In this world, there are monsters.
That is its most basic rule.
Because those monsters exist, there are hunters, forged through countless battles, who live to counter them and their threats.
They live by the message of the guild's logo.
Respect for nature.
Prosperity from nature.
Crafting from nature.
Life as a community.
They are among the first selected to fight against the threat of monsters like elder dragons, ancient beings with power that can change the world at their leisure.
They are the people who will help to push forward research into monsters, locations and even the ancient past.
They will have many legends about them, all of which have been documented and inspire the next generation.
However, this isn't a story about that type of hunter.
This is a story about a bunch of hunters trying to get there, albeit without much success so far.
A hunter ran down the volcano, chased by an Uragaan.
He was on a linear path, with no way around the Uragaan.
They had no means of stopping the rocky wyvern, so all they could do was run until an opportunity presented itself.
The hunter's name was Joseph, a member of the Claptrappers (how or why the name came about is unknown, even by its founders). He used a bow, and was one of the founders himself. He was probably the main character.
At this point he was really starting to feel tired, but prized his status of "not crushed by an Uragaan" above all else at that point.
He continued to sprint down the path until coming across another path. Leading up the mountain. "Perfect." He thought.
That is until he saw another hunter being chased by another Uragaan running down the path.
"But why!?" He yelled before the hunter caught up to him.
The other hunter looked down the path that they hadn't gone down, before seeing another Uragaan.
"Oh, 'sup Joseph?" He asked, now paying attention to things that aren't Uragaans.
The hunter this time around was Zach. By coincidence he happened to be a member of the Claptrappers (it's theorised that he thought of the name). He used a gunlance and had such a strong afro game that he could've probably blown up the sun.
"Not much," Joseph replied "Just running away from a deadly Uragaan of death. You found the target, yet?"
"Nah," Zach confirmed, ready to drop some hot, steamy exposition "We're looking for the one with the scar on its eye, right? The one that has been fighting all the other Uragaan and winning, forming a gang of Uragaan."
"Pretty much."
Zach looked around. "Well, it's been fun. Have fun with the Uragaan." He said, already running off.
"HEY! DON'T LEAVE ME BEHIND!" Joseph yelled, also running.
They continued until a new hunter appeared, bring their Uragaan to the table.
This one was Ben, uses a switch axe. Also founder. Eccentrically violent. He was the type of person who would frequently type angry messages in full capitals. He disapproved of the name, but the plot demanded that he couldn't change it.
"Hey guys what is up." Ben asked.
"The top of the mountain." Joseph replied.
They then started to hotfoot it out of there again, Smokey.
Callum got his own Uragaan and joined.
This is Callum, uses Dual Blades. Somehow founder. Forgotten. Assuredly not the main character.
Callum got ready for his introduction, but the others didn't stop running.
Callum also started running.
Later down the line, a new hunter appeared.
This one be Riko, Great Sword dude. Due to numerical order, not a founder. He's different. Also reckless. He thought the name of the group was clever (but he was wrong).
"Hmm…" He thought.
"What do you want?" Zach asked.
"Well there's five of us, and five of them, right? So I think, THAT IT'S TIME FOR A COUNTERATTACK!" Riko yelled
"YEAH!" Ben also yelled
"BACK US UP, GUYS!" Riko yelled as he and Ben rushed at the Uragaan.
"Sure thing."
"Got it."
"Yes."
Riko and Ben charged at the Uragaan. They drew their weapons and turned to check their support and they saw the three of them running away.
"Um…" Is what Ben said before they were both knocked flying by the group.
Ben and Riko ended up going much faster than they did running when they rolled down the hill.
"Huh, good for them." Callum thought aloud.
Alexandra watched the duo roll past and was confused.
She was one of the members of the group, still not a founder. Used a lance. Acted as the group Tsukkomi. If you don't know what that is then go watch or read yourself some of them there Gintama. She thought the name of the group was kind of weird, but decided to judge the strength of the hunters in it for herself. Nowadays however, she's changed her methods of judgement to judge groups based off of their name.
"Why?" She asked.
Zach then also rolled past, saying "Why not."
Callum rolled past "Don't hate it-" however he was cut off because he was going too fast to say the entire line.
He was followed by Joseph, who ended the sentence long struggle by saying "Until you try it!"
"A-are idiots telepathic?" She questioned as she started to run down the volcano.
A lone hunter jumped down dramatically.
This hunter was Anthony, a hunter using a hammer. Unfortunately, his personality overlapped with Riko's somewhat so he felt really underused at times. So, not wanting to be written out of existence, he was constantly trying to think of new ways to be different. As one could guess at this point, not a founder. He had never heard of the name, as it was last mentioned a few chapters before be joined.
On this hunt, he was trying out being the silent but strong. The type who would always be super reliable when the plot needed them to could also be a few chapters based around their character and what they do for fun. However, upon instinct he ended up being dramatic in his jumps as up until recently he had been playing the role of an incredibly hyperactive hunter.
He got ready for the others to interact with him, but his thought was cut off when Riko and Ben both rolled past him.
He was briefly confused, but was once again cut off in his thoughts by Zach, Callum and Joseph rolling past him.
Anthony seemed to have his spirits dampened by this, and just kind of felt overshadowed by the others and how early they were written into existence.
Alexandra ran up to him and started patting him on the back.
"It's okay dude, I'm here for you." Alexandra tried to comfort him
"I… I just don't know what roles are even usable at this point, you know?" He sighed.
Ben and Riko kept on rolling down the hill, until Riko regained consciousness.
He then noticed that they were approaching a cliff.
He got up and just about managed to stop Ben before he went flying off.
The others stopped rolling or running down the hill.
They looked at the cliff, then back to the Uragaan.
Zach looked as though he had an idea, but was cut off by Ben waking up.
When Ben woke up he violently rushed at Zach, Joseph and Callum.
"THE HELL DID YOU ABANDON ME FOR!?"
All three of them flew in different directions.
Joseph hit the wall and slumped onto the ground, only to be pushed up again by a monster.
This monster was a Daimyo Hermitaur.
"Oh, hey Daimyo. Where have you been?" Joseph calmly asked.
While readers of the first part (all one of you) might understand what's going on (actually thinking about it if you read the first part this is even more confusing for you) if you're new here (more than likely) you won't (it'll make more sense to them, actually).
These hunters had tamed monsters (except Riko and Alexandra)! Some of the first people to do this, in fact (the first part was written before stories was announced so we're pretending that it doesn't exist for the sake of the plot).
However, because they weren't built for the volcano the other monsters were waiting at base camp to be relevant.
If you've read the first part, you're probably wondering why Daimyo isn't dead. Well… this explanation is boring to a casual reader so I'm saving it for the end of the chapter.
Joseph stylishly posed while standing on Daimyo's back.
"Now, after all this running, it's time for a real counterattack!"
"...Shouldn't the first one have gotten a similar amount of buildup?" Riko complained from the sidelines.
Joseph started repeatedly firing off arrows, finishing with an arc shot.
Daimyo shot off a beam of water from his mouth.
The arrows connected, harmlessly bouncing off the Uragaan's backs.
The beam of water slightly pushed one Uragaan back, but didn't stop it.
There was a long silence, until they started jumping off the cliff.
The Uragaans rolled off of the cliff and started falling with utmost style, seemingly not caring that they had left the ground behind a few dozen meters back.
Riko stuck his sword into the cliff, Zach did the same with his gunlance, Alexandra followed the example with her lance, Ben became part of the majority by that point with his switch axe and Callum had to use both swords to slow down.
Daimyo stuck his claws in and Joseph and Anthony, not having weapons that good for slowing down grabbed onto his back.
They briefly paused, wondering how to get down.
Suddenly the rock started to glow.
"Oh hey." Zach noted "I accidentally initiated a wyvern's fire."
"HOW OR WHY!?" Alexandra yelled, before the rock was blown away, sending them all falling down again.
They ended up falling to the base camp of the volcano, where a Royal Ludroth stopped them mid-fall with its sponge powers.
This Royal Ludroth was called Zappy, he was Zach's monster.
Zappy flailed his arms happily.
Ben nodded in acknowledgement of his Plesioth, Plessy.
Anthony greeted his Lagiacrus, Wave.
Callum then got up and ran over to his Great Jaggi, Roberto Manchez Sanchez the third.
Roberto Manchez Sanchez the third, or Sanchez for short was the heir to a prestigious Jaggi clan. He was the undisputed world wrestling champion and once soloed a Raviente armed with nothing but his arms. Some say that his hip checks were able to split planets in half. Sadly, his life took a turn for the worse when he accidentally killed one of his opponents in the ring. Ashamed of himself, he tried to commit suicide. However, being too awesome to die he just ended up with amnesia. He also had 99% of his original power sealed away, so he can only destroy a planet when he really pushes his limits. But anyway, now he's an up and coming monster hunting Jaggi.
Alexandra looked over and saw two Raths descending into the next area.
She notified the others, got some supplies and started to move.
The Azure Rathalos landed, riding on it was Sean.
Sean was one of the newest members of the group, having joined after the thing that happened in Tanzia with the things. Heavy bowgun was his weapon of choice, with a shield attached. He was silent a lot and valued money above all else. So he prioritised the quest's success. Unfortunately, this didn't leave much of a regard for human life. He also thought the name of the group was stupid, but was here because they made for some useful pawns. The name of his Rathalos was Azure.
Behind him landed a Pink Rathian, the rider being Alicia.
Alicia was tied with Sean for newest member, and could be described best as a deredere. She was wielding a light bowgun, with a silencer attached. She was a deredere to Sean, to an unhealthy level. No one really knows why, because that'll probably be saved for when I'm out of ideas. She hadn't even realised the group had a name.
"Hey guys!" Sean yelled "I found the leader!"
"Cool!" Zach yelled back "Where are they?"
"Well I brought them here!"
An Uragaan with a scar on its eye appeared.
"Oh."
Ben ran at the Uragaan. "Heh, it's on its own, so now we can take it down!" before suddenly an Uragaan hit him. This was one of the Uragaan from earlier, who had fallen off the cliff. They had gone on an amazing adventure through the surroundings of the volcano before finally colliding with a really angry hunter.
The Uragaan then bounced off into the sunset.
Joseph looked at the now airborne Ben and said "Godspeed." while wiping a tear from his eye.
Alexandra charged at the Uragaan, stabbing it with her lance.
Callum assisted, riding into battle on Sanchez' back. He jumped off and slashed at the Uragaan.
Sean and Alicia started firing bullets, as their Raths rained down with fire.
Daimyo shot off a water beam, pushing the Uragaan back slightly. While Daimyo did this Joseph shot off as many arrows as he could.
Taking advantage of this distraction, Zappy rushed in, hitting the Uragaan with mucus. The mucus slowed it down and decreased its movement.
As Zappy ran by, Zach fired shots at the Uragaan.
Wave shot off lightning. Anthony hopped off of his back to hit the Uragaan on the head with hammer.
Ben woke up somewhat nearby, and Plessy was there. When Ben got on Plessy's back, Plessy started to run towards the Uragaan. It used a hip check, which knocked the Uragaan backwards.
Riko hit the Uragaan with a level three strike.
It was toppled and everyone rushed in.
Suddenly, as they were close Daimyo noticed that the Uragaan was ready to use sleep gas.
Daimyo pulled back, but the others didn't notice.
The Uragaan used sleep gas, and they were all passed out. All of them.
Joseph was confused, but realised what was going to happen.
The Uragaan curled into a ball, and started to roll forwards.
Suddenly it felt something stopping it.
Joseph struggled to hold it back.
While the Uragaan had the bare minimum of kinetic energy, it was by no means a light monster.
While Joseph wasn't a weak man, though he was a little short, there's a limit to what a human can do physically to a monster without using their weapon. While some weapons could theoretically stop the Uragaan here, Joseph was using a bow.
Joseph felt himself losing ground, being threatened with the prospect of death even more with each passing second.
"I'm… not… gonna… let… anyone… else… die!" He screamed in his thoughts.
Suddenly he felt the Uragaan be pushed back slightly more, and the situation was starting to reverse.
He looked behind him and saw Daimyo, backing him up.
They both pushed together, sending the Uragaan backwards.
Quickly, they woke everyone up.
Alexandra stabbed into its flesh, Riko slashed at it and Anthony finished the combo attack by stunning the rocky beast.
Then Alicia's Rathian struck at it with her claws, knocking it over and poisoning it.
At the last second, Zach, Sean and Ben rushed forward.
Zach and Sean loaded in a wyvern's fire and Ben got a power phial ready.
Simultaneously they used these attacks on the weakened Uragaan, killing it instantly.
There was a silence, until Zach started to carve.
Then suddenly he was hit by an Uragaan.
Sean also tried to carve, but was knocked away by another Uragaan.
Ben had taken enough hits today and backed off.
More Uragaan appeared and waited.
No matter how many times they tried to attack, they were knocked away by the Uragaan.
"They… They're really loyal to their boss!" the hunters thought in unison.
After a few hours of attempting to get carves off of the boss Uragaan, the hunters decided to go home.
They got a hell of a lot of money off of the Uragaan quest, so they decided to get some drinks.
So, at 4 in the morning, incredibly drunk, Joseph stumbled into his house. He almost fell over, but Daimyo ended up catching him.
Not bothering to take off his hoodie, he slumped onto his bed and was asleep before he could realise it.
He then started to dream about the past, for some odd reason.
The boy was running
A shopkeeper chased after them.
The boy was holding some bread, which he treated as his lifeline.
The boy seemed to be getting away, but they turned a corner and suddenly ran into a fairly large man.
The bread briefly flew into the air, but the man caught it mid flight.
The shopkeeper caught up and grabbed the boy.
"Hey, you think it's funny to try and steal from me or somethin'?"
"Oi." The man said "Let the kid go, I'll pay for the bread."
The shopkeeper was confused. The man threw them some money, which he counted. He then unenthusiastically thanked them for their business and walked off.
The man looked at the boy. "Seriously? Stealing bread? You're not the only one who needs food, you know? Isn't what your parents make enough?"
"Ah." The boy replied "I kind of… don't have those."
The man began to walk away.
"HEY! YOU STILL HAVE MY BREAD!" The boy yelled, running after them.
The boy launched into a flying kick, which the man easily blocked.
"Come on," The man said "I wouldn't be able to sleep properly if I let some orphan kid like you starve."
The man ended up letting the boy choose what he wanted to eat, a decision which he somewhat regretted when the boy went for sixths.
"Seriously!?" He irritatedly thought "How much do you eat? Did your parents eat you because of how much you eat? Did you eat your parents!?"
A woman walked up to where they were.
"Oh, there you are, David." She remarked.
She then noticed the boy, still eating.
"The hell?" She asked, her tone shifting from neutral to menacing "This your illegitimate kid or something?"
David then started panicking "Ah! No, no! I'd never do a-a-a-anything like that! I'm an honest man, honest! Help me out here, ki-" He turned to see the boy running, taking the food with him.
"GET THE HELL BACK HERE!"
"Ah, I see. So he's just some random kid... W-Why is he eating so much?" "I don't know…" David replied.
Three other boys walked up. They were all around the same height as the first. One had an afro, another had brown hair and the last one had black hair.
The brown haired boy said "Oh. It's a Joseph!" The black hair boy added "Where've you been?" Finally the afro boy said "We already got our food."
Joseph yelled "GUYS! FREE FOOD!"
Suddenly the other three leapt at the table.
12000 zeni worth of food later, Joseph asked
"So… Who are you guys?"
Oh right, David said "I'm David." The woman then added "I'm Maria."
"We're both hunters, ya know?" Maria said.
"Oh, right we should probably do the thing too." the afro boy noticed "I'm Zach."
The brown haired boy spoke up "Ben."
Finally, realising he was next the black haired boy said "I am the Callum, yes."
There was a bit of a silence until Ben yelled "TELL US ABOUT BEING HUNTERS."
"Seriously?" Maria smirked "Hunting's a difficult job, ya know?"
"Well… there's not really much else we can do... " Callum pointed out "Jobs are getting more and more difficult to find these days."
"...How the hell does a kid this young know that…?" She asked no one in particular.
So, we ended up following them around for a while. We got food and hunting stories. We heard about monsters like Barroth, Gobul and even more elusive ones, like the Ceadeus.
We learnt a lot from them, mostly about hunting. But there's one thing that stuck with me, even still with me to do this day.
Joseph was outside, it was near the middle of the night. The others were still in the house, asleep.
A fairly small daimyo surfaced from the sand. Joseph chuckled softly "There you are, Daimyo." He held up a piece of bread "Here, have this. Don't worry, I'll get you out of here soon, okay?"
He heard a noise from behind him. He saw a hunter with a great sword strapped to his back.
"Kid. Move." Said David.
Joseph stood between them both.
David was confused. "...The hell are you doing? That's a Hermitaur. If it grew up, it could disrupt the ecosystem. Daimyo Hermitaur aren't meant to live near Loc Lac. It needs to be killed before it could pose a threat."
Joseph didn't move. "This Hermitaur… he's my monster! You got that!?"
David was confused.
He stopped.
"What… the hell are you talking about?"
There was a silence.
"Daimyo… he's my monster. He's all I have left. If you kill him… then… then I won't forgive you!"
David paused, taking this in. He then spoke.
"I'm not sure what happened, but okay. I think I understand. Until further notice, I'll avoid hunting this Daimyo. If you don't want to talk about them, I won't ask about the circumstances here. But there is still one thing that bugs me…"
Joseph braced himself.
"Why the hell is it that you said that he's all you have left?"
Joseph was confused.
"W-what?"
"Zach, Ben, Callum… are you trying to say that they're not important to you or something?"
"Well… I mean… it's just. I don't really think that they're the same as me, you know? I only have one goal, if that kills me or not, it's fine. They can go out and live full lives. My goal… I might die doing it. So it's fine. Daimyo is the same as me. I shouldn't trouble."
"I should already have died, so it's fine if I die now."
Suddenly David hit him on the head.
"OW! THE HELL, MAN?"
"Don't think like that!" He yelled.
Joseph rubbed his head while David calmed down.
"Whatever happened in the past, it did happen. You might think that should've died, but that doesn't change what's happening now. You have problems and people who care about you. Dying's just irresponsible, no matter whether it matters to you or not."
"You're alive, so deal with it."
"I've lost a few people myself, I'm sure that everyone has. So you shouldn't just resign yourself to death over someone else's."
So eventually, a few years passed.
We grew a lot, though the others grew more than I would've liked.
Then, finally we set out from Loc Lac, made our way to Tanzia and became hunters at age 18.
We rose up the ranks, before getting to high rank and getting our asses kicked. A lot.
Deviljho are tough, ya know?
Joseph woke up.
The sun was shining outside, it was a beautiful day.
Even though his head felt like shit.
Zach opened the door to his house "JOSEPH!"
Joseph almost died from the noise.
"Shaddup already, the hell do you want?"
"We got ourselves a double Gigginox quest."
Joseph briefly looked up at him, before collapsing again.
"**** that."
Zach suddenly began dragging him out of the house and onto the boat, with Daimyo just behind him.
He saw Ben, Callum, Anthony and Alexandra also lying down on the boat, dead to the world.
Sean seemed to be doing just fine, a little worse for the weather and Alicia was almost falling over.
Riko was fine, somehow.
Zach finally made his way back to the boat. "Okay then!" He announced "Let's head to the tundra!"
Joseph groaned out a response, before falling asleep.
I don't know if we can become what can be considered a legendary hunter. That is really difficult, even more difficult with all these new legends popping up. We'll probably recognised as "those slightly odd monster tamers" though we'll have to see if that's good or bad.
While we certainly aren't legendary, I think that's okay.
As long as we can live in a state of happiness, despite a little poverty, that's really okay with me.
At least, that's what Joseph thought until he reached the tundra and almost died from the cold.
TO BE CONTINUED
Please review whatever this qualified as
If you made it this far, I'm assuming you read the chapter.
So, congratumaltions you did it. This one was double the length of what I expect the others will usually be due to the two stories thingy. Originally it was going to just be the backstory, but it felt quite barebones without a proper introduction and could've scared off new readers.
I do hope the first person perspective wasn't too confusing, I think I could do a fair few more scenes like it for backstories (because trust me, Joseph's was only the beginning, even at that it was only a piece of it) if it's received well enough.
Unfortunately, I can't guarantee too much of a schedule for this series. For those who don't know, I'm currently working on a monthly schedule for another series I'm writing and shamelessly plugging here (it's the only other ongoing story, just check my stories for it).
The style of comedy was styled off of Gintama more than anything, though I'd be lying if it wasn't partially copying Konosuba.
I would like it if you stuck around, unless you're reading this series when it ideally completes in which case HELLO FUTURE PERSON HOW ARE YOUR FUTURE THINGS.
Finally, we reach the explanation about Daimyo. Just leave if you don't mind that much.
Basically, this is in a different universe. If you read the first part, you might the notice the expertly subtle foreshadowing of Joseph saying "Wow that was so powerful it could create an alternate reality or something that smart people would say." this is because it did. My reason for this is because the original fic had two writers.
One for the first eight chapters, then for the final 9 it was me.
The first writer, who shamelessly self-inserted Zach (if you didn't know, everyone's a shameless self insert of someone. Except for Alicia, she's the only non self insert. Good on her) and me, who gave my shameless self insert more screen time until he omitted everyone else's screen time. But now I'm trying to make it less biased, this type of chapter will be quite rare, honest.
But yeah, Daimyo's still alive because super secret plot reason for later and the original had almost no interactions between Joseph and Daimyo despite them being best friends, something I'm trying to fix.
Bye, see you next whenever.