Chapter 39 - Friendly Hunting

The day had ended up being as long as he had suspected it would be but finally he had completed the case and handle for his rune wand. The young man from the Oaken Ring had acquired the wood, already carved to his specifications from the market. After that, it had taken some trial and error to figure out a rune using the barrier, wood and corrosive sigils that created a barrier that protected the wood against corrosion, rather than creating a corrosive barrier. But even then he’d still needed to inscribe them into the hollowed wooden case and handle, which had ended up costing him another two full mana gems and the rest of the day.Finally though, he had a wand case and handle that could hold his new runic wand. All that was left to do was charge it.

But he’d do that the slow way, with his slightly recharged mana gems, over the next two weeks. Because now that he was done with evolving his Skill, it was time to go out and get another level. Two would’ve been better but he didn’t think that was likely given his levelling speed outside the Dungeon. That was how he had found himself walking into the forest with Jorge and Kiri before the sun had risen the following day.

Jorge had insisted on escorting them for the first day as they intended to walk at least two days deep into the forest before beginning to hunt. Nate had expected him to make an excuse for why he was doing it, after all, back on Earth that is what someone would’ve done. Pretended that it had nothing to do with the ambush by Torian. But not here, or at least, not Jorge. He’d come straight out and said that he was going to keep an eye out for Torian and if he caught the ‘dumb shit’ he was going to string him up. Nate didn’t think Torian was that dumb, but then, he’d been proven wrong before.

The trek out had been uneventful, besides a few encounters with some beasts that fled the moment they saw the group. Nate was pretty confident that it was Jorge they were running from and not Kiri and himself. They weren’t quite there yet but Jorge gave off a sense of…it was hard to find the word for it, density maybe? Whatever it was, it was like the beasts could sense how much mana had gone into the development of Jorge’s Class Core. Nate could get a sense of it as well, though it didn’t make him want to run. It had taken a few days of being around the man for him to really come to notice it. It was like there was a…pressure. That was the right word. In Jorge’s presence he could feel a slight pressure pushing down on him. Maybe it was a Skill, but he doubted it. No, he was confident it had something to do with the Class Core. Just one more thing about this new world he didn’t truly understand.

They had camped on the ground and though they were going to take turns doing watch, Nate had still used his old wooden Barrier rune and pumped it with mana and intent to create a bubble around them, as well as setting up his mana gathering runes and a few of the mostly empty mana gems. They weren’t invisible within the barrier by any means but at least it would protect them throughout the night. After they’d finished setting up camp, Jorge had taken his leave, vanishing with similar speed to the first time Nate had met him.

After an uneventful first night and they were again walking, just the two of them now. Well, three if you included Frick, who was floating around nearby annoying various insects and the occasional small bird. The second day wasn’t as peaceful however, as with the loss of Jorge the beasts were no longer as hesitant to attack the trio. So began his and Kiri’s two weeks in the Firth Forest.

*************

Nate watched as Kiri ran through the air, bouncing off of trees and using Archers Step to keep herself ahead of the swarm. The little bastards weren’t too bad on their own but they’d mistakenly riled the nest of Yellow Gedflies and now they were out for blood, or whatever it was angry fist-sized, wasp-like insects were out for. Probably just pain. They seemed like they were out for a lot of pain. Inflicting it of course. But the little bastards had picked the wrong pair to mess with, as far as he was concerned. Kiri might look like she was being chased down, but in truth, she was just getting the swarm to bunch up before leading them directly to him.

So he waited, it wouldn’t be long now. Just as expected the swarm of insects bunched up and flew straight towards him as Kiri sailed over his head. That was his cue and he wasn’t going to miss it, facing upwards he unleashed a torrent of flame from the Powerful Fire rune embedded in his robe. He guided the flames until the entire swarm was cooked, their little bodies falling blackened to the ground. Only their bright, yellow stinger retained its colour.

Nate grinned at Kiri, “Are they worth anything?”

“Not really,” she huffed. “But the nest probably is. They usually store a few things that might get us a few coins in there. We’ll need to deal with the Queen though.”

“Well, let's get to it then,” he replied.

“Yeah, you two are slackin! Get to it. We’re here to go goblin-mode and you’re taking foreverrrr!!” Frick whined, laughing a moment later.

“Yeah yeah, just give me a second. I don’t have stupid Legendary Class Endurance over here. I’ll be ready in a moment.”

Nate settled in to wait. He was actually enjoying himself out here. He was even coming around to the constant violence. It was dangerous and it was bloody, but there was beauty and excitement here too. And best of all, a friend to share it with.

Kiri slapped her legs and stood up straight, “Let’s raid a Gedfly Queen’s nest!”

*************

Kiri flew through the air, her brown hair streaming in a ponytail behind her. There were things she would’ve changed about her Classes. Her idol used twin daggers and she’d wanted to do the same. In her heart of hearts, she still did. But her father had set her up wonderfully given what he had to work with. Besides, without getting some sort of Mage class, she probably never would’ve been able to experience this. It may not have actually been flying, but it was close enough.

She looked below her as she bounced off the air again, the extra shove from Archer’s Step propelling her directly over Nate as he ran as fast as he could from the three Rabbecta, his arms pumping. Frick was floating along beside him yelling encouragement and Kiri could’ve sworn she heard him say that he’d seen his previous master run faster to the brothel than this, but that couldn’t be right, could it? Frick did talk about brothels a lot though, so maybe.

The Rabbecta were Nate’s bane. Another creature with high strength and constitution. Though maybe that would change when he got his new Mythic Class. A Mythic Class…she never would’ve dreamed it was even possible. She’d never heard of a confirmed Mythic Classer. But Nate had told her he had done it. He’d achieved a Mythic Skill, so a Mythic Class was a foregone conclusion. The doubts crept back in but she pushed them down. She would find a way to keep up with Nate, no matter what it took.

Looking down from above, she watched as the trio of Rabbecta bounded along on their powerful hind legs after Nate, their horns aimed at him. They’d already proven that Nate's barrier could withstand their horns only twice before it popped. She debated letting him suffer running a moment longer for how he’d laughed at her the previous night when she’d accidentally stepped in some beast dung. He wasn’t really in danger. But she couldn’t leave him there for long and besides, those horns would get them more than a few coins once the Guild reinstated them, and Nate had great tools for carving the good bits off of beasts and plants.

Nocking an arrow she began imbueing it with her mana, converting it to shadow with her affinity. Shadow was weird. It in many ways was like the antithesis of…everything. It wasn’t something rare, like Void. But against almost every normal affinity, it seemed to want to…separate? No that wasn’t it. Unmake was closer. Maybe it was like Void's baby cousin or something. Either way, with the mana she was putting into the arrow, it should easily punch a hole in the earth affinity Rabbecta.

Maybe if they were lucky one of these three would even have an orb. She could do with some more Endurance to help her keep up with Nate. She released the arrow, watching her pinpoint accuracy put a hole straight through the top of the beast's head. A perfect shot, she thought, grinning to herself. Gods but it was good having a friend to work with. A best friend. She’d even tolerate Frick’s constant talk about brothels for this. Maybe though, she’d see if putting an arrow in him might keep him quiet about it for a day or two.

*************

Nate bounced across the grass twice, rattling around in his barrier like a stone thrown down a well. He came to rest up against a tree and spat out a little blood. It wasn’t from getting hit, well not directly, the bloody Moonsaar had made him bite his own tongue. It looked kind of like a scorpion crossed with a bear. On four legs with red hair and tail that reared up over it with a stinger. It was that stinger that had smashed into his barrier and sent him careening across the forest floor.

Kiri had gotten its attention after it hit him, the three arrows sprouting from its head testament to her good work. She’d even taken out one of its eyes, but the other two arrows hadn’t penetrated past the bone. It was a durable bastard. That meant they were going to have to go with the old faithful approach of Nate sets the enemy up for a charged Kiri shadow arrow. A classic. Nate thought of it as the one-two punch but Frick insisted on calling it ‘the old brothel tag team’. Kiri had shot him for that one and he’d spent half a day in the Familiar Contract complaining about people not having a sense of humour.

But that was a problem for later. The focus now was on getting this big bastard's attention and keeping it. If they pulled this off they were probably going to get another orb. Nate just had a feeling about it. If they did, that would make it their third. It would probably be one that gave strength. Strength or endurance. All these tough beasts and none of them seemed to leave orbs with stats that really helped him. He supposed he shouldn’t complain. He had a Mythic Class waiting for him as soon as he got to level twenty one.

With that in mind he started flowing mana into his robe, to the Powerful Earth rune. These bigger beasts generally weren’t fast. That meant they never had time to react when he pulled the rug out from under them, or in this case, the earth. Nate unleashed the rune with intent, creating a hole a metre deep that the beast immediately fell into before following it up with his Powerful Wind rune to blow a gale down from above and pin the beast in the hole. He didn’t need to manage it for long. Kiri never needed more than a couple of seconds and true to her form, a moment later the Moonsaar collapsed, a hole punched straight through its head.

“You’re doing it this time, Nate,” Kiri called down from the tree above.

Nate sighed and pulled out the knife Kiri had given him for the task. It was longer than his small wood carving knife, made to cut deeper into the meat. A hunting knife, she’d called it. He’d invested enough mana into it with his Conceptual Material Skill to raise the blade to the Rare tier and it cut through the meat easily enough once the creatures were dead. Apparently, it wasn’t as effective while they were still alive due to the mana from their Class Core permeating their body. That was all beside the point though, as he stared at the red furred beast. He was about to get covered in blood and dirt. Maybe offal, if he wasn’t careful. Sometimes being an Adventurer sucked. He sighed and got to work.

*************

She was still trying to figure out how Nate and Frick had talked her into this as she jumped backwards, before using her Archer’s Step to reposition to the left. The Nautoth followed her movements, keeping its head low as it looked for another opportunity to pounce. It had almost scraped her once, but as he promised Nate had thrown a barrier between them at the last second, keeping her from becoming more bruised and beaten than she already was.

She gripped her daggers harder, steeling her nerves. This is what Shadow’s Daughter went through every time she fought. She could, at the very least, handle a Nautoth. The twin daggers were long. If they’d been any longer, they could’ve been called shortswords. Their leaf shape was perfect for making big holes with minimal effort and Nate had done her the favour of raising the material to Rare tier. He said he had even added an affinity, though she wasn’t sure she believed that. They weren’t extra cold or hot to the touch, nor did they reflect less light like they were bathed in shadow. She’d never heard of an affinity called ‘Strongest’ and thought he was just lying about it to convince her to fight with her daggers.

She dodged backwards again, waiting for her moment. Her father hadn’t been able to teach her much, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t taught her anything. Daggers didn’t have reach. What they had was speed and the ability to use angles. That meant you needed to close the distance. But you had to do it on your own terms. You had to create the opening that would let you close the distance and that was all about footwork.

Or it would’ve been, if Kiri didn’t have Archers Step. No, what she needed was to create bait. Draw the Nautoth in. The beast growled again, the white fur on its snout shaking as it continued to bare its razor sharp teeth at her, stalking forward as she continued to back away. It’s own little daggers, she thought with a little amusement. Just a little more now. It was growing impatient. Much like her.

The two weeks were almost over and she’d gotten one level and had almost gotten a second. They’d barely rested. That was how Nate had convinced her to do this insanity. Because she was tired and needed a good night's sleep. But that was for tomorrow, when they got home. She’d enjoyed three orbs, all raising her strength. Nate had muttered a lot about the beasts and their brutality and why weren’t there any magical ‘butterflies’, whatever they were. He’d used his barriers to walk himself up into the trees when they found a target, so she couldn’t wander too far as he needed to keep her in sight to use a barrier.

She crouched down, making herself a smaller target. Come on you mangy Nautoth. Take the bait. She watched as it pressed its front legs down deeper into the grass, preparing to pounce. Finally. It launched itself forward with its powerful rear legs and Kiri put her plan into action, jumping backwards at the same time the beast left the ground, she immediately used Archer’s Step, launching herself upwards diagonally towards the beast.

It was just like shooting her bow, she told herself as she went inverted, facing down towards the beast as it sailed towards where she’d been. She could see it was already bunching its legs to absorb the impact and whirl back to face her. Well it was too late for that. She impacted the air again, using a second Archer’s Step and launching herself straight down, daggers held out as she slammed into its back just above its head. The daggers went straight through the meat and sinew and she thought they must have gone through the bone as well as the Nautoth went limp.

It wasn’t dead yet, its mouth still working as it whimpered. A second later she had put the poor beast out of its misery, before glancing at her Notification. Well, that annoying bastard Frick had been right. She did have a couple of interesting skill evolutions. She started cleaning off her daggers as Nate joined her on the forest floor. She opened her mouth but he beat her to it.

“I know, I know. If you did it, I would skin it. Wanderer, but why does it have to be such a dirty and bloody job,” he said.

She just grinned. What was he complaining about anyway? His robe kept him a lot cleaner than her clothes kept her. Next time they found a Dungeon, she was definitely getting some self-cleaning clothes. She couldn’t help but laugh as he got started, instantly getting sprayed in the face with blood. Guess he didn’t know where the heart was on a Nautoth. Well, he’d learn. Just like she was.