Chapter 7 - Hunting

Leo was a realist. He understood that the results will come with time. He just wasn't sure how much time it would take. He started to roam the close surroundings of his hut, searching for a small pray like the horned rabbits or dears. It was important to him that those animals could not really fight back. Also he avoided the roaming goblins and kobolds because he was not sure he could face them in this moment of time. He didn't wanted to take any risks. He felt that this life will bring him a lot of the things that he could not experience in his past life. In his past life he died before the age of 30. He had a couple of relationships, but he wasn't able to build a family. In this world he could get all the things he wished for. What he needed is a hard work and dedication and everything was in reach. He knew that now he just needed to survive and hone his skills. He found a deer in an open area and could not really get close to it. He tried his best to shoot it but failed to hit it with an arrow. The deer escaped. After that he found a horned rabbit. Horned rabbits could be really aggressive and initiate the attack sometimes. Their only trump card was their horn that could deal pretty nasty wounds if the rabbit would hit the target. The rabbit went on the attack and Leo was able to block the horn with its stone skin. He still felt some pain from the impact but no wound was open. He understood that arrows would not help here. He concentrated the earth element on his hand to create some sort of rock glove and gave the rabbit the strongest punch he could master. The infusion with the earth element helped him to stun the rabbit and then finish it off with a few more strikes. The rabbit was not really big. It weighted only around 3 kilos (around 6.6 pounds) but still it was his first pray. He was happy to be able to catch something. He understood the he could survive and that was the most important thing. In the following months Leo did three main activities. He hunted for food. He was not always successful and it happened for him to eat only barriers or not eat anything at all for a day or two. It felt horrible but he was used to stuff like that from his previous life. Most of his pray were the horned rabbits that attacked him because he was only a seven year old kid. The rabbits felt they had a chance to take him down. Leo got bruised by the rabbit attacks couple of times but it helped him to make a discovery. He could use his breathing technique and concentrate the energy he absorbed on his wound and it would help him to heal faster. The second thing he did was to study the earth bullet skill. It took him around eight month to study this skill. The main problem was to fire the earth bullet. He got stuck in this phase for a few months. He was able to generate the earth bullet pretty quickly but he could not make it accelerate in the way he wanted. He learned how to do it when he got very frustrated at his unsuccessful attempts and released a strong impulse from the hand that made the bullet fly in a big speed. After that it took him around a month time to understand how to release his impulse in the right way to aim properly. The moment it was set and he learned the earth bullet skill properly he could kill horned rabbits and other animals more easily because now he could defend and attack at the same time. After he learned this skill he discarded the bow and started to train the stone skin and the earth bullet the majority of the time when he was hunting. The third thing was using the breathing technique to train. He could allocate a very limited time to it because he needed to hunt and study the magic skills David imparted to him to survive. He was still at the level of the second ring after those 8 month but he was okay with that. He felt his progress over time and he was satisfied. He was now seven in a half years old. He continued with the same routine for next two years until he learned the other two skills. Stone wall was a skill that he learned in a pretty little amount of time. It took him four month for generate stable stone wall where and when he wanted them. He continued to hunt and sometimes when he saw its pray and could corner it in some way he used the stone wall for his advantage. It helped him to secure couple of deer's that he would not be able to catch otherwise. The last and the most difficult skill was the earth spike. After the earth wall skill it was easier to get the basics of the earth spike skill but it took him two more years to be able to form the spikes in the right place and make it go up in the right angles, also there was the problem with forming its shape correctly. Making the spike not to thin, but not to thick took a long time and effort. Also in this two years Leo finally got to the third ring level of the mage apprentice. His magic power got to 305, barely passing through the limit of the third ring that was at 300 magic power level. The progress was slow but his mastery over the earth element was higher. He could manipulate the earth element in a ten meter radius from his location and could feel his surroundings for two meters with his magic sense. Leo now looked like a little wild animal. His black hair was long and his blue eyes were full of determination. He was now 1.38m in height( 4.53 feet) and with a weight of 33 kilograms(73.8 pounds). He had a lean and healthy appearance. He took a knife to cut his hair to a normal length and sat to think on what to do next. He felt that he got everything he could from this place and it was time to move on and go and explore the world. He was strong enough to survive in the danger zone now. It was finally time to go and explore the city of Rufus.