Chapter 45 - Hard Truths

Kai felt somewhat disoriented, his mind floating outside his body. He chose to fight that snake on a whim. As a symbolic step forward.

Oh boy, did he get more than he bargained for. He had not expected the snake to be half as strong. Just a dumb beast, a bonk on the head and it was done.

Muoi gave him a piece of cloth, waking him from his reverie. Kai stared at it blankly for a moment, then his brain kicked back in.

I’m covered in snake blood.

Back in his own body, the metallic smell of blood was nauseating. He did his best to rub his face and hands clean, but he would need a change of clothes.

Realizing he was still sitting on the ground staring at his bloodied hands, he tried to get a grip of himself.

People say all well that ends well. Kai wasn’t sure the saying was completely true.

What should I do?

The pain in his body gave him the answer. Checking himself, he might have a couple bruised ribs, but no broken bones. He didn’t prepare much for this trip, but he had the foresight to pack his best healing potion.

Walking to where he left his bag, he took out a vial filled with a light greenish liquid and downed it in one sip.

He could immediately feel the foreign energies enter his body and start healing him. After the deal with the merfolk, he had a few ingredients left. The grade of the potion wasn’t high, but it had been brewed singularly and easily reached perfect quality.

A minute later he could already feel his wounds getting better. His mind was getting clearer too. It had been only two days since his last weekly XP summary, but he was curious.

*Ding*

Life Experience: 316 XP - Skill Experience: 200 XP

The skill XP must be from Reading and Sneak, but he focused on the other number.

Towards the end of his time at the estate, before reaching Orange, he rarely got more than 70 XP. No matter how challenging, after many months of the same, it became ordinary and his gains slowly tickled down.

After he advanced his race, his numbers significantly increased, easily staying around 150 XP each week. As he got used to his new advantages, he knew they were going to gradually decrease again.

316 XP was a new record and it had not even been a week. Fighting to the death a red-tier boa was certainly an experience both new and challenging. He didn’t look forward to repeating that anytime soon before he was more prepared.

Glancing at Muoi, he wondered if he should be angry.

In the end, he didn’t feel any resentment. The fight had felt far too close for comfort, but he had not asked for help and his gains had been tremendous. It would have taken just a moment for Moui to take out the snake, so he never was in serious danger of death.

Muoi was dealing with his prey. He had cut off the mangled head of the boa and was bleeding the remains.

He had never killed a living being before. Well, he killed a ton of insects, but creepy crawlies didn’t count.

This serpent was different. It might not have been smart like a human or even a dog, but it had some intelligence and it did not want to die. He had been the one to end its life.

In the struggle for life and death, it had been the snake or him. No room for compromise, no time to think.

Should I feel guilty?

He always enjoyed eating meat. This snake probably had a better life than every chicken or pig on Earth. It had got his chance to grow and be free. Then it attacked him and met its match.

Not really a fair fight since Muoi would have killed it anyway if he lost, but as close as the snake could hope for.

Sorry buddy, life ain’t fair. I hope you enjoyed choking your prey while you were alive.

A question still hung in Kai’s head. “Uncle, why was it so strong? I know I’m small and all, but you told me the boa was young too. It felt like his stats were higher than mine even if I’m Orange.”

Muoi stopped his actions to look at him. “You didn’t know?”

Kai shook his head confused. “What do you mean?”

The hunter paled a little. “I’m sorry Kai, I thought you had understood. Awakened beasts only have their race to grow, but they get far more benefits from it and can even change it. An average red beast is comparable to a human with a red race and a red profession.

“That is why the Guide rewarded you with a Feat even if you have a higher race grade. Without a profession, the beast still had the advantage.”

Kai felt a growing annoyance towards both his uncle and himself. He should have guessed that beasts got more stats from their race. Why would humans fear them so much otherwise? But he had asked Muoi about them and his explanation had sucked, leaving out some key details.

What’s done is done. For someone who spent his life hunting beasts, it was probably so obvious it wasn’t worth mentioning. That is the problem when people explain their field of expertise to someone who knows nothing and miss fundamental details.

“The meat is mine,” Kai stated, referring to the snake. He would at least get that.

Muoi agreed immediately, almost too eagerly. “Of course, to the hunter goes the prey.” He nodded. “I can skin it later for you. Do you want to go back to Greenside?”

The healing potion had already worked its magic, Kai felt a bit tired, but not so much that he couldn’t continue. It was early morning, it would be a waste not to take a look at the Veeryd jungle now that they were here.

“I can continue,”—he narrowed his eyes at Muoi—“but I’d like to avoid any more surprises for the day.”

“No problem. Awakened beasts don’t fare this far out.” Glancing at Kai, he added. “Not usually anyway. Probably it ran here because it was too young to compete with the others. We could walk another week without encountering another.” He said it with such certainty Kai really hoped it was true.

After Muoi packed his headless snake, they were back on march. They didn’t head deeper, moving horizontally instead. The big man explained he mostly hunted common animals since to reliably find awakened beasts he had to travel a fair distance deeper and back.

It was hard to spot animals on the ground, but among the canopies, life thrived without hiding. Birds with sparking blue and yellow plumages sang their chirping songs. The smaller green feathered friends concealed themselves among the leaves.

Kai also spotted a few monkeys lazily hanging on tree branches watching them pass by and—unfortunately—many arboreal snakes.

They stopped by a creek for Kai to wash his clothes. They still had a pink hue, but at least they stopped itching. He put them on wet, with all he had sweated, it didn’t make a difference. At least the water was colder.

Muoi showed him a few traps he had set laying around. They caught some kind of large rodent and shot down a fat brown bird. The hunter explained their meat sold the best. While he never hunted monkeys since people felt uncomfortable eating them.

Kai began to use Mana Sense to look for useful plants and herbs. With the increased mana density, pseudo-red herbs were relatively common, but true tier-one plants not so much. They had to go deeper into the awakened beasts' territory to find them. Out here you needed to know the right spots to check.

Probably out of guilt, Muoi showed him a small cave where a specie of red-tier flower grew. Right now it wasn’t the season for them to bloom yet, but in a few months he would be back to harvest them.

“The mana herbs out in the open are usually quickly eaten by animals. Even poisonous ones can be digested by some types of snakes, slugs and caterpillars.” Muoi told him.

After the fight with the snake, it turned into quite a pleasant day. If you disregarded the heat and humidity, strolling from the jungle was a great experience.

Listening to Muoi’s words, Kai focused his Mana Sense to look for hidden places and was able to find a few red-tier roots. That was able to surprise even the stoic hunter a little.

Mana Sense is the best.

“I thought there would be more insects,” Kai murmured as they were readying to head back. Everyone talked about all the venomous little pests that lived in the jungle, but he hardly saw any.

Muoi glanced at him. “It’s a skill of mine.”

Kai’s voice rose an octave. “You have a skill to keep away creepy crawlies? You have to teach me that.“

I need to learn that skill.

The hunter shook his head. “You wouldn’t be able to learn that even if I told you.”

Kai’s pleading eyes didn’t manage to force any more tidbits from the hunter.

The day was drawing to a close, but there was another subject Kai had been planning to ask. With no one around to eavesdrop it was the perfect time.

“Uncle, why are there no people with their race at the yellow grade? Spirits, you are the only person I saw who even reached the peak of orange in Greenside. I know it’s a lot of XP, but with a bit of effort and a lot of time it doesn’t seem so hard.”

That was the dilemma that had been tormenting him since he got back in town. Kai couldn’t explain it. Were people just too lazy?

Muoi gave him one of those looks adults used with naive children. Kai had seen that many times when kids who barely knew how to swim told the veteran sailors how to improve their fishing.

Is it really such a bad question? Am I an arrogant prick?

“You are still young and don’t understand what it’s like.” Muoi's tone was hard. “At your age, new skills grow fast, everything is fun and exciting. As you get older your skills will slow down. Sometimes getting stuck at the same level for months.”

“Can’t you just switch skills for some easy XP if that’s the case?” Kai asked with a little voice.

“Have you ever tried discarding a skill over level 50?”

Kai shook his head.

“Well, after you try you might have a different idea. You can keep a slot to cycle low-level red skills. But people need to work, spending months learning a new skill for a couple thousand XP is not something everyone can afford. You can only gain XP from a skill level once, so you have to use a different skill each time. Eventually, you’ll run out of easy skills to level. The ones remaining will require more and more time for fewer gains. I know many people who tried it. Most didn’t last a season and they all gave up before a year had passed.

“By the time most people reach Orange they need to start working, having one less skill slot than everyone else on top of the time investment is a great handicap.  Adding the repeated trauma of discarding a skill for little gain makes it not worth the hassle.”

Kai listened to every word, Muoi seemed very knowledgeable on the topic. To reach his level he had probably considered all these strategies, maybe also tried it.

“What about Life Experience then? Can you not slowly accumulate that?” Kai said.

Muoi threw him a look and started laughing. Kai huffed annoyed.

What’s so funny about that?

The hunter had completely abandoned any attempt at stealth, laughing aloud. Above them, several birds took flight scared by the sound.

“Bless the spirits.” He dried a few tears from his eyes. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have laughed, it was cruel. It would indeed be easy to slowly accumulate Life Experience, wouldn’t it?”

Kai raised an eyebrow questioningly. What was he missing? He knew Life Experience slowed down if you didn’t constantly try new things, but even 50 XP a week would accumulate to thousands over many years.

Muoi looked at him with a little pity. “I shouldn't have said anything. People keep quiet not to discourage the young, but I suppose now it’s too late for that. I’m sorry to tell you this, but you won’t get any Life Experience after you get a profession.”

Kai stared at him blankly.

What the actual fuck!?

Understanding his reaction, uncle Muoi continued. “Life Experience is a bonus people under fourteen get to encourage them to be curious and explore. After you get a profession, you’ve chosen your path. You’ll only get experience from actions related to your profession.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds. You can gain far higher XP from your profession and the diminishing returns are not so harsh, but the scope of possibilities is much smaller. That’s another reason why few people train red skills for XP: you won’t get any bonus for having done something new.”

Kai was shocked by the revelations. It was lucky Muoi’s skill kept insects away because something could have easily got into his mouth.

His uncle continued to explain. “For most people only general skill XP will go towards their race enhancement. You can choose to siphon your profession XP towards it too, but almost no one does that. Professions may be even harder to level than race, but they give constant benefits, not just a big reward at the finish line.”

The hunter sighed and stopped walking. “Kai, seeing the numbers of the Guide go up fast is a magnificent feeling and spurs you to keep pushing. But eventually, they slow down for everybody.

“I know of people who haven’t looked at their Guide in years. Seeing all your progress recorded in simple numbers is nice when you’re growing, but it can also be an undeniable remainder of your failures.

“Everyone wants to think of themselves as somewhat special in their head, but as you meet more people and compare your numbers, you’ll sooner or later find someone better than you. Their levels grow faster with less effort. No matter how hard you try, you can’t catch up.

“For some it happens quite soon, for others it takes more time, but it happens to everybody. The Guide becomes the irrefutable proof that somebody else is just better than you. It will happen to you too one day and it will be a very hard truth to swallow.”

After that, they continued to walk in silence for the rest of the journey.

He was completely lost in his thoughts as they left the Veeryd jungle. The sun showed it was late afternoon. They stopped at a wooden cabin on the outskirts of the forest that was commonly shared by the hunters to skin and gut the snake and other prey.

After that they agreed to meet again tomorrow for Kai to keep his end of the deal and help the hunter with his mana presence problem.

Kai walked alone into town passing from old town with his snake packaged in the backpack.

He had a lot to think about.