Spending literal weeks training how to fight probably wasn’t enough for Lizzy to become an expert, but they had to make with what they had. She was good enough, but Lizzy was going to have to rely on her equipment more than her skills for now.

This was it, her first official mission as the new hunter. Needless to say, she was ecstatic.

Despite what Paul had say before, he still tried to retrieve the Elven Orbs during the day. When he wasn’t doing research to find possible locations of the orbs, he was outside looking for them (if he had no work to do and wasn’t too tired, that was). He had found books of old researchers who had found information about the ancient elves and their relics, and he was given a copy by the priest who trusted that a man aiding a vampire hunter would do what was right to exterminate them. If that wasn’t enough, then money would be.

Before they could start their first mission, though, Lizzy needed to memorize the forest’s topography (anyone too foolish to enter without knowing the way would end up dead by nighttime). Lizzy did what she was told and memorized a map of the region, she also learned how to use the stars to guide herself. All of this process took them addition time, but it was a necessity if they wanted her to come back alive.

Finally, the day (or night) had come, Paul was sure of one of the locations of one of the orbs and they could have Lizzy go and collect it.

For the mission, she was given her sword, a gun, a rosary, holy water and a silver dagger to use as a backup. She also brought her silver locket, for good luck.

She was ready for this.

“Remember, the ur-vampyrs will try to ambush you if they notice your presence, you need to take them off guard instead.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, Paul,” she said while putting a hooded cape. Paul had suggested that she concealed her identity, not only because it would make her and her loved ones less of a target but also so that the people of Riverbel wouldn’t know who was the new hunter. The reason for this was simple: they would probably not like a woman taking that role, and if she were to make a mistake, then they wouldn’t direct their ire towards her. Becoming The Hunter publicly was a mistake that Marcus regretted, once he gave up everyone suddenly had someone to blame for their loved ones’ deaths. They were not making that mistake again.

“Just be careful, Lizzy.”

Lizzy left the house from the front door for the first time and took a deep breath. She was a bit anxious, but trusted that she knew what she was doing. Then, once her nerves were a little calmer, she departed to her destination.

She was meant to go towards a set of ruins in the north-east region of the woods, a zone far too close to the Great Vampire Lord’s castle for her liking. To guide herself she followed the northern star, it would directly lead her to a small river, to which she would follow upstream until she arrived at a small waterfall, then it was up north again until she found the ruins. A simple enough route, if she said so herself.

She went off the path that would lead her towards the village and kept walking up north. The first part of the route was an easy one, the ground was stable, not roots or rocks to cross her path. It permitted her to walk at a fast pace (but not too fast, she still needed that energy to fight).

After a long walk, she finally found the river, so calm and serene, shining under the moonlight. She decided to follow its origin. Until that point everything was fine, the forest was quiet but not too quiet, the vampires either didn’t come out to play yet or they were somewhere else, looking for food. Lizzy hoped that it would stay that way, for as much as she wanted to kill some vampires she needed to stay as safe as possible.

The way upstream was harder than the rest of the route, the vegetation became wilder with each step, as if nature was more awake the closer she got to the ruins. The ground was uneven and slippery, Lizzy had to mind her steps as to not trip over a root tree or something else. It made the whole journey way slower than it should have been. Then, she could finally see at the distance the waterfall. She was close now, she only needed to go up north to get to the possible location of the orb.

She still had to be mindful of her steps, but she walked faster than before just to get there as soon as possible. She passed trees and bushes until she found herself on a big open area. There were ruins of ancient temples all over the place, almost if not completely destroyed by time and maybe something else. Not everything were temples, though, there were houses too, indicating that this was a village once. What once was lived in now was nothing but an image of the past. There was vegetation that was attempting to grow, giant vines were beginning to engulf the rocks of the ruins, and Lizzy couldn’t help but wonder if it was caused by the mythical energy that Paul and the history books mentioned.

There was no time to think about it, though, she needed to get to the main temple to get herself an orb.