Hunting had not gone the way Paige had wanted it to go at all.

The second evening, she'd waited for a rabbit to get close enough to her perch that she could pounce and catch it. For at least 30 minutes, she watched the second pair of rabbits hop around foraging. She was honestly surprised she had been still enough to not scare them off during that time.

Neither had gotten close enough for her to make a grab at them.

Just as one of the rabbits finally did come near, almost within range, something spooked them, and they bolted.

In a desperate attempt, Paige lept for the closest one, missing by an embarrassing margin. Belly flopping on the forest floor took the wind out of her, and she felt as if she may have done some serious damage to her ribs.

As soon as she recovered enough, she drank a little healing potion to top off her health.

She decided to scout out a new place before morning rather than trying that spot again. She was pretty sure the rabbits would leave or be way too cautious for her to have any luck there again.

It took her a while to find new hunting grounds. She barely slept that night. Though her hunger pangs had subsided, she felt like her strength was giving out.

Checking her stamina, it looked like it was recovering very slowly. It was still recovering, though.

The next morning, she had no luck at all. She hadn't even seen a rabbit. Again, she had to find a new spot. It took her half the day of searching to find a new place that looked promising to hunt rabbit.

She had tried to nap, but she was running out of time and energy, and as much as not being able to sleep made that situation worse, it kept her too anxious to nap.

Unfortunately, that evening's hunt resulted in the same problem she'd had that morning. There simply were no rabbits to be seen. She began to suspect that she'd gotten lucky with the first two locations she'd chosen. It seemed obvious in hindsight. Just because a place was a good spot for rabbits to bed down did not mean rabbits were actually in that area.

She knew that she still technically had the following morning's hunt if the bobcat meant a full three days. She'd only started hunting after noon the first day. There was no real way of knowing, but Paige was determined to at least try the last hunt. She had to give it her best.

At the same time, she was no longer very optimistic. She was actually resigned to the possibility that she would simply fail. Part of her was okay with that. She wanted to eat and rest and not worry about this stupid bullshit quest anymore.

But she was going to try.

Thinking about the situation, she knew there had been rabbits in the first location. The rabbits had left, but she hadn't been back there in two days. There was a good chance they'd returned once they felt the area was safe again. On the other hand, she was sitting at 50% odds of finding rabbits, based on the last four locations she scouted.

But Paige was tired of planning stuff, and she wasn't good at it, really. Plus, she was exhausted and hardly trusting her own decisions at this point anyway. She'd leave it to chance.

Pulling out the coin Mr. Stowe had gifted her, she marked one side of the plain disc with berry juice from a nearby Holly.

Deciding the berry side as tails, paige flipped the coin and called it in the air. "Heads I go somewhere new, tails and I go back to the first location."

The coin landed tails up in the fallen leaves in front of her, and her decision was made.

____

Levi was surprised to find his Physical Proficiency had gone up from 5 to 6 while he'd slept. He hadn't leveled, either. It had just increased while he'd slept. He assumed it was from the previous day's training.

He'd only even noticed because he'd pulled up his stats to check if his health, stamina, and mana had recovered overnight and decided to pull up his basic status as well.

He hadn't realized his stats could increase without leveling.

Levi had assumed you got stat points as you leveled, but apparently, you could gain stat points through good old-fashioned hard work, too. Part of him wanted to test the limits of that mechanic. In fact, he would love to see if he could exploit it.

After some thought on it, he decided the truth was that he was just too busy with the plans he already had. There was a chance he'd change his mind after today's sparring, but he honestly felt that changing his plans too much would hurt him in the long run.

He decided to start his day with slow sets. Again, he focused on channeling small amounts of what he assumed was stamina into his muscles as they tensed while keeping the stamina out of his relaxed muscles.

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It was a natural extension of the concepts he already grasped about efficiency of motion. He noticed that if he didn't focus on channeling in stamina, the moves would still consume smaller amounts naturally. He was only adding more to what was already being used.

Levi feared he may be setting himself up for some kind of injury due to overexertion but decided the risk was worth it, especially considering the existence of healing potions. And his body should tell him if he was overdoing it, even just in the slowsets.

He did decide to only start adding a small amount extra to be on the safe side.

Watching his health, he realized this was smart. Even at his decreased stamina input, he noticed he'd lose one health point every 20-30 seconds, depending on how many muscles he was activating. Assuming that amount possibly went up when used at full speed, he really didn't want to risk seriously injuring or killing himself.

Controlling the energy was getting easier, too. There was no way it would be automatic for a while, but it did start reminding him of how it felt training with his former master in his early days of Tai Chi. He still was far off from having it down perfectly, but he'd get there.

After he'd finished slowsets, Levi decided to try to follow the stricter methods of meditation from his book.

It didn't take as long to relax his body this time, and when he got to the part where he identified and followed his energies, it came with far more clarity. Levi focused on the energy he'd assumed was stamina and followed that into himself.

What he experienced after that point was odd. It was difficult to put into words. As he drew closer to what he felt was the 'center,' the trails of stamina connected into what seemed like a 3 dimensional web focused in the middle.

The energy he'd assumed could be mana almost condensed into a lacelike pattern that followed and aligned with the stamina energy, but didn't actually touch or interact with it.

The unknown, mysterious energy was everywhere. The closer he got to his center, what Levi realized may be the 'core' the book was referencing, the denser it became. In fact, the core itself seemed to be a much denser ball of that energy, or something very similar to it, and the rest just floated around.

It was hard to understand what was happening in this mental space, and he felt that a large part of it was his own mind creating visualizations for what was happening on levels it truly couldn't even comprehend.

Still, it felt like the 'mana' and 'stamina' energies were coming from the center of the core, while the unknown energy was being slowly pulled into the center and also reexiting the center in what appeared to be a higher density or concentration. Or perhaps it was a difference of quality. He wasn't sure.

He tried to focus harder, but the moment he did, a splitting headache shot him out of his meditation like a catapult. It hurt so bad that Levi actually checked his health and wasn't all that surprised when he found he was down 20 HP.

After a moment to let the headache subside, Levi considered what he'd experienced. He was definitely onto something. It reminded him of the cultivation novels he'd read. He guiltily regretted not focusing too much on the details of how cultivation had been done rather than the results.

Still, he was satisfied. Feeling great about what he'd already accomplished for the day, Levi double-checked his gear, made sure it included a rag to use for healing potion, and headed out to get his ass kicked all day.

-----

Early that morning, Paige sat crouched on a limb above the first location she'd hunted rabbits. She used all fours beneath her bodyweight to hold to the top of the limb, rather than simply resting on it. The effort of that took every bit of willpower and concentration she had. On top of the difficulty in itself, her hunger and exhaustion threatened to make her shake with the effort, and she had to steel herself to prevent even the slightest movement.

And then she saw them. Both of the little bastard rabbits hopped along all happy-go-lucky, eating whatever they pleased.

'Fuck both of you little shits. I'm going to eat one of you.'

It seemed like a lifetime of hanging on and waiting. Paige's stomach ached in hunger, her body ached from lack of sleep and food along with the overexertion, and her mind was worn thin but still trying to keep her body controlled as she waited to pounce.

And then the moment came.

The rabbit was right where she'd wanted it to be. Where she so desperately needed it to be. Her muscles tightened as she prepared her body.

It wasn't hesitation that settled into her as she delayed. No, she took time and prepared everything in her body for what came next.

Then she sprang.

It almost surprised Paige when her fingers found themselves gripping the soft fur of the rabbit. With an instinct, she clung tighter. She'd done it.

The rabbit squealed in her grip, and for a split second of shock and the thought of mercy, she nearly released it. Then something roared inside Paige, and she refused to let go.

She was hungry.

The rabbit kicked at her, scratching her, but Paige held on. Triumphant. She had won.

Right up until the little fucker bit the absolute shit out of her and Paige's grip slipped just enough for the rabbit to kick itself free and run away.

"Fuck!" Paige roared into the surrounding forest. Only a lingering echo answered.

Paige hit the ground with her fists. She had been so close and had wanted it so much. She'd put everything she had into it.

'

"FUCK!" she yelled even louder, letting the rage pour out.

After that, she lay there a while, forehead pressed against the cold, leaf-covered forest floor. She just panted and let her anger subside and give way to resignation.

The sound of something soft landing in front of her drew her attention sharply. She saw a freshly killed rabbit in front of her. Above the rabbit stood a bobcat, staring into Paige's eyes with an piercing gaze.

"Eat. Rest. I start teaching you tomorrow," the bobcat said before turning away.

"But I...I didn't catch the rabbit," Paige protested, trying to keep the tears out of her voice.

The bobcat turned her head back to look at Paige again. "Ah, but you did catch the rabbit. You did well. It simply escaped. Consider that my first lesson. Sometimes, the prey gets away." After another unblinking stare, the bobcat reiterated her previous instruction. "Eat. Rest. Tomorrow will be busy." And again, the bobcat was gone in a moment.

Paige rolled over onto her back in disbelief. Then she was panting with excitement. Then, the panting turned into a laugh. And that laugh faded into a satisfied smile.

'I did it. I fucking did it.'

She passed out before she got to eat her rabbit.

Luckily, she was only out for about 30 minutes before she was able to rouse herself and finally have her meal.