Luca left Michelle and Bryn alone looking at the elk. His movements alone would be much faster and they would have a greater chance of hunting the elk by positioning themselves to surround it and with attacks coming from all sides.

He ran, fast enough that the tree leaves rustled after his passage. His feet touched softly into the ground and roots and propelled him forward. His movements made no sound. He went back a hundred meters in the blink of an eye.

I should be far enough that crossing the river won’t call the elk's attention. I’ll slowly close the distance to get a good attack. The elk will try and move as soon as it hears or sees something, I should take advantage of that. Also, if my hit doesn’t incapacitate the Elk, Michelle can take it down with her bow… There is Bryn as well, but Michelle should be enough. Luca thought.

Evading all of the branches that would alert the elk, Luca slowly approached a good position for his attack. The elk could already be seen by him as the gap became smaller. He hid his presence to the best of his ability, getting closer and closer.

It got to a point when there was a single tree between the two. Luca focused all his mind on the task at hand. Swiftly attacking the elk with all his might.

He opted to throw a small pebble into the river, it was aimed a slice above the elk’s head. As the stone flew, Luca moved with all his speed. The branch from which Luca propelled himself, shacked a little bit, but the Elk’s attention was already captured by the splash in the water created by the moving stone. The elk rose its head trying to ascertain himself of the movement in the water and a fraction of a second later, looked back at the trees behind him. Looking back, it tried to move towards the river and jump across, since it could see further than the closed forest behind it.

It was all in Luca’s expectation, his sword was already aimed at a position closer to the river than where the elk previously was. As his swords cut the air, the jump from the elk was a bit stronger than anticipated and Luca’s blade didn’t land a perfect blow. The elk groaned in pain from the cut and, in adrenaline, sped up his steps to the other side of the river. It shook its head in Luca’s direction, using his antlers to gain some distance.

The smile on Luca’s face was the very last thing the Elk saw. An arrow whistled threw the air and struck the elk’s shoulder blades followed by a short sword reaching its neck. One broke its shoulders and punctured its heart, the other was able to penetrate just enough to hit an artery.

The creature stumbled for a few steps as all three prepared for another round. Luca was already in motion for his next strike. Bryn was unable to remove the lodged sword from the elk, so he simply stepped back. Michele was ready, bowstring pulled back and ready to be released at any moment.

It took two steps from the elk for the three of them to realize it had no more energy and conditions to keep going. It fell into the river, creating a big blood flow in the water beneath Luca’s feet. Part of the river became red. Bryn had his first experience hunting a big animal in a group. The feeling was much different. As if hunting rabbits were the minor league of some sport and animals as strong and big as elk were the real deal.

The scene in front of him was complicated for his feelings. Part of him was uncomfortable with the blood and violence. Partly proud of his performance. But most importantly, your heart and smile told him he wanted more. Out of breath because of the exhaustion from the burst of movements, he looked at both Luca and back at Michele. Luca’s hand was still in the hilt of his swords, looking at the creature’s eyes. Michele, was atop the tree now with her bow not drawn but with her next arrow placed on the weapon. Unlike him, they were ready for anything to happen.

Despite taking a long to describe, the situation was fast. Between the pebble hitting the water and the elk falling into the river, 10 seconds had passed. Soon, the elk drew its last breath.

Bryn’s face lit up like a christmas tree once more.

- Level UP ! -

Level 2 -> Level 3 (31%)

Gained 8 status points

Luca realized the change in the faun’s expression and asked. “Leveled up again?”

“YES!” Bryn answered.

“It should be relatively quick for you to reach level 5 hunting here in the mountains, after that the animals don’t offer you that many levels, and magical beasts are still far away from you being able to hunt them… Hahah, I am starting to face magical beasts under supervision just now.” Said Luca as he lowered his sword, and one of his arms up as to show his power.

Bryn was unable to register what he was saying, he was too excited thinking about where to place his status points.

In the last fight, I didn’t have strength enough to go through the elk. I used all my strength, the speed I was going, the tip of the word but still, the resistance was greater than I thought. I need more strength, that is for sure. Dexterity didn’t seem like a problem and neither did agility, but I was far from the speed Luca demonstrated and even further from Michele’s arrow. I think the best place, for now, is going to be two points each and the extra two points toward strength.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Name

Bryn

Age

8

Lvl

2

Race

Faun

Titles

Blessed by Lugh

Blessed by Flidais

Protected by Kwame Nkosi’s Vow [Temporary]

Status

Strength

9 (+3)

Intelligence

1

Dexterity

3 (+6)

Agility

7 (+6)

Vitality

2

Luck

2

Skills

[Farming]; [Physical Improvement Begginer]; [Butchering]; [Parkour]; [Cooking]; [One-Handed Sword Mastery - Beginner]; [Martial Art]; [Taekwondo]

“Hey Bryn!! My Brother said you leveled up!! Congratulations!” said Michelle.

“I did, yes. Level 3 now!” Bryn said.

“Good! You’ll get stronger and stronger as we keep going! Bro, where should we go next?”

Before answering, Luca waved his hand and the big elk on their feet disappeared.

“What was that?!” Bryn’s heart skipped a beat as he looked scared towards Luca.

“You have never seen a magical ring?” Luca asked.

“How would I have seen such a thing?! What is that?” Bryn asked.

“This is a piece of magical equipment... It allows us to store things that are not alive... They are stored as they were, so meat doesn’t rot, and herbs keep fresh once you take them from the ground and store them inside the ring.” Luca answered, jaw slacked and looking astonished at the question.

“Bryn, you really have never seen storage rings?? Hahahah” Michelle laughed at the expression Bryn was still making. She didn’t know whether to laugh at him or the shock her brother was displaying.

“Bryn, clearly you have no idea about many things… let’s work on your hunting for now…” Luca said.

Taking a deep breath, Bryn regains his calm. “I’m ok with that.” he said.

“Michelle, on a rate from one to ten, how was our hunt of the elk?”

“Hmmm, eight, big bro.”

“Why is that, could you explain it?”

“The goal of the hunter is TO HUNT THEIR PREY SPENDING THE LEAST AMOUNT OF ENERGY, that way we can be ready in case things go bad!!” She said.

“Bryn, that is your first commandment as a hunter. Remember that… Father and Uncle Jonas made them easy for us to get accustomed to. Thinking about that, Bryn, why do you think Michelle gave us an eight?” Luca asked looking at the faun.

Bryn pondered for a while before answering. Analyzing fights was a first for him, but situations were far from it. As an executive, he had to break down situations constantly to find the root cause and address it. “I would say we had four main flaws. First, your attack was not a one-hit kill, meaning both me and Michelle had to attack as well. Second, my attack lacked power. I was unable to go all the way through the elk’s neck. Third, I used everything I had on that attack, making me useless after that burst of energy and losing my weapon. Fourth, I believe that our teamwork can improve so that we can all spend less energy on a similar situation.”

“Wow, you are smart.” Michelle said to Bryn’s analysis.

“Very good! I was going to sum it up in less words, but that was a good one. The problem with what you said is that the first and the fourth are going against one another, how can I spend less energy but give an animal a one-hit kill?” Luca asked.

Once again Bryn found himself thinking a lot. “I would say that the safest way to do that is using distant and powerful attacks. Michelle’s arrow would be enough to hunt that elk by herself I think.”

“Good point. Still, that is not what you and I are training today. Since we are here to train, what we can do is think of a sequence of moves that can incapacitate an animal without us spending all of our energy. That way, we can hunt for longer and all our levels go up, not only Michelle and her bow mastery skill.” Luca complemented his thoughts.

“By your words, when we hunt as a group we all get levels?”

“I’m not sure how it works, but the more you damage the prey, the less prey you have to kill to level up. When we hunt with father and uncle, they barely do anything, just guiding us with words sometimes…”

“It is super boring…” Michelle added

The world has some exp dividing logic… If that is the case, the elk is a much tougher higher-level opponent than rabbits… From level 1 to level two I had to kill 7 rabbits if I’m not mistaken, the last one much bigger than the previous 6. Now with one precise blow to an elk, I jumped almost one level and a half… I’ll have to get more data to think about a strategy to level up quicker, but hunting with them seems the best route for now…

“Luca, where should we go next?” Bryn asked. His tone was sincere and there was no challenge in his voice anymore. He had fully acknowledged Luca as their leader in the hunt.

To his words, Luca’s chest puffed even more than usual. “Let's go up the river in the direction of the mountain, try and find more tracks, and also hunt animals on the way.”

The three of them started to follow the stream where they found the elk not long ago. Seconds became minutes, and minutes became an hour. It took them a long time to find any traces on the river’s side.

As they decided to walk inwards in the direction of the forest near the edge of the mountain range, Michelle spotted some excrement. “Hey, I found elk poop over here!!” she said.

“Another Level!! Let's go!!” Bryn thought.

“Good work Michelle, now try and find clues about its whereabouts… explain to Bryn what you are doing so he can learn how to track.”

“Hmm, looking at it the poop is quite fresh, meaning that the elk was here not long ago. Considering the direction the branches are bent from these surrounding trees… I would say it went into the mountain range…”

“Very good! Bryn, what should we do?” Luca said.

“I say we go for it.” Bryn said, his eyes hungry for levels.

“Ok. Michelle, you take the lead this time.” Luca said as Michelle started to move.