The week passed by quickly. Jarred and Aaron spent most of their time practicing their magic as well as seeing what limitations the inventory system had. So far, they had discovered they could store almost anything as long as it was a liquid or solid. Each item stored took up one slot. For each point in Intelligence, they received two storage slots.
Currently Jarred's was at 14 and Aarons at 16, giving them 28 and 32 slots respectively. One thing they noticed early on was that items did not change when placed in their inventories. Hot food or cold drinks placed inside would come out in the exact same state they went in. Almost like they were getting saved as data or stopped in time. Speculating on how it worked was pointless but finding out the rules was important.
In the week they had before going on their daily hunts, they prepare by making sure to fill half their inventories with food and an additional 3 containers of water. Being able to carry around that much without even needing a backpack was really handy and definitely something Hallgrim wouldn't be expecting.
Going to the armory they discovered that while they couldn't just take whatever they wanted, the King had put into place a system that allowed Champions to borrow weapons until they managed to get some of their own. While they'd been schooled daily on stances and techniques with swords from Boriq and magic by Kiera, neither had a weapon they were incredibly proficient with.
Jarred thought it would be cool to learn archery, but a couple attempts with a bow proved that it was nowhere near as simple as video games made it seem. While he continued to practice, he would obviously be nowhere near ready by the time their daily excursions into the forest started. Aaron took a plain shortsword then focused on practicing his magic.
Aside from developing a new Wind Blade spell, which while not having a lot of range, was cool and made it feel like his hand had an invisible sword jetting from it, he also succeeded in getting Water Bullet up to level 3. It took the whole week, but finally he achieved it, increasing its power and reducing the mana cost by 1 MP.
When the day came round for them to begin, they found themselves escorted by a small platoon out of one of the city gates. Hallgrim had kicked up a fuss, saying that if they were to learn and grow, they couldn't be coddled by armed guards everywhere. Yet with the Demon's presence in they city and two Champions already missing, King Allaan held firm in an armed escort and sweeping the parts of the forest being used for the exercise.
As they arrived, they could still hear Hallgrim grumbling about 'scaring off anything worth hunting' under his breath. Yet despite his annoyance at the situation, he quickly dragged them into formations. There were to be six groups of three, with their teacher held back from joining any of the groups. His protests about their safety were noted however and each group was assigned a guard that was instructed not to intervene unless someone's life was at stake.
He chuckled lightly when he saw that none of the young Champions had thought to bring along any equipment or bags, but if they got hungry while out there it would be their own fault.
So, with no further preamble they were sent in different directions, each expected to bring back 5 'trophies' per group. The groups were assigned at random, so Aaron found himself grouped with Scylla and Ben. Scylla held nothing but a small knife in a sheath at her waist, whereas Ben had a spear that he handled a little awkwardly in one hand.
The trio strode down one of the paths into the forest nearby for several minutes, making little in the way of conversation. Aaron had not had a lot of interaction with either Scylla or Ben, everyone had so far been sticking to their friend groups, but since they were meant to be working together, he decided to make an attempt.
"Going alright?" He inquired to the pair, getting a nod from Scylla and a grunt from Ben.
"Your rock spear spell was really cool, what others have you learned?"
"…I've got a couple I'm practicing" Scylla replied absent mindedly, not seeming to be concentrating on the conversation as she surveyed their whereabouts.
"Fair enough…" Aaron ended awkwardly, then turned his attention to Ben.
"How about you?"
"Magic isn't something I've picked up much of" Ben replied in a slightly crestfallen voice. To come all the way to another world with magic and then not being good at ANY of it would be really disappointing after all.
"But my spear skills have levelled up a couple times and I've got a few active and passive skills that increase my damage with it!" He smiled proudly, thumping the aforementioned spear on the ground.
"Where is your weapon by the way?"
Aaron grinned and waved his hand as a sword appeared out of nowhere from his inventory. The others knew of their inventories, so they weren't surprised, beyond the over-the-top flourish. Keeping it there saved on the weight he was carrying so he could conserve his energy.
A rustling in the bushes nearby silenced the chatter. Everyone took up a stance nearby while their guard stood back behind them, not getting in the way. Unfortunately, a rabbit was all that jumped out, grazing around a bit before noticing the armed people several metres away and taking off back into the brush. A relieved sigh echoed from three mouths before looking at each other awkwardly and continuing on.
After exploring for a while, they finally stumbled on a clearing, with a few antelope like creatures. Upon sighting them, Aaron used Inspect.
Vextooth
Monster
Level 4
Currently docile.
Discussing it quietly, they decided on launching a surprise attack. If Aaron and Scylla could injure or kill one each that would leave Ben to face the remaining one until the pair finished theirs to assist. Ben assured them he wouldn't need assistance, but his hands shook a bit too much for them to take him at his word.
After agreeing on targets, Aaron and Scylla both took careful aim.
"1, 2, 3, go!" Ben whispered in a hushed voice.
Aaron's Water Bullet tore through the silence, hitting the Vextooth dead in its side, piercing its ribcage while not killing it instantly. Scylla's Rock Bullet on the other hand pierced her targets head dead centre, causing it to explode in a shower of blood and brain matter. Aaron and Ben both looked at her in shock, which she barely noticed as she focused her aim on the uninjured monster that had now noticed them.
Finally able to see its face, they noticed that while the body shape and antlers were similar to that of an antelope, the vicious rows of long fangs were where it got its name. As the creature began to charge in their direction, Ben stepped forward and yelled out.
"Heavy Thrust!"
A dim light coated his spear as he plunged the spear tip directly into the charging beast's chest. The momentum of its charge pushed the spear deep finally striking its heart, to which it suddenly collapsed. Aaron's initial target was still vainly struggling, barely able to get to its feet. Again, that sickening feeling filled him as he hurried over to finish the beast off. Monster or not, he didn't feel comfortable dragging out its suffering.
"Well done! You all did that very smoothly" The guard said. "But why did you yell in the middle there?"
His question made Ben redden, as he realized he'd screamed out his skill like a kid in a book or an anime.
Aaron pretended not to notice the awkward moment and instead checked the group chat.
James: How is everyone doing? We've got our 5 kills already. Anyone need help?
Willow: Um we're struggling, we found one bear like creature, but it looked huge, so we avoided it.
Tyler: We've got four so far!
Ben: We've just got 3 :p
Kristopher: We haven't even found any monsters yet either. Are we just looking in the wrong places?
Mellissa: Yeah, we've run into one rabbit thing so far, that's it.
James: Sing out if you need and we'll head your way. Whereabouts are you guys' willow?
Willow: I think we entered to the east of you?
Aaron closed it down as they were just bragging about how well they're doing and checked his exp instead.
He got a whopping 10 from the Vextooth, he assumed it was because while they had caught the pack off guard, they were actually 2 levels higher than his group. One more enemy like that and he could level up again! Ben was futilely messing around with one of the Vextooth's horns.
"Er, what are you doing?" Aaron asked in a perplexed tone.
"Taking a trophy obviously"
"Ok…" Aaron raised his hand and pressed it onto the corpse of the Vextooth he'd killed, a flash of blue light coated it before the body vanished into his inventory.
"Oh…" Came the response as Ben came to the realization and followed suit. Scylla took her own, or what was left of it, and their group continued exploring. A loud roar echoed off in the distance, sounding like the bear like creature the others mentioned, but after a quick check confirming none of their groups reported being in the area, they decided to just avoid it. No point charging in to be a hero if nobody needed saving.
They scouted the area warily. A couple more rabbits popped out in their travels, but they darted away before any of them could make a move. Finally, they group stumbled on another pack of Vextooth's in a wide clearing. This time there were five of them.
"Should we? We managed with the other group but even if you both take out one each, we'll still have three on us before we know it" Ben cautioned.
"Yeah, that might be a little ambitious. Maybe if we could slow them down it would work but fighting five that are all double our level would be a bit extreme" Aaron agreed.
The guard piped up quietly.
"Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor"
Suddenly the trees shook and the bear like creature came bursting through the underbrush on the opposite side of the clearing, one heavy claw tearing a Vextooth in half before it had time to think. The others startled and backed off, before one of the more courageous number, jumped up and pierced it's horns into the fatty flesh of the beasts neck.
The bear was over 8 feet tall on all fours and built like a small tank. Its fur was a dirty grey, and its claws were the length of a ruler. Even taking the other monsters horns head on, it seemed hardly bothered. Another swipe tore head from body as the remainder of the Vextooth collapsed to the ground.
Raging Ash Bear
Level- 10
Status- Hungry and enraged
Aaron paled.
"It's a level 10. I don't think we can fight that thing, it's huge. We should get out of here while it's massacring the Vextooth herd"
The others agreed and made to move away silently. That is, until they heard a loud sniffing coming from behind them. Most of the herd had fled, yet instead of chasing the fleeing monsters, it had noticed another scent on the breeze. Lumbering in their direction slowly it hadn't yet seen the group hiding in the bushes, but it was only a matter of time…