The guild hall of Argentinis never truly slept.
Even at dawn, when the city still stretched itself awake, the hall buzzed with layered noise—boots scraping stone, paper sliding across counters, low conversations broken by sudden laughter. The building had once been a factory, its ceilings too high and its pillars too thick, and it still felt like a place designed for labor rather than people.
Kael stood near the back wall, half-shadowed, watching.
Hunters were easy to identify once you knew what to look for. It wasn't power that gave them away—it was habit.
Endurance Path users leaned casually, unafraid of sudden movement.
Weapon Path hunters stood with weight balanced, hands never still.
Beast Path users carried tension in their shoulders, eyes darting, instincts barely leashed.
Kael kept his breathing steady and his awareness narrow. He did not reach for the threads. He did not let the pendant stir.
He was here to be ordinary.
The contract board dominated the eastern wall, a shifting array of illuminated slips held in place by faint structural threads. Each carried residual intent from the issuer—fear, desperation, irritation. Kael filtered those impressions out, focusing only on clarity.
No elite hunts.
No emergency calls.
Nothing that demanded spectacle.
He waited until the crowd thinned before stepping forward.
One contract caught his attention.
Target: Thread-warped beast
Location: Lower Industrial Sector
Threat Level: Low
Notes: Structural interference. Erratic movement.
Kael took it down.
No one noticed.
And that was the point.