“First rule of hunting: Anything that attacks you should be killed; however if it gives up sparing it should be considered. Second rule of hunting: Only kill as much as you need, after that you can simply patrol for any changes in the forest - that leads to rule three, always know your environment, you should know the area just as well as the animals that have been here their entire lives and you should never be caught off guard here.

”Fourth rule: Always be prepared for the worst, whenever I walk in here I'm prepared to have to stay the night, and you should too. Even if know I won't get hurt, I should be prepared for it. Rule number five, the most important rule. The moment you enter the forest you are just another animal here, the agreements of the forest need to be kept."

He looked at Alice to make sure she was paying attention, satisfied that she was he looked ahead while we continued walking deeper into the woods. "The balance between the creatures in the forest is held together by thin strands of non-verbal agreements, and everyone follows them because once one group stops following the rules, so does everyone else. These agreements are incredibly fluid and are judged mostly by feeling." The hunter paused before looking around and making a few turns. "A great example is how even though the wolves of this forest outnumber us, they will never step foot inside the village, because the weakness and instability caused by the fighting would invite others to take advantage of it. And once others join in on the fighting no one is safe anymore. The life of prey animals is disrupted, leading to all the fighters without an alternative food source to start preying on each other, but without the prey to support it the entire structure falls apart, and the end result? Everyone is left dead and weak with minimal change to how things were before. Of course most animals aren't thinking this far ahead, its just something they know."

Alice nodded, trying to take in as much of the information as she could.

"So Alice, what was rule three?"

"Uhmm, three was..." Alice combed through her memories to try and sort the information he had dumped on her all at once, "It was to pay attention to your surroundings?"

"Half mark. That's only a part of it, but anyway the first rule we apply today will be three. We will survey the forest, and when we're done, you will lead us back to this exact spot." He said while pointing to the ground at his feet.

"What! But how am I meant to tell this spot apart from any other? They all look the same!" Alice thought it was an unfair test, she should’ve at least been given a hint.

"You find things around you that could help you find your way, that's how. I'll get you started, the sun is the most reliable landmark you can use, although it is a bit tricky."

"Well since its my first time it should be fine to get a little help, right?" Alice said while trying to look as cute as possible.

"Alice, you seem to be forgetting what rule four was. Why don’t you tell me what it was?"

"To always be prepared." Alice glumly spoke, already seeing what his point was.

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"Exactly. You might not always have me around, so at the very least you should be able to get home safely by yourself.”

"Okay."

They walked for a bit longer before seeing a group of three wolves prowling in front of them.

"Now, make sure to keep your voice low and try not to make noise." he whispered with a finger to his mouth.

"Aren't they going to hurt us?" Alice quietly shouted in a scared whisper.

"Why would they do that? We're just patrolling the area." he says very calmly.

"They're wild animals!"

"Come on, give them a bit more credit would you, they're animals not idiots." he lightly chuckled. "Remember how I said everything should be given a chance to run away? This is why. These right here are the packs scouts, they basically do what we're doing, and whenever I let one go it reports that two or three wolves died after attacking me. And now they won't attack me unless they somehow judge me as hostile."

"Really?"

"Just make sure not to get too excited, they're also confused since they've never seen you here before, so they might attack just to be safe."

Alice pushed aside her fear and trusted her dad, she pulled her eyes away from the pack scouts and took stock of her surroundings. From here I think we go left and to the back a bit to get home? Hmm... No, we took a bunch of turns in between as well. Maybe going around dangerous areas?

"There they go. Seems like they're moving on to another area now."

"So where are we going now?" I ask.

"Normally we would go deeper, but you wouldn't be able to follow me, so we're going back home, where I'll teach you basic survival technique. So Alice, could you lead the way."

“Why can’t I go deeper with you?” Alice asked curiously.

“There are monsters deeper in the woods, and fighting them is sometimes the only option. Until I’m sure it’s safe to bring you along this is as far as we’ll go.” He looked at Alice with loving concern in his eyes, before clearing his throat and looking away. “Now show me how ready you are by taking me home.”

Confident on the general direction she lead them home, albeit with a lot of nudging in the right direction. Eventually, she was standing in the middle of the village again.

"So, what am I learning now?"

"First thing you'll need to survive, shelter. This is just protection against the elements and things that might hurt you. The easiest way to do this is to make a fire and find a safe place to sleep. With your magic lessons fire probably won't be a problem, but I always make sure to keep some dry tinder on me to make the process easier. And it's best to prepare a place to sleep during the day while patrolling so that you only have to get to shelter instead of making it from scratch."

After teaching me how to start a fire safely and where I can sleep if I ever need to stay in the woods for whatever reason, it starts getting late and we go back inside. What greets us when we come back is my mom looking like she's either ready for bed, or just woke up.

"Hi! How was the day?" she says while giving each of us a hug.

"Great, I think she'll be ready to start hunting by end of week. How did yours go?" he asks with a smile on his face.

"I'm still a little spent from yesterday, but between the sleeping I made a book for Alice's training." she says while getting a book titled ‘Mana and Expanded Teaching '.

"How was your day?" she asks while looking at me.

"A bit scary but i liked the other parts!"

"That sounds like fun." She yawns, "I really should've been smarter with my miracle use."

"Why don't you just use magic?" I wonder out loud

"Well, remember how I said using magic incorrectly can be dangerous? A long time ago I overexerted myself and now I don't have a mana core, so now if I ever want to do magic again I'll have to start eating into my soul to fuel the spell." she explains.

"How did that happen?" I curiously ask, wanting to know more.

"That's a story for another time, maybe when I'm not so tired." She yawns again." Also I already made dinner, it’s on the table for you, good night."

"Thanks mom! Good night."