Book 1, Side Chapter: Hunting in the Forest

[Adam]

The metal sheen of a sword blurred in the air, a clang resounding out not even a moment later as two swords collided. One sword was tilted slightly, causing the other blade to slide along its length and get caught in the first blade’s cross guard. The user of this blade, a brown-haired young man, tilted his blade, twisting the other one around and propelling his sword forward into a quick thrust. The person in front of him, an elf with hair the color of bark, twisted his body gracefully and avoided the strike, going in with a thrust of his own.

Adam swept his blade to the side and spun, the dagger in his left hand deflecting the strike away with a small ding.

He bent forward and jumped, landing a jump reverse hook kick on the elf’s blocking forearm and leaning forward to throw a sweep kick from below his attacker. The elf in front of him dodged and jumped back, throwing the sword in his hand towards Adam.

Adam failed to receive it, the blade striking his chest heavily. He fell back with a groan, his back on the ground as he panted. The dull metal blade clanged to a stop beside him, the elf walked forward and picked the sword up, before squatting beside him.

“The life of the trees upon you, friend. That was a good spar,” The elf said, helping him up.

“Yeah, yeah,” Adam said. “The life of the trees and shit on you too. Can we get to dual-wielding now?”

The caramel-skinned elf in front of him shook his head. “No, up next comes—“

The both of them stopped as the sound of a low horn reverberated throughout the forest village. Wood elves jumped down from the tall trees around them, landing gracefully and running into the woods. Adam tossed his blunt sword to the side and followed, the elf beside him sweeping up two pairs of bows and quivers from the side and tossing a pair to Adam. He caught it and slung both onto his back with practiced motions.

Trees passed them quickly, nearly blurring at the sheer speed at which they ran. Adam jumped and began climbing a tree, the elf behind him laughing as he followed.

“Don’t fall off and break a leg again, okay? I’d hate to drag you to the healer a third time.”

Adam winced, his speed visibly slowing as he took more care in his steps. Due to this, the elf overtook him. “You’re a fucking dick,” Adam said.

“Swords up ahead,” The wood elf said, his hand touching the bark of a tree as he ran, a portion slipping off with his hand to reveal a wickedly sharp blade with a curved edge. It had the pattern of the tree’s bark on it, and gave off the feeling of nature, almost as if it was grown by the tree itself, instead of being crafted.

Adam grabbed another from a different tree, sheathing the blade to the scabbard on his waist. He separated slightly from the elf, grabbing another weapon from the trees, a small, curved dagger. The elf glanced back and motioned ahead. “I’ll head to my station. You head to yours.”

With this, Adam nodded and left the elf, heading in a different direction as he jumped from tree to tree with a grace and lightness to his movement that he previously didn’t have. Never was he so thankful for dance lessons in his whole life. Finally, he stopped as he landed on a small structure on a tree. It was completely melded into the wood, as if the structure itself was not build by hands, but by the influence of nature. Adam plucked an arrow from his quiver and drew his bow, waiting.

A few moments later, two large boars the size of a small car burst through the trees nearly a hundred meters ahead. Adam released an arrow. Then another, then even more.

Most missed until the boars reached the forty-meter mark, upon which the arrows struck and sunk into their thick hide, enraging the beasts further. Adam jumped from the small structure and landed on the branch of a tree nearby, continuing to release arrows as he circled the boars from above. Angry squealing rang out from below him as the beasts rammed into trees, knocking the smaller ones down.

Finally, Adam ran out of arrows and sighed as he glanced at the boars chasing him in a rage. Archery really was his weakness. He couldn’t do much with it at all.

He jumped from the tree and landed on the ground with a slight grunt, still not used to landing from heights above six meters. He drew his sword, and held his dagger in his other hand. Now, was the fun part.

The nearest boar charged and completely burst through a tree the size of his waist. Adam spun, and his blade glided along the boar’s tusks as he ducked. Its tusks impaled the air above his head as he flipped the dagger in his hand into a back-handed grip. With a grunt, he stabbed it into the boar, eliciting a pained screech as he was dragged along the beast’s charge.

Adam held on tight to the dagger, nearly falling off as the boar smashed through another tree. He had his mana surge into his arms, the Augmentation school of magic doing its work as he climbed on top of the giant pig. He gathered mana in his hand, shrapnel from a tree slicing into his cheek as he pressed the hand against the boar’s head. Immediately, his spell activated. It was a staple among the wood elves, a magic from the Enchantment school:

Tame Animal.

He felt a connection form between him and the boar, but the pig continued to rampage about, the flaw of the magic evident: activation time. It needed a good amount of time to tame a beast, even if it was just a simple giant boar the elves hunted on a daily basis for food as they rampaged through the forest in their daily fits of rage. It was apparently to entice the females of the species. Adam thought it was stupid.

With a shlick, his dagger emerged from the boar’s hide bloody as he jumped off and landed behind it. He glanced back and grit his teeth, hurriedly diving to the side as the second boar rumbled into the area he was previously in.

It passed him and slammed against a large tree, unable to break it as it staggered to look at him. The first boar, the one he cast his magic on, also looked at him in silent fury.

Adam looked around him and noticed that he was now surrounded by large, old trees. These shit-eating cunts probably wouldn’t be able to break through these. It was time to play some pin ball.

The second boar charged and Adam watched carefully as it kicked up dust and neared him. He remembered a movement from the numerous dances and steps the elves had taught him. Mana filled his leg as he stepped forward with his right foot and twisted. An instant later, the boar passed the place he was previously in, its head banging against a tree as it howled in anger.

It looked up and found Adam in the air, the speed of his ascent so fast that it looked like teleportation to the wild boar’s eyes. He descended and his hand lightly slapped its head as two spells activated at once; a feat that forced even the elves to praise him. Tame Animal, and Fluttering Steps activated immediately.

Fluttering Steps caused his tiny movement to propel him upwards again, his hand grasping the branch of a tree above him as his Tame Animal spell sunk into the boar’s skull.

He grinned as the two boars below him rammed repeatedly at the massive tree. Adam watched calmly from above as he sat on a branch, waiting for the effect to settle in. After a few minutes, the boars stopped and simply looked up at him, their foreheads bloody from ramming the tree. Adam nodded and got down from the tree, running back towards the elven village with the two tamed boars in tow. He really had to hurry. Tame Animal was still in its lesser stages, and a forceful taming had a limited duration.

Adam ran up beside a boar and jumped, using it as a mount as they headed towards the village. Then, after seeing that the trip would take about ten minutes, he opened up his chat window.

Egg Chat Room

Jamal: im back guys

Anne: Whoa, is that Jamal? We thought you died off somewhere dude.

Adam: fucker was probably off trying to abduct some kids

James: Got em.

Jamal: i passed my fourth threshold thing yesterday

Anne: Wtf Jamal?

Sam: Whoa dude.

Alen: How many thresholds have you passed Sam? And what the fuck Jamal. How even. Are you in a city being assaulted by undead or something too?

Adam: hi guys about to pass my fourth threshold here

Sam: I passed four too man. I’m making some spells now tho.

Jamal: they’re taking us out on field trips to kill monsters and its so cool. i’ll find you guys when my contract with the army ends in five months

Bernard: did someone say… kids!?!?!?!?

Anne: Get out.

Alen: I’m just taking a break and shit. I’m super close to passing my fifth threshold anyways.

Adam: fuck you. i wanted to spawn in an area full of easy enemies to grind, but no. at least i’m stuck with an assassin build. glass cannon main boys

Sam: Not sure you’d want a glass cannon build in this place man.

Adam: what. your power’s literally fucking ice magic. how tanky could you be

Sam: I know some earth too dude. You’d be surprised at what Alteration magic cast with earth-mana properties can do to ice armor.

Alen: Whoa, what the fuck? What are you talking about Sam?

Sam: Mana types man. You can use more than the one, but it costs more mana. The spell you told me about, Summon Skeleton Minion? It uses principles from the Restoration School, and Soul Magic, which is a mix of Restoration, Enchantment, and Evocation, but you’re casting it with the properties of Necrotic-type mana to alter the base effects of the spells from those schools to suit your spell. It’s in Magic Theory dude.

Alen: Holy shit what the hell. I’m fucking off now. I have to read up on this shit. It’s found in books, right?

Sam: Yeah.

Bernard: can we just talk about how Jamal is essentially going to suck the military’s dick for half a year?

Jamal: fuck of bernard

Anne: Yeah Bernard. Fuck of.

Adam laughed and closed the chat as the village came into view, revealing multiple other elves from the hunting party assigned for today’s work carrying the corpses of dead boars into a building, while the ones with tamed boars led the animals into a pen and locked them down before the taming could wear off.

He had another elf take the boars inside the pen and watched outside, enjoying the feeling of the sun on his skin. Eventually, he heard someone shouting his name. It was a group of elves, wearing practice armor and blunted metal weapons. Adam grinned.

He’d probably lose the fifth threshold to Alen, but he was definitely passing that tenth one first.

Adam turned around and walked towards the group, his steps steadier than ever.