Chapter 49 Cheating Death - Hunting (Part 1)

…

The group slept peacefully with no occurrences. It had been a long time since they had slept like this, perhaps since before the gods had awoken.

In reality, for most of them this was a kind of sleep they’d never had. They had fallen asleep resolute in their choices, in their desire to work towards achieving a clear goal for the future. Bolstered by the threat of death, with their lives on the line.

Daichi didn’t sleep at all through the night. He had entered his Meditative State and continued in perseverance trying to sense the mana of those around him and away from him. Daichi now knew it was possible based on the mare, and was determined to gain their ability.

Although he did not manage to accomplish his task, he had in fact gained a better sense for the flow of mana in his surroundings. This didn’t become evident to him until he woke up and realized that even without being in meditation, he retained some form of connection to the mana around him.

Daichi was disappointed in his progress but pleased something came out of it. The mare would have killed him on the spot had they known the amount of progress he had made in two nights.

The progress Daichi had made even if it were compared to them, two mare who had a teacher each and were very adept at sensing mana naturally. They had spent years getting to the point Daichi had reached nearly over night. Daichi’s training speed in relation to sensing mana would have been considered absolutely ridiculous by them.

Stretching as per his usual routine in the mornings, Daichi limbered up as he waited for everyone to wake up.

As everyone was waking up, he got out some food for everyone and began eating himself. Daichi asked the mare if they could go scout the area. Their ability to sense them would make it so they wouldn’t have a problem finding them afterwards. The mare only nodded in response and left.

Using his analyze skill on the group, Daichi confirmed their levels.

Human Named: Hannah Guresu

Level: 21

Description: Death hovers around her.

Human Named: Ava Kajiya

Level: 17

Description: None

Human Named: Kaden Guresu

Level: 15

Description: Lucky.

Impressed by their growth. Daichi noted Hannah’s level. Considering how quick it had risen. She had either killed that many more monsters than the other two, or her talent was really high.

When everyone was eating and getting ready to leave, Daichi spoke up “I think we need to have an extra chat today.”

The entire group looked at him in worry, expecting bad news.

“Nothing bad. I have something to tell you that I learned last night. I think it could be useful for all of you.” Daichi said, taking another bite of his oatmeal with water.

“I received an “announcement” you know how those are. Basically it let me know that 10 for spirit is the max for any given human. Although afterwards I noticed that because my spirit was so high I was getting stronger… Or more like I was gaining more from what I was killing.” Daichi said with some food in his mouth.

The others stared at him dumbfounded. Hannah had considered putting points into various categories but had decided in the end to focus, opening her screen she looked at her status.

-Status-Name:Hannah GuresuClass:NoneLevel:21Race:HumanEvolutionary Path:???

Title(s):Lucky Survivor, Death’s HarbingerDivine Protection:NoneAttribute(s):DeathHealth:100/100Mana:620/710

Strength:5Agility:6Vitality:5Spirit:1Intelligence:61(+10)Wisdom:30Aptitude:23(+25+5)Ability:21/500

Skill(s):None

Ability:Death Follows

Inheritance:None

Hannah looked at her status screen longingly. She had so many weaknesses that it hurt to look. She had focused on raising her mana so she could use her skill as often as possible, but it had cost her so much.

Yesterday when Daichi had left them to fight for themselves. Hannah had finally realized what a huge difference it made to fight an opponent that was fighting back versus one that was frozen in place. Even then, all of her opponents were mostly hurt to some degree and all she had to do was touch them while in concentration.

Knowing all this, Hannah knew she still almost died. Daichi had made their hunting infinitely easier thus far, and she had never fully appreciated until yesterday as she thought about it.

Thinking about her own status window, Hannah began to wonder how Daichi could be so strong despite being around her level. Did he gain that much more of a boost when he was still under level 10? Perhaps he’d had this spirit knowledge sooner…

Shaking her head, Hannah pushed that thought out of her mind. Even if he did, he still didn’t have to share this information even now. He was doing them a favor.

Hannah decided she needed to focus on fully understanding meditation as well. Daichi had gained that knowledge and it clearly made a difference. Hannah had rarely had to use so much mana, so she’d never worn herself down so low that even after a night of semi meditation her mana pool was still not full.

…

Ava opened her eyes wide and then opened her own status at the same time as Hannah. She had similar thoughts of how much she could have done or improved had she known to try this sooner.

-Status-Name:Ava KajiyaClass:NoneLevel:17Race:HumanEvolutionary Path:???

Title(s):Accidental SurvivorDivine Protection:NoneAttribute(s):NoneHealth:100/100Mana:400/200(+200)

Strength:10Agility:20Vitality:10Spirit:5Intelligence:20Wisdom:10Aptitude:24(+5)Ability:17/500

Skill(s):Melt

Ability:Second Pool

Inheritance:None

Ava wondered about Daichi’s comment… After all how does one raise the spirit? Was it something that required meditation or was it something that required resolve or knowing more yourself or something along those lines. Perhaps it was something else entirely. Even as she gazed at Daichi she got the feeling he didn’t know much else or else he would have said so after saying as much.

Ava also had a skill book which she had kept to herself. It was one of the legacies of the Kajiyas. Once learned the skill book triggered an ability within the blood of the Kajiyas creating a secondary pool of mana that would never grow in size or change. This pool of mana would be essential to crafting weapons imbued with magic in the future.

She had considered sharing it with Hannah or Daichi, but considered the book useless to them. It was simply too hard to understand the concepts and the core concepts weren’t even included. It would have been useless to them from her perspective.

Ava thought how lucky she was that despite thinking spirit was seemingly pointless, she had still added a few points just based on principle. She was half way to getting to 10.

Pulling up her melt skill,

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Active Skill:MeltCommon2Mana Cost: 20This skill can only be activated through the hands. The hands will actively generate a bubble of mana at an extreme temperature made for the purpose of melting metal. All metals can be melted through this skill based on its level. Each generated bubble will stay in affect for a duration in proportion to strength. Current time: 10 seconds.

Ava pondered whether she should increase her intelligence or strength once she reached 10 points in spirit.

…

Hearing this news from Daichi was stunned, and extremely excited. This would mean a world of growth for him. Especially since he was still weaker than the others. It would mean he could catch up to them!

Kaden opened his Status screen doing the same thing the others were clearly doing.

Unsure about himself yesterday until he’d become resolute in his decisions to move forward, he stared at his spirit longingly determined to somehow increase it, and make himself stronger!

-Status-Name:Kaden GuresuClass:NoneLevel:15Race:HumanEvolutionary Path:???

Title(s):Unlucky SurvivorDivine Protection:NoneAttribute(s):WindHealth:100/100Mana:65/80

Strength:15Agility:31Vitality:12Spirit:3Intelligence:8Wisdom:3Aptitude:31Ability:15/500

Skill(s):None

Ability:Unawakened

Inheritance:None

Kaden continued to grin as he thought about all the improvement that was waiting for him.

Looking at Daichi and feeling beholden to him for everything he had done for them. Kaden felt guilt for being so weary of him, but no regrets.

Daichi had seemed suspicious to him from the start. The more he got to know about him, or more like the more time he spent with them. The more Kaden felt that Daichi was different.

Daichi seemed to enjoy this new world. Even from the start, while all of them were struggling with the death of everyone around them. Daichi seemed indifferent. When they had struggled with the idea of getting used to seeing monsters so commonly, to having to kill for survive. Daichi took to it like a fish to water.

All of this unsettled Kaden, and made him weary of Daichi. The more Daichi did the more suspicious he seemed. Even now, after everything Daichi had done for them he still didn’t quite trust him and now that he felt resolute about things he should thought about long before. Kaden finally realized why.

Daichi didn’t love or care about anyone. His motives were completely different than his own. Daichi had no respect for life, which upset Kaden to the core. They were polar opposites, which had slowly given birth to a seed of respect for Kaden.

Daichi didn’t care about them, yet he had still saved their lives on multiple occasions, helped them survive and become stronger, and even shared information with them that he could have kept to himself.

Kaden could never put himself in Daichi’s shoes… But he realized that he respected him for being able to do the good deeds he had done without the feelings that normally prefaced those actions. It is easy to do good things when your moral compass tells you to do so, it’s natural. To do those same things when nothing is guiding you in that direction, Kaden could only wonder how Daichi’s mind worked.

The guy was an enigma to Kaden, but better a useful crazy man than an evil one! Kaden thought.

…

As everyone seemed pleased with themselves and the information Daichi had shared, Daichi watched them all with some amusement in his eyes.

Daichi had decided to share with them this tidbit of information because at some point there was a strong possibility that one of them would find out. Moreover if he told them now, they could become more useful to him faster and he could begin to focus solely on his own growth.

Hoping this would be the final match to light their excitement for strength, Daichi readied himself to move out. The mare had already returned even though they had only been gone for a few minutes. They must have found something after all.

The taller mare walking briskly in front of her sister “Two very-very strong mana filled creatures. Reasonable distance away!” she exclaimed.

Noticing the unusual pep in her speech, Daichi’s eyes widened in pleasure. A perfect feast after yesterday! Wonderful!

Winking at the others as Daichi was pleased with the development, he grabbed is pack and moved out as the mare instantly moved in front to lead the way.

The others followed momentarily, for the first time more excited than afraid of what was to come.