In a town, a building with good crowd of inhabitants was busy at work. It was basically a saloon, but scarcitiy of ingredients for alcohol made it more a water bar than a place people went to drown their sorrows. It was a place to get shelter from the sun even if one wasn't buying any drinks, so it was popular even with the lack of "real" drinks.<br/><br/>Inside the relatively bustling building, a group of people sat at a table, which looked somewhat poorly made. It was sturdy and held things well enough, but it was ugly and quite obviously stuck together purely for function and not style. The men in the group were telling tall tales about monsters they'd taken out, settlements they'd saved, and other such heroics. Anyone with an average amount of cynicism would pick up on the exaggerations present in the boasts.<br/><br/>"I'm tellin' ya man. Last thing I took down was a doozy. It was twelve stories high, and made of radiation!" One of the hunters, a lithe, messy-haired man named Garret, boasted. He made his claims more dramatic by waving his glass around for emphasis, then set his arm down on the table, the makeshift metal gauntlet on it clinking against the wood.<br/><br/>"The hell is radiation?" One of the other hunters asked. None of them were scientists, and hadn't heard of the term before. Garret himself had read it in a book about a week ago, gaining just a rudimentary understanding of what it was.<br/><br/>"It's like a death aura. If you go near it, you die." Garret spoke in a very matter-of-fact tone, and took a long drink afterward. He sounded quite sure of himself, and had a completely straight face.<br/><br/>Still, the other hunter was skeptical. Nobody could kill something that killed you just by getting near it, surely. It wasn't a believable story at all. "Then how the hell did you manage to kill it?"<br/><br/>Garret put his cup down, and without skipping a beat, he answered. "I died."<br/><br/>"Garret, come on," The hunters had now figured out he was bullshitting, though they were most amused. Not a day went by that they all didn't boast about fictional monsters they'd slain.<br/><br/>"What? I got better." Garret shrugged. He was playing it off well, though his poker face broke and gave way to an amused half-smile. If given the chance, he would've continued his shenanigans, but the hunters' goofing off was interrupted by another at their table.<br/><br/>"Alright, guys. That's enough. Everyone, trophies forward." One of the other hunters demanded. It was time to compare their recent hauls, which most of them didn't actually have. Monsters in this area were growing scarce, driven off by people and growing settlements. When nobody set anything forward, the hunter sighed and crossed her arms. "Really? Nothing?"<br/><br/>Garret raised a hand, and when he caught her attention, he asked a question. "Does the radiation count?"<br/><br/>"No," The other hunter spat out.<br/><br/>"Damn."