"While those with combat oriented classes do tend to level much faster than those without, the actual ratio of combat to non combat when looking at high-levelled people is actually about even, skewed in favor of non combatants if anything. This is because while those who actively challenge themselves in life or death fights against enemies of equal or higher level will gain EXP far faster than those who simply craft, the latter is only one mistake away from no longer being counted in the statistics."
-Sah'lezel, High level [Mathmagician]
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While many people watched as we passed, no one got in our way and we were able to quickly make it to the town hall to find Nathan already waiting outside, likely having been alerted about us through either a skill or just word of mouth, and he barely gave us a glance before he motioned one of the people behind him to go towards Arnold as he approached our group.
"Alright, is it a standard hunting injury, or is there something I should be warned of?"(Nathan)
"Just a pack of high levelled coyotes, we got all of them though."(Roxy)
After a brief exchange, Nathan went to the person who had been examining Arnold and had a short conversation about his condition before he once more started talking with Roxy, his voice returning to a bored monotone.
"Okay, looks like your friend won't have any permanent injuries other than a scar, but he won't be waking up for a day or two and he should refrain from intensive physical activity for at least a week afterwards. Since you are a registered hunting group the treatment itself is free, but you aren't allowed to go out of town until he wakes up and we are able to confirm that there was no foul play, other than that you are free to go."(Nathan)
Hearing that Arnold was going to be fine made a collective breath of relief leave all of our mouths as a green glow came from the hands of the person that was with Nathan as he put his hands over the long cuts along his stomach as a few other people took the stretcher from Jordan and me and carried Arnold inside. As we watched him being carried inside, we finally lost the tension that had been weighing on us since the previous day, barely exhanging any words between us as we sold the coyote corpses, netting us 500 points each except for Arnold who we were going to give 1,000 since he got injured, we split up from one another and went our separate ways, Roxy telling us she would get in touch once Arnold woke up to discuss any future outings. Personally, I made my way home and collapsed into bed, tired from running through the forest and the previous nights fitful sleep, falling asleep as soon as my head made contact with the hide mattress and not waking up until the sun was high in the sky.
After my nap, I went to my training area and spent the rest of the day practicing making defensive structures out of crystal as quickly as I could, mainly making pillars jut out of the ground to intercept imaginary strikes, while also reminding myself how stupid it was to use up all of my mana while the fight was still going on, as I could easily see myself in the place of Arnold, though I doubted I would have been able to dodge the initial attack had the alpha decided to target me rather than him. As I practiced until I stopped seeing the moment the alphas claws raked across Arnold and sent him flying replay whenever I closed my eyes, I found myself thinking once again about my desire to travel, as I knew that there were far more dangerous creatures out there, ones that I would likely encounter and very possibly have to fight if I left the safety of the town.
Surprisingly, I found that the fear that I still felt creeping in the corners of my mind seemed to all but disappear as I imagined myself out in the wild, seeing sights that none had yet to lay eyes on, even imagining the fights against powerful animals in unknown lands seemed to fill me with courage and desire, rather than fear and trepidation, my mind far more stable after only a few minutes of daydreaming about adventures to come than after a much longer time practicing my defensive abilities, making me once again realize that there was no other future for me, risks be damned.
Mana drained and head clear, I spent the rest of the day relaxing, helping my mom with some botanical tasks as I felt my mind relax far more than it had since the tutorial started, and having some much needed R&R, as I had been frantically training, fighting, or just trying to survive since the tutorial started. Strangely enough, it was actually the thought of how next time it might be me that gets seriously injured, or even killed, in the next fight that made me want to take the rest of the day off, opposite to all of my previous near-death experiences that made me work harder and harder, to the point that even the half day I took to finally relax felt strange, doing a double take when I woke up the next morning without the echoes of soreness or fading bruises that I was used to.
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The next day was spent training, as while I had enjoyed the break the previous day, I knew how easy it was to fall out of good habits and while I did acknowledge the importance of rest, that importance hinged upon hard work beforehand to earn and necessitate it. I had yet to receive word from Roxy, so rather than going to my training area I instead practiced connecting to and telekinetically controlling crystals, since I wanted to somewhat reduce the extreme rate that I blew through my mana in fights, and not having to make new crystals whenever I wanted to attack was a large step in the right direction.
By the end of the day, I had gotten to the point where I could connect to and launch crystals within three meters of me at about the same speed and efficiency of creating them, with six meters being the furthest I could reach, taking longer and costing more mana for the same effect. I hadn't been able to make any progress on my finite control, and I had the feeling that I was doing something wrong whenever I tried, but I couldn't figure out what exactly it was, and I decided to focus more on extending my range for simple control for now, as I was actually making progress with that. It wasn't until sometime between morning and noon the next day that Roxy knocked on my door and told me that Arnold was awake, Jordan already with her, and the three of us went to Amy's house, which was in one of the newer parts of town and lacked any decorations, before we went to a building beside the town hall that had apparently been turned into a hospital of sorts, and we gathered at Arnold's bedside.
"Hey, how are you feeling?"(Roxy)
"Honestly, not as bad as I thought, 40 END and magical healing does wonders, though it still hurts when I move."(Arnold)
To all of our shock, Arnold seemed to take the injury in stride, seemingly not shaken up at all by his near death, though he was visibly disappointed when we told him that he couldn't go hunting for another week, though the thousand points he got did raise his mood slightly. After a few minutes of making sure he was okay, and confirming that he still wanted to go hunting with us once he was discharged, we left to let him heal in peace. After leaving the hospital, we discussed what the rest of us would do while we waited for him to be discharged, and came to the conclusion that we would keep hunting in the same area, but keep it to day trips, as none of us wanted to stop hunting after we had just started to gain EXP again, plus he said he didn't mind when we asked, though we did decide to still give him some points from what we hunted without him, agreeing that we would do that for anyone that got injured during a hunt.
With the time it took to go in and out of the forest to get to our hunting spot, we were only able to get a few creatures per day, though Amy's tracking skill did level after three days which slightly increased our pace, and we only managed to gain 850 EXP by the time Arnold was allowed to go hunting again, and with his return to the group we once again planned to camp out in the forest, though this time it would hopefully last longer and end without injury. We were hoping to stay in the forest for a week and a half, since there were two weeks remaining until the children that were too young for the tutorial were sent to us, and Jordan wanted to make sure he was ready for his kids.
We decided to use the coyote den as our campsite, as it was far more hidden than just using a clearing, and it was big enough for all of us to comfortably sleep. We still lacked the means to preserve what we killed, so we left behind anything we didn't eat, as any attempts we made to skin them ended up ruining the hide since none of us had any idea how to properly skin an animal. Over the course of our hunt, we didn't encounter any other groups of predators, but we did notice that by the end of our trip there were a lot fewer level 10's and a lot more level 11's, which while good for our levelling progress, did make us worried for those in town with combat classes who hadn't yet reached level 10, as without low level creatures to fight they would have a much harder time, and even if they were aiming to become non-combatants they would still need to get to level 10 to unlock the next class slot.
Worries aside, the increased level of the animals made our hunting much more efficient, and while we did mostly fight lone or small groups, we still managed to get 2350 EXP each by the time the last day rolled around, and since the fights were all easy we were all able to test out or practice various methods of attack and improve our fighting ability, and while I was unfortunately still more than a thousand EXP away from the next level, I was able to massively reduce the amount of mana I used per fight by controlling pre-existing crystals, making heavy use of the crystal knife blade I had made previously, though I intended to make a few more when I got back as I could only use it for the opening attack or when the enemy was far too close for comfort, as just launching as opposed to creating plus launching took a bit less than half of the mana.
I wasn't the only one that learned a new trick, as it seemed that Arnold spent his bedrest practicing until he was able to layer both of his curses on a single strike, though apparently it cost more than applying them individually, and Roxy had actually managed to learn an entirely new spell, apparently she had managed to somewhat combine the spike and wall spells that her class gave her initially to create a spell that caused a large spike of crystal to come up from the ground to pierce enemies, which she told us she made after seeing how effective it was when I did it. Jordan didn't seem to have anything new in his repertoire, but it was still clear that he had practiced as his timing with his echoes seemed slightly better, and his sword slightly faster.
Either way, the allotted time came to an end and we trekked back to town, carrying a few animal corpses that hadn't spoiled to sell, getting 200 points each, before parting, agreeing to meet up a week after the children arrived to plan our next steps. With the day that they were set to arrive fast approaching, the town became more energized as parents were finally going to reunite with their children, though there was also an undertone of worry since of the thirty or so percent of people that died in the tutorial, plus however many have died since then, there were probably a large number of orphans, who would be randomly distributed if nobody they recognized as a parental figure claimed responsibility for them, Jordan having shared with the group that about a week before the scheduled return he got a ping from the system asking him if he wanted to claim his children, which he naturally accepted immediately. While I personally wasn't waiting for anybody, as none of my aunts or uncles with young children were here, Jackson's family was awaiting his younger sister, who was only 13, and they had been in a frenzy these last few days as they tried to do whatever they could to prepare, the price for bedding and clothing skyrocketing as many others had the same idea.