The Mage of Primordial Chaos

"So...what you're trying to say is that this guild operate differently from the ones in other cities? How so?" I asked.

Mrs. Fang checked the watch on her left wrist. "Well, I've got some time. I'm no expert, since I'm not a Hunter myself, but I can take you to the Hunters' Guild. I'm sure the employees there will be able to explain to you a lot better than I could."

Mei Gui and I looked at each other, before both nodding in agreement. "Sure. Take us there."

And so, we circled around to the back of the Library to board Mrs. Fang's hovercar for the second time today, and headed for the Magic Capital's Hunters' Guild.

*****

- 10 Minutes Later -

We soon arrived at what seemed like a wide pavilion of sorts, with bright pink neon lights everywhere. It seemed all Hunters' Guilds, no matter what city they were in, shared one similar property - they all only had one floor. They made up for this, however, by being extremely wide. The building before us right now, fit those descriptions perfectly. If that wasn't clear enough, there was also a massive sign that read 'Hunters' Guild' with some smaller text below that read 'Shanghai Branch', both in bright neon pink font.

"Go on," Mrs. Fang said, after dropping us off. "I won't be entering."

I nodded. "Okay. Thanks."

She smiled. "No problem, dear boy."

With that, she drove off, leaving Mei Gui and I by ourselves. With nothing else to do, we entered the building after putting on our masks and hoods.

The interior was lit up by a few - you guessed it - neon pink lights, but other than that, it was quite dim - but everything was still clearly visible. The various quest terminals stationed around were lit up as well, providing some extra light. There were plenty of people inside, but not to the point where it was full and uncomfortable. It was loud too, as expected of a Hunters' Guild.

I walked up to one of the empty receptionists - there were quite a few, since the building was so big with so much space. 

"Uh...hi?" I said hesitantly, scratching my hair.

"Hi, welcome to the Hunters' Guild of Shanghai," the girl before me said with a smile. "You seem like you're new to this place. Are you two already Hunters, or are you trying to become ones?"

"We already have Hunter IDs and everything. But...we heard that the way the guild functions here is different from other branches?"

The receptionist nodded. "Indeed. I see...so you are from the outside. Very well, allow me to explain to you how the guild here works."

Mei Gui and I patiently waited for her to explain.

"As you may have guessed already, there are no Monsters or Magic Beasts within The Fortress. That much is a given. However, this is the Magic Capital - the Hunters' Guild would never just give up such a popular location like that. Therefore, the guild master here, Mr. Chen, came up with a brilliant new way of operating."

"How so?" I asked.

"Using Space Magic," the receptionist replied with dreamy eyes. "Oh, Mr. Chen is a genius, to be able to come up with such a strategy..."

Looks like...somebody is in love.

"Er...could you...uh, elaborate?"

"Hm? Oh! Yes, sorry...a-ahem, do you see those quest terminals?"

I nodded. "Yeah. What about them?"

"They are built differently than the ones you see in other branches," the receptionist explained. "After you pick up a quest from one of them, they will automatically transform into a portal - one that will lead you directly to the area where your quest objective is located. The portal will then stay there until you enter it once more, which will take you back to the guild here. Oh, and by the way, other people cannot see the portal, and cannot enter it either."

Through this system, Hunters here can access quests from all over the world, no matter where the objective is located. This is a genius idea.

I widened my eyes. "Damn...that's quite the system."

"Indeed! Mr. Chen used his expertise over Space, Enchantment, and Shadow elements to craft such an amazing system. It took quite a lot of time and planning, but it was worth it in the end. We are making lots of profit and exposure by setting up a branch within the Magic Capital!"

"Right...but if this system is so good, why hasn't it been implemented in other branches, outside of Shanghai?" I asked.

The receptionist averted her gaze. "Well, you see...in the end, Mr. Chen is only one person, and the amount of people in the world with his talent is few. Not only this, but the resources and money that were needed just to set up this system in this one branch alone, took about ten trillion dollars from HQ. We've only recently managed to finally pay back our debt to them, and are finally making real profit now. There's no way headquarters will allow every branch to implement this system."

I blinked. "Wow...I see."

10 trillion dollars...quite the sum. Hm...I'm not saying the system is bad, but I would've been a lot more impressed if it didn't cost 10 trillion dollars' worth of resources.

Mei Gui seemed to feel the same way, as I could tell from our telepathic connection.

"Yep, that's how it is, unfortunately. Feel free to test the system out for yourself though! Just pick up a quest from one of the quest terminals," the receptionist continued. "Happy hunting!"

"Right...thanks," I said, before turning around and heading for one of the quest terminals.

Once we were at a vacant one, Mei Gui tugged on my sleeve. "Master, what quest shall we do?"

I fell into thought. "Hm...I think the two of us together are strong enough to tackle a Magic Beast hunt on our own, honestly. Your Apoxyia Form is practically invincible, after all."

"Understood...however, fighting Rank 6 and above Magic Beasts is still impossible for Master and I, according to my calculations."

"Oh, don't worry - I wasn't planning on jumping that far ahead of myself anyway. We can start with a nice and simple Rank 2 Magic Beast hunt, just to try this system out and see how well it works," I replied, before turning around and skillfully operating the quest terminal. It's been a while since I last did this, but luckily I still remembered the procedure.

A Rank 2 Magic Beast would be about equal to an average Intermediate Mage. Since I was no average Intermediate mage, even I alone could take one down easily, not to mention with Mei Gui together with me. So, this was a safe pick, and we could probably get the job done and come back fairly quickly, as long as we didn't end up getting sidetracked.

"Okay, and...don-Woah."

Just as I was about to say 'done', the quest terminal  spun around, revealing a portal on the other side.

"O...kay. That was a bit unexpected," I muttered under my breath. "Mei Gui, let's go."

She nodded, and the two of us entered the portal. We were enveloped in a purple light so bright we had to close our eyes, and when we opened our eyes again, we were staring at a lush green forest.

"Wow...so it really does work," I mused.

Then, pulling out my phone, I checked our location on the Maps app. We were currently in Jilin, a city in the northernmost region of Human territory. We had just travelled over 2000 kilometers in a single instant. Space Magic was truly a powerful element to be reckoned with.

I had purposely chosen a quest that was far away from Shanghai, just to test out the limits of the system. And so far...my conclusion was that there  were  no limits. Perhaps it couldn't teleport us outside Human territory and into, for example, North America, land of the Elves and Fairies, since that could cause international incidents, but anywhere within China, Human territory, was okay.

The quest we chose was a hunt for a Rank 2 Monster - more specifically, a herd  of Rank 2 Monsters. Since the species we were hunting down didn't move independently but instead always remained in batches, I would have to take all of them down to complete the quest.

That being said, the difficulty of the quest was still labeled as Easy. You would expect that multiple Rank 2 Monsters would be harder to take down and more dangerous than just one, but that's where you're wrong. The Monster we were hunting down, called Thistle Walkers, were a hostile form of the normal plant, thistle.

Originally, thistles were harmless plants - though they did have leaves with sharp prickles on them. However, Thistle Walkers were dangerous because they would actively attack you, and could move. Normal plants couldn't move from their roots, tied into the ground, but Thistle Walkers could - hence...why they were called 'Walkers'. From what I've read on them back in Shenzhen Magic High School, these Monsters looked exactly like the normal plants at first glance, but upon getting close to them, they would suddenly pop out of the ground and begin 'walking' towards their target.

That being said, they were slow. So you had time to run. Not really that scary, huh?

That is...until you realize you've been surrounded by hundreds of them.

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