Demon Hunter - Season Two by Nick Venom (i can read book club txt) 📕

The Demon Hunter party ventured to the bristling and clean city of Locket. The city was known for its dungeon filled to the brim with demons, bringing in adventures from every nation---Edurdale, Great Wolfstein, Asher, and the Isles of Southaven---to try their luck with the profitable demon drops. Rik, on the other hand, wasn’t pursuing a monetary gain, but, instead, focused on an absolute hatred against demonkind. His party---consisting of all of his servants---followed him without a second thought but didn’t hold the same grudge against the demons that their master held onto. 

The party entered the city and, quickly, dashed to the adventurers guild, passing several markets and buildings. Rik and Eric’s mind were focused on entering the guild while Ashley and Zoe’s mind drifted off. “Master, can I look at the market? I didn’t get the chance to do so last time.” Ashley remarked. Rik slowed his pace before crouching down to meet her eyes. 

“Of course, but you have to promise me that you won’t get hurt.” He told her. She smiled and nodded her head. Rik then stood up and looked at the market, noticing that the market was filled with jewelry. “Zoe, do you want to look around as well?” Zoe picked her head up and stared at Rik, scanning his face for any sarcasm. Upon not finding any, she nodded her head. 

Rik turned his head to face Eric. “Stay with them until I come back.” He ordered. Eric nodded his head before ushering the girls towards the market with a gleeful face. “You wanted jewelry for yourself, didn’t you.”

Eric turned around and nodded his head. “There wasn’t any kind of jewelry in my tribe. It was a taboo to have valuable gems wrapped around your neck or wrist. Thankfully, I don’t live in the tribe anymore.” He then reached into his pockets and pulled out a necklace with a reddish-green circular gem and a gold string. “This was given to me by my mother before she passed. Her final words told me to give this to my loved one… whenever I get one.”

Rik shook his head playfully before departing the scene, heading to the adventurers guild. Once there, he entered the building and made his way to the receptionist's desk. One of the receptionists, his nametag reading Bates, noticed him. “How may I help you?

“I came here to re-register,” Rik muttered before dropping his adventurers' identification card on the table. Bates picked the card up and scanned it on a card-swiping machine. The machine emitted a futuristic blue screen that was displayed over the machine, similar to a game screen. The screen displayed every bit of information the guilds had on Rik and his party. After reading through the information, Bates noticed a small marking imprinted at the end of the screen that translated to suspicious. Bates shared the marking to fellow receptionist Jason, who shared a glaring stare at Rik before pushing the screen back towards Bates. Bates caught the screen and swayed it away before handing Rik his card.

“Everything’s done. If you need any help then you can contact me with any questions you have.” Bates told him. Rik nodded, ignoring the weird stares of the receptionists. He headed to the quest board. Meanwhile, Jason stood up and went into the back room, which was connected to the guild lord’s room. 

Rik learned from a quest that a demon dungeon has been newly discovered but never investigated. The quest wanted Rik to investigate the first five floors of the dungeon and report all findings to the guild to determine the rank. Rik accepted the quest, handing it to Bates and getting his approval. 

Rik opened the door and went through, but didn’t reach five feet outside of the guild. A man with a chiseled jawline and bulging muscles called out to Rik using his name from within the guild. The man wore a tailored gray suit with a red stripe going down his shirt. He wore a fancy black leather pair of shoes, shoelaces intertwined on top of them. “You’re Rik?”

Rik moved his hand closer to the retractable chain hidden with a cloak he wore. The man noticed his movements and attempted to calm him down. “I’m not here to hurt you. I, simply, wanted to talk about the marking on your card.”

Rik, however, shot him down by striking a glare at him before departing. The man opened to call him but closed it after waiting a few seconds for words to leave his mouth. “It seems like I won’t be able to get close to him today.”

“I want the army to be completed within a week. Locket must fall soon or I’ll be replaced by the organization.” A man dressed in solid black attire ordered a demon lord. The demon lord responded by increasing the production of soldiers in his army---consisting of demons, minotaurs, orcs, goblins, and every other type of monster. “Perfect… remember that if I’m gone, then the conditions won’t be as nice.”

“I understand,” the demon lord responded while brandishing his longsword. “I will complete the task that the organization has given me.”

“You don’t take orders from the king?”

“I don’t follow Mestrellok.”

“I see… perfect for us.”

TBC…

After retrieving the others from the market, Rik led them to the dungeon to begin their investigation into the new dungeon. Before entering the dungeon, Rik held them by the side of the entrance. Ashley, Zoe, and Eric wanted to show off the jewelry they purchased. Zoe wore two bracelets with a repeating pattern of red and blue with a bluish-green gem hidden in the middle of them. 

Ashley had a bronze necklace with a reddish gem attached to it, a marking of a tiger etched into the gem. She wore it proudly, showing it off to Rik.

Eric didn’t get a bracelet or necklace, but, instead, a ring with a similar-looking reddish-green gem embedded into it. 

“I’m guessing that the ring provides some kind of buff?” Rik asked him.

Eric smiled a toothy smile while nodding. “It’s a speed buff ring.” 

Rik then directed his stare onto Zoe. “Is it decoration or does it provide an advantage?” Zoe shook her head while playing with the bracelets. Rik asked Ashley the same question and received the same answer. “Now if you’re done with your jewelry, let’s begin our adventure.” He declared, directing them into the mountain-embedded dungeon. The reddish skin of the dungeon peeked its way out from the mountain, exposing itself to adventurers and passersby. 

The party ventured farther into the first floor of the dungeon and noticed the strange quiet atmosphere. Rik, however, was unfazed by the eerie quietness of the floor and continued towards the second floor. His party followed after him but was on guard for potential attacks. Eric brandished his twin blades while Zoe and Ashley brandished a single knife each. Rik didn’t brandish a weapon as they ventured farther into the dungeon, slowly passing the second, third, and fourth floor, Once they reached the fifth floor, they noticed a change in atmosphere as the unnerving quietness turned into a vicious bloodthirsty eruption that shook Rik’s party to their core. Rik felt a bone in his body, suddenly, crack from the roar. “Ashley! Heal the party! Eric! Zoe! Be prepared for an upcoming fight!” He ordered. Everybody rushed to their position with Ashley rushing to heal the party and Eric slowing his pace to hide within the shadows, out of sight of any potential enemies. 

After clearing the first hundred feet of the dungeon, they reached a wounded party. The leader of the party noticed their arrival and shouted at them for assistance. Rik glanced between the man and the path ahead before his minuscule conscience acted on the morally right option. He directed Zoe and Ashley to help the party before motioning towards Eric, who he managed to locate using the immense amount of bloodlust that poured out towards the wounded party. and directed him to hover over the party. Eric nodded and used his Shadow Movement to travel through the shadows of the dimly-lit dungeon to reach the wounded party’s back, preparing to strike them if necessary. 

Meanwhile, Ashley healed the injuries of the wounded party, bringing them back from the afterlife. The leader of the party, a short and scrawny teenager with tattered solid black clothes, limped towards Rik. “I’m Titan, the leader of this party, White Den.” He said, introducing himself with a wound gushing out blood from his right leg. He then extended his hand, but Rik never shook it, instead, calling out to Ashley to heal his wound. “Thanks for the help.”

“I need to know why you were here?” He asked, staring at the party of frail-looking teenagers. 

“Well… you can see that we’re teenagers with a lack of common sense since we decided to investigate this dungeon. You see, if you could map out the first five floors of the dungeon and report back to the guild, then they’ll hand out a large reward. Us slum kids need that money.” Titan told him. 

“I see… foolish kids that bit more than they could chew,” Rik remarked.

“You could say something like that.” Titan then looked around him, detecting a large amount of bloodlust directed towards him. “Oh, yeah, we got injured because of some high-level demons and minotaurs. And we saw an entire army a few floors down from here.”

“You went farther done?” Ashley asked, breaking her way into the conversation.

“Yeah… we’re stupid. Anyways, that army of demons and such will be a large threat to the city. We need to go back and report it.”

“Demon army?” Rik repeated. Titan nodded his head as Rik licked his lips and grinned. He faced away from Titan to look at Ashley.“Okay, take Zoe and head back to the ground level and inform the city. Meanwhile, we’ll deal with the threat, if we can, here.” He informed her. She nodded her head before running off to get Zoe. Rik looked up and noticed an extremely frail-looking boy, with messy hair and tattered clothes that was down to the last few strings, watching him. The boy looked away from Rik’s stare and focused his sight onto the reddish dungeon wall. 

Rik shook his head and ignored the boy’s strange stare, before ordering for Eric to appear. Eric appeared behind Titan, making the teenager jump, before kneeling to his master. “Are you ready to kill?” 

Eric licked one side of his blade before declaring“I am!”

“A man with a suspicious marking appeared at the guild?” A muscular bald man asked. He wore a noble’s attire of greenish-blue ruffled clothing with matching exotic boots.

“Yes, guild master Wiles said as much.” A knight with slicked back blonde hair said while kneeling. The other knight with a black mohawk kneeled next to him.

“Huh? Get two guards supervising that man and his party. You said that they were all slaves? Get Bates to investigate their past and see how he acquired them.” The man ordered.

“Yes, city lord.” Both knights said simultaneously. The city lord waved them away before peering out of his three-story home at the main