Meanwhile in an Elven city close to the village.
“What do you mean it was unsuccessful? They had seven armed and trained recruits! We even took the trouble of hiding the contract inside their flesh!
How could they fail to even capture one damn villager?”
A young elven male fumed with anger as he questioned his subordinate. The haggard and old male elf resting on all fours planting his head against the floor trying to weather his masters rage.
“How are we supposed to gather enough numbers? With my sisters ploy we are banned from choosing any more cubs! We need those beasts to stock up our front-lines, my brother already has over Two-thousand under weapons and trained. We barely number eight-hundred!”
“My prince the recruits claim to have been ambushed by a hidden master, it knew gravity magic and easily defeated them! Surely the filthy beasts are planning another uprising!
May I suggest you tell your lord father that you found a hidden one and ask for his permission to exterminate it?”
The young prince stopped in his tracks, an evil grin spreading across his face. “ Ready my personal guard we are visiting that backwater village, no need to consult my lord father. Lest my brother claims the fame of exterminating those pests.” Hurrying to his feet the old advisor fled his masters presence he was glad to not be close as his master directed his rage onto the other servants.
At the same time back in the village
With careful steps I walked around the small lake, picking up one more of the round pebbles. A careful throw made the pebble whistle through the air, barely in time a fist intercepted the stone and turned it into dust.
“Kai? Is that really necessary?”
Gale and Ere were standing in the middle of the lake balancing on a small tower of unstable stones trying to remain standing with bound eyes as I pelted them with small pebbles in uneven time frames.
“MASTER! While we are training call me “master” ,Gale this training is designed to unlock one of the core abilities you will need later! Both of you will not leave those rocks until you master the first step! The next time one of such goons harasses any of us you WILL be prepared!”
Grunting unhappily they went back into their stances preparing for the coming assault of stones. My father had announced we were ready to accompany him on a hunt but I wanted to make sure that ALL of us make it back alive no matter what we may encounter. Thus I had taken it upon me unlock their battle instinct and lay the foundation for their future martial arts and magic.
As the sun neared the horizon I called both of them to the shore and began treating all the minor wounds where a stone had bypassed their defence. A hearty meal was bubbling in a pot over a small fire, as much as I mistreated them during training I made sure not to exceed their endurance.
Relying on entire lives as teacher I started to form both of them into capable fighters.
Using Eres natural affinity for strength, her training focused on defence and overwhelming power. Once I got my hand on some monster-material I planned to let her wield a two-handed great-mace. There was nothing that fit our little Hulk better.
Gale however was way more capable in magic and her tiny frame allowed her fast speeds, as such her future weapon was to be Pole-staff. A combination of spear and great-staff many mages use. Coupling her speed and perception with magic and the unpredictable nature of a good spear, I could already hear her opponents lament.
I myself planned for a very different style, most will laugh at me in the future for using it but my chosen style was dual-shield. Not ordinary shields though, one spiked shield and one blade shield. Coupled with Mana circuits and instant casting I would become the nightmare of many.
But all that was still far in the future and the trouble we had stirred began to scratch on our door. An elven brigade, twenty elves and thirty wolf-man guards arrived at our walls demanding entry. Under the pressure of the overwhelming force our village-leader caved and allowed them entry. The elves confiscated the inn and the guards took residence in the stables.
The troubles in harassing of the invaders took an entire day to reach our tiny farm.
A guard loudly demanded entry to our house, the obviously drunk wolf-man knocked down the door. He began pestering my mother until father arrived and gently accompanied him to the door. I think he made a new record in wolf-man far-throwing.
But the wolf-man did not give up fabricating some ridiculous story of being attacked he brought five friends. I think my father broke his old record by a bit that evening.
They came back with ten, this time I helped my father, sadly I did not possess his strength and I could not challenge his record.
A few days everything was silent as smoke woke me up. The full elven entourage with their guards was outside our farm and the old advisor was casting flame-magic at the fields. I wanted to act but my father and mother signalled me not to and held me back.
Sadly I had to agree, the amount of Mana the mage was wasting on his spell showed me my own weakness, he was not an opponent I could challenge.
As such our small family decided to start hunting the next day, especially since our main income just went up in flames. Grabbing everything essential we fled the house by the back-door and used the barn as cover from the elven eyes.
Using earth-magic I erected a small housing in the border of the forest, that earned me a thumbs-up from my father. So all five of us went to sleep like the beasts that give us our name in one big pile of fur.
The next day we inspected what was left of our home, the fields were razed, the barn and house burned down to the foundation. Only the small patch of forest had survived the onslaught of flames. But we were safe and that was everything that mattered as far as my parents were concerned. My father urged us back into the woods, he had noticed three guards not far from our destroyed farm barely managing to reach the woods to avoid detection.
With our magic the immediate survival was guaranteed but we would need to hunt intensively to survive the coming winter.
And I would need to work on my power, the recent events once more showed how insignificant my current impact on the world was.
StatusName: Kaileron "Kai"Age:8
Trait:
Trait:
Some of you might wonder where I got my new fancy skills, it turns out ingesting toxic material had a chance to unlock it for my own use. In this case my father tried to cook, the result burned a hole into the cooking ware. We still ate a small bite to appease my pleading father.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Breathing mastery on the other hand came naturally while advancing my cultivation while unfamiliar with the skill I was happy with 20% speed increase in helping my cultivation along.
Father and mother had prepared the sparse equipment we were able to save from the inferno. A simple leather garb for Ere, Gale and Me. A stone mace reinforced with leather for Gale. A crude Elemental stone as focus for Gale and I got an iron spearhead mounted on a crude looking wooden pole.
My mother chose to remain at the improvised den and prepare some essentials for our return. Led by my father our small group set off to our very first hunt. “This is your first real hunt younglings as such try to be as silent as possible, no talking, laughing or giggling. Anything that may alert our prey or in a worse case a bigger predator is forbidden during the hunt. Gale you follow behind me, Ere and Kai take one side of Gale each watch the flanks and back. Make a stomp on the ground if you see something important or yell if and only IF we cannot avoid confrontation anymore.” I had to see a complete new side to my father, which while a massive hunter was most of the time clumsy and a dunce. But now every step of his were calculated and silent.
We struggled to match his movement with less than stellar success.
Taking the left side a step behind Gale we proceeded into the unknown. Trying to be as silent as possible I was soon rewarded with the
Suddenly my father bowed down, inspecting an unobtrusively placed indention in the forest soil. He urged us to follow as he slowly followed the trail only he could see.
Unfortunately being a tracker had not been part of my lives, I could still deal with it but my impression would end as a bloodhound sniffing the floor following by scent.
As such I refrained from staining my clothes and followed my father down the trail.
It took a couple hours we were close to one of the mountains in the forest, a flat and craggy rock barely covered by the mighty trees of the forest. Its tip defiantly piercing the green blanket crowned with a peak of ice. As we finally saw our target. A Malamö, a deer-like critter the size of a rhinoceros. Carefully my father unhooked his mighty bow, knocking an arrow he took aim.
He slowly inhaled and let the arrow fly, the path was perfect, and the Malamö reacted too slow. But before the arrow impacted a transparent shield of wind destroyed the projectile. Ghostly shapes started appearing, dancing around the Malamö, mocking our plight.
“Fae” was all my father grumbled preparing our retreat, slowly we tried to move backwards away from the ghostly things. Though our hope was short-lived a barrier of wind blocked our retreat. “Gale try your spells it looks like the Fae do not want to let us go today!” In the heat of the moment Gale failed the incarnation for her spell three times earning her another mocking laugher from the Fae. Then the fireball sailed only to harmlessly pass the ethereal creature.
Then slowly fog started to billow around our feet, slowly rising. My father became panicked using all his strength to strike the wind barrier. The spell flimmered and groaned but held.
Whatever these Fae were my father was afraid. Ere joined into the fruitless bashing on the windwall. While Gale failed one spell after another slowly running out of Mana. Her legs began shaking, and her stand became unsteady as the spells took their toll.
I would have preferred to stay more low-key but this situation demanded my action. Pointing my arm at the Fae I began to concentrate. The Fae only intensified its mocking, then I closed my hand, instantly the mocking changed into a shriek. The Fae was struggling, as if something had grabbed it, locking it in place.
The windwall broke down, as the Malamö decided to attack. To our luck my father was ready, grabbing the animal by its giant antler, slamming its head into the ground, where it impacted with a sickening crunch.
While my father was battling I had my own battle. The Fae was struggling and any means of communication had failed. As my last resort I activated
No wind moved as more and more ethereal smoke began to be forced towards my open mouth.
The Fae looked like stuck in a giant tornado as I let go. Instantly the thing was sucked down and swallowed.
Living entity consumed beginning digestion. 12%... and counting
I felt the weak hits the Fae tried against my stomach but it was futile, its struggle growing weaker by the second.
Consume successful Vit+20 Dex+21 Str+5
The return to our den was without further incident, my father shouldered the massive animal, while Ere helped to support it. The glances I got from my father firmly screamed “explain yourself” But I kept silent until we reached “home”, unfortunately for me, dads biggest ally was awaiting us with a prepared cooking place.
This would be a long night.