Ray

“What do you mean they've joined the hunt? I thought it was just for the affiliated colleges.'' Ray asked.

“Eklard made a grand inspirational speech about how they had changed, and that they deserved some pity from the Dean. The fool caved, and now we have a situation.” Aunty Ariana said.

“I can’t stop the College Dean from teleporting you lot into the hunt area, the old man is just too good at teleporting people. So you’re going to have to deal with that lot. The good thing is that they’re still led by that idiot son of Eklard, the bad news is that they are all highly leveled. Though I see they aren’t the only ones.” Aunty Ariana said, glancing at them.

Rena and the rest hadn’t exactly been slacking, of the dozen people coming, seven were Tier 5, the rest Tier 4 and 3. The hunt was pretty useless for them, but it was much safer this way.

Aunty Ariana looked like she wanted to continue, maybe she had a plan, but she didn’t get to say it. Ray felt his surroundings change to a wood as a voice boomed, “The hunt has begun. The highest leveled beast in the vicinity is a Tier 5 wood chipper, the lowest Tier 1 horned rabbits, a lot of them. “

And just like that, the hunt had begun. Ray looked around, he was alone, they had clearly been teleported separately. Did the College Dean decide to get rid of his nuisance? Well, actually, this was a pretty good plan if he did. Aunty Ariana wasn’t in control here, he was, and it was unlikely that she would-

“Do not panic, its common practice to teleport people separately so that they don’t make too much noise and scare away the beasts. Do not worry about your safety, I will teleport you out if things get deadly, but I can’t interfere other than that. Do try to kill some Mage-Warrior brats, though, I would like fewer enemies.” the Dean’s voice said into his head.

Oh. Now, that did sound reasonable. And the teleporting thing was nice. A safety net. Ray should have figured that they would separate them, the hunt was for hunting beasts after all, and a beast's reward could only go to one person.

And that reminded him that there were beasts here. Ray cursed as he adjusted his senses, looking for beasts. After all, he did get a bunch of stats from the skills. The surroundings were much different from the last time ray had been in a wood. The sun was up, mana was much more plentiful, and there were a lot more beasts in the surroundings.

An entire colony of horned rabbits for example. Ray panicked, conjuring yellow glitter as he sent it into the colony en masse. A few seconds later, the entire colony blew up, presumingly informing everyone in his vicinity that there was someone here. And that included beasts. But he did get mana, a lot of it.

Horned Rabbits killed x31 = 3 × 31= 93 mana

Ray could see why the nobles preferred to kill beasts, they were practically dripping in mana. Though, he suspected that the amount of mana he gained was minimal compared to what a Tier 1 would gain on killing the beasts.

But he had to go, others would be here in a while. Ray jumped up a tree, using the trees to run away from the place in a random direction while keeping his eye out. The woods were packed with beasts, too packed. Ray had no experience with hunts, but these seemed to be just teeming with things to hunt.

A few minutes into running, Ray ran into a group of monkeys going about their business. Ray hid, observing them, getting an idea of their Tier. Tier 1, seven monkeys, and they were on the hunt for someone, or something. Was someone bleeding somewhere? A bleed would be bad here, there were enough beasts that even a Tier 5 like him would fall.

But he had a choice to make now. Did he hunt these monkeys or continue running? A part of him wanted to just keep running, to hide. But at the same time…why? What reason did he have to hide? Ray wasn’t weak anymore, he could kill these monkeys, and use their mana to get to Tier 6. The next class waited for him at Tier 6.

Ray conjured green glitter, twirling it around the monkeys, restricting them. The monkeys took a minute to figure out what had happened. Ray took the chance to set them on fire. And drop rocks on them. The monkeys didn’t stand a chance, the sneak attack was successful.

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Fire attuned Tier 1 monkeys x7: 31 × 7= 217 mana

Tier 5 (2218/3200)

A lot of mana indeed. Ray wondered if this mana was normal. Was it a lot? Was it too little? Ray had no idea. But he would hunt. Perhaps he would run into some Tier 2s, they would be more worth his time. Ray cast his senses out, looking for them, and he was nearly blinded by the amount of beasts there were.

The area was surfeit with mana, there were beasts everywhere, the flowers were Tier 1s, the bees were Tier 0s…but Tier 2s were rarer. The only one Ray could find was the Queen bee from a beehive a few meters away. Now, this one would be tricky to hunt. The bee was surrounded by dozens of Tier 1 warrior bees and hundreds of Tier 0s. Just setting fire would have them all attack at once…he needed something to draw them out.

Hmm, what plants are in the vicinity. Were there any poisonous flowers? Ray looked around, finally finding a single vine on a tree ten meters away that was poisonous and flowering. A lucky find? Ray did not think so. The vine was Tier 3, and growing towards the hive. Well, it was easier to burn than a hive. And Ray was pretty sure that he would get more mana if it was a Tier 4 instead.

A thread of green mana went out, heading towards the vine. The vine absorbed it with glee, growing towards the hive. At first a few bees went, attracted by the scent. And then more, and more. The vine ate them with relish as its mana grew. Ray felt it approach Tier 4, and readied its demise, yellow glitter.

The glitter surrounded it, making it sparkle yellow as the bees converged on it. The scene was quite magical, if it didn’t involve a bunch of things that were trying to kill each other. But that was what magic was about, wasn’t it? A tool. And here in the wild, a weapon.

The vine crossed into Tier 4, its scent multiplying, attracting hundreds of bees to it. The poor thing was relishing the opportunity, ready to get mana from this feast it was having. Ray put an end to it. The glitter ignited, burning the vine to smithereens.

Wood attuned carnivorous vine killed (Tier 4): 339 mana

1 Warrior bee: 27 mana

173 worker bees [mana negated due to tier difference >=5]

Tier 5 (2584/3200)

Ray smiled at the mana, and immediately moved on to the bees. The bees were hard to catch, they were already flying off when Ray got to them. Ray conjured violet mana, making a gust that blew them right into a tree. And then did it again until they died. The poor things couldn’t even fight back, the Tier difference was too high.

Warrior bees x 11: 297 mana

Queen bee: 57 mana

Tier 5 (2938/3200)

And just like that, Ray was much closer to Tier 6. But the Tier difference thing was irritating, it meant that he wouldn’t get mana from Tier 1s after he got to Tier 6. Tier 1s were the most common beasts here.

Ray once again set out to hunt, but this time he was looking for some place where there were a lot of Tier 1s, a place like the rabbit colony where he could kill them all together. After all, why waste the mana. The System would presumably give it all to him together, and he would get the mana as a Tier 5, not a 6.

The hunt was hard, the colonies Ray found were too small, smaller than even the one he blew up. The other places were too open, he couldn’t kill them. And then he found it. A mongoose tunnel. The tunnels of a larvitticus mongoose to be accurate. A cold-blooded nocturnal Tier 1 beast that, unlike most mongoose, traveled in packs. And made nests near snake nests. The tunnels were thin, thin enough that if Ray wasn’t careful, the fire could be stopped by a single mongoose. But yellow glitter was quite thin, in fact, it was well suited for this attack.

Ray dispersed the glitter in, spreading it throughout the tunnels. The tunnels were bigger the deeper you went, and Ray could vaguely sense some more powerful beasts inside. Perhaps this was a bad idea, but Ray had already gone too far.

“What should he do? The beasts could come out and kill him, and even people he cared about. At the same time, the tunnels were full of mana. At least that was how Ray saw them, a collection of mana he could now harvest. And then the decision was taken out of his hands.

The wand began shaking, the tip flickering as the glitter began to explode. A flash later, the tunnel blew up in a massive explosion that nearly threw Ray off his tree. The earth had cracked before him as he saw dozens of beasts lying dead as more tired to crawl up from the smoke.

The attack had been successful…kind of. Though, it might be best to escape before the incoming army realized who’d caused the destruction of their home. Or maybe he could sit around and clean up, they were injured, after all.