For whatever reason, Kaltyr knew that she was most definitely not an early riser—her subconscious told her so. Yet, after the first rays of dawn illuminated the deep woods surrounding her, it was only a few seconds before she was up, fully invigorated, and ready to take on all of life's challenges!

Then a growl sounded from behind.

“Eeek!”

With a pathetic squeak, Kaltyr jumped 180 degrees around to see that a familiar creature waited for her at the edge of her clearing. Standing under a meter tall on four, furry legs, staring at her with small, beady eyes, was what Kaltyr assumed was a dog.

Immediately upon viewing the beast, which didn't even bother hiding among the surrounding bushes, information poured into her mind in the same way that she remembered details about her environment.

“It's a dog, rather than a wolf?” She asked herself. “I think that wolves are much larger with sharper features, but that looks like a do…domes…domesticated animal?”

Concepts and ideas swam about in the girl's head, but none of it felt important, so she dismissed them.

“Anyway, I get the feeling that this particular creature should be friendly, or at least open to kindness. And it's clearly not the same beast as the thing I attacked last night; its eyes aren't starry.”

Kaltyr gulped at the sight of the creature's claws and fangs, but reminded herself that she was not only within a protected space, but that she was now full of mana. The girl looked over at her guidebook, which still acted as a plate for her fish. She had eaten half of one while the other one sat untouched. Kaltyr considered reaching for the untouched morsel, but changed her mind in the case that the dog would take her free food and still act hostile.

“Here doggy doggy, here boy…” She said at just above a whisper, unsure of why her voice changed pitch so drastically or why she used those specific words.

Kaltyr crept forward at a half-crouch with her left hand extended, the half-eaten fish in her grip. The dog immediately took a step back when she approached, but upon noticing the meal she carried, it stiffened in hesitation.

“If you're friendly to me, I'll—”

The beast began growling, but didn’t move back any farther. Kaltyr took it as a good sign.

“I'll give ya a little treat. Here boy, I'm friendly so long as you are…”

A mere meter separated the two before the girl slowed her walk to a stop. She waited there, inside the border of her clearing, letting the hopefully-not-gross smell of the fish waft around. The dog continued growling, but softer, so she waited longer.

Eventually, the beast quit growling altogether and merely kept its back arched and fur standing. Kaltyr took that as the go signal.

“Here I go…”

Kaltyr slowly closed the distance, leaving her hand within the border but the fish on the outside…presuming that the border of the safe zone lied directly where the lush grass of the clearing ended.

Then, the dog bit her—or at least, tried to. It opened its mouth and engulfed the fish, but also tried to take Kaltyr's entire hand, only to be stopped by the invisible barrier. It stood there, pushing against the safe zone, gnashing and slobbering.

“Well, fuck you too!”

Her confidence swelling alongside her anger, Kaltyr's right hand flashed to her waist and back, the folding knife in its grip, while her left one wrapped around the dog's throat. The beast released a confused gargle while its eyes opened wide, seemingly unbelieving of what just happened. It tried shaking its head and backpedaling, but Kaltyr's grip held while her right arm swung forward with all its might, making an arc as it slashed across the animal.

Immediately, hot, crimson blood poured forth, splattering across the forest floor and dripping down the girl's blade. She prepared to strike again, and aimed for the eyes this time, but the dog's injury sent it into a panic, giving it a burst of newfound strength and allowing it to struggle out of her hold. Kaltyr was nearly pulled to ground by the sudden jerk, but caught herself, and dashed forward out of the safe zone to finish the creature off.

Assuming the guidebook hadn’t lied to her—which she doubted was a possibility by this point—Kaltyr needed to kill many creatures to raise her level and become stronger. She hoped the dog would be what started her kill streak, while also providing a satisfactory meal.

Then, the dog released a high-pitched howl into the scarlet sky, which wouldn’t normally be a problem if not for the six identical replies from not too far away in several directions.

“Well, shit.”

Moving so quickly that she nearly tripped over herself, Kaltyr retreated to the clearing, watching as the wounded dog howled and fled into the thickets. The lass expected to see several more of the same dog chase after their friend's attacker, that the surrounding bushes would shake as a small army came after her.

A minute passed after the first dog escaped, yet nothing happened. The forest remained eerily silent around the safe space—not even birds chirped.

“Are they…not looking for revenge?”

Kaltyr's eyebrows creased, and she tentatively stalked back to the border. She inspected the surrounding greenery, blade still in hand, and stepped out into the forest. Still nothing, and it was creeping her out.

“This will not do. Enemies out of sight are worse than ones in your face… Huh, that's cool.”

The girl chuckled at the wise words that popped into her mind and took in a deep breath.

“Here I go!”

A sense of tension permeated the area as Kaltyr loosened her shoulders and straightened her back, even choosing to smile as she casually walked into the forest at a steady pace.

Before dashing back and diving into the clearing as soon as her nerves gave out, followed by the stomps of twenty-four paws on hard packed dirt. Whines and growls resounded as six new dogs appeared, perturbed at having missed their prey.

Meanwhile, Kaltyr panted heavily, both fearful and excited as she looked at the range of new enemies furiously trying to bypass the invisible wall keeping them from her. From left to right, the dogs colors' and patterns were spotted brown, fully white, yellow with red stripes, fully brown, black and white, and orange. The sight slightly befuddled Kaltyr in the same way the sky's colors did, but she ignored the feeling that told her something was wrong, and got to her feet. She brushed the dirt off her cargo pants with a huff, then tightened her grip on her knife.

Without wasting much time, the girl jumped forward, swinging her weapon with accuracy she didn’t know she was capable of at the leftmost beast. The next second, the foldable knife's blade dripped with fresh blood again, and an animal cried in pain—the sound of which caused Kaltyr to wince. She didn’t like hearing the dog's whimpers, but ignored the sense of guilt building within her gut. The dogs were out for her blood. She couldn’t be sentimental if she wanted to survive.

Kaltyr managed to land a second stab into the brown creature, this time into its neck, before it pulled itself too far away for her to finish the job. So, she moved on to the next one, landing only a single stab before her victim escaped her reach. She wanted to continue, fueled by a vague sense of barbarism that motivated her to kill, but the other four dogs backed away, having given up on chasing her onto the strange patch of grass they couldn’t manage to place their paws on.

The two parties stared at each other for what felt like an eternity before one of the wounded dogs loudly whined and turned away, seemingly prompting the others to follow. The cute beasts retreated into the forest, following the path the first one to be injured took, and disappeared behind the dense trees.

Kaltyr waited a few minutes longer after they left in case they decided to stick around, but no sign of their presences remained.

“PHEEEEEW!”

The lass emptied her lungs through her nose as she allowed gravity to take her to the ground.

“Wow! That was exciting!” A large smile formed on her face. “So many things happened in just a few moments.”

She dropped her weapon and raised her hand to the sky, inspecting it.

“The injury is completely healed. All that's left from that rabbit's nasty bite is a small scar.” She lowered her hand and shook it, letting droplets of dog blood drip off. “But more importantly, those animals didn’t have any mana, unlike the thing that stalked me last night. They were completely empty, which leaves me with some ideas: they either used it all not long before they were called by their buddy to help it, or they can’t use mana, whether permanently or…yet.”

Kaltyr folded and stored away her knife in one of her many cargo pockets before lying on her back, staring up at the deep red of the sky.

“I'm betting that it's because they, just like me when I first awoke, can’t process magical essence. Though…I'm not sure of how this information could be important. Maybe it isn’t.”

The girl did her best to shrug before turning her attention to something of slightly more importance. A flashing light at the edge of her vision had bugged her since she first stabbed the first dog.

You have obtained the skill: Small Blade Arts

The skill Magic Sense leveled up.