A total of five Simple Hits have been taken out on you via the Scoundrels Guild, for a combined payout of 572,832 points.

Nicolai looked up at the others, and saw Shark's overly toothy grin.

'You've been bad,' she purred. 'What'd you do?'

'He cheated in the Tournament,' said the tall Cultivator, smiling. 'But there is balance in all things,' he intoned smugly. 'Those who cheat and deceive will face Heaven's judgement! So it is!'

'Not in the Tournament,' said the female Cultivator. 'Only in the private stake.'

'In both!'

'In neither,' growled the fat Cyborg.

Nicolai glanced at Shark, who was looking back and forth at them in confusion. 'It remains a matter of some debate, as you can see. Ultimately, my actions upset some people. How worried should I be about having numerous Scoundrels Guild hits on my head?' This was not an area he had any information on. That said, the schema of people wanting to kill him for money was far from unfamiliar.

'Depends whether you can handle yourself or not. If someone kills you, then assuming all those hits have the same definitions—simple kill jobs—they'll get the payout from all of them. If the payout is big, it'll draw some interest for sure. Only Scoundrel Guild members are eligible to get paid, but it's not unknown for them to work with others, promising they'll split the payout.'

Nicolai nodded, considering. 'There are only four of us here. I imagine there will be a similar number over there. Not many people to take the jobs.'

She smiled. 'You're just seeing one slice of the pie. This is merely one Guild hall. In fact, we've had a couple thousands freshies join us in the past hour. That Tournament you all took part in was one of many, don't forget this city is split into a bunch of Sections. Once a member of a Guild, you have access to the same job list as anyone else at your rank. So in fact, you might have thousands of hunters.' More sharply pointed teeth were revealed as her grin widened.' I hope you're good at hiding.'

Nicolai kept silent. He was very good at hiding and his chosen base was very secure, but there was no point in saying so. The men and women around him were not allies, no matter how he might pretend otherwise.

'Since you're one of us now, I'll give you some advice for free. The Scoundrels have a quirk. They're able to pay a fee to send out Blood Hunters. These Blood Hunters are part-spirit, part-flesh, carrying a weaker, copied version of the scoundrel's Symbiotes, Artifacts and weapons. If they have something of yours—an item of clothing, a piece of hair or drop of blood—they can track you down easily, and even spawn the creature near to you. They control their Blood Hunter from somewhere distant, though it can't be in this city or anywhere else where combat isn't permitted. Still, they'll sit somewhere as safe as they can find. It's bullshit, you ask me, but that's how it is. They use 'em to hunt people down risk free, force you to go to them. Killing the Blood Hunter just sets them back whatever they paid for it. Watch out for those. It is possible to setup defences against the Blood Hunters and their tracking skills, though, but I don't know exactly how. Information Guild will have the details.'

Nicolai considered her words. Was he at risk? He looked back over his time since coming to the Phantom City.

Had he been injured, with the risk of leaving blood or other pieces of himself? No. He hadn't suffered any damage in the Tournament—his fights against all but Jian had been easily won, and via utilising the Lasgun in his first fight, and simple cheating in the second, he had again avoided even a single hit in both.

Had he left anything else? He considered this more carefully. He had worn the Skin Suit for almost his entire time in the Phantom City. Its complete seal had thus ensured he hadn't lost any hair or skin sheds. Except for a ten minute period where he had gone to the Trade Link to purchase the Lasgun, where he'd worn a different outfit. But again, he had worn an outfit that covered his entire body. Overall, he felt the risk was minimal.

He had traded some points-tags to those Cultivators at the Refinery Guild, and sold the Yin-Yang Symbiote to the old man. Other than that, everything he'd spent had been spent via Denizens or systems of Heaven, such as the Information Guild.

'Would points-tags be included as items that could allow someone to track me down?' he asked Shark.

'No, don't worry about something minor like that. It would need to be an item you'd held and used multiple times. A primary weapon, a piece of clothing, a memento. They wouldn't be able to track you with money, and you don't have to worry about trading Symbiotes, either. So long as you clear your will out of a Symbiote before you sell it, anyway.'

Nicolai nodded, mentally crossing out any of his once primary but now rarely-used weapons, such as the AA-12, as saleable items.

'If that's all dealt with, let's move on,' said Shark, gesturing them after her as she turned away. She led them around the edge of the room, until they came to a large opening.

Looking within, Nicolai and the other "freshies" saw what he recognised as a place designed for chopping meat and bodies up. Shiny metal work surfaces. Hooks hanging from the ceiling. Racks of blades and bone saws. Some kind of heavy, dirty machine occupied one entire wall.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Standing lined against the wall to one side were a number of bulky undead, similar in shape and design to the gigantic guards wandering the street, only somewhat smaller. They stood motionless, empty eyeholes staring straight ahead. From them, Nicolai felt faint Soul Senses which were equally placid. Undead golems, waiting for command.

Lounging in chairs amidst the butchery equipment and furniture were a twinned pair of rat-like beings—if rats were bipedal, heavily muscled, scarred, and with some kind of burn-scar tattoos.

'The choppers,' explained Shark, waving at the grouping. 'He's Cut, and he's Slice,' she pointed at the rats, who gazed back, arms crossed. The pair wore dirty aprons and had numerous vicious blades hanging on their belts.

'Other way round,' grunted one of them in a surprisingly deep voice.

'Yeah, sure.' Shark snorted dismissively. 'I don't think they even know for sure themselves,' she muttered as she led them on to a huge vault door. 'In here's the Guild Storage. Most Guilds have a place like this. You can put stuff you care about inside, so long as its related to Slaying—or you can convince the storage manager it is—and this is also where any rewards or whatever you've earned will wait for you to collect. Its never been robbed… but you never know. Eh?' She chuckled, walking on.

After that she took them to the Guild Library, which was quite small. Just a few shelves, containing mundane books. Further in, there was a locked gate and through it, Nicolai and the others saw Memory Tomes.

'The real good stuff is in those,' explained Shark. 'But you only get access to them if you reach the Slayer rank, and then only one Tome per month. They take a while to recharge after use. Right now you're all just Scouts, so you only get the basics.'

Nicolai and the others asked some follow up questions, and learned that "good stuff" meant detailed instructions on how to fight just about anything, including the mindset and way of being of most Spirit Beasts, how to lure and trick them, weakspots and so on.

Next they were led to what Shark simply described as "Jobs." It was the huge statue in the middle of the room. Nicolai gazed up at the stone face. The individual depicted had rough, heavy features, thick brow, square jaw, small ears, small nose, small eyes. The face was battered and beaten, lumpy even, in places. Whoever this individual had been, he'd been in a lot of fights. It looked like he might have won most by smashing enemies to death with his face.

'Kneel before the Founder, and raise your Marked hand. Simple as that,' said Shark. 'Once you've communed with the statue, all the currently listed jobs will be loaded into your mark. That way you'll be able to track 'em, check they're still active,' said Shark. 'Also, your Mark will automatically inform you if any creatures that are listed come into the area around you. The range is a few miles. It means that as you go, you'll receive notices about creatures to hunt nearby.'

Nicolai and the others did as she bid, kneeling. He raised his hand toward the statue and his Mark shimmered. His UI opened by itself.

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Slayers Guild - Jungle

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

HUNT

Flame-Crowned Basilisk – 130,000 pts

Echojaw Tyrant (ToothBearer) – 250,000 pts

Gorothune - 110,000 pts

Bloomspike – 60,000 pts

Thornhide Gargantua – 170,000 pts

Glassback (ToothBearer) – 150,000 pts

…

ELIMINATE

Hivemind Locust Swarm – 150,000 pts

Corpse-Woven Matron (Mutant) – 135,000 pts

Blue Bug Herald (Bug Clan Vanguard) – 300,000 pts

Not-Deer Nest (3–6 entities) – 110,000 pts

Crocodile Witch – 400,000 pts

COLLECT

Gold-Tusk Boar Heart – 100,000 pts

Depth Dragon Egg – 1,500,000 pts

ScaleViper Scale – 100 pts per scale (heavy demand)

Shadowmoth Antennae (x4) – 40,000 pts

Verdant Serpent Venom Gland – 45,000 pts

Aurora Mandrake Seedpods (must still be pulsing) – 50,000 pts

…

LIMITED

Hunt: Starhide Panther [TIME LIMITED] – 200,000 pts

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'Hunt and Collect jobs don't have any location basis,' Shark announced. 'The jobs you see are the same as everyone sees, even if what's listed is nowhere near to you. But now you've touched the statue, your Mark will be updated. If any of the beings or items listed happen to be within a few miles of you, it will react and let you know. That doesn't work for everything. Some items and creatures, especially those which are hidden deep underground or have spiritual protections, will not be detected by your Mark. Standard fare will be, however.'

'As to Elimination jobs, those are a bit different,' she continued. 'Those are given by someone who has a specific problem with a specific creature which they want removed. They're often paying more to see it dead, so it stops causing them trouble, than because they want whatever bits and bobs it might give if hunted.'

Nicolai let the words wash over him, continuing to scan through the list. His eyes widened when he saw the listing for 1.5 million points. Tapping on it caused it to expand.

1,500,000 - Collect Depth Dragon Egg

Depth Dragons are dangerous spirit beasts who live in great caverns underground, and are capable of tunnelling through earth and stone. Born at Tier 3, they are very powerful and dangerous.

Depth Dragons are only fertile rarely, and their eggs take a long time to mature. Depth Dragons will lay their clutches in holes dug into the surface, then use their innate magic to bury and conceal them. After ten years, the Depth Dragon will return to the matured eggs, dig them up and take them to hatch.

Depth Dragon eggs are prized refinement materials, especially for those looking to advance to the Core Formation stage.

It was surprising someone had amassed so many points-tags already, but considering what they were going for—Core Formation—he supposed it made sense. Core Formation was the stage after Foundation. Once someone had reached the peak of Tier 3 they could push for it. Someone like that would be a powerhouse.

Now that he'd communed with the statue, the jobs were all live on his Mark. They would be automatically updated and he could check on them whenever.

'Well, that's everything. As you rank up—if you rank up—more becomes available. Any questions?' asked Shark.

The others shrugged.

'Thank you for your time,' spoke Nicolai. 'I must be leaving.' He gave a polite nod to all.

He had a few more things to do, in the hours before the city closed. He had Symbiotes to sell, and ideally, to buy, and he also wanted to make some purchases. After selling the Yin-Yang Symbiote he had plenty of funds. Time, then, to put those funds into use.

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