Chronicles Of The Crafting Hero [REMASTERED]

Jared stood in the Black Cloud Guild’s meeting room, listening to the captain in silence. His long brown hair was tied back into a ponytail, leaving his face clear enough to show the scar that ran from beneath his left eye, stretching horizontally across his face until it reached his right eye. A short beard covered his jaw, running from one ear to the other.

Over his simple leather armor, he wore a cloak, while metal plates protected the joints most likely to take a hit, covering his knees and shoulders. His expression remained serious as he listened to what the captain had to say, though a small part of him was still wondering why he had been called here in the first place.

He owed the man a considerable amount, after all, and he knew exactly how much that debt weighed on him.

He had borrowed more than fifty gold and promised to return it with the usual fifty percent interest, but his mercenary band had been struggling to gather the money quickly enough. Their circumstances had made the debt difficult to manage.

Most of the comrades he had once worked with had died during a quest given to them by a noble, leaving the band with only two survivors. Jared had needed the borrowed money to replace supplies and take care of the other necessities that came with keeping a mercenary group alive.

Even rebuilding their numbers had cost them. He knew that bringing new people into the band required money, and over time he had managed to increase their number from those two survivors to eight dedicated members. It was progress, but it had also created another problem.

The debt still remained, and the other members wanted to enjoy themselves whenever they had the chance, making it even harder to put enough money aside to pay the captain back.

Now, with all of that hanging over him, Jared stood directly in front of the man he owed, his posture steady despite the uncertainty sitting in the back of his mind. He knew the deadline was approaching, but it had not arrived yet. That was what confused him most. Why had the captain called him here now?

“I’m assuming you already know why I called you here,” the captain said, folding his arms as he leaned back in his chair.

“Yes,” Jared replied, his voice as raspy as always, rough and dry, like a man who had gone an entire day without drinking water. His heart beat hard against his chest, but he kept his expression calm. He had heard what happened to people who failed to pay their debts to the Black Cloud Guild.

They simply disappeared. Still, he knew it was not his time yet. His band was working, and if they kept pushing themselves, they would eventually repay what they owed.

“I heard you managed to recruit about six more people to restore your band. It’s quite a small number, isn’t it? Compared to how many of you there were, of course.”

Jared breathed quietly through his nose before giving a small nod. “Yes, it is, but we’re still working on it. It was always going to take some time to restore our reputation after what happened.”

“Even so,” the captain said, his tone remaining even, “things are going a bit slow, aren’t they? Your payday is due next month. Do you even have half of what I loaned you?”

Jared stayed silent and for the first time since he had entered the room, the certainty in his expression slipped. His eyes shifted slightly before settling back on the captain.

“Not yet, but we’re close,” he said. “We’ve been accepting more missions left and right. In a week from now, I’ll have thirty gold coins, and in a month, we’ll be able to pay everything back.”

The captain’s eyes narrowed.

“Seventy-five gold coins. You’re sure about that?” he asked as he stood from his chair.

The legs scraped against the floor as the chair groaned beneath his movement.

Jared swallowed before answering. “Yes.”

He knew he was strong. But He also knew the man standing in front of him was on an entirely different level. The captain was an S-rank plus, a man whose reputation had been built on things most hunters could barely imagine. He had reportedly killed three boss monsters by himself, without anyone there to help him.

Standing in front of him now, Jared could not ignore the weight of that difference.

“We both know that’s impossible,” the captain said, pushing himself away from the table and slowly walking across the room. Jared watched him go, his brows drawing together as he tried to think of something to say. He opened his mouth, ready to argue that they could still make the money in time, but before he could get the words out, the captain spoke again.

“That’s why I want you to do something for me, to repay your debt.”

Jared’s mouth closed. He frowned, the confusion on his face becoming more obvious as he turned slightly to keep his eyes on the captain. “To repay my debt?”

“Yes. All of it,” the captain answered without hesitation.

A small smile tugged at the corner of Jared’s mouth. The tension that had been sitting in his chest eased just a little, and his shoulders loosened as he realized what the captain was offering him.

“Yes, sir. What is it?” he asked, his raspy voice carrying a hint of relief.

The captain stopped walking.

“I want you to kill someone for me.”

Jared’s eyes widened, and the faint smile vanished from his face.

It wasn’t the first time someone had asked him to kill another person. That was the sole purpose of his band, after all. But he never would have expected the captain to make such a request himself. The man was powerful enough that Jared couldn’t understand why he would need someone like him to do his killing for him.

Who could possibly be enough of a threat to him?

His thoughts immediately began moving through possibilities. Was there another person in a similar situation to his, someone who owed the captain money they couldn’t pay back? Or perhaps there was something more to it.

Whatever the reason, Jared couldn’t deny what this meant for him.

The money he had been desperately trying to gather could remain with his band instead. They could use it to buy more supplies, bring in more people, and finally start rebuilding what they had lost. With the missions they had coming up, the numbers could eventually climb back to ten members, then twenty. For the first time in a while, he could see a way for his mercenary band to become something more than a group struggling to survive.

“Who is it that you want me to kill?” Jared asked, his expression becoming serious again.

“There are two people who are a threat to this guild,” the captain said. He finally turned back toward Jared, his gaze settling on him. “I want you and your band to track them down and kill them. Or at least kill one of them. But bring me one.”

“Two people?” Jared whispered.

His brow furrowed even further as he stared at the captain.

*Two people threatening the Black Cloud Guild?*

To Jared, it was obvious that the Black Cloud Guild already had plenty of enemies. A guild this small but successful was bound to attract people who wanted to see it weakened. Other guilds would gladly look for any opportunity to tarnish its reputation, especially when the Black Cloud Guild had grown powerful enough to operate businesses outside of simply taking quests, such as lending money to mercenaries like him.

But these two people were different.

They were important enough that the captain himself was sending a mercenary band after them.

“Are you willing?” the captain asked.

Jared looked at him for a moment. He could feel the weight of the question despite how simply it had been asked. Then he gave a firm nod.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

The captain nodded once, seemingly satisfied. “Then go and bring back all of your members. I want Catherine to link some of you to the Kindred Flame. It’ll become easier to track them that way. That’s all.”

Jared nodded again before turning toward the door. He left the room without wasting another second, his footsteps fading down the hallway.

The captain remained standing for a moment after the door closed. He then walked toward the window and stopped beside it, looking out as the sun began to sink toward the horizon.

His expression turned thoughtful.

He wondered whether Jared and his group would be enough to bring down the assassin Naomi had warned them about.

Still, he remained confident in the decision. Jared was at least on the same rank as the assassin, and with an entire mercenary band backing him, they should have more than enough to take the man down.

He didn’t need to send Violet. She was too much, too unpredictable. The captain knew exactly what could happen if he let her deal with them. For all he knew, she could simply kill them before he had the chance to get the information he wanted. It wouldn’t have been the first time.

She had already done it twice with people who owed the guild. He remembered how she had beaten them so badly that they could barely utter a word when questioned, their bodies left battered and barely able to respond. Others hadn’t even survived long enough for anyone to ask them anything. Some had simply died shortly after she arrived.

The captain knew Violet had little self-control when it came to things like this. That was why, when she had offered to help, he had turned her down.

But there was another reason he didn’t want to send her.

He wanted to know about this woman.

Something about her had stirred a strange feeling in his gut, something he couldn’t quite place. A faint thought had surfaced in the back of his mind, almost like a memory he had seen before but couldn’t fully reach. There was something familiar about her, though he couldn’t understand why.

The more he thought about it, the more certain he became. He needed to see her himself.

And he needed to confront whatever that feeling was.

***

Meanwhile, Tyler ran through the forest with Rebecca on his back, following the direction she had just pointed him toward. After a while, he was beginning to understand why she kept sending him in different directions. She knew the territories in this place, and she was trying to keep them from running into other monsters. Tyler didn’t know the area nearly as well, so for now, he trusted her judgment and kept moving wherever she told him to go.

Then something caught his attention.

It was only a flicker in the corner of his eye, barely enough for him to make out before he reacted. He immediately dug his feet into the damp ground and skidded to a stop.

The sudden halt jolted Rebecca forward. Her chest pressed firmly against his back, forcing the air from her lungs in a short gasp as she instinctively tightened her grip around him.

“Why? Why did you stop?” she asked, still catching her breath.

“I thought I saw something.”

Tyler tried to ignore the soft pressure against his back and turned his head toward the direction where he thought he had seen something familiar. His eyes searched between the trees, trying to pick out anything that didn't belong.

“What? Then it’s probably a monster. Let’s go,” Rebecca said.

Tyler didn’t immediately move. He slowly turned around instead and took a few steps back toward the spot where he had noticed something.

Rebecca shifted awkwardly on his back before deciding she had had enough. She pushed herself away from him and landed on the ground, her feet sinking slightly into the damp soil. She straightened herself and brushed off her clothes, feeling a little awkward now that she was standing beside him after having been carried on his back only moments earlier.

“What are you doing? I said we needed to get out of here,” Rebecca muttered, keeping her voice low. Her eyes moved through the surrounding trees as she spoke, making sure she wasn't speaking any louder than necessary. They had already pushed their luck by staying this deep in the zone, and now the daylight was beginning to fade.

Tyler didn't answer.

Rebecca looked toward him and saw his eyes suddenly widen. His mouth parted as a quiet gasp escaped him, and then, almost instantly, his expression changed. A smile spread across his face as he turned and ran forward.

“Tyler?”

He was already several steps away.

Rebecca stared after him in confusion before hurrying after him. Her legs protested almost immediately, the stiffness in her muscles becoming more noticeable with every step, but she forced herself to keep moving until Tyler finally slowed down.

He came to a stop in front of a patch of flowers, staring at them with wide eyes and an expression of pure amazement.

There we're Vital flowers.

But these weren't the small ones he had seen back at the base. These were enormous. A single flower was almost as large as his entire palm, its petals spreading outward from a thick center. Dozens of them had grown together in a dense cluster, filling the area with far more flowers than Tyler had expected to find.

He crouched slightly, looking over the cluster from one end to the other as his smile grew.

“This is awesome,” he said, letting out a quiet chuckle. “There are so many of them.”

Rebecca stopped a few steps behind him, still trying to understand what had caught his attention so suddenly. She looked down at the flowers, then back at Tyler.

Then she saw them shimmer.

A faint blue light passed across the flowers, and before Rebecca could even react, the entire cluster disappeared.

She looked at the empty patch of ground where the flowers had been, then slowly turned her gaze toward Tyler.

“That’s what you came for?”

“Yeah.” Tyler glanced back at her. “These things are ingredients for crafting the health potions we need.”

“Those flowers?” Rebecca asked, clearly surprised.

Tyler nodded as he looked down at the group.

*System, craft five healing potions.*

A system panel appeared in front of him.

[CRAFTING SUCCESSFUL]

Tyler barely paid attention to the message. He was already accustomed to how quickly the system completed simple crafting requests. Almost immediately, another panel appeared in front of him.

[CONGRATULATIONS. USER HAS CRAFTED MORE THAN 40 POTIONS. ALCHEMY HAS RISEN TO LEVEL 2. THE USER IS NOW ABLE TO CRAFT COMMON TIER POTIONS.]

Tyler's eyes moved across the message, and a satisfied smile touched his face.

*Nice. I wondered when this would happen. All that's left is accessories.*

He remained focused on the panel for another moment, already thinking about what he could do with the increased level, until Rebecca's voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Alright, then, but we need to go. It's getting dark.” She glanced toward the trees, where the fading light barely made it through the canopy. *We shouldn't even be here.*

Suddenly, Rebecca’s thoughts were interrupted by a strange hissing sound. It was a constant, rasping noise that seemed to come from somewhere within the trees themselves. Tyler and Rebecca immediately turned to their right, and both of their eyes widened at what they saw.

A massive snake was coiled around one of the enormous trees in front of them.

The tree itself towered high above the forest, its trunk so wide that it would have taken several people standing shoulder to shoulder just to cover its width. Yet the snake had wrapped itself around it again and again, its enormous body winding around the trunk nearly five times like a giant spring. Its coils were so thick that its body was about as wide as Rebecca herself, making the creature look less like an ordinary snake and more like something that had no business existing in a forest at all.

It slowly slithered downward, its body shifting against the enormous trunk as it loosened one coil and moved toward the next. Its scales were completely white, standing out against the dark bark, while two enormous black eyes stared down at them without blinking.

But it was the scales that made the creature truly unsettling.

They were moving.

Every scale across its enormous body vibrated rapidly, trembling against the ones around it and creating the strange impression that its entire body was covered in shifting grains of sand. The movement traveled along its coils in waves, hundreds upon hundreds of scales rubbing against one another as the snake descended.

That was what produced the hissing sound, a constant dry rustling that sounded almost

like grass swaying across an open field.

Rebecca took a step backward, her legs trembling her eyes never leaving the snake.

“Oh no!”

A system panel appeared directly in front of Tyler.

[WHITE FANG: LEVEL 102]