Kes and Nash were standing outside the academy building together with their whole class, the village chief and the one leading them on this so-called hunting exam, Cantor.
It was finally the day the academy class would go into the forest to hunt, kill and increase their Flow. The whole class had been working towards this day for the past two months, trying to increase Flow and fighting proficiency, to hunt as many beasts as they could.
Except for Ade, she was still suspended after the stunt she pulled sneaking into the forest. The fact she had killed an elemental beast on this trip had been kept a secret to the rest of the class, but Kes assumed the village higher ups did know of it.
Though Kes did wonder exactly how much the village higher ups knew. The village chief was still an enigma in his eyes. He wondered if anyone actually knew the full extent of his powers. According to his mom the old man was still a mystery after all, and she was arguably the one who spent the most time with him.
After the forest incident and the talk with the old village chief Kes had spent the previous month training even harder than before. Sparring with Nash, meditating by himself, learning Flow control from his father and learning fluent Zoecian from his mother.
In the spars with Nash the aftermath of the forest hunt immediately showed, Nash had gotten a lot stronger. Kes did not know what exactly he had killed out there but Nash could strengthen his body a whole lot longer than he could before, his Flow pool had increased by a large margin.
Because Nash had gained a lot of Flow in the forest he was eager to increase his Flow proficiency to make full use out of it.
Kes decided not to confront Nash with the truth of the forest incident, he didn't want to make things awkward between them and he did not necessarily blame Nash for using him. If Nash wanted to confess himself then so be it, but so far he too had not spoken of it.
Because there was an even larger difference in Flow between Nash and Kes now than there had been before, they decided to do most of their spars without boosting their bodies. Just focusing purely on improving their technique had proved quite effective, they were both much better fighters now than before.
Kes felt like today was a good day to gain a lot of Flow by killing a lot of beasts, he had been looking forward to today for a long long time. He didn't have any illusions about catching up to Nash today, because he was going to be hunting together with him. This way the two friends would both gain the most benefits, even though it kind of hurt Kes to keep falling behind.
Cantor cleared his throat as he began announcing to the class. "Welcome to today's hunting class, this should hopefully be the first of many. We are a rural village and thus get most of our food from either farming or hunts. Hunting is essential to village life, without it none of us could live here. Therefore it is important that all of you, the next generation, start learning how to hunt."
Cantor looked at the class with a serious expression. He really did think they were the future of the village and thus thought it was very important that his message got across. Nash could hardly recognize his usual, quite unserious, father.
"I get that most of you see today as an opportunity to get stronger, gain more Flow and gain more innate element. But disregard all of that and use today as an opportunity to learn how to hunt. After the academy any of you will be qualified to join the hunting team, of which I am the leader. When you join the hunting team you will go on hunts almost every day. Trust me when I say that all the strength you will build up from hunting now, alone and while it's not even allowed, will later become redundant. Use your time at the academy to learn. Learn how to fight, learn to become more proficient at Flow and learn all kinds of other useful stuff."
After Cantor finished his announcement he took the class, along with the village chief, with him into the forest.
When inside the forest everyone first checked if they had all the necessary equipment and then split off in teams of two to go hunt together. There was one group of three because of Ade's absence which was comprised of the three weakest students.
Kes and Nash took off into their own direction looking for some prey. Despite Nash having a pretty traumatic experience last time he visited the forest, he seemed to be holding up pretty well.
The autumn wind was blowing through the forest, making the branches and the now brownish leaves sway. Both of them walked as carefully and as silently as they possibly could, not uttering a word giving each other hand signs instead.
Both Nash and Kes did not have enough Flow yet to detect living beings in the vicinity, so they had to sharpen their senses to find prey. And after a couple minutes of searching they finally found what they were looking for, it was a fox.
The fox was perched calmly on a lone tree trunk. Blood was smeared all over its body, and in its snout it was holding a large hare, it had just finished a hunt of its own.
The fox seemed relaxed while feasting on its prey. But Nash knew from his parents' lessons that wild animals never truly let their guard down. The only animal who would, would be the apex predator.
But the fox would still be in danger in this forest, it could be hunted by the wolves or bears. Thus it was always on guard, even in the moments it seemed most relaxed, enjoying its meal.
Nash signaled for Kes to get closer. Kes gave him a quick nod and quickly moved forward, trying to make as little noise as possible. And at the same time suppressing his Flow as much as possible. If the fox noticed a foreign Flow it would undoubtedly run away, or attack if it thought it could win.
When they got close enough to the fox Nash started counting down.
When the count hit zero both dashed out from behind the trees, Kes immediately circled around the fox trying to cut off its escape route.
The fox responded immediately dashing away madly with as much speed as it could possibly muster.
And it was fast, but not as fast as Nash who was hot on its tail. The fox used its small body to its advantage weaving through the trees trying to lose Nash.
But it was too late for the poor thing, Kes had gotten to its other side and was now looking at the fox dashing straight into his arms.
The fox noticed and quickly twisted its body to the right, escaping into a direction where no one was waiting. But as soon as it dashed to the right Nash threw a throwing knife from behind, hitting the small fox in the side, which made it falter for one second.
This second was enough for Kes to jump towards the fox and drive his knife straight through its skull, killing the fox.
Nash wiped the sweat off his forehead. "That was way too much effort for a small fox like that. But did you have any major gains?"
Kes looked at his friend. "If you ask me the effort was more than worth it, I don't even know how many hours of meditating it would've usually taken me to gain this much Flow."
Kes wasn't lying, he could feel his Flow increasing the moment he drove his knife through the fox's skull. It was a foreign feeling, but it wasn't one he disliked, in fact he would like to feel that way many more times.
Kes quickly closed his eyes, trying to see how much his innate element had increased. He wondered how much the fox had killed in its time. When they found it, it had a hare in its snout after all.
But Kes didn't have high hopes. The fox wasn't an animal that was very high on the food chain, it didn't kill other animals that killed a lot, thus resulting in minimum innate element gain.
But Kes was pleasantly surprised when he closed his eyes, the vague dot he had seen before was now much clearer. The dot still had no semblance of becoming a circle in the future, but everyone had to start somewhere.
Meanwhile Nash took some of the foxes pelt and tucked it into his robe, they had to take a little bit of every animal they had hunted with them to show how well they had performed. It was just a bit of friendly competition, there wasn't a prize or anything but Kes knew some of the other students had been really competitive with each other.
Apparently Nash was really serious about it as well. Him, Riku and another boy named Tac, who was on the three man team, had somehow convinced each other that whoever did the best in today's hunt would earn Ade's affection.
Kes thought it was utterly ridiculous, but he too would not lose to the other students. Not because he was looking to earn affection from any girls, but just for the tiny bit of pride he still had. He did not like losing and thus would give it his all to win.
Nash looked over to Kes after he put the bit of pelt away. "Let's get moving again, I want to have some gains today too.
Kes pouted. "I think you already have made enough gains before, can't you let me get some more?"
"No way, I too need to get gains from this hunt. I'm not going to let you get ahead of me that easily." Nash snorted.
Kes raised an eyebrow. "Are you that desperate for gains?" His expression shifted to a sarcastic grin. "Oh, I get it, desperate to gain more of Ade's affection."
Kes spent the next minute dodging the punches Nash threw at him before the two finally moved on again to hunt some more prey.