Hunting

It had been over a month since Mythria learned how to harvest and forage. She also learned how to synthesize potions from the book I gave her.

The days we spent doing these things were fun, but it was time she learned something new.

We can currently be seen observing a group of boars from a distance, hidden away by some overgrown bushes. We are at an elevated ground providing us a good vantage point. It all began when I noticed our lack of meat products, prompting me to skip breakfast and going straight to hunter mode. I gave Mythria some cookies to temporarily fill her stomach up until we could have a proper meal, I then explained our situation and what I wanted us to do. As usual, she was excited to know she would be doing something entirely unfamiliar to her. I began to teach her about boar hunting on-the-go, starting from looking for signs of boar tracks, up to a few ways we can more easily hunt ( including long-range hunting with a bow, as well as provocation tactics for melee hunting techniques. )

So far I have only taught her everything via explanation, so she has yet to acquire any experience.

“Aren’t we going yet?”

She asked with a hint of impatience. The strength of her curiosity sure knew no bounds.

“Soon. We are just waiting for some of the boars to move out of the mud they are wallowing from. We don’t want to shoot a boar still in the mud because we’ll have to carry them away.”

I felt a cold sensation from beside me as I explained. It was Mythria casting a beginner-level ice spell, the Ice Arrow. I wasn’t aware that she could use any magic prior to today, but it isn’t exactly that surprising given her true identity. She must have retained the majority of her abilities even after turning into a human-like being and having her memory completely erased.

“H-hey, what are you doing?! Don’t shoot just yet, okay?!”

I urged her to cancel her spell, but seeing the arrow-shaped ice further solidify and strengthen meant that she was already decided. She moved her index finger, pointing towards her target. Mythria’s ice arrow looked extremely thin, small, and fragile. But in reality, it was exceedingly dense, and was casted with great efficiency. I didn’t sense any residual mana radiating, moving to and polluting the earth. Her ice arrow moved with great velocity upon her command. It was so fast that one wouldn’t be able to follow its trajectory unless they had trained eyes. In a matter of a second, her target was hit right on the head. It was such a clean shot that there was no way any living being would survive after getting hit like that. Oh, I shouldn’t forget about the fact that she just ignored me and kept doing her own thing out of curiosity.

“Ah, setting aside that skillful shot of yours, look… We now have to swim in the mud to recover our loot.”

It was too late to try and shoot another boar as they had all already ran away from panic, so all I could really do was complain. Mythria didn’t utter a word. She followed me quietly as I headed towards the body of the boar she scored. I was already prepared to get dirty, but Mythria gave me a loud “wait!”, followed by “I’ll lift it.”.

“There’s no way you can lift something that weighs approximately sixty kilos by yourse-”

But before I could finish my words, the boar suddenly defied the force of gravity and began floating in mid-air. It was the result of Mythria’s high-level law-altering spell. She dropped the boar close to us, before washing the body with a water spell.

“So that’s why you were so confident. You had an idea, huh. You could’ve at least told me.”

For some reason, she continued to be silent.

“Is something wrong? You were so excited to hunt earlier. What happened?”

There was a hint of sadness, and perhaps, pity and refusal in her expression. Her eyes devoid of their usual lively sparkle, she simply looked at the boar as she crouched.

“It doesn’t feel good to take the life of another creature…”

She spoke with a sullen voice.

“You’ll eventually get used to it.”

I thoughtlessly told her, not minding her current state.

“Get used to it? So we’ll have to do this lots of times in the future as well?”

I nodded. Of course, it isn’t like I couldn’t live without food. I’m an immortal being whose cells are kept at prime condition no matter how much time passes. My genes aren’t even capable of changing, adapting, or evolving because my body is already at its peak evolutionary state. This is what it means to be an entity similar to the Gods. Technically, I could live with literally nothing. Yes, not even oxygen, but I wasn’t so sure of Mythria. She does get hungry, so perhaps she needs to sustain herself the same way any ordinary person needs to do to survive.

“There is a certain balance that the World needs to keep in order to ensure its own survival. Because of that, living things have to fight each other for sustenance. If there was not a need for us to feed on another, then the World would become a very difficult place to live in on just from the overwhelming population.”

I explained to her using some logic, but I wasn’t really trying to make her understand. It was more like I was subtly making fun of the way the World was made because yes… The World was made with endless sacrifices in mind. Can the Gods be any more sadistic than this? That was why….

“I… don’t want to hurt innocent creatures just so I can live…”

Yes, that was also what I said when I realized that this Universe is utterly defective. I didn’t want to take something else’s life so I could sustain my own, but there was no other choice… That is, until I became a God myself. Well, at the end of it all, I essentially abandoned all forms of heroism and idealism. As my mental age grew older, my emotions dulled. Though in exchange for having my emotions dulled, I continued to gain knowledge, and eventually became so logical that I would even abandon a whole Planet for the sake of goals which I consider to be optimal for my own well-being. Yes, I no longer need to eat food, but I still do just for the flavor. Call me heartless, but if everybody else is doing it, no way I’ll stop myself from doing it either. It wouldn’t be fair, otherwise.

“Mythria, I know how you feel, but this is just how the World is. Everyone eats to survive. Everyone takes something from another so they can continue to live. As they say, it’s survival of the fittest here. Be too soft, and you’ll die.”

I didn’t know what was on her mind at the time, but she sure bounced back quickly. I could tell she was faking her smile, though. After all, taking a life on your own, even for the sake of your own survival, never feels good. You just gradually get used to it until you no longer really think about it.

We quickly got back home, and I didn’t waste any time to begin butchering the meat. This much meat will last us a good while, so at the very least, Mythria wouldn’t need to feel the same thing she felt earlier for some time. And even then, I could just do the hunting myself so she could focus on doing the things that make her feel good.

Time passed, and the day ended. That night, I heard Mythria crying. She didn’t need to tell me the reason because I was aware of it, or at least, that’s what I’d like to believe. She might not have any recollection of her past, but her soul might subconsciously be remembering the things she did in the form of a colossal beast of destruction.