The Spider Queen

(Hydra Star System- Planet Eleron)

(Headquarters Of The Black Rose Hunter Guild)

After Sophie said her goodbyes to Astrid, she continued to wander around the city absentmindedly with many thoughts on her mind.

It was good to see her friend again.

Astrid was a ball of sunshine who brightened up the day of everyone around her.

Sophie was very thankful that she had met the cheerful Mendolesa girl during the entrance exam because she could scarcely imagine not having such a close friendship.

Night had fallen and the city was now illuminated by the streetlamps that were present along the sides of the road.

Sophie\'s shadow stretched out behind her body as she slowly walked through the street and checked her wrist communicator.

She saw that there was an unread message in her inbox that had been sent around three hours ago from her girlfriend.

Cleo: [How was your day out with Astrid?]

Sophie: [Great! She felt pretty lonely over the summer vacation without us here on campus, so it was good to catch up with her]

Sophie: [We have plans to hit the virtual reality arcade next weekend.]

Sophie: [How have you been though babe? Sleeping, okay?]

The hybrid girl stared at her communicator for a few minutes but did not receive a reply.

Well, that made sense… right now on planet Gaia it should be three or four in the morning.

A cold breeze brushed against the Sophie\'s face as she looked up and discovered that she was near a building that resembled a fortress.

The building had sturdy walls, mounted plasma cannons and robotic guards that patrolled the nearby area.

Sophie\'s golden eyes darkened, and she could see green vines wrapped around the outer walls of the fortress with several black roses swaying happily in the wind.

There was a pleasant scent coming from the flowers that made her feel a bit lightheaded and very relaxed.

She recognised this place.

It was the headquarters of the Black Rose Hunter Guild.

This was the mercenary organisation that she had joined with Cleo during her first year of university.

Hmm… it had been quite some time since she had taken a mission. It didn\'t hurt to go inside and take a look, right?

Sophie walked up to the heavily guarded entrance and reached into her storage bag to take out her student ID card.

Out of the corner of her eye she could sense several of the plasma turrets swirling around to point in her direction.

She pressed the card against the scanner on the door and soon two loud bleeps could be heard coming from the speaker nearby.

Sophie pushed open the door and found herself standing at the entrance to a spacious hall with benches and chairs spaced out at regular intervals.

Despite its grand appearance the atmosphere inside the guild was more like a friendly tavern.

There were people of all different races, genders and species sitting down next to the tables and taking sips from the glasses of beverages being handed out by the attractive servers.

At the back of the hall was a row of offices separated from the rest of the room by reinforced glass panels.

Each office was occupied by a receptionist who politely spoke with the mercenaries standing in line.

They acted as sort of middlemen between the clients who requested the services of the warriors in the hall and the mercenaries.

Sophie glanced in the corner of the hall and saw a massive wall that was over twenty feet in height with thin sheets of paper pinned on its surface.

Each sheet of paper represented a request and occasionally a mercenary would walk up to the wall and grab a sheet.

They would then scan the code at the bottom of the paper using their communicator before returning it to the wall.

It was a relatively old-fashioned process but apparently it was done intentionally.

Sophie walked up to the board and moved past the section with one-star requests.

Now that she was in the late stages of the qi tide stage, she could take more dangerous assignments.

Wait… why would she?

Sure, the money and the rewards would be worth her time, but she was the daughter of a duke… money really wasn\'t an issue.

No… I can\'t be a coward.

Sophie narrowed her eyes and forced herself to look at the three star and four star ranked requests posted on the right side of the wall.

Four stars was probably her limit.

The most dangerous of the targets on the wall were in the early to late stages of the void stage and they were definitely not enemies that she was capable of facing… at least not yet.

Sophie hummed softly as she reached for a request about a terrorist group operating using a mining colony as a military base.

[Boring]

A cold disinterested voice echoed in Sophie\'s mind which caused the hybrid girl to pause her movements with her hand mere inches away from the sheet of paper.

[Hi, my lovely vessel… did you enjoy my last gift?]

[My priestess said that you deserved a reward, so I used a bit of my power to give you a chance to reunite with your mother.]

The voice switched from flat to an excited tone as the hunter goddess continued to boast about her great reward.

"Thank you. It was good to see my mom for the first time," Sophie softly whispered under her breath.

Despite her conflicted feelings towards the entity who acted as her patron deity… Sophie appreciated her gesture.

[So… naturally you must wish to honour me!]

[Do not worry… I have heard your inner thoughts and I know that you appreciate my gift so much that you would like to do something for me.]

[Please select that request and make sure to sacrifice the body of the strongest enemy you face]

Sophie\'s arm twitched and before she could react, she found herself moving without being in control of her body.

Her hand grabbed a sheet not from the upper-level requests but from the lower end. Sophie glanced at the sheet of paper and her brows furrowed in confusion.

A one-star request? And it only involved finding a missing pet in the sewer system below a planet a few days away.

"What\'s the catch?" Sophie hesitantly asked as she gripped the piece of paper with trembling fingers.

[I expect great things from you my favourite vessel! But of course, I won\'t be giving you any special treatment…]

[You only have one month.]

The goddess giggled in her mind and then her presence vanished just as quickly as she had appeared.

Sophie opened her mouth and softly called out a few times for the entity, but her questions remained unanswered.

Instead, she got a few strange looks from the mercenary sitting down on a chair next to the wall.

"Geez… lady… if you\'re that lonely you can talk to me," the Mendolesa man raised up his glass and gave Sophie a flirtish wink.

"Yeah… no thanks," Sophie curtly replied.

The man shrugged his shoulders and then called out to another female warrior across the room using similar lines.

"Hey gorgeous you look lonely! Want to talk to me?"

Sophie rolled her eyes and focused her attention back on the sheet of paper in her hand.

Now this may seem like an easy request, but she knew that nothing was as it seemed with the hunter goddess.

There was no way that bloodthirsty entity would be satisfied with her finding some pet and returning it to their lost owners.

"Damn… knew I should have gone straight home," Sophie muttered to herself as she reluctantly tilted her wrist communicator downwards and scanned the code on the bottom of the sheet.

"Lady… Why are you still talking to yourself? I told you… I\'m avail…" the Mendolesa man tried his luck a second time.

"Still a firm no," Sophie responded calmly as she got up and left the hall.

"Damn… guess it\'s another lonely night," the Mendolesa man sighed as he drank another sip of the strong wine and felt the burning liquid slide down his throat.

Well at least there was always old reliable.

He took a glance at his right paw and let out another heavy sigh.