Chapter 11: Let’s Hunt 1

This night training marks the tenth day in this world, she has learned to better use her body. By the second day, he started to be more proactive by using balls made of leather. Some kids used to launch against each other instead of stones. But when he throws it, it becomes something like a riot control rubber bullet launcher.

It hurts like hell and every time that touches me, my main body wakes up from the pain making the night really hard to live. By chance with all the pain and suffering, my pain talent became rank D, making it more tolerable. But it still hurts. I think Gordak enjoys doing it more than anything, I could clearly see him smiling all ears. One day I’ll get my revenge! Every time I told him to stop his only answer is:

“This is training! It’s here to make you aware of your environment at all times! And you learn to dodge without looking at it. What is wrong with this training?”

I could not find any real problem with it, my brain could not tell me what exactly could be wrong in it. But something tells me there are some steps who have been jumped. Even with a negative review on my side, I could only see the result at the end of the week. My senses now more attuned to my body could clearly hear when he started his throw and by approximation the angle. Only sensing by the ears had its limit, with it I could still feel when he would send, but not where only dodging 8 out 10. He looked satisfied once I got to 9 out of 10 but now I need to dodge with the two bodies at the same time and I could only use all my muscle to a fast explosive dodge leading to exhaustion faster. Leading to exhaustion in less than 5 minutes, and by something unknown to me my body just got back on foot minutes later after resting. Truly an incredible body.

In this hard week with training at night, self training at day and helping the old woman I’ve gotten [Resilience (E)]. I don’t know how you get a talent, but it looks like something you get by doing the same thing. Or is it by a condition? After getting it my body felt less tired, but it does not help against physical tiredness.

Being now more accustomed to my traits, my body felt more I could finally develop my feline body and from it I could see its potential. After the training with Gorback and feeling the strain in my body it finally clicked: this wasn’t just enhanced agility, it was what created my powerful movement, the explosive muscle ignition that only felines know the secret.

Making my muscle start immediately in exchange of energy and soreness by the growing temperature of my muscles. It also made my attack faster even with weapons in hand making it an instant K.O. in boxing. And by expectation, yes it helps me get back after some rest.

With the help from Agile and Dexterous, those three traits together and my C rank in agility made me the mistress of my own body. I could dance with precision and imitate martial arts from my old world. My flexible body made me do something everyone thinks of first: touching my butt with my head. At that moment I could see my own tail base not from my clone view, it was funny. I’m faster than the average man by a third, react two times faster and my body turns faster. With those the more I progress, and the more I feel I’d nearly reach the first goal of controlling my body. Now it’s time to surpass this upper limit. If the mind makes the body, then my mind is fluid.

And my other traits? Lightfoot made me really silent, most people saw me before hearing me. It made some difficult situations where someone was startled even while walking near them. I’ve tested it on some other ground and floor, while a child the same weight could crack the wooden floor, me it was quieter. Stealth is what it is like, at will I could hide myself and my presence more easily. While using mana I could hide myself really faster and more effectively. It’s still amateur hiding but most of the humans would pay less attention to me making me hide more easily in their eyes, even Gordak could feel less my presence, but this man is a monster. It has a passive use if I think I want to hide myself, people start to lose their focus on me more and more.

Thinking about people, I could use my Identify magic on some tribesmen. And I see why he told me the normal human was weak near me:

[D rank] [ D+ rank] [E+ rank] Nearly everyone had it, most of D rank work by lifting and hard work. While warriors they goes with [D+ rank] [C- rank] [C+ rank]

While children were more between F+ and E+, I was told that F rank is a rank under all, it’s a rank for children and sick people who are too weak. And then there is the [???] I could only see it on three people, the gatewatcher, Gordak and Lucina.

This was the most confusing thing from the whole tribe, she looks weak but she’s stronger than she looks like. She goes out of the wall frequently with a basket of fruits and vegetables. Sometimes she comes back with two or three rabbits. I don’t know what their genes are, but they sure are strong.

I’ve tried to ask her a thing or two and every time she tell me:

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“They were just passing by, then suddenly they died. It’s really strange right?”

I don’t know what this girl is hiding, but something told she would just do the usual ‘it’s a woman secret’ move. So I did not insist, but one day I’ll make her tell her secret! And while looking at her frequently she does not break a sweat, she really looks like she’s 20 years old. How much magic does she have?.

As for the old female tanner? She’s Maria, a woman with five boys and no girls, her rank is exceptional for someone who only does manual work [C- rank] Gordak told me that what I could see could also be her average control of her body and mind. Making her a great craftswoman of many talents, being the same strength level as a warrior.

Maria had also found it fun to teach me everything. I know this is wrong, but not having any daughter made her more proactive in teaching me. It was not bad, I liked her like a second teacher for this life. With time and practice had given me all the basic things she knows. And every little thing has its own importance like: which fibre should I use for rope and twine. How to effectively make a campfire and even her secret to make bows.

A woman full of surprise and good advice, I could alway hear her tell me techniques and things she wanted to do. I’ve followed her lead about the tanning process, and it stinks but with her technique it makes it bearable, something that could kill me a hundred times is just bearable. The fur was now gone, it was now just a hide with a lot less scent, the longest step the bathing was made in a wooden bath. From this moment the leather would be formed.

This craftswoman is the best at everything she touches like a rare genie of material. And I gain from it, absorb her teaching and nearly imitate what she does every day. But even in a week I could not be better than her but my talents and traits made it possible. With time comes proficiency. And when day becomes night I train again to become stronger.

“What do we train now?”

She was now accustomed to training with a bow, dagger and spear. It was really interesting, even if he said something harsh she would grumble but solve the mistake by not making the same error. They were the principal weapons everyone used, some of them used sling and clubs in the tribe to hunt or defend themselves. Tonight, it was different.

“We’ll go to your first hunting lesson, it’s night and predators are out. But you have no problem with night at all, this is even better when you hunt at night. The sooner the better when it comes for practice.”

Now being pushed to a new experience, she could only be anxious. She had fleeting thoughts like if a big monster appeared again will he protect her. Or if he suddenly goes to an urgent matter could she survive like before without divine protection and walls to protect her? It was now time to fight against this absurd thought, she now knew her body and power. This time it's clones who have gone to this training.

She made a plan to alternate even if it’s difficult to not be complacent with herself. It was advice from Gordak, maybe her clone is full of vitality, but if she does nothing, maybe she would lose her healthy form. Not considering other possibilities, night is the best playground for her. Where everything is silent and her vision not even obscured by the night. The old man took out two hunting bows and a set of hunting knives.

“For this hunt, I’ll give you a hunting bow.”

“Why not let me train with it before the hunt?”

Her question made a lot of sense when you think about it, why now when you just fail? But his answer full of wisdom broke her doubt.

“Not every warrior can fight with their own weapons and not every archer could use the same bow all their life. A bow lives short, with time comes broken things. You can’t alway lean on the same thing to win every battle. Your power and body is yours to use. But don’t overestimate your individual power. You need to make full use of all your weapons. Even back to the wall you still have fangs and claws.”

Looking at her fingers, at first Luna didn’t think about it, but she’s really more of a cat than a human. No nails but claws that could retract itself with her muscles. She didn’t pay attention to it when using it in the forest, but climbing things was really useful. Gorkak just sighted while looking at her.

“It was figuratively, I won’t tell you to fight with your teeth and claws. You have your weapons with you, if you break it, it’s just troublesome but you can get another one later. If you lose fingers or something else it would only become a moral defeat. Don’t treat your body lightly even as a clone.”

Luna didn’t think much about it, all her battles were fast and her weapons were mostly useless. She didn’t have a will to die and she didn’t want to think about losing a part of her. Even while controlling her clones directly, she felt like if she lost her hand she'd feel sick for days. And she doesn’t want to think about that either. He’s good at killing the mood, this gramp. He still continues even after what he says frowning at her.

“Don’t look at me like that, anyone would feel bad. Once something is lost you long for it but you finally accept it as it. Human nature is like that, accepting violent things with the will to live on. But some of them long too much at it, feeling regret and sickness. So don’t take it too much at heart. I’ve only said it for you to be vigilant, I’ll protect you if something goes out of hand.”

His excuse was the only thing in her mind that appeased the tension, she felt like something familiar to what he was talking. Her mind was fuzzy about why she felt sick at that moment, it was just a phase, it would go quickly. From outside she looks like an abandoned cat and with another her, drooping ears and tails. Anyone looking from outside could only think of it as Gordak telling her mean things. But it was night and nearly no one except for the people on guard duty, this time more people were awake, Gordak was out for the night so it was a reason. When something as the raptor could be a real threat to Luna, then to the whole tribe it was a real danger.

Even on this island monsters migrate when the coldness is here. Going to the other hill with white smoke. To my surprise Gordak had told me it was a hot spring with some crack on the ground, steaming night and day water from underground. It was a real surprise, but it’s a dangerous area where a lot of creatures of all forms live, and a lot of raptor live most of the year in this area. Not even that far from this village it’s strange that no real incident happened. But I won’t tempt the chaos gods, no one would survive.

“It’s time to go! Take this, some arrow and we’ll go.”

Taking with her and her clone the two bows and daggers, they follow the old man to the gate but a familiar figure was on it. On guard and not that happy to see me.

“So you're going out with those freaks, uh?”