PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

From another point of view, no one would be foolish enough to cause big trouble in the town unless they wanted to be banned from entering the mines. Since the goal of almost every visitor was to explore the deep underground caves, being barred from that right was the worst thing that could happen to them.

Desmond soon stopped thinking about matters related to the town’s safety, his attention drawn to the wide variety of races that crossed the town’s dense streets. Although it was nothing as far-fetched as the hunter’s association, this was the first world Desmond had visited where other races differed so much from humans.

Although it is true that, strictly speaking, both Sasha and Cecilia do not belong to the human race, their physical features are almost identical to human beings with some minor exceptions, such as a pair of horns or a pair of changing golden pupils. It was not the same in the mining town, where Desmond encountered centaurs, satyrs, and other humanoid species with animal features.

Already quite used to seeing a myriad of strange races in the association, Desmond didn’t pay much attention, only getting slightly distracted when an incredibly curvy and attractive leopard woman passed by. Desmond had to admit; adding a pair of albino leopard ears and a tail did wonders to lend an exotic allure to a woman that had every right to call herself beautiful.

Desmond continued to venture into the mining town by making a mental note to buy some accessories and costumes for Claire and Sasha. As expected of a place whose economy was based on mining, the second largest industry in the area was the sale of artifacts made from magical gems.

Desmond showed considerable interest in the artifacts but was quickly disappointed. The quality of the gems was decent, but the craftsmanship used in creating the artifacts was poor. Gems that barely met Desmond’s standards were ruined entirely at the hands of incompetent craftsmen, which was a shame.

Desmond couldn’t help but look at the sword strapped to his waist or imagine Camila’s massive sword. Both weapons possess immense destructive power and exquisite craftsmanship, certainly one-of-a-kind weapons, at least within their level.

Desmond knew that it was unrealistic to want to find artifacts of this level everywhere. However, he was still disappointed to see what was in the local stores; the quality was too low.

.....

To tell the truth, Desmond expected something like this. After all, the crafting level varied greatly from world to world, much the same with culture or abundant resources. Although Veritas was much richer in resources than Serefía, the crafts there were quite underdeveloped. Perhaps the people in this world had so much wealth that they didn’t care much about optimizing their use.

Whatever the case, Desmond decided to stick with the plan he had in his heart: to explore the depths of the mines for rare gems, then hire a craftsman through the guild to create tools and artifacts for him.

A small part of Desmond wanted to learn a bit of craftsmanship and blacksmithing. Still, the voice of reason reminded him that even he didn’t have unlimited talents, much less unlimited time. Truth be told, Desmond could already consider himself lucky as he had a super powerful and efficient genius alchemist like Sasha at his disposal. God only knew how much resources and effort Sasha had saved Desmond with her abilities.

If Desmond could bring home a girl just as beautiful and talented as Sasha, whose skills were centered around blacksmithing, how beautiful would that be? Of course, Desmond only dared to think about it and not put it into practice.

Despite appearances, Desmond wasn’t genuinely interested in building a harem. He already found it a bit problematic to divide his time, attention, and affection among the current number of women in the house.

Desmond tried to push the random thoughts out of his head before surveying his surroundings. The mining town was busier than Desmond expected, with a few minor conflicts breaking out from time to time, but that didn’t affect Desmond’s fate much. For Desmond finding his destination was no challenge; the inn he saw was so large that it almost covered half a block. With the huge influx of customers, it was impossible to get lost.

Walking in, Desmond had mixed feelings. For one thing, the inn’s warm, festive, and slightly riotous atmosphere quite suited Desmond’s tastes in his current frame of mind. On the other hand, there didn’t seem to be many humans inside the inn, almost all of the patrons being members of different races, earning Desmond a couple of strange looks.

Desmond had already taken precautions, selling some of the materials he collected along the way for some of the local currency, so it didn’t take long for him to earn some goodwill by treating everyone to a round of drinks. To applause and cheers from a motley group of patrons, Desmond followed his conversation with the innkeeper; he ran to the bar.

Since he didn’t want to be too direct to avoid causing unnecessary misunderstandings, Desmond only indicated that he wanted some information. Making it clear that he would pay well for it. To Desmond’s surprise, the bar owner only smiled slightly before pointing to a side room.

It seemed that the place was not just an inn but also a not-quite-discreet underground information outlet. While Desmond did get a few stares as he walked into the side room, not many people paid that much attention to such a commonplace event. Desmond also drew his own conclusions; there was much more to this place than meets the eye.

Desmond spent only a couple of minutes at the inn. Still, the number of energy fluctuations passed over him in an attempt to probe his strength exceeds a dozen. Through these probes, Desmond realized that the inn was full of hidden tigers and dragons, and he wisely took the route of earning some goodwill by peaceful means.

With all these thoughts running through his mind, Desmond made his way inside the side room, only to be met by an attractive young woman who shared a strong resemblance to the inn’s owner. As strange as it was to see a marble-skinned woman whose eyes looked like two spheres of ghostly white fire, the woman was quite pretty and wore a friendly smile.

Desmond had already seen quite a few different races in this town, but this girl and her father seemed to be the only ones of their kind in the immediate area. However, Desmond didn’t show much of a reaction other than a look of silent appreciation of beauty.

Breaking the silence, the girl spoke in a female voice with the same eerie tone as her father. “It’s funny; most feel uncomfortable after looking into my eyes.”

For some reason, the girl’s comment made Desmond think of his partner in crime on the association’s side, Elaisa. That girl also seemed to have a strong fixation on her own eyes. Of course, Desmond didn’t show his inner thoughts and just smiled politely before replying.

“It’s normal to seem bewildered by the unknown; I didn’t think they had bad intentions.”

The girl didn’t take Desmond’s words seriously; it seemed that from the beginning, she didn’t care much about the topic, and it was just a way to start the conversation. Since the other party was entirely professional, Desmond didn’t beat around the bush and immediately revealed his objective.

To Desmond’s surprise, the girl actually had the information he was looking for, and even though the price was a bit high, Desmond couldn’t have been happier. After sharing a few cordialities and refusing a small piece of information about the local brothels, Desmond left the inn.

With the information Desmond had acquired, it wouldn’t be long before he could complete his mission. Everything went from strength to strength, and Desmond should be happy about it. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was all too easy.

Shaking his head to clear those thoughts, Desmond told himself he was being too paranoid, though that didn’t stop him from keeping his guard up for the unexpected. Desmond had already formed the notion that the universe rarely hands him things on a silver platter without putting some poison in them. His previous experiences led him to think that way.

However, Desmond knew there was little point in dwelling on useless things, so he headed for the central entrance of the mines. If the information Desmond had acquired was correct, his target was currently on a scouting mission deep in the mines. If it was just any exploration, Desmond would have no way of tracking the other party. Still, his target was actually working for the mine foreman to clear a particular area of ??monsters. Hence Desmond was confident of finding him.

Now the only problem was getting more details about the mine area where his target was before going to hunt him down. Since entering the mines was unavoidable, Desmond decided to prepare as well as possible to find the best gems, so he ended up taking a short detour to purchase supplies, gem information, and mine maps.

When Desmond finished collecting supplies, his next step was to find the mine foreman to acquire an exploration permit. Once again, things went a lot easier than Desmond expected. He got the scouting permit with no problem and was only asked to record all his encounters with subterranean beasts and report his gem finds at the end.

Desmond’s only warning was related to the subterranean beasts and the other scouts. As the mine foreman informed him, they had a reason to grant him the exploration permits. The reason was that few adventurers managed to reach the depths where the best gems were found due to the power and lethality of the underground creatures. On the other hand, looting and murder among explorers were quite common, and the city government did nothing to regulate or prevent such a thing.

As strange as it seemed, Desmond felt better receiving that information; for him, hearing that there would be dangers and difficulties related to it was a good sign. It seemed to relax that strange annoyance he felt for the ease with which everything was happening in his favor.