Mile and I spent some time in the Midean Forest that evening. I hadn't planned on doing any hunting, but my companion had caught the scent of a few demi-trolls. Once Mile had scented something, I felt really bad crushing his excitement.
Now that I was a member of the adventurer's guild, I was able to purchase permits for monster hunting. The local castellan issued and sold the permits, allowing Highmount to regulate the local low-level monster population.
Higher-level monsters would trigger quests to be created to have them hunt down, but copper-tier monster cores were generally high enough in demand by craftsmen and adventurers alike that people would outright pay to kill them. Even soldiers would sometimes scrounge their salaries together to get extra cores. The guild sold the right to these permits, up-charging slightly on what they'd bought them for.
I had purchased permits to hunt goblins and demi-trolls for three months, with one month remaining. They cost twenty-five silvers a piece; it was enough to feed and house a laborer for a week. My lodging was taken care of, but even with what Rosaria and I had made from clearing our first dungeon, I only had around sixty-silvers left. I'd need to take up an actual quest soon.
The first of the novice-ranked monsters charged me a few steps ahead of the others. I tossed a small handful of mana-charged seeds in his face and used a blast of wind magic to push them into his throat. He was choking on a sapling expanding into his esophagus before he even knew what was happening.
Now that I had experience with it, the demi-trolls went down easily enough. They really were brutes who relied on numbers.
I used strike redirection to knock the next monster's club aside and then channeled another [growth] spell through my boot, followed by [direct flora]. My mana flowed into a root at the female's foot, wrapped around her ankle, and dragged her to the ground with a nauseating snapping sound.
I was a competent leveldruid and swordsman. A competent tier fighter could usually take on two novices pretty easily. However, numbers could quickly even the odds, so my focus was on swiftly disabling my enemies and preventing them from gathering around me.
There were five demi-trolls altogether. While the female I'd ensnared moaned in pain and clawed at the root that'd snapped her ankle bone, I parried a tooth-studded weapon away and used [strike redirection] once more to accelerate my reflexes. By the time the third demi-troll's arms were trying to redirect its knocked-apart weapon, I'd already cut its jugular open with my life-force enhanced agility.
I was sweating now, but I still had two more enemies I needed to disable.
I retrieved a series of redeye spores from my component pouch and hurled them toward the face of the next demi-troll. I was close enough to him that I didn't need to use wind magic to ensure my aim was accurate. I had already enhanced the irritation-causing effects of the spores with [enhance herbal effect] days earlier, which meant I didn't need to use any of my current mana to weaken the creature.
I'd quickly learned that prepared resources were better spent than ones created in the moment. The demi-troll's eyelids and nostrils would swell painfully closed in seconds. Demi-trolls were brawn-based creatures; my spell had enhanced the irritating effect of the spores I'd thrown to a level where only a novice monster that was endurance-based could resist their effects—and even then not fully.
I rolled under the fourth monster's wide, tooth-axe swing with a deep exhalation and dodged the fifth's demi-troll's attack with a warning from Mile. My lungs were burning now. Mile sent an image of the fifth creature jabbing toward my back with a primitive spear over our manabond.
Mile bit the spear-wielding demi-troll on its exposed calf, and, before the creature could hurt my canine friend, I whirled around and launched a [wind scythe] at its neck. Moments after the cutting spell left my free hand, the demi-troll fell; a breath-accompanied kick to its temple and a downward thrust of my sword Mytharis into its eye finished it off.
The demi-troll whose ankle I had broken was the last one that needed to go. I raised my hand and summoned forth another cutting blast of pressured air. The [wind scythe] drained a large portion of my remaining mana, but I needed to level my wind affinity.
The spell shot out, holding itself together with a simple-minded lethality and whistling through the air. A gag, an aborted cry, and then everything was quiet. Aside from my panting.
Good hunt, Mile said.
Yeah, I telepathied to him and glanced at the lowering mid-afternoon sun. Harder to do this after a day of classes.
We sat? Mile asked, as if what I said made no sense.
You napped; I corrected him.
We were sitting? He sounded as if napping was the obvious thing to do if all one was doing was sitting.
Good point, I said to him. Feel better after a little hunting?
He barked happily. Good hunt.
We need to get their cores out of them; demi-trolls don't really have anything worth selling on them other than their ankle tendons.
Apparently the ankle tendons of demi-trolls could be used in a recipe to brew a very minor potion of dexterity. The tendons were worth fifty copper a piece; it wasn't a lot, so I assumed the tendons weren't the main ingredient in the potion. Still, every bit of money helped, and the tendons were easier to butcher out than monster cores were.
The cores were something I was especially excited about. With all the hunting I'd been doing, my brawn attribute was very close to reaching the competent level.
I withdrew my coring knife from its sheath at my side and went about the process of cutting the cores of the demi-trolls out of their hearts. The task was messy, and a foul odor permeated the interiors of the monsters. Nevertheless, I had cored numerous demi-trolls during my time in Highmount, and it did not require more than forty minutes to retrieve my spoils from the five monsters.
I tossed two of the cores to Mile and kept three for myself. He'd get the next one to make up for the uneven distribution.
I held up the first of the bony monster cores that I'd extracted from the club-wielding demi-troll. It was streaked with ore-like inlays of copper, denoting its rank as novice level. As for its attribute type, I could tell that it was a brawn core by the way it felt in my hand.
The core pulsed with the lumbering, hard-cracking nature of the demi-trolls. They were stronger than most novice-level monsters, if not very skilled or dexterous at all. I beat their ilk through skill and speed; even with my own brawn approaching the max of the novice tier, my score only amplified my own body—attributes were multiplicative, and the demi-trolls had a higher base than I did.
A core was the sum of the monster's being, or at least an echo of it. I opened myself to the core, and, with a small red flash and a swirling of energy flooding into me, the ugly orb was gone. I felt the demi-troll's life force enter my arm and spiral up into my own chest. My own soulcore wasted no time and began to greedily burn away at the foreign power; it lit up warmly within my heart like a fully fueled furnace.
The sensation of absorbing attributes was almost euphoric, reminiscent of the feeling one experiences after consuming a hearty and favorite meal. But it didn't take long for the heat in my chest to die down, replaced by the smallest feeling of being ever-so-much greater of a whole now.
I grabbed for the next core the moment I'd fully integrated the first. I then repeated the process once more.
Upon absorbing the last of the three cores, I flexed my slightly thicker muscles.
I opened the character sheets for myself and Mile. The dog had already absorbed his cores.
<<<>>>
Peregrine Borncrest
Body: N/A
Mind: N/A
Soul: N/A
Attributes
Brawn: 1 (100/100) (Novice)
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Dexterity: 1 (100/100) (Novice)
Endurance: 1 (65/100) (Novice)
Magic Potency: 1 (40/100) (Novice)
Magic Control: 1 (90/100) (Novice)
Magic Efficiency: 1 (80/100) (Novice)
Proficiencies
Archery (No Style): 1 (40/100) (Novice)
Alchemy (Potion Making): 1 (80/100) (Novice)
Animal Husbandry: 1 (70/100) (Novice)
Acrobatics: 1 (99/100) (Novice)
Butchering: 1 (50/100) (Novice)
Cooking: 1 (50/100) (Novice)
Druidry: 2 (30/100) (competent)
Herbalism: 1 (95/100) (Novice)
One-Handed (Fiend-Hunter): 2 (40/100) (Competent)
Wind-Affinity: 1 (60/100) (Novice)
Traits
Mind of Memories: With effort, you can perfectly visualize anything that you have felt, seen, tasted, or heard. You can relive the moments of your life as you perceive them exactly, at will. The more focused you are on something in the moment a memory is created, the easier it is to recall it. (Born)
Compact of Potential: You have traded away a singular, unnamed aspect of yourself to an extraplanar entity. (Pact)
Titles
Prodigy of Arms: Your mind, body, soulcore, and reflexes have developed and grown in tandem with your study of combat, becoming particularly suited to it. When you break through to a higher level in any weapon proficiency, you will always gain at least one skill while retaining the chance to gain others.
Prodigy of Spellwork: Your mind, body, soulcore, and mystical capabilities have developed and grown in tandem with your use of magic, becoming particularly suited to wielding and sensitive to the influence of your own mana. When you break through to a higher level in any magical proficiency, you will always gain at least one spell while retaining the chance to gain others; you may also gain beneficial mana-related mutations upon breakthroughs.
Skills
First Form: Strike Redirection: Honed through endless repetition, you have unlocked the beginnings of the true power of the first form of the fiend-hunter style. Upon activation of this skill, you may burn life force while utilizing the first form if you so choose. Depending on the amount of life force channeled, your reflexes, strength, and speed will be temporarily heightened while performing the first form. (Fiend-Hunter Style) (Novice)
Spells
Beast-Bond: You may bond with an animal whose trust you have earned. The animal may refuse or accept your bond of its own free will. You may feel what your companion feels and communicate telepathically with them along with temporarily experiencing their physical senses. A bonded creature's intelligence is slowly increased over time, to a greater extent depending on the duration of the bond and their species. You may also view their character sheet. The manpower cost for forming a bond is high. The mana cost for sharing senses with a bonded animal is moderate. The mana cost for telepathic communication with a bonded animal is negligible. (Nature) (Novice) (Upgradeable)
Druidic Aura: You may extend your own druidic mana in an invisible ten-foot orb centered around you. You may cast your druidic spells upon any flora or fauna within your aura as if you were touching them. You can also sense any life energy present within your aura. (Nature) (Novice) (Upgradeable)
Direct Flora: You may use your mana to enable and direct the movements of plant life that you can touch. (Nature) (Novice) (Upgradeable)
Enhance Herbal Effect: You may enhance one natural effect of a plant to make it one tier stronger than it is. You cannot enhance plants of a higher tier than your current tier of this spell. Moderate mana cost. (Nature) (Novice)
Growth: Use your mana to influence the growth of plant life. Mana cost is determined by the level, scale, and rate of growth. (Nature) (Competent) (Upgradeable)
Mending: Lay your hands on anything that is or was living. You may accelerate the healing of living things or repair damage to natural fibers and crafts. Mana cost is determined by the extent of the mending done. (Nature) (Novice) (Upgradeable)
Minor Beast-Tongue: Through extensive practice and understanding, you can learn to speak the tongue of beasts and plant life fluently. The fluency of communication is based upon understanding and dynamic resonance with individual species. Mana cost is negligible. (Nature) (Novice) (Upgradeable)
Wind Scythe: Convert your mana into sharpened, elemental wind. The scythe's speed and range are determined by the amount of mana used to create it. Mana cost is moderate.
<<<>>>
I was very rarely home anymore. Part of that was because, while Bastion and Samantha were wonderful, their manor wasn't really my home. Neither was home for that matter anymore; it would be halved in what it'd become without dad there—maybe it'd be reduced even further by the memory of him having once been there. I hadn't been back to Streambrook since Perenine had taken my father on the Blue Peaks, but I knew what I felt to be true.
My time was instead spent hunting monsters with Mile—and studying now, I suppose. My body was sore often, and my mind had a lagging lethargy about it that I only really knew one way to fight off. There was only so much my [mending] spell could do.
I removed a Potion of Rest from the vial bandolier I'd affixed to my right thigh. I slogged the potion down quickly. I felt no effects immediately, nor would I. Over the next four hours or so, the potion would slowly repair my mind in much the way a single hour or two of sleep might. It would be a miracle concoction, save for the fact that tolerance could be built in as little as two days if you consumed more than one without actually sleeping through a night.
The potion was non-addictive and made from a recipe I'd gotten from the local alchemist. I'd helped her tidy up her shop one day as a kindness; the woman had been delighted to find a young person so interested in her work and life. I hadn't expected payment, and, honestly, the recipe was overpayment even if I had. Alchemical recipes were usually closely guarded things, only to be shared with family and friends. I smiled at the thought that I'd have to visit Anais at her shop soon, though I certainly didn't expect any further gifts—I did have the demi-trolls' tendons to sell.
The fruits of my constant hunting were obvious, though. My brawn and dexterity attributes were now maxed out in the novice tier. It was more progress than I'd made in my previous twelve years of training and living combined. It was indisputably true what everyone said: killing was the best way to grow stronger. That disturbed me somewhat, but ultimately culling monster populations felt like a good thing for everyone.
All of my proficiencies were also progressing nicely.
The progression of my sword-proficiencies was slowing down now that I was approaching the halfway point to the next tier, but that happened apparently. The first fifty points in any new proficiency tier were generally gained by becoming comfortable with your new limits, but earning the next fifty revolved around pushing against the ceiling on those limits until they snapped and you tiered up again—I'd asked Bastion about it.
I was mainly focused on leveling my wind-affinity and acrobatics proficiencies at the moment. Boosting my ability to move during combat to the competent tier would greatly aid me.
Wind-affinity, on the other hand, acted as a more direct method of ranged combat than druidry in my mind. The existence of wind proficiency itself did give me pause, however. Professor Elrica had said that signs were required to summon a basic blast of elements; I had to make no such somatic gestures to do so. My [wind-scythe] also didn't require any sort of magic circle to either unlock or cast.
It was a peculiar situation. I'd practiced stubbornly to recreate Perenine's magic from the memories of having her usurp control of my mana, eventually resulting in my new wind-based proficiency and spell. I'd approached the proficiency like how I approached druidry, focusing on the flow of the magic in my body and using error-earned intuition to task my mana into action. I simply never would've been able to figure out how to feel my mana into the proper shape and resonance to conjure wind like I did without having first felt it do so while acting as Perenine's vessel. Even despite my exacting memories of how she'd used my mana, I could still barely even begin to recreate what she'd so easily done with it. My [wind-scythe] was merely a mana-draining amateur's imitation, compared to what the spirit had accomplished with even my limited magical attributes.
Maybe I needed to talk to Professor Elrica about my situation, but I wasn't sure I knew her well enough yet. She also seemed very biased toward circlecraft in general. I wasn't sure how much she could help with my newly unlocked wind magic.
Mile's character sheet was progressing as well as mine was, perhaps even better considering his age compared to my own.
<<<>>>
Mile
Body: N/A
Mind: N/A
Soul: N/A
Attributes
Brawn: 1 (41/100) (Novice)
Dexterity: 1 (60/100) (Novice)
Endurance: 1 (50/100) (Novice)
Magic Potency: 0 (0/100) (Novice)
Magic Control: 0 (0/100) (Novice)
Magic Efficiency: 0 (0/100) (Novice)
Proficiencies
Acrobatics: 1 (30/100) (Novice)
Tracking: 1 (60/100) (Novice)
Unarmed-Combat: 1 (40/100) (Novice)
Traits
Consumption: Born with a particularly adaptable body, you are capable of absorbing the traits of the beasts and creatures that you feast upon. Absorption is optional. The flesh, or body, of the intended target must be fresh. You may only absorb one trait per level of your endurance attribute, as it is the limit of your body's capability. (Born)
Titles
N/A
Skills
N/A
Spells
N/A
<<<>>>
The dog had a natural talent for tracking and was already growing into a fatless, hardened build. He looked especially healthy, even for a puppy, with a glossy but not oily coat. It very much seemed to me that a diet of monster cores did more for a canine's health than any normal meat alone could.
I still had no idea exactly what breed he was. Most dogs were mutts anyway, but there was something about the perkiness of his ears and the noble shape of his ringtail. He just looked too designed to just be a mutt, and, honestly, he didn't look very much like his mother at all either. Was it because of a sire with a strong heritage, or did it have something to do with our bond... or the cores we were feeding him? Dad had said that animals mutated from consuming cores far more easily than humans did, but he'd also told me not to worry too much. It was something to keep an eye on.
Come on, buddy, we need to get back home, I telepathed to him. Combat class starts tomorrow. It might be a lot less sitting.
No sitting? Mile asked me.
Maybe fighting, I said.
Hunting? he asked.
Probably not, I replied.
Sure? His tone was hopeful.
Not at all. We'll keep our hunts up. I told him and glanced at our character sheets before closing them. We'll have to hunt something stronger soon.
He barked in excitement at that. Meanwhile, I just knew I'd need to recruit more help once it came time to try and acquire a bronze-tier monster core.