Chp. 4 Not all Kounelis are created equal

As we walked over to the sparing, I saw several people pointing and talking about Ava, she didn’t seem to be bothered about it, but I wondered why so many people didn’t like her because she was a mixed race, I shook my head thinking it’s the same in every world. I got ready to try this sword for the first time and I thought back to all of those sword fighting movies I had watched. I’ve seen every Samurai, Ninja, and Star Wars moving ever made, and after thinking about it I felt my confidence rise I’ve got this. They don’t have that stuff here, she won’t know my moves I can do this, I’ll surprise her. Plus, hey she is half my size, maybe I should hold back a little, it’s never good for a full-grown man to go full out on a small woman, right?

“Ready,” she asked.

“Sure,” I said, “I’ll try to be easy.”

At that moment I blinked, Ava had disappeared, I was on my knees and there was something sharp and pointed sticking and pricking into my back.

“Ava,” I said with panic.

I heard her voice from behind me, “You kind of surprised me there Jensen. I thought you would be faster than that.”

She removed her dagger that had been touching my back and walked around in front of me sheathing her dagger she gave me a hand and helped me up.

Maybe we should start a little slower, let’s go over to the practice targets and let you get a feel for that sword, and maybe get you to move those feet a little bit.

One of the guys that were talking about Ava, yelled from the crowd, “Ava are you taking it easy on him? Man, kid you picked the wrong elf to mess with your lucky to be conscious”.

Ava glared at the man, “Jim just because you can’t keep up doesn’t mean I’m going to be that hard on everyone, he is new to this, he hasn’t been training for 10 years.”

The man laughed.

I then realized the crowd wasn’t talking about Ava because she was a half-breed, but because she was a ruthless hunter.

We continued over to the practice targes where Ava showed me basic movements to use with my sword. I realized that she knew a lot about sword fighting.

“Hey,” I said, “if you know so much about swords why don’t you carry one all I see is a bow and a dagger” She smiled if I’m in a fight I either prefer to be up-close and personal or not seen at all.

That smile would have been enough to scare oh Enzo back there.

After going through the sword forms, she had shown me for what seemed like hours, I was covered with more sweat than I had been when I would do one of those rare gym days back home.

She suggested we take a break.

We set down and she pulled some bread, cheese, and dried meat out of her pack. She then pulled out a flask and said here get a drink. The water was almost like ice, and I wondered if they had used an ice crystal when they made the flask.

After we finished our snack and rested for a bit. She suggested we go out and try to do the job we picked up today. She said we would have to go out of the city to the countryside and if we don’t leave soon, it would be dark before we got back. I remembered what she said last night about being out after dark and agreed we better get going. I asked her if she wanted me to create a party and she that would be a good idea, that way they could both track their XP progress.

As we walked outside the city gates, I still couldn’t understand why we were hunting kounelis, if we are not supposed to kill harmless creatures.

After walking for several miles, Ava spotted the thrafsi kounelis, I couldn’t even see them, I figured her great eye site must have been something she got from being half-elf.

As we got closer, I finally got to see my first thrafsi kouneli, was it an adorable white bunny that I was questioning why we should kill? Not even close. The best way to describe a thrafsi kouneli is maybe a hairless rabbit, with sharp claws, razor teeth, and something kind to a turtle shell on its back. And they were big I’m talking wolf-size big. And they were everywhere. There were over 20 spread out in this field, some were chewing on tree trunks, and others were eating grass and whatever else was on the ground leaving the ground bare to the dirt. And there were five or so chowing down on something that looked like a cow maybe only it had scales. These Snappers, I’m no longer calling them kounelis, because they are in no way sweet cuddly bunnies, were ravaging creatures eating everything in their path.

As we got up on them Ava stopped.

“Look there are a few things you need to know about thrafsi kounelis” she explained “First take them on, one by one, and try to separate them 2 you could probably handle them if your sword skills were a little better but 3 would be too much, they are fast, so be on your guard, always aim for the head they are fast and if they see you coming and they don’t have a chance to counter they will tuck into that shell, and nothing short of a large hammer will bust it, and lastly don’t let them bit you not only do they have razor sharp teeth but their saliva has a toxin that can cause you to lose feeling and control of where ever they bit. If they bite an arm, then it will be useless for a while if they bite on the chest or neck you're probably going to die”.

“Oh, and before we get started to take this, I found it when I was hunting the other day, I was going to sell it, but you can just pay me more for it” she smiled “at a better rate of course” she added.

Ava handed Jensen a leather tunic and gloved braces.

Jensen slipped on the tunic and braced gloves as he did messages popped up in his HUD.

image [https://i.imgur.com/A87pdqu.png]

Jensen equipped his sword and pulled up his status detail.

image [https://i.imgur.com/kDUMF3r.png]

“Ready?” Ava asked as I was still looking over the new to me leather armor, it didn’t go with my jeans and Air Jordans but at least it was something.

“Should we party up first” I replied. She shook her head yes.

“Ok then see that one over there by itself why don’t you start with it, if I see that you need help, I’ll jump in” She pointed and told through our party chat.

So, I headed off. I walked slowly thinking maybe it wouldn’t notice me, to begin with. I was a little nervous, but I told myself, I have a big sword and it's not that scary looking. I’ll get the jump on it and it will be easy to handle it’s only one.

Right then “crack” what was that stick doing there? The thrafsi kouneli looked right at me. Red glowing orbs for eyes with a little yellow dot for a pupal, yeah it looked a little scary. Then the Snapper opened its mouth and I see rows of razor-sharp bloody teeth, this thing had a mouth like a great white shark, ok this thing is very scary. But it didn’t move, maybe it’s just as scared of me and is about to run off. That’s when it moved. Not towards the other snappers but right at me, man it’s fast. Right before it got to me it jumped, how can it jump that high it’s almost level with my head, its mouth still wide open. It had a look like it was starving and was about to eat a big Jensen steak. I threw up the flat of my sword in just enough time to block it from my neck and push it back. It landed rolling for a second and then came straight back at me that look of hunger was the most terrifying part. This time it didn’t jump but took a swipe with its claws at my leg, I instantly knew that I wasn’t fast enough when pain shot through my calve. Are you telling me the first creature I fight is going to be the thing that kills me?

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“Ouch”, I heard her say through our chat, that must of hurt.

I had no time to reply, I had to keep moving. I jumped away from its next attack causing more to go through my leg, and then it gave out. And on my butt, I went. The snapper noticed this instantly, jumping at my head. I raised my sword just in time for the snapper to impel itself on the sword through the mouth. Laying there with the sword hilt against the ground the tip pointing up through the head of the snapper I sight in relief. Then my arm went numb, and I let go of the sword causing the snapper’s body to fall on top of me. I was puzzled for a minute then I remembered the snapper’s saliva which had dripped all down my arm. I pushed the dead creature off with my other arm and clumsily got up, still unable to move my right arm.

A message appeared in my HUD

image [https://i.imgur.com/NPB8Kbz.png]

I looked at my status and noticed that the snapper didn’t do that much damage to my leg I only lost a little HP.

image [https://i.imgur.com/MSG3e0g.png]

“Well, I guess that wasn’t a total disaster,” Ava said through our chat.

“I thought you said you would help if I needed it?” I asked.

“I was about to but then you put your sword up and I thought that was your plan all along” Ava replied.

“Here let me help with that,” she said.

Ava put her hand over my chest and mumbled something inaudible and instantly the pain and my leg and the numbness in my arm went away. A notification appeared.

image [https://i.imgur.com/cY1DfeV.png]

“What was that I feel amazing,” I asked.

“Oh, see you’re not the only one that has cool abilities, I can help most minor wounds and afflictions, I can even revive stamina,” she said. “It does use a little MP, so I try not to rely on it too much”

I looked at Ava’s stats in my HUD.

image [https://i.imgur.com/7KzdVj8.png]

“Hey that gave you some XP too, I guess since we are in a party, we both get XP,” I told her.

“That’s odd,” Ava said, “normally after the mist compresses and the pop a crystal will appear.”

“That’s probably because of one of my abilities, it’s called loot, it looks like the items were automatically put in my inventory,” I told her, and then reached into my mental storage space and pulled out the crystal shard.

“That’s so cool, and that crystal is so small” she smiled “that really was a little guy wasn’t it,” she said with a tease.

“I’ll get better,” I said angrily.

“You better and quick we still got 19 more to go,” she said still teasing. She pulled out a dagger and with efficient knife motions skinned and harvested the meat from the snapper. “We need to make sure to get all the meat”, she said as she packed the meat in salt and put it in her bag.

Here I told her to let me put it in mine that way it doesn’t weigh you down.

“Enzo says that thrafsi kouneli is a top seller at the shop,” she told me “And they taste pretty good too.”

We continued working our way around the group of snipping kounelis, Ava watched as I battled through each one, one on one. After each of the first few Ava would have to do a little healing to keep going. As we worked through the group, I got more confident and was able to dispatch not-so-cutie and fuzzy little demon revengers. I managed to take out 9 of the little bastards by myself in one-on-one battles. The others didn’t seem to notice or care they just continued eating away at everything they could find.

As I was finishing my current snapper and harvesting its meat, Ava had me pull back and regroup. She then explained the next ones are too clustered together to take one-on-one I’ll start helping from here on out. Be prepared when we attack this time the others will notice, and we will be swarmed quickly. Make sure to kill and move on to the next one as quickly as possible.

She then pulled out her bow and nocked an arrow. Before the first arrow hit the closest thrafsi kouneli, she was already letting a 2nd go and after 3 rapid successions 3 arrows thudded into the heads of three thrafsi kounelis, and they feel lifeless. By the time the 3rd one was dead the remaining thrafsi kounelis noticed us, their red glowing eyes locking on us instantly. And with open hungry razor-sharp teethed mouths they surged forward.

I was a little overwhelmed and panicked I started running away as the fastest one came close, I turned around I had managed to get them in somewhat of a funnel formation so I could take on fewer at a time as long as I acted quickly. Arrows speed past my shoulder as another snapper died an arrow sticking out where an eye once was. Taking on a few at a time as quickly as I could with Ava firing arrows faster than I ever thought possible we managed to finish off the thrafsi kounelis with no further incidents.

Several message boxes had popped up while I was fighting the thrafsi kounelis, and another one popped up after I finished the last one.

image [https://i.imgur.com/CJRdjW4.png]

I mentally made it go away and then I got to looking at the others, there was a box that had a history of XP gained from each thrafsi kouneli we had killed, which looked to have varied in amount depending on if I had killed it or if Ava had. I also had several loot boxes that had popped up. I had gained a little copper for each thrafsi kouneli I had killed, the total ended up being more than the quest paid in total. I also had several small earth crystal shards, and a pair of leather boots, one of them had somehow stashed. I started talking to Ava about how we made more money from killing the creatures than the quest pays. She looked at me confused and I realized she hadn’t gotten any coin from killing the thrafsi kounelis.

I then proceeded to explain how my loot seemed to work and all the items I had picked up during our fight. I knew I should keep some things to myself, but Ava had been the only friend I had made here so far, so I felt I should at least trust her. I explained that I would split the coin and crystals we got from this job with her when we got back to the city.

Another box then appeared, “oh cool I just leveled up” I told Ava. As I felt a wave of refreshment come over me, instantly my wounds were healed and what HP I had lost was regained. I swung my sword and it felt just a little lighter, and it may have moved a little faster but that might have been me just being hopeful, but I could tell a difference. I liked this feeling this instant high of being refreshed and stronger, I wanted more of it I had to keep leveling up.She looked at me with a weird expression.

“What,” I asked.

That was way too quick of a level-up, normally it takes years to level up from level 1 to 2.

image [https://i.imgur.com/7f52iDm.png]

I told her how it felt, and she shook her head in agreement. She explained that was the way they knew they had reached the next level; hunters don’t normally have some kind of message that just pops up. They also stressed again that hunters never normally level up from one hunt and especially not something this easy.

I then looked at my status and noticed that my XP process bar had gone from needing 300 to hit level 2 to needing 2800 for level 3, so I listened to what she said because I knew the next level gain wasn’t going to happen for a while.

We headed back to the guild house in town and turned in the quest. The job register welcomed us back and we turned in for the job. I also inquired about how to change my badge to reflect my new level. He told me I would have to go see Barb at registration.

When we entered the room the same dragon lady was setting behind her desk reading the same book.

“May I help you?” she said.

“Hi Barb, nice to see you again,” I said. I need to change my badge to reflect that I’m a level two.

She said down her book which surprisingly she had made quite a bit further through in the little time I was gone. If she was surprised, I was back she hid it very well under the attitude of being annoyed that her book was being interrupted. She took a spirit crystal out and touched it to the back of my hand and then to my badge and the level changed to 2.

“There you have it, have a nice day”, she said in her old lady hiss.

“Oh, that’s it,” I asked.

“What do you want a party” she hissed before picking up her book and seemingly forgetting about us.

We decided to pick up several more jobs before calling it a day, we picked another level 1 for the kounelis and a couple of level 2. I then sold the crystals to the hunter’s guild and split that and the other coin I had looted with Ava. I also paid her what she said was a fair price for the armor she had started me out with. I kept the boots since she already had boots and I didn’t want to have to keep cleaning blood off my Jordans. Ava explained that in the morning we could stop at Enzo’s and get me some leather pants as well.

She invited me to sleep on her couch for another night since while we made more coin than she ever imagined, rent was still high, and she insisted a little more before renting a place