Isekai-eh Chapter-21 (Patreon)

Jed’s prediction proved to be correct. What he hadn’t been prepared for was to have both Mythlyn and Gwen criticizing his choices.

“The dark shirt brings out your complexion more,” Gwen said, not even looking his direction.

“The girl is right, though I still think you look better with the collar flared upward.”

“I’m not wearing a flared collar,” Jed mumbled as he went back behind the changing curtain. At least he’d gotten several pairs of pants sorted already. Finding good shirts was the last item on his list.

“Good. Flared collars are for imperials,” Gwen yelled through the curtain. “Also, it wouldn’t go well with your goggles. Love that you chose ones with trig formulas worked in.”

“I suppose she has a point. It was one of the few things I agreed with the Empress on. It shouldn’t surprise me she mandated it as part of the uniform.”

Jed didn’t reply, too busy switching shirts to do so, and pointedly ignoring the fact Gwen approved of his goggles.

Also, he didn’t care that much about the clothes. He was mostly indulging Mythlyn because he knew it would be a while before she got to partake in something like this directly. As for Gwen… well, she’d simply inserted herself into the experience, and Jed didn’t have a good way to explain that he was indulging the voice in his head.

“Though I could just say I’m crazy. Not a big stretch,” he said as he buttoned up the shirt, looking in the reflective film that hunt on the back of the curtain.

“You’re only crazy if you don’t know you’re talking to yourself,” Gwen said from the other side of the curtain.

“Thanks, I think,” Jed said, pulling on the duster and sliding on the boots they’d picked up at the refueling outpost.

Then he pushed the curtain to the side, stepping out.

“Who’s looking like a professional hunter now?” Gwen said, pushing to her feet. “Not bad.”

“We’ll see if Baltir lets us leave,” Jed said, chuckling to himself.

“Not quite yet. Still need to pick you up a more discrete firearm, remember?” Gwen reminded him, gaze shifting to the revolver. “Though it does make me wonder what that thing can do.”

“Doubt Metsa-”

“Would want you talking about it. Yeah, yeah,” Gwen said, rolling her hand as she gestured Jed to follow her. They passed back through the middle of the shop where the dusters and goggle hung, moving to the far side. “If we’re gonna be training together, it’s gonna come up eventually.”

“That’ll come after I’ve cleared it with Metsa,” Jed said, coming to a stop as they emerged from between the shelves. It felt like they’d moved into an entirely different store.

Instead of the neatly stacked, tightly packed shelves, everything was spread out. It was still neat, but now in a ‘this is a piece of art, and deserves your attention’ way. Most had their own display cases, though some of the smaller items shared a display.

Jed could even see the source of light above.

Baltir was waiting for them, with three rifles laid out atop one of the larger display cases.

“Oh you beautiful man,” Jed said as he stepped forward, running his hand over the one in the middle. It wasn’t exactly like the .308 he’d gone hunting with back home, but the differences were all improvements. “Don’t suppose there’s a shooting range hidden away, eh?”

“Under the shop,” Gwen said, stepping forward with a frown. “That’s… not the sort of weapon I thought you’d pick.”

“He is a man with vision,” Baltir said, patting Jed on the shoulder. “These are the weapons he knows, and that know him.”

“You never mentioned you were a sniper.”

“I used to hunt back home. Big animals. Bigger than a elkheart. Swamp donkeys, as my pops used to say, but with racks as wide as I am tall,” Jed said, not sure if the language even had a word for moose. If it did, he didn’t know it.

“Ah. Your hunts. For some reason, it had not occurred to me that you used such a high powered rifle for such a ritual.”

“You used to hunt swamp-donkeys? Is that even a real thing?” Gwen asked, looking over the rifles.

“Was where I grew up,” Jed said, looking towards Baltir. “Can I test them out? I think I want this one, but if you think I should try all three…”

“Of course this is a thing you should do,” Baltir said, collecting the two rifles to either side and leaving the one that had drawn Jed’s attention for him to carry.

He picked it up and followed the round man down a set of narrow stairs into a large shooting range that must have stretched along the entire backside of the market.

There were targets set all the way along the range, though his attention locked in on the far side of the course. Every one of the targets was one type of warp demon or another, though he noted a couple were pretty close to human shaped.

Instead of the booths Jed had been expecting, there were angled platforms all throughout the space with hooks next to them. Baltir waved his hand beneath one of the hooks and it slid down in slow jerks. He slung a pouch over the hook and it moved back up. Then he waved Jed over. “No terrain modifiers for now. Too new. You can start practicing with terrain once you have found the right gun.”

“Mind if I try a couple guns, old man?” Gwen asked with a surprising amount of respect in her voice.

Baltir turned towards her, not answering for several seconds. Then finally, he nodded. “I have some new designs you may test.”

While they went off to deal with that, Jed familiarized himself with the rifle. It was similar in the basics, though it used a strange pin system to lock the warp magazine in place which took him a minute to figure out.

Once he had, he raised the rifle to his shoulder, then hesitated. Firing while free standing felt weird with a rifle. He also wasn’t sure how much it was going to kick. He was hardly in as good of shape as he’d been when he went hunting with his pops.

Jed found himself lowering the rifle at that thought, only slightly, but enough for Mythlyn to comment.

“What’s the problem? You seemed excited to see the rifle. Much more excited than I expected, honestly.”

“I miss my pops,” Jed said, sighing as he raised the rifle again.

“Ah. I understand.”

“What happened to him?” Gwen asked from where she was checking over a heavy looking handgun Baltir had given her.

“He spent most of my life wrestling these giant animals. Not warp demons, but they’d take your head off just as easy,” Jed said, shaking his head as he wondered if there was a word for bear, nevermind grizzly. “Used to make me wrestle them too.”

“And one of them finally won?” Gwen asked, looking over, the weapon momentarily forgotten.

“Not exactly. There was this one that’d been wandering through since I was a kid. First one I ever wrestled,” Jed said, looking down at the rifle. “Big cuddle bug, once he settled. Pops was wrestling him when a hunter shot them.”

“Your dad was shot?”

“Yep. By a rifle just like this,” Jed said, wiping a stray tear away. “But at least he went out doing something he loved.”

“Wrestling a monstrous animal?”

“Taking shots,” Jed said, chuckling to himself.

“I… don’t get it,” Gwen said even as Mythlyn howled with laughter.

“Ask Metsa,” Jed said, raising the rifle and aiming down the range. Then he squeezed the trigger in that moment between breathing out and in, sending the bullet down the range.

And himself back a half step, despite his bracing.

“Damn, this baby’s got some kick,” Jed said, rotating his shoulder to work out the bruising he knew would be coming.

Only then did he look up at the target he’d chosen, a warp-demon that looked a bit like a leaping mountain lion. He’d successfully taken its head off.

Too bad he’d been aiming at the knee.

After working through all three rifles, Jed ended up taking the first one he’d tried. He also tested several revolvers for close range warp-demon defense, selecting one of those as well.

Afterwards, Baltir fitted him with a mask that looked a lot like a bandanna, but would apparently help filter out poisons that some demons exuded into the air. Another thing Mythlyn informed him he wouldn’t need. He was still grateful for the gear since it would give him a reason to hide his face.

Besides, wasn’t like she hadn’t been wrong before.

When they finally left, Gwen ended up handing over nearly half the chits Metsa had given her. As they walked out, Jed said, “I’m not sure if that was expensive or not.”

“For a full time hunter? No. For people like us, just starting out? More than we’d make in a year,” Gwen said surprisingly casually.

“So, for top tier hunters like Metsa and Sotas…”

“Not sure what they bring in on a job, but wouldn’t be surprised if they could clear it in a day, just off demon salvage,” Gwen said, running her hand over the new revolver at her hip.

“Right,” Jed said, pulling at his neck. Repaying Metsa and Sotas might be a bit more of a challenge than he’d been thinking.

With gear and clothing sorted, they still had an hour or so before they were supposed to meet up with Metsa, so Gwen took him through several of the regular stalls.

Jed noticed that in these stalls people used silver coins instead of the black tokens for most of their transactions, which had him wondering if they were separate systems.

Or if the Hunters existed in a much more expensive stratum.

Even those wearing otherwise fine clothing, with educated speech and a great deal of jewelry, rode in carriages instead of using a buggy. Was that an economic choice, or were there rules enforcing the divide?

He’d find out later that it was both, grateful Metsa was around to answer those sorts of questions.

Managing to acquire even more vendor food for later, Jed was feeling pretty good when they made their way back to the main Hunter’s Hall.

Gwen led him to one of several lounge areas off to the side. The one she chose sat a couple feet above the floor, giving them a good view of most of the hall, and making them easy to spot.

It made the back of his neck itch.

Soon after they arrived, Metsa stormed into the hall. She was motoring directly towards Gerty’s desk, but the moment she caught sight of them, she adjusted course.

Jed had already stood by the time she reached them, even though it had only been a dozen paces or so.

“Almost look like a real hunter,” Metsa said, nodding. “Good. Time to start your training.”

“Where’s Sotas?” Jed asked, somewhat surprised to see her alone.

“He’s setting things up,” Metsa said, gesturing for them to follow. “Come on. Let’s find out how much we need to beat into you.”