Our hunt continued for another two hours. We mostly spent them in silence, both of us focusing a lot more on our surroundings from our encounter with what he told me was a cougar. Though both of us were also thinking over everything that we discussed in our conversation, looking at it from my brother, and my families, point of view I was being paranoid. This is something that I should fix.

Finally we reached a clearing where not one but 2 deer were grazing. I silently pulled out an arrow and lined up the shot. I couldn’t get a clear view of the second one since it was behind the first but there was little doubt in my mind that I could bag both without help from my brother.

As I drew back the bow I focused on the weak spot shown by my skill and focused. I wasn’t yet ready to add a wind bonus to a projectile so I based fully off of my physical skills. As I breathed out and released the arrow I felt myself gaining another skill,[piercing shot].

Unexpectedly my arrow didn’t just down the first deer but went cleanly through it’s neck to lodge itself in the neck of the second. My brother’s eyebrows shot up as I used [judge threat] on them to find that they were both very weak, probably level one or two at the most.

“H-How did you do that, magic?” my brother said.

“No, I just got the [piercing shot] skill.” I said, deciding that keeping my skill from my family wasn’t the right way to go unless I got a mythic skill.

We approached the deer as they were downed, looking to put them out of their misery. A blur of movement caught my eye as another cougar jumped out of the treeline and headed for our prize. My brother went to draw his sword but I held out my hand to him.

“This one’s mine” I said with resentment in my voice, [judge threat] put the feline at level four, but with this being an assassin type beast unlike the bruiser boar I liked my chances now that it was forced out in the open.

“Are you nuts? It's a higher level than the previous one.” he said.

“Yeah, now that you know about my magic, might as well see what I can do with it.” as the words left my lips I pulled back the bow again and shot aiming to cripple a leg. The cougar was aware enough to react to the attack but not quick enough to fully evade it, getting a deep cut in the leg but still not having the arrow hit the joint as I had hoped.

As I moved close I pulled out my shield and my hammer, thinking that a crushing blow would be more effective than a slash with her weaker skin. But, while my plan was sound, the cougar also finished her assessment of me, deciding to go for light scratches aimed towards my legs. For the next 20 seconds it circled me quickly getting swipes in here and there but barely breaking skin.

It made its mistake as it tried to jump on my back as I used [mana augmentation] to help me spin faster to shield bash it down, taking advantage of having finally landed a blow after my arrow I took a firm step to close the distance as well as use earth manipulation to secure her other leg in the earth before going for a massive swing at her head.

The feline pulled its leg out of the earth a moment before the swing connected, right as I empowered the hammer increasing its weight, but her already injured leg gave out from the pressure leaving her unable to dodge. The hammer blow killed it in one hit leaving a massive hole in its skull. I then went to go heal the scratches all over my legs.

“Don’t do that” my brother said as he thumped me over the head. “I can hide my wound being healed but if you heal those how will you explain that? Just leave them Kate can patch you up once we get home.

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With that settled we each picked up a deer, me barely supporting the weight on my shoulders and him carrying it over one shoulder like it was no big deal as we headed for the city.

“You know that wasn’t bad, you might really make something of this style of using mana.” he said. I just gave him a tired grin and redoubled my effort to get home before dark.

At the city gate Jimmy and Arthur didn’t seem at all suspicious and waved us through congratulating us on our good fortune. We didn’t take more than 4 steps inside the city before a gruff voice sounded out.

“Tommy, boy is that you?” The voice was apparently one he recognized as his hand caved in the skull of his deer a little as he quickly spun and performed a salute.

“Commander Grievous, sir!” he said with strict military discipline.

“I thought you were on your day off, not spending it with that wife of …” he trailed off as he caught sight of my face as I also turned to see who my brother was speaking to. Just my luck it was the same guard that led the assault on the bandits, the one that felt when I used [judge threat] on him. “Well, well, well, who do we have here?”

“You know my little brother commander?” my brother answered in a composed voice but his face showed how confused he was.

“We didn’t make any introductions but you should really look into teaching him a few manners, using evaluation skills, [judge threat] if I was not mistaken, like that is considered rude.” he said, his tone changing from strict and overbearing to teasing.

“YOU DID WHAT?” My brother's tone marked it clearly that I was in the wrong, a feeling that became increasingly clear, as he decided to dump the second deer carcass on my back as punishment.

“I apologize profusely for my brother’s rudeness, commander, he is only turning ten tomorrow and is still a child, let me also say thank you for helping him as well as my sister with the bandits ambush.” he said while performing a small bow.

“That’s not really my fault, I had just gotten the skill looking for a weak point in the encirclement. How was I supposed to know that others could tell when I used it on them, let alone that it was considered rude? None of the bandits or the other soldiers seem to notice it.” I defended myself, a little childishly, hoping that might get me off the hook.

“Just turned ten you say?” he said as he scratched his scruffy chin. “And how come he is in the city, is he looking to follow in your footsteps and join the guard?”

The man's interest in me put me on edge, clearly having [judge threat] this early marked me as a person of interest.

“Oh no sir, he is going to become a hunter in the village we were born in,” my brother said, nipping any recruiting in the bud.

“If he’s going to be a hunter in a village, why come here right as he is about to unlock his stats?” For the first time the commander's self assured expression turned into one of confusion.

“Our village is the one near the kobold issues that came in yesterday, he was caught in a small altercation with a group of them as they were discovered and our parents decided to send him here until they were taken care of.” my brother covered for me not mentioning me being wounded which would probably lead to my magic being exposed.

“Damn shame, if he’s your brother he must have had quite the potential here as well. Oh, is that why you are carrying around those deer? Did you take him out to see what the game is like here close to the city before he unlocked his stats? That’s a good choice, it will let him adapt better, but I still suggest he shouldn’t go out alone until he reaches at least level 10.” he said.

My impression of the commander was improving the longer the conversation continued and I planned on questioning my brother on who the man was as soon as I got the chance.

“That was my plan as well, sir.” my brother said. “Speaking of training, sir, do you think you could allow him to use our compound? He’ll even it out by also cleaning full time when he does.”

My brother volunteering me for clean up duty wasn’t something I appreciated but a chance to hang around all those mages and healers to see if I can get a better hold on some more mana affinities as well as practice the rest of my skills more than made up for it.

“Hmmm, while that’s not against protocol, it’s not exactly something we want to be advertising, I’ll tell you what, if he cleans for two days he can also practice on the second day.” he said.

“Thank you very much, sir” he saluted again, and I would have joined him as well, considering all the possible gains I could make from that, if it wasn’t for the fact that it took all my strength to stand while holding the two deer.

The commander started to turn to leave, he didn’t make it more than two steps before he turned back “I almost forgot the reason I called out to you.” His voice was once more the same serious tone it had been at the start of the conversation

“The eighth just came in this afternoon,” he said in a low voice.

I didn’t know what that meant but clearly my brother did as he frowned at the news.

“Patrol or hunting?” he asked.

“Hunting”

“Do we know what?”

“A vampire, high level too, over 70 apparently”