can I write humanoid here?"
"Leave it blank! The people behind the counter will help you classify it."
"Oh. Danger level… Grade A. Buyer…" he thought for a moment and wrote the name "Xerath," and then thought again and added the title after it.
The staff took back the form and glanced at it carelessly, "Xerath? Elemental Archmage?"
"Yes."
"How much is your deposit?"
"Here it is, written on this piece of parchment paper. It's five hundred gold coins, this is the contract." He handed over a piece of parchment paper with a purchase contract written on it.
"Good deal… The processing fee is five gold plus twenty-five gold, a total of thirty gold coins, please pay."
