I've been hunting for two hours today and earned only 5% Experience during that time. Slimes really have almost stopped giving me Experience, so I'll probably go to the forest once I'm more comfortable with my aim.
As I flick another [Air Bolt] at a bouncing slime, barely missing skewering its core, I think about what Colt and Thomas revealed to me yesterday. I'm not from a normal family, or even a slums family. My family is powerful.
But they still abandoned me.
For some reason, knowing that I'm actually from a really powerful family – at least magically – has made me feel more… at-ease. Calm. It's given me a sense of peace for some reason I can't really figure out.
Now, I want to get stronger and just… travel. Adventure out somewhere and explore the world. I've heard stories about a tree so big, its branches go above the clouds. That living around it are fairies, child-like beings of immense magical power, blessed by the gods with nigh-immortality.
Though that's the only story I've heard of other lands, I'm sure there are many other places just as fantastical as that. Maybe the massive tree and the fairies are myths, or maybe they're real. Now? I want to find out.
Because of Thomas and Colt, I know that I can handle things. At least, if they were being honest with me yesterday.
All I need to do is be careful early on while hunting, get up to Level 10 or Level 15, and then I can probably make arrangements to set off on the journey. I'd have to hunt some beasts and sell them for money first, so that I can get better clothes and some supplies.
This would probably be easier if I could read, too. Then, I'd be able to just look at the posters in a guild and see what's selling for good loot. Or maybe even take on hunting jobs that will pay extra.
Knowing how to read might even help me while traveling.
An [Air Bolt] slams into my chest while I think about the journey I want to take, and I look at the slime. It's the one I'd attacked and failed to kill. The slime has a greenish tone to it, a wind slime. I should probably be using [Stone Bolt] against it, but I'm powerful enough that it doesn't really matter and I'm mostly just performing target practice.
The only thing the attack does is distract me from my thoughts and remind me that I had attacked a slime. At least I don't have a tunic that can get damaged, the eleven copper coins I earned yesterday from selling those slime cores was spent on buying a coin pouch (which I'm hiding in my pants) and buying me something to eat for dinner.
Though I wanted to save the coins because it's the first time I've had money of my own, I was hungry and I definitely need a coin pouch if I'm going to be selling loot and earning coin. The pouch was really cheap, costing me only ten copper, but it will do for now.
With another flick of my wrist, I send another [Air Bolt] at the slime. This one pierces straight through its core, the slime dying.
+0.3% Experience!
Clapping sounds behind me as the slime drops to the ground. Jumping to my feet, I turn and find Colt clapping a few dozen yards away, Thomas standing behind him. They're dressed identically to how they were dressed yesterday, though Thomas also has something wooden strapped behind his back. I can't make it out, but what I can see look like a pair of wooden handles.
"That was a nice shot," Colt says.
"Thanks," I say. "I messed up the first one."
"Practicing your aim?"
"On bouncing slimes," I confirm. "You?"
"Going to practice shooting monsters more today," he says. "I had a feeling you'd pick the same area, too."
"It's a fair distance from the city and the roads," I make sure to fix up my speech for them, no point in annoying nobles who can probably kill me in an instant. "Has a boulder and some shade and a river. I's planning on catching something to eat soon. Bunnies are hard to hit."
"They are," Colt nods. "I've been practicing casting at moving targets for a few weeks now, and I'm getting good enough that I don't miss slower things anymore. I just need to get used to shooting actual monsters, then I'll be going into the woods."
"Okay," I say, then stand. "I'm going to go catch lunch now. Have fun with your hunting."
I've barely taken a step when Colt speaks up.
"Wait," Colt says, and I stop and turn back to face him. "Let's have lunch together."
"You didn't eat before coming out here?" I ask.
"I wanted to try eating freshly-caught rabbit cooked with stuff found out here," Colt explains. "Thomas said he can do it."
"Oh," I say, and my stomach rumbles a little. "I tried cooking a rabbit yesterday. It didn't go so well. The outside was way more cooked than the inside."
"Want to eat with us?" Colt says. "Thomas is a great chef."
Refusing a noble's request is never a good idea. He's not asking me, I have to do it. I don't want to find out what they'll do if I refuse.
"If that's not a problem," I say.
"You two look for herbs," Thomas tells us as he pulls the items off his back – a pair of wooden swords. "I'll catch us some rabbits and get a fire going."
"Do you want us to get sticks and branches, too?" Colt asks.
"I can grab those," Thomas says. "Meet back here in twenty minutes."
"I dunno what to look for," I say.
Better to tell them this now than suffer whatever they do for grabbing random stuff that turns out to be wrong.
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"Just pick stuff that isn't obviously a weed and isn't grass," Colt tells me. "That's what Thomas told me to do. He said there shouldn't be anything poisonous around here, so we should be fine."
"Okay," I say.
I start looking for herbs, moving away from where Colt is. We both spend around fifteen minutes doing that, creating our own little piles on the boulder I like relaxing on when I'm out here. Colt found more than me, but I got exhausted from moving around so much. I'd actually only just started taking a break from moving around and hunting slimes when Colt and Thomas showed up.
Unlike them, I don't have much strength. I'm not talking about physical strength, seeing as my Levels took care of that. No, I'm talking about my stamina and muscle endurance. Moving around a lot yesterday exhausted me and I'm sore all over. This morning was exhausting as well.
Another thing I'll need to work on before going off on adventures: my stamina and getting my body used to moving around so much. For that, I need to eat more, too.
Thomas finishes building the fire, then shows us what each of the things Colt and I picked are. We both picked a lot of weeds, as it turned out, and Colt picked more stuff that's actually usable. I pay as much attention as I can, so I know for the future. Just because they're eating with me today, that doesn't mean they'll be eating with me again. They just happened to be here at the same time as me today.
Once we've been shown what each of the herbs we picked are, Thomas starts preparing the three rabbits he'd caught. He skins them first, then removes their guts and throws those to the slimes. As he works, he separates the different parts of the rabbits, before chopping up the herbs and rubbing them into some of the meat.
Thomas starts cooking the meat over the fire, explaining that it's better to cook them in pieces like this so that we can cook it evenly. If I just cook the thing whole, the outside will cook faster than the inside. From what he says, I also probably used too much heat when cooking, too.
The meat is much better today than it was yesterday. Cooked more evenly, and the herbs put on it make it taste better, too. Thomas tells me to eat slowly or he won't give me seconds, so I do that.
"Why did you want me to eat slowly?" I ask as he hands me more of the meat.
"With how skinny you are," he says. "And how little you eat, it's better to eat slowly for now. This much meat might actually be too much for you, but if you ate most of a rabbit yesterday, you should be fine."
"Oh," I say. "I did have a stomachache for awhile, but I thought that was just because I ate about fifty berries before coming out here."
"Either of those could do it," Thomas says. "But if you eat too much, it can make you puke back up everything you ate."
"Oh," I say. "Okay."
"How did you get your cores back to town yesterday?" Colt asks.
"I figured out how to do this," I say, using [Water Net].
Streams of water form in front of my hands, weaving together into a net of water. It doesn't cost me very much Mana to cast or sustain, but I did almost run out of Mana by the time I got to the place to sell the loot.
"Even though it's just water," I say. "The cores were able to stay in it. I guess 'cause it's magical."
"Correct," Thomas nods. "Though that spell is usually used for holding down fire-based creatures like fire slimes. Magical water, while it's still being held by the caster, has a greater degree of solidity to it."
"Oh, cool," I say. "Thanks for cooking this for me."
"You're welcome," he says.
I finish eating, then curl up on the grass to rest. Thomas cleans up the boulder with water magics, since he'd used that for preparing the food, and Colt plays around with his spells. Even though they're not resting, they stay over here, Colt doing his thing for half an hour before speaking to me again.
"Max?" Colt asks, probably to see if I'm alive.
"I'm still alive."
"What?"
"You kept thinking I was dead yesterday," I open my eyes, finding his face flushing red.
"Oh, that," he says. "Um. I was wondering if you wanted to learn how to use a sword?"
"I'd rather use magic," I say. "And I can't afford lessons."
"I know," he says. "But knowing how to use a sword, or at least martial arts, can help you protect yourself when you can't use your magic. It will also help build up stamina, allowing you to go for longer. And I'm planning on being out here most days at this time. If you are, too, then Thomas can help you a little bit. He's teaching me how to use martial arts right now."
I look over at the wooden swords. Those must be for practicing, then. Colt was expecting to see me here?
"Building up stamina sounds good to me," I say. "But once I'm better at aiming, I was planning on just doing target practice before lunch and then hunting in the forest after."
"Then we can come out earlier," Colt says.
"Why do ya care?" I ask.
"Huh?"
Crap. Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap. That was way too blunt, but it just came out. I'm not used to dealing with nobles and I screwed up. What are they going to do to me?
"About me," I try to word this as good as I can in the hopes that my explanation lessens their punishment. "You just met me yesterday, and I'm a kid from the slums. Why do you care about me? Is just ain't making sense."
"Because I do," he shrugs. "And if we're training out here, then maybe you can grow to trust us and Thomas can grow to trust you."
He's doing it because he wants to spend time with me? They must want to befriend me and earn my trust so that they can use me because I'm a seven-affinity. I did receive confirmation last night about the affinities and how they affect how easily someone can learn magic, what elements they can use, and that they do affect what Attributes go up and by how much. I didn't learn how much they actually affect, just that they affect how much I gain per Level.
"Oh."
"Yeah," he nods. "So. Want to?"
"If Thomas is okay with that," I nod. "But I'm planning on leaving at some point. After hearing yesterday that I'm going to be strong, I'm planning on leaving the area after preparing. I want to see some of the wonders of the world, and if they're real or not."
"Oh," Colt looks a little disappointed.
Why would he care enough to be disappointed upon hearing that I'm leaving? It's probably bad enough that he wants to be friends, and I'm sure Thomas won't keep quiet to Colt's family about that for long. It's not becoming of someone of their status and wealth to be friends with a slums kid.
They definitely want to turn me into a soldier or a servant of some sort, to further strengthen their family's might with a second seven-affinity.
"Let's do some training," Thomas says.
For the next hour, Thomas teaches me how to hold the sword properly, as well as drills me on basic swings and strikes. None of it is striking an actual object – I'm just practicing against the air. Thomas said that once I'm better, I can try doing this against Colt or himself, but not right now. I think he's worried I'm going to try to attack Colt.
By the time we're done, my arms feel so heavy it's hard to move them, and I just collapse onto the boulder.
"What color is your hair?" Colt asks after a few minutes.
"Why?" I ask.
"Because it's brown," he says. "But I see blond as well. And your eyelashes are really pale."
"It's blond," I tell him. "As blond as the sun. But it's dirty, so it's darker right now."
"Oh, okay," he says. "Why don't you wash more often?"
"Because the only water I have is this river and the well water in the slums," I tell him. "And no soap. And I's just gonna get dirty all over again by the end of the day. That's what it's like in the slums. How often do you wash?"
"Every day," he answer. "You really can't go bathing in the slums?"
"They're the slums," I say. "There's no public bathhouse, and the ones outside of the slums don't like us coming in and using 'em. I do scrub down every now and then, though."
"Colton," Thomas says. "You should get to hunting more now."
That timing was a little too perfect. Thomas noticed I was starting to get agitated by Colt's questoins, didn't he? I really hope my agitation isn't going to cause them to punish me in some way. They don't seem interested in punishing me now, so they'll probably wait until after they gain my trust. I'm not going to let them gain my trust.
Colt bids me a good day, then leaves. Does he not understand that we live in vastly different worlds?