Another day, another contract.

Make no mistake, that's not a bad thing.

When you're a Hunter, taking a contract is how you earn your coin, and earning coin means you can put food on the table.

So taking a contract every day wasn't a bad thing.

But make no mistake, the contracts don't always guarantee it will center around fighting beasts. Yes, they will certainly involve the presence of beasts, that much is certain, but not all Contracts taken focus on hunting down a specific beast.

Sometimes the Contracts will be to simply investigate an area or even old ruins like the fabled Towers.

Sometimes the Contract will be to gather medicinal herbs for doctors, or ingredients for the chefs.

Sometimes the Contract will be to gather materials and minerals for the engineers.

It's a limited list, but regardless of what Contract is taken there is always the factor of beasts crossing a Hunter's path.

Even when you weren't on a Contract, and just traveling about the wilds that was the case.

For Hyde and his party, that couldn't be avoided.

"Ugh~" Hyde half muttered and half whined as he looked at the jagras that he had just cut down moments ago. "I swear I hate it when these guys come looking for a fight." He stated. "Can't these guys just step off for like a day or something?"

"Yeah well, what do you expect?" Alice put her hands on her hips. "We're out here in the wilds, getting attacked is kind of part of the job description."
"I know but I just wanted to get some minerals so the Smithy could upgrade my swords."

Hyde whined. "Is that too much to ask?"

"No." Alice sighed. "But going out into the wilds without getting involved with monsters is like seeing the sun and moon in the sky together."

"She's not wrong, you know." Mellow stated, taking a minute to adjust the bag that was on her shoulder. "It's that rare. I mean, sure you can get your hands on those Incense sticks they sell that act as repellent, but it's still crazy rare for beasts to not come looking for you."

"And when they don't, that's usually not a good thing." Richard muttered. "Seriously, it usually means something bad is on the horizon."

"Yeah yeah…" Hyde grumbled as he took a minute to stretch. "I've heard it before; when it's quiet that means that the creatures in the local area are trying to hide from something." He muttered as he looked at the others. "Still I wouldn't mind a day when there's no beasts to take care of."

"If there's ever a day when we don't run into beasts, that would be the day we're probably out of a job." Richard stated as he looked at his hunting horn. "Not that I'd really complain, I mean, my interest in becoming a musician is growing the more I get used to this thing."

"Seriously?" Hyde muttered as he gave Richard a deadpan look. "A musician?" He asked. "Why would you want to become a musician?"

"What can I say, I've always loved music." Richard stated. "I just didn't know I had any skill in actually making music." He added fiddling his fingers.

"Well that's fair." Alice muttered. "So, you planning on retiring soon?" Richard just laughed as he heard the words.

"No, not yet." He admitted with a smile. "I still got a few more rounds in me before I decide to retire. Besides, this moron still needs some looking after."

"Hey!" Hyde shouted as the two girls in their party laughed.

"Fair point." Mellow stated as she noticed something fly overhead. "Hm?"

"What is it?

"Looks like his majesty is making his rounds." Mellow stated.

"Really?" Alice muttered as she looked at the sky. "Oh hey you're right." The woman made a noise. "Haven't seen him in a few weeks. I thought someone was actually able to dethrone him."

"Yeah~ but let's be real if that's the case, his queen would not just let that slide." Mellow stated.

"Yeah~" Alice fell silent for a moment.

"Well, either way I'm glad Ignis is still around." Hyde said with a grin. "Cause I plan on taking him down."

"No." Richard stated. "As in HELL NO." He added. "There's no way that I'm helping you hunt down Ignis."

"Ditto."

"Why not!?"

"Uh~ because it's a death sentence." Mellow stated. "There's a reason no one goes after the Apex, despite the contracts being put up to go after him. Sure people fear him, but they also respect him; and so long as we don't bother him, he won't bother us."

"That's what makes Ignis the ultimate prey!" Hyde grinned. "Prey that you fear, and prey that you respect, there's nothing greater than that for a Hunter!" Hyde stated. "Knowing that about him, I can't just sit by and let him get away from me."

"Well you're gonna have to let him go." Richard stated. "Cause I sure as hell am not going to join you in that hunt."

"Me neither." Alice stated as Mellow nodded her head.

"Come on, don't tell me you want to see what he's capable of?" Hyde asked. "Don't you have a Hunter's instinct?" He asked. "If you do, then let's shoot for the stars!" Alice sighed in annoyance.

"I'll gladly shoot for the stars but only when I'm ready." She stated. "You're not gonna drag me along to hunt some 5 star quarry just because you think it sounds fun." She stated. "So long as I have any say in it, I'm not going to pick a fight with any beast I know I'm not ready for."

"But how will you know you are ready?" Alice didn't respond, seeming to think for a moment.

"That's…" She paused. "Hard to say." She muttered. "I mean obviously the guild would have to recognize our achievements first, and we'd have to go up in rank a bit."

"Yeah but we can't go up in rank if we don't take the risk and go after strong beasts right?" Hyde's party fell silent for a minute. Eventually Mellow sighed in a bit of annoyance.

"Hunting strong beasts doesn't guarantee that the guild will recognize your accomplishments." She stated. "You go up in rank because you show dedication and experience as a Hunter." She stated. "There's a reason we're given such mundane quests when we're low rank." It's so they can see how dedicated we are to the job, if you can't even commit to doing something as basic as getting meat for the village or herbs for a clinic then why should they trust you to hunt something like a Fanged Wyvern or even Ignis?" She asked. "And these mundane contracts? They're also so we can gain experience as Hunters; get an idea of what we need to do as Hunters and develop our skills before we're allowed to move on to more complicated contracts."

"Ugh~ that takes forever though." Hyde whined. "I wanna hunt strong creatures~" Hew stated. "Can't I just talk to someone and have them put in a good word for me."

"No." Mellow's tone got him to stop whining. "You wanna hunt something strong, you need to earn that right, like everyone else. You can't just talk to someone and have them make an exception." She stated. "People die in this occupation, and there's no way any of the higher ups in the Guild would want someone dying just because they decided to give them a pass. No one wants that on their conscience." She stated before sighing and rubbing her temples. "Unless circumstances are dire, the guild will never allow a bunch of rookies to just go after something above their pay grade."

"We've been 'rookies' for a whole year already!" Hyde shouted. "When is the guild going to acknowledge us so we can go up in rank and hunt something stronger than a Yian Garuga?!" He continued. "What do we have to do?!"

"Pass the Promotion interview for starters." Mellow stated. "And before we get to do that we need -"

"Experience. I get it, but how are we gonna get experience if we keep doing these boring jobs?"

"These 'boring' jobs keep us fed and keep the town's functioning." Mellow grumbled as Richard put a hand on her shoulder.

"Save it, this rate he'll be having you talking in circles." He stated, giving her a light smile. He patted her shoulder a few times before walking off. "Come on, lets just head back to Harribel and get some grub and some rest. We could all use it."

"Right." Mellow muttered as she scratched her head before stopping dead in her tracks. "Wait…"

"Hm… what is it?" Alice asked as she looked back at her counterpart.

"You hear that?"

"Hear what?" Hyde asked. "I don't hear anything."

"That's the point." Mellow muttered. "I don't hear anything. Nothings riding the wind and nothing's walking the earth." The team fell silent as they seemed to look around.

"You're right." Richard muttered, reaching for his Hunting Horn. "It's dead quiet out here but… I can feel the hairs on my neck standing on end."

"Something's close." Alice muttered as she looked around only to hear the wind blowing in the trees and the earth starting to shake. "Get ready." She readied her Shield and Gunlance as she looked towards the woods.

The steps just got louder, and she took a step backwards.

The problem was she couldn't see what was causing the quakes. "Where is… it." To her right she saw the trees starting to shake, and when she turned she saw them starting to stretch before 'fading' to reveal some kind of dark green scales.

"Alice?"

"It can camouflage?" All she heard right after was what could be compared to a bomb going off at a point-blank range.