The Spider Queen

Chapter 130: Black Rose Hunter Guild

(Zrudread University- Black Rose Hunter Guild)

“This seems to be the place,” Cleo checked the map on her communicator before looking up at the imposing building.

It would not be wrong to call this building a fortress as the sturdy walls, plasma cannons and robotic guards patrolling the nearby area was a menacing sight.

Green vines wrapped around the outer walls of the fortress with several black roses swaying happily in the wind.

A mysterious scent was being emitted by these flowers that made Sophie feel a bit light headed. 

“Let’s go inside,” Sophie held Cleo’s hand and the two girls entered the building without fear.

In the interstellar era, universities were not safe greenhouses for geniuses to practice without experiencing real combat.

Zrudread University especially placed emphasis on encouraging students to take breaks from classes to explore the galaxy.

Many guilds and organizations were able to rent locations on the main planet to set up bases for recruitment.

One type of organization that was very popular was the numerous hunter guilds whose purpose was to track down individuals wanted by the Earth Federation.

These individuals included terrorists, traitors, robbers, murderers, and the general scum of the universe.

Students were given extra credit for successfully completing assignments and were allowed to keep all the cash rewards.

Sophie and Cleo were at their final stop for the day as they decided to join the Black Rose Hunter guild. 

The Black Rose was a grey organisation, but their strength and membership benefits were too appealing to turn down.

Plus, this was the mercenary group that Sophie’s father had joined while he was attending Atlas University.

Bounty hunting was a profession that would draw condemnation from peace groups within the Earth Federation, but their protests fell on deaf ears.

The girls stepped inside the building and immediately a green light scanned their bodies for any class four weapons. 

Sophie could see out of the corner of her eye quite a few plasma turrets pointed at their general direction. 

Ding! Ding!

Two beeps were heard as the green light touched the back of her student card. 

The scanning stopped and Cleo let out a small breath of relief.

Sophie could not help thinking that the Black Rose was certainly a vigilant organization. 

The interior of the castle-like building was a spacious hall with benches and chairs spaced out at regular intervals.

People of all races and species were merrily chattering with one another and drinking glasses full of a purplish liquid supplied by a small bar at the corner of the hall.

Cleo and Sophie walked towards the receptionist desk while overhearing the conversations between some of the mercenaries.

“Son of a bitch! You’re still alive Ronan?”

“Ha! You think that measly smuggler could have escaped from me?”

“That’s nothing! I took down three interstellar pirate ships before breakfast.”

“Oh please…. I ended five civil wars before I even woke up!

It was common to hear prideful boasts and Sophie saw that several confrontations were gradually getting violent.

On the way to the receptionist desk, Cleo spotted a towering wall covered in sheets of paper, so she brought Sophie over to take a look.

The wall was over twenty feet tall with thin sheets of paper pinned down on its surface. 

Mercenaries were approaching the wall at regular intervals to scan the wanted posters for appropriate targets.

It was very old fashioned, but this was apparently intentional.

There was also a small QR code next to the wall that hunters could use to send the information to their communicators digitally.

Sophie noticed that each sheet of paper generally followed the same format. There was a large picture of the target, the list of crimes committed at the bottom and a row of stars at the top.

Each poster had a different number of stars that corresponded to the danger posed by the fugitive.

Sophie traced her hand over one of the papers while deeply thinking about when to take her first assignment.

The best time would probably be after the first midterm in October. 

“The star system is the general power level of the fugitive that needs to be hunted down,” Cleo explained as she saw Sophie staring at a poster.

“Targets are ranked on a scale of one to five with one being the weakest and five being the strongest.”

“The ranking will include factors such as cultivation level, special abilities, racial heritage and organization strength.”

These rankings were not perfect as it relied on the publicly known data about the individual in question and most criminals would have hidden cards.

But it was good enough to get a general sense of what the danger would be like. 

Students in the qi spirit stage were recommended to only take on targets ranked as one star.

These targets would generally be low level criminals wanted for petty crimes. 

Of course, they could always choose to take on harder assignments, but the Black Rose organization would not compensate their hunters.

You would receive nothing for any injuries or death that occurred while on a mission.

Sophie walked over to the far section of the wall and took a curious glance at the five-star section.

She wanted to know what the gap between herself and the Federation’s most wanted was.

“What the hell,” she gasped in surprise.

Yeah…. 

She was not going to take those assignments any time soon.

A demonic looking man in the void stage was wanted for massacring three planets, raping thousands of men and women and planning the Galran Prime terrorist attack.

And he was one of the gentler ones!

Some of the crimes listed under some of the other five-star targets made Sophie sick to her stomach.

A smiling Mendolesa girl wearing a black uniform came over as she noticed the pair staring at the bounty wall.

“Hello, are you two new recruits?” she asked.

“Yeah. We are both freshmen,” Sophie replied with a friendly nod.

“Excellent! Please come this way,” the recruiter gestured for the girls to follow her and led the pair to the back of the hall.

There were a few private rooms attached to the main hall and the recruiter brought the duo to one of the smaller ones.

The room was about the size of a hotel suite with a small table and chairs in the center.

“Please take a seat. My name is Melissa and I will help you both through the sign up and registration process.” 

Melissa pulled out a couple of chairs for the girls and brought out her tablet to record the information.

“What are you names, cultivation level and general special abilities,” she asked.

“My name is Cleo Sisrelis, my cultivation is in the early qi spirit stage and I am a mech controller,” Cleo took the lead and replied first.

“Um… I’m Sophie and my cultivation is in the middle qi spirit stage. I’m a poison cultivator but I also have a combat pet,” Sophie stammered slightly as Melissa stared intensely at her.

“Alright I have basically everything I need,” Melissa wrote down a few lines of text on her device as she spoke.

“Come back in a week for your guild cards.”

It was that simple?

Just their name, cultivation level and special skill was all it took for them to join the organisation.

Melissa had not bothered to verify or check anything that Sophie and Cleo said which raised the interest of both girls.

“Aren’t you worried about us lying about our information?” Cleo asked curiously.

“Trust me,” Melissa bared her fangs and laughed darkly.

“We don’t care if you lie or not. The Black Rose only wants results.”