The next morning, we broke camp and continued to make our way northwest through the forest, keeping within sight of the mountain range to the southwest of the valley. Initially, I had used my spiritual pressure to keep away G and F-ranked beasts, but after a half bell, I decided that it would be a good exercise for Becca to engage in as well. I cut off my spiritual pressure, raising my aura to full strength from its partial state, and explained to Becca what I had in mind.

“But, shouldn’t you lay off the spiritual pressure if we’re going to train mine?”

“Huh, what do you mean?”

“I’m still feeling some pressure coming off of you. It’s not like intense, but it’s noticeable. Like an itch or a faint humming.”

“Ah, shit.” I’d always had difficult measuring the absolute level of my ki, and through these months of my new life, I hadn’t had much of a chance to accurately compare it to others. Becca had told me that before she started training with me she was on the cusp of high F-ranked. And I was sure that with the training we’d gone through, she’d broken through into E-rank and was fairly far along at this point. If anything, the upcoming tournaments would serve to measure her strength, though I was less confident they would do anything for me.

In any event, if Becca was still feeling some spiritual pressure coming off of me when I had my aura fully up, that suggested my ki was much larger than I had expected. I had taken to masking my spirit in the City to keep a low profile, but now I realized that, if I hadn’t, I very well may have caused a disturbance. Of course, I released the mask outside the City, simply as it was more comfortable.

“Sorry, about that,” I continued, masking my spirit. “I hadn’t realized that was a problem.”

“It’s gone now. So, do you think this is enough spiritual pressure.”

“Hmm,” I murmured focusing my spiritual sense, “I do feel that you’ve left a trace of your aura in place, but it should do for now. Now… let’s see if we can find a challenge.”

***

Through the rest of the morning, Becca defeated another Mountain Goat, a Black Bear, and an Elk, all E-ranked beasts, in a one-on-one battle.

By this point, we were deep in the forest. I had stopped to harvest some violet fescue, when I felt a pack of Dire Wolves enter the edge of my spiritual perception. Though each alone was an E-rank beast, in that type of pack hunting, they would likely be a D-rank equivalent threat. I sent Becca out to lure them back here, though I didn’t mention what the beast was. I sensed she got halfway there before she sensed herself what they were, and then she took back off to return to me.

“What the hell, Evert!” she whisper-yelled, as I continue put the last bundle of violet fescue into a bag. “I can’t take on a whole pack of E-ranks!”

“Why not? You took care of the solo E-ranks easily enough? Yes, they’ll be tougher as a group, but you’ll need to practice crowd control at some point.”

“But they’re a D-rank equivalent!”

“A weak D-rank equivalent. And I didn’t send you off to kill them, I told you to lure them here so I could back you up.”

“Oh, well, I suppose you did…”

“Well, turn around, they followed you anyways.”

“What?!”

As she turned, the first of the Dire Wolves slunk out of the underbrush. I continued to narrate as she prepared for battle.

“Don’t forget to keep your spiritual sense up. Where are the other wolves? And here comes one out of the underbrush from the side in an ambush! But Becca sensed it and gave it a bone shattering uppercut. Looks like she won’t have time for any spiritual techniques, but she can punch one hard folks. Three more trying to flank her from the other side, and now the one in front leaps, but it can’t get through her aura. A dip, a dodge, two strikes to the chest, and now it’s three on one and she’s managed to get them all in front of her.”

The narration continued, but from here on out it was all cleanup on her part.

Of course, she had Dire Wolf blood and drool all over her, so I conjured some water to clean her up too.

With the battle over, we stopped for an early lunch.

Reflecting on our trip so far, progress was slow. Controlled training I could speed up incredibly fast, but the combat experience that Becca sorely needed was not something I could teach in such an environment. And there was only so much that could be optimized for such lessons. And so, though slow, I deemed that it had been adequate so far.

In the afternoon, Becca continued to fight primary E-rankers, usually solos, though she had a remarkable battle with a duo of Mountain Lions. I almost stepped into that fight as her aura wound down, but she managed to pull it out in the end. After that, we took a long break and focused on gathering the rest of the day. I managed to gather the bark of imperial wormwood and the fruit from eastern grape. Fortuitously, we managed to come across an alpine pond and harvested some cheddar lilies.

With a solid day 2 behind us, we set up camp. Preparing a new batch of dough for the morning, we had another excellent roast—this time of Elk—paired again with the ground horseradish. The eastern grapes were also a sweet and welcome addition to our diet. It had been an interesting day.

The cry of the beast, the snap of bone, the sizzle of ki.

***

Day 3 of our trip was much like day 2. Becca continued to fight E-rankers—more Mountains Goats, Black Bears, Elk—and her battles continued to be more and more refined, though not necessarily shorter. The gathering was also picking up pace, and I got rice grass, snow-in-summer, crooked lavender, and ninebark. By mid-afternoon, we stumbled across a large herd of D-ranked Bison, and stopped for a late lunch on top of a rocky outcropping.

“Becca,” I called out between bites of an impromptu sandwich. “Are you ready for your main test on this trip?”

Becca just raised one eyebrow at me as she continued to stuff her mouth. I had been having a leisurely walk, but I suppose that fighting all day would give anyone an appetite. So I continued.

“I want you to lure one of the Bison away from the herd and kill it.”

Becca spit out her drink at that and started coughing before responding. “What?! That’s a D-rank. You just said I was E-rank. I can’t fight that?!”

“It’s a challenge sure, and the danger will be real. But it’s one on one, and I’ll be there for backup.” I turned to face her, “Have I even intervened once yet on this trip?”

“No…” she replied cautiously, “But still. Isn’t this a bit fast.”

“I mean, it is a million marks.”

“Not fast enough! Alright, let’s go!”

***

Of course, fighting a whole herd of these would be a terrible idea, even for me. So, this was also a significant test of Becca’s ability to strategy. First, she scouted all around the perimeter of the glade where the Bison were munching away. She managed to locate another connecting glade nearby, which was blocked out of sight and sound by the thick forest and a bit of a rocky ledge. At point, she was trying to decide how to lure it over, when I decided to help her out by handing her a bundle of the rice grass I had gathered earlier that day.

“What’s the rice grass for?”

“Bison like it.”

And after several seconds, I saw the thought light up in her head. As I waited back in our ambush glade, she slunk off low through the grass towards the herd. Slowly and carefully, I saw her start laying a line of the sweet grass back towards the glade, wherein we both got into a vantage point to wait.

It took a while, but eventually one of the male Bisons on the edge picked up on the rice grass and started munching on it, following the line back to the glade. It took nearly a third of a bell, but eventually, the Bison made it out of sight from the herd by a significant margin. And with that, Becca began the battle with a sneak attack.

Unlike the E-ranked beasts before, the D-ranked Bison was simply too large for Becca to fight head on. Fortunately, they had low agility, and so Becca was able to get into a battle of attrition where she could flank the beast and attack.

Crrraaww!

Becca had perhaps gotten the beast’s aura down halfway when a pair of caws sounded from across the glade. Becca turned towards the sound, only to get head butted by the Bison in the same direction of the sound. As she landed, and rolled, her aura significantly damaged, two Terror Birds—D-rankers—emerged from the underbrush at high speed. Together, the three D-rankers were all converging on Becca’s central location.

When I saw what was happening, I leapt up and took off at a furious pace towards the battle. “Becca!” I cried. “Dodge the Bison, and defend against the Birds.”

I wasn’t sure if she heard me, but she rolled out of the way of the Bison’s next charge, and turned to face the Terror Birds. One Bird peeled off to attack the Bison itself, but the other continued towards Becca and was on her within the moment, in a flurry of beak and claw. Becca and the Bird had exchanged a few attacks before I came barreling in. With my staff, I shattered what was left of the Terror Bird’s aura—and then their left knee—in a single blow. The Bird fell sideways in a cry, and Becca was on it in a moment, ending it’s life with a single blow to the head.

Turning out attention to the remaining beasts, the Bison was just about to keel over, while the remaining Bird circled it warily. As I was deciding what to do about the situation, a rumble came upon us and all three of us predators turned. Behind us, the herd of Bison was stampeding towards us, drawn by the sounds of battle.

“Run!” I cried, and started pulling Becca with me into the forest, though she quickly started running on her own. I led her on a vigorous footrace back to the rocky outcropping from our earlier lunch, well out of reach of the beasts, which we could hear ravaging the trees in the vicinity.

As we laid against the rock panting heavily, there was only one thing I had left to say.

“Well, that was fun.”