Niall looked at her with horror. “What you are doing? What is it with you people and self-mutilation? Just because you can all heal yourself doesn’t make it right.”

“Stop whining. I’ll be fine. Now pull your Spirit together as if you were healing yourself and push all of it towards your hand.”

Niall did as he was told. The now familiar warmth built up in the centre of his body. His Meditation practice had made moving the warm Spirit around his body second nature. However, collecting all of that Spirit in one place was not something he had done before.

After several failed attempts and even more direction from Gwen he managed to work out what she was asking him to do. His hand almost felt heavy as he pushed his Spirit towards it and allowed it to accumulate. “Right, now what?”

Gwen stretched out her arm. She had healed almost all of the cut while Niall was trying to learn the technique, but there was still a long gash along her arm. “Take my fingers and push your Spirit out of your body into mine.”

Niall took Gwen’s long slender fingers in his hand and pushed. Nothing happened. “It’s fine,” Gwen said. “Just breathe. When you exhale, push your Spirit at the same time.”

The feeling of warmth in Niall’s hand intensified but still nothing happened. Then he felt a small amount of his Spirit leave his body. As he pushed harder, more and more of it started to flow. Then, as he watched, the cut started to close.

Niall was sweating by the time the wound shut completely, but he looked at Gwen with a grin. “I did it!”

She smiled back. “There’s a knack to it and the first time’s the hardest. It will become easier with practice. Also, keep working on your Flow and Meditation Skills. Being healed by someone sweating like a pig is, frankly, unpleasant.”

Gwen allowed him a short break before pushing him back to work. “Right, Healing wasn’t today’s lesson; Water Sense is. So, try again. This time when you collect your Spirit try to remove the warm feeling from it. You want pure Spirit. Infusing it with Healing will drain your Spirit far too fast.”

Again, it took a few tries before Niall could collect his Spirit without the Healing effect and then even more tries before he could push it out of his body into the world around him. The sun was setting when he did eventually manage it.

As he did so he realised that, even with his eyes shut, he could feel water in the earth around him. He strained and managed to push his Spirit forward a few inches to where he knew the pool to be.

After a moment he gasped. It was as if he had plunged head first into the cold water. He was so certain that he had fallen in that he opened his eyes to swim to the edge. He had not moved from his seat at the side of the pool.

“It was right there,” he said. There was a hint of wonder in his voice.

“Well, of course it was. Now let’s try again, but from further away.”

***

The training in the woods with Gwen quickly became some of Niall’s favourite times in the week. With the knowledge and skills that he was learning, his confidence in surviving in this world increased. Therefore, it was with some sadness he found himself blindfolded and dropped off in the middle of the woods for his final test. To make it harder, Gwen had borrowed a horse and put him on it so he had no idea how far away from Raintor he actually was.

Eventually the horse stopped and Gwen helped Niall dismount. “See you back in Raintor,” she said. “No peeking.”

As the sound of the horse retreated, Niall did as he had been instructed and counted to a thousand before he took off the blindfold. He looked around at an entirely unfamiliar forest glade. However, Gwen’s training had been sound and he soon found his bearings. Once he worked out where he was, it did not surprise him in the slightest that he was going to have to stay out overnight. After all of the nights of practice, finding food, water, warmth and shelter outdoors was second nature to him. This was going to be fine.

All in all, it was a somewhat smug Niall that walked back into Alana and Devon’s house the following evening. He opened the door to find Gwen sitting with the others around the table. A roast goose alongside some winter greens and a mound of roast potatoes were on the table.

Devon let out a groan as he entered and Gwen burst out in her throaty laugh. Alana laughed as well and stood up and walked over to the cupboard.

Niall looked at him, “I’m back. Aren’t you pleased to see me?”

Devon shook his head as Alana took out a bottle of wine and handed it to Gwen. “Why couldn’t you have been slower? I bet Gwen that you wouldn’t be back until after dessert.”

“I know my boy,” Gwen said, still laughing as she accepted her prize. “I knew that he could do this. Level?”

Niall quickly checked. “Level 10 Woodsman.”

They all gave him a round of applause. “In which case,” Devon said putting a fresh plate on the table, “I think you’ve earned some dinner.”

Niall joined the others at the table and they all tucked in. Despite his hunger and the quality of the food, Niall could not stop himself stealing glances at Gwen while he ate. While on the surface he was able to join in the conversation and laughter, underneath, he was nervous.

He knew what he wanted; he just did not know if he had the courage to ask. The worst that would happen would be that she said no. But that would be pretty bad. Then again, she might say yes. As they ate Niall vacillated back and forth in his mind

Eventually, after they had all finished up large slabs of apple pie with thick clotted cream, Gwen drained her tankard and got up. “Thank you very much for that. Niall, congratulations again. It’s been fun but you’re all done. Now don’t get lost and make me look like a fool. See you all later.”

She slung her cloak around her shoulders and headed out of the door.

After a moment, Niall jumped to his feet. “I’ll be right back.”

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Niall chased out of the door, ignoring the knowing look that Alana and Devon shared. He had been thinking about this for too long. If he did not ask now, he never would.

Gwen was already halfway down the path to the village when he caught up with her. Her blond hair shone under the light of the two moons.

“Gwen.”

She turned to face him, the shadows accentuating the sharp lines of her cheekbones. “Did I forget something?”

Niall took a deep breath and gazed into her laughing emerald eyes. “No. It’s just that I’ve really been enjoying our times in the woods, just the two of us. In fact, they have been my favourite times of the week. So, I was wondering...”

“Yes?” The ale they had all been drinking had brought a pink glow to her cheeks.

“Sorry. Yes. I was just wondering if you could teach me how to hunt.”

“You ran after me to ask if I would teach you how to kill animals?” Gwen asked.

Niall rushed on. “No, it’s not that. I still want to be a blacksmith. I didn’t tell you before, but when I was lost in the woods trying to get help for Kiran, I came across a wolf. I don’t know why, but it ran off without attacking me. It terrified me though, and I know that I was lucky. I thought maybe you could teach me how to hunt so that if I can try to avoid dangerous animals and maybe bring something back occasionally for Devon and Alana...” He trailed off realising he had started to babble.

Gwen shook her head. “Yes, why not. I get first pick of anything that we kill. It’s my livelihood after all. But, with you along, we can start going after some of the larger animals that I wouldn’t be able to bring back by myself.”

“Of course.”

“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow night then.”

As Gwen walked off into the night, Niall turned and headed back to the cottage with a big smile plastered across his face.

“How did that go?” Alana asked.

Niall turned to her and his smile broadened. “She said yes! We’re meeting up tomorrow night. I’m off to bed.” With that, he drifted off up the stairs with the dreamy look of contentment still on his face.

The following evening, Gwen turned up carrying two bows. Just as she had on the first day that they had gone out, Gwen started to talk as they walked towards the woods.

“So, if you’re going to be a Hunter, you’re not only going to need all the skills that you’ve already learnt, but also a bunch more. It is a completely different beast. Pun intended. Firstly, tracking, by which I mean you need to not only spot the marks that show an animal has passed, but you also need to identify what it was and when it left the mark.

“Secondly, you’re going to need to learn to make traps and snares. Most of what hunters do is not about taking down that deer or boar, or tracking down a wolf or a bear. It’s about getting food for the pot, that means things like rabbits, and pheasants, snipes, ducks and lots of others. A lot of those are not about shooting, you just need to trap them.

“Thirdly, you need to learn how to field dress what you kill. I don’t know if you’ve met Jarvis the butcher. He’ll do most of it when he buys the meat from us to sell on, but unless you want to carry pounds of unusable weight back with you, you’ll need to do some of it at the site of the kill.

“But, that’s all for later. Right now, you need to learn how to use a bow and arrow. Until you’re hitting moving targets accurately, I’m not going to let you even try with wild animals.”

Gwen had him set up a series of targets on the edge of the wood and then gave him his first archery lesson. Niall had to admit that he was terrible at it. However, by the end of the session he was missing the targets by a lot less than when he had started.

Over the following weeks Gwen again patiently taught him all of the new skills. As they did so winter started to properly settle in. Many of their trips into the woods were in the rain or accompanied by snow. It was rare that they would not leave or arrive back in the dark.

A month later, as he was gutting a hare that he had caught in a snare, Niall felt a nudge from Pobble.

“Niall should look at his Testimony.”

Niall stood and did what he was asked. In letters that were superimposed over his Testimony, Niall immediately spotted what Pobble had wanted him to see.

You have reached a milestone. You can evolve your Woodsman class to a Hunter class. Do you wish to do so?

“What does that mean?”

“It means that Niall can start getting something good. Niall has learned enough skills to get the option to evolve his class. Niall should get a jump in his abilities at a minimum. However, in some cases it may come with new skills. Think of it as a welcome pack from Niall’s new Class.”

“Given that when I started my last job I got a branded mouse mat and pen in my welcome pack, this sounds better.”

“In most cases an evolution is natural, so if Niall continues down the blacksmith route, his Apprentice Class should evolve into a Journeyman Class, which should, in turn evolve into a Smith Class.”

“OK, that makes sense. But do I have to evolve”

“Well Niall is under evolved as a human so I can understand why Niall is asking the question. In most cases evolving is something that should always be done. Particularly when it is a straight upgrade like with Niall’s smithing class. No reason not to do it. Sometimes however it is not so straightforward.”

“Go on.”

“Say that Niall has a Chef Class but he ends up doing a lot of baking. Niall may get the chance to evolve into a Baker Class. If Niall evolves to become a Baker, then Niall will advance more rapidly if he keeps baking.”

“But the downside is that your wider chef skills don’t develop as fast?”

“Exactly. Niall may even start to lose his Chef Skills over time. Then Niall will get sad and have to eat boiled cabbage for the rest of his life.”

“But, like in this case, surely some people will start doing Hunter things immediately won’t they? They won’t pick up a Woodsman class first.”

“No, they will not. They will go straight to a Hunter class, but it will likely take them longer to level up that class. It may also be that they just have unallocated skills for a while. In any case they will need to learn and upgrade Woodsman as a skill.”

“But to move from Woodsman to Hunter, there’s no downside, right?”

“Not that I am aware of. It is a well-worn path. Many people start off as a Woodsman when they are children and then become a Hunter. A Hunter should keep Woodman as a skill but blend it more effectively with the other Hunter skills.”

“It all sounds great. What do I need to do to get it?”

“Niall just needs to concentrate on the question in his Testimony and agree to it.”

Niall did as he was instructed and watched as his Testimony reshaped itself. The Hunter class appeared and the Trapping, Longbow, and Tracking skills moved from General skills to gather underneath it, while the Navigation skill moved over from Woodsman. The Foraging, Shelter, Water Sense, and Firemaking skills disappeared as they merged themselves into the Woodsman class. In turn, the Woodsman class dissolved and reappeared as a skill under the new Hunter class

Niall looked through his Testimony once it as was all done.

TESTIMONY: Niall Vendra

ABILITIES

Strength: 19

Endurance: 30

Agility: 17

Will: 23

Perception: 23

CLASSES:

Junior Smallholder 4

Apprentice Blacksmith 4

Acolyte Healer 6

Hunter 1: +2 Strength, +2 Endurance, + 2 Agility, +2 Perception. You have the ability to successfully hunt wild game

- Woodsman 10

- Tracking 2

- Longbow 2

- Butcher 1

- Trapper 1

- Navigation 4

UNALLOCATED SKILLS

- Flow 5

- Meditation 3

- Steelmind 12

- Telepathy 1

“Gosh. Look at the increase in Attributes that I get from Hunter.”

“I told Niall before. That is what Niall gets with evolved and more skilled classes. Niall never listens.”

“If you take that long to take your kills from a trap, you’re never going to survive out here.” Niall scrambled to his feet as Gwen appeared at his side.

“How do you creep up on me like that without me noticing? But never mind that, I was distracted because I’ve just evolved from Woodman to Hunter.”

“Finally. Now we can stop messing around and I can start to teach you some real Skills.”