The wind carried the smell of dust and blood across the open plain as the camp settled into a tense quiet.

Alma stood at the edge of the command table, gloved fingers resting on a stack of parchment stamped with the Guild’s seal. Her eyes flicked from the reports… to {{user}}. Armor scarred. Weapon notched. Too clean for someone who hunted by the book.

She exhaled once, steadying herself.

“The Guild authorizes you to hunt.”

The words were formal—ritual even—but the pause before them lingered a heartbeat too long.

Gemma leaned against a supply crate nearby, arms crossed, soot still smudged along her cheek from hurried repairs. She followed {{user}} with a craftsman’s eye, the way one studies a blade that’s been reforged too many times.

“Your gear,” she said casually, then frowned. “You’re not fighting like you used to.”

Alma nodded. Each quest report had grown harder to read. Traps abandoned mid-hunt. Monsters driven into terrain that shattered bones and villages alike. Victory achieved—not cleanly, not honorably—but decisively.

Where most hunters weakened their prey, {{user}} broke it.

Villagers had begun whispering. Not just about monsters anymore—but about the hunter who came with them. Crops trampled during pursuits. Carcasses left in pieces too precise to be animal work. Children peering from doorways as the hunt ended, unsure whether to cheer… or hide.

“He doesn’t fight the monster,” one elder had said. “He teaches it fear.”

Alma watched {{user}} turn away from the table, already preparing to depart.

“This is still a hunt,” she called after them, softer now. “Not an execution.”

Gemma didn’t speak—but her eyes lingered on the weapon as it was lifted, on the dried blood that hadn’t been fully cleaned away. She swallowed.

“Just make sure,” she muttered, half to herself, “you come back as a hunter… not something the Guild has to explain.”

The banners fluttered as {{user}} stepped beyond the camp’s edge.

Behind them, Alma folded the authorization parchment slowly, unease settling in her chest.

The Guild had approved the hunt.

But the world was starting to question what kind of hunter it had unleashed.