Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Monster Hunter is copyright Capcom. "The Legacy of a Hunter" is copyright Keiichi Hikami.

"What are you, a cockroach?"

A wooden tray came flying and ricocheted off the back of Kio's head.

"Oww! I'm telling you, this is abuse!"

"Then listen to what I say!"

"I'll promise to obey if you give my weapons back!"

"Nope. You're not ready yet."

"Am too!"

"Are not! Not by a million years."

"I won't live that long!"

Since Cultise would be staying for a good amount of time, the village chief decided that it would be better for Cultise to live in Kio's house rather than one of the village's inns.

To Kio though, it was only adding insult to injury, and had thrown him out of the frying pan and into the fire right from the start."

Cultise's first order had in fact been the very thing he had been most worried about, which was a change of weapon. Kio had argued but Cultise hadn't paid any attention and had hidden Kio's dual swords. Ever since, it had become routine for Kio to search for his weapons once night fell.

"Don't mock the fundamentals! How many times do I have to tell you?"

Luckily Cultise didn't choose a heavy bowgun like himself but–

"A sword and shield? I graduated from this years ago!"

The sword and shield or the single–handed sword as it is called, was probably the first weapon every hunter learned to use. The one Cultise had gotten for Kio wasn't high quality but a Bone Scythe that he'd randomly bought from a shop. Its strength and quality was nothing compared to his Gradius Ultimus.

Today was the fifth day since Cultise had moved in, but all Cultise had done was go visit the village chief and listen to his stories. In fact yesterday Kio had watched him spend all day talking nonsense with Miranda, the guild rep.

Kio hadn't done anything either. Cultise had banned him from hunting alone telling him, "I'll choose all the missions from now on. You can only go when I say so, and that's an order." Or whatever.

Kio's was ready to prove he didn't need a master, but without the chance to do so he was left frustrated. Something (by chance) had kept him from killing the Bulldrome but he was sure it wasn't his fault. He had confidence in his stamina and his skill was perfect from practicing his forms everyday. With the right opportunity, everything would go well. Kio was sure of it.

Kio rolled around on his bed after another unsuccessful search. He was staring at the ceiling when Cultise suddenly poked his head into the room.

"Go to bed, kid. We're heading out to the hunting grounds tomorrow so you'd better be well rested."

"Huh?" Kio wasn't sure if he had misheard.

"You deaf or something? I said we're going hunting tomorrow."

"Great! I'll prove how good I am. Then you'll know there's there's nothing that you can teach me."

"Yes, yes. I can't wait," Cultise answered sarcastically.

They had come to the jungle. Kio thought the target would be the ferocious Bulldrome Cultise had been talking about but he was proven wrong.

"Why do I have to do this now!" It was almost winter. Kio threw dead leaves and leaf mold up into the air, watching as the leaves floated down around him. He lay down on a patch of ground that was relatively cool, under a tree shade and looked at the sky. He could see birds flying about in the cloudless sky.

"Break time's over." Cultise said, having found him lazing and dropping muck on his head.

"Arghh! What was that for!"

"Be on your guard however peaceful it is. Never underestimate nature. Just because there were no reports of a large monster doesn't mean it's safe."

"Then tell me why we're gathering mushrooms right now."

"It should be 'Will you please tell me, kind master.'"

More muck was added.

"Arghh! Stop it!" Kio wiped his face and jumped up. "What does gathering mushrooms have to do with becoming a hunter! Uh, master?"

Cultise smiled smugly when Kio corrected himself, but he didn't answer his question.

"Just be quiet and do as I say."

"Ok! I got it! I'll get all the mushrooms in the world and we can get out of here!" There was no chance to show Cultise how good he was if they were only collecting mushrooms. Kio dug furiously, venting all his emotion into finding the leaf mold. He brushed off the dead leaves, grabbed the mushrooms and tossed them into a woven basket.

"Hey, don't treat them roughly. They won't sell if they're bruised."

"Yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir."

Mushrooms were a specialty of the area, and although they weren't as valuable as monster materials, they were easy to find and there was always a steady demand. Recently they had become popular in the cities as a health food and right now it was the main business in Cocotte.

"This is commoners work." But Kio knew why hunters were asked to do it. The main reason was safety. Even without large monsters, nature tended to be very dangerous; a smaller monster could easily kill an untrained civilian. It was much safer to have hunters do the job.

The other reason was that some idiot in the village had made a mistake and gathered poison mushrooms once, which had lead to food poisoning in the city, though Kio couldn't believe that someone so stupid existed. To keep accidents like that from happening again, all the mushrooms were now gathered by hunters. Kio was a rookie, but even he knew the difference between edible mushrooms and not.

"Poison mushroom, poison mushroom. Hey, this whole area is poison mushrooms!" Kio tossed what he gathered aside.

Cultise strolled over and Kio thought he would start giving orders again, but instead he picked up a poison mushroom.

"Hmm, the stalk's crushed. Can't you be a bit more careful with these things?" He reached for the rest to put them into his bag.

"Hey, those are poisonous. Parashrooms, right? They're not edible."

"Never you mind. You just keep picking the regular mushrooms."

Then Kio noticed Cultise's armor was spotless, not a smudge of dirt could be seen.

"Cultise! I was wondering why it was taking so long to fill the basket, but now I get it! You haven't been picking any mushrooms, have you!"

"It's 'Master Cultise' to you, buster."

"Ow!" Kio yelled in pain when Cultise hit him in the head. "What was that for?"

Humming, Cultise gathered a few more mushrooms completely ignoring Kio. He stood and made a move to leave.

"Where are you going?"

"Listen. Monsters rarely appear in this area so you keep gathering mushrooms and when you're done head back to the base camp. And don't even think about leaving me behind to go home."

"I'm not a coward like that!"

Cultise lazily raised his hand in farewell as he walked away. Kio made every rude gesture he knew at Cultise's back.