I got back to the farm much faster than it took me to get to the culling. My only stops were for a short sleep and to relieve my increasingly irritating cursed skill. I am again reminded that sex without any emotional connection becomes meaningless rather quick. Who would have known? Actually, with the benefit of my past life I should at least have twigged that bit. The morning after getting back to the farm I wander into one of our large communal rooms that functions as both a kitchen and a dining room.

Mari is washing some dishes using water piped from the water tower I built out back. An eerily normal scene in a world I still think of as a fantasy world. Wrapping my arms around her from behind I greet her good morning. She flinches from my sudden unexpected touch be relaxes instantly. "You made me jump! You are far too good at sneaking up on people." Her tone implies that she is just teasing, and not at all angry with the sudden embrace.

"Where is everyone?" Without looking away from her task, Mari gives me a summary of our households location. "Lawra and Pia went to open the shop. Lynne went to the guild for work, and Kira is outside practicing with her crossbow. You should probably speak to her she seemed frustrated about something relating to her shooting." "I think I can guess her frustration. The wyvern culling mission was a reminder for her that she lacks the firepower to come with me on more dangerous missions."

"What is the problem, she can fire that thing almost as fast as you with your bow?" I am reminded that Mari is by far the most normal person in the house. No special strengths or skills, and to her two skilled people will seem similar. She probably would not notice the gaps in speed, accuracy and penetration power in our archery. "She can fire those bolts off fast, and her accuracy has improved a lot, but the one thing she lacks is penetration power. She could use a pulley system on a more powerful crossbow, but that would slow down her speed massively. Against weak, non-armored opponents her current crossbow is perfect, but it has limits."

"Why can't you just teach her archery using a bow? There seems to be several female hunters using bows at the guild like Rin." Since Mari has never tried a bow, she would not know the amount of strength needed to draw a bow with a good draw weight. "I will admit, I find it strange that female hunters use bows, as a bow requires a lot of strength to use. Did you notice the upper body strength of that female archer I was facing off against at the tournament?"

Mari looks up at me thoughtfully as she recollects the event. "She did have a strange body shape. Her upper body was disproportionately larger than her lower body, almost like a guy. It did not seem normal for a woman." I am surprised by the detail Mari is remembering. I wasn't expecting that she would have noticed. "Then what about Rin, she has a very normal shape, and she does not look a much stronger than most low level hunters." Odd how we are still talking about Rin as she is still living with us, though she left weeks ago.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Rin used a very low strength bow, similar in strength to Kira's crossbow. After our hunting trip she admitted that she felt a bit useless during it as whatever she did the lower ranked Kira could do just as well and I could do better. I suspect Kira is feeling something similar." Mari looks troubled by the last bit. "In fact it would probably be more useful if you spoke to her than me, though I will go out and have a chat with her now."

Outside I find Kira putting bolt after bolt in designated targets. Her speed and accuracy is getting incredibly good. My analyze skill gives me an even more detailed breakdown of how she is improving. In both speed and accuracy she could well catch up to me one day, but as I stated to Mari, her main problem is range and penetration. At short to medium range she is already the scourge of goblins, but any stronger or better armored opponents would give her trouble.

Stopping her shooting, Kira turns to address me. "Finally out of bed. You must be catching up on a week's worth of limited sleep." She is probably right. It is already noon, and I though I don't need as much sleep as I used to in my old life, I barely slept the whole return trip. "Just catching up."

I try to engage Kira in a conversation about her shooting, but all I can really do is encourage her. She showed a bit interest in supplementing her pump action crossbow with a much more powerful one using a pulley system to reload. In a fight she could start with a shot from it and switch to the smaller rapid fire crossbow.

"What about you, did you practice your magic while you were away?" Kira seems keen on moving the conversation away from herself and onto me. "You haven't really been using any magic in fights yet." She is right about that. "You probably know this, but in the heat of the moment, my instinct is to go for what I am used to. I am still not very used to magic, and my control is very lacking."

Hesitating a bit I decide to tell her about my latest experiences with healing magic. "During my trip I tried to heal severe injuries at two separate occasions, but failed both times. They both died." Kira asks me who they were and I explain the context to each story. "I can understand how you feel about the hunter, it is a bit like watching a distant relative die in front of you. Not sure why you are bothered about the other guy. I hope you prolonged his suffering."

Kira's summary is what I find to be the common norm in this world. You only care about those close to you. No one would risk their life for a stranger, and if that stranger tried to harm someone you care about, you should happily slit the stranger's throat. The guild seems to be one of the few stabilizing forces in this tribal world, as hunters are encouraged to think of all other guild members as their family.

Kira interrupts my glum thinking. "What you need is practice. You can only learn so much from healing half dead fish and animals. You need to practice on humans or demi-humans. Not on critical injuries, but on less serious injuries so you are not pressed for time." Remembering a certain incident Kira's words surprises me. "I thought you did not want me to practice on humans?"

"What I meant, was not to practice on your own wife, though admittedly she wasn't your wife at the time. You should practice either on poor people who can't afford healing and are desperate for someone to do it for free, or you should practice on slaves." Neither option seems appealing to me.