Chapter 24: Hunting the Hunters
Now that he was temporarily safe, Ain planned his next course of action.
This was his first fight against spirit tamers, and he wasn't fully aware of his own lethality. It was only after he fatally injured the spirit tamer with the strongest aura that Ain made a judgment of his abilities.
The strongest spirit tamer was at Intermediate Rank-1. Ain's Possession physique was similar to that of an Advanced Rank-1 Spirit Beast. Moreover, he found that this spirit tamer's physique was not up to par with his rank. He had clearly neglected body tempering and only relied on a spirit tamer's natural enhancement to their physiques, which was incomparable to Ain’s.
The great difference in their physiques and reaction times turned it into a difference between life and death.
Realistically, the slanty-eyed man shouldn't be able to survive. A Rank-1 Spirit Pet couldn't heal such severe damage in a short amount of time. So, even the Two Flower Fawn's treatment would be ineffective.
Although Ain didn't see it, he knew that the bird that cried out anxiously at the end was probably the missing spirit pet, and it even belonged to the slanty-eyed man he injured. With its contractor's death, the spirit pet would also perish.
Out of the remaining two spirit pets, the Two Flower Fawn had no combat abilities. This left the Creeping Snake and the two spirit tamers, who were all at Beginner Rank-1 like Ain.
After considering all this, Ain decided to circle back around toward the ambushers and give them a taste of their own medicine. Glancing at his bloodied hand, Ain felt unexpectedly calm. Maybe it was because they had intended to kill him first that he didn't feel much remorse.
A couple of minutes later, Ain returned and lingered nearby, observing the three spirit tamers from the shadows.
In the small clearing, the injured slanty-eyed man was lying on the ground, groaning in anguishing pain. One of his teammates was anxiously instructing the Two Flower Fawn to use its skills to heal him, while he himself applied various medicines onto the wound. A crow-like spirit pet was nervously crying out next to the slanty-eyed man.
The third spirit tamer's eyes darted all over the place, occasionally glancing at his teammates, and then scanning the surroundings with vigilance. He held a bow, with an arrow already nocked, ready to shoot at a moment's notice. The Creeping Snake was similarly on high alert.
Ain stared at the dying spirit tamer and waited for his opportunity. He held his dagger in one hand and sent some instructions to Nox.
The two black swirls on Nox's misty body moved up and down, as if it was nodding to Ain's instructions.
The wait wasn't long. Only a minute later, the slanty-eyed man's wails started to die down, and the healer's panicked voice sounded instead.
"Damn it! Hold on a little longer!"
Although the healer tried all he could, the slanty-eyed man's life slowly slipped away. It became apparent when the hysterical bird nearby suddenly stopped and fell back lifelessly.
Seeing this, Ain knew that his opportunity had arrived.
With a clamor, he immediately jumped out from behind a tree and threw his dagger. The aim was true as it made its way towards the healer's head, while Ain also sprinted towards the healer.
This action immediately alerted everyone on the scene.
"How dare you!" The spirit tamer with the bow and arrow was the first to notice. He quickly aimed at Ain and instructed the Creeping Snake to attack him simultaneously. But before his arrow could be released, he suddenly felt a chill behind his back. He tried to dodge, but a pair of white claws slashed across his neck, instantly ending his life.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
With his fading vision, he saw the dagger Ain threw puncture the healer's arm as he brought them up to block his head.
The Creeping Snake, that had shot off towards Ain, also dropped down lifelessly midway the moment its spirit tamer died.
By now, Ain had already approached the healer, ready to attack in close range.
With a threat to his life, the healer ignored the pain from his left arm and swung his right fist at Ain. There was some semblance to martial arts in his strike, but clearly, he had not practiced enough.
With his augmented cognition, Ain read the attack with ease and grabbed the incoming arm with his left hand. He then used it to pull the healer towards himself as he also took a step forward with his right foot. His right fist was near his hip, ready to strike.
What followed was a devastating body blow. Ain used Spirit Impact to complement his strike, lifting the healer's feet off the ground with the sheer force of impact. A fountain of blood spouted from the healer's mouth.
At this moment, Ain noticed the Two Flower Fawn charging at him from the side, ready to headbutt him.
With minimal time, Ain twisted his body and jumped, effectively dodging the attack. On the way down, he placed one hand on the fawn's head as a pivot and landed on the fawn's back. Soon, a storm of fists rained down on its head.
He used Spirit Impact with every attack. Although Ain felt his spirit energy drain with each strike, the explosive damage upon contact motivated Ain to not relent.
Not long after, the Two Flower Fawn lost strength in its legs as its life force started to decline.
Ain didn't pay it any more attention and turned to look at the healer, who had fallen down onto a bed of shrubs after Ain's previous attack.
At this moment, Nox was floating over the healer's corpse with its claws out. Noticing Ain's gaze, it waved its bloody claws at him and started flying over.
The Two Flower Fawn had also completely lost all signs of life the moment Nox finished off its spirit tamer.
Ain didn't lose his vigilance and instructed Nox to keep a lookout. Then, he sprinkled a copious amount of masking powder in the surroundings.
Ain didn't need to think too much about his next actions. There should only be two objectives after killing another spirit tamer: loot their body and erase the evidence. Many were only good at the first part, as seen from the bodies being recovered recently.
In the next few minutes, Ain searched all three spirit tamers and piled up their belongings to the side.
Next, he moved onto the spirit pets. Ain couldn't bring back these bodies; it would be no different from announcing his actions.
The bodies of spirit pets could be recognized by some professionals who dealt with spirit beasts for various resources.
Moreover, with the combination of these three spirit pets, it wouldn't be difficult to link them to these missing spirit tamers.
After a quick thought, Ain proceeded to harvest the bodies of the spirit pets. He only kept the meat from the fawn and the bird, while harvesting only the fangs, skin, and venom from the snake.
He could eat the meat himself as he currently needed to consume Rank-1 meat. The snake's loot could be sold along with the Rank-0 Creeping Snakes he had hunted.
After Ain was finished with the harvest, he moved back to the spirit tamer's loot. There were several bags, some empty, while others filled with various spirit plants. Not only was there more Threadleaf Grass, but there were also 44 Misty Herbs in their harvest, completing Ain’s objective.
He also found some valuable items such as medicinal pills.
The medicine bottles were all labeled accordingly. Most of them were various healing medicines and antidotes. Only two bottles grabbed Ain's attention.
Spirit Recovery Pills and Spirit Condensing Pills. He quickly searched through his memory and remembered their effects.
Spirit Recovery Pills were a must-have item for all spirit tamers. Their effect was simple and straightforward. They could increase the spirit energy recovery rate. They could be used in training or during an expedition outside. After all, it could be fatal for a spirit tamer to run out of spirit energy in the wilderness.
Similar to Spirit Recovery Pills, Spirit Condensing Pills also affected one's spirit energy. But instead of restoring spirit energy, they temporarily increased the quality of spirit energy, which, in turn, increased training efficiency and spell potency.
This was one of the medicines Teacher Turner recommended for Ain. Almost every spirit tamer consumed Spirit Condensing Pills during training. Ain had seen many classmates do so as well.
One of his goals for this trip was to earn enough money to buy these pills. Now, Ain had received a whole bottle of them.
The division of medicinal pills was similar to spirit tamer ranks. The ones in Ain's possession were both at Rank-1. They were looted from the slanty-eyed spirit tamer, who was the only spirit tamer at Intermediate Rank-1. Medicines could also be graded according to their quality, but Ain wasn’t insightful enough to appraise the pills in his hand.
Other than the medicines, there was some survival gear, cash cards, and some star coins.
Cash cards could be redeemed for star coins, allowing one to complete anonymous transactions and transfers.
There were some star coins as well. Star coins weren't really coins but rather a paper currency, although it did have denominations in coins. Ain counted 18,964 star coins in total. The cash cards could have even more.