Midterms had been a blow to Hugo’s ego. He had assumed that he was doing well in all four classes. Only Sage Marta agreed with him and gave him a one. He got a three in formations, which was devastatingly low. Not that Hugo disagreed with the grade, he had messed up on the math section of the test. A two in athletics was better, but Sage Hanna encouraged him to try harder. The worst was cryptozoology. He got a four in Sage Laisk’s test. She had apparently expected a perfect memory of her students, every single test question was obscure and exacting.

He tried to forget about all that, and focus on the date with Lenna. They were attending a late night azad game. He still didn’t understand all the rules, but Lenna didn’t mind as long as he spent time with her. He was glad to see her face light up when he showed her a treat he had bought for her.

“Kohuke!” Lenna said, excited, “I didn’t know they had any in Reval. I never saw any in the cafeteria. I missed it.” She grabbed a small bar and took a bite, savoring the taste.

“I don’t know why they don’t have any in the academy, but it wasn’t too hard to get them in the city while I was on leave,” Hugo said. That was a white lie. The chocolate covered cheese curds were a common delicacy in Reval. But securing a box without money had been challenging. He had to spend his whole mana pool on items for the shopmaker before he would part with a small box of kohuke.

“Thanks so much, it reminds me of home,” she said as she took a bite. She snuggled up closer to him as they watched the azad game.

He carefully put his arm around her. The warm weather meant that she was wearing a lot less than normal, and he wanted to respect the boundaries she had set.

“I miss my dog,” Lenna said.

“You have a dog? I never knew. Tell me about him.”

“His name is Kaspar and he is the best. An adorable lap dog. Other than my mom, he is the thing I miss most about home. I wish I could bring him here, but Reval has those stupid animal laws.”

Hugo shrugged, “I wanted a cat when I was little, I thought it was a dumb rule. But I guess I can see the point now that I am older. Gives the gangs one less tool right?”

Lenna slapped him playfully, “Cats are the worst, if you ever move into a city without rampant shadow gangs, you should totally get a dog, not a cat.”

Hugo laughed, “Your wish is my command. My first pet will be a dog.”

...

The second culling day had been moved up by a day. The forest rangers said there were too many alphas right now. They had requested the students arrive earlier than planned. They were worried that the current crop of monsters would outrank the first year students soon.

Hugo was nervous. He was technically ready, fully kitted out as he walked through the forest with his party. But everything he wore was new. He had completely redesigned his crossbow, along with creating a new type of ammo to use in it. He had tested it out for the first time last night, but he really wished that he had been able to do more extensive tests.

At least his armor fit. He had initially wanted to create a segmented armor, like a lorica or a brigandine. When it came down to actually constructing it, he had admitted to himself that he only wanted that type because that was what the top formation mages wore. He didn’t have the time to calculate out the design for forty different pieces of armor. He needed to have quality armor now.

So he was out here wearing a school issued gambeson with sturdy plate armor. He had thickened the design for regular steel plate armor to get the same protection as his classmates. The alloy of magnesium and aluminum he used was surprisingly strong and light. He guessed that he was running around with thirty pounds of armor, about a third of what his classmates were wearing. He had even leveled up Fabricate twice with the new designs. The new armor had been complex enough to gain one level, and the alterations to his crossbow was the other.

The barrier domain teacher was the escort for their party of ten. It was the same group of students as last time, but with a new chaperone. Hugo had learned that the life student’s name was Finn and the teacher was Sage Parem. He still didn’t know the name of the other eight students. He was going to have to work on learning new people’s names. Just not today.

They had been walking uphill for a while now, over an hour. They hadn’t been as lucky this time, their assigned hunting ground was farther away than the rest of the students. The crested the hill and looked down into a wide valley. Pine trees covered the valley, each one taller than the city walls.

“Let’s stop for a moment,” Parem said, “I want to make sure everyone is on the same page here.” He looked around to make sure everyone was paying attention.

“This is an area with heavy mana concentration and plenty of monster spawns. The park rangers said that they had owlbears and darkweavers spawning in this area. Both possibilities are dangerous, so I expect you to be on high alert and stay safe during engagements. ”

Hugo hoped that they found plenty of darkweavers. He had learned about them in cryptozoology and knew that they were greatly weakened in sunlight, and they had plenty of daylight left to hunt. They walked into the valley, keeping a careful watch. The pine trees were close together, blocking out some of the sun. Sounds were muffled the further they got into the forest.

His hopes were dashed before they got very far. A monster lumbered out from behind one of the huge trees, an owlbear. Ten feet tall even on all fours, the monster was massive. The back half of its body looked like it came from a bear and it had the head of an owl. Feathers ran from its head down to its front paws. The claws were at least eight inches long. Unlike a regular owlbear, this monster had metal feathers instead of the regular soft ones.

Finn had brought along a bow this time around, but it didn’t do him any good. The arrow just plinked off the monster’s metal feathers. The owlbear roared, a deep sound that reverberated throughout the forest, and rushed the party.

The four shield bearers in front were able to get into a defensive stance in time, but it didn’t do them any good. They were all bowled over by the first attack. Luckily the rune girl was able to land an explosive spear attack, and the monster halted its follow up attack. The huge monster danced out of range, surprisingly nimble for something so huge.

As soon as the owlbear was far enough away from his classmates, Hugo fired his crossbow. He had modified it to fire balls instead of quarrels. The ammunition was a modified version of the one he tested earlier. It was a tough shell with loose magnesium and aluminum dust inside. He had bought a bunch of firestarter runes and embedded them into the balls. It was a pressure vessel now that he had removed the hole for the wick. He pushed a point of mana into the rune as he shot the ball, and the magnesium bomb exploded onto the owlbear’s face.

The monster reared up, clawing at its face. The burning magnesium and aluminum didn’t go out though, the owlbear only succeeded in spreading the liquid fire to its claws too. It screeched loudly, the sound reverberating throughout the forest. The monster kept clawing at its face and backing up. It was trying to escape the fire that just wouldn’t go out. It rolled on the ground in agony. The screeches quickly grew weaker until it dissolved into a puff of blue sparkles.

Ding!

He almost couldn’t believe it. He had gotten a whole rank from defeating just one monster. According to Sage Laisk, that meant that the owlbear had been at least rank eighteen. It had certainly seemed big enough, but for one shot to kill it so easily... Hugo had been lucky. He hadn’t read about them yet, but now he guessed that the entry about owlbears would note a weakness to fire.

“Well, that certainly was effective,” Sage Parem said.

“Yeah,” Hugo said, still surprised.

Before the party even moved to check for mana stones, three more owlbears stepped out from behind the trees, having been attracted by the screeches. They were smaller than the first, but still towered over the students. Hugo used the handle on his crossbow to quickly reload. It was another bit of engineering he had copied from the runic harvester on the wall. The handle made reloading much faster and within six seconds, three magnesium bombs had hit three owlbears. Two fell to the ground screeching, while the third had only been winged. Hugo pumped and fired again.

Ding!

Ding!

The closest the monsters had gotten was still twenty feet away from the group. No one else had even needed to move.

“Very effective,” Sage Parem said. He used his barriers to snuff out the fire before it could spread to the surrounding pine needles.

Every owlbear dropped a large mana stone, and Parem collected them. When he came back, he said, “Hugo, how about you sit out the next few fights? The rest of the students need to rank up too.”

Hugo nodded, slightly ashamed. He had gone overboard when the three owlbears attacked, he should have let the party kill at least one of them.

They headed out, circling the edge of the wide valley. It didn’t take long to encounter another owlbear. This one was just as big as the first, Hugo imagined he could feel the ground shake as it approached. He didn’t load his crossbow though, determined to let the others handle it.

The first swipe of its claws was rebuffed. They had learned from the first monster, and were able to remain standing. Two of them still slid back though. The owlbear roared in frustration, attacking twice in quick succession. One of the four tumbled with the second strike, but the explosive spear was there to shore up the defenses. The owlbear leapt back after it was hit, and tried to circle around.

Finn had been shooting arrows this whole time, three of them were embedded into its flank behind the metal feathers. He fired another arrow at its face this time, causing the monster to flinch, but doing no damage. It was enough to cause the monster to pause though, and the defenders got into position again.

This time when the monster got close, swords and maces were there to counterattack. The swords glanced off the metal feathers, but a few of the maces were able to dent the monster’s defense.

What followed was a long slog of a fight. They slowly wore the monster down, opening up larger and larger wounds. The owlbear didn’t slack off though, it took two students out of commission. Finn stabilized them, but there would probably be scars from the long gashes.

Once the monster was finally dead, the students all but collapsed on the ground. Finn insisted on a half hour break to let some of his mana recover. It wouldn’t be enough time to get back to full, but he said he needed a minimum life saving amount in the tank.

While they waited, Sage Parem started a discussion, “You have had the chance to fight this monster, now would be an excellent time to discuss strategy for the next encounter.”

“Maybe more crossbows next time?” Finn said, obviously jealous of Hugo. He had emptied his whole quiver and most of his mana and still didn’t do that much damage in the fight. The two spear wielders were the ones that actually finished off the monster.

“We only have the one today, so that isn’t a valid strategy right now,” Parem said with a smile.

“How about we split up?” the girl with the rune spear said, “Their feathers are the problem, they are just too tough. If we have a second group that attacks from behind, we will be able to kill it much faster.”

Parem nodded, “That is a valid strategy, but it does have a weakness.”

“It took four people to stop its charge before, if we split up, it would be much harder. People are going to get hurt,” Finn said.

“That is what I was thinking of. How do you have two groups and still retain control of the fight?”

“Owlbears aren’t really that fast. After the initial charge, it would be possible to split up,” Hugo said.

He could see that some students didn’t agree with him, frowning at his idea. Or maybe they just knew that he wouldn’t really be participating and didn’t want his input.

The party continued to discuss it and eventually went with Hugo’s plan. After Finn had recovered enough mana, they wandered along the edge of the forest until they found another monster.

When the owlbear’s charge was halted, four of the faster students broke off and circled around behind the monster. Then the two groups took turns attacking the monster from behind. The owlbear grew increasingly frustrated, but wasn’t able to pin down one group long enough before the other group attacked its weaker behind.

The strategy was working, but the monster had plenty of health. Their new strategy took the fight from fifteen minutes down to eight. It was a more dangerous strategy, but only one student was seriously hurt this time. They were starting to get more experienced at fighting owlbears.

They didn’t have to go anywhere after this fight, as the next one came to them. They picked themselves back up off the ground and got back at it. While they were fighting the first one, a second owlbear appeared.

As soon as he noticed it, Parem said, “Hugo, take care of the second one.”

Only too happy to comply, Hugo sent the second owlbear screaming to the forest floor. Hugo was glad that there wasn’t a lot of underbrush in this section of the forest, otherwise he would start a forest fire with every shot. The owlbear he had shot died well before the first one, and he had time to check his points. He was only a few hundred away from hitting their goal for the day, rank twelve.

Despite this fight being harder since they were tired, no one needed Finn to heal them afterwards. A few people bandaged up shallow cuts, wanting to save the life student’s mana.

After a short break, they went at it again. This fight was a repeat of the last one, with the party engaging an owlbear and a second one joining the fight right afterwards. Hugo took care of the interloper and smiled as he heard another ding. He was done for the day and he still had an almost full pouch of ammo. He had been worried that he wouldn’t have enough ammo to rank up all the way to twelve. He had never been so happy to be wrong.

Two more hulking monsters joined the fight soon afterwards and Sage Parem had him kill off these two as well. The last one was the largest owlbear he had seen today, and it had taken three shots to put down.

Ding!

Hugo barked out a laugh. That was thirteen right there. He was ahead of schedule. They would have to change attack strategies if they didn’t want Hugo to get to rank sixteen before they all hit twelve. The party took care of their owlbear shortly after he got enough points to rank up again. He was glad that he didn’t have to make his decisions on stats just yet. He hadn’t planned on the extra rank.

“Hey, man,” Finn said, “Any chance you would let me borrow your crossbow the next go around?”

Hugo was a bit surprised. He hadn’t considered the possibility before. Formation domain students had created their own weapons, they were fairly personal at this point. He realized that many other domains wouldn't feel the same about weapons. A life student wouldn't care who made the weapon they were using.

Finn took the hesitation as unwillingness and he said, “I would pay you for the ammo.”

Hugo certainly liked that idea. He would be able to recoup the money he spent on the fire runes. “Sure, it isn’t too hard to use,” he said. Then a thought occurred to him, “As long as it is alright with Sage Parem.”

The sage had overheard the conversation and walked over. He said, “I see two possible problems with that. If you use such a powerful weapon, you lose out in valuable combat experience.” He looked out at the students sitting and recovering from the fight. “Although I suppose we have already had several encounters. But the other consideration is that if half of the team takes advantage of this crossbow and the other half does not, that would leave too few students to kill an owlbear on their own.”

The rest of the party had been listening in, and several stood up. They wanted to join the conversation.

Sage Parem held up his hand, “Therefore, I am ruling that it is an all or nothing proposition. If every party member wants to borrow his weapon, then I will approve it. If a few want to practice their weapon skills more, then no one may use the crossbow.”

It didn’t take long for the nine of them to come to a consensus. They all wanted to borrow Hugo’s weapon. They were sick and tired of fighting monsters well above their rank. Hugo put a price per shot, and they agreed to pay him back once they got to the academy.

The rest of the hunting trip went by like a breeze. They jogged around the valley, only stopping briefly to burn monsters to the ground. A few of the students had good enough aim that they didn’t even have to stop jogging to down their chosen monster.

Soon enough, the whole party had ranked up and they headed back. Once they returned to the drop off point, Sage Parem peeled off to talk with the forest rangers. Rank twenty iron owlbears were much stronger than what the academy had paid for. He wanted to warn them of the situation so they didn’t send in unprepared clients.

The mana carts arrived shortly afterwards and Hugo hopped aboard the same one as Lenna. He turned to her and said, “How did it go for you?” Hugo said.

“Did you know that monsters still breathe?” she said in response. “They don’t need to, they are constructs made entirely of mana. They don’t need air to survive, but they breathe anyway. I decided to take advantage of that fact. I made these things,” she said and held up a ball of tightly wound spidersilk. “When they explode, they send out particles of resin, and make it hard to breathe. When they were distracted, I threw the bolos and wrapped them up. It made the dire deer so easy to handle. We had the whole party up to twelve in three hours flat. Hanna said that other students just gave up on hunting the dire deer because they were too fast. She was impressed our party could do it,” she said with pride.

Hugo nodded, “You are impressive. Sage Parem took us to an owlbear spawn point. It was pretty far away, but we were able to rank up pretty quick too. Owlbears are tough and mean, but they never tried to run away. My crossbow worked pretty well. It would have been almost fun if they had been closer to where they dropped us off. If only we had spawn points closer to the academy.”

Lenna shrugged, “Just imagine how long this would take without the mana carts.”

”Meh, it didn’t take long for us to get here. The majority of the travel time was within the forest. Not taking mana carts would only add an hour or two to the journey,” Hugo said.

“What? No. The carts took us thirty miles out of the city, it would take us most of the day to walk that far,” Lenna said.

“Oh, I guess I wasn’t paying attention to how far we went,” said Hugo.

“Gods, you’re an idiot. “ Lenna said with a smile, “But you are my idiot.” She pulled him in for a hug.

Hugo was a bit offended, but happy to have the hug. The embrace would have been even better if they both weren’t wearing armor. He was impressed with Lenna’s beautiful ensemble though. Her resin and spidersilk armor was just as tough as his own, but much more fashionable. It was white and red with detailed flourishes throughout. Her artistic skill was just another reason why he liked her.