Maya understood that they were warning her so she nodded her head "I understand, but l still have to go, it's not just about the great hunt, it's about protecting my own life after all"
Smith hesitated before saying "be careful, although we call it a tribe it's not nearly a tribe, the females they have there are either kidnapped or abandoned. If they see a female delivering herself to them, they might get physical with you. My advice is to make sure you breakthrough to an apprentice shifter before you arrive there. Although the members of the Valtori tribe are all weak, they wear beast armours that make them very strong. Don't underestimate even the fledglings."
"Little female, if you are going then make sure you come back before a month passes or you will miss the event. It will be more convenient if you go straight to the Darkfang clan after you are done and wait for us there." The old man said.
"Thank you for your help, I will get going tomorrow then" she said.
Suddenly, Maya's stomach rumbled loudly making her blush in embarrassment.
"Haha, seems like the little female is hungry. Big brother, take this chance to teach her how to hunt, I would have gone myself but my old bones suddenly started to aching" he secretly winked at Smith before rushing off complaining about his aching back.
Smith's lips twitched, what was he trying to achieve? He shook his head before saying "Do you wish to learn hunting?"
Maya thought about it, since she would be going on this journey alone, she needed to learn how to hunt for herself. Besides she could also use this chance to accumulate some experience points, so she nodded in agreement.
"Hop on" Smith instantly shifted into his magnificent brown lion before gesturing for Maya to climb on.
Maya didn't stand on ceremony and used her newfound strength to hop onto his back. She had discovered that even if she didn't want to transform, as long as she sent some beast energy to her hands, they would feel stronger. So she just sent that energy to her legs instead of her hands and it actually made her calves powerful enough to perform a jump of nearly two metres high!
As Smith started running down the mountain path and towards the forest, Maya grabbed onto him as she checked her rewards. She instantly allocated her 2 stats to strength, the battle with Shadow had taught her that speed is nothing without strength backing it up. Otherwise she could just evade and not cause any damage, although that would prevent her from hurting anyone, she would eventually get tired and possibly get killed by that very person she was avoiding to harm.
[2 stats have been allocated to strength]
Soon they reached an unfamiliar part of the forest, Maya jumped off and Smith reverted back to his demi-human form.
"To find a the right direction our prey has gone to, you must first sniff the air. Try that and tell me what you smell" Smith said while inhaling deeply to demonstrate.
Maya closed her eyes and did as told while activating her enhanced senses "I smell mud, decaying leaves and a..a slightly sweet scent"
Smith was impressed "that was quick, l thought it would take you a while there"
Maya just smiled mysteriously.
Smith continued, "that sweet smell you caught on to is out Prey, l want you to close your eyes and trust your nose. Follow the scent to where it smells the strongest"
Maya did as told and soon arrived at am open area.
"Very good, now that we're here, search for signs of nature being trampled on. We are doing this because the wind can throw us off the track of our prey, to avoid that we look around for beast tracks in the area where our prey's scent is the strongest" he explained patiently as he looked around.
Soon Smith found a clue "Look here, this broken twig has a slight scent of our prey, now all we have to do is-"
Smith's explanation was cut short when they heard a crunching sound, turning to that direction, they came face to face with a giant praying mantis. In its arms was half a corpse of its own kind and it's face was covered in yellowish blood.
"Here's our prey, watch how l kill it, the next prey is yours" Smith said as he jumped at it and transformed while he was in the air.
The praying mantis was quick to react, it dropped the corpse and let out a shrill cry. It raised its thorny forelimbs to hack Smith out of the air but once their limbs met, it was a draw. Smith didn't expect anything to happen so he wasn't disappointed, the moment he landed on the ground he bounced up and attacked it's weak spot right underneath it's forearm where it wasn't covered in the protective layer of chitin. After tearing off the first limb, Smith didn't rest, he fought with it until he cut off its second limb. Only then was he finally able to slice it's belly open as a killing blow, yellow blood spluttered and the insect beast squirmed around on the floor for a while before it completely stopped moving.
By the time he was done, Smith was hugging and panting.
"Wow, that was amazing!" Maya clapped her hands softly and praised Smith, on the inside, she was actually glad Smith didn't tell her to fight the beast. Back in the human world, she hated insects and looking at the yellowish blood all over Smith, she resisted the urge to throw up.
"We are lucky one of them was already dead otherwise one of us would have died." Smith said after he shifted into his demi-human form.
"But why did it kill its own kind?" Maya asked curiously.
"It's in their nature, the females are sometimes carnivorous and eat their males during or after mating" Smith explained.
Maya was surprised but didn't say anything, Smith took this as an opportunity to educate Maya "dealing with most insect like beasts is always harder than your average beast because of their exoskeleton, flight ability and their sharp forelimbs that can hack you to death in one strike. Always remember to attack their weak points and slice off their limbs first before you can focus on killing it otherwise if you aren't a level stronger than it, you are as good as dead if you can't escape it"
Maya nodded in understanding, Smith walked up to the closest corpse before saying "If the first rule of hunting is to trust your nose then the second would be to never stay in a place that reeks of blood for too long"
He buried his hand inside the dissected belly of the insect, when he bought it out, a yellowish soft glowing ball was in his hand.
He repeated the same thing with the other insect, watching all of this Maya felt like she would have vomited if she had any food left in her stomach.
"And the third rule would be to always remember to extract the beast cores" he said as he pocketed them.
"What are they for?" Maya asked, she remembered that Kai had extracted something similar from a pink fox.
"They are energy sources, you can directly absorb the beast energy inside it to replenish your own, it can also help you breakthrough if you are facing a bottleneck. And they are used as a form of currency especially in the Beast City" Smith explained.
Maya nodded her head in understanding.
"Which part of the prey do you want? I will cut it for you" Smith proposed.
Maya shook her head fiercely "No thanks, I think l want something that is not an insect at the very least"
"Hop on then, we should leave this area before any strong beasts arrive" Smith said as he transformed.
At that point, Maya saw a familiar figure on the opposite side, her eyes widened in delight. She quickly got onto Smith's back and pointed at the direction she wanted.
"There is someone hiding over there, please run after him Smith" Maya said anxiously.
Smith was confused but upon smelling new prey he didn't ask and just followed her instructions. After running for a while, they were able to see the fleeing figure of a wolf.
Maya's heart raced, it's really that wolf.
'I didn't kill him after all!' thinking of this, she felt relieved and happy, she hadn't been able to get him out of her mind all day long.