After Alice got through her regular classes for Monday, she went to the classroom professor Tanmi had set aside as a meeting location. There, she met up with Erkki, Arsi, and Luka, before she quietly sat next to them. While she was much more familiar with Cecilia, the three were still friends she enjoyed chatting with, and she had come rather early. There was plenty of time left before the actual meeting and hunt began.

“How are things going for you recently, Alice?” asked Luka, giving her an encouraging grin after he saw her sit down. “You’re always so busy that it’s hard to see you outside of class. The only relaxing activity you seem to make time for is playing The Settlers with us from time to time. I worry a bit about you. It’s not good to spend too much time working, okay?” Alice noticed that Luka had put on some levels since the last time she had seen him. Perhaps he had gained a new Achievement that helped him level faster? She was glad to see her friend doing well.

Alice thought for a moment, before shrugging and grinning. “Maybe. I really enjoy working on my personal projects though, and I’m making decent headway as an [Enchanter] and a [Scientist]. I had a breakthrough in one of my personal research projects two weeks ago, and I’m trying to help Cecilia get a related Achievement. I’m also super excited to see what new directions I can take my research after all of my miscellaneous tasks are done, and between that and managing my financial situation, finding time to relax is hard. I just don’t have enough hours in each day yet. Once I get a few more levels and a few more time-saving Perks, I should have more free time in my schedule.”

Luka frowned, before sighing. “I mean, it’s your life, so do what you see fit. But as one of your friends, I hope you don’t exhaust yourself too much. Make some time to relax a little more occasionally. Life is about more than money and levels.”

Alice fell silent. She couldn’t really retort to Luka’s statement, but her financial situation didn’t really give her much wriggle room. And she enjoyed her research, so she wasn’t willing to give up on it either. But after Luka mentioned it, she really did feel bad about making so little time for her friends as well… Alice began to sink into her thoughts, trying to figure out if there was anywhere else she could scrape away some time to make room for other things.

“Is it your first time actually fighting a monster in the wilderness?” asked Erkki, allowing Alice to escape from the awkward situation.

“No, I used to do it a lot,” said Alice. When she had first come to this world, she had nearly been eaten by a spidercrab. Now that she knew just how low spidercrabs were on this world’s food chain, she found this fact rather embarrassing. “For a while, I needed to rely on spidercrab meat to survive because I ended up lost in the wilderness some time ago. I also went on an expedition to deal with a group of vinebears led by an alpha in the south. I don’t know if the second one really counts as fighting a monster in the wilderness though. The group was led by an Immortal. She pretty much removed every strength vinebears have before the fight even started, and took out nearly a quarter of the group on her own. The rest of the group was just there to mop up the survivors, really. But I have some experience fighting monsters, even if I can’t really say it’s a huge amount.”

“You actually saw an Immortal?” Asked Erkki, seeming shocked. “Which one?”

“It was Allira, Immortal of Song and Shadow.”

“Is she as beautiful as the stories say she is?” Asked Erkki, leaning closer and closer to Alice as his eyes shown with curiosity. “I’ve heard that she’s one of the prettiest women in the kingdom, and that her singing voice is enough to make one drunk on the sound alone…”

Arsi rolled his eyes, before knocking Erkki on the head. Erkki frowned, looking at Arsi, who simply snorted. Erkki finally seemed to realize that he had made a mistake, before blushing slightly. “Erm… sorry. There aren’t as many stories about Allira as other Immortals, like the Sun Knight, but I’ve always wanted to see her in person. And the other Immortals of the kingdom, too. Meeting one of them in real life would be amazing, you know? And Allira’s most well known trait besides her singing is her beauty, so…”

Alice nodded. “Honestly, she’s very beautiful. However, there’s a certain…” Alice faltered, trying to find the right word. “Oddness to her beauty, perhaps? A certain sense that she’s not… hmm… It’s kind of like a dream. If you’re asleep, you can see all sorts of absurd things in a dream, right? But when you wake up, your memory of your dreams seem hazy and fragmented, and you start to realize that the contents of your dreams don’t really make sense after you wake up. Her physical features are kind of like that – they’re so beautiful that they seem unnatural, and when you look at her you get a sense of how unrealistically perfect she looks.” Alice shrugged. “Well, she actually seems pretty nice and down to earth when you talk to her. At least, that was my impression of her. I haven’t spent much time with her, but she didn’t have her nose in the air the way I was expecting.”

“That’s fair,” said Erkki, nodding to himself. Then, seeming to realize that he had led the subject astray, he focused back on Alice. “If you have a lot of experience in the wilderness, do you have any helpful tips to share? It’s my first time hunting in the wilderness. I have the {Monster Slayer} Achievement at tier two, but I got the Achievement entirely from caged spidercrabs. My mother and father never let me fight one for real, so I’ve only ever attacked ones that couldn’t fight back before now.”

“Hmm… I mean, always keep your eyes on your surroundings, I guess?” Alice frowned. “To be honest, I relied a lot on my Perks to keep myself safe at the time. I can sense monsters in my surroundings within a certain range, so I should hopefully be able to keep an eye out for any problems. But I’m sure the [Scouts] have even better options, so if they miss something I’m probably not going to spot it. Just don’t get too careless.”

Luka put an arm around Erkki’s shoulders. “Don’t worry. I’ve got a lot of experience fighting monsters in the wilderness. I’ve got some extra items on me and some pretty high-level Perks to deal with unexpected problems, and as long as you don’t get too far away from me I can probably cope with most situations we would find in this area. And since this is the first hunt and plenty of the people here are new [Students], I doubt they’ll pick a group of monsters that’s overly strong or hard to deal with. It’ll probably be something big and slow, or something that isn’t too hard to deal with in groups. That way the [Knights] accompanying us can keep us safe if worst comes to worst. The academy should be prioritizing our safety over everything else in this exercise, because the political backlash of getting some [Students] killed in these exercises would be frustrating to deal with. I am willing to bet the academy will do everything they can to make this exercise safe before making it effective.”

“Makes sense,” said Erkki, quietly. The enthusiasm he had displayed when talking about Allira seemed to fade away, replaced with a certain somber focus and nervousness. “Accidents can still happen, though. Thanks for bringing along a bunch of extra items and offering to help out. I hope nothing goes wrong, but having more layers of backup is never a bad idea.”

“Yeah, we appreciate your presence,” said Arsi, grinning. “I’m probably the most nervous of all. Truthfully, it’ll be my first time even seeing a monster. When I was still a poor kid from the slums, I know some kids were desperate and tried to hunt monsters outside the city, as a way of making up for the lack of food and money. Some of them even managed to hunt a monster or two and make some money with the help of some luck and some… well, mostly luck. It was always a throw of the dice for them, since nobody from the slums had the money to buy a map labelling mana pockets and monster territories. I’ve never come face to face with a monster before.” He gulped. “I’ll try my best not to hold the group back.”

Luka chuckled and patted him on the back. “Don’t worry too much. Everyone struggles until they get a few Achievements and Levels backing their actions. Even if you hold us back this time, just treat it as a learning experience, okay? Keep yourself safe, contribute when you’re able to, and get what you can out of this exercise. We aren’t people who will complain if you mess up a few times. Just make sure not to hit us with any stray attacks and we’ll be fine.”

The four of them fell into a comfortable chat, with Luka and Erkki debating what kind of monster they would hunt while Arsi and Alice occasionally chimed into the conversation. As the group of four chatted, other [Students] started to trickle in. Eventually, a group of adults also entered the room.

Alice took a moment to analyze the adults who had joined the group. There was a group of seven [Knights], all of whom were probably above level 75. They all wore well-made metal armor, and each one had a few pieces of enchanted equipment on them. While none of the [Knights] had their entire suit of armor enchanted, they had a minimum of two enchantments, and the highest level [Knight] had six different enchanted items on him. Most of them were physically in their late forties, though there was one [Knight] that looked to be in her late thirties instead. Her level was also a bit lower than the others, probably just barely beyond level 75. They walked with a fast, steady pace that belied their extraordinary control over their bodies and high levels of strength.

Behind the [Knights] were three people, all dressed in simple tunics. They were much lower level than the [Knights], probably only between level 60 and 65. A bit higher than the average level for an adult, but Alice didn’t find them to be particularly impressive. These were probably the [Scouts].

Finally, professor Tanmi walked in, along with four [Organic Mages]. One of them was Professor Feliza, Alice’s Introductory Organic Magic teacher, and the other three were unknown to her.

Once the adults walked in, the sixty or so chattering [Students] began to quiet down. Alice was more than a little impressed by how much manpower the Academy had invested into this hunting trip. Getting this many high level adults together just to babysit a bunch of [Students] couldn’t have been easy, and there were only four times as many students as there were adults in this hunt. Even if this kind of hunt only happened once per week per academy, it still seemed like quite an investment.

“All right everyone, settle down,” said professor Tanmi. “For those of you that decided to come today, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to brush up on your combat abilities. I know a lot of [Students] don’t feel like this is an important subject, and in a lot of cases they’re right, but having no preparations for an emergency situation is also inadvisable. Now, I know a lot of you don’t want to waste time, so I’ll get right to the point.

“Today we’re going to work on a fairly easy hunt to get used to this kind of exercise. This is an opportunity for you to work with your classmates and learn how to fight, both as a team and as individuals, so the first exercise is meant to be pretty low risk. Think of it as more of a warm-up for later hunts. We’ve tracked down a few packs of eight-eyed wolves that are located a fair ways away from Metsel. Normally, the army would have wiped them out before they could pose a threat to [Farmers] and towns in the region, but since they’re relatively isolated from humans right now they’ve been left for you guys to deal with.

“A few things to keep an eye on. First of all, eight-eyed wolves are pack animals, like most other wolves. They are, however, much weaker than other kinds of wolves. They tend to stick in packs of five or six wolves. Their bottom four eyes are actually magic cores. If you kill them without damaging those eyes the cores belong to you. However, if you struggle with the fight, destroying them will make things easier for you.

“Eight-eyed wolves are a kind of monster that don’t have outstanding magic abilities, unlike most monsters. They aren’t quite as weak as spidercrabs, but their magic ability only lets them communicate with each other and ‘see’ from all directions at once. So they’re abnormally perceptive and good at cooperating with the rest of their team, but they can’t do anything like shoot fireballs or manipulate weight around them. One on one… they’re maybe slightly stronger than the average farmer? Their lack of offensive magic makes them suitable for your first hunt.

“Now, get into teams of at least four students. I see that we have around 60 people… so we’ll handle this by dividing into a ‘main group’ and a few active hunting groups at a time. Each hunting group will have at least one [Knight] in it, and the main group will always have at least 3 [Knights] protecting it. The main group will be made up of [Students] who have either completed their hunt or are waiting for their turn. That way everyone has a [Knight] watching over them at all times, but you don’t end up outnumbering the wolves, since that would make the fight easy to the point of obviating the whole purpose of the hunt. The [Knights] should be able to handle the entire wolf pack by themselves in the worst case scenario, so don’t be afraid to fall back on them if necessary – but do your best to make sure they don’t need to intervene. The [Scouts] have checked out the rest of the area to make sure nothing unusual is lurking in the area. They will do one more round to make sure nothing has changed once our group arrives, and after that they’ll direct individual groups towards their fights. Does anyone have any questions?”

“Are there any restrictions on enchanted items or anything else we should take note of?”

“No. Use whatever will benefit your learning the best. I expect most of you will get more out of the exercise if you don’t use enchanted items, but ultimately, your choices are your own. I know some Classes give Perks that enhance the use of enchanted items, for example, and while those Classes are very rare I don’t know what Classes you have or don’t have. Just make the most of this learning opportunity in whatever way suits you the best.”

The student nodded to herself. Professor Tanmi worked his way through a few more student questions before the [Students] who weren’t yet grouped together found groups to work with. After that, a [Knight] was assigned to each group before the extracurricular group set off.

“Nice to meet the four of you. I’m Arin,” said the [Knight], as the group walked towards their destination.

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Arin. I’m Luka,” said Luka, giving Arin a courtly nod.

“Erkki,” said Erkki, giving Arin a relaxed grin. “Thank you for taking time to help us out with this.”

“Of course. Now, a few things I want you guys to do for me. Stand together for a second and state ‘I accept the protection of [Knight] Arin. That’ll help me activate a few Perks I want ready, just in case things go wrong. Apart from that, I expect that the four of you will remain near me and within my eyesight at all times. I want to keep you guys safe, but I need you to help me do that. All right?”

The four of them nodded and followed Arin’s request, before Alice saw a curious kind of System mana latch on to Arin and the four members of her group.

The group rejoined the main group, and after a few hours of walking the extracurricular group arrived at a small patch of woods located a few hours away from the capital. The sprawling farmland directly surrounding the city and the area directly surrounding the region had begun to fade away, and had begun to resemble a very low density forest instead. It was nothing compared to the incredibly lively forest Alice had seen when she first arrived in this world, but the trees and vegetation were still dense enough to block easy sight and provide annoying undergrowth to humans travelling around the area.

Alice and the others followed the main group as the [Scouts] began to check around the area one final time. Soon, Alice’s first hunt would begin.

* * *

Rees and a few other members of the Society of Starry Eyes quietly looked over the village from a nearby hill. He turned to one of the other members of the team, who frowned for a moment as he closed his eyes and began activating Perks to enhance his eyesight. After looking around again, his gaze sharpened as he looked at a specific area. Then, he nodded.

The four of them began to activate their Perks. Rees used [Unseen], [Traceless], and [Quiet] in quick succession, making it hard for unwary villagers to see, hear, or track Rees’s movements without hindering the ability for his teammates to see him. They wouldn’t be able to talk, but they could communicate with hand signals. His companions activated their own stealth-related Perks, before the four of them got to work.

They slipped into the village, strolling past people who were carrying around equipment and crops to and from various areas. While strolling brazenly through the village in open daylight might have been risky in other circumstances, in this village nobody had the right Perks or high enough levels to spot the four intruders. The intruders ignored the villagers as if they were decorations, and the [Farmers] of the village didn’t even notice that the four intruders were present.

Rees followed his companion, who was quietly scanning the crowd with his gaze, before he pointed to a few targets.

Near the outskirts of the other side of the village, near where the village ended and the farmland began, four very young children were playing together. One of the four was chasing after the other three, while the other children screamed and laughed as they dodged and wove around buildings and trees to avoid the child who was ‘it.’ The children all seemed to be between the ages of four and five.

Most importantly, there were no adults in the immediate area. Perhaps it was a moment of carelessness on the part of the [Farmers] of the village. Perhaps the adults in this area were simply negligent in general. Perhaps the children had snuck away from their parents to play in peace. Either way, it didn’t matter anymore.

Rees looked at his three companions, and then the three of them each chose one child and stepped up to them.

[Coma] was activated by four different people, and four children fell unconscious. Debuff Perks had a variety of restrictions – they all universally required physical contact, and people with high enough Stats and Levels could just shrug them off. The young children had no way resisting these Perks though, and so they instantly fell into a deep slumber.

Rees grinned at his companions, who also smiled back at him. This had been surprisingly easy. Now they just needed to hide the evidence and they would be free to go.

“I have some bone chunks left over from my last experiment. I can use [Speed-Manipulation] and my Organic seed to warp the chunks into bones shaped like a human child’s. I’ll add in some blood splatters from some livestock,” said Rees, whispering to the other four. “I was checking around, and for some reason the military missed a couple packs of wolves in the area recently. We can just ‘stumble’ across a small monster lair and leave some ‘human corpses’ behind.”

The only woman of the group, who appeared to be in her early thirties, nodded. “I have access to [False Trail] and [Kidnapper’s Bag] from my time as a [Flesh Trader]. Give the other three to me,” she said, as she opened a large bag and stuffed the four-year old child inside of it. The other three stuffed their own children into the bag, and the four of them reactivated their stealth Perks which had fallen away while attacking the children.

Their actions wouldn’t fool a high level [Investigator] or [Guard]. But there probably won’t be anyone above 65 or 70 in the area, so it shouldn’t matter. A group of kids getting too adventurous and then getting eaten by monsters happened from time to time, so nobody should pick up on anything suspicious from this incident. Even if people started to notice that children disappeared more often in Northern Illvaria these days, it would probably just be attributed to the lack of available military manpower while the recolonization effort was in progress. Monsters becoming more active when the military was tied up was nothing new, after all. In a way, the idea that this happened due to weakened military presence wasn’t even wrong.

Rees grinned to himself as he and his companions began walking towards the woods outside of Metsel. After years under the Society of Starry Eyes, he didn’t think much of kidnapping a few kids as test subjects anymore. Once they dealt with the cleanup, they could smuggle the kids back to a more suitable testing site. As the three left earshot of the peaceful farming village, he started to hum a cheery little tune while his female companion hefted the [Kidnappers Bag] and made some adjustments to the Perk, disguising it as an ordinary [Peddler’s Sack.] Then, after moving far enough away from the village, they dropped their stealth perks and slowed down, doing their best to appear like a normal group of [Peddlers]. The best way to avoid suspicion from [Guards] and [Investigators] was to look like they belonged there, and Rees and his companions were well versed in this art. They didn’t leave any tracks behind them, but that was nothing unusual. [Peddlers] had all sorts of weird Perks to avoid getting hit by [Bandit] parties, and while a Perk to mess with tracks was a little weird even for a [Peddler] it wouldn’t seem too unusual. Since Rees had a very, very low level Secondary Class in [Peddler], he should be able to trick most lie-detection Perks with some careful wording. Even if that would never work when trying to get into a city, it should let them get through any random encounters in the woods unless they were unlucky.

The four kept a wary eye on their surroundings as they walked, while the woman left a [False Trail] parallel to the group. The [False Trail] looked like the remains of four kids running through a wheat field. As the four began to make their way to the nearest monster layer, Rees gave his companions a more genuine smile. They hadn’t seen a single [Guard] so far. It seemed like luck was on their side today.

* * *

Far to the north, a spider monster wandered through a world filled with mana. It had already evolved into an alpha.

Instinctively, the spider alpha tried to call other spiders to itself, the ability innate to all alpha monsters.

The spider skittered past a trap, one which had already been dismantled. The spider did not know that the dismantled bits of enchanted wood and steel had been a trap once. All it knew was that there was mana everywhere, and it had been able to feast without fear ever since it had come to this place. Not quite as much as when it killed a moving thing and ate, but it was still very easy to find more food here.

Since it had plenty of food and didn’t have any other monsters of its kind to lead, after some hesitation, it began to lay eggs. These eggs had already been fertilized some time back, and it simply hadn’t deposited them somewhere to hatch yet. Although the temperature of this area wasn’t quite perfect, it was good enough. The eggs were very nearly mature, and it needed to place them somewhere to hatch soon. The mana density here made it quite suitable as a hatching ground…

The spider quickly finished laying its eggs. Then, it continued down the corridor, heading towards the source of all of the mana. Since the food was richer there, the spider naturally yearned to move ever closer to the source of the mana.

Instead of one group of troublemakers, there were now two.