Klein decided to accompany her during the hunt, unprepared to lose the only straw of civilization he found. For most of the time, he let her do her thing, and only helped when she was unprepared to deal with the wild animals. The elf girl was pretty good with the bow as she was with her blade.
She was experienced in hunting as well, never getting motivated by her greed. However, that simply wasn't enough in the deep wilderness. Elves aren't natural predators, but wolves are. Soon, they found in the middle of a pack of wolves.
They performed a lot better than the first time. Honestly, Klein made all the difference by shooting a few mana bolts that not only killed the targets, but scared away a good number of them. However, Elowen hasn't given up yet. She shot arrows, killing three of the fleeing beasts, almost chasing after them.
All in all, it was good hunting. When the sun was high in the sky, she already collected seventeen perfectly formed beast cores.
Elowen had divided ten of the beast core she received and drew her hand to him, even though he barely helped.
Klein took four of them and shrugged. When he saw the girl wasn't retracting her arm, he shook her head, uttering "No" in her language. Still, Elowen insisted, almost giving them to his palms, but he caught her palm and pushed away.
The elf's green eyes widened in surprise. She was sweating profusely by the end of the hunt, her clothes sticking to her slender curves, lustrous with sunlight gleaming over her. He averted his gaze, though not before she spotted it.
"I don't know how to use them, so they are little use to me," he tried to say in her language, unsure how much of it was comprehensible to her.
Obviously, those cores were the most interesting thing he found on this planet and he couldn't wait to unfold their secrets. But that didn't mean he would take away more than half of the stuff the girl earned hunting painstakingly, even if she tried to give it away willingly.
Besides, it was hardly that difficult to gain those cores, and Elowen seemed to be in dire need of them.
The more creatures Klien hunted, the more those texts greeted his sight. Obviously, he had no other choice but to ignore them, though he had a feeling what they meant. The current of energy that boosted his power was hinting at something. One thing was certain, the more creature he slays, the more energy would flood his system.
Although much of his magical power was lost, Klein's physique was almost twice as strong. While magical power was shifting to something new, but it was still far from reaching his peak.
Honestly, they made a good team for each of their circumstances. Klein with his high firepower that he couldn't use constantly, Elowen, who lacked the firepower, but made up for it with her rounded essence unitisation. Moreover, Elowen had no problem using essence as many times as she wanted, unless she ran out of it, unlike Klein, who needed some rest after the freezing sensation surged through his body.
Elowen seemed to mostly know how to empower other objects with her essence, her sword and the arrowhead, for instance. She infused objects with essence, and that did the trick. Klein replicated her process to make it work as well, though the output varied a lot. More input didn't necessarily amount to more output in empowering.
Elowen was able to make the sharpness of her sword almost irreproachably sharper at times, easily severing the limbs and necks of wild beasts with one slash. Her sword arts and archery were far superior to him as well, to the level that it was almost inconceivable that she was a young girl.
Wait, she was an elf! Realisation dawned on Klein as she eyed the elf girl.
Klein wasn't an expert on Elven biology, but as far as he was aware, this girl could easily be a hundred years old. But she acted all too innocent and naive, though. Are those natures inherited as well?
"Achoo!" sneezed Elowen abruptly, and turned her head to meet his gaze. A frown crept up her brows immediately. She looked around as if searching for something.
"Elowen?"
"Follow~" Klein understood nothing after she said that as she rushed out to the south. She continued sniffing the air as she advanced, unaware if Klein was following her or not.
"I don't remember girls being this strange," Klein muttered. "Then again, it has been a long time since I was in contact with them."
The elf was quick on her feet and knew how to empower her body with essence as well, so by the time she found what she was looking for, Klein was wheezing his heart out.
Klein's eyes were wavering as he summoned his energy to calm himself down. Only after cooling down, he looked upon what the elf was searching for.
It was a massive tree over three hundred metres tall, covered almost completely in huge green leaves shading against the high sun.
"~Fruit," Elowen said, pointing towards a green fruit half up in a brunch. "Come. Come~"
With that, the elf began climbing up the tree. Her rapid pace told she was vastly experienced in climbing trees.
Klein didn't follow, however. He waited for her to pick up the fruits and climb down.
"Ki Lien," Elowen shouted, and threw the very first fruit she picked up from the tree. Her throw was precise and Klein caught it instinctively, his eyes scrutinising over the alien fruit.
It seemed to be some type of peach that he had never eaten before, though he wasn't sure if it would be advisable to taste it.
Klein was about to ask her that, but his attention shifted instantly, noticing some disturbance from behind. Soon, he found out it wasn't a beast, because it—or rather they spoke.
More elves.