I'm a Immortal Tavernkeeper, But My S-Rank Daughter Doesn't Know That!

"Hey, man, did you also hear the spirit of the hero Elban call Victor by name? Or am I going crazy?" Orie asked Riggilo as they walked a little behind each other.

The cleric looked at Orie and his eyes seemed a little lost before he answered. "I heard you too..."

Riggilo looked forward again, where he found the broad backs of Victor and Elban. The two didn’t exchange a word, but the way they walked together at the same pace and the fact that Victor had studied up on what had happened to Elban and knew all about this Gravisk demon was very suspicious indeed.

Suddenly, Pyaxu’s head appeared between Orie and Riggilo and he provided a new perspective to the situation.

"I think they’ve worked together before."

The archer and the cleric immediately stopped walking to hear more about what Pyaxu had to say.

Riggilo rested his staff on the ground and asked:

"What do you mean? What do you mean ’they’have worked together’?"

"I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Victor is old." Pyaxu said, and the other two looked at him like he was an idiot. "All right, I know you’ve noticed, but even so, he must be about fifty years old, he was probably a hunter before we were even born. That means Victor lived in the Age of Heroes, and legendary heroes traveled all over the world, it wouldn’t be unusual for them to have companions, right?"

Silence hung between them for a moment, because that had been the most intelligent thing Pyaxu had said in at least the last three weeks.

Orie then nodded actively. "That, that. Victor may have been part of the hero Elban’s group, how did I not think of that? At least that would explain the fact that Victor managed to fight off an Aberrant and came out with hardly a scratch."

"Are you kidding? What would be the chance of that?" Riggilo asked and denied it with his head. He was the most rational of the group, but sometimes that rationality got in the way of his judgment.

"Hey, guys, what happened? Have you had enough?" Victor asked when he realized that the trio of hunters had stopped following him and Elban.

"Oh, of course not! We were just exchanging ideas for combos." Orie was the quickest to think of a lie and trotted forward to show that they were still following.

"All right, but don’t stop following us. According to the spirit, we’ve almost reached the domain of the demon’s aura." 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The trio remained silent for the rest of the way.

After a few minutes of walking through the forest, Victor suddenly raised his right hand and stopped abruptly, causing the entire group to halt behind him.

"We’ve arrived." said Elban and stretched his hand forward, touching something invisible to normal eyes. "This is the limit. The demon is close."

Orie swallowed and clutched his wooden bow tightly, feeling the weight of responsibility on his shoulders. They were about to face a threat far beyond the ordinary, a threat worthy of Rank-S Hunters or beyond, but they were mere Rank-C Hunters.

Riggilo closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating on his connection with the magical energy around him. He could feel a disturbance, as if the environment itself was responding to the demon’s presence. Thus, he realized that Elban and Victor were serious when they implied that the demon’s aura was like a dome around the cave where it was sealed.

Pyaxu looked at Victor, but he didn’t seem worried. "Let’s get this over with," he said with a smile.

Victor agreed, but before they continued and entered the demon’s aura, he began to explain:

"Pay attention, Gravisk is a necromancer demon, which means it has the ability to raise the dead. On the road ahead, there will be many undead, but mainly skeletoids, these you must strike at the heart."

"Yes, but there will also be zombies, and you’ll need to destroy their brains or entire bodies at once. Also remember: if the zombies don’t detect you, they’ll be slow as slugs, but if they hear, see or smell you, they’ll be ten times faster." Elban added.

"Exactly, that’s why I also want to eliminate as many enemies as possible in the forest ahead before we go into the cave. The demon is sealed at the bottom of the cave, but when it’s released, it’ll attract all his minions to help it, and since we don’t want to be surrounded between a horde of undead and a demon, we’ll eliminate as many as we can before we enter the cave."

"That’s a good plan. Does anyone have any questions?" asked Elban.

Riggilo raised his right hand, showing that he had a question. "If we’re going to eliminate all the undead, or as many as we can, on the way, does that mean that the demon will be... defenseless?"

Elban nodded. "Demons are more intelligent than ordinary monsters. They’re not one-trick ponies. Gravisk in particular can absorb darkness, reverse its vitality into energy and make powerful magical attacks, not to mention that, like all demons, it has remarkable physical abilities even though it is theoretically a mage."

"What’s more, it can summon obsessing spirits." Victor declared.

"What?" everyone asked simultaneously, including Elban.

"What do you mean? He didn’t do that when he fought me." Elban asked, apparently confused.

"According to my research, it can summon these kinds of lost spirits. It’s a very rare ability among necromancers. It can basically open a portal between the world of the living and the dead, and this portal allows all the obsessing spirits, in other words, those who are in limbo between the normal world and the spiritual plane only to consume life energy, to leak into the normal world."

Elban put a hand to his chin and began to think as he floated from side to side. "That changes everything... Obsessing are..."

"Very dangerous." Riggilo replied. "I learned about them from my master. They’re the most common type and also the most terrifying type of spirits, they have no conscience or memories of their past lives, they just wander around sucking up vital energy at the chance they get. Dealing with them is like dealing with leeches."

Victor nodded in agreement. "Yes, and it will be like stepping into a river full of leeches. They say that if an obsessor is attached to someone’s soul, that person can die within a few years, but if it’s a horde with dozens of them, it’s much worse. All of a person’s vital energy can be sucked out in minutes and that person’s soul would have a fate worse than death."

At that moment, even Pyaxu’s hands trembled and his foolish confidence wavered.

Elban noticed that the group’s spirits had all but deflated when they discovered all this, so he quickly tried to motivate them.

"But have you ever stopped to think how incredible this will be?" Elban asked and everyone raised their heads to look at him. "If you manage to defeat this demon, your name will echo throughout the kingdom."

"And you’ll definitely be promoted to Rank-B or even Rank-A Hunters." Victor helped. Victor helped. "You have the strength for it, you just need a little push, and now is the right time to take that step."

Orie, Riggilo and Pyaxu exchanged glances.

"Riggilo, you’ll be the first cleric to kill a demon. Do you realize how important that is? And Pyaxu, this effect will forever be imprinted on your soul as a warrior." Victor began to gesture and speak.

Although he didn’t know any of the boys very well, he had sharp eyes like an owl’s and was able to notice some characteristics about them.

Victor then approached the archer Orie and said, looking into his eyes:

"You won’t need to prove yourselves to anyone else, killing a demon is like ripping the head off a dragon and putting it on display in your living room."

Each of those hunters was on their own journey, for their own reasons, but what they had in common was that they wanted glory, just like all the young hunters in this world, and at that moment they realized that if they were ever going to die, they would rather die to a demon than in a random lair of giant spiders or goblins.

"Let’s do it!" Riggilo said.

"That’s it, there’s no reason to retreat now!" added Orie.

Pyaxu took a little longer, but then drew his sword. "As a warrior, I say: there’s no reason to fear an honorable death! Today we’re going to kill a demon!"