"Wake up, time for food." said Anne to Johan, who was still mostly asleep. "Come on Johan, we need to keep up with our schedules. Even if we can't leave right now, we need to get something done." Anne prodded Johan once more, this time finally getting him to move.
"Hah? What's going on? Oh. It's morning already? Dang, did I even sleep much?" Johan looked at his watch and let loose a slow whistle. "I only slept for around 3 and a half hours."
"Not my fault you didn't sleep well." Anne then handed him a plate with some... essentially oatmeal cookies, not really oatmeal, but it was the best thing Johan could equate it to. He also received a piece of beast meat, as well as a glass of water in a metal cup.
"Thanks Anne. No one cooks dubious foods quite like you." Johan laughed a bit.
"Yeah, well, at least it's something. I hope lockdown only lasts until tomorrow at the latest. We're almost out of meat, and grains are low too." Anne sighed.
"Mm, yeah. Speaking of where do these grains come from?" Johan asked her.
"Not too sure, Finch just gives me some every now and again, he might be using a small amount of water for a garden. maybe we should ask him later?" Anne suggested.
"Probably not a bad idea." Johan admitted after a moment of him scarfing mystery meat into his food hole.
"So what are we doing today anyways?" Anne asked as she watched Johan eat his portion.
"I thought we could maybe run through some more of the trapping notes you have from Finches class, then we split off for a while to practice our own stuff. We can move some of the furniture to the wall, and then you should have the space needed to train with your sword and shield. It's not going to be comfy, but it might actually be decent training for more cramped quarters, ya know?" Johan smiled.
"And I assume you'll be practicing your magic stuff?" She replied.
"That was the plan, yes." Johan smirked, "Sound good?"
"I suppose so. Shall we get to it then?" She grabbed a small book bound in leather.
"Yep." Johan ate the last of his food. "Not bad, considering the lack of seasonings here."
"Yeah, well, I make due. Anyways, let's get back to it. Trapping that is." Anne stared at Johan, getting a bit annoyed over his repeated pokes at her cooking.
"Alright, alright." Johan finally calmed down a bit, "We were talking about how hiding your tracks is essential to proper trapping. Then we went on the whole 'how to hide your steps' rabbit hole. We ought to be able to start with traps now though."
"Thanks for reminding me. We can now start with basic traps. First is the snare." Anne flipped the page.
"A snare trap is meant to catch hold of the legs or neck of a creature, and is usually supported by a pole or stiff wire, in the wild a small sapling will also work.
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It's rather rare to actually have something die by a snare, though not unheard of, especially in the event that a predator finds them before the hunter. place the snare at roughly the height a creatures legs travel through for maximum effectiveness. The portion that holds the creature, usually a thin rope, or a cable of flexible wire, needs to be in a slip knot so it can properly grasp whatever creature you are trying to trap.
The problems with snaring include the fact that it really only works on small to small-medium sized game, and rarely is it effective against anything that has any amount of intellect, such as goblins." Anne finished explaining.
"Man... You suck at taking notes, it feels like you just wrote what the book had written." Johan said.
Anne flushed red at that.
"No... You didn't... Anne... You should know how to take notes by now." Johan put his hand over his face for a second, then he removed it.
"Alright, I'll teach you how to make some basic notes. You need to find the important bits, for example, part of creature you are going for, where you need to set trap to have most effectiveness, materials best suited, maximum size game, does not work against intelligent creatures. All of a sudden it makes way more sense now that you don't have all the extra bits and pieces that make it pretty to read, most of those flowery words make it harder to understand at a glance." Johan explained to her, "Now, redo your notes and read it again."
"Alright. Snare - Notes - Used for neck and legs, Set trap aiming for roughly where legs move through, normally supported by thin and somewhat stiff wire that can bend but needs to be able to flex, actual trap portion is a thin wire or rope that needs to be strong enough to not break under great force, trap needs to be in a slip knot to be able to actually hold creature without it slipping out of the trap, does not work on medium or larger game, nor intelligent creature well.
Wow, that's almost half the amount I originally wrote. I think... I want to rewrite my notes before we get any further. Thanks for teaching me about that, Johan. It's really helpful." Anne hugged him, then went over to sit on the floor and rewrite everything in the notebook.
"Yep, you are my sister after all. I'll start on my magic training then..." Johan said the last part mostly to himself.
Johan went to the corner of the room, and got cozy, and then began. He called forth the mana in the air, forming a long horizontal cylinder for the first form, then making it into a cube, lastly creating a spring. He wanted to do another thing too, but it was more complex. Johan had failed at the next step just yesterday.
That step was to make a flower, a rose specifically. The reason for that was due to it being a small and complex shape which made it extremely hard to not lose at least a bit of mana doing the maneuver to create it. This time, he decided to instead just make it larger. So instead of a rose the size of half his forearm, he aimed for one that was as long as his forearm. With it being less small, he was able to focus more on the detail of it.
The reason why Johan did this was to get used to the shape of it, and then he would try to condense that shape, after he accomplished that, he would then create it without making it larger first.
The first try went well up until he tried to shrink it, when he did that, the mana slipped for a moment as his concentration lapsed. The second was only slightly better, managing to take a few tenths of an inch out of it before he lost it again. The next try he managed to make it 3/4 the length of his forearm. It did seem to be helping quite a bit. Johan smiled, and then returned to concentrating on it, finally on his eleventh try, he succeeded in condensing it to be the correct size he needed.
This time, he tried to conjure it outright, and found it to be far easier to do so than the last time, making him forget himself in the amazement of how much easier it seemed to be. This of course made him lose it again, making Johan smile bitterly, but he did it again, this time actually focusing on it, and it held rather well, even if it wasn't quite perfect yet.
Johan had created the rose made out of water in all its detail and at the correct height. He then dismissed it and started the exercise from the start, finishing it a handful of times and then nodding in satisfaction. Then Johan decided to try out a variety of different shapes, both simple and complex, it wouldn't hurt him to get even better as far as he was concerned.