"Thieving from a hunter! Oh, bold, so bold! But clever? Ha! The hunter sees all, hears all—his traps are set, his eyes are sharp as steel. You think you can take what's his? Snatch a trophy, a trinket, a bit of gold from his hoard? Ha-ha! Foolish, foolish thieves!" Parroting the Wise.

Alistern collected all the useful loot for distribution. We could keep the coins, meat and cores that we killed. The trial gave some Gloves with the sure-grip enchantment and some tough hide armour pieces. There were four Skill stones dropped. Two were Power Punch, and one was a Strength Boost using mana. They went to various guards who could use them. I was interested in the Enhanced Jump stone, but Alistern passed it on to the Scout.

I was pumping my Rejuvenating Aura to refresh and replenish the group.

I made an offer for the monster cores. I gave them less than the market price, but they wouldn’t clog up their limited storage devices. People assumed it was for my Profession, and I would keep some for that, but I had gotten some good skills from monster cores before, so why not again?

I ended up with a hundred and ninety-six cores. The chances of one containing a skill were good. Before I started turning them to dust, I wanted to try something. When we made camp to rest, I got all the cores out and stacked them in front of me.

Then I covered them in my Mana Web and cranked up my Mana Sensitivity. They were all from the same monster so the mana was similar in all of them. Similar, but not the same. I was picking up small differences, particularly in the variations of the amounts of mana. There were a lot of tree and primate mana, if I was identifying it correctly. But there were different amounts, and some seemed to be more plants than trees, and some were lighter, so maybe some air skills were needed. Some felt stronger than others, but I could not tell if that was a strength enhancement or the tougher hide.

What would highlight to me if they held a skill or not? Then, there was a matter of compatibility. If the skill involved manipulating wood, and I had no affinity for that, what would happen? I assume I would not be able to learn it, but would there be a backlash? I didn’t know. They had a tough hide, but how would that fit with the Toughened Skin Skill that I already had? Would I grow yellow-red fur?

Before I worried about what skill it was, I had to try to figure out if there was one and where it might be, preferably without going through one by one.

Skills were mana-concentrated and formed in a way that followed the way the skill worked. Surely, the mana would be different in the core with the skill, although I suppose it could be masked by the general mana that is also there.

I started using my Mana Web a bit more actively and penetrated the cores a little to see what was below the surface. I tried using Micromana Manipulation to wiggle the web into the core just a little. I worked my way through the cores by doing this. I was getting a feel for this core, and I pulled one out that felt different. I wasn’t sure how different, but it was. Then there was another. Was two a lot? I think two was a lot.

I stored the rest away and tried to sense what might be in the cores. I grabbed a core. Searching and drawing out the skill was not hard with my enhanced control and manipulation, but the skill seemed like it hit a barrier, and then it crumbled with the core. I had the sense it might have been related to trees and wood, but I was not compatible with it. I will have to figure this out, as I could have sold it to someone else. I will learn.

The next core was definitely a skill as well, so I have at least learned to recognise them. This slotted nicely into place and gave me a defensive skill called Toughened Body to complement my Toughened Skin. I felt a wave of toughness or resistance go through my body. This was far superior to the skin as it seemed to strengthen the bones and other organs as well as the muscles. Is this why the Ape’cot were so tough and handled falls well? This might stop me from breaking limbs if I fell. I looked down and decided it would help after I levelled it.

It didn’t merge with Toughened Skin. I thought it might, as they have similar names, and Skin is a subset of the Body. Are specific Skills like Toughened Skin stronger than more general Skills like Toughened Body? Will the general Skill take longer to level? I don’t know.

I also had enough kills and XP to level my Spectral Slayer, so I did. Agility was the key thing here.

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We were soon on the move again. We made good time. I felt as though we were being watched every now and then, but it wasn’t constant. Rob and I led, and Alistern was out with the other Scout.

We ran into a couple of creatures. One was a squirrel crossed with a crocodile. It was fast, and those jaws were not just for show. Wella and Hist from the Guard produced spears that held it at bay, and I threw Spears that pierced the squirrel's legs and bushy tail. I really don’t want to know what it was. It doesn’t matter If it was another challenger or a Trial beast. It was just weird.

The other one we ran from was a massive snake-type creature, and nothing we had could get past its scales. We mistook it for a branch at first, and it was more than twice as wide as Rob and many times longer. I am sure it was another challenger. Fortunately, it was not that interested in chasing us. It could have swallowed one of us whole, possibly more than one. There are bigger and scarier things around, and I don’t want to be near when the trial sends something to test that challenger. If it had been a trial beast, it would have chased us.

There was a night and day cycle, which made sense. There are a lot of nocturnal hunters, and they are often some of the most dangerous. Alistern found us a good crevice in a trunk we could use to hole up in.

The night was a lot livelier than the day. Night in this Trial was not for sleeping. The sounds of fighting came often. The Hunt went up in difficulty at night by a lot.

Everybody in the party was strong and had a reasonable constitution, so sleep could be minimised to a couple of hours a day.

The first attack was the moths. They were surprisingly agile and sucked out mana with surprising speed. Those with high agility could often hit them, but often only one at a time. The moths were not visible with Spectral Vision (Heat) or (SeeThru) but were bright to Mana Sight.

Nights Embrace did nothing, but Umbral Cold slowed them down enough for Rod to snatch them with his tongue and snack on them. Following Rob’s example, I pulled out a sticky whip and picked off the ones he missed. Rob was curled up under me, having a nice time. When we ran out, I pulsed Provoking Aura to draw a few more in. I got some nasty looks for that. There were no monster cores from this; there were just some coins and the occasional mana potion.

“Anyone seen my pipe?” Private Ryan asked in the morning as we prepared to move out. We looked around, shaking our heads.

“Wasn’t it in your spatial pouch?” Suda asked.

“No, I had it in my hand last night and slipped it in my pocket when I went on watch,” he replied.

“Nasty habit anyway,” Suda said, “Toughen up.”

We moved on, and Alistern and Suda shared the scouting. Rob and I gave the directions. We chased away a large cat of some sort. The fact it ran indicated it was an intelligent challenger and not a Trial beast. It got away with only a couple of arrows in its flank. It was too fast for my thrown spear, and that is one wasted.

It was late afternoon when we fought off a large group of Rabid Tree Squirrels. Small and fast attackers are our weaknesses. I have Nights Embrace and Umbral Cold, but they don’t cover that large an area yet. The Fire Mage, Norm, had Wall of Fire and Rain of Fire, but there was too much of a risk of setting our tree on fire, so he was limited in what he could do.

Myantha had her Cutting Wave, which she could use on one side, but the Squiiels tended to go under or over it. Joe, the Heavy Infantry Guard, has a Caltrops ability, but it is lying on the ground. He could put up a Shield Wall, but the pests went up and over it.

Small, fast attackers were difficult for us. What actually worked was that Joe and I anchored each end of the branch. He laid out his Caltrops in one direction, and I did my Nights Embrace and Umbral Cold in the other. Then he let loose his Fury’s Challenge taunt, and I released my Provoking Aura. His Fury’s Challenge was a much higher level than my aura, but this drew them into us, and we could deal with it as a group rather than as a long-drawn engagement and them hassling us for a long time.

Rob’s Tongue was good at catching Squirrels, especially as they were slowed with Night’s Embrace and Umbral Cold.

They still got through with their high agility, and there were some injuries, but nothing that people’s self-heal skills or potions couldn’t handle, boosted by my Rejuvenating Aura.

When we started moving off, I noticed Lightreaver was not in its holster, so I summoned it back. There was a loud squawk of protest, and it sounded like the last time that had happened. My suspicions were rising about this. I think we are being hunted. The scout, Suda and I went to investigate, but there was nothing we could see. We would be on alert and maybe set some traps.

We moved on. The night was approaching, and we were looking for a defensible position before the nocturnal hunters came out to play.

The best we could do was a hollow where a branch met a trunk. I was pretty sure it was going to be a long night.