An arrow majestically flew through the air, aiming to land on its target.
The target was a hare, chewing on grass. It was clueless as a life-ending pain erupted in its throat, causing the animal to be powerless as it succumbed to asphyxia.
Aka, who had just shot the arrow, was physically stunned. Not at the hare, but herself.
"Red Lotus, you are amazing!", Aka praised as she was filled with satisfaction.
The parasite laughed at the unexpected compliment, "You haven't seen anything worth complimenting yet! This is just a minor improvement in my eyes."
This morning, Aka had resolutely chosen to go with the second recommendation. This recommendation was where she would improve her bow skills so that she could hunt beasts deeper into the woods.
This was opposed to the third, where she would have to become a full-fledged vampire and suck out the blood of people in the village.
While Aka was attracted to how many 'points' human blood gave her, it was simply too much of a risk. If she were caught, the mages would no doubt go after her for being a blood path parasite's host. Even if, hypothetically speaking, she was strong enough to combat these mages, she wouldn't last very long. Unless she escaped the village, but even that has its own issues.
Long story short, it was not worth it.
It was a much safer strategy to hunt wild beasts in the forest.
And so, in light of Aka's choice, Red Lotus told her to lay down and rest. When she did so, she immediately became unconscious.
Two minutes later, she jolted awake, feeling strange. Something about her had changed, but she couldn't quite tell what.
Red Lotus informed that the operation was successful, and that her motor ability with a bow has increased significantly.
Intrigued and excited from hearing about this change, Aka hurriedly completed her tasks for the day and was not in the least hesitant to go hunting after the fact.
When she held the bow and drew it, it was easy and natural, as if it were like walking or jumping. Her control over her aim and draw strength felt fine-tuned and innate.
Aka couldn't believe it. There was basically no mental usage in preparing her shot, from the stance to the draw to the release, it all flowed like river water.
That's why she couldn't help but praise Red Lotus for improving her bow ability. One hare was all that was needed for her to fix her lack of talent. No longer will she be inferior to Ao with the bow!
"Incorrect. Strictly speaking, one hare would have not been enough to warrant this great of a change.", Red Lotus corrected Aka's thoughts.
Aka furrowed her eyebrows whilst she was collecting the hare's corpse, "...Huh? Then am I on a loan or something?"
"No, human. You drank a miniscule portion of human blood when you had defended yourself against that man yesterday. Though quantity was almost virtual, it warranted a great deal of 'points' purely from quality."
Stopping for a moment, Aka tried to comprehend what Red Lotus meant, only to remember, "Oh right. That guy who was blocking my path in the slums… Oh well."
Now that Aka was in the right state of mind, she recalled the events and realised that she may have gone too far. The man probably didn't mean much harm considering the fact that he did not chase after her.
But 'oh well', what's happened happened, and she will apologise if she ever sees him again.
Once Aka stored the hare's corpse into a bag, she continued hunting in the forest.
It did not take very long at all for her to catch two more hares, totalling up to three. When she caught the third, she decided to stop hunting for now. Her storage was running out, and she didn't plan on drinking the blood of tens of hares a day.
"I also have to get back to my mother too. It's probably another task again.", Aka's mother had informed Aka that had something she needed to do later in the day, so she couldn't hunt for ages like yesterday.
Aka raised her sights to the skies and used the position of the sun to estimate the current time.
"It's about 3.", Aka thought.
"It's 2:47pm, correct the nearest minute.", Red Lotus chipped in and corrected Aka.
"...", Aka didn't bother to respond to Red Lotus as she made her way back to the village.
Two hours later, at Aka's home.
"Dear, can you give this letter to the head of the village? It needs to be done personally.", Aka's mother handed over a letter with a green, circular seal with an imprint on it to Aka.
Aka took it with a blank expression, eyes slightly dimmer than usual, "A letter to the mayor? What's this for?"
Aka's mother put on a smile as she made hand gestures, "Of course, it is about Ao, your sister! We might be able to do something special for her if we get the head involved."
Upon hearing 'Ao', her acting skills kicked up, "Ah, that's great, mother, I will go deliver this now. I'll be back soon.", Aka replied with a nod and a small smile.
"That's a good daughter. Remember to come tell me about your hunting efforts!"
"Mhm, of course."
Aka quickly but steadily left the house as she held the letter in her hand.
She stared at it with a complicated expression, one that was full of doubts.
"I have just drunk 3 hares worth of blood, and now I have to deal with this matter too?", with every hare she drank blood from, the more insensitive she became to it. It was starting to get easier.
But that only made it worse. Aka did not want to think of drinking blood as a normality!
Red Lotus ignored her petty troubles and announced, "This is an issue, it seems I will have to hide myself for a short period of time.", he was thinking of the letter specifically.
To a normal person, sending a letter to the mayor of the village would be a simple matter, but to Aka, it was very risky.
That was because the mayor of the village was a mage!
The mages that secretly follow Aka into the forest could never compare to the strength of the village mayor, and so if he were to detect Red Lotus, it was game over!
Aka questioned, "What do you mean by 'hide'?", hasn't Red Lotus been hiding this entire time?
"What I'm referring to is reducing my aura. As I have mentioned previously, those who can use magic can vaguely sense each other, and this is because of the aura we release."
The concept of 'aura' was one that normal people could barely comprehend. If it were to be described, it was like how grandiose a person was. It was how much they solidified their own existence into our world.
Whenever a person moves, acts, speaks, they reveal their existence in the present world, showing they have an impact on the universe. Even if it's as mundane as walking, as stupidly specific as the landing location of the foot in a single step out of hundreds of millions, it all has an impact on the universe thanks to the butterfly effect.
If aura is the revealing of one's existence, then to reduce aura, you need to reduce your very being. Staying motionless, going silent, becoming smaller; all of these contribute to reducing aura. They help to reduce the impact of their existence in the world.
Whilst Red Lotus has been staying still in the skull of Aka's, that doesn't mean he's perfectly auraless. He communicated with Aka regularly, and his body was large: it was just that most of it was hidden. There's also the fact that Red Lotus has magical abilities, being the greatest source of his aura.
Aka remembered the idea of this 'vague sense' that mages had, "It's the same reason why I can't become a mage until after Ao comes and goes, right? Then what will you do?"
"I'll undergo hibernation for the rest of the day. That way, there should be no problems delivering the letter.", Red Lotus answered and didn't wait for Aka's response as he prepared to slumber.
"Hm? Hibernation?", Aka asked in her head.
However, she got no response. In her body, Red Lotus' roots that extended all around her body started to retract, as if it were reverse-growing. Meanwhile, Aka didn't feel a single thing.
These roots continued to retract until it reached the brain and it coiled around what looked to be a red, glass ball: Red Lotus' core. All of the mass had condensed around the ball. The core, which used to shine with great luminosity, slowly lost its luster, now carrying a vague red glow.
Reducing mass, reducing communications, and reducing magic activity. With some passive magic abilities that Red Lotus has, it was very unlikely for Red Lotus to be detected by any mage in the village.
"Gone just like that, is it…", Aka muttered as she flicked the lotus resting on her hair. There was a sense of looseness to it now, as opposed to the firmness prior.
Aka's feelings were complicated at this moment. On one hand, she felt a sense of security. Her thoughts were no longer being read by Red Lotus, and it seemed like she was no longer being controlled.
On the other hand, she felt insecure. If something went wrong, who was there to advise her? It felt like Red Lotus had let go of her hand and left her to her own devices.
"Should I…", her thoughts started to drift...
But Aka quickly decided to bury these paradoxical feelings and travelled north. She lived near the centre of the village, in the richer parts.
Of course, this was due to the influence of Ao. The family would have been living in the poorer regions otherwise.
The mayor resided in the northern-centre region. In a short while, Aka arrived at a clean manor and entered a spacious courtyard. The architecture was in the shape of a staple, where the door was in the middle of the two 'prong' sub-buildings.
Aka calmly knocked on the door, quietly admiring the walls and windows.
It was definitely the best looking building out of the entire village, but compared to other settlements like towns or cities, this was modest at best.
"Other cities…", Aka never really thought about it, but if she truly became a mage with Red Lotus' help, she could not stay in Carina village. There were no opportunities here to develop herself.
If there was one thing every mage would agree on as being the most important resource to a mage's development, it would be mana cores.
Mana cores allowed a mage to develop and nurture their internal domain, advancing and becoming stronger. If you did not have any, you can forget of becoming a mage, even if you had potential!
Carina was like the boonies compared to the rest of human civilisation. Even though Ao's influence is steadily bettering the settlement, this evolution is founded on Ao becoming the mayor and guardian of Carina. As of right now, it was still a small place.
And because of this, there were almost no mana cores in Carina. Aka has never even seen a mana core before, she's only ever heard of them.
If she wanted to become a mage, the first thing she should be worrying about is getting mana cores!
Was she going to go rob mages for some?
Hah, maybe if she was suicidal.
But Aka believed Red Lotus had some other idea. After all, the secret blood path monster infestation problem involved monsters, and monsters meant mana cores!
Anyway, that was neither here nor there at this moment. The most important thing right now was to deliver this letter.