He stood up and look at the night sky with a feeling of frustration, then bring back his attention to Cynthia and said "You mean another tamer annihilated our village?"
Cynthia with a worried look empathizing his feelings– the hatred he emitting to sorrounding and an intense creep of bloodlust makes her nervous.
"We are still not sure if that is Asterion." She said in a low-pitch of tone.
Arpada relaxed himself after he saw Cynthia's action. "I'm sorry, did I scared you?", he asked.
Cynthia is stuttering as she replied "N-not really." with a drop of sweat on her left forehead while moving her eyes left and right to avoid eye contact.
"There might be a chance that it is not Asterion." He said.
Cynthia relaxed for a moment and looks to the ground while explaining.
"But, if that is Asterion then you have no chance of winning." She said.
Arpada looks at Cynthia with a hopeless expression. "I know.". Then he stared at the campfire and said "That thing mercilessly killed my friends, it treats them like a toy." He added while clenching his fist.
"Hatred will never takes you anywhere." Cynthia said and looks at Arpada. "Then, I have an offer to you." She added.
Arpada got curious, as he moves upwards his eyebrows he asked "What kind of offer?".
"I know some method that once used by a tamer and it might work to you." She replied.
"This is an offer, so what do you get in return?" He asked.
"That is upto you, if this method works then I will tell." She said.
"In the process, I might still get stronger." He said.
"So do you take my offer then?" She asked.
Arpada nods and sit back to the fallen tree.
A crisps of fire cracking on the burning branches and the sound of crickets nearby filled the night, a cold breeze touched his skin and a beautiful night sky caught his attention.
"You should sleep for now, Arpada." Cynthia said.
"And you?" He asked.
"You're asking a dryad, you know?" She answered.
"Makes sense." He said then wrap himself with a thin clothed as his blanket.
'Boing'
"You should rest too, Gluttony." Arpada said.
Gluttony went besides him and went to sleep.
'Boing~'
Cynthia looks at them and finds it cute to look at– then her hands suddenly fading.
"Not now, please." She said quietly.
Her hands turn back to normal and sigh it.
"Give me more time to at least saved this forest." She said with a depressing look.
****
The leaves of the trees are shaking as Arpada jumping through the branches and he appears to be chasing something.
'Gorf! Gorf!'
A frog-like creature hopping with an insane speed at the ground trying to escape could be seen while Cynthia is standing at the high rock with Gluttony.
"You need to catch at least 10 Frobbit withn a day." Cynthia shouted to Arpada.
"What!?"
He then slipped at the branch and fell down while crashing into small branches before smacking down his face to the ground.
"10!?" He said in astonishment and felt the pain all over his body.
The Frabbit got a large gap of distance between them and successfully escaped.
"Can I at least set a trap!?" He asked.
"Of course–"
Arpada got excited for a second.
"–not, never!" Cynthia replied.
Arpada got disappointed again.
"Just how could I be able to catch that thing?" He thought to himself.
***
Arpada quietly looking for another Frabbit.
'Gorf! Gorf!'
He found one, but this time he did not chase it immediately and just observe its movement for a moment.
"It has great speed as it hops around and even I was concealed or using absolute shadow it could react to my movements the moment I attacked it" He said.
Arpada got an idea and used [Concealment] .
He slowly approach the Frabbit, with a certain distance then throws his dagger causing the Frabbit to get aware and hops with an insane sleed– then Arpada used [Absolute Shadow] and quickly travel through the Frabbit shadow with 0.3 seconds and grabs the dagger in 0.5 seconds.
"It takes you 1 second before landing to the ground again." He said then slashing upward the Frabbit.
'GORF!'
Then the Frabbit died within a second.
"Yes!!" Arpada said with a satisfied expression. "I did it!" He added.
"Good! Then do it 9 more times." Cynthia said.
"Don't kill the vibe!" Arpada said.
"Mybad~ fine, fine." Cynthia said in sarcastic tone.
And Arpada's Frabbit hunting operation continuous within a day.
***
"I successfully hunted all the required Frabbit and I feel like I could hunt for more" Arpada proudly said while moving the raw Frabbit pierced by a stick to the fire.
Cynthia looked at him in disgust.
"Why?" He asked. "Never eaten a Frabbit before?" He added.
"A Dryad eating a Frabbit?" She answered.
"Taste it." He said. "It is like a chicken you know." He added.
Despite Cynthia's curiousity, she still hesitant to try.
"No, no worries." She said.
" Its your loss then", he said while munching the last stick Frabbit.
"But why did I specifically hunt the Frabbit? They are just fast, nothing else." Arpada asked.
"Exactly! Its to develop your time reaction." She explained.
"In a fight you need to be attentive through your opponent's movements, their hand movement or even foot movement. In ocassion they used eyes to send a signal to their accompany." She said "–and your time reaction was needed to process a counter-attack or decision making after analyzing your opponents movement." She added.
Arpada nods while intensely munching the last bits of Frabbit.
"I see, that actually improves my profiency on the skills too." He added.
"Later, before you sleep you will be doing a meditation.", Cynthia said.
"Meditation?" Arpada asked. "Isn't it likes the basic after learning how to breathe?" He sarcastically added.
Cynthia looks to him in cringe. "Of course not!" She said.
"I will teach you the process of meditation." She added and proceed to explanation.
"First, close your eyes– not too tightly, just relax your eyes as if you're sleeping and then take a deep breathe. Your stomach should be enlarging in this process but don't stop inhaling, just inhale until you can not take air anymore."
Arpada follows her explanation and he feels his body temperature heating up.
"Then this is crucial part, you need to exhale through your mouth but– you will do it as bursting your breathe out for 5 times and inhale again as much as you can and so on." She explaines.
He follow through her explanation and saw a dim light at the middle of the darkness but it disappeared as he got distracted.
"What is the light that I saw?" He asked while recovering his concentration.
"You already saw a light? That means you're doing it correctly" she said. "That light will slowly spreads and eventually give you a perspective through concentration, enhancing your senses exponentially." She explained
Arpada continue the meditation throughout the night and slightly achieve the effect of meditation.
He could see the world even he close his eyes, but it is different perspective. As if it he could zoom through anywhere he looking at but yet it still not perfect so he felt a tingling pain on his head and eyes making him to lose his concentration.
"You should not do it quickly, learn it slowly and you will master it." Cynthia said. "You should take a rest for today's training." She said.
Arpada obediently follow her words and gives him a thumbs up before saying "Nice! Then goodnight.".
He then went to sleep while Cynthia slightly laugh at him and felt like she is raising a silly child.
"Goodnight then." She said.
"I hope I could support you for more, Arpada." She said quietly while slightly smiling yet looking sad.
To be continued...