Kendra led Aria, Lucas, and Arthur through the woods near the outpost. Arthur tread behind the others with its focus on beasts to hunt. The forest was thick with trees and birds scattered as Arthur ran through the forest. Arthur couldn’t quite master the grace and skill necessary for its large weight to move quietly and quickly at the same time. Arthur could only do it one at a time. The others were by no means silent, but their lighter weights and clothing helped mask noise that they might have made.
“Keep up the life aura spell Arthur. We are going to do the same thing as last time. Make sure to protect your joints and remember to hit the weak points first,” said Kendra.
“I remember. The one up ahead is a snapping giant lizard. It will try to jump at my neck first and I must be ready to block it. I’ve been working on optimizing my strength and dexterity so I shouldn’t have my shoulder nearly ripped off next time.”
“I’ll head out. Keep watch of where it is with the spell,” said Aria.
Arthur focused on its life aura spell where it was able to watch the lizard skittering away from them while keeping low to the ground. Aria was rushing to catch up with it and was doing a good job at it. She cast a few spells to redirect the lizard back towards the others while not hindering its ability to attack.
Kendra and Lucas moved into their positions as well. They prepared to force the lizard into the direction of Arthur. Lucas held a bow in his hands today and prepared an arrow in one hand. The team entered a more open area when Arthur was able to finally see the lizard.
The lizard was longer than he stood tall and had a spotted green and brown scale pattern. Its tail was shorter than one might expect, and its evolutionary traits had pushed for a longer mouth and jaw befitting the name of a giant snapping lizard. The lizard spouted multiple rows of jagged teeth that clamped tightly on its prey.
When Arthur had experienced it first hand Arthur’s shoulder had been stuck in place by its mouth and Kendra had to come in to burn it off. The resulting injury caused Arthur’s arm to hang limp and force it to expend some of its mana reserves to reknit the mana wiring back together.
Arthur watched Aria turn the lizard around. The lizard was now heading towards Arthur. Arthur readied a shield spell and stayed lower to the ground. The lizard jumped up and snapped its jaws at him. Arthur pivoted his body and had the shield ready for the beast. The lizard bounced off the shield.
He followed up the defense with a punch. Using the momentum of his pivot he slammed his fist into the lizard’s side. The lizard made some growling noises and snapped back at Arthur with its claws this time. Arthur moved his arm into place and made sure the claws met his forearm. The claws scratched harmlessly along his arm. The noise created however was quite annoying and screechy.
Arthur used the time when the lizard attacked to prepare another spell. [Plasma Bolt] fired off into the same side of the lizard that he had punched. The lizard momentarily wailed and backed off. Due to how close Arthur was to the attack his vision was temporarily unfocused and he was forced to see the lizard through his other senses.
Unlike the elves and gnomes, he was able to take in all sensory data equally without relying on his sight. While sight was his most important sense he could finish this fight while it was recovering. The lizard made distinct sounds while moving away and brushed against far too much vegetation. Using his memory of what the forest looked like he chased after the lizard and prepared more magic spells.
Arthur’s vision came back online shortly after firing an [Ice Block] shot. There was a thud shortly after as well as the crack of newly formed ice solidifying. The lizard was now whimpering and trying to break free of the frozen cage that trapped it to the tree. Arthur stepped forward and used his hands to finish off the lizard with a well-placed attack to its neck. The lizard fell limp and the ice around it melted away under his command.
“Good job,” said Lucas after dropping down from a nearby tree. “I wouldn’t have been able to continue the chase after the plasma bolt attack. I guess it might be a nice close quarters move when you don’t have to see to fight the entire time.”
“It was much better than last time,” said Kendra. “But what could you have improved on?”
Arthur thought for a moment before answering.
“I shouldn’t have fought in the forest because I am at a disadvantage while fighting here. Though that is ultimately not something I can change. So next time I should fight with more ranged attacks in mind. I have been waiting for the lizards to come to me when I am better suited to attack from further away. I should be relying on my teammates to hold enemies in place or keeping them further away while I attack from behind.”
“Good, though because you are naturally a bit stronger and tougher than us so you will need to practice fighting up close when it is needed,” said Kendra.
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“If you can carve up your kill then we can look at hunting the next one,” said Aria.
Under Aria’s command, he took a carving knife from her and began opening up the lizard. Arthur started with skinning the lizard. He was careful not to damage the pelt and referenced his memories and Aria’s suggestions throughout the process. After she had taken away the skin he opened up the chest and took out the lizard’s beast core. It was by far the most valuable part of the lizard, and he was careful to remove it without much pressure. After that was done he burned the rest. The meat was largely inedible, and the body would attract stronger beasts or scavengers, so it wasn’t worth it.
“Let’s get going. I have the nest location marked on my map so you can fight two or more at once. If you need any help then we will step in,” said Lucas.
“Lead on.”
The two lizards in the nest ended up being three. Arthur dealt with them by casting [Ice Field] AOE attack and then began punching them between casts of [Ice Shard] before Aria had to step in. She sent out a toxic gas spell which knocked out the lizards immediately while leaving Arthur’s inorganic body unaffected.
“Thanks for the help.”
“You’re welcome. The ice spells were a good idea. Especially when you cast the area of effect spell. It stopped the lizards from finishing you off quite as quickly.”
“Though the ice did mess me up a bit. I’m going to need a few minutes to reknit my insides and thaw out my metal pieces.”
“Take your time. I can harvest the beasts while the others wait.”
------
When Arthur returned to the outpost he was brought to Zoe.
“How was the hunting?”
“It was okay. The area of effect spell was very useful, and I want to learn more.”
“That’s good to hear. I will have the nature mage show you a set of spells. I would prefer you learn to use the terrain you are in now to your advantage. It would be bad if you started a forest fire deeper in the woods. Plenty of beasts would smell the smoke and hunt you down due to the insult on their land.”
“I will keep that in mind. But that isn’t the only thing you called me over for was it?”
“You are correct. Over the past week, you have been hunting and getting attacked which has allowed me and the other researchers to collect some interesting research. I would like to take this time to perform some controlled experiments while I can make note of your regeneration ability. The time it takes, the energy required, etc..”
“That is something I can do. It would also be nice to know the exact amount required myself. It will help me to optimize mana usage while fighting as well.”
Zoe and Arthur returned to the cellar area where a table and chairs were set up. Zoe sat in the nearest chair while Arthur just stood. Next, she had him place his hand on the table. She then took out a small silver knife with a few runes on the end. As she poured her mana into it the knife glowed red hot at the end.
“We’ll start with just the finger and then go from there after that. Let me know how you feel as we go along.”
“Ok.”
She made her first cut and the wires connecting the metal finger from the rest of his hand burned and disconnected. She looked up at him waiting for how he would react.
“This is interesting,” he paused, “due to my nature I felt no pain throughout the process, but I did feel something. Not like the half artificial feelings, I normally emote, but I felt a sudden sense of… loss. Like I was no longer whole, and I guess I currently am not. I will be reattaching my finger now. Perhaps I will be able to tell you about this loss in more detail after experiencing it a second time.”
“Go ahead and reattach it then. I will be timing it for my own research.”
Arthur picked up the severed finger with his other hand and held it in place. He focused his mana on the burned ends and began to regrow them. The burnt pieces fell off and the plant wiring regrew and attached to the old finger. Next once those connections were in place he reestablished links to the runes that controlled the finger before moving it around.
“Amazing. I wonder if improving your nature and life affinity will improve your regeneration rate even further. It only took just under a minute to reconnect the finger.”
“The attachment process was rather simple on my end. I felt like I instinctively knew how it was supposed to go back together and just did it. If I needed to rebuild runes from scratch or reforge the metal I expect the time needed and mana required would be much greater depending on the size.”
“Should I move on to the next piece?”
“Yes, you can.”
Zoe cut the arm this time at the elbow. It took her a little longer this time, but the forearm and hand fell to the floor with a thud. Arthur followed up by picking the arm back up and placing it on the table.
“I think I can describe what happened this time in better words for you this time. Due to the nature of my internals being more organic and mana storing devices. When you removed my arm I lost a portion of my mana storage along with my connection to the greater whole of my rune system that controls my body. This has given me some good ideas towards improving the rune structure so I can take more damage while lessening the impact that I take from it.”
Arthur picked the arm back up and began working on reattaching it. The wiring hanging out of him like a snake came alive and began crawling back into his forearm. This process took a while longer because of the need to dispose of the old connections and establish new ones with the runes. After about ten minutes Arthur was back to full functionality.
“Thank you Arthur for taking this time to destroy parts of yourself for this. I hope you learned as much as I did by experimenting with this.”
“I am very glad as well. For your information, I am now at 77 percent mana capacity after the repair. Some of that is from the dead arm dissipating the mana and the rest was from the repair. I will keep this in mind when I am fighting against a creature that I am unsure of winning against.”
“That is good to hear. I always want you to be the best you can be and if these tests can be of use to you, then I am glad that I took the time to help you. Now should I call the mage in now?”
“I would rather wait. I need to take in more mana before continuing to train.”
“Of course. I will call him in in an hour.”
“An hour then.”
“See you later Arthur.”
“Bye Zoe.”