Over the weeks have seen a new routine settle in. Every 4 or 5 days I would join Hatchet in going on a hunt for game or just scouting. We weren’t that lucky to find game on a scouting mission after that first time. That’s not to say that our time was just spent walking around. He had me on high alert and also running drills of how to react to whatever could show up.
Now with my level of strength all this basically amounted to something I could fight head on and he will just watch over me, something that I could only let him keep busy while shooting arrows at and retreat. My first retreat option was climbing up a nearby tree, my second was running away and my last was running by jumping from tree to tree, all depending on what we stumbled upon would be useful according to him.
This along with a detailed explanation of the flora found in the forest and what it can be used for or what its presence means made the missions very enjoyable, we even found some rabbits and deer when hunting for food.
On my days staying in the village I would go through my usual training in the mornings, practicing with all the weapons I knew how to use as well as my climbing. After that most of my day would be spent keeping up with the other skills I learned in the last 3 years as well as tending to my garden. My merchant skills were getting quite the workout thanks to my sister and Alana who decided to wait until after my Spring finished next week, they seemed to have already started making quite a bit of profit off the caravans that came in the village just by acting as middlemen between the caravan merchant and the village populace.
The new addition to the menu that made it last that much longer was ‘the chase’ as I called it, releasing a rabbit into the forest and after giving it a head start using my tracking skills to run and grab it.
Hatchet found it funny the first time he found ass in the air with my hand up to my shoulder in a rabbit burrow, but after I explained to him what I was doing his expression changed to an impressed one.
“You know that’s not a bad idea, sure when you are chasing something you usually have time to look for tracks but the ability to spot and read meaningful information from tracks when running could come in very handy” His words weren’t empty he even started to add fake tracks near the area I let the rabbit loose in so I would not only have to identify the tracks but also guess how long ago they were made.
“Hey kid, you ready for the scouting mission?” Hatchet called out to me.
“Yeah just got to go put this guy back in the cage” I said holding up the rabbit before I took off at a run towards my home.
“Hey mom” I said as I picked up my gear after putting the rabbit back.
“You’re going already?” Mom asked looking up from the shirt she was sewing back up for dad.”Isn’t it a bit early?”
“Yeah but apparently this scouting mission takes us a bit closer to the deep forest so Hatchet said he wanted to make sure we were getting out of there before the light even starts to thin.”
“Ok, but be careful out there, just because something hasn’t shown up around here doesn’t mean it’s not out there in the deep forest.” Mom told me, the past few cycles of nothing happening to me letting her calm down, that being a hunter wasn’t that dangerous.
And she wasn’t wrong, it’s just that those things that could be out there was why we were going deeper in the first place, the game has been getting rarer as time passed and nothing was happening near the village so we had to investigate what could be affecting it from further out and if we needed to send a message to Lessis in case something really was going on.
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“What do you think we will find all the way out here?” I asked Hatchet as we made our way deeper and deeper. “What could have an effect on the game yet stay clear of the village?”
“Lots of things could do it, we’re not only out here to figure out what it is but also look for sign if it is something bigger and this is only a mild effect off it”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well when something big happens it also affects everything below it more or less, in the forest a big change deep inside could cause a group of hunters much less dangerous to move closer to the village and as a result we would share the same hunting grounds without actually running into each other.”
“Aha, now that looks interesting” He exclaimed and started following a set of very hard to spot tracks that seemed very odd to me. He didn’t mention anything about them and I couldn’t put my finger on what made these tracks different from any other I have seen before.
It didn’t take long for us to reach a clearing with Hatchet leading the hunt, but the closer we got to whatever had made these tracks the more these tracks felt odd to me somehow. The latest had a soft purple smoke lift from them. But since Hatched didn’t mention it I let it slide as well.
“There it is. Damn, kid, get up in a tree quietly. Now!” His stern whisper leaves no room for argument “ draw an arrow but don’t shoot unless it tries to run away.” was the last thing he told me as he started circling to get a better angle.
Getting up in the branches I get my first glimpse of what we are hunting, seeming to be a slightly bigger than average wolf, but that's not what worries me, what does is that I get a clear reading from the wolf thanks to my mana sense skill.
Hatchet shot an arrow at the wolf and then followed up with a charge holding his axe in his hand, his surprise attack seems to have worked and he definitely had the upper hand, the wolf quickly realizing he was going to lose made a run for it.
I slowly aimed knowing I would only have one shot before it got to the trees and my line of fire would be obscured. The arrow I released hit the back lack right in the join, sending the wolf crashing head first into the ground, letting Hatchet catch up and with one final swing he buried the axe in the skull of the beast.
I quickly pulled up my stat window to see what had changed as I felt something right before I started climbing the tree.
Name : Ajax
Level :12
Experience : 2950/12100
Traits: Child Prodigy, Divine Witness
Health: 160/160
Mana: 260/260
Stamina :250/250
Vitality : 16.27
Strength :21.60
Endurance : 25.80
Dexterity :20.90
Intellect : 36.68
Wisdom :28.26
Mind : 26.87
Perception : 18.63
Stat Points : 242
Skills :
* Common :[Mathematics Lvl 22] [Stealth Lvl 21][Drawing Lvl 30][Athleticism Lvl 20] [Running Lvl 22][Reading Lvl 20][Writing Lvl 20][Cooking Lvl 20][Sewing Lvl 20] [Cleaning Lvl 12][Haggling Lvl 19][Gardening Lvl 20][Axes Lvl 29][Hammers Lvl 21] [Deception Lvl 15][Sword Lvl 10][Shield Lvl 10][Bow Lvl 10][Spear Lvl 10][Throwing Lvl 10][Persuasion Lvl 10][Unarmed Combat Lvl 12][Knives 20][Skinning Lvl 10][Tanning Lvl 10][Dismantle Lvl 10][Climbing Lvl 5][Tracking Lvl 4][Heat Resistance Lvl 1]
* Uncommon :[Meditation Lvl 35][Sense Mana Lvl 36][Expel Mana Lvl 37][Sprinting Lvl 13][Mining Lvl 10][Lumberjack Lvl 10][Smelting Lvl 10][Blacksmithing Lvl 10][Chanting Lvl 10] [Mana Farming Lvl 10][Increase Price Lvl 10][Lower Price Lvl 10][Danger sense Lvl 1][Leatherworking Lvl 10][Alchemy Lvl 10][Mana Milling Lvl 6]Precise Cut Lvl 10][Precise Blow Lvl 10]
* Rare : [Manipulate Mana Lvl 15][Water Aspect Mana Lvl 10][Fire Aspect Mana Lvl 10] [Air Aspect Mana Lvl 10][Earth Aspect Mana Lvl 10][Inject Mana Lvl 13][Spot Weakness Lvl 4][Residue Recognition Lvl 1]
New :
[Tracking] + [Mana sense] -> [Residue Recognition]
Upgrades :
Climbing 1-> 5
Tracking 1 -> 4
Hmm, this information made me both giddy and relieved, I had gotten a new skill, and according to the new system I tried to implement, that apparently worked, my status would tell if any skills were used in the creation of my new ones. It took a load off to know that it hadn't been a mistake not to tell Hatchet the odd feeling the tracks had given me. Had I done so I would have revealed that I could sense mana, and not only that I could even tell if mana had been used even after the effect was over.